From Shogakko to Graduation

Allo! The last few days have been particularly busy. Thursday was shogakko's mass 'birthday party', Friday was my last lesson of the school year at the other shogakko, Friday NIGHT was a big ol' potluck party at our apartment, and today was the graduation ceremony for our middle school third graders. Let's go in order, shall we?

Oh wait a second. First I have to do some stuff I promised to do a long time ago.

The English classroom is on the third floor of the school, and it falls to me to decorate it, which is cool, because I enjoy doing stuff like that. When summer changed to autumn last year, here's what I put up for my first wall decoration attempt.


Yeah, Nightmare Before Christmas! That's Jack, Sally, and Zero if you've never seen the movie, which would be tragic.

Except you probably wouldn't like it, Mom.

Please ignore the "Micky (sp) has more Easter Eggs than Minnie" over there. That has nothing to do with fall or Halloween. I just forgot to take it down before taking the picture. Eh heh.

Anyway, the kids really liked this. There were a bunch of the pumpkins, but the first graders stole/dismembered/destroyed a bunch of them, so.

Oh hey look, the winter decorations! As you can see I put a bit more work into these. Two of the penguins and most of the snowmen have become tragic casualties of the ichinensei (first graders).

But eh, middle school kids, whatcha gonna do.

I had a lot of fun making the snowflakes, and a lot of the kids were like, "How did you DO those?" For being Japan, the home of origami and papercrafts, I was really surprised to find that paper snowflakes were not a standard art form like in American elementary schools. But hey, that's cool! I'll teach them, someday. Mwaha.


This is the door to the nurse's office.

Apparently we get outbreaks of headpidgeons fairly frequently, and here you can see many little anime children of various hair colorosity waiting in line to have their headpidgeons cured by our sweet school nurse.

Bonus points if you get the reference. :D

Anyway, so the party on Thursday. The fourth graders were celebrating their collective tenth birthdays! The previous time I had told them that, in America, the tenth birthday party was a big deal. And we have parties of various types, etc, etc. They liked the idea of a theme party, and so they decided on their theme....

Princes, Princesses, and Samurai. Epic precious.

This is exactly as awesome as it looks. I caught this kid mid-conversation and it looked like Junior Hamlet.

See all the crowns and capes and stuff? They made those themselves, along with little samurai swords and broadswords, and little magic wands for the princesses. It was AWESOME.



Also, I taught the kids how to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, hence the above video. If you listen, you can hear the kids yelling directions to their friends - "Migi" means 'right' and "Hidari" means 'left.' At the end of the video when you hear them yelling "Hai! Hai!!" they're volunteering to go next.

Here's a good shot of most of the class sitting together. One of the little princes has a red cape. It was supercute. SUPER CUTE.

There was even a girl samurai. You'll see her later though.


Then we all ate apple cake! The teacher, (standing in the middle) Aiko-sensei, asked me for a Michigan type of recipe, maybe with cherries.

But cherries are really, really expensive in Japan, so I went with something cheaper that also is really popular in Michigan - apples!

It was darn good cake. The kids all made it together. I was proud of them.

And now our different costume sets! First we have the Princesses.

Yep. They made me a crown.

This is probably the dorkiest picture of me that ever made me look like a dork, but I LOVE IT SO THERE.

See their magic wands and necklaces? They made me a little star necklace covered in foil, too. I will treasure it for ever and ever, or until I lose track of it which I do all the time.


And here we have the handsome and valiant princes! The one kid is determined to keep his sword in front of the other kid's face. I don't have any pictures of them where he's not doing this. It's kinda funny.

They all had so much fun with this. It was adorable.

And there are the brave and steadfast samurai! (with a prince stowing away in the picture in the back.) I thought it was so cool that one of the girls wanted to be a samurai, too! I was proud of her.

These guys had fun too with their ACTION pose.

I love my elementary school kids.

So then, on Friday, I had the first graders at the other elementary school!! They were so precious! I got totally mobbed though. That's always fun. We played musical chairs (which was easy for them, since it's really close to fruits basket, a traditional Japanese game. Also, musical chairs is really flipping easy, and I'm pretty sure SOME kids play it in Japan) and since I have all sorts of Super Mario Brothers music loaded on my iPod, that filled them with epic glee. And, they really know how to tell me what colors they like now! "I LIKE BLUE!"

Then I ate lunch with them in the lunchroom. Usually the lunchroom usage swaps between grades and classes, since there's only one small lunchroom for a huge school. The other classes eat lunch in their classrooms. The unique thing about Japanese schools is the students themselves serve lunch....even the first graders.

They all wear aprons, head-kerchiefs, and face masks, serving lunch to their classmates.

Everyone waits patiently (or impatiently) until everyone is served, and then the day-leaders stand in front, and yell "Be quiet!" repeatedly until everyone else is quiet.

This usually takes a while.

Then, everyone says "Itadakimasu!" (I humbly receive - kind of a secular grace that is rigidly followed in Japan) and is free to eat. Eating before 'itadakimasu' is a heinous offense and will result in several squeaking, peeping students suddenly bursting into a cacophony all around the offending party. It's adorable.

There you can see their school lunch. Fish and vegetables (The fish was full of bones!! No way would they get away with that in America! Some kid would choke and people would get sued and we'd only be able to eat pureed Fish Product or whatever. Still, I thought it was amazing!) along with a tofu-vegetable soup, a bowl of rice, an orange, and a carton of milk. No, you can't choose between white and chocolate here like ...well, like the schools I went to when I was a kid. But it's been a while since elementary for me so probably that was more of a middle-high school thing.

Then that night was the potluck party. I made spinach-artichoke dip and Alex made homemade pasta. Both were awesome. The rest of the conversation group brought stuff too. Really, really good stuff....in fact, too much, and way too much variety. I ate way too much and the next day I was like "UGGHGHGHGHHGH." It was unfortunate. But soooooo worth it.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Then, today was graduation, and I bawled. But only because everyone else was bawling, even the male teachers. I'm going to miss the third graders. It was a big formal affair. The principal did a speech, the mayor of the town (wearing a kimono) did a speech, the new student council president (one of next year's third graders) did a speech, and the graduating student council president (a really sweet kid) did a speech. Lots of speeches. And songs. And tears and sniffling. But it was a good time.

Of fish bones and blowfish

Ahh, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. Let's get started with the fun and interesting things that I get to say!

To start with, Nat and I ate fugu (blowfish). Just the skin, but it was still fugu. We never really expected to. We never really had the desire to. I mean, with the potential for it being fatally poisonous one wonders why people have bothered preparing it in the first place. But we were at a restaurant with the English conversation group and fugu skins were one of the day's specials. It was actually pretty good. I still don't think I'd choose to order it in the future, but it's something we can say we've done.

On the note of eating fish, one day I had noticed little, glazed fish skeletons for sale at the grocery store. I thought I'd try some. They come in different flavors, so I chose one that I thought looked good. I didn't like it. To me, it tasted like a piece of chalk rolled on the floor of a fish market. It's actually better than that, but I just didn't like it. Of course, the Japanese usually eat these as a snack when drinking beer. We gave them away to one of our friends here who likes them.

