repeat after me: o-ko-no-mi-yaki

Okonomiyaki is always an experience.  For those of you who haven't been to Japan (as I am fairly certain it is extremely hard to find anywhere else) okonomiyaki is a savory pancake with vegetables. 

This is the best description we've got, so I'm sticking with it.  I suppose if you haven't had the pleasure, you really could not possibly know what it tastes like since everyone agrees that "pancake" is not a good way to describe it but then continues to do so. 

So my parents were intrigued. 

Apprehensively stirring the batter...

Clearly excited. Because I know what's coming.

Okonomiyaki on the grill.  Seasoning and topping it.  And waiting for it to cook.  And waiting.  Preparing okonomiyaki is an exercise in patience. 

When it was finally done, we had lost all interest in taking pictures and were concentrating on enjoying the food we had prepared ourselves.  Little different than American restaurants, huh? 

The verdict:  My parents loved it.  In fact, my mom liked it so much, she wanted to go back for her last meal in Tokyo.  Unfortunately, the place wasn't open for lunch so we hit up New Koenji India.  Again.  I'm fairly certain we are their best customers.  But that is another story....

Mata ne,
Melissa

again?

So the snow that two days ago was a novelty is still here, trying hard not to melt in quaint little piles around town (if you've seen the snow piles that would accumulate in the old Fayetteville Mall parking lot, then you know what a real snow pile looks like).  Tonight, it wasn't so exciting to discover as I was taking out the ridiculous daily ration of garbage that it is, once again, snowing in Tokyo.  Not Funny.

We did have a nice day though, eating all of our meals at home (yes, this is a major accomplishment for us these days) and doing a lot of work(jeff)/reading(melissa) at a coffee shop.  Well, we did have coffee and a choco-cro (chocolate croissant) but that doesn't count, right?

I started a new book by Natsume Soseki, the author of Kokoro, and I am less that 15 pages from the end so I think I can safely say I'll be finishing it tonight.  Unless we watch all of last week's Daily Shows before bed.....

Mata ne,
Melissa

photo from choco cro website

let it snow... somewhere else

A few of you have asked me about the weather, so while you're all recovering from the latest "storm of the year" coverage on the news, I thought I'd gloat share.

In Tokyo, this year at least, the weather is actually quite nice.  It's definitely "winter" but more of the mid-November/early-March winter than January winter that we're used to in the Northeast. The average daytime high for January (I just looked it up on weather.com) was somewhere between 45˚ and 50˚ F (around 10˚ C if anyone out there actually knows how the metric system works) with average nighttime lows between 30˚ and 35˚ F (hovering just over 0˚C - that one's easier).  We even had a few days over 60˚!

Generally it's been a sunny winter - something I thought was an oxymoron coming from Syracuse, New York.  We've had not even a hint of snow and not too much rain, either.  Unfortunately, today has been rainy and gross and under 40˚.

NOOOOOO!!!  Jeff just called me (he's on his way home from a coffee shop where he was doing some work - Me? A distraction?) and told me to look outside.  It's beginning to look a lot like... Syracuse.  Yes, February 1, Old Man Winter arrives in Tokyo and brings some fluffy white snow with him.

 

I made Jeff take pictures of me when he got home - stuff like this doesn't happen everyday in Tokyo!  Here you can see our very, very sad looking "backyard."

 

Ok, it doesn't look like much, I know, but the snow is sticking (for now at least)!  And yes, there is a funny shadow on my face where the flash hit a falling snowflake.  I don't have a new giant mole.  Our "backyard" as you can see, is somewhat lacking.  We are seriously looking forward to enjoying our spacious American backyard without dirty, peeling concrete walls and green turf when we get home. 

We got to enjoy two wonderful treats this evening after our fun in the snow.  First, we bought fabric softener the other day and I did our first load using it tonight (we have to line dry everything as we have no dryer - and have I mentioned before, our washer is outside?) so finally we won't have dry, crispy clothes to wear!  Now everything's drying on our dry rack hung under the wall heater and making this place smell glorious! (Too many "dry"s in that paragraph?  Yea, I thought so too.)

Second, Jeff whipped up an amazing breakfast dinner of English muffin topped with an egg, sauteed garlic, spinach, onions, and lox (that's smoked salmon for all you goyim out there).  YUM.

He's a regular Raymond Ray.  Now if I could only get him to wash all the dishes he used making it....

