eG Foodblog: torakris - Pocky and the geisha

[helenjp]

Happy Payday I'm in that "the month before payday phase, but it'll pass, it'll pass!

...what do you plan to do with that couscous? I bought a box last week too, and am now mulling over its future.

[torakris]

...what do you plan to do with that couscous? I bought a box last week too, and am now mulling over its future.

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hhmmmm...

haven't decided yet, maybe I will get it in something before this blog is over.

I have something in the oven now and it is smelling wonderful!!

pictures to come....

[torakris]

One of the most famous spots in Tokyo for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) is the area around the Imperial Palace. My husband is currently working 18 stories above it, these are some pictures he took today with his cell phone.

The pictures were taken from the top of here

this is an old picture back when it was only 12 stories high, they finished the 18th floor today, This is right on the corner at Kudanshita station and will be the new headquarters to Aozora Bank.

[torakris]

today for a snack Julia's friend brought over a bag of potato chips

pizza flavored with camembert and cheddar cheeses...

[torakris]

Friday dinner

roast pork, the recipe is from Jamie Oliver

this one pound roast (460g) was the biggest they had at the supermarket so I had to "beef" it up with some onions. I seasoned it with salt, pepper and fennel seeds (I love fennel seeds!) and seared it in a fry pan, I then added it to the baking dish with onions, garlic, bay and rosemary (both from the garden) and a couple chugs of white wine. It was then covered and baked.

while that was baking I did the rest of the prep

the finished dishes

kabocha and camembert gratin (topped with panko and EVOO), I buy whole kabocha and usually use about 1/3 at a time, so I still have a third left.

green leaf lettuce and shredded carrots with "1890 style French dressing", the dressing is from David Rosengarten's It's All American Food and it is REALLY good!

the wonderful olive bread from Carrefour

This was probably my most expensive meal recently at about $12, I try to keep all dinners under $10 (1,000 yen ) for the 5 of us.

[torakris]

oops I forgot to add the finished pork...

I like all my meat rare and I cooked it to 145 F and let it rest until it hit 150F

[Taboni]

Looks great Kris. I know what I'm making for dinner tonight!

[Misa]

Your dinner looks wonderful!

[momlovestocook]

Great blog-I enjoyed the last one too. I saw some pocky at a grocery store(small town Canada go figure) a few weeks ago and pointed it out to dh. I'm driving by there tonight, I'll have to pick some up now. I showed my daughters the pictures of Mcdonald's in Japan(they are 5 and 7) and they loved it. These blogs open up the world to us(especially those of us who have rarely travelled).

I was wondering how much time you spend on cooking each day? I stay at home and make most of our meals so I spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen.

Sandra

[Pan]

Today Hide and I went to the Grandberry Mall with some friends of ours. this is an outlet mall near our house and I quite nice to stroll through though I rarely buy anything.... There is also a Carrefour, a French supermarket, that I really like.

Some pictures from the mall

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I'm really enjoying all the pictures, but I'm surprised that pedestrian mall looks so relatively deserted. I thought the Tokyo area was very crowded.

[bigbear]

As always, Kristen, your posts are the best. Thank you.

[*Deborah*]

Those pictures of the cherry trees from above are simply amazing! Thanks!

I had a double box of original chocolate Pocky for supper last night, and it's all your fault No, it's not your fault, but I did have Pocky for dinner.

[Wendy DeBord]

Those pictures of the cherry trees from above are simply amazing! Thanks!

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Wow, that is stunning! Please thank your husband for taking them. This thread is fasinating, I find myself rushing to the computor to see more of Japan and your life there. And the photos of your food have left my mouth watering this morning.....yum. I can't wait to see more.

[lexy]

I sense perhaps a pocky craze is about to spread across eG

I stopped by the Korean supermarket last night and picked some up for myself - yummy, "like a dessert cake on a stick!" (quote from the box)

Edited April 8, 2005 by lexy (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Memo to pastry chefs: maybe you can make "pocky" the next "in-thing" for dessert across America. you know, like how molten chocolate cakes were for a few years.