I also picked up some odango at the store. Odango are commonly translated into English as dumplings. They are made of mochi (sticky rice which has been pounded into a doughy texture. The glaze is mildly salty; mostly sweet. I love them. Nat doesn't like them as much. More for me! Mmmmmm!










I made spanakorizo again, so I took a picture of the shiso leaves so that you can see what they look like. Not that it's an exciting thing to look at. It's just one of the things we get here. I mentioned before that it has a bit of a minty flavor. It's actually somewhere between mint and parsley, I think. In the end, it just tastes like shiso.

We also ate a bit of an incorrect version of sukiyaki this week. Mostly because we don't have the right pot for it. We used our clay pot, instead. Sukiyaki is typically cooked at the dinner table and you pick the food out as it cooks and eat it. I used a few ingredients which are not normally included in sukiyaki, like lotus root and udon noodles. The reason why one doesn't typically use a clay pot for sukiyaki is that the very thinly-sliced beef used in the dish is supposed to be fried at the bottom of the pot before the broth and vegetables are added. I fried the beef in a frying pan, instead and then started up the clay pot. We had Japanese leeks, shitake mushrooms, mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, lotus root, tofu, udon noodles, komatsuna (a leafy vegetable which appears to be translated as Japanese mustard spinach) and hakusai cabbage. There may have been more, but I don't remember it all. Traditionally, when one eats sukiyaki, they dip the hot food in raw scrambled egg just before eating it.

Yesterday, we ate shabu-shabu with several of the JETs and people from two of the town's English conversation groups. Shabu-shabu is similar to sukiyaki in that it is cooked in a pot at the dinner table and everyone grabs what they want out of it. Major differences are that the meat is cooked in the broth, the broth is more simple and you dip the food in sauces instead of raw egg. Shabu-shabu broth is a simple dashi broth (large pieces of dried kelp are boiled in water for roughly half an hour and then removed, leaving the broth). Sukiyaki broth includes dashi broth, soy sauce, sake, mirin (a sweet cooking sake) and sugar; the result, however, is not too sweet (unless you want it to be, some people like sweet sukiyaki).

The shabu-shabu party was fun and we were really glad to see everyone. We ate way too much food, though...and that was before they pulled out the snacks for tea afterward!

One of our dishes.

SHAAAAME.

First of all, I am SO SORRY neither of us has posted! It hasn't been crazy, we've both just been lazy. Lazy, crazy. Crazy, lazy. Let's call the whole thing off.

*dance*

Anyway! We've both been going through some..uh.. difficulties. I had a really nasty awful cold around Christmas that left me really shaky and with a hanagoe (froggy voice - the Japanese call it 'nose voice') for about two weeks. I'm pretty sure it was some mild bronchitis ...thing, but knowing my stubbornness about the doctor (which is completely without reason here, seriously) I just chilled out until it went away. Then as soon as that was over I had another slight problem that increased in pain and intensity until this past Friday. I won't go into details (because they're TMI) but like, I wasn't getting any sleep, I was shaky and nauseated with pain (and painkillers, woowoo!) but again, stubbornly, I didn't go to the doctor.

"This is WAY too embarrassing to go to the doctor for." I stubbornly insisted, instead relenting to taking 2+ hot showers a day and more baths than I'd taken cumulatively over the rest of the time we've been here.

Which is a real shame, because Japanese baths are awesome.

Now, however, my Alex has come down with some kind of bug!! I have to say, (insensitively), that I'm glad that I finally have the opportunity to do something for him, since he has been very sweetly taking care of me and tolerating my whining for....um...the past month or so. So I'm really concerned about him (he's all achey and stuffy, poor kitty) but also really overexcited about what I can do. I'm going to try cooking stuff I'm not used to cooking, we'll see how that goes.

That made me think of taking pictures of the process which reminded me -- I have pictures of my classroom displays, but I left them at home - I'll put them up at the next post.

As far as non-awful things that have been happening, there are plenty of those too! We went to an Ebisu festival a while ago -- Ebisu is one of the seven luck gods of Japan, and he's all about protecting children and making money. Not sure if it's in that order. But he's a generally happy guy, and his main festival is in March, which is when all the gods go to some god convention somewhere else in Japan. So there are no gods and there's no use praying to any of them during that time....except for good old Ebisu, who happens to be deaf and just completely misses the summons. I like Ebisu.

Anyway, the festival was nice; we ate at a really fun restaurant afterwards that was basically a 'things you dip into things' restaurant (and it's close to our apartment! We're so taking people there!) and then the next day we went to Fukuchiyama for a movie.

The movie we went to was called "Nodame no Cantabile" (Nodame's Cantabile...that was easy) and was about students at some kind of music/performance college in Paris. It was a comic, it was an anime, it was a live-action TV drama, and now it's a live-action movie. I fangirled over the classical music the whole time. It was really....anime-esque though, and goofy...but it was really cute.

Lenny, you would love it, go see it, hee.

What else...um...I got nothin'. Alex made salsa for me. <3 I found out some of my vacation times, so that's good. But if someone wants to visit or someone wants me to come visit, you gotta let me know ASAP -- gotta fit in a visit home for the parents, and a couple visits here that I'm having arranged....mwahahaha.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness. How are you guys doing?

Something Strange, Something New...

For starters, we both apologize for not posting last week. Nat was busy and I was lazy. We do have some photos of a couple odd things we found in the stores, so I shall share our experiences with you.

First up, chocolate-covered potato chips.
I saw these while in the check-out lane at the grocery store. I was amused. The potato chips are Pringles-style and are coated on one side with chocolate. The same sort of chocolate you'd coat a pretzel with. In a way, they did taste like chocolate covered pretzels with a lingering hint of "WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO TO MY PRINGLES?"

Nevertheless, we found it difficult to stop eating them (until they were gone and by then we no longer had a choice). I believe Potattcho is the brand of chips (to rival Pringles). I'm not sure I would suggest these, but they were definitely different.

I Love Vegi is really most remarkable because of its name. At least it is to me. We have mixed fruit/vegetable juices in America, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise. Some Japanese brands even show up in the US sometimes. If you ever see Kagome vegetable juices in your grocery store, those are Japanese.

So far, we've only been able to get this brand from vending machines. It's fairly sweet but, from what we've been able to read, it is only sweetened by the fruit juices in it. What's in it, do you ask? Why, I shall tell you!




I numbered the ingredients on the can so that you can see the ingredient list yourself and follow along.

1. Orange
2. Apple
3. Grape
4. Banana
5. Peach
6. Lemon
7. Carrot
8. Tomato
9. Spinach
10. Moroheiya (also known as Jute...not well known in the USA either way)
11. Cabbage
12. Celery
13. Lettuce
14. Broccoli Sprouts

Next up is our blueberry-grape dessert vinegar...to drink.

