prasantrin

Merry Christmas! Belated, that is...I can't even claim to be on time for Orthodox Christmas! I did say I was very good at procrastinating, didn't I? Christmas morning, my mother went to mass while I went to the gym. There were actually a lot of people at the gym, probably working out so they would look hot for their Christmas dates. Christmas in Japan, you see, is a time for families or couples. Many a love hotel is full on Christmas Day... My date was my mother. We had lunch reservations at our favourite Italian restaurant--our third meal there in 8 days. Gee, do you think my mother liked the place? We had made reservations for the special Christmas lunch. The food is quite good here, but one of my favourite things about the place is the cutlery rests. They have cats and dogs, but I always get the cat. Freebie dish (I guess we were regulars by this point, so we qualified for freebies)--the ouefs en cocotte I mentioned the first time I wrote about this place. It was just as good as the first time, and this time we had bread to go along with it! Roast Beef Salad with Red Wine Reduction. Pasta course--my mother ordered the carbonara, and I had the bolognese. I thought hers was too rich, but she really loved it. Both were full servings, which was a bit much, but we managed! Main course--My mother had the scallops with mushrooms, and I had the roast chicken. I didn't like the scallops--the sauce was quite sweet to my tastes, but my mother really enjoyed it. The chicken was simply but pefectly cooked--moist and juicy, and the skin was crispy! The potatoes on the side were not very interesting. They weren't bad, but I just find potatoes in Japan generally lack flavour, and are rather dry/grainy. We were so stuffed at this point, that while my mother managed to finish her food, I left almost all the potatoes on my plate. But dessert was still to come. I had the strawberry cream cake (strawberry shortcake is the traditional Christmas cake in Japan, I think), and my mother had the tiramisu. The strawberry cream cake was quite light, and very refreshing after all the food we had just eaten. The tiramisu was OK, but it wasn't the best example of tiramisu, I thought. My mother had no problem finishing it, though. This was an excellent Christmas meal, and an excellent value! Each course was a full-sized serving, but we paid only Y2200 each for our meals. It was really too much food for us, though, and we didn't even bother with dinner that evening.

Perhaps just those who have died in plane accidents, then. I love fu! I once had fried fu somewhere in Arashiyama, and though I am already biased toward anything fried being good, fried fu was really outstanding. I shall use my chopsticks with the hopes that they will help expel evil from my body while giving my long life... On to the rest of Koyasan... We were quite tired that night, since neither of slept well the night before, and we got up earlier than we normally would have. Combine that with a lot of walking, and you have the ingredients for a great night's sleep! NOT! I don't know why neither of us slept well. It was very cold that night, but that doesn't normally affect us (we're from Winnipeg, you know, so we're used to cold). We were both wide awake at 5, and just before 7, I left to attend morning prayer services while my mother decided to try to catch a bit more sleep. Morning prayer services were held in the dimly lit lantern hall (room?). Two monks chanted while the guests (there were 16 of us in total--4 Japanese and the rest non-Japanese) watched. I think the monks were chanting prayers for the dead, but I could be wrong. No pictures allowed. My mother came in about 5 minutes after prayers started. She was brought by a monk who came by the room twice to make sure she was up and out. I guess everyone has to attend the services (in part because that's the time when the futons are put away and breakfast is set up). After the morning prayer services, we went to another building where the fire ceremony was held. This ceremony is, I think, to purify the souls of the living of greed, anger, and stupidity (I read that somewhere). Again, no pictures allowed. But I don't think the ceremony worked for everyone present, because one tourist set up his digital camera in such a way that the monks wouldn't notice it, and he proceded to film the whole ceremony. He was stupid, and I was angry. This was also the same guy who took up four seats on a very crowded bus (his bags needed their own seats, you see) on the way back to the train station. After all the ceremonies were over, we retreated to our rooms and found our breakfasts. Some kind of green vegetables with grated nagaimo Slices of nagaimo served with a smidgen of ume-flavoured sauce, and a side of something simmered. The simmered thing reminded me of exoskeletons, but it was actually quite tasty. Egg? and miso soup to warm your bowels. We spent the rest of the day wandering around, trying to get to the various temple sites, and missing buses by seconds. The latter was very upsetting, because buses only come about once an hour in Koysan. The town is small enough to be able to walk everywhere, but with joint problems, it was very difficult for my mother, so at the end of the day, we took a taxi back to our shukubo, picked up our bags, and made our way back home. But this was Christmas Eve, and it was going to be late by the time we got home, so we needed to pick up some food for dinner. At the depachika in Takashimaya in Namba, I got some fried chicken (nothing says Christmas in Japan like fried chicken!) for myself, and some teriyaki chicken for my mother! How cute is the little leg skirt they give you? The teriyaki wasn't very good, though.

