eG Foodblog: torakris - Pocky and the geisha

[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.

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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".

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Yes, the activity itself is Hanami but an actual Hanami gathering which involves drinking and eating of Izakaya-type foods is in fact a Hanami Party (hanami enkai) or a Sakura Party. At the last major Japanese company I worked at, the North American corporate HQ in New Jersey had a good number of cherry blossom trees planted on the campus and when they went into full bloom, they had a company "Sakura Party" in the afternoon with Japanese food and people drank beer, sake etc and got generally intoxicated. I was made to understand that such corporate Hanami/Sakura Parties during Sakura Zensen (the cherry blossom front) were common in Japan -- in fact I had read about this in the book "Hokkaido Highway Blues" (which is one of my favorite books about travel in Japan)

Hokkaido Higway Blues (Passage on Hanami)

The entire book is about a Canadian English teacher who decides to hitchhike across the entire length of Japan during the Sakura Zensen, where the Cherry Blossoms sweep across the country from South to North. There's a lot of food references in the book as well, and its a funny and entertaining read.

[Priscilla]

Kristin, beautiful dinner -- and the aerial cherry blossom pix are a treat. That's some cellphone camera!

Do other households cook from-scratch meals frequently, or are you unusual in that respect?

[touaregsand]

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. laugh.gif Since she grew up in Florida, we always assumed it was a Southern thing

I always thought of it as an Asian thing. I recall my parents having it in Korea even before 1975. My parents make it when it gets hot and most Koreans are familiar with it.

Eye-seu Cuppee

[mizducky]

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.

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Heh. A one-pound roast being the largest available in the market is speaking volumes to me about Japan's mindset towards animal protein--more often an accent to a meal than the main event, served in smaller portions than in the US even when it is the main event, etc. Wish I could get my brain re-programmed to think that way--I'd probably be a darn sight healthier.

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. laugh.gif Since she grew up in Florida, we always assumed it was a Southern thing

I always thought of it as an Asian thing. I recall my parents having it in Korea even before 1975. My parents make it when it gets hot and most Koreans are familiar with it.

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Heh. Depending on what area of Florida your mom grew up in, she might have been really growing up in a "suburb" of New York anyway. (sez one whose very New Yawk parents did the "snowbird" thing for some years before settling into Florida for the duration).

Meanwhile, some of the few places here in the States outside of New York that I could always count on to know from iced coffee have been Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. I adore that style of iced coffee, with that thick layer of condensed milk at the bottom of the French roast--major yum, that.

[torakris]

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

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This really depends on the tome of year, the time of month and my mood.....

During the winter I tend to spend more time in the kitchen basically because I have no other place to go and it is the perfect weather for braised meals and stews. I can easily spend 2 hours in the kitchen and not think anything about it. I also do a lot more baking in the winter.

In the summer I do many more fast meals, more pastas and salad and bread meals.

I probably average 30 minutes to an hour in the kitchen on most days for dinner prep. This is probably longer than most Japanese women...

This week has consisted of pretty fast meals so far as I have been to busy posting here to actually spend time in the kitchen.

[torakris]

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.

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This picture was taken about 10:30am, it was too early for most Japanese people to be out.....

The Japanese seem to be slower about doing things in the morning, many stores don't even open until 11:00am! and almost nothing opens before 10:00. Places around here don't get crowded until lunch time and peak (especially on weekends) is around 2:00.

It is was quite a bit more crowded 2 hours later.

[torakris]

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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We were invited to one on this Sunday but we aren't going...

I have no desire to sit in an overcrowded park with a bunch of drunk people and my husband doesn't do this kind of stuff either. He never goes to any of the drinking parties at work. His company does sponsor a couple BBQ's a year at the work sites and we normally go to those and have a lot of fun. I like these because it is more like a small party and not out in public.

We have better plans for Sunday anyway!

[SobaAddict70]

Are there any foods traditionally associated with hanami? Besides cherries, that is.

Soba

[torakris]

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

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I am not a pet person....

My kids had a goldfish they won at a festival that lived for 3 years!! despite my many attempts to kill it.

The Japanese love pets but because many people live in apartments they are unable to keep them so places like this are becoming popular

thesea re little parks you can go to to watch animals in cages or possible sit in a pen and let them run around you, to take them for a walk usually costs more money.

the price you see is just the admission cost to the park. To take my family there it would cost 4700 yen juust for admission, about $45! and parking would be an extra $15 to $20. Yet these places are packed on the weekends.

My husband's dog, a Siberian husky, passed away 3 years ago but we used to walk him every weekend and I often did the weekday walking as well. He lived at my in-laws house just 10 seconds away. He was a great dog. My MIL now has two chihuahuas (sp?).........

[torakris]

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?

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for all of us together

[SuzySushi]

Those photos of the cherry trees around the Imperial Palace are amazing!

And that pork roast and kabocha gratin look yummy... now I know what I'm going to do with the pork roast in my freezer.

Question: What type of oven/range do you have? Most of my friends in Japan had only stovetop burners, and a microwave or microwave/convection oven and toaster oven. Photo? Also, do you have hot running water or a separate water heater over the sink?

[torakris]

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. 

Have you seen a similar increase in "foreign food" availability during your years in Japan?

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kabocha is a Japanese squash. This is all I have left

The bread was really good as are most of the breads from Carrefour (French supermarket) unfortunately it has been bought by a Japanese company, the Jaapnese branches that is, and I am worried that we are going to lose the good breads.

Foreign foods are definitely on the rise. Many supermarkets in my area now have ethnic sections with ingredients for Italian, Mexican, Thai, Korean, etc....

10 years ago there was virtually nothing, except at very overpriced International markets that catered to ex-pats.

[torakris]

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.