When I first bought this, I thought, "Oh! How novel! Vinegar made from blueberries! Well, I've seen vinegar made from champagne, roses, violets, pomegranates, raspberries and, well, lots of things. This shouldn't be any different! I shall make a vinaigrette!"

I did, in fact, make a vinaigrette and a small salad for my lunch on the day I bought this. It was a mistake. It was far too sweet for a normal vinegar, so I realized that this had some sort of special purpose.

After some research, I found that blueberry-grape vinegar was one of several sweet, fruity vinegars that are a current beverage fad in Japan. The vinegar is mixed with water (our particular vinegar-water ratio is one part vinegar to four parts water) and imbibed. I tried it and it actually tasted pretty good. It tastes like juice with a pleasant tang. I'm not entirely certain it's healthy to be consuming too much of this too often, though. It is still vinegar, after all. So, one drink every few days...and not along with a salad dressed with a vinaigrette.

Last, we have a picture from our Thanksgiving meal.

This is Peter Corn. It is pre-cooked cob corn in a vacuum-sealed bag. It is named Peter. We ate him. He was delicious.

The majority of corn in Japan comes from the northern island, Hokkaido. Wheat, dairy and beef also tend to come from Hokkaido. That's because these things just grow better there. However, since Hokkaido tends to have weather patterns similar to Michigan, the growing season is really short, so corn is more and more difficult to come by in the winter and spring. There will always be some corn coming in from some mystery location that is always sunny (which is sometimes Australia), just not as much.

The growing season here...I'm not sure. Some of the crops look like they just planted new rice plants last month, but I'm not sure. The camellias (Camellia sasanqua) did just start blooming around the beginning of November and are still going, though. They're very pretty. I've been told that one house (or maybe it was a shrine) has a camellia festival in the spring, though those camellias are a different kind (Camellia japonica). The two types of camellias are considered completely different flowers by the Japanese. The autumn camellias are known as "sazanka" and the spring camellias are known as "tsubaki".

Persimmon Fritters

So, I had some corn starch kicking around and wanting something to do, so I did a quick mental inventory and decided that our autumnal infestation of persimmons might help. I also wanted some lunch, so you will be horrified to know that this is what I made for lunch: Deep-fried persimmon slices. As delicious as these are, I assure you that I do not plan on making a regular habit of this.

So, here's the recipe:

Persimmon Fritters
(Another failure to have measurements)

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe Persimmon, peeled and sliced into thin wedges.
  
• Corn starch (I don't know how much. Enough to coat the persimmon wedges at least twice. Also, if I mention flour at all in this recipe, I actually mean corn starch. I apologize in advance as I expect to make this mistake often.)
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Paprika (You might actually be able to leave this out, if you want. I've never been able to taste paprika so I just use it to add color....not that it added much.)
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup Sugar (I didn't measure it, really. But roughly this amount.)
• A mild oil for frying in. (You'll need roughly two inches or more. I did this in a sauce pan because I was only frying up one persimmon and I didn't need anything larger.)

Equipment:

• Cooking Chopsticks (extra big ones for nabbing things out of hot oil....or some tongs are good too. Whatever you prefer for cooking operations of this nature. Just be aware that you'll need it.)
• A sauce pan (or a pot, wok or deep-frier; whichever you feel safest deep-frying in)
• Ventilation (Not that this is a particular smokey recipe, but it's always safe to have around when you're cooking...especially if you choose to fry with olive oil)
• A bowl - for the corn starch and the mixing and the things
• A plate with a paper towel on it (or a similar setup so the fritters can cool and dry).

Instructions:

• Mix all the dry ingredients (corn starch, sugar, salt, paprika) in a bowl.
  
• Add the persimmon slices to the bowl and make sure they are thoroughly coated in the corn starch mixture and let sit for a couple minutes.
• Start heating up the oil in a sauce pan.
• The corn starch should have absorbed some juice from the persimmons, making them now look uncoated. Coat the persimmons a second time.
• Once the oil is ready, start adding the persimmons one at a time. Make sure they still appear to be fully coated in the corn starch mixture before you add them to the oil
• Let the persimmons cook until golden. This may be difficult to tell sometimes, as the outer crispy layer may sometimes look more pale than it actually is. Once a piece starts turning brown, it's just barely overdone (but still delicious, so not a problem). Judge each piece's done-ness individually.
• As you remove the finished persimmons from the oil, place them on the paper-towel-covered plate or a cooling rack (over a paper towel) so that they can drain and cool (just a little...they're best when still warm, but not blisteringly hot).
• Optional: If you like, you can roll these in a cinnamon-sugar mixture, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top, or dust with powdered sugar. I haven't tried this yet, so I'm leaving the risk to you.

I'm ashamed to say that I ate them all. They were just so deliciously gooey on the inside and crispy on the outside. I need to make a new batch for Nat to try.

Pepsi Azuki

I have something today. I don't know if this is an amazing something or a something that is just amusing, but it is a something. This something is azuki (sometimes spelled adzuki) bean Pepsi. Azuki beans are sweet red beans the Japanese use in a lot of desserts and snacks. It is one of the primary Japanese flavors for sweet things. In addition to the plethora of traditional foods containing the bean, the Japanese have azuki flavored ice cream, azuki cakes and now azuki Pepsi.

We also went to a potluck tonight. I made my persimmon rice pudding for it. This was partially inspired by an incident where one of Nat's students stole the camera to look at the pictures and a teacher asked about the pudding and asked to try some. I also realize that my usual potluck fall-back of fried eggplant (with skordalia) doesn't travel well. Luckily, we're still in the height of persimmon season, so this is the perfect food for a Japanese get-together.

I expressed, when I posted the recipe for this, that it may be wise to use more than one persimmon for the recipe. More persimmons is definitely a good idea. Since I had one on hand, I went to the store to pick up more. The only ones that were ripe enough were smaller persimmons, so I ended up using my one normal-sized persimmon and three more smaller ones (this would probably even out to three normal-sized persimmons or five small persimmons). Since I was in a bit of a hurry, I used the blender to mash them into goo.

The food at the potluck was delicious. There were more Americans present than Japanese. I had no idea what to expect, so I was actually a little surprised. It was fun, though.

Octopus!

When Nat and I started learning Japanese, we were jokingly warned to be careful if we were to ever order tacos in Japan. The reason for this is that "tako" is Japanese for octopus.

Today, I re-armed myself with octopus recipes and picked up a couple tentacles at our local grocery store. While you can buy octopus raw at some grocery stores in Japan, our store sells it pre-boiled, so you don't have to worry about pre-boiling it yourself (it can take a while). Also, it's much easier for the store to cut up an octopus that has already been cooked so that they can package it according to serving size (most people living by themselves will not be able to eat a whole octopus). The pre-cooked octopus at the store comes with one tentacle and a small piece of head per package.

The recipe I was following assumed that the cook would be using a raw octopus, so I still had to do some pre-boiling to get some of the juices of the octopus into the sauce and some of the seasonings into the meat, but that just made the octopus that much more tender. For those curious about the recipe, it's here.