Can I use that one? "I'm not getting fat, I'm achieving Enlightenment." My dad looked like Buddha, too, but he also had the long earlobes and Asian features that you see in most East and Southeast Buddhas.

Reduced carb orange juice? How does that work? I can see on the label that it has less sugar--does that mean they add less sugar, or they remove some of the sugar naturally present? eta: I just noticed it also says at the bottom "Light Orange Juice Beverage". Does that mean it's not pure orange juice? Or would that be a "Light Orange Juice Drink"?

Egg McMuffin--6.7 points Sausage McMuffin--9.4 points Sausage and Egg McMuffin--priceless Actually, it's a whopping 11.2 points. I'd go for the sausage mcmuffin, even though their sausage gives me the creeps! Do you find servings in the US, in general, are larger than in Canada?

I can see the characters: 航空　aviation 殉難者　martyr 之碑　's monument Thanks for this post of yours. You reminded me of something I have forgotten for decades. The history of Japan! ← So it's for the kamikaze pilots? We thought that might be the case, but weren't sure. There were many war memorials throughout the graveyard--not just for Japanese, but for other countries' soldiers, as well. I really wish I had gotten one of the audio guides. Many of the monuments were included in the guide, but when we were at the tourist information center, I didn't think to get one. What a mistake that was! Next time!

Back at our shukubo, called Eko-in, we got ready to take a bath before dinner. I prefer to take baths a little later in the evening, so I remain warm and toasty when I go to bed, but my mother was wary of taking baths with others, so she went early, hoping to avoid other guests. Unfortunately, there was one other guest (another non-Japanese) who had the same idea, so she was stuck! This is me trying to look coquettish in my yukata. And that will be the last picture you'll see of me here...don't say I didn't warn you about my mother's photography skills! Our dinner--completely vegetarian, as it is temple cuisine. At this shukubo, there were two options for dinner--Y10 000 and Y12000. I tried to request one of each, but I guess you could only choose one option per room, so we had the Y12 000 dinner. Y12 000 isn't only for the dinner, by the way, but includes the price of the accomodations. Clockwise beginning at the top: konnyaku (I don't particularly care for konnyaku, and this wasn't any better or worse than other konnyaku I've had), edible flower simmered in something sour/sweet, seaweed, cucumber, some kind of fruit (it was quite tasty!), and pineapple. Gomadofu with a bit of wasabi. I like gomadofu a lot, and luckily, my mother was quite full, so she gave me most of hers! Left to right: vegetables wrapped in egg, wakame roll? (nothing inside), snow peas, and something like kamaboko but not kamaboko (it was better!). Behind it all is Koyadofu, which is really is really just dehydrated tofu. It was like a sponge (in texture and, I imagine, in taste), but I ate it, anyway. And my mother's, too! Tempura--you can never go wrong with fried food! Soba--it was mushy, but I ate it, anyway (notice a theme, here?) Our soup. I wanted to buy some of the little candy-like balls of flour (what are they called, again?), but I never got around to it. They're so cute! I can't remember what this was. Yuba? My mother enjoying her meal. We had to prop her up on many zabuton because she has knee and hip problems. That was one of my worries about staying at a shukubo--they're not really designed for people with mobility problems. But one of my mother's dreams in life was to lie on tatami mat, so I'm happy to say I have helped fulfil one of her dreams! We got a souvenir from the inn! And they're engraved! The left chopstick says "Koyasan Ekoin" and I don't know what the right one says--something about long happiness?

