No Regrets

Jason and I were talking the other day and it dawned on me that it’s already been a full month since I quit my job. Time sure flies when you are having a good time! Let’s see, in the past month, I’ve signed up at a cooking school for cooking, bread making, and patisserie lessons; gone on two weekend skiing trips; started doing bit-translation jobs; worked out 13 out of the 28 days (not including skiing and tennis); and generally had a merry good time. I can truly say, after one month, that there are absolutely no regrets.

Sometimes I do miss my ex-colleagues. I’ve always maintained that they are a very friendly bunch. When I left, they insisted on giving me a farewell party even though due to the very short notice I gave them, it had to be held after I left the company. Besides the huge bouquet of flower, I also received this lovely lacquer music jewelry box from my department. It’s from an area of Japan famous for lacquer ware and plays the tune of Sakura. Isn’t it stunning?



Two other colleagues who are close to me gave me this lovely basket, which I am using for flower arrangement.




I also got this cute little potted cactus from another colleague. Kawaii deshou!



Still, no regrets!

Back to Square One

One week after I successfuly made my very first loaf of sour-tasting sourdough, I find myself back to the drawing board.



This was supposed to be Parmesan Pepper Sourdough bread, but not only was it not sour, the only thing you could taste was the pepper. The 1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan was only evident while the bread was in the oven by smell.

Why?! What have I done to be doomed with forever non-sour bread?!!!

Three-month Long Kimono Break

Hello, my name is Lynn, and it’s been three months since I last made it to kitsuke lesson (Kitsuke・着付け means the act of putting on a kimono).

I stepped sheepishly into the classroom, and was immediately greeted by Takamoto sensei’s warm hello. As you recall, she’s the one who used me as a mannequin to practice her very own kitsuke.

A round of greeting and catching up later, we got down to business. First, I had to put on my own kimono, as we do at the beginning of every lesson, even though today I won’t be tying the obi on myself. It was comforting to know that after three months I haven’t completely forgotten the basics. I did forget, however, how to tie the Otaiko・お太鼓 (translation: big drum, the most commonly seen boxy looking knot worn by married women). So I reviewed that too.

Next up, today’s obimusubi (帯結び・obi knot): Tateya (立て矢: vertical arrow) and Hirosue Tateya (広末立て矢: vertical arrow with a fanned out end). Hirosue Tateya or some of its variations are the most commonly used obi knots by brides on their wedding day after changing out of their white wedding kimono. You can also see them on young girls on Coming of Age Day (成人の日). In short, it’s a knot used on festive occasions, and this is what Hirosue Tateya (the more elaborate of the two) looks like.



Not particularly pretty if you ask me. Or maybe I am biased because it was a pain in the you-know-what to tie the darn knot. Because it is slanted, the balance is extremely important, and the rule of 1/3 is strictly followed every step of the way. One has to ensure that the bottom “wing” is not too large; and that the angle is just such. A special pillow (one that rotates) and a string with three elastic loops were used. When making the two “wings” of the knot, three clips were engaged to hold the yards of fabric in place; it was also a time one wished one had an extra hand. Thank goodness I was using my practice obi made out of polyester, which was relatively light. I couldn’t even begin to imagine tying a heavy, elaborately adorned silk obi into this knot.



While I was struggling with the darned “Vertical Arrow” a classmate of mine made this pretty knot, called Beni Tsubaki (red camellia). See flower on the left.



Now, isn’t this so much better looking than the Tateya? Can you see how the Tateya differs from Hirosue Tateya?



Yup, it’s missing the little fan shaped end on the upper right corner.

Next week, I start reviewing all the knots I learned in the practical lessons. Then it’s time for the test: putting on a kimono and tying the Otaiko knot on myself in less than ten minutes. I definitely need lots of practice to pass this test.

IMBB 12 - Natto: You are what you don't eat

I didn’t find out about the 12th IMBB until after the fact. Then when I saw the theme, I wish I hadn’t missed the deadline, for I have the perfect food to subject myself to as the victim: natto (納豆) a.k.a. Japanese fermented soybeans. The Japanese believe that this verging-on- rotten bean product is extremely good for your health. It supposedly has all these enzymes unique only to natto that prevent blood clots and ward off heart attacks. It’s even said to be good for pets. In fact an ex-colleague of mine feeds his dog one pack a day.