It turned out really good! I accidentally misread the amount of cinnamon and doubled it, but that's what I get for reading the recipe from across the room. It was still good, though. This is definitely a recipe I'd be willing to repeat.

Tomorrow, we're probably going to eat mabo tofu from a boxed mix. Fridays are my easy meal days.

Kotatsu and Clear Soup with Japanese Clams

Today, I armed myself with new recipes and went to the grocery store. I was determined, today, to prepare some sort of seafood for dinner, be it octopus, clams, mackerel or ishitai (striped beakfish). Luckily, I had little choice in the matter, as most of the other aisles were still being stocked. There wasn't any ishitai (it's not one of the most common fishes we get here, but I see it in the grocery store once every few weeks). We can't get some of the ingredients for the octopus recipes I had on hand (dill or cloves) so I put that on hold until I can figure out some good substitutions. Mackerel was...well, I forgot my list of fish names written in kanji (the Chinese characters in the Japanese writing system), so I couldn't tell what fish was mackerel. We'll try this again some other time. Clams it was. I also managed to pick up a small bag of bay leaves. They were actually at the store this whole time, but I only just realized what they were. Part of the problem was that they were labeled in French, since the Japanese borrowed the French name of the herb (laurier). For those who don't know, a bay tree is also known as a laurel. I have been aware of the dual name of the bay/laurel for a long time, so I felt a little foolish that I hadn't realized what "laurier" was earlier. Especially since there was a picture of the leaves on the bag.

After dropping my groceries at home, I grabbed an umbrella (it's started to rain) and headed back out to go to our household goods store, Komeri. I picked up a cord for our kotatsu. A kotatsu is a low table with a heating element underneath. The top of the table is removable so that you can place a kotatsu blanket over the rest of the frame to keep the heat under the table. People then sit with their legs under the kotatsu to keep warm in the colder months. We have two of these. We didn't have any cords for either of them. So I picked one up and headed home. I would have bought two, but I wasn't sure if I had the right thing just yet.

On the way home, the sun was shining, and I tried a different route. Walking by the bay, I saw some flying fish jumping out of the water. It was pretty cool. I didn't have the camera with me (Nat had it for English recitation competition, which she may or may not write up a blog about later), but I have some pictures from the last time I was by the bay. Today was definitely more photogenic

When I got home, Nat was there! Yay! Apparently, today is some sort of holiday and her only duty at work was to attend the English recitation competition. So work was only a half-day!

Today's dinner was Japanese pumpkin cooked like acorn squash (that recipe with the brown sugar and butter and sometimes walnuts), clear soup with Japanese clams and sushi (if you get to the grocery store early, you can buy whole, uncut sushi rolls for much cheaper than the pre-cut ones).

For the soup, I basically used the recipe by Setsuko Yoshizuka at About.com, except I used green onion for the "garnish" and added some grated myoga. Mmmm! I spilled a little too much sake in it, but it was still pretty good.

For those wondering what myoga is, it's this stuff to the left, here. It's the sort of flower bud/sprout thing. Not the clams. It's sometimes called myoga ginger or Japanese wild ginger. I don't know if it's actually related to ginger or not. For the soup, I grated it really fine and let it simmer in the broth.

Supposedly, much of the myoga plant is toxic, but this part is considered safe. Still, I'm told that telling someone that they eat too much myoga in Japan is like asking someone if they ate paint chips as a child in the USA. We're going to play it safe and only eat a little bit...rarely.

We found a casserole dish. I don't really know why it's here. It doesn't fit in our microwave. We don't have an oven. I can't wait until I know how to get to the thrift store (or "recycle shop", as they call them here).

Persimmony Rice Pudding

It worked! I made some persimmon and rice pudding, adapted from some stove-top rice pudding recipe I discovered somewhere on the vast internet sea. This means it's time for another recipe post!

Persimmony Rice Pudding
(Adapted from some recipe somewhere else
that had no persimmons in it at all)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup White Rice, uncooked (If you can get your hands on it, I highly suggest mochi rice, as it's texture lends itself best to rice pudding)
• 1 1/2 cup Water
• 2-3 ripe Persimmons (Note that if the persimmon is somewhat dark inside and has a lot of grainy-looking dark spots, this is actually a good thing. This is actually an indicator that it is ripe.) *Edit: After a second go at this, I would say that three normal-sized persimmons or four small-sized persimmons are good, plus an extra persimmon for garnish.
  
• 2 cups of milk (You will use 1 1/2 cup and 1/2 cup separately)
• 1/3 cup Granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 1 Tbsp Butter (I'm tempted to say that butter is optional, but I haven't tried it without, so I can't say for certain)
  

Optional Ingredients (I do not recommending using these all together, they are each their own variation):

• 1/2 tsp Vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 tsp Ginger root (optional)
• Nutmeg
• 1/4-1/3 cup Raisins

Directions:

1. Peel, deseed and cut one or two persimmons into small cubes. Whether you use one or two depends on how strong you want the flavor to be. Either way should taste good.
2. Mash the persimmon. You may use whichever method to do this you prefer. I use a mortar and pestil, but I realize that this is a long and tedious process that many people do not have the time or patience for. That, and many people don't own a mortar and pestil. You can also use a food processor or a blender. Whatever makes it look like orange slime works. *Optional step: If you are adding ginger to this recipe and you are using fresh ginger root, add it here and get it all properly mashed up along with the persimmon.
3. In a pot or saucepan that you think can handle 4 or more cups of this stuff, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice and mashed persimmon. Reduce the heat and allow it all to simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Stir up the rice mixture. Add 1 1/2 cups of milk, salt and sugar. Stir and cook over medium heat until it is thick and creamy. This may take another 20 minutes, it may not. It all depends on how cooperative your mixture feels. *Optional step: If using raisins, add them here. I abhor cooked raisins, so I will never be using this step. But some people like them, so this step is for those people. If you are using powdered ginger, add that here as well.
   
5. Slowly stir in the leftover 1/2 cup of milk and the beaten egg. This is more important for the egg than for the milk, as the egg will start cooking immediately and you want to get it as evenly mixed into the pudding as possible. Also, you may wish to turn down the heat a little at this point, so as to keep the pudding from popping out at you.
6. Continue cooking for another two minutes while you STIR CONTINUOUSLY. Don't stop. Really.
7. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. *Optional step: If you are using vanilla, now is the time to add it.
8. Dish the pudding up. Peel, seed and cut up your second (or third) persimmon into small pieces (strips, cubes, little hearts...you choose!) and place them on top as garnish or put them in a bowl for people to add as much or as little as they want to their own pudding. Heck, do both! *Optional step: If you are using nutmeg, sprinkle it sparingly over the top of each serving before adding the persimmon garnish.

That's it! This recipe should feed at least five people. Unless you eat a whole, freaking lot. In which case, shame on you! You should have saved some for the others!

