Category: Oh Food

The Dried Persimmon

When I got home to my parent’s place
guess what I found hanging in the kitchen?
Dried persimmon!
My mom made it outside the kitchen window
and had brought it back inside since it was ready to eat.
It was so delicious!
I love dried persimmon!
Persimmon season is over now but
I’m going to have to try this next fall for sure.

Here’s how to make dried persimmon!
Ingredients:
Hachiya Persimmon
(or any type of astringent persimmon)
Rope
Directions:
1.
Peal the persimmon
leaving a little around the stem.
2.
Tie the string around the stem.
Make sure they are far enough apart
so they don’t touch each other when hanging.
3.
Dip the persimmon in boiling hot water
for about 5 seconds to sterilize the persimmon.
4.
Hang the persimmon outside.
Preferably somewhere that is airy
and gets plenty of sunlight.
If it rains, bring inside so it doesn’t mold.
5.
After a week
when the outside skin is hard
massage the persimmon with your fingers.
This helps the persimmon not be sour.
Do this once or twice a week.
6.
After 2-3 weeks
it should be ready to eat!

The Udon in Takamatsu

Daisuke and Kumi-san were nice enough to
come pick us up at the airport.
Not only that, they took us out to dinner, too!
Kagawa Prefecture is famous for their Sanuki Udon.
It’s my favorite type of udon.
They are thick and chewy.
So good.
You can find it all over Japan
but this was my first time in Kagawa Prefecture.
Look at the real thing, you guys!
Apparently, most udon shops in Kagawa
also serve oden, too.
And they eat it with miso sauce!
(tofu pictured above)
That was new.
And surprisingly good.
I am loving Kagawa Prefecture.
Thinking about coming through here every time
I come back to my parents place.
Thank you
Daisuke and Kumi-san!!!

The Birthday Girl

Happy haapy birthday to my beautiful sister!!!
Yoko came out for the weekend
so we sisters could hang out together.
So glad she did so we could celebrate her birthday, too!
We like to use the exact number of candles on the cakes.
No 2 big candles and 8 small candles for us.
Nope.
We stuck 28 tall candles in that cake for Yoko.
(thus the large flame…haha)

We had a good laugh over the blazing flame
that got bigger with each pictures I took.
Glad I got the longer candles or we wouldn’t have any cake left!
Happy Birthday Yoko!!!
May You Have The Best Year Ever!!!

The Nabe Night

Guess what we had for dinner today?
Kimchi Nabe!!!

Making nabe (pronounced “Nah-Beh”) is so simple and
it’s the best dish to make when you have people over.
It’s really easy to adjust the amount you make
and all you have to do is cut everything up.
I think that’s why it’s so popular in Japan.
Plus there’s tons of soups to choose from.
My favorites are Kimchi, Tomato Cheese, and Soy.
I know, they sound pretty gross.
But call yourself a fool and try it once.
I promise you’ll soon be a nabe-lover like us 😀
We also love mikan.
(They’re like mandarins…small and seedless.)
Everyone eats mikan in Japan during the winter.

Growing up in a family of six,
we would always get mikan by the boxes.
But we would eat them like starving hyaenas
that they never lasted long. 
Looks like somethings don’t change.

The Day at Skytree

Tokyo Skytree.
It was voted the Number One Product of 2012
by Nikkei Trendynet last month (via Yahoo.co.jp).
It was all anyone could talk about when they opened in May
and they’ve had over 2,000,000 visitors
in the first four months of opening!
So I knew it was really crowded.
But since my baby sister was in town
and my coworker told me it’s not as crowded anymore
we decided to head out to see for ourselves!
Let me tell you.
This tower is so damn tall
you can’t even tell how tall it is.
I mean, you know it’s tall.
So much taller than our skyscrapers.
But it’s like trying to figure out how big the moon is.
Too tall to comprehend and you can’t really tell the difference.
Or maybe that’s just me.
I don’t know.
But the view was AMAZING!!!
It was kind of cool seeing the Nishi Shinjuku skyscrapers
because that’s where I’m always standing and looking out from.
We have so many houses and buildings jam packed into this city!
It looks like a lizards back or something.
All bumpy with buildings and hardly any bare land.
Crazy but that’s just one of the things I like about Tokyo.
Also Lisa Naomi and I tried out this new frozen yogurt place!
It was SO good.
So so good.
I wanted more.
Seriously, froyo is awesome, yo.

The Piles of Bananas

What comes to mind when you think of tennis tournaments?
For me, it will always be bananas.
Players eat tons of bananas.
We get boxes of bananas every day at the tournament.
But some get a little too ripe so
I brought a whole bunch back home today!

I’ve been hooked on oatmeal lately
so I tried out banana oatmeal.
It was really good.
Next time I think I’m going to add raisins.
I also made banana bread
which was surprisingly simple to make!
I can’t believe I haven’t made this before.
There will be more banana bread in my life after this.

Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups  flour
3/4 cup  sugar
1 tsp  baking soda
2 eggs (beaten)
1/4 tsp  salt
1/2 cup  butter
2 1/3 cups  bananas (smashed)
Directions:
1.
 Set oven to 175℃ and grease the loaf pan.
2.
Mix flour, baking soda, and salt
in a big bowl.
In another bowl, mix the butter and sugar.
Add eggs and banana, and mix well.
3.
Add together the banana mix and flour mix
and blend together until moist.
Pour into the loaf pan.
4.
Bake in oven for 60-65 minutes until
a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the loaf.
5.
Once done, keep in the loaf pan for 10 minutes.
Then take out of loaf pan and cool on rack.
That’s it!
*You can use more bananas if you want.

*I got my loaf pan at the 100yen shop
so they were kind of little and using two loaf pans
worked perfectly for this recipe.
(via allrecipes.com)