Japamerican Life

Christmas time

2006-12-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

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Since we won't be home for Christmas, we didn't get a tree this year. But I LOVE Christmas decoration so put some Christmas flavor here and there in the house. Some ornaments and lights on the brunch on the corner table.

Even our favorite Noren has some Christmas ornaments.

Nut cracker guys are standing in line this year.

We will be in Japan for the holidays and guess what we are doing on Christmas morning? Opening presents? Noooooooooo. Visiting Kyoto Palace and doing some Yudofu (Tofu hotpot)!!! What a different way to spend Christmas, huh?

Opera Carmen

2006-12-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

Steven has bought me a dress for opera. It is a beautiful dark brown silk evening dress with flower printings. Same material that is used for Chinese dress but the shape is some what western. I was looking forward to wear it and going to opera but Steven needed to go to his biz trip so I went by myself without wearing the dress (I save it till I go with him:). It was not fun as much as going with him but still Carmen was great. I also like the historical old castle-like San Francisco Opera house. Felt like I was a princess going back to my castle :) Where is my prince??? Oh, he is in Singapore...

Turkey Dinner

2006-11-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

Since we had French food on Thanksgiving day, decided to make turkey dinner tonight. We got 2 turkey drum sticks and 1 breast and brined them for 24 hours.

Steven is cutting veggies. We roasted parsnips, turnips, potatoes, brussel sprouts, and onions. He looks great with his Japanese apron.

I made cranberry sauce for the first time. I stewed them with orange juice, sugar, and orange zest.

Menu
-Brined Roasted Turkey
-Roasted Vegetables
-Broccoli with sun-dried tomato & olive
-Shiitake mushroom soup
-Fresh Cranberry sauce with orange zest

How big was the turkey leg?

This big :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

We went to a French restaurant in SF with our friends, Sumiko & Bruce for Thanksgiving dinner. We had great thanksgiving dinner.

Before we went to this restaurant, we had champagne and appetizerS at their place. Had a four course dinner at the restaurant which included dessert AND we had apple pie which Sumiko made.(Oh, it was so tasty!) I was so full and couldn't move after this. I guess this is the right way to spend Thanksgiving day. :)

Winter dish

2006-11-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe we are in the mid of November. Time flies....really. It has been cold in mornings/nights so I thought something warm would be nice for dinner. I made stuffed cabbage (Japanese call it Rolled cabbage...Make sense because they ARE rolled. :)This was one of my favorite food my mother used to make when I was a kid. I used ground beef, parsley, shiitake mushroom, celery, onion, milk soaked bread and salt&pepper for the stuffing. Although I feel my mom's is better than mine, Steven loved them!! That only matters to me :)

Shopping therapy

2006-10-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

The last time when Steven was on his biz trip for long time, this thing happened. Again he has been in London for 3.5 weeks. I needed to go shopping to stay myself sane because I was too lonely at home so I bought these boots...just kidding...my old boots were worn out so it was time to get new ones anyway.

I am missing him immensely but he calls me three times a day so I think I can make it. But honey, you need to come home before I buy the third pair. :)

Must love dogs...

2006-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

I had brunch with a friend of mine at cafe in Menlo Park. She brought her dog, Luna and I enjoyed her company. She is a still puppy and coos when her mommy (my friend) is out of her site. I had a hard time to calm her down when she went to the bathroom. :) I love dogs and it was nice to ped and walk her.

Look at my "dog" cuddling with me in the couch. She always sits with me putting her paws on my arm. I thought cats are more independent but not our cats. They follow us and come to sit with us like dogs do. I love our dog-cats :)

Weekend breakfast

2006-10-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

We eat fruits a lot. When I have them, I am really glad that I live in California. I can get amazing varieties of fresh and relatively inexpensive fruits here.

We sometimes eat them with pancake or waffle we make on our grill.

Or with banana walnut bread I make. Steven really likes my banana bread and I really like baking it for him :)

Cooking weekend 2

2006-10-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

It is October from today. I wanted to cook some seasonal dish and I did Kurigohan (chestnut rice), maguro no Ryukyu (soy sauce marinated tuna+see weed) and Togan + Age soup(winter melon+bean curd soup), Tai to Okura to Nasu no Nimono (Stewed Red snapper+eggplant+okra). Took long time to peel chest nuts but came out very tasty!

Today was also dreary so we watched another DVD, The Ice Harvest. John Cusak's movie...Mmmm it was a so-so movie which Cusak stole $2 mil and some how managed to get away.

Cooking weekend

2006-09-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

It has been cloudy dreary weekend. We cook, read and watch movies in those weekends. Today we watched Tristan+Isolde . It was a beautiful and sad love story like Romeo + Juliet. I really liked the beautiful scenes in Ireland and England. Steven's ancestor was from Ireland so we want to visit there sometime...

As for the cooking, I made a peach crisp for snack.

Steven cooked salmon+onion+Shiitake mushroom. They were steamed in sake so had a great sake aroma. Mmmmm, yummy.
The appetizer, layered tuna tar tar and avocado is my work. Looks pretty, doesn't it?

Fruits and Veggies

2006-09-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost ending so we wanted to enjoy summer fruits and veggies as much as we could before they are gone. Here are the beauties we got from Farmer's market this morning. Eggplants, okras, heirloom tomatoes, beans, peaches, purple cauliflower, basil, red peppers, cilantro, zucchini, and cheese.

We had tomato sandwich for lunch.

