A Side Dish with No Name ― 2023/12/20
I don't know what this is called in either English or Japanese.
A dish of Konnyaku threads seasoned with sugar and soy sauce, mixed with soft scrambled egg. 糸こんの卵とじ？
This is a side dish that is very familiar to me, but completely foreign to my husband, Considering the age difference between me and him, I guess this dish might have been popular among mothers in certain areas of Japan at a certain period of time.
No Frills, Ultrra Practical Lunch ― 2023/12/05
At the age of 50+++, I came up with an idea that Kaiten sushi restaurants could be a clean and wallet-friendly spot to have a snack.
At Genkai-Maru sushi restaurant, three plates of sushi, natto-maki, inari, egg, and shrimp set, and beef gunkan was 448 yen, enough to fuel me for an eight-kirometer bike ride home. Tea was free, of course.
In terms of hygiene, each chef (still) wore a mask and gloves. There were partitions between seats around the counter, and most of the diners (I guess most of them were locals) came alone for a quick lunch. No one was chatting excitedly or raising their voices when ordering. You can order from a tablet in front of you. Very hygienic.
I think this place is worth considering if you don't need a romantic aspect to your meal and are in a hurry.
Muffin, Again ― 2023/12/05
The poisonous muffin, called "death muffin," incident is still being hotly discussed online and reading about it made me crave a good muffin again.
This is City Bakery's luxury (by my standards) muffin at 320yen! I was so surprised by the price that I automatically asked for an extra bag to break it in half and take the rest home.
The taste was...very unusual, to be couterous. At least not my type. The price (coffee is 420 yen), the dark lighting and the taste of the product (coffee was nice, but not piping hot)...in many ways I don't seem to be the kind of customer this bakery would expect.
Its Long Journey ― 2023/11/30
The other day, I found some salted frozen mackerel that were claimed to have been unloaded from a ship at a UK port.
Remembering the fat and delicious smoked mackerel I used to enjoy when I was in the UK, I almost impulsively grabbed a pack of two fillets.
先日、イギリス産（水揚げ？）冷凍塩サバを見つけました。イギリスで食べた鯖の燻製がおいしかったのを思い出し、思わす購入してしまいました。
At home, I read the label and leant that the fish had once landed in Indonesia to be processed on its way to Japan.
家に帰ってラベルを読むと、日本に到着する前にインドネシアで加工されていたことが判明。
This is the mackerel I gave been talking about. After having travelled halfway around the world, it tasted nice was fatty as I expected.
これがその地球を半周してきたサバです。 期待通り、脂がのっておいしかったです。
We happily finished our meal with the mackerel, but this meal left me an awkward and complicated feeling.
Mackerel was once a local delicacy in Fukuoka. We would boast that we could eat wild mackerel as sashimi here. However, for me at least, those days are long gone. Fresh and fatty mackerel have all and long gone from the supermarket shelves. Now we have to import palatable mackerel from the other side of the globe.
塩サバでおいしい食事ができましたが、なんとなく複雑な心境にもなりました。
サバと言えば、かつては福岡の名物でした。ここでは天然物のサバが刺身でいける、というのが自慢でした。が、少なくとも私にとっては、そんなことは遥か昔の話になりました。新鮮で脂ののったサバがスーパーマーケットから消えてからずいぶん経ちます。いまでは地球の反対側から輸入している有様です。
Reference:
Today's Kanten ― 2023/11/23
Ingredients
1g granulated kanten
250cc water
70cc concentrated coffee liquid
1 teaspoon sugar
I have finally conceived an easier and less complicated way to make coffee kanten.
コーヒー寒天を作るのに、ついにうまいことを思いつきました。
Coffee liquid for instant cafe latte (199 yen at Marukyo) is the solution. By adding it little by little to simmering kanten liquid I managed to achieve a smooth and nicely bitter coffee kanten.
カフェラテ用の濃縮コーヒー（マルキョウで199円）を寒天液に少しずつ合わせていったら、なめらかで苦味のきいた寒天を作ることができました。
I also came up with an easier way to wash pans and utensils after cooking kanten, which tends to get solid and stuck to the tools when I try to wash them with cold water. Boiling water in the pan with tools in it and scrub them while they are still hot but bearable to touch. In this way, I could clean even the mesh of the tea strainer without trouble.