Mata ne,
Melissa

Melissa Homemaker

Today I made a casserole. Yes, that's right.  See?

We had some leftover breadcrumbs from the stuffing I made for Thanksgiving and darn it I was going to use them.  In case you're interested here's what I did:

1.  thank your lucky stars you were able to find celery in japan.
2.  preheat the oven to 350 f (or guess where 350 might be on your inaccurate metric oven dial).
3.  in a pan stir fry two chicken breasts, a diced onion, and a full celery stalk (diced) until the chicken is cooked through.
4.  mix over low heat one can of condensed cream of asparagus soup (its what we had), plus one can water, and a can (not condensed) of cream of chicken soup (i actually used a bag of what i think was cream of chicken soup with veggies in it.  the package was in Japanese so i grabbed it and prayed i was right).
5.  the recipe i found called for a half cup of butter so i used about an eighth of a cup and that was probably not even necessary, but i mixed it in the soups and then added the veggies and chicken to the pot and stirred it all up really well. (its not necessary to actually cook this stuff, cause you're baking it - its a casserole, remember?)
6.  pour all that stuff into a 2 quart baking dish and dump the breadcrumbs in (maybe like 4 cups worth? or whatever you have leftover from thanksgiving) and stir that stuff up too.  i guess you can do this in the pot you were using before, huh?  well i didn't.
7.  bake for 30 minutes or until it looks done.  i usually take things out right before i think they'll burn on top, and that usually works.  tonight the cassarole was more goopy on the inside than normal, but you should see the oven i am working with here. 

It turned out really well actually.  Jeff and I ate the whole thing.  I'm turning into a regular not-so-desperate housewife. 

Aside from going out to buy ibuprofin (nonsensically spelled with an eve at the begining) for my toe and scouting out some English lesson locations that's all I did today.

Hopefully I'll be more interesting tomorrow.

Mata ne,
Melissa

Turkey (free) Day

Well our first married Thanksgiving was a rousing success, if I do say so myself.  We were lucky enough to have TWO friends join us, Leigh and Dave, who were great sports about the “challenges” we face with our kitchen, cookware, and access to ingredients.

We started with the soup course: Carrot Ginger Soup, lovingly prepared by Jeff – yum! With grit and ingenuity, he converted a tiny smoothie blender into a full-fledged food processor.





Then we moved to the main course: chicken breast (our turkey man didn’t come through), sauteed spinach, and stuffing.

We finished up with my traditional Pecan Pie – this year with a few alterations.

While nothing compares to my Bubbe’s amazing pie crust recipe, I am not a pro at it yet and my mom wasn’t nearby to assist.  So I consulted Martha and we decided on a shortbread crust instead.  Turns out it was awesome (Martha has yet to disappoint)!  Not a great fit for an apple pie, but with the pecan it really worked!  Also, I normally make a Joy of Cooking traditional pecan pie which is anything but traditional.  Karo syrup is not natural and not necessary in any dish.  Instead I found a Karo-free recipe which was just as easy and delicious!  And I was able to pronounce every single ingredient I used which just makes me feel better.   As long as I don’t think about the fact that those ingredients are primarily butter and egg.

Leigh stayed over the night on our comfy couch (currently vacant and looking for another occupant) 



and in the morning I made Danish bread french toast.  It was so good last week we couldn’t resist.

We're super excited to do it again next year.  In America.  With Turkey.

Mata ne,
Melissa

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Today is Jeff's 30th birthday!!

He has to give a presentation on his research (he just got here to start it and he has to give a presentation already?) to his sponsoring professor's seminar this evening so he's been working on that all day instead of celebrating.  It's just as well though, since it's been raining all day so we wouldn't really want to be out and about.

For breakfast I treated him to awesome cinnamon french toast made of Danish bread.  I am not really sure what Danish bread is (it is not like a danish that you'd find with jelly or something in America), but its thick and crusty and they have it at the Gourmet City by our house.  I also got a nice bottle of wine the other day, and I am going to slip out and attempt to purchase a small cake (hopefully there will be no verbal exchange necessary) while he's in his presentation.  Normally I'd bake something delicious like whiskey cake, but our kitchen here leaves something to be desired and I have yet to tackle the grimy oven that isn't even big enough to fit a cake.

If you haven't yet, you can send him an email or call our skype number (it's free!) and wish him a happy birthday!

Matane,

Melissa