Archive for the ‘Drink’ Category
Fine Sake, Fresh Sushi and Beautiful Parks -Visit Kanazawa
Sunday, June 12th, 2011 by tomonoOne of the places I would like to go back to one day is definitely Kanazawa in Japan. A few years ago I visited for my friend’s wedding shower. It was also just before I was leaving Japan, so Ihave happy memories of it as a girls trip.
We borrowed my friend’s mum’s posh Range Rover. The car was full of goodies but nobody imagined that this trip will be a long one…. When we were approaching to Kanazawa, it started snowing heavily so we were forced to either get off the motorway or put the chains on tyres. We did not have a satnav so our choice was the chain option…. Two of us were Sunday drives, one of us had no idea about vehicle and Beth was the only person who frequently drove and knew about car but guess where she comes from… Philippines!!! probably she never experienced snow in her country and I’m positive that when it snowed in Japan her husband was driving!
Yeah we used the biggest puppy eyes to get by and made our safe way to Onsen hotel after a long journey.
There is a beautiful park called Kenrokuen http://www.pref.ishikawa.jp/siro-niwa/kenrokuen/e/index.html which is located near Kanazawa Castle. Before the long snowy winter, they assist pine trees with ropes to prevent from damages by heavy snow. Some people might find that when they hear that news each year, they feel that winter is just around the corner.
Kanazawa is not only for the pretty park but fine Sake and super fresh fish! So don’t forget to pop in the little fish market called Omicho market and Sushi lunch.
Mouth watering sushi and sashimi
At the fish market
More sake that you can shake a stick at
Coffee or Tea?
Sunday, August 29th, 2010 by tomonoAre you a coffee person or tea person, or possibly an espresso addict? For some reason coffee disagrees with me, and I’m not really a tea person either. But I do love ‘doing coffee’ with friends and chatting hours and hours. I love Japanese brown teas such as Genmai cha, Mugi cha and Houji cha, but since they are not easy to find in cafes in the UK, I normally have English style tea with milk (we call it ko cha in Japanese).
When you are pregnant it can be difficult to decide if you should drink any tea or coffee. When I was pregnant I avoided Green Tea as it contains a large amount of caffeine. Regular decaf tea was the obvious choice, but it was a bit boring and I wanted more options to replace all the wine I couldn’t drink anymore.
When I stayed at my friend Aki’s house in Osaka, she made me really nice Indian style tea every morning. She boiled milk and added some tea leaves with some spices and honey before putting the lid on to make leaves dance around, giving the best flavour. It was wonderful.
Do you have any top tea making tips?
Oscar loves tea breaks too!
Aki is great in the kitchen
Tomono x
Lunch is the new dinner (for mums…)
Sunday, June 27th, 2010 by tomonoI love getting dolled-up and dining out but can’t really do that much nowadays in the evening because of Oscar’s routine. But going for lunch solves that problem and is also more reasonable than dinner!
My friends took us to a lovely cafe in the countryside called Kappa 38. They have a lovely room with a wooden kitchen for children, also lots of other wooden toys and a rocking horse. It is so important for me that restaurants/cafe have child friendly facilities.
It was raining so heavily that day but the view from window was absolutely amazing with beautiful vivid green colours.
Lunch came with so many little dishes, in cute little ceramic dishes. We were all very impressed and it reminded me that I used to love playing with dolls houses with miniature tea sets! It was just like that for the children’s lunch at Kappa 38.
And of course, lunch can not be completed without a piece of cake… We had lovely pumpkin pudding and Italian lemon tea with rosemary…
Yumm
View from Kappa 38
Oscar enjoying his lunch
Such cute little dishes
Finished with Italian lemon tea with rosemary
Tomono x
Food and babies
Friday, October 30th, 2009 by tomonoWe had a pot luck lunch party yesterday at one of my Japanese friend’s house. I can never leave Oscar when I want to concentrate on cooking so I decided to do slow cooked Chicken the previous night.
I always love chicken with bones and skin. So whenever my mum in low prepare roast chicken, she gives me all my favourite bits on my plate! Nibbling around bones must be such a shocking site for them but for us it is the best bit - with lots of collagen which is good for your skin.
Oscar is spoilt for choice at the pot luck party!
I stewed chicken legs with some ginger, garlic, konbu seaweed, onion and carrots for few hours in the evening. It smelled absolutely gorgeous and tasted good, too. To make little bit more party mood, I did Temaki Sushi (’hand-rolled’ sushi) where you can choose your own topping on the top of Seaweed and vinegary Sushi Rice.I prepared some radish pickle, tuna with Wasabi Mayonnaise, some bonito flakes, ocean sticks, fish eggs, smoked salmon and some cucumber.
My favourite Temaki Sushi was one with cucumber and smoke salmon with hint of Wasabi. The crunchiness of the cucumber and crispy seaweed is just the best combination ever.
What Japanese babies eat
Japanese babies often live on sticky Japanese rice. They love it but usually dislike vinegary Sushi rice , so please do not feel tempted to try this recipe for your baby! All I got from Oscar was yukky face and the daunting job afterwards of cleaning the floor and even walls of semi-dried sticky stubborn rice.
I’m sure every country has own baby weaning recipe, but this is one of the best gift I strongly recommend. 100% vegetable flake so easy to use for early stage of weening. Available in pumpkin, sweet corn, potato and carrot varities.
The first meal
Usually we are recommended to start weening around 6months but in Japan we have ceremony called Okuizome (Okui means ‘eat’ and zome means ‘first’) on 100th day after the birth.
Traditional first meal for babies in Japan
Sea Bream is often used for special occasions
This is a traditon to wish their healthy life always full filled with enough food rest of their life. Family members gather around the table and put teeny tiny bit of food on baby’s lip with chopsticks or just let them have a taste of soup.
Putting rice on Oscar's lips
Do you have any traditional ceremony in your country? I’m very curious!
Tomono x
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