Dinner itself was a mishap (a delicious mishap, but a mishap nonetheless), but that was due to my being distracted by the pudding when I should have taken some noodles off the burner, resulting in some very mushy yakisoba. Mmmm...mushy yakisoba.....

Autumn Fruits in Yosano

We've been eating a lot of new things, here and there, in addition to the plethora of things we've eaten in past trips to Japan and foods available in the US. Today, I'm going to tell you about some of the fruits we have here.

To the right are two fruits we have in the house right now. The one on the left should be easy to recognize. It's an apple. For the most part, apples are the same in Japan as they are in much of the rest of the world. This particular type of apple is usually used by the Japanese around festival time to make candied apples. The fruit on the right is a persimmon. There are several different kinds of persimmon, some of which need to be overripe before they are edible. Luckily for us, the Japanese tend to put things in stores when they are exactly ripe (except for tomatoes, which are usually sold frustratingly under-ripe).

Oh! I should put something in there so you can tell the sizes of these fruits. How's that? I bought a persimmon a few weeks back, just as they were getting in season. I ended up mashing it to a pulp and throwing it into a beef roast. It was pretty good! We got two more persimmons from one of Nat's coworkers (and our neighbor), so we just ate those plain. Then she gave us three more, along with some mandarin oranges. We ate all of the mandarins and I have plans for our current persimmons. Secret plans! If they work, I shall reveal all at a later date.

For those curious about the flavor of a persimmon, it's very sweet. When properly over-ripe, it's almost too sweet and can be used as a substitute for sugar in many recipes. When not eating the raw fruit, the Japanese sometimes dry it and eat it as a candy or as a sugar substitute. When under-ripe, it can be rather sour, due to its high tannin content. While some foods are lauded for the health benefits of their tannin content, persimmons have a bit too much and are best avoided until they ripen up quite a bit. After all, tannic acid is named because it was used in leather tanning. I think you might imagine what an immoderate amount might do to your stomach. If you've ever considered eating acorns, be aware that these are also reported to have a high tannin content and must go through a process to leech the tannins before they are good to eat. One or two probably won't hurt you, though (I used to eat an occasional acorn on the school playground as a child).

Back to the subject of Nat's coworkers giving us fruit, another coworker gave us some Japanese pears around the beginning of the month. Apparently, he had a surplus of FREAKING HUGE and insanely delicious Japanese pears. If we get more, I will smear a slice all over my computer screen in hopes that you guys will get a chance to taste them. Just thinking of people half a world away licking their computer screens wants me to try it right now.

Yes, I know it doesn't work that way, but a wild imagination has to get some use every now and again.

I guess that last picture might not really help you understand the actual size of the persimmon. The spoons in our house don't really come in sizes most of us from the States are used to.

Perhaps, I meant that you might want a better understanding of the size of the apple. That's right. We have miniature apples. Japan has normal-sized apples, too. These were just in the store for the festival season. As I mentioned above, these apples are typically candied (like American candied apples, only smaller...and sometimes different colored candy, like blue). I originally thought they were plums when I saw them at the grocery store. The price looked good, so I picked them up and noticed that they were, in fact, not plums. The novelty was too exciting to pass up, so we've been eating miniature apples for the past week. After some research, I discovered that Japan was not the only country with miniature apples. France also has a cultivar or two. So do some other countries, but I never got around to finishing my research. They taste like your average apple (as in, not any of those specific apples, like Red Delicious, Granny Smith or Gala; they just taste like "apple"). They're not incredibly filling, but a good snack for tiding one over until mealtime. Likely, they're going to be out of stores soon, if they aren't already. The demand for them in Japan appears to be extremely seasonal.

Kimono-matsuri Part II (We Have Photos!)

So, Nat has told you about most of what happened at the kimono festival. I get to show you the photos!

This first picture is probably the last one that got taken. It's right outside the house of the family who lent Nat her kimono and helped us put them both on. Everyone remarked on how well Nat's purse from Calabash matched her obi (kimono belt). The men's kimono I'm wearing is technically too small for me (in all dimensions), but was considered good enough. If I were wearing one more properly sized, the collar would have closed a little higher up. I should have also worn a different style of undershirt as that really shouldn't be visible. Also, sitting became awkward. Normally, a kimono shouldn't open in the front just because you sit down. Since mine was too small, I usually ended up holding the fish on my lap to keep the folds in place.



Next is our lunch. Technically, this was most of Nat's lunch (3-11) and part of Maryann's lunch (1 and 2), but Nat didn't get her full lunch in the photo, so this will suffice. I outlined the lunch so you can see how many dishes are actually involved.

1. Mochi covered in red bean paste - This is dessert. We ended up having more for tea later.
2. Tempura fried shrimp and vegetables
3. Chilled soba noodles in...a particular broth intended solely for cold noodles.
4. Dipping sauce for the tempura
5. Sashimi (raw fish). There was some sort of fish that Nat had already consumed by the time she took this, squid and a huge prawn with the head and tail still attached, but the middle was bare meat. Everyone took off the head.
6. Pickles (not pickled cucumbers)
7. A spicy octopus and cucumber salad
8. Soy sauce
9. RICE
10. Green tea
11. Clear soup (with a fish sausage ball and kelp)

A lot of people ended up not finishing their meal for one reason or another. Most people were too full.

After lunch, we ran around and won some prizes. As Nat mentioned, I noticed a tour guide slowly walking up to us on our right. I thought she looked like she was trying to offer to show us around. Since we didn't really need showing around (particularly since Ken, Yuko and Taichi were with us), I looked away and noticed a photographer trying to snap a picture of us from the left. I quickly went back to looking candid. After I looked back, both the photographer and the tour guide were scurrying away. I was amused.

Somewhere during the running around for prizes, we met up with the rest of our group and caught a ferry that did a quick trip through the bay and back. Since this festival requires you to be in a kimono to participate, only people wearing a kimono could ride (yes, even the baby). It was really nice. It's probably hard to tell in this picture, but the obi of the woman second from the left (in the gray kimono) has a playing card pattern on it. It was really fun seeing it. Most kimono and obi have more traditional motifs (though a group of ladies won the award for best obi; their obi were tied and pinned to look like various flowers in the back). While we were on the ferry, a group of seagulls started following us. One even landed on one of the masts. A grandmother started rooting around her grandson's bag for a biscuit to offer the seagulls. Meanwhile, a hawk decided that it wanted a seagull lunch, so it started diving through the flock. The seagulls, never deterred from the prospect of a meal for themselves, continued following the ferry in a more elusive pattern. The grandmother finally found a biscuit and held it high above her head for the seagulls (who were too busy evading the hawk to notice). In the end, the hawk never caught a seagull, the seagulls never got any food, the grandmother resigned to feeding the biscuit to her infant grandson and there were a whole bunch of jellyfish floating in the channel. It was all pretty impressive while it lasted.

