Rice cake (Mochi) making and steam rice

I have made Rice Cake (Japanese Mochi) for new year today. I have some helpers today so tried with Stone Mortar since I planned to do with Rice Cake Machine. For the last one, I added dried shrimp. The picture is the scene that pounding just steamed rice gently with the pestle so the rice becomes sticky. Along the way I cooked rice (normal Japanese rice, not a sticky rice for rice cake) with Japanese kettle. Heat it with middle to strong heat until it boils, then reduce the heat for about 10 minutes without frame. Then leave it for 5 minutes before serving. If I put the rice in the wooden rice tub to eliminate extra moisture, I would obtain the best result but it was not available so I considered to use wooden Sushi tub but not used. Instead, I did use a normal plastic tapper. But the result exceeded than expectation. Each grain of steamed rice were individually stand without collapsing. The finish was almost perfect with very sweet taste.

Christmas illumination

I have decollated typical Japanese garden with American illumination. Recently illumination is getting popular in my neighbor but those are LED type and it seems to be very hard and lurid. Though power consumption is high, ordinal lamp illumination is very beautiful.

My memorial day

On my memorial day, I bought a round cake at cake shop that has been in my neighbor long years and took it to my home. I selected the biggest from the display case because my daughter’s friend was our guest on the day. It was very good. By the way, do you understand what kind of my memorial day by referring to the picture?

American Mexican foods

El Trito is a restaurant chain, mainly in California, and there are locations in Texas and Oregon. There is a location in Torrance city where the service team in USA had farewell party for me when I was leaving from USA. Coco’s serves El Trito in Japan. Popular big size Burrito in USA was modified in Texas state, so it is called TexMex food. If a Mexican food were modified in USA, it would be called Amex, if in California, would be CaMex? :-p
I have visited El Trito in Nanba Osaka at last since I was told by my friend. It was noon time on Saturday but there’s no other guest. I wondered if it was opened. There was a chef who looked like Mexican.
There was variety of popular foods on the menu so we can enjoy from the appetizer to desert. We selected very standard foods, Tortilla soup, Tacos, pork and shrimp Fajita.
They were pretty good taste and I can recommend this restaurant without any concern. But I felt they were little bit mild taste than my expectation. For example, I did not feel any flavor of Cilantro (Coriander). And the volume of the dishes was surprisingly low. The fajita in the picture was for two persons but it was less than one person’s in USA.
When we were checking at casher, there was manager so I commented frankly. He told us his war story. He worked for training at a El Trito in Long Beach for one year, and he replicated everything when the first restaurant opened in Tokyo. Guest opinion was almost 50/50. It was spoken very highly for perfect reproduced them in Japan. But related ingredients are expensive in Japan so the price of foods was expensive, also the volume of foods was too much for Japanese people, finally settled down in the present taste and volume. Salsa can be taken out though it is not promoted.

Ekiben (box lunch sold at train stations)

I had a business trip to Tokyo after a long time. Usually it can be one day trip but I needed to stay Tokyo since Monday night because the meeting was planned to start 8am on Tuesday. For Monday dinner I bought an ekiben (box lunch sold at train stations). It was a Makunouchi style box lunch as pictured. This was good. The meeting was done around 1pm as scheduled so I returned to Osaka as soon as it was done. For Tuesday lunch I bought ekiben again. It was Fukagawa style box lunch. This was so so. Local ekiben box lunch is one of fun for trip by train.

Roasted chub mackerel

Roasted Chub Mackerel is special local food in Hokuriku area of Japan. I bought it at service area of Hokuriku freeway so it was little bit expensive, but the skewered whole roasted chub mackerel was very dynamic and delicious.

Jabara (a kind of sitrus)

There is one Michi-no-eki (station of the national road) in Habikino city. Osaka. We got Jabara, a kind of citrus. I used it with Shochu (Japanese distilled spirit) on the rocks. The flavor was very unique. The origin was Kitayama village in Wakayama prefecture, it was made from natural intercross with citruses around there. Frankly, I do not like it.