それから、寒天を使った後、鍋や道具を水で洗うと寒天が固まってくっつきがちですが、鍋に道具を入れて、その鍋で水を沸かすといいことにも気がつきました。お湯が熱いうちにこすったら、茶こしの網の部分も簡単にキレイになりました。
Today's Kanten ― 2023/11/09
Ingredients;
1g granulated Kanten,
100cc water,
200cc mixture of syrup of a can of yellow peach and water,
A can of yellow peach
makes three 200cc cups
Texture was firm, feeling very kanten.
Tastes nice and refreshing. However, a bit costly to make,
I seem to have been increasing the production costs since I started making kanten treats.
材料（200ｃｃ入りカップ3つ分）
顆粒寒天 1g
水 100ｃｃ
黄桃の缶詰のシロップに水を足して200ｃｃ
黄桃の缶詰 1缶
寒天らしい硬めの仕上がりになりました。
爽やかな味でおいしかったのですが、材料費が高くつきました。
なんだか、最初のころと比べて材料費があがってきているような...。
My Birthday Feast 2023 ― 2023/11/05
My birthday feast this year was packs of takeaway Sushi from Hyotan Zushi. I still can't be brave enough to eat inside a packed restaurant where unmasked chefs are preparing raw seafood with their ungloved hands and unmasked people are placing their orders at the top of their voice.
今年の誕生日のごちそうは、ひょうたん寿司の持ち帰り寿司でした。お店に入る勇気はまだありません。このお店ではぎっちぎちに詰まったノーマスクのお客さんが大声で注文を出して、それを手袋もマスクもしていない板さんが握っているので、それを見るのも怖い...。
Actually, there is always an unbearably long queue of people waiting for their seats to be available. But if you go for takeaway, you don't necessarily join the queue. Just picking up what you like from the case in front of the restaurant. That's all. You even don't have to see how your sushi is prepared. Ignorance is bliss, you know.
お店の前はいつも長い行列ができていて、中に入るだけでも大変です。持ち帰りにすれば、お店の前の冷蔵ケースから好きなのを選ぶだけで、行列する必要もありません。お寿司が握られているところを見なくてもすみます。見ぬもの清し。
A pack of the nigiri (picture above) cost 1980 yen. The price of a set of nigiri starts at 1000 yen (this one looked alike one you can find at supermarkets), and ones priced at 1600 and this 1980 yen were also available when I visited. I could have been OK only with the nigiri, but once I saw the battera's thick fillet of mackerel,
I simply couldn't resist it. I paid additional 1000 yen for it.
Two packs were more than enough to feed two of us old people. In fact, I got so full that I couldn't fall asleep afterwards.
今日は1980円の握りずし（写真上）を買いました。握りセットは1000円からあるみたいですが、これはスーパーマーケットのお寿司みたいな感じでした。それから1600円、1980円の三段階の値段になるようでした。握りだけでよかったのですが、バッテラの分厚い切身を見ると、これも買わずにはいられませんでした。これは1000円でした。この２つで年寄り二人の夕飯には十分すぎるほど。私はその後、寝つきが悪くなるほど満腹になりました。
I also got a couple of small cakes from an extremely high-end chocolatier which doesn't exist in my everyday life. I am a Fujiya type.
それから、普段は思い浮かべもしない（私は不二家で満足するタイプ）超高級チョコレート屋で小さいケーキを2つ買いました。
I now think I (or my greed) got out of control while I was shopping at Iwataya. However, my digestion system couldn't cope with my desire. After the big meal, I could only had a teaspoonful of a cake with chestnut paste, called "Mont Branc (I don't know why this cake came to be called so)".
今思えば、岩田屋で買い物して浮かれまくっていたのでしょう。とはいえ、私の消化能力はもはや私の欲についていけず、食後は、茶さじ1杯分のモンブランが精いっぱいという体たらく。ところで、モンブランってどうして「モンブラン」と呼ばれるようになったのでしょう？
Amazake Kanten ― 2023/11/03
Made with:
1g Granulated kanten
80cc water 80cc
200cc nonalcoholic amazake
Neither tasty nor awful... Maybe good as a healthier way to complete unsatisfying lunch.
材料：
顆粒寒天 1g
水 80cc
甘酒 200ｃｃ
おいしくもまずくもありませんでした。お昼が物足りない時に何か甘いもので締めくくるのにはいいかもしれません。
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