This is a group picture. It is not even close to including everyone. The mother and father of the house are not in the photo (as well as some random boy I noticed, peripherally, who was watching TV and did not partake in the festival). Also, we had separated from Ken, Yuko, Taichi and Maryann long before this picture was taken. I don't even know everyone's names. The people I do know are Junko-san (far left; a member of our English conversation group and our driver for the day) and Ai-chan (second from the right in bright red). This is also a perfect example to tell you about different types of kimono. At least ones worn during this time of year. You might notice that Ai-chan is the only one wearing a kimono with long, draping sleeves. This type of kimono is only worn by unmarried women (everyone else in the picture is married, in elementary school, male or a dog). They are typically made with brighter colors and bolder patterns, though a delicate color or pattern is not uncommon. The long sleeves are believed to be more suitable for attracting a male suitor. There are traditional poems and plays saying as much. The bright kimono worn by Ai-chan's cousin (second from the left) is a children's kimono. These kimono have the tendency to have more eye-bleedingly bright colors and more outlandish themes (some young boys' kimono have cowboys on chartreuse), though neither are necessary. Men's formal kimono (like the one I'm wearing), tend to have the most sedate patterns and colors tend to be dark or masculine. Khaki, black, navy, gray, brown and olive green are typical colors for men's kimono. Also, I'm the only one wearing the geta (Japanese sandals) that are elevated with a couple thick strips of wood. This isn't really a men/women thing. These were just the ones available I thought would best fit my feet. But it's also a good way to show you some different kinds of geta. The tabi (toe socks) I'm wearing are technically too small for me as well, but they actually got on my foot. The more traditional tabi I was originally offered...I would have had to cut off my toes to fit into.

Junko-san and Nat.

All in all, it was a lovely day. I guess there was rain either last year or the year before (or both). We were home by 5:00, which somewhat surprised me. The family who helped us put on our kimono live right next to the bay where I walk, sometimes. I had even said hello to the mother and the grandmother on one occasion. It was really fun.

This is a picture of our funeral home neighbors after a storm (perhaps the typhoon, but I don't think it was). There was a brilliant rainbow that Nat caught just as she was getting home from work.

Creamy Pesto Farfalle with Chicken and Broccoli

So, I finally made dinner with my purchases at the import store. I call it creamy pesto farfalle with chicken and broccoli, but the cream sauce and the pesto sauce weren't mixed at all (though you could probably mix them, if you wanted). I messed up a little, but it still turned out alright.

Creamy Pesto Farfalle with Chicken and Broccoli

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts (de-fatted, de-skinned, about as many as you would have people to serve, though larger breasts or smaller eaters may allow for changes)
• Farfalle pasta (enough for however many people you're feeding; substitute other pastas as you feel the inspiration)
• Pesto
• Broccoli (one small head feeds two people...heads in America are rarely "small"; cut into bite-size florets)
• Flour
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Thyme (ground or crushed)
• Olive Oil (again, I don't like Extra Virgin since I find it bitter, but you might enjoy it)
• 1/2 Onion, diced
• 3 Cloves Garlic, minced (not crushed)
• Lemon juice
• Shredded parmesan
  

Cream Sauce:

• Butter (I forget exactly how much, maybe half a stick? Salted butter is probably best, but I have no idea what kind I used and it worked fine.)
• Flour
• Milk
• 1 Beef or chicken Boullion cube (optional, I didn't use it this time...you'll also need some celery salt if you do this....and, very important, unsalted butter)

Directions:

1. Tenderize the chicken. If a piece looks like it might be too thick to pan fry, keep a knife, plate and fork handy while you're cooking so that you can cut it into slices near the end.
   
2. Start cooking the farfalle according to directions. Add a little olive oil to the water in order to keep the pasta from sticking to the pot while you are busy with the chicken.
   
3. Mix flour, salt, thyme and pepper together in a wide dish. Place the chicken breasts in the dish and flop them around until they are well coated with the flour.
   
4. Put some olive oil into a frying pan (keep the bottle handy, you may need to add more as the flour will absorb some), heat the pan and add the chicken, onions and garlic. (This is one place I messed up. I sauteed the onions and garlic first, then added the chicken. I ended up burning the onions. Hopefully adding them at this point won't result in failure. )
   
5. Turn the chicken fairly often, making sure it doesn't get much more than a golden brown. Somewhere in the middle of cooking, add about a capfull (or half a capfull) of lemon juice over each chicken breast. Add more oil as necessary, since it will absorb into the four and onions. Once the chicken is looking done, feel free to slice open a thicker part of the chicken and check if it is done. If not, slice the chicken appropriately and return to the pan just long enough to finish it up.
6. At this point, the pasta should be done, so go ahead and drain that.
   
7. Refill the pot with just a little bit of water, add the broccoli, cover and place over low heat. Once the broccoli is a bright green, wait half a minute and take it off the heat and drain.
8. Place the pasta into bowls or onto plates (bowls is probably better, if you have pasta bowls), add the broccoli.
9. In a sauce pan/pot melt the butter. Once melted, add flour and stir. Once well mixed, add milk (and bouillon cube) and stir until thickened. If it's too thick, add more milk. Remember how much pasta this has to spread amongst. If it looks like you don't have enough, try adding more flour and milk (I've never had to do this, so I don't know if it works. Tell me how it turns out, if you try it!).
10. Once the sauce is ready, you may either mix in the pesto or add both to the pasta separately.
11. Slice the chicken into short strips and place on top of the pasta.
    
12. If you didn't burn the onions and garlic too badly, drain them and pat them with a paper towel. Add them to the pasta. (Also, please tell me if the alterations in this step worked!)
    
13. Add shredded parmesan
14. Yay!

So, that's that. Even with blackened onion bits, it was delicious.

Yeth Now.

I'm making myself post 'cause I don't do it enough. So I'll give my impression of the weekend, too. :)

Yes, the dinner party went great! There were more people than we thought there were going to be. The night was a mixture of English conversation, more English conversation, explaining English conversations in Japanese, fixing the ceiling in our tatami room, and eating a lot, a lot, a LOT of food.

Most of the people at the dinner were our English conversation group friends. Those that were not attended the conversation classes in Kaya, and we knew everyone who came. Curiously, one of the women was Catholic! I talked with her excitedly. I'm not Catholic, but Christians are rare enough in Japan that it's best to stick together.

As Alex said, Brett and Shawn are from New Zealand. We had this big long conversation about Chinese miners dying in New Zealand, having their bodies shipped to China, the ship crashing, the coffins floating back to New Zealand and being found by some Maori, and everything that ensued. But after we had this conversation, we glanced around and noticed that the Japanese attendees all had that blank goldfish look in their eyes. So I went about the daunting task of translating the entire conversation into Japanese. It was fun, but it was a challenge...

We ate a ton of food, like Alex said. There was...let me see if I can remember it all...

