Friday, August 20, 2010

First Post!

I've noticed that the majority of photos from my times in Japan (this is my third time here), consist of pictures of food, or pictures of friends eating food. And most conversations I have in Japan revolve around food!
Its something we all have in common - something that even complete strangers can have a conversation about without resorting to weather chat (believe me, they do plenty of that in Japan too). So I thought I might share some pictures, recipes and anicdotes about my food life here, and tell you about some of the interesting ways Japanese culture relates to food. But that will all come later! To start off, heres a mish-mash of pictures from the year so far!

召し上がってください!




Doesn't this just sum it up - a kiwi, in Japan, eating kiwifruit with chopsticks!
Note: In New Zealand, we call ourselves 'Kiwis'. I am a Kiwi = I am a New Zealander. And we call the fruit Kiwifruit.




Japanese street food!
BBQd squid tenticles, Mochi ball (glutenous sticky rice) covered in seasame seeds, with ground up black seasame seeds inside (incredibly delicious!) and lightly brined cucumber on a stick





I babysit/teach English to the little boy on the left. Him and his cousin are waiting eagerly for the feast of raw fish, prawns, sweet fried egg, grilled eel and Japanese style pickles (bottom left), which you put together (in any combination, though Japanese people tend to keep it simple) which seaweed and rice. Right in your own hand - like a seaweed taco!



A lot of friends have been made over food this year. Five of us in the International House (dorm style place) I live in started a tradition called 'Soup Thursday'. Tomato soup, vegetable soup, peanut soup, creamy leek soup, laksa soup, pumpkin soup, creamy garlic soup... and plenty of garlic bread! People could smell the preparations three floors down! We deviated occasionally, like on 'Pizza Thursday', here arranged on the ever present strawberry mat (the floor around it saw a lot of food and drink spills, but the Strawberry survived relativly unharmed).
The bottom picture shows the aftermath of Soup Thursday. Phew.



This was a delicious summer drink that a friend and I made just last week. It consisted of
mashed up watermelon
vodka
triple sec
Simple simple - its all we managed to scrape together from the students who were returning to their home countries. But it was AMAZING and so summery.
My friend was in charge of mixing. I was in charge of watermelon rind carving. We both tackled the responsibility of drinking and taking artistic photos ^^




A sign in a konbini (convenience store). Which inspires me - perhaps I'll make scones tomorrow afternoon! I'm going to have dinner with a lovely family I just met today. I will be working casually at the nursery school (daycare) they run - playing with the kids and teaching simple English. They have invited me to their house for sushi tomorrow night, so I think I will bake something in the afternoon to take.


Why not Japanese style scones? I'm thinking... sweet red beans instead of raisins or currents. And maybe mix Kinako (ground soybean) with a little sugar into some butter - DIY Kinako butter! I'll update on how it goes!

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