I won’t dwell on health benefits of eating natto because that’s not the point. The main thing about natto is that it is disgusting to look at and has a distinct smell that’s best described as, surprise, rotten beans. Being a dog owner, I have had my share of bad smelling things. Libby’s breath could smell quite putrid sometimes but that didn’t stop me from kissing her. Natto, on the other hand, is an entirely different level of smelliness. It is definitely an acquired taste because according to my Japanese friends, most people in western Japan don’t even eat it. So is it any surprise that I was never able to get past the smell and the unpleasant aesthetics to bring myself to taste it?

I was going to be someone who’s never tasted natto if it weren’t for Carlo, host of the 12th IMBB, who extended the deadline. I took it as a sign that I should take this opportunity to overcome my aversion to natto and give it a try. So I went out and got the smallest packaged natto I could find in the supermarket, organic no less. It also came with two little packets: katsuo flavored sauce and organic mustard.



Cute, you say? You haven’t seen nothing yet, my friend.

This is what awaits you when you lift the plastic wrap on top of the natto. Combined with the rotten smell, is it not enough to turn any stomach?



Ewww, let me try the two beans stuck to the plastic wrap first and decide whether I want to eat the rest. I picked the two beans off the wrap and put them in my mouth and chewed. They were soft, with the expected texture of soy beans, but there’s an unpleasant bitter after taste. I looked down at Libby, who’s eagerly wagging her tail, and thought for a split second that maybe I should just dump the whole thing into her bowl and make her one happy pooch. Dogs are always fond of smelly stuff anyway, aren't they? But the next second my better sense took control and I was going to eat this rotten, smelly, unpleasant looking thing they call food for the name of IMBB.

I decided to make use of the sauce and mustard provided, and stirred them into the natto with chopsticks, more strings were generated with stirring. You’ll have to actually do this to fully appreciate the nastiness of the whole exercise. The more you stir, the stickier and slimier it gets and more strings are formed. It’s like a tangled ball of never-ending yarn. Yuck!



Luckily, the katsuo flavored sauce and mustard masked the bitter taste pretty well and I could almost convince myself that I am not eating natto, but rather some other dubious soy bean product, and I managed to finish the whole package.



I can’t say I enjoyed it, but I didn’t hate it, which is a good thing because I still have the other container to finish. Don’t suppose I can disguise it somehow and convince my unsuspecting husband to give it a try?

Pitfalls of a Romantic Idea

This is the little cottage that we stayed in when we went skiing in Hakuba two weeks ago. Hakuba is known for its good snow quality outside of Hokkaido and has a high concentration of ski resorts, the most famous of which being Happone, where the 1998 winter Olympics was held.

Our friends Tomoko and Robbee, both avid snowboarders, are big fans of Hakuba and make at least one trip there per season. Under their influence, and the disappointment in Hokkaido last year still fresh on our mind (we had no snow in Hokkaido, if you could believe that), we said yes readily when Tomoko suggested a long weekend of skiing in Hakuba. I was even more thrilled when I found the above cottage on the internet that allows dogs. I have always wanted to stay in a cottage deep in the snow, have after dinner drinks around the fireplace (never mind I don’t drink and this particular cottage has no fireplace) and talk with friends well into the night. So it was decided that we would drive to the cottage on Thursday night so we could enjoy three full days of skiing.

First lesson: when traveling in rural areas, don’t trust your navigator, even if it managed to pinpoint the place with the phone number.

When we arrived at the spot where our cottage was supposed to be, there was no cottage in sight. Instead there was a ski shop. Lucky for us, the owner was still up and directed us to where our cottage was (3 km away). What happened is that the number listed was for the ski shop/reception area for cottage. Who would’ve guessed that the reception and cottage would be miles apart?!

Second lesson: oil heaters are your friends.