-Of course, the fried eggplant and skordalia. This went over really well. Everyone thought the skordalia was delicious, and Alex was so cute in his little headkerchief cooking-man style. <3 I noticed people putting the skordalia on EVERYTHING. It was cute.
-The spanakorizo. Alex made tiny little flowers out of cut slices of carrots and dressed each little bowl with one. People loved this. I don't think there was a single scrap left. I overheard some people mention that it tasted familiar. Maybe it was the shiso leaves?
-Homemade Spring Rolls. They were full of carrot, lettuce, and ...something else I can't recall but was a green vegetable, I promise. They were very refreshing.
-Fried Spring Rolls. These had meat and bamboo shoots in them, and had the traditional Japanese Mirin-Shoyu-Sake flavor to them. They kind of reminded me of tiny, savory crepes.
-Sushi. <3 Someone brought some sushi. It was delicious. Just a big variety platter of various nigirizushi (the long ones with the fish on top, not the rolls).
-Kara-age? I think? Small fried chicken pieces. These are really good, but I didn't eat much of it 'cause there was so much other stuff.
-Dango. Japanese breaded meatballs on a stick.
-Tiny grilled chicken wings.
-Shrimp-on-a-stick.
-Raw squid. I didn't eat any of this because I don't really like it, but that was fine - I was totally full by this point anyway.
-An absolutely delicious chiffon cake. It was flavored with tea.

So I think that's everything but we ate a whole heck of a lot so I might have missed something.

About the ceiling...our ceiling is made of about four or five really long panels that lay parallel, flush with one another, lengthwise across the ceiling. The one farthest from the window was sagging in the middle. We'd tried to fix it when we first moved in (since the panels are all notched and not set up with nails) but gave up.

Brett noticed this, and decided it needed to be fixed. So everything was moved around, couches were relocated, and about six people stood up on the couches to shift the board back into place. It was hilarious.

We didn't get to bed that night until like 1:30. I didn't want to do anything on Sunday, but I'm trying not to be a stupid stick-in-the-mud so I reluctantly agreed to do something the next day when pressed.

After the time was straightened out, we were off to Miyazu! We went to Mipple! Finally! I didn't buy anything since everyone seemed eager to rush along, but at the same time people were suprised I didn't buy anything. I was like, "whateva". :) But I noticed they had toaster ovens there. Once we get a long table to act as a counter I am SO getting one of those.

We ate lunch at a restaurant in Mipple (which by the way is a huge shopping complex. Well, huge for Japan) and I felt a little shy since I wasn't wearing socks....so I was walking barefoot in this restaurant. I'm gonna have to start keeping socks in my purse.

After we left Mipple we went walking on the beach. Shawn and Brett went swimming. I wished I could swim, but I satisfied myself with wading. Unfortunately the water got...a little...affectionate, and I soon was sporting "I'm-not-potty-trained-yet" fashion. I was soooooo embarassed! But you know...one of the pieces of advice I've heard from JET that's struck me the hardest is "don't be afraid to embarass yourself." This is really hard for me. But if I think about it, it makes it easier. So off we went to the cafe.

We had that great conversation Alex mentioned. The lady at the cafe/station was super nice. She actually made all the cakes herself. And I had this peach drink that was absolutely great, but I drank it way too quickly. I always drink way too quickly.

Then we went home. It was late afternoon. We were utterly exhausted.

And then I went to school this morning YAAAAAY! But I've been having hot and cold flashes, and some of the teachers noticed I was looking kinda iffy. I don't really feel good. But I'm not really sure what to do about that, as far as taking nenkyuu (paid leave) or something. But then again, the culture festival is this weekend; significantly featuring the English recitation contest, which I have been asked to help the students with every day.

So I'll hang in there and wait for Sunday. (Saturday's the Culture Fest, so I'm workin'.)

Goya: Round II

So, Nat got a goya (bitter melon) from one of her co-workers on Friday. This meant I had to, once again, face off with the bitter menace. However, this time I was armed with the knowledge of true Japanese preparation methods. I had the upper hand! Last time, goya simply caught me off-guard. This time, I was ready.

The battle was epic. No one was spared. Not even the children. In the end, I stood victorious over a delicious (and only slightly bitter) bowl of goya champuru. I was pleased. Goya is reported to be highly nutritious, so being able to incorporate it into our diet and still enjoy it was a great success.

I'm sure you're now wondering what to do if you ever come across a goya. If you do happen to stumble upon a bitter melon (which would be quite impressive, for some areas of the United States) I advise that you never cook this for a guest on your first try. Since goya is so bitter, you may need practice with it before unleashing it on your friends in order to more fully understand the needs of the vegetable. Got that? Good. With that said, here's a recipe for two (adapted from an out-of-print, English-language magazine published in Kyoto):

Goya Champuru
(Note: This goes very well over Japanese steamed rice.)

Ingredients:
Goya (bitter melon) 1 - Cut the goya in half, lengthwise, and remove the inner pith and seeds with a spoon (or your fingers, like I do). Then, slice the halves into very, very thin half-moons. Rinse the slices in a bowl of salty water. Gently scrunch the goya to release some of the oils. Drain and repeat. You might even want to steam/boil the goya before adding it to this recipe.
Tofu 1 block - Place a paper towel on a flat dish or cutting board and place the tofu on top. Place another dish or cutting board on top of the tofu as a weight and set aside for 10 minutes. This will allow the tofu to drain. Once done, use your hands to crumble the tofu (do not cut it, since the texture is intended to be crumbly).
Onion 1/2 - Chop the onion up. The size of the pieces can be however you like, really. Just as long as you want to eat it in the end.
King Trumpet Mushrooms 3 or 4 - These might also be called Eryngii, Eringi or King Oyster Mushrooms. Slice these into sticks. If you wish to substitute other edible mushrooms, that should be fine.
Soy Sauce to taste
Mirin to taste - This is a sweet rice wine used solely for cooking. If you've managed to get your hands on a goya, you should be able to find this. Just talk to your grocer.
Katsuo flakes - This is another thing that may be difficult to come by in some parts of the world. It's a mix of things, not the least of which are dried fish flakes. Very delicious, very important to this dish. If you've already got the goya and the mirin, you'll likely be able to get this too.
Eggs 2, scrambled
Cooking oil 1 Tbsp

Directions:

1. Place a frying pan over high heat, add the cooking oil. Then add the crumbled tofu and onion. Fry the tofu. Fry the tofu until it starts turning brown. (This is what my recipe says. However this has never happened for me. Either my pan doesn't know how to brown tofu or I'm just impatient. At least fry the tofu until any leftover moisture is gone.) Turn the heat down to medium and continue frying the tofu until it is evenly brown.
2. Add the goya and the mushrooms. Fry these FOREVER! The goya, in time, should turn translucent. The recipe I have warns that stirring the goya too aggressively may make the entire dish bitter. I never had a problem with this, but you may want to keep it in mind.
3. After the goya has cooked for a little while, go ahead and season with soy sauce and mirin. you may be more liberal with the soy sauce, but be a bit conservative with the mirin as you want it to flavor the dish and not sweeten it. Also give a generous sprinkle of katsuo flakes.
4. Once the goya appears to be cooked to a limp death, pour the egg over the mixture in the pan and stir quickly to get the egg cooked evenly. Immediately remove from heat and serve over freshly-steamed Japanese white rice. Mmmmmmm!