Steven made Company beans for dinner. 3 kinds of beans, zucchini, corn, onion, tomato, and melted cheese on the rice. Woooo, yummy.

tuna salad, cauliflower (purple!!) and green salad. Veggie night.

New kitchen tool

2006-09-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

We got a new kitchen toy! This grill is so cool because we can grill things with lid closed like Panini or make it flat and make pancake on the smooth surface and grill peaches or toast bread on the un-smooth :) part. And look!! It can be fold very neatly to store. We also tried it on our balcony to do outside cooking. So far, we grilled steak, pork ribs, vegetables, chicken and make some breakfast but every time we used this grill, we got so excited and forgot to take pictures so only pic we have is below, chicken and peppers. Yummy...

Camping on labor day weekend 2

2006-09-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at camping is something makes me feel special...clean cool air, warmth of the fire, smell of coffee...everything is so fresh. Plus Steven made a incredibly yummy omelet, pancakes, and bacon. Tasty!!

We went to UCSC to see Shakespeare in Santa Cruz. Since we went there hours earlier, we enjoyed biking in the campus. Friendly deers came and spent some time with us.

The play we saw was "As you like it". We were not allowed to take pictures while the play but you can see them here. The stage were set up in the redwood and the play was great. It was a funny and romantic story which is everybody gets happy at the end. Love happy ending story.

Camping on labor day weekend 1

2006-09-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

We went camping in Santa Cruz 50 minutes to drive away. We took our NEW bikes, too.

First we put a tent up. Looks like only Steven working on it but nooooooo, I helped him, too:):)

Then we went to beach riding. Ohhhh, it was so beautiful. Santa cruz sometimes too windy, too cold, or too foggy but today was perfect for biking. The rock with a hole is called "Natural Bridge". We enjoyed walking on the beach and feeling wind on the bikes.

After the bike exercise, we got hungry and BBQed our dinner. Wine+rosemary marinated lamb, soy sauce+green onion marinated chicken skewers, corn+ancho chili butter, salmon+onion+shiitake mushroom were the menu. Mmmmmmm, I LOVED cooking at camping.

Good night!!

I love my life...

2006-08-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

I had been very busy at work today and came home late. The-sweetest-husband-in-the-universe of mine was waiting for me with dinner at home !!! He cooked Perch with Chinese sweet soy sauce and steamed prawns. The Chineses sweet soy sauce was cooked down with ginger and it's got deep flavor. The prawns were so tender steamed with blanched garlic and peanut oil. It was such a treat!!! I came home very tired and these fabulous dishes and his smile were waiting for me. How lucky I am!!!

Appetizers for dinner

2006-08-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

We had two appetizers for dinner tonight. One is tomato + Shrimp salsa with sliced baguette and the other one is crab stuffed Shiitake mushroom.

Biking

2006-08-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

We went to a park to try our NEW bikes. My bike is very comfortable to ride. It has shock observer and 8 x 3 gears...well, I just loved the orange + gray combination color and I thought THIS IS MY BIKE!! when I entered the bike shop. Steven's is a high performance bike with cool gears.

We brought lunch and had a picnic at the park in the sun. It was such a nice biking/picnic day !! But we will see how we feel tomorrow ... our legs are very tired now...

Obon Festival

2006-07-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Dressed up for Obon Festival at the Japanese temple in Mountain View. We got these Yukata last year but didn't have chance to wear till today. It was first time for me to dress Yukata for somebody but look! Steven looks sooo good in his new Yukata :):) He looked good in his hakama in the wedding last year. One of my aunts said, "Steven looks much better than my son in his hakama!!!" Well, considering the fact that Steven eats Natto but my cousin doesn't, Steven is more Japanese. :)

Harvest time

2006-07-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

The tomato plant I planted in April has a lot of tomatoes now. They are cute and sweet. Other herbs? Ah.....only rosemary is survived....I thought I took good care of them. Our cat sitter was watering while we were gone....Am I watering too much? Hmmmmm, I don't know. But we got these tomatoes!

Our last day in Singapore

2006-07-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

I need to leave Singapore this evening....without Steven :(:( I will be starting my new job from Monday so need to go....Since the breakfast at Tiffin's room, we decided to go there again. Beautiful Raffle's Hotel.
With a door man at Raffle's.
Look how exotic and colorful they are!!

This is the famous Writer's Bar.
Steven is studying history.

I had a GREAT time in Singapore with Steven but now I need to leave by myself. I will feel like I am an incomplete person without him till he comes home...but only one week!!

Singapore Day 5

2006-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Since Steven worked 10 to 15 hours a day last few days, he got some break to go places with me!! First, we waled to Arab Street to see exotic stuff.

Oh, honey, did I show you my new tattoo? I got this henna tattoo in Little India so I can be a wild girl for 2 weeks:)

We also went to the river area. Singapore is a very urban city. Look at this modern buildings and tropical flowers are so pretty.
Guess who we bumped into? Our old friend, Ronald!! He is always unnecessarily cheerful even in humid sticky hot Singapore.
You know, the famous Merlion was much smaller than we thought. You can put it on your hand!!!

Kidding!!!

Had dinner here close to our hotel.
This is how to end my last night in Singapore.

Singapore Day 4 - part 2

2006-07-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

Previous posts can be found here.

First, we ordered looking at this big menu and seafood underneath it.
We had black pepper crab,
clams, and some Chinese green.
How was the black pepper crab?
As you can tell from this picture, we just ate, ate, and ate because it was soooo good.