Twenty minutes later, we finally found our cottage. After climbing up a mound of snow with a couple of footholds carved out, we found ourselves in the living room of a VERY VERY cold cottage. We fiddled and waited for half an hour before concluding that the main heater was broken. This left us with two little oil heaters. If you have ever been in rural Japan in the winter, you would remember that unique gas smell. In Tokyo, you can usually find this type of oil burner in outdoor dining areas in the winter, in the shape of huge heat lamps. We had to make a decision: leave the heaters on all night long and be reasonably warm and face possible gas poisoning, or turn them off and face the consequences. We imagined what the headline of the local newspaper would say to describe the unfortunate ski accident “Five Bodies Found in Cottage, Four Human and One Dog” and decided to be cold and alive.

I spent half the night trying to warm up my body and when I finally fell asleep and woke up in the morning, my nose was freezing and I could see my own breath. Meanwhile, Robbee and Tomoko had resolved to bury themselves under piles of blankets so high that I didn’t even see them when I first woke up. Libby was probably the one that fared the best, curled up in her own little corner on a folded futon.

Third lesson: oil heaters give you headaches.

Second night, we got a third heater from the cottage owner and conquered our fear of death by gas poisoning. We kept all three heaters on all night. The heaters and the tabletop burner for our nabe dinner made the cottage very toasty, even on the verge of overheating. We had a nice night’s sleep, but Robbee and I woke up with pounding headaches, presumably from the gas smell and lack of oxygen.

Third night, we kept all the burners on and turned on the exhaust fans in the kitchen and the bathroom. The cottage wasn’t as warm as the night before, but no headaches, and we could even smell the wood. Finally, some kind of balance!

All those lessons learned will come in handy someday I am sure, but I am not eager to test them out any time soon. Which is why, for our next and final ski trip of the season, I chose Naeba Prince Hotel, a mammoth structure of a chain hotel that will not be missed by any car navigator. Sure, it will just be a standard hotel room and we won’t be able to bring Libby, but at least the inside temperature will be substantially higher than outside. I think it will be a good way to end the ski season.

For photos of this trip, click here.

Sourdough, AT LAST

Three starters and months of frustration later, I present to you, my very first sour-tasting bread. I don't know what I did right this time, but somehow, miraculously the stars were aligned and all the forces worked in harmony, and this loaf of bread had all the soury taste of a real bakery sourdough. It's got tahini and a whole cup of sesame seeds in it (should've only been half a cup, but I forgot to cut it down in half along with the rest of the recipe, oops), so it is extra fragrant too. I am so excited over this new turn of events in my kitchen that I just have to share it with everyone.

Now I can go walk my dog.

Music In My Kitchen

I can’t remember exactly when, but I have all but stopped listening to music some time ago. When I was little, my dad played classical music at full volume ALL the time. Under his influence, I couldn’t even go to sleep without listening to a little Mozart or Chopin. Remember back when walkmans are the size of a brick? I hauled one with me everywhere I went. I was in a CD club in college, when I couldn’t even afford it. Now, when there are MP3 and iPods to make listening to music while on the go so easy, and when I have the money to buy any CD I want, I stopped listening. Nowadays I prefer total silence. Why? I haven’t the faintest idea.

When Karen of the Pilgrim’s Pots and Pans tagged me for the music meme, I was in a dilemma. Do I really want to let the whole world know that I live in a self-imposed musicless world (don’t even own a MP3 or iPod), or should I just ignore the tag and pretend it never happened? After two days of pondering, I decided that ignoring the tag wouldn’t be the proper thing to do, so here it goes:

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?
6,472 KB, from a song by Utada Hikaru that my friend sent me recently. I know, it’s pathetic, but to be fair, this is a brand new computer, so I haven’t had a chance to load it up with stuff yet.

The CD you last bought?
Hmmm, it’s been a long time since I bought a CD, but I think it was Pet Music for my dog. It’s a pack of three CDs: Natural Rhythm, Peaceful Playground, and Sunday in the Park.

I bought them because I thought my dog needed to listen to some music when we are not home so she could relax. Call me a lunatic!

What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?
It’s now 11:30pm Saturday. The last time I listened to a song was the last time I was driving mindlessly, which puts me at 10:30am Tuesday. I think it was some J-pop on the FM radio.

Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
1. 梅花三弄（Plum flower: three variations): Not exactly a song, it’s a piece played on the Gu Zheng (a traditional Chinese musical instrument). While in college, a friend of mine lent me a CD of Chinese songs and at the end was this piece. I fell in love with it, bought a Gu Zheng when I went to live in Singapore, and started taking lessons. Now I can play this piece too.

