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O-bon
Today, I will show you one of my favorite kitchen tools.
This is called “O-bon” in Japanese and it means the wooden tray.
You might be realized but I always use this O-bon in my kitchen.
I like O-bon for several reasons from the point of both functionality and sensuous.
At first, it’s so convenient to deliver food and plates before and after eating.
Not only delivering but O-bon can be used as the perfect Japanese style table setting.
And the sensuous reason is…O-bon makes me feel like creating something new. For example, new way of display food, table setting and even new recipes!
In the class, we also use O-bon. Please check and tell me how you think of O-bon!
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If you are interested in this product, please click the photo below!
Tanabata (Star) Festivals
It’s the 7th of July today and it’s Tanabata (Star) Festivals in Japan.
Here is the summary of Tanabata Festival introduced in a book I have.
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Legend has it that Vega and Altair, who are separated by the Milky Way, are allowed to meet only once a year on the night of Tanabata or July 7. It is said that if you write your wish on a tanzaku (a strip of paper) and hang it on a bamboo grass, your wish will be granted.
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My family visited Yamagata prefecture last week and came across the bamboo grass at the Ryokan (Japanese style hotel) where we stayed. We wrote our wish on a tanzaku there! 🙂
How about celebrating Tanabata at your home tonight?
Meal prep of this week!
Hello! I visited the Yamagata prefecture last week and enjoyed premium sake and local foods there! 😋🍴
Here is this week’s meal prep collection!! Have a nice and healthy week, everyone!!
Menu:
– Sautéed kimchi and pork
– Fried chicken covered with grain bran
– Grilled deep-fried tofu with edamame
– Sautéed turnip leaves with seasoned kelp
– Grilled turnip with mushroom and dried shrimp sauce
– Green pepper with myoga ginger and bonito flakes
– Fried fish cake with aosa nori seaweed
– Stir-fried konnyaku and bonito flakes
– Seasoned kelp with white sesame
– pickled turnip
– Fish cake with cheese
Japanese style Meal Prep
Hello, everyone! New week has started!!
I did the “Japanese style” Meal Prep today. Hope you like it!!
Menu:
– Marinated egg
– Sautéed mushrooms
– Rolled pork with Okura, carrot, shiso and myoga ginger
– Simmered daikon radish and yellow tail
– Cabbage and konbu salad
– Sautéed carrot with cumin
– Marinated chicken with curry powder
– Mashed pumpkin with butter and honey
– Salted broccoli
– Stir-fried minced pork
– Pickled shiso and cucumber
My son’s First Birthday!
🎉HAPPY BIRTHDAY! My son became 1 year old.🎉
As for his first birthday, I baked two cakes. Those are the cheese cake and the chiffon cake. 🎂 I am pretty sure that he wonders why I baked two cakes suddenly.
After tasting the cake, my family did traditional fortune game with him. We put several items on the floor and my son chose the calculator at first and then telephone! Choosing calculator means you will be good at business. But I couldn’t find what choosing telephone means. Any guess?
Rose ice cream @ Jindai Botanical Park
Next to the Jindaiji Temple (that I introduced in the previous post) , there is a Jindai Botanical Park!
When I visited this exhibition, I could see various roses from abroad and couldn’t see all of them. Because the exhibition area was huge and so many roses!
*Until the 29th of May, you can enjoy the World Rose Exhibition in the park.
People were trying to take their best photos with using the big and professional cameras!
Foodies like you, I recommend you to try the ‘Rose soft cream’. The color of the ice cream is pink white and it really tastes the scent of rose! Fun & yummy~~♪
For more photos, please check the YJC’s Facebook page!
Soba @ Jindaiji Temple
We are having the Golden week now in Japan. People go back to their hometown to see family and relatives, go to the domestic resorts, go outside of Japan or even rest at home to enjoy the long holidays. And my family’s case…we visited my hometown and we are spending a lot of time in Tokyo to discover other areas and meeting some friends. 🙂 Good days!
Today, we visited the Jindaiji Temple, which is located near my neighborhood, the west of Tokyo.
In Jindaiji, we ate the Dango (for snack), Soba (you should never miss!) and Soba manju (to check its flavor). And I bought some things that I’ve wanted to get for a long time. *I will show you them soon!!
For more photos, please check YJC’s Facebook Page!
Bamboo shoots are now in season!
In Japan, we see many bamboo shoots at the supermarket and also on TV.
You’ll see many fresh bamboo shoots piled up at the supermarket. And, you also see the small bags with rice bran besides them. (It’s cute and of course, it’s FREE!) The rice bran can absorb the astringent taste when boiling the bamboo shoots. That’s why they usually are displayed together at the store.
You can also buy the precooked bamboo shoots to save cooking time.
In my hometown Fukushima, my father and relatives still enjoy getting the bamboo shoots from the bamboo forest. When I was a child, I also enjoyed getting them with families. What a good memory!
Since I like to cook and eat the seasonal vegetables, I bought the boiled bamboo shoot and cooked several appetizers! I still have the rest of it, so I am thinking to make Japanese style pasta and mixed rice with using several other vegetables.
Let’s enjoy the seasonal vegetables!
Bamboo shoot salad topped with bonito flakes
Cooked bamboo shoot topped with dried shrimp and sansho pepper sauce
Motsu Nabe @ Fukuoka (Kyushu area)
I went to Fukuoka last weekend. Fukuoka is located in Kyusyu area which is south west area in Japan.
The purpose of visiting Fukuoka was to introduce my son to his great-grandmother who is 95 years old.
It was his first flight so I was worried whether he would cry or shout during the flight. But it was 1.5 hour flight and he was pretty OK.
I personally love the local foods in Kyushu area. One of my favorite and must-to-eat food is a hot pot called “Motsu Nabe”. In English, giblet hotpot. We could eat this hot pot near the hotel so I was totally satisfied. v(^o^)v
My husband, my son and I only spent two days in Fukuoka but we enjoyed the family time there. Hope you like other photos as well and visit Fukuoka soon or next time you visit Japan!
Hagi-yaki pottery