Singapore Day 4

2006-07-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today's excursion was going to Little India.

This is SriKrishnan Temple which 130 years old. It was very colorful. And all of this area is so colorful...flowers, sweets, incense....

Went to Albert st to have lunch for Chinese food. I had two lunch :) It was hard to choose one....one is porridge with century egg and the other one is noodle with shrimp and some green with soy sauce based gravy. Wonder how they make good gravy like this!!!???

After Steven finished his work for the day, we went to China town for dinner. click here to continue. (I cannot to post pictures any more so I made new one.) And the most recent post can be found here.

Singapore Day 3

2006-07-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

Since Steven needs to work, I need to have fun by myself :) I walked to Alab street which has a lot of fabric shops. I bought some batik fabric since I became a big fan of Indonesia in Bintan :) Should I make a dress, bag, or hat? Just looking at the pretty fabric makes me happy.

Saltan Temple on Alab Street and my lunch, Soya sauce chicken and shrimp dumpling on noodle. Yum!

Singapore/Indonesia Day 2

2006-07-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

The hotel we stayed in Bintan was a very pretty resort type hotel. It is on the beach and you can enjoy water sports such as snorkeling, diving, jet ski, etc...

But we were just relaxing like having a long breakfast...

walking on the beach...
swimming in the sky blue water...
This short trip to the tropical island was very good idea and especially to Steven because he had too much work in NY last 3 weeks. Happy Birthday, Steven!!

Singapore!!!

2006-07-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

I left San Francisco at 1pm on July 1st and 21 hours later (OHHH, it was the longest trip I ever had) , I arrived at Singapore at 1am on July 3rd. At the airport, I met Steven who has flew from NY. I was so happy to see him because I hadn't see him for 3 weeks!! We went to our Raffles the Plaza Hotel which is sister's hotel of The Raffles Hotel. So exciting because I wanted to see Raffles hotel for long time!! It was 2:30AM when we went to bed. Zzzzzz.....woke up around 9am and off to the Raffles Hotel across from our hotel for breakfast.
It is a beautiful building which has nice decorated restaurants, the food at Tiffn's Room was very tasty. Especially their egg dish was tremendous!! Of course the service was amazing...felt like we are king and queen :)
What do you think Steven is doing in the picture? Work? Nooooooo, he is making a reservation at a hotel in a Indonesian resort, Bintan Island. Tomorrow is his birthday and we decided to celebrate our birthdays together on a tropical island!! After 45 minutes ferry ride......

We are having tropical drink at the bar on the white sand beach!!!

See you soon!!!

2006-06-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

The last day at my work where I worked for 8 years. I made a water melon fruit basket and Panna cotta (forgot to take pics..). Everybody loved them and it went fast :) I also curved the company name on the handle.

They took me to Maggiano't Little Italy for my farewell lunch. I am making a "thank you" speech. It was nice small and homey company and gave me a chance to work in US and work on various types of task. I feel like they are my family so I said "see you soon" as opposed to say "Good by".

I am off to one week vacation to see Steven from tomorrow. I am going to.....
---to be continued----- :):)

It was a Happy Birthday!!

2006-06-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

The first thing I did on my birthday morning was being in line at DMV. I didn't notice my driver's license would expire TODAY till last night so I woke up at 6:30am and went to DMV. It took shorter than I expected it would be though so it was OK.
At work, I had a surprise with a beautiful cake by my coworkers and the girls there took me to lunch to California Pizza Kitchen . I hadn't been here because I thought it was another pizza place from the name. WROOONG!! They have great salad, pasta and other stuff, too. I am sure I will be back to this place with Steven soon. I also got e-cards from my mom and Ryoko.
Look at this beatiful basket full of goodies from my parents in law. They are so sweet to remember my birthday and send this great gift!! When I told this to my coworkers, they envy me...Yes, I have GREAT parents in law!!!
My mom got me a very pretty Japanese table runner. Both she and I love flowers so we tend to pick flower pattern on everything...Love the kimono-like pattern and the green color matches our dinning room.

Great sake from Ryoko. Need to cook some Japanese food to go with this :)

After I came back to work from lunch.....

I got a BEAUTIFUL PURPLE ROSES from Steven!!! He has been in NY and he ordred this for me from there. He is having hectic weeks with his HUGE project working 14 hours a day, sometimes sleeping only 4 hours but in these crazy weeks, he still remembered and sent me flowers! Ohhhh it made me almost cry and he called me one second before I saw the flowers. What a timming!!! I am the happiest woman in Universe!

Came back to US

2006-06-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Came back to US and this is what I got from the first Farmer's Market for a long time.
I know it is not much because....We are going to vacation again soon so we don't need much. Hee, hee, hee. :):)

Our tomatoes get red FINALLY!! Time to eat them!!
When we were in Palo Alto, our apartment didn't get that much sun but this new place rocks!! A lot of sun and our plants LOVE it.

Japan Trip Day7_the last day

2006-06-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

We have been staying at Ryokan (Japanese Inn), Shinki-ya which is 5 minutes drive from my mom's place last 3 days. It is a traditional Japanese style Inn and has 4 kinds of hot spring!! They serve Japanese style breakfast, too :)

Today is my father's memorial day. This is the one of the reasons we come back to Beppu this time of the year. I am sure he is very happy watching us being tremendously happy together!!

