loved this piece

If you have kids of your own or if you have children as guests in your restaurant this is soooo worth a read.

Harry Potter "uncovered"

Like many people in the world, I am a huge Harry Potter fan... and I can't wait for the July release of the last book. IN HP news today, as covered in Reuters; Final Harry Potter book covers revealed Personally I love the locket cover. and the countdown is truly on for the book and movie releases this summer.

YIKES!!!

After the movie supersize me... I have had more than grave concerns about Micky-D's... What exactly are we eating when we buy their food. One reason I know people like it is that it is always the same. you can go to a McDonalds anywhere in the world and it has the same taste... BUT today I found out something totally scary and weird. Take a look at this youtube video posted up on one of my favorite food blogs A HAMBURGER TODAY.

18 years!
unbelievable. :(

Adi back from hong kong

 

The Chef de Cuisine at the restaurant I run Fujimamas, was away with the Executive Chef/Owner Mark Vann doing a visiting chef gig in Hong Kong. He returned this week. This type of visit to other kitchens can really help chefs stay inspired, and in Adi's case, get real life experience of cooking in different locations, with different systems and guests etc. Someday I would love to go along and see what a trip like this is really like... not sure I would ever have a chance, but it would be fun to travel around and see how other kitchen and restaurant operations work. This is one area where chefs are a bit more lucky, traveling and being a visiting chef, or even line-cook is very common, but front of the house folks don't get the same kind of opportunities.

Anyway, good to have Adi back home.
And he says he will send me new food photos from the trip as well.

coffee or cake?

 

I can't remember if this is Coffee or Cake? (the names of the two goat-inhabitants of Fujifarms.) But I LOVE this shot. This post is by way of celebrating that we launched a new website for FUJIFARMS!

FF is a gorgeous little sustainable farm up in Waimea that supplies Huli Sue's and Fujimamas Kona with delicious lettuces, herbs, veggies and more! There are also 4 dogs, 3 sheep, and two goats who live on the farm.

You can read all about the farm on the new site.

afternoon treats from across the street

  near to our apartment there is a little co-op set up, restaurant, bar, shop and a bakery. I especially like the bakery, a few rosie cheeked young japanese folks seem to do all the work. Today while working at home I went out to get a treat for the hubby and me. This is kind of a mini chocolate bread stick. I tried the fig and caramel too. But I think the chocolate is more my speed.

Opatoka has breads, sandwiches and in the summer time various flavors of soft serve ice cream. It is too close to home to be good for my weight, but fun anyway. I do love to buy from small independent companies and can't understand why anyone would walk around the corner to buy bad fake bread at the 7Eleven when this place is right here!

just getting started

 

Cherry blossom season is upon us. Just getting started. the buds are ready to burst open. It was sunny and goregous today which should speed things along. We live along a very long stretch of cherry trees lining a small river/stream. Really beautiful and something we really look forward to every year. In the evenings the neighborhood is filled with strolling blossom viewing parties. And the HANAMI season traditions, food, wine, beer, and more food! Everyone puts on little impromptu spring parties with friends and co-workers. To see my photos from full bloom two years ago check out http://princessdirtball.blogspot.com/ more photos for sure from this year- coming soon.

one of my favorites

 Around the corner from Fujimamas where I work is what I think is one of the best thai restaurants in all of Tokyo. The place is called Kaffir Lime, it is small, cramped actually and I have NEVER had a bad meal there... ever.

This dish above is called a crispy fried egg salad. (this is half of it actually as the other half was on my husband's plate) it is spicy, sweet, sour, all at one time. And the fried egg is delicious.

We try many different things when we go there, but this one dish we always get- we always start with it, this and some thai steamed rice. We usually spend about 2500 yen a person for dinner there, sometimes more. But it is always worth it.

wine school #3 Lots of Fun!