On that note, it appears that my entries are going to be primarily food-based. Hopefully, most people will be able to try these recipes at home (though the ingredients for this recipe might prove to be a scavenger hunt for some). If I feel ambitious enough, I might start taking pictures of food and ingredients as I prepare (also, we need new batteries for the camera...). I'm going to need a small clipboard next to the counter so I can take measurement notes while I'm cooking.

Also, use for mochi rice #56: Soup thickener - Since mochi rice has such a high starch content, it releases its starches into any soup you might be cooking and acts as a thickener. You only need a little bit of mochi rice for this to work. If you have a soup recipe that includes rice, I suggest using a 3/4 the amount of normal rice and use mochi rice for the remaining 1/4. Adding a tablespoon or two of mochi rice to a vegetable soup recipe can work too!

Yes. Yes, I did make hamburgers.

As Nat has just mentioned, I indeed made hamburgers with spinach and rice last night. The hamburger was mostly Australian beef (most beef is imported in Japan, save for a few heads of cattle who are treated like kings...until they are slaughtered) and American pork (I 'anno...). It was seasoned with fresh crushed garlic, salt, black pepper, oregano and a dash of soy sauce. I mashed the avocado up with some lemon juice in my handy-dandy mortar and pestle and used it as a spread. There was also sliced tomato and mayonnaise involved. While the concept of hamburgers is not unknown to the Japanese, I've only seen instances of a open-faced hamburgers when cooked at home (McDonald's and MossBurger still serve the traditional style: both top and bottom of the bun).

The spinach and rice was a little trickier. Earlier, I had accidentally bought mochi rice instead of normal Japanese rice. Mochi rice (sometimes known as "sweet rice") is slightly sweeter, a little lighter and a whole lot stickier than the rice normally used for a Japanese mealtime....and regular Japanese rice is already a lot stickier than rice normally found in Western cuisines. Normally, mochi rice is pounded into a sticky "mochi" (a rice dough or cake) which can be used for a variety of things. Typically, mochi is used for holiday cakes or traditional tea sweets called "manju". Very delicious. Very...not what you should be eating for your everyday meal.

Anyway, I'm stuck with this rice for now. I might attempt to make my own manju, but that's getting into realms beyond ambitious, since most recipes I can find don't take you from whole rice like the traditional method does (since that method is almost entirely ceremonial now, save a few small shops and country bumpkins). Instead, they tell you how to start with mochi rice flour. Obviously, since I have the whole rice and not the flour, this is not going to happen the easy way.

So, spinach and rice. For those unfamiliar, spinach and rice is a Greek recipe (also called "spanakorizo") using spinach, rice, a few other vegetables along with lemon juice and other seasonings. The largest hurdles for this recipe are that it calls for spinach, rice and mint. Well, the rice part wouldn't have been so hard had it not been for the mochi rice. I went ahead and used the mochi rice anyway. The extra gluten in the rice made the resulting dish a little gooey, but still delicious. I know they have spinach in Japan, but knowing which of the leafy vegetables is the spinach can be a bit difficult sometimes. I picked up a vegetable, hoped it was spinach and went on my way. It still may not have been spinach, but it worked well enough. The mint was going to be tougher. While some stores in Japan may have fresh mint or even dried mint, our local grocer is not one of them. I decided to experiment (as if the mochi rice and maybe-spinach wasn't experiment enough). A common leaf used in Japanese cuisine is shiso. Shiso comes in two colors. Red (actually a dark purple) and green. The red shiso is usually used for dying Japanese pickles and other foods while the green shiso is often eaten raw and whole as an accompaniment with rice, tempura fried, or shredded as a seasoning. Both red and green shiso are related to mint and have a mild minty flavor. I figured green shiso might work. It did! I'm so happy that it worked! So, basically, here are the steps (and ingredients) for Greek spinach and rice (I apologize for the lack of measurements, but I have no clue how much of what I use):

Spinach - (A lot...really. I don't think I've ever properly used enough spinach for this recipe, but I'm getting closer. I'd suggest at least two packages, if you're using pre-packaged spinach.) Chop this up, but not very small. 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares are probably best for the smallest pieces. Use the stems, too!
Uncooked white rice - (Any white rice will probably do, but I'd suggest not using mochi rice, since it makes the recipe more gooey. About 1/2 cup or 3/4 About 1/4 - 1/3 cup is good for two people.)
1 Tomato - Peeled, diced and mashed into a sauce. I use a mortar and pestil. You might find this easier with a blender. An even easier solution would be to buy a canned version at the store.
Onion - One half of the onion is enough. Chop it up. I like chopping it up really fine, but as long as you think the pieces are small enough, they probably are.
Garlic - One or two cloves, minced. Mince! Mince! Mince!
Olive oil - I prefer to not use extra virgin olive oil because I find it bitter. You may use whichever kind you like. Some other oils with mild flavors are okay, too.
Lemon juice - To flavor. The dish should be just slightly sour, but not overbearing.
Mint - Maybe 1 1/2 tsp, dry mint leaves? The flavor from the mint should never be too obvious. If you're in Japan, mince green shiso leaves are a good subtitute.
Oregano
Salt
Black Pepper (optional)
Basil (optional)

Directions:

1. Put a little olive oil in a soup pot (or whatever pot you're cooking this in) and saute the onions and garlic until they start turning brown.
2. Add the mashed tomato, stir a little bit and add water (I used about three-four bowls full of water, but I was using a small bowl. You're cooking rice, so you'll want a fair amount, but not too much).
3. Also add the rice.
4. Bring the water to a boil, then add the spinach, mint, lemon juice, oregano, salt and optional seasonings. Stir in the spinach. It may take a while to wilt down enough to fit, but don't worry too much about that. If it doesn't all fit at once, just add portions at a time. The rice takes a while to cook, so you don't have to worry too much about some of the spinach being undercooked.
   
5. Turn down the heat slightly, cover and stir occasionally. Add water if it seems the liquid is getting too low. Once the spinach is properly wilted and has turned a more faded green, taste (try for at least some rice, a piece of spinach and some of the "broth") to see if you need to add any more of any seasoning. Never forget to stir occasionally and add more water when necessary. (I repeat this, because I forget it and am sometimes I'm very sorry for doing so)
6. Did you forget to stir and check the water levels?
   
7. Once the rice is soft (Soft, soft, soft! Maybe a little mushy, even!). Let most of the water evaporate out (aka "Remove the lid"). A little liquid is good. I even suggest leaving a little liquid.
8. Serve and eat!
   

While this works best as a side dish in a hot meal, it can also serve as a small, one-bowl meal. It's also good as a leftover. The estimates I have for measurements are for two people (hopefully...maybe three). If they sound wrong to you, feel free to change them or make your own estimates. Next time I make this, I'll try to record how much of some of these things that I'm using.