Genya is driving a police car and his partner, Steven using microphone. "You in the red car, pull over!! "

We had a lot of fun and wonderful food. Thank you, everybody for the great time. We will back at end of the year !!!!

Japan Trip Day7-another party :)

2006-06-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

We went to amusement park and zoo with Genya, my bro, and sis in law.

Genya looooves Steven. He picked 3 pieces of flowers from the garden and says, "One for mom, One for grand-ma and one for Steven." Hey, dude. Your aunty is the one who bought you the toy!!

And yes, we had another dinner party with my family. Uncle and Aunt joined tonight.

Steven and I are griling steak on Hibachi. Smokey flavor beef steak. Mmmmmmmm
tonight Akiko and Ryoko made dinner. Tomato spagetti salad. green pea+anochovi dish and mama ordered Hirame sashimi!!!

Japan Trip Day6

2006-06-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

We brought Paella pan from US and TONIGHT, Steven made Seafood Paella.
Mikako:"are you sure this is the right amount? can I see the receipe?"
Steven: "Positive! I checked the book here. You should believe your husband."
Mikako: "........."

First we cut up fresh seafood

Add special seasoning and cook....and...
Yeah!!!

"how are you doing?" "doing good. will be ready soon." everybody wants to see how it gets done. :)
I made salad, orange sauce chicken, and fig+walnut wrapped with Prosciutto.
Our cousin also joined this Paella dinner. Steven is pouring wine from Dean & Deluca for mama. Yuuuuum!
Wait a minute! Our nephew, Genya is only 3 years old. What is he drinking?

Japan Trip Day5

2006-06-08T00:28:00.000-07:00

Rainy day. Tsuyu (Rainy season) may have been started. We went to my father's cemetary and cleaned the gravestone. My father must be very happy to see his daughter and son in law are happy together and visiting him.
We also visited my grand ma and took her Imase 、a Unagi (eel )restaurant for lunch. This place has been business in 50 years and the best place to have BBQ eel, Unagi. Steven helped my grand ma to walk and she kept telling my mom on the phone she was so happy. I feel so lucky to have a sweet and kind husband like him :):)

Japan Trip Day4

2006-06-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Walked to the beach with Mom, Ryoko, Akiko and Steven and got some sea snails for snack :) I used to come here often and took snails when I was a small girl. Once you start collecting the sanils, it is hard to stop because it is FUUUUN !!
For dinner, Mom took all of us to Echelle du Ange where we had a wedding reception last June. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary, both of my sister's new jobs and mom's coming birthday. We were in the private room so it was nice and quiet and had a wonderful view from the table. And can you believe that all the dishes below are for one person?? What a wonderful course dinner we had!!!

We were overwhelming because this place reminded us the GREAT reception we had last year and the food was phenomenal!!

Japan Trip Day3

2006-06-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

We are now at mom's place in Beppu !!!
Mom cooked Steven's favourites, Fish kama, Sushi, pickled cucumber and so on. They were sooooooo good and pretty. Arigato, mama!!

Japan Trip Day2

2006-06-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

We had lunch with my sister Ryoko at the Tosho men restaurant close to her work. This place's speciality is Dao Xiao Mian (Knife shaved noodle) It was very good. We are at the entrance of the restaurant in the picture.

Japan Trip Day1

2006-06-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

I have been in Japan since last week for my biz trip. And today, Steven arrived in Japan and we will be going to my hometown, Beppu after two days in Tokyo. Tonite, we went to a Japanese restaurant Tsuki no Shizuku which we had a first date 2 years ago. This place makes fresh tofu every 2 hours and we had it and other great dishes with talking about 2 years ago. Only two years and 3 months... I feel like I know him forever. Steven always says it is because we keep meeting each other in our every life and we still have some momries from the previous lives... :) I am completely convinced with this. Otherwise, no other theories can explain how I feel.

Pana cotta and strawberry

2006-05-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

Made Pana cotta. Yuuuuuum!! with some strawberries we got from the farmer's market.

Our second married year

2006-05-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today, we started our second married year. We had our wedding cake which had been frozen for a year. It was still delicious. White chocolate covered chocolate mousse cake.

It was like this on our wedding day one year ago.

We also lit the candle we lit at the wedding. At our wedding ceremony last year, our mothers lit our candles and we lit this big candle with our candles. It was like our mother gave us lives and the lives become one life together. I remember this touched my heart so deeply on that day. Now we have two mothers and we had great relationships with them...I cannot tell how lucky we are to have great mothers like them!!

Our first wedding anniversary

2006-05-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

It was May 22, 2005 that we had a great wedding ceremony and reception at Mountain Winery. We still talk about this beautiful day a lot. It was such a blessed day. We went to a French restaurant, Le Papillon.to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

The menu was

Wine : BORDEAUX, Saint Estephe Cos D'Estournel
Layered vegetable with julet
Truffled Hamachi Tartar with Avocado, Lemon and Pea Shoot Emulsion
Shrimp, pasta and white truffle
Pan Seared beef Topped with Foie Gras in a Pinot Noir and Black CurrantGlaze
Braised Short Ribs of Kobe Beef with Golden Chanterelle Puree
Petite Basque with a Chestnut Souffl・and Sour Cherry Compote
Chocolate 5

They were sooooo gooooood. My favorite were tuna and kobe beef.
We had

Monja Party

2006-05-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

We had invited over our friends and had a Monja party.
The Monja chef is in the proper atire and ready to cook!
Serving food...

