小栗旬の豚バラと白菜の鍋(oguri shun no buta bara to hakusai no nabe)

I tried out this new nabe recipe seen here:

Oguri Shun's Hondashi Nabe CM

It's kind of like a pork and cabbage lasagne.

You make it with this:

Hakusai - Chinese cabbage

and this:

Bacon...you are probably supposed to use more expensive meat/a better cut, but this worked fine.

You take apart the cabbage and start layering it with pork like this:

When you're finished, it looks like this:

Then you cut it up into chunks:

You can see that it looks kind of like lasagne:

Sorry if this looks kinda gross

You place them in a pot, add Hondashi (soup stock), and boil it until the cabbage is soft.

It's really simple--only three ingredients but very flavorful and filling!

チョコレートとケーキ(chocolate & cake)

Today I got a nice surprise in the mail from my relatives in Kyushu!

It was a very sweet and unexpected surprise! My aunt wrote me a letter about the family and said everyone is doing well. The gold box said "chocolates" on it.

Lucky me it was Godiva!!

She also sent me this cute scarf! She said it is reminded her of spring so she wanted to give it to me. I like the colors and the Navajo-style print. I can't wait to wear it when it gets warmer!

Today I wore a scarf that my aunt in San Diego got me for Christmas. It is acrylic but super-soft and feels like cashmere! I also wore my new beret that I got at the New Year's "Bargain" (they call sales "ba-gen") this year.

Thanks for the cute scarf!

I ended up buying two berets, which is funny because I've never really worn hats before. I guess because so many Japanese people wear hats it made me want to, too.

When I was out doing errands I passed by this cute little shop that sells little cakes and cookies. The lady there was really chatty and asked me where I was from and stuff. She had these cute little sandwich cakes on display.

They looked like macaroons but they were soft and airy like cake. She gave me a sample of the green tea one. Yum yum.

Here's what I walked home with:

I got blueberry, strawberry, and champagne flavor. She said you can freeze them and eat them like ice cream sandwiches or put them in the fridge and eat them chilled or at room temperature.  They last a couple days if you refrigerate them. I just sampled a couple bites from each--the champagne one was the best! It had a really unique flavor!

Oops! Don't worry, I saved the rest! ;)

今日の朝ごはん (kyou no asa-gohan)

Today I made a quick bowl of nabe for breakfast.

It was really easy! I used these ingredients:

I chopped off the ends of the shiro-negi (leeks), cut up a couple of stalks of mizuna (the green leafy stuff) and the end of the hakusai (Chinese cabbage), boiled it in water with konbu dashi (soup stock made from seaweed), added a couple of tsukune (ground chicken meat balls) until the vegetables were soft. It took me about 15 minutes total (and about 2 minutes to eat it, jk.) to make and prepare it. I washed my dishes while it was "cooking," so it was super efficient.

Here's the end result (I only put a small portion in at a time to let it cool down faster):

I flavored it with Ponzu: a lemony soy sauce that is used a lot in Japanese cooking.

Great way to start the day!

みんな、ありがとう！(minna arigatou!)

I got some great packages in the mail from my mom, dad, and grandma! I love all the treats from back home!

 From Grandma: Everything is from Trader Joes, so if you have one near you, I highly recommend these items. My favorites were the peppermint pretzel slims (I like the chocolate versions, too) which have a perfect balance of salty and sweet. The after-taste makes you crave more, so it is easy to finish a whole bag at once! The oat cookies were probably my second favorite, but all of the treats are very good.

These chocolates are not only cute, but they are verryyyy tasty and addictive. All three are really great flavors! 

The food that all foreigners in Japan miss most is definitely Mexican food! I can't wait to make some tacos and fajitas!

 Oatmeal, why are you so delicious and expensive in Japan? You would think that Japanese people would like oatmeal since it's so healthy, but it just is not popular here. It costs about ￥700 (so $8 or 9) to get a box of instant oatmeal here... :-/

Spices! I need to get some recipes to use these in! Thanks, Mom!

 More oatmeal and Mexican food! And a USC Calendar from Dad! :)

I'm so lucky to get all these great things from home! Thanks again!!

舞子さん (maiko-san)

How cute are these "maiko" (or geisha) tweezers I found in a gift shop in Osaka????




 

Oh, don't worry. There are more. :)

ビッグアメリカ２ (Big America 2)

So McDonald’s in Japan has this campaign called “Big America 2” where they sell different specialty burgers for a limited time. Last year they had the first “Big America” campaign and I guess it was pretty successful so they decided to introduce four new burgers.

Last year’s burgers were as follows:

The California Burger - It had some type of special sauce and bacon.

 The Texas Burger - Fried onions (like the kind you put on green bean casserole), bacon, and some mustard sauce.

 The New York Burger - Bacon and some type of BBQ sauce.

 The Hawaiian Burger - Loco-moco style with an egg on it. And of course, bacon! 

Basically every burger has bacon and a different kind of sauce, right? And some of the buns are different.

Anyway, here is the new line-up. 

The Texas 2 Burger - I guess Texas was the most popular last time. It says it has more of everything (more meat, more sauce, three pieces of bread) and chili, but it doesn't have the fried onions this time.

 Next up is the Idaho Burger - Mustard & relish sauce, bacon, and a hash brown. It debuts 1/28! This one has the most calories out of the four

 The Miami Burger - For some reason it has "taco meat" and Doritos on it...

The Manhattan Burger - Pastrami, mozzarella cheese, and fancy bread. Why didn't they put it on a bagel?

I actually haven't tried any of these, but I think it's a pretty cool advertising campaign. I have to admit, every time I pass one of the giant posters it makes me want to go in there and try one. My friends say they are good though.

I wish they had the new Fruit and Maple Oatmeal here in Japan instead!

 

シグネ(signe)

The other day I went with my friend to this cute cafe in Okayama's Ichibangai called "Signe."

The location is in a busy underground station shopping center, but the cafe was cozy and quiet.

They had different lunch sets which came with a salad and a drink. The lunch was tasty, but not filling enough for me, so my friend said we should get dessert. There was a big display case full of desserts at the front, so we went to go look at them before ordering. Apparently you can order just pieces of cake to go and they come in these really cute boxes. We ate ours at the cafe.

We got strawberry chocolate pie and strawberry mille feuille. I think they change the desserts based on what's in season.

Both were sooo good, but the mille feuille was probably my favorite!

春のケーキも楽しみヽ(^o^)丿
http://r.tabelog.com/okayama/A3301/A330101/33000600/