It's now January 11th, my mother has come and gone (she left on the 7th), and I still haven't even gotten to Christmas! But now that my VCR/DVD player with BS-decoder is broken, I have no English-language shows to watch on TV, and now that I have also misplaced my TV remote, so I can't even make my TV speak English to me, I have plenty of free time to finish. Hiroyuki: I have no idea why that roll cake was called millefeuille, because it wasn't anything like millefeuille. At first I thought it was coated with pieces of puff pastry, but they were almonds. Maybe the shop thinks the extra layer of icing and sliced almonds make the cake layered like millefeuille? Helen: I love the anecdote about your former FIL! Yes, Hankyu is really a wonderful department store. I hope they renovate it soon, though. The depachika always makes me feel claustrophobic. I've never been able to go when it wasn't packed with people, and it's so poorly arranged that it's difficult to get around. eta: And macarons never get shared! Except I probably should have shared those ones from Angelique, because the last three are still in my fridge! And that's really saying something about how crappy they are... Now, on to my holidays. My holidays started on Dec. 21, and we were supposed to go to Koyasan on the 21st and 22nd, but we postponed to attend my student's piano recital. Instead, we left bright and early on the 23rd for Koyasan. Koyasan is the birthplace of Japanese Buddhism. It's a very holy place for Japanese who practise Shingon Buddhism, and you'll see many pilgims with their hats and bells, hiking around the mountain to get to each sacred site. It's quite a beautiful place, and if you're visiting Japan and you have the time, you really should try to visit it. It's quite different from the rest of Japan--it's very peaceful and the air is so fresh. We didn't arrive in Koyasan until around noon--it only takes about 2 1/2 hours from my place, but we took our time with train transfers, so it took us around 3 hours. The first place we visited was our shukubo (temple inn) to drop off our things, and take a brief rest. All inns in Japan give you a little snack and the necessities for making tea. I particularly liked this little cookie--I ate a monk! Then we started our sightseeing. One of the most interesting places to visit is Okunoin Cemetery. You'll see many pilgrims passing through here. It's the largest graveyard in Japan, and it has an interesting mix of "tombstones". The guy on the right has a rasta/rainbow thing going on. And what was this one for? The employees of an airline? I thought it was rather cool, and it looked like something you'd find in Roswell, not that I've ever been to Roswell. My mother started to get tired, so we found a little bench she could rest at until I got back from Okunoin. I don't have any pictures of Okunoin because you are not allowed to take pictures on the grounds, but I think it's one of the more beautiful places I have visited in Japan. It's the mausoleum of Kukai, who is the founder of Shingon Buddhism, so it is considered to be a very holy place--no pictures, no food or drink, no smoking, etc on the grounds. Unfortunately, you can find many, many pictures of the grounds and even the inside of the hall on the internet, taken by those people (mostly non-Japanese tourists) who don't give a crap about respecting other people's religions, beliefs, or customs. But I digress... At 3:30-ish, it started to get foggy. It was beautiful, but who wants to spend time in a graveyard when it's dark and foggy? Actually, I would have, because I think it would have been beautiful. But along with the fog, a chill set in, so we head back to our shukubo.

As in pappardelle.Broader than spaghetti pasta and more suitable for the condimenti than baguette bread. ← Darn! Someone beat me to it! But your reply was much funnier than mine would have been.

Question, which may have already been answered but I don't remember reading it... For all three of you (Sandy, Ellen, and Randi), when you go out to eat, do you find that you eat your entire serving, or do you take some of your meal home? This past summer I was back in Winnipeg, and trying very hard not to gain much weight (I had given myself permission to gain 5 lbs, but no more). We eat out a lot during summer (no air con at home, so we hate to cook), and it can be so easy to over-do it. I found that taking home 1/2-2/3 of my meal really helped, and I ended up losing 2 lbs rather than gaining any. But now that I'm back in Japan, where most restaurants don't let you take home your leftovers, I feel like I have to eat everything on my plate! How do you all deal with stuff like that? Do you just leave food on your plate? Or cut down on other treats to make up for the extra you do eat? And mizducky--I'm very impressed that you were able to stop at 2 tortilla chips--especially fresh ones! Salty fried things are one of my weaknesses--I'd have just eaten the whole basket!

It's my "honesty" (read "tactlessness"), isn't it? I find competition works well with me, too. I used to have a yoga thing with a friend--we had a schedule of when we were supposed to do yoga, and if either of us didn't do it, that person would have to put 10 dirham in a pot (we were in Morocco at the time) and if we half-assed the routine, we'd have to put in 5 dirham. Then at the end of our stay, we got to divide the spoils. I think we both got wrought-iron hanging lamps from the money, but I think her money paid for about 80% of them. I hate losing! That's great that her eating habits have improved. It probably happened without her even realizing it, thanks to you!