Mentaiko (fish roe) Monja on a Paella pan, Tofu, chicken, wakame (sea weed) salad
We also had Buta no Kakuni (stewed pork belly meat )
Tuna sushi
Panna Cotta with fresh fruit for desert

And the guests

We had a great time and a lot of fun with baby, Calista.

New Kitchen Wares

2006-05-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

New Kitchen wares always excite and inspires me on what to cook. I have been hearing a lot of people talking about these French pans, LE CREUSET on how great they are and how efficient they are but I was doubtful and thought "They are just pans. How could pans make so much differences on the food. The important thing is how to cook and not what to cook with. And they are HEAVY!!! " So I hadn't even thought to buy it for more than 15 years. HOWEVER, since we got a gift card of a kitchen store, we decided to try how good it is. Well..." I " did because I bought it while Steven is in NY for his biz trip. (See what happens when you leave me alone, honey! Shopping therapy :)

Oh, one more thing, honey. We got a new sauce pan, too!!

Chicken week

2006-04-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Another chicken dish. We brined a whole chicken with this recipe and roasted with the recipe from the queen of California Cuisine, Alice Water's restaurant, Chez Panisse.

The chicken was in the water (with Coarse salt, sugar, Juniper berry, All spice, garlic, Thyme) for 24 hours in the fridge.
I know this photo is not appetizing...more like a dead body in the water....

Is it ready? Check the thermometer....Yeah, It is done!

Cutting the string and free the bird...Ohhhh, Oishiso...(looks delicious)Because of the brining, the meat was very moist and juicy.

Chicken Mole

2006-04-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

We cooked GREAT chicken mole with this mole recipe.

After we made the mole sauce, browned the chicken with some oil in the frying pan for 15 minutes and transfered them in the deep oven proof dish. Covered them with the mple sauce(we used half of the recipe). Bake it in the oven with 400F for 20 minutes.

OH, it was sooooo good. We had it on corn tortilla and it tasted better on the sescond day. We used the half of the ancho chile sauce and froze the rest. Want to try with pork next time!

Easter Brunch

2006-04-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

We went to our friend's house in San Francisco for Easter brunch.

Alison decroated the table very Easter. We ended up eating all the chocolates on the table...
Cooking in progress....

Today's menu is....
1. Mikako's fruit basket. Notice the curving work on the basket :)
2.Barbara cooked sensational chocolate chips pancake.
3.Alison's tremendous colorado egg dish.
Let's dig in!!!

This is what I had....for the first round.... :):)

Possessed by BBQ Ribs

2006-04-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Steven and I went to Firehouse Grill & Brewery which is very close to our place to eat Ribs. We don't know why but we REALLY wanted to eat some ribs. We made sure they have it on their menu on the front door and took nice seats by the window. A waitress smiled and brought us a menu. "ribs, ribs, ribs...." I was repeating it in my head but looked at the menu anyway.............."what?.........where is the ribs?" We both went back to the top of the menu and looked at the menu one by one....but no, there are no ribs!!! Next thing we noticed was the title of the menu, "Bar menu". Yes, we were there at 2pm on Saturday. They serve only Bar menu at the time. Ohhhhhhh :( Steven had ordered a beer which he usualy doesn't drink but he did only because he likes the combination of beer and BBQ Ribs!! We were so diappointed and ordered some onion rings and pizza instead. Even after we left the restaurant, couldn't get the image of ribs out of our minds and.....

We went to a super market and cooked ribs at home for dinner! Mmmmmmmmm. It was soooo delicious!! Now we don't have to go to restaurants for ribs anymore. :)

Our cats, your cats

2006-04-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

When Steven is away from home for his biz trip, our 2 cats and I fight a lot. I know it is weird that me, human fight with cats. But all of us miss him immensely and we just do or say bad things each other to forget the loneliness. They do some bad things like pooping on the sofa and constantly scratching the sofa, which they don't do when Steven is around. I yelled at them in both English and Japanese like " I am not a cat person, If you keep doing this, I am going to sell you guys to Shamisen store!!!!" When I talk to him, I say "YOUR CATS scratched our furniture and made a mess on the floor! " for their bad behavior. Or "OUR CATS are doing fine. They are sleeping by my side now." So Steven will know if the cats are doing fine or not by the subjects "Our cat" or "Your cat".

Lucy is on my CD player saying "What? If you don't like this, come and get me!!"

Kinoko Spaghetti

2006-04-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

Enoki, Shitake, Button mushrooms, garlic, butter, garlic, sake, green onion and soy sauce. The secret is putting two ladels of pasta water (the water spaghetti is cooking in) When soy sauce and butter meet, it makes very rich and deep nice taste.

My herb garden

2006-04-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

Since our new deck gets more sun, I am trying growing some herbs again. I am not good at growing plants....either too much care or forget watering.....But this time our deck is very visible from the living room so I won't forget taking care of them. Basil, Dill, Parsely, cherry tomatoes, algora, rosemary and Chilantro...I may have planted too close each other. Did I read the little tags came with the plants? ....k,k,kind of....oh, well, when they get crowded, I will transfer some of them to a new pot.

Pottery Class

2006-03-28T22:50:00.000-08:00

After three sessions of playing and knealing clay, I got three plates and two vases. On the triangle omusubi (rice balls) shaped one, you can see through the three feet undearneath because of the Xray effect on my camera...kidding. I think I squeezed the feet against the plate too hard when I attached them.

