oosansho-uo

Oosansho-uo ((oh-oh-san-show-ooh-oh) literally giant pepper fish) is what the Japanese call salamanders.

Did you know they are tennenkinenbutsu (natural monuments) and are protected?! I didn't even know we had salamanders around here.

During Golden Week, we walked up to Minoo Falls and saw a very large one (hope you can see it in the photo).

Apparently they live in the rivers there.

We also saw some monkeys.

Do you have giant salamanders where you live?

maruchan seimen

Been seeing commercials for this recently...Maruchan Seimen. I think when cooked it is supposed to resemble the "freshness" of eating at a ramen shop.

Boil 500 mililiters of water and stick the noodles in for 3 minutes.

Using a pair of chopsticks, separate the noodles while it is boiling in the water.

Add the liquid soup packet into your bowl and then pour the water from your pot into the bowl along with the noodles.

Add your own toppings.

I made a han-juku-tamago (half-cooked egg) as one of our toppings.

I put an egg straight from the refridge into a pot of cold water and brought it to a boil.

When the water came to a boil, I turned off the heat and left it for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, I put it into a cold water bath and then peeled it.

Voila! an egg that isn't hard boiled yet not super runny.

I also topped our ramen with some lup cheong and green onions.

I prefer my noodles on the harder and thinner side, but this was perfect for the rainy day we had last Saturday.

p.s. This past week, Okinawa started their rainy season, apparently 5 days late from last year's stats, so we're headed for our rainy season soon. The weather is still kinda weird, we had a couple of days where it hit 30C (86F), it's only May...and then the temps dropped rapidly 10 degrees...I think summer in Japan is gonna be blazing!

mokkobara

About this time of year, I often see this climbing rose called Mokkobara (Banksian Rose).

Many homes have it climbing on their fences, some have it arching over their front gateways.

This one house, had it climbing all over the walls of their house.

The rose has a slight fragrance.

I've seen yellow and white but like the light yellow color, so cheery.

"pain to ippiki"

I first heard about this book from Dennis' post.

"Pain (the french word for bread) to Ippiki (the Japanese word for "one animal")" is a lovely book filled with photos and some narration about each photo.

At first I thought the cover was an illustration, but it is an actual photo.

Most of the photos are of the author, Kuwabara Natsuko's breakfasts and her dog, Kipple.

There are also some recipes at the back of the book for some of the foods that appear in this book.

I recently tried the one for french toast. Instead of using baguette, I used two slices of sesame bread.

Another recipe I tried was the one for black sesame pancakes.

Black Sesame Pancakes adapted from "Pain to Ippiki" : makes 9 small pancakes
100 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
10 grams ground black sesame
60 mililiters plain yogurt
50 mililiters milk
20 grams sugar

Mix everything together.
On medium-low heat, pour a serving spoon size of batter into a non-stick pan.
Cook about 1 minute 30 seconds on each side.
Serve with butter and maple syrup.

NOTES: The original recipe called for black sesame paste, but I used ground sesame instead. It also called for cream but I used plain yogurt instead. The recipe also called for salt and some oil but I left those ingredients out.

I also made my pancakes smaller so I came out with 9 whereas the original recipe only makes 5. I really liked this sesame version.

I hope to try more of the recipes.

Thanks again Dennis for telling me about this book.

ooh ooh

Recently I've seen this cormorant in our river.

In Japanese it is called an u (pronounced "ooh").

If you're interested, check out my video here.

The first second or so you will see a huge white koi (carp). Then the cormorant will look like a black duck only it will stay underwater for quite some time.

It isn't the best quality, I shot it with my iPhone and there was no way to zoom-in (well if there is I don't know how to).

Enjoy!

made in japan

Saw these drying blocks called "soil" at a zakka (knick-knack) shop and my friend, Kazumi gave some to me recently. (Thank you!)

Just break off a square like a chocolate bar and put it into a bottle of sugar, salt, whatever you want to keep dry.

They have various sizes to fit different containers.

Oh and I like that these are made in Japan too.

happy mother's day

I am grateful to have many "moms" in my life.

Wishing all of them a "Happy Mother's Day!"