2. Fur Elise: Junior high school, Richard Clayderman was all the rage. Everywhere you go, his rendition of Fur Elise was playing on some radio or cassette player. I bought a jewelry box with laser etched Fur Elise sheet music on the lid (the same way it's etched in my mind) the first day of my piano lesson.

3. Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps (Doris Day): I was really into Ballroom dancing while in grad school. It was Ann Arbor, with six months of winter so you have to be creative when it comes to staying active. The movie Strictly Ballroom just came out and it was my favorite song in the whole movie. I bought the soundtrack CD and listened to it over and over again. I even briefly considered using it as music for the first dance at my wedding, but eventually gave up because 1. Jason wouldn’t have been able to learn the moves by wedding date, and 2. the lyrics wasn’t really suitable for a wedding.

4. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (phantom of the opera): the first musical Jason and I saw together, in Boston’s Wang theatre while I was there for the summer. We could only afford the student ticket, which were two rows from the ceiling and we could barely make out the figures on stage. I loved all the songs in that musical but this one struck a special cord, maybe because we were in a long distance relationship and I was *constantly* wishing that he was somehow here again. I listened to that song a lot in my dorm room in Ann Arbor. Hum, these were the days!

5. Carnival (Natalie Merchant, Tigerlily): I like the lyrics and the music of this song. Am hypnotized and mesmerized by it. I like it so much in fact, that I forgot I had the CD and bought a second copy. I see now that the onset of my senility was much much earlier than I thought.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Hsin-li, because we never talk about music when we see each other, and this will be a good way to find out her interest.

Rachel, because she is also a dog-lover, and she is quirky and her writings make me laugh. I want to know if her choice of music is a reflection of her personality.

I was going to stop at two because I am really new at blogging and the people I can think of tagging have all been tagged. Then I thought of Yann at Allrecipes.com. I stumbled onto his/her blog when an ex-colleague of mine told me he could find my food photos by searching LynnInTokyo on google. I did the same search and found Yann’s blog. Yann is probably in charge of photo editing at Allrecipes.com and seems to like my photos and posts them on his/her staff blog. I thought it would be good for him/her to share his/her music interest. But I’m really not sure how often he/she checks that blog and what Allrecipe.com’s policy is on staff blog, so this could be a dead lead.

So there you have it Karen, not so interesting I'm afraid. Thanks for the tag, it brought back memories.

TV Cooking Tip #3 – Five Minute Pao

Ever since my mildly successful attempt at making chive pao, I’ve been looking for the perfect dough recipe. What I want to achieve is the kind that wraps around the cha siew pao, fluffy and soft.

As luck would have it, another one of my frequently watched Japanese TV shows, The Itos' Dinner Table (伊東家の食卓), taught a simple trick to make mini pao (饅頭) dough with only two ingredients. The picture you see above is my first attempt, not exactly pretty and the surface is fuzzy but the taste is uncannily similar to the cha siew pao dough.

You’ll appreciate it even more after you’ve seen how it’s made, I am sure. So here it goes:

Ingredients:
80g fresh breadcrumb (生パン粉)
4 tbsp milk

1. Use your fingers to mix the two ingredients until the breadcrumb is wetted evenly. (Don't expect the dough to stick together, the milk only wets the crumbs)
2. Divide the mixture into four equal portions and spread each portion out on a square of saran wrap. Drop a tablespoonful of stuffing of your choice in the middle.
(I used red bean paste from my mame daifuku attempt, but savory filling can be used too)
3. Gather the corners of the saran wrap and twist it shut tight, like in the photo below.



4. Use a toothpick to prick four holes on the top of each wrapped pao, and microwave on 500W for 2 minutes.
5. Open up and you have yourself some mini paos.



I cut down the recipe, so I had to adjust microwave time. For two paos, I did 1 minute and 30 seconds. So total cooking time (including weighing out breadcrumb and digging out the red bean paste from the depth of the fridge) for those very cute and delectable after dinner snacks was a whopping FIVE minutes! This one is a keeper, until I find the perfect real pao recipe. And even when I do find the perfect real recipe, this one will still be on the top of the list for a quick snack.

FIVE MINUTES ONLY!