I drew sakura flowers on the vase on the right but cannot really tell what flowers they are because glazing was too thick and filled the thin lines but I liked the colors. Next week, my bowls will be ready to come home from the studio :)

Steven's cooking class

2006-03-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Steven's Cooking Class! Today we are making Polish Potato dish. First, slice potatoes, onion, Kiebasa (polish sausage) and shred cabbage. Layer them in the pan and make white sauce and yada yada yada....Here is hearty warm potato and sausage dish! Mmmmmm, yuuuuummyyyyyy! It goes well with the salad Mikako made :) Thank you, my dear!

Sakura -- the time we met

2006-03-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

Steven and I love sakura and when we first met, sakura was fully bloomed in Tokyo and the petals were falling on us when we did a river ride on Sumida River. It was very romantic and the sakura made us feel closer to each other so since then sakura became not only our favorite flower but very special to us :) One of these days, we will take a month off and chasing sakura from south of Japan to North. Usually sakura start to bloom in the middle of March in Okinawa and in the middle of April in Hokkaido.) Since we cannot go to Japan to see sakura this year, we went to Hakone Garden but it was too early because of cold rainy weather we have this month. However we found a sign of Spring such as cute pink sakura buds on the tree and buds of Wisteria.

And this is our spring brunch before Steven went to his biz trip to Shanghai. Notice the sakura shaped chopstick rest, sakura gohan (rice) and sakura shaped ninjin (carrot)

--MENU--
(from top left)
strawberry
Nasu dengaku (grilled eggplant with miso paste)
Kyuri to kani no sunomono (Cucumber and crab meat vinaigrette salad)
Asparagus no gomayogoshi (Asparagus with sesame sauce)
Tai no misozuke yaki (Broiled Miso marinated red snapper)
Shitake, ninjin to kabocha no nimono (stewed Shitake mushroom, kabocha pumpkin and carrot)
Sakura gohan (Rice with dried sakura)
Okura no misoshiru (Miso soup with Okura)

Happy St.Patrick's Day!!

2006-03-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

Green cookies for St.Patric's Day. This green is not from food color and it is Matcha color!!! Matcha is tea powder for tea ceremony in Japan which has bitter and strong taste. They usually use half a table spoon of Matcha for 80 ml hot water to make Matcha. Since Starbucks promotes Macha drinks a lot, Matcha is well known drink now. Anyway, I baked a lot of these cookies and take some to office. We ALL are going to have a sleepless night tonight but it is OK because tomorrow is a holiday for me!!!

Girl's nights

2006-03-04T00:21:00.000-08:00

The cats and I are waiting for Steven to come home from NY where he is in for his business trip. We miss him so much....Since he was gone, we, girls have been watching chick flicks.

Tonight, we are going to watch Elizabeth Town .
Where is popcorn?

Now living room...

2006-03-03T23:14:00.000-08:00

We got a new couch set today. It made our living room almost ready. We still need to hang Noren (Japanese tapestry) on the wall and add some lamps. Our home is some how mix of western+Asian and both of the taste mingle together well and it bring up warm nice feelings...Like Steven and me :)

Our dining area and a secret new restaurant

2006-02-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Our new place in Sunnyvale is coming along and our dining area is ready!! It is decorated very neat with the wine/wine glass racks which are wedding gifts from our friends. Steven's Paris map looks very nice there because its frame color marches the candle holders which are also given as wedding gifts :)

The first dinner in the new dinning area was chicken roast in the clay pot. I cooked it with shiitake mushroom, renkon (lotus root), onion, garlic, and zucchini and it was FANTASTIC. The chicken was very juicy and aromatic and the lotus root was the surprisingly tasty. I want to try root vegetable dish in this clay pot next time.

"Yes, we would like an outside table, please. " Shhhh! This is a secret restaurant. The truth is.....leftover of this big dish were served as a lunch in the patio next day. :)

Our house is mess!!

2006-02-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

We are in the midst of moving and a lot of boxes are all over in the house. We got these boxes and wrapping paper for free thanks to Craig's list and internet. Hope we can finish the moving this weekend. No food pictures this week because I packed kitchen stuff already and cannot cook :(

But we are going to see a soccer game (Japan National team VS US) tomorrow !!! I already checked out the Japanese players yesterday in the middle of work hour. Hee, hee, hee....Heard the US team is strong despite of the unpopularity of soccer here in US. Hmmmm, I want Japanese team to win....I will have Steven forget his nationality for a day and force him to cheer Japanese team.

My favorite player (GK), Kawaguchi kun.

Mamemaki

2006-02-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

One of the seasonal events in Japan on Feb 3rd, Mamemaki. Wish shutting out the bad sprits from the house and bringing the good sprits in by throwing soybeans. We call out "Oni wa soto.(Demon, go out!)" when we throw some outside of the house and call out "Fuku wa uchi (Happiness, come in!) when throw some inside. After the throwing, you eat soybeans the same numbers as your age. We usually leave the beans thrown on the floor for a while but Steven picked them one by one right after. I am so lucky to have such a clean husband :):)

New Place

2006-01-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

We are moving to a new place next month because we found a nicer, bigger, newer and cheaper place. Only one concern was train noise because we have train track running next to the building. So before we move in, we brought sleeping bags to spend a night there. We heard some train noise but it was not too bad and we kind of like the sound of train. :) Now we have 100% happy to move in this new place. We also brought books and scrable game and had a fun like camp night. Downtown is only 1 to 2 mitnues away by foot. And they even have a farmer's market every Saturday morning!!