 

Our third class in our Saturaday Wine School Series, yesterday, was a lot of fun. We sold out the class at 40 guests. The theme of class number three was "Rose- Think Pink" in honor of the budding cherry blossoms.

We tasted and discussed 5 wines, (4 rose and 1 sparkling blanc de noir.) One special treat was trying two very nice wines from Wolffer Estate and Comtesse Teresa from Long Island NY. Both wines were from small boutique wineries, handcrafted- and it showed. Other offereings were A to Z rose from Oregon and Ata Rangi Rose from New Zealand.

The basic structure of each class- a short overview on the topic, basic hits and tips on tasting, and then tasting through and discussing each wine. We finish up with delicious Asian Tapas from our menu at Fujimamas and some fun networking time for students.

Our next class will be "Drinking Green" focusing on Organic wines, and will be held on May 26th. Email us info@fujimamas.com to reserve, but if you are interested do it soon as we sell out early every time.

Thanks to all the Wine School attendees and regulars, as well as thanks to Jan Nelson from Orca International for teaching the classes with me.

Bee Season?

as you may know, in addition to being a foodie, I am interested in the politics of food, the slow food movement, and being aware of what big corp. business is doing that is bad for us all.

About two summers ago I started reading some pieces about the dying bees in the usa. California had lost so many that they were importing hives from florida to polinate their grape and other california cash crops. Odd? and worrisome! A fantastic illustration of the interconnectedness of life.

Now Germany too is losing their bee populations at catastrophic rates.

and some further indications that genetically modified agricultural products may be one of the causes. Read more here.

Skelpin

 
This week we had another one of our Fujimamas Music Nights, this time with an irish american band SKELPIN. They describe their music as Irish-Fusion. they were really great although the event ended up being much more stressful than I bargained for.

I started my day with a meeting with boss and chef owner, Mark- at 9:00 am and I was working till close at midnight in order to give my second in command a needed day off. Anyway, it was going to be a long day anyway, and then add in this...

The Band who asked to play, (they wanted to come to us!) was supposed to be set up and start playing on our second floor at 7:30 pm. Usually my bands arrive and set up an hour before... at 7 there was no band, 7:15 still no one, 7:30 NO ONE.... 8:00 NO ONE!!!!!!!! and the room was full of guests waiting to hear great irish music! I called and tried to find them to no avail. Finally got a friend of mine who knows them, and he told me that they had, unbeknowst to me, scheduled a show before mine and were probably running late.

Needless to say, when they showed up at 9pm !!!! I was pretty pissed. They were truly sorry, though i still can't understand why they didn't telephone. They apologized and played a fantastic set for us, basically for free- the guests loved it, and all was forgiven, so I guess it had a happy ending.

their music is fantastic and they are quite talented and nice. I would still recommend them in spite of my experience. And I think everyone had a good time.

Still- much more stress than i wanted or needed.

double decadence

 

Feeling like spoiling myself last night. Worked a long-ish brunch at Fujimamas and then headed home for dinner with my husband. There is a little Hawaiian place down the road. (a very tokyo version of Hawaiian) They have nice food, good clean atmosphere and great coffee. We split some Ahi Poke and then I had kalua pork and potato for dinner which I of course forgot to photograph- I have been such a bad food blogger lately. But then for dessert I remembered my camera was next to me.

I had the 100% Kona Coffee hot Mocha, and Chris and I split a HULA PIE, which is a very nice version of an icecream cake. All in all a tasty meal. I do like this place, it is called M&L Hawaiian Cafe. just down the street from our house. A nice connection to Hawaii while I am back in town in Tokyo.

Down front of Huli's

 

One of the first days we were open at the New restaurant Huli Sue's this nice man with a great bike came in for lunch! the photo op was too good to pass up. I also have a b/w version of this I am thinking of blowing up and framing.

It has been a busy busy 8 weeks. And soon I will be winging my way home to Tokyo. But i was thrilled to be a part of the opening of Huli Sue's!