Jabara (a kind of sitrus)

There is one Michi-no-eki (station of the national road) in Habikino city. Osaka. We got Jabara, a kind of citrus. I used it with Shochu (Japanese distilled spirit) on the rocks. The flavor was very unique. The origin was Kitayama village in Wakayama prefecture, it was made from natural intercross with citruses around there. Frankly, I do not like it.

Gardener

In this year, neighbor gardener did not come and 3 other gardeners worked to prune trees in my garden. They scheduled to work for 2 days but needed to work half more days because they cut down 3 dead big trees. The result of pruning was not so good. After all, well-trained neighbor gardener’s job was outstanding.

Japanese Pheasant Nabe (stew)

The other day, I ate Japanese Pheasant Nabe (Japanese stew) at hot spring town in Okayama prefecture. Before I ate it I guessed it might be Miso taste Nabe to absorb strong character of Japanese pheasant but it was soy source soup stew, not Miso taste. The meat of Japanese Pheasant was very mild and not particular characteristics. It also was resilient. I strongly try it again, it was very delicious.

Jambo garlic

I found and bought the big size garlic at a “Michi-no-eki” (means Station of Road, it is a kind of service area on freeway). I wrapped by aluminum foil and roasted in toaster oven. I hoped it would be like sweet chestnut or potato but was little bit softer than standard garlic and watery.the taste was thinner than standard garlic. It may be necessary to arrange cooking.

Japanese old private house

I have a sightsee trip around Komatsu and Kaga in Ishikawa prefecture the other day. There is a Traditional Craft Village “Yunokuni-no-mori” (means Hot Spring Region’s Forest). There are many dismantled and reconstructed Japanese old private houses, which are used as pavilions for Kaga’s traditional craft pavilions now. From village head’s house to farmer’s small house, buildings employ very thick beams and poles, I was so impressed. For my personal study to remodel my parents’ Japanese old private house, I took so many photographs.

Main House

Recently leaking of rain is getting worth at main house of our residence. Especially, it is worth around the lower roof. Eave is waving because baulks (roof bows) are going bad.
I have studied to rebuild the house, but it is very expensive to tear down the house, the amount of tear down cost is almost same as cost for repairing the roof. In addition, the same kind of Japanese old houses do not remain around here. Main poles and joists are still good, so I am studying to restore the house.
Lift whole house to adjust the height of basis to correct distortion of the house, then replace the house on the basis. After this operation, replace the roof, and remodel the actual kitchen, add bath and bathroom with recent technology to improve convenience and confort for my parents, but keeping historical appearance. This is my actual basic concept for remodeling my parents’ house (main house).

Halloween

It is Halloween day on Octber 31st. In USA, many children with costume came to my home and said “Trick or treat”. Though we prepared candy bags for 100 or more, everything was gone every year. We took decoration goods for Halloween when we came back to Japan. I have decorated my home with those goods as pictured.

TOEIC

I have had TOEIC test today, it is the first time for me. Of course, I have not prepared anything to measure my actual level, but it is boastful.
The listening part was hard because the speed was not adjusted and natual, there was not enough time and got into next one while selecting the answer.
I tried to answer for reading part with my best speed but the remaining time was only 5 minites when I was done. The volume of reading test was too much.
The contents of the reading test was very hard for students because most documents were from business scene.

I hope it is lucky if I get 600th but I guess I will get 500th.

Meat & Vegetable Curry

I still have several Curry powers in my home which I bought at Indian Town in Great Los Angeles area when I was in USA. One of them is “Meat & Vegetable Curry, and I tried it. To make it colorful, I used Chicken, Tomato, Onion, Broccoli, Yellow Paprika, Carrot, and Shimeji Mushroom. Finally the photograph was the result. The taste was very light and was not satisfactory rich tast, but it was enough hot and suitable for hot and humidity summer season in Japan.

Don Julio (Tequila)

It has been 1 year since I returned from USA. I have a bottle of Tequila from my colleague. It is a Tequila made by Don Julio. The bottle is in a cardboard decorated box, and there is a brass plate on the front bottom of the bottle, and message is on the plate. By referring to the information from the internet, it is famous Tequila in Mexico and mine was made as 60th anniversary. It is more than 15,000JPY in Japan. I will enjoy it soon.