No-cook pasta

2006-01-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

Steven has told me he used to cook pasta from the cook book called "No-cook Pasta". No-cook? Do I need to nibble uncooked past? That would be too crispy, honey...But it was not that. All the recipes in this book is cooked on the metallic bowl placed ON the pasta pot during past is boiling. You use the steam/heat from the hot water to cook the sauce for the past and less cleaning pans!! And most of the recipe sounds light, healthy and tasty...there ARE some heavy cream sauce dishes but no greasy pasta. He found the book and cooked shell pasta with tuna, lemon, capers and ltalian parsley sauce. Yum!

Spring

2006-01-07T17:26:00.000-08:00

My husband, Steven asked me "So, is your blog all about food?" Ok, ok..here is a non-food entry.

We found some tiny flowers on the peach branch I arranged for New Year. It is VERY cute and elegant...The brunch was just a simple stick with buds when I bought it but now it changed its looks completely. New life! New Season! New Year! Here California doesn't get so cold comparing to East Coast or Japan but we still long for Spring to come. Because we can get peaches and tomatoes....Ooops, I wrote about food again.

After Osechi

2006-01-03T17:07:00.000-08:00

Since we had Osechi for 1 and a half day, Steven cooked meat. We don't eat meat everyday but did eat meat two days in a row.

Day 1 : Grilled rack of lamb with mustard sauce and garlic flavored mashed potato

Day 2: Fillet mignon steak with sauteed onions, steamed broccoli with sun dried tomatoes, and mahshed potato.

Both of them are very tasty and hearty dishes. Thank you, my love :)

Happy New Year !

2006-01-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year !! Osechi is finally ready and we had a nice quiet New Year's Eve and New Year just two of us :) (Yes, the party got canceled and it was rainy and windy very hard.) Each of the ingredients used in Osehi and Ozoni (New Year Soup) has some meaning. For example, bamboo shoot is symbolic of growing fast or lotus has some holes so you can see through what you are doing, etc....People eat all those food thinking what they mean....OR they just eat because they are VERY tasty. All the food are cooked and arranged very carefully (or buy from stores carefully) wishing their family and friends happiness in the new year.

Osechi Prep 1

2005-12-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

I started shopping and preparation for Japanese New Year dishes, Osechi. It takes a long time since Osechi has a lot of varieties and some have long procedures. Today I made Salmon Kasuzuke (salmon marinated in sake lees.) It needs 3 to 4 days to put rich flavor into the fish so started today. This year we are invited to a New Year's party at our friend's house and we decided to take some Osechi there. I love planning and preparing Osechi dishes and I guess this came from my mom because she looks so alive when she prepares big dishes. Her shopping list and schedule list for Osechi are much longer than mine though. I am sure I will be calling/emailing her while I am making Osechi to get some instructions. Yes, she is always my Sensei (mentor) !

Christmas Dinner

2005-12-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

"People eat cookies more than cake for Christmas." My host mother told me and it was my contribution to the Christmas dinner. I made Apollo Chocolate cookies, Macha (dark green tea) cookies, and checker cookies. We had fantastic crab and salmon that she made and exchanged presents. We also played Movie trivial pursuit but Steven and I lost terribly...We need to watch more movies (or need to REMEMBER the names and stuff).

Christmas Eve

2005-12-24T22:07:00.000-08:00

We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve at home. We opened a Champagne and had some hors d'oeuvre. Terrine with black truffle which we got in France, smoked salmon, crab meat+tomato, scallop+some green...We have a lot of presents under the tree and I cannot wait to open them.

New Year's Card

2005-12-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

In Japan, we exchange New Year's cards just like people do with Christmas cards here. One of the differences between them is that Japanese post office holds all the New Year's cards and delivers them all at once on New Year's day. (Yes, Japanese post workers work on New Year's day!!) People get a lot of (well, if you are popular, you get a lot.) cards and enjoy reading them on New Year's day. We made our New Year's card and sent this to our Japanese friends. Hope it gets there by January 1st.

Christmas Party 1

2005-12-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

We were invited to Leah's Christmas party. She loves animals and has 2 cats and 2 dogs and they were all dressed up for Christmas! I thoght it was cute but her husband didn't like the idea of dressing up their pets so tried to take them off when she was not watching....funny. We brought a fruit tart (made by me) and Boston baked beans (made by Steven). We had a good time and it was 2:30 in the morning when we got home.

Steven's cooking Days

2005-12-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Steven also loves cooking and he cooked fabulous dishes 2 days in a row this week.
Sunday:Pecan crusted tilapia. Mmmm, ground pecan around the fish is crispy and tasty. I love nuts!!
Monday:Caramelized shallot and roasted chicken with herbs. Gosh! The echalote is sweet and flavorful. Good combination with the chicken. I am so lucky that he is a GREAT cook!!

Tricolor Pasta

2005-12-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

I found a interesting pasta the other day. They are tricolor and its shape looks like toy blocks. When it is cooked, the color faded away a little bit but it still left color accent in the dish. We had it with Steven's famous tomato sauce. Yum!

Santa Clause will be coming in town soon !!

2005-12-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

2 weeks to Christmas. We got a tree and decorated it today. I am buying a few ornaments every year and one of the rookies this year is a snow baby we got in an antique store in Philadeliphia. She is doing fine with other old guys such as nutcracker soldiers. :) Now we need to keep our eye on our cats not to climb up the tree.