2 1/4 teaspoons is what I've always been told.

I still say if you're looking for reasonably priced hotel in a not-too-divey area, the Manhattan Hotel is very well priced for its location, and it's just a very short walk to the BTS (maybe 5 minutes at the most), and a slightly longer walk to the subway. On this website (which I've never used and have no affiliation with), you can get a single room for just under US$50, including all taxes and breakfast. It's also very close to Robinson's which has a grocery store (Top's?) and a food court (not terribly exciting, but a decent introduction to food courts). Even if you don't choose the Manhattan, I'd stick to somewhere around Sukhumvit near one of the BTS lines. Personally, I'd never stay around Khaosan--it's just too icky for my tastes, and a lot of the foreigners who stay in that area are not the kind of foreigners I like to associate with (but I have a very specific reason for that, and since you're not an Asian female, it wouldn't apply to you).

The restaurant was Togetsutei, located just by Togetsukyo (on the less busy side of the bridge). The room we were in also had a nice view of the river, and I thought the price was reasonable. I'd go there again!

Was there any filling on that shrimp toast? It looks like it's just fried bread, but perhaps it's just the lighting. I thought the stuff at 6 o'clock might be crab rangoon. When I was in VT, the only pu pu platter I had (the only one I've ever had) had crab rangoon, and I was very excited to try it (I'd never had crab rangoon before, either). What a disappointment that was!

Randi--Do you think Robin ever sneaks some forbidden snacks in while she's at work? I love her "I'm sick of dieting" comment! Sounds like something I would say! Do you think a time will come when she starts to think of your eating habits as a lifestyle change rather than a "diet"?

mrose: Thanks! It looks quite different from the caramel recipe I use (Kerry Beal's recipe), so I'm anxious to see how it turns out. Must make a trip to Costco, first, to get more heavy cream! I might try adding some yuzu essence to half the recipe. I just picked some up a couple of weeks ago, and I'm dying to try it--chocolate and yuzu...mmmm...

Thanks, but I don't have the book, nor do I have easy access to it, so I'm limited to what I can find online. Any comments about the recipes I linked to? Are they at all similar to the one to which you refer?

Does anyone have a tried and true chocolate caramel recipe? I've been browsing online, and I found a recipe for Salted Chocolate Caramels on epicurious, and I also found what could be a very good recipe for Salted Butter and Chocolate Caramels from a blog, but blogs are blocked at work, so I don't know what this one looks like, yet. Anyway, do either of these recipes seem like they'd make good chocolate caramels? I like Riesen chocolate chews, but I'd like to make something better (and I won't be coating them with chocolate, just eating them straight). About the epicurious recipe, why should the chocolate be no more than 60% cacao? Would it really be so bad if I used 70% cacao chocolate?

Isn't she pregnant? That would account for having larger breasts.

I don't think I've ever had Rocky Mountain chocolate, but their caramel corn is pretty good. I think Godiva kind of sucks, though. It doesn't suck as much as a regular Hershey's bar, but it still sucks. I've heard the Special Dark is actually pretty good for a mass-market chocolate bar, but again, I don't really like plain chocolate, so I've never tried it (as far as I know).

Expensive is relative--if Hershey's is $1 (I'm thinking of Canadian prices), then another bar that's $1.50 may be expensive. But it won't necessarily be much better than a Hershey's bar. I don't even like plain chocolate, but even I can tell the difference between a Hershey's bar and, for example, Lindt. That doesn't mean I like Lindt anymore than Hershey's, but there's definitely a difference between them.

It works for me. Here's a direct link to the map.

Costco.com has a Microfiber Kitchen and Dish Towel set or larger Microfiber Automotive Wipes, both for $29.95 a set. At Costco in Japan, you can also get a dozen or so multi-use microfiber cloths in the section where they sell laundry detergent and cleaning supplies, and I would imagine Costco in the US would have them, too. They're in very attractive colours, for those who are slaves to the fashion fairy. I am always tempted to buy them just for all the colours.

When I was browsing at cookbooks, I found that cookbooks published in Europe and Australiasia are more likely to have weight measurements than those published in North America (in Canada, measurements will often be published in metric, but they will still be volume measurements--for example, flour will be in mL). Oops. I just noticed that aprilmei said pretty much the same thing...Great minds think alike!