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They must all be in Japan then.

There is almost no diet here, I have seen diet occasioanlly in stores but almost never in vending machines.

[torakris]

Kristin, beautiful dinner -- and the aerial cherry blossom pix are a treat.  That's some cellphone camera!

Do other households cook from-scratch meals frequently, or are you unusual in that respect?

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I rarely use prepared foods, but in urban Japan they are becoming very popular. Many meats in the supermarkets are sold already seasoned and just the other day I noticed my local train station had 4 (yes 4!) sozai-ya-sans.

the sozai thread

Sozai are essentially the dishes served for a meal besides the rice and soup and can be anything from main meat dishes to small vegetable sides. A sozai-ya-san is a store that sells jsut these kinds of small dishes, usually at a set price per 100 grams (1/4 lb), so you can take as much as you need.

Even a year ago I never saw these kind of shops, they were pretty much only in the department store basements (where all the food is).

This is what a typical sozai-ya-san looks like

It really depends on the person and how much they like to cook, My next door neighbor hates cooking andisn't very good at it. She grills fish about 5 times a week, makes rice and miso soup and a salad (usually iceberg with cucumber and tomatoes with dabs of mayo on top)....

[torakris]

this one pound roast (460g) was the biggest they had at the supermarket so I had to "beef" it up with some onions. baked.

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Heh. A one-pound roast being the largest available in the market is speaking volumes to me about Japan's mindset towards animal protein--more often an accent to a meal than the main event, served in smaller portions than in the US even when it is the main event, etc. Wish I could get my brain re-programmed to think that way--I'd probably be a darn sight healthier.

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Packages of meat here are very small and instead of a price per pound the price is per 100 grams (a little less than 1/4 of a pound). I used to laugh when I first came here and saw these tiny packages of ground beef that weighed in at less than 1/4 lb, I mean you can't even make one hamburger with that! After 10 years though my cooking has changed and I cook more now with meat as an accent.

[torakris]

Are there any foods traditionally associated with hanami?  Besides cherries, that is. 

Soba

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the "what do you like to eat for hanami" thread

Most people are too drunk to even think about the food though....

[torakris]

Question: What type of oven/range do you have? Most of my friends in Japan had only stovetop burners, and a microwave or microwave/convection oven and toaster oven. Photo? Also, do you have hot running water or a separate water heater over the sink?

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My oven

like most ovens in Japan it is a combination microwave/convection oven

this is one of the larger ones on the market at 30L, I have recently seen ones that are as big as 33L

My place has hot running water in the kitchen and bath, but like most of the houses in Japan the washing machine is cold water only.

[torakris]

I never did eat anything for breakast yesterday besides my iced coffee, so today i made sure I had a piece of toast (with butter).

And an iced coffee of course.

yesterday's Pocky I left by the computer while I was making dinner and I came back to find this

My husband finally admitted to eating it....

It wasn't actually Pocky, but Pretz their savory counterpart. this was their ume flavor (pickled plum) and I didn't even get one..

[torakris]

It has been a very long morning....

I had a meeting for the Kodomo kai (children's community group) and we had to decide everyones responsibilites for the upcoming year. There are about 25 of us and everyone needs to take part in at least two events. It took 2 1/2 hours to decide everything....

My kids were the only ones there and were bored out of their minds. My husband works every Saturday so he couldn't take of them like the other husbands (or in some cases grandparents) were doing.

I will be helping out at the dontaku a sort of festival held at the end of summer and the keiroukai　a special event held on the respect for the aged day (keirou no hi) where the children sing songs and play instruments for the elderly in the area.

As I was looking for some information about dontaku in English, I learned the world is actually Dutch in origin....

In the Edo period (1603-1868), decorative floats and platforms showcasing dolls were added. The name of the festival was adopted around this time: it is believed to be derived from the Dutch word zondag (Sunday), which was taken to mean "holiday".

from here

So anyway, I was planning on eating lunch at home but I had to stop at the store and pick up laundry soap and the kids insisted on getting bentos. I was too tired and hungry to argue and we still had a 15 minute walk home....

Rain is forecast Monday thru Weds so I have to get the laundry done today and tomorrow....

Our lunch

Hide had the big bento in the front but his sisters picked at what he didn't. Mia and Julia both got sandwiches and Mia picked up a burdock root (gobo) salad and Julia chose pasta. I have the noodles in the middle (with the 20% off sticker on the top)

this is a better picture

Julia gave me one of the sandwiches saying she didn't like it, I opened it up and it turns out it was corned beef (the canned stuff) with mayo and corn kernels.....

[torakris]

while his sisters played outside Hide and I had a snack

digestive biscuits with one side dipped in chcolate, this is one of my favorite snacks here

I also had an iced tea made a with a lime ginger tea (tea bag) from Boh's Seri Songket teas, these teas are really good, though a bit pricier than average.

[torakris]

I also had an iced tea made a with a lime ginger tea (tea bag) from Boh's Seri Songket teas, these teas are really good, though a bit pricier than average.

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I just looked at the prices on that website and I am definitely not going to buy those tea bags in Japan anymore. The website was selling them 25 bags for $1.95 and the store I bought them at here charged about $5 for 10 bags!!!

[Tepee]

The website was selling them 25 bags for $1.95 and the store I bought  them at here charged about $5 for 10 bags!!!

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Which is your favorite? I can send some to you.

[torakris]

The website was selling them 25 bags for $1.95 and the store I bought  them at here charged about $5 for 10 bags!!!

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Which is your favorite? I can send some to you.

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you are too kind!

I actually limited myself to drinking it only once a week because of the price......

[Hiroyuki]

My oven

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Is this the oven you make your cornbread in?

[torakris]

Is this the oven you make your cornbread in?

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yes.