Philadelphia Trip

2005-12-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

We went to Philadelphia to see Steven's family. It was only a 4 day trip but we packed a lot of winter cloths which we don't have chance to use here in the Bay Area. We went to Steven's old neighborhood to see the park he broke his leg at, schools he went, and houses where the girls Steven had a crush on lived in :) The stories I heard from him about his childfood were all hilarious. We enjoyed a HUGE Hoagie Steven's Dad got us. We also met Steven's brother's family and had a great time. When I woke up in a morning, I saw the backyard covered with SNOW! Yeah! Merry White Christmas !!

Backyard is all white!!

The wreath goes very well with their red door.

Philadelphia has old cute houses like the ones in fairly tales.

Another fish day

2005-11-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

We like grilled fish with salt (Shio yaki) because it gives you a original taste of the fish. Today we had buri kama (Yellow tail jaw) which had big bones but the meat around it is very tasty because they were moving along the bone when the fish was alive (that's what my mom told me.). Had it with grilled Shiitake mushroom and yellow peppers.

Thanksgiving

2005-11-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

We went to my host family's for Thanksgiving dinner. We brought a Marbled pumpkin cheesecake
and Cauliflower, shrimp, red pepper and tomato sunomono (vinegar marinated). I took out the side of the spring form pan when the cake was still warm and soft and the cake collapsed!!! I baked some leafe shaped cookies and put them around the cake. See!!! You cannot tell it was collapsed, can you? :) We had a great time with the Gillespies.

Weekend lunch/dinner

2005-11-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

We like cooking and these are the recent dishes we enjoyed.

Smoked salmon, sun dried tomato cream sauce + fettucine.
I added some smoked gouda cheese with carameraized onion.

Nibuta to hanjuku tamago(stewed pork and boiled egg), tomato and purple onion salda, Nozawana no Omisoshiru (Miso soup with Nozawa nappa)

Kuriokowa omusubi(redbeans and chestnut sweet rice), Teriyaki chicken and Shibazuke(pickled cucumber)

Saba no shioyaki (grilled mackle with salt) , sansai okowa (sweetrice mushroom) and ebi to kinoko no sunomono (vinegrated shrimp and mushroom)

Mushroom crusted halibut by Steven. Ground dry mushroom gave great aroma to this dish. Mmmmmm...Side dish is green beans and tomato with sesame & ginger oil dressing.

Pasta with shrimp, sundried tomato, olive tapenade and pine nut. The olive tapenade was the one we got in France. The saltness from the anchovy in the tapenade made this interesting dish.

Halibut chowder made by Steven. Fish, potato, onion, carrot and milk made good combination . Yuuuuum!!

Honeymoon:Day 7-Nice, Eze, Monaco and Nice

2005-10-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

I was trying to blend with a Japanese tour group. I am the one on the left. (No, not the guy!!)
日本人ツアーに紛れ込もうとしている私。一番左のが私です。（いや、その男性ではありませんよ。）

Honeymoon:Day 3-Paris

2005-10-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Woke up late and had danish and coffee at the Bakery Kendall recommends. Tasty!! Even a cup of coffee at a small bakery is so different. Walked to Orsay Museum. Today was museum free day. We needed to wait in line for 30minutes. I was pretty happy to be able to see Monet's Nymph. If we had time, we could have gone to Marmottan Museum to see his bigger work but we saved it for the next time.

Paris has a lot of nice old buildings and I pretended to going to one of the doors. "welcome to my place in Paris"

Honeymoon:Day 2-Paris

2005-10-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

On the way to the next stop, Sacré-Cœur

Honeymoon:Day 1-Paris

2005-09-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Paris. Paris!!! Finally we are here. I already found some gorgeous looking sweets WITHIN the airport. Hmmm! Need to watch out for those. I cannot wait to go to cafe.

We took trains to Kendall's place which is 2 blocks from the Eiffel tower!! She was picking up her daughter, Nolween at her school so we were happily waiting at a cafe having our first French meal, fish soup and Grand cream (Cafe au lait) . Yummy!! It came with crouton, cheese and aioli sauce. We were not sure what to do with this aioli sauce so I put some in the soup....Uhhhh...I shouldn't have. The soup was creamy and almost like bisque. I could taste all the good shellfish, fish flavor. Mmmm, fruit de Mer!!!

Kendall and Nolween came home. They are a sweet family and I was hoping to go out together but Kendall needed to go back to US tomorrow so we were alone at her place. After we played with Nolwhen for a while, Steven and I went out for first excursion in Paris!!

The Arch de Triumph. We climbed up to the top from inside. There is a small Napoleon museum on the top and the views from there are awsome.

Champs-Elysees looking down from the arch. My dad wanted to walk with me here but I cannot do it anymore so here I am, with my love of my life. Rain got harder and we were soaked but Paris was still beautiful.... smoked salmon crepe for dinner at a restaurant off Champs-Elysees St. and walked back to Kendall's place. The Eiffel tower was very pretty with lights.

Leaving for Honeymoon to France

2005-09-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

Steven and I were longing to go to France together and finally our honeymoon has started! We took off from SFO to Chicago where we transferred to Paris. We were talking about Chicago hotdogs so much but didn't have time to get any at Chicago Airport. :( Tried to sleep on the plane hoping my new orange suitcase is coming with us safely.