Soba

[Jason Perlow]

Kris, have you been invited to any Sakura parties yet from your husband's company or friends? I understand that these can involve quite a bit of eating and alcohol.

[Abra]

Rent a dog, now there's a concept! Have you ever done it? What do Japanese dogs eat?

[touaregsand]

This was probably my most expensive meal recently at about $12, I try to keep all dinners under $10 (1,000 yen ) for the 5 of us.

All that for $12 for everyone or for each?

Love the photos of the trees. Lovely, it brings lots of memories for me.

[Smithy]

I was wondering if iced coffee is common there? Or the matcha latte?

I don't know, iced coffee just seems so New York to me. But then again I think of those iced bubble teas and such...

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I always thought of iced coffees as a very Japanese thing... 10 to 15 years ago everyone in Japan was drinking iced coffee and when I would ask for it in the US people would just stare at me and have no idea what I was talking about.

Matcha lattes are quite common and they even show up at Starbucks and other similar coffee shops.

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I grew up in the suburbs of New York City, where iced coffee had long been a well-known thing ... but up until relatively recently, if I asked for an iced coffee anywhere in the U.S. outside of the New York metro area, I'd get nothing but blank looks too--or at best a glass of coffee that was tepid because they simply dumped some ice in the glass and poured hot coffee in direct from the coffeemaker.

Since Starbucks has taken over the planet, now at least seemingly everyone's familiar with iced and/or frozen latte drinks. But I still can get some puzzled looks in some places in the States when I ask for straight iced coffee.

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I grew up in California knowing about iced coffee from my mother, although I personally never took a shine to it. She knew it wasn't a local thing, though, because she often got strange looks when she offered it to others and she rarely could get it in restaurants. Eventually she took to ordering coffee and a glass of ice. Since she grew up in Florida, we always assumed it was a Southern thing.

[Smithy]

Friday dinner

the finished dishes

kabocha and camembert gratin (topped with panko and EVOO), I buy whole kabocha and usually use about 1/3 at a time, so I still have a third left.

green leaf lettuce and shredded carrots with "1890 style French dressing", the dressing is from David Rosengarten's It's All American Food and it is REALLY good!

the wonderful olive bread from Carrefour

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This all looks wonderful.

Sorry if I missed an earlier explanation, but what is kabocha? It looks like eggplant? How to you fix it for that gratin? (Whether or not it's eggplant, I may change my plans for the eggplant presently in my refrigerator.)

That bread looks terrific, too. I wish I could get a good olive bread around here, or learn how to make it myself. That raises a question about food variety available to you. The olive bread looks very European. European-style breads have only started to become available, possibly even common, outside major U.S. cities in the last, oh, 5 years from what I can tell. There's been a huge increase in variety of foods available in the Midwest, and in the quieter parts of California that I frequent, in the last 15 years. Now it isn't unusual to find different kinds of olives, rice, Middle Eastern food, panko, fish sauce in a middling-sized town. 10 years ago there wasn't an "ethnic foods" section in the grocery store, but if there had been it would have had Mexican, Italian and Chinese condiments. Have you seen a similar increase in "foreign food" availability during your years in Japan?

[His Nibs]

Going to stick my head out but Kabocha is probably japanese pumpkin?

[jhlurie]

right now I am drinking

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I'd almost forgetotten that a non-Diet version of this exists. I'm pretty sure the non-diet has been all but dropped from U.S. distribution.

As always, Kristen, your posts are the best. Thank you.

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Well, that quite naturally follows the fact that Kris herself is the best.

Kris, have you been invited to any Sakura parties yet from your husband's company or friends? I understand that these can involve quite a bit of eating and alcohol.

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Isn't that the same as a Hanami party? Sakura is just the name of the blossoms themselves, I think. Hanami is something like "looking at flowers".

[Jason Perlow]

Going to stick my head out but Kabocha is probably japanese pumpkin?

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Yes, its a Japanese pumpkin, although it is more similar to butternut squash in actual taste.

[Rachel Perlow]

Hey Jay, you want to try it? I could add it to my list for my next trip to Han Ah Reum.

[Jason Perlow]

I've had it before, but sure, what the hell.