with gratitude for a lovely birthday  

happy birthday to me!

I've had a few fun food adventures since I last wrote on 8/18... working on content now. butin the meantime I have to say a big birthday thanks. Lots of folks sent me happy wishes, and "becoming a foodie" and "hubrissonic" helped me have a wonderful birthday yesterday including a fantastic outing to a tea house with over 350 kinds of tea and unbelieveable desserts. And they helped me finish off my evening with some nice comfortable chinese food during yesterday's typhoon here in Tokyo.

"becoming a foodie" gave me a fantastic pen. and Hubris took care of wonderful art supplies for my visual journal class. Plus I got 5000 yen in gift certs to go office and art supply shopping which ranks right up there with food as one of my obsessions... strange, I know. but there you have it!

in addition in the mail I got a great restaruant journal to write in from Mom which will certainly help me record good notes for the blog. Thanks everyone!
It was a lovely birthday.

mise en place is everything 

the finished product! 

home is where the wok is...

On my day off last week we had a fun but home-oriented plan. Lots of laundry and things like that. Our washer works great, but our dryer puts out lots of hot air into our little tokyo apartment. This is fine in the winter, but not ok at all in the high humidity hot temperature august days that we are now in. So we do the wash at home and walk down the street to a little coin laundry to dry our clothes. So we spent the day off largely walking back and forth from the apartment to the coin laundry, chatting, discussing politics, etc. and then reading and blogging in between treks.

As the day wore on the inevitable question of what to have for dinner came up, this in time for the start of grumbling stomachs. It was before payday, so thrift was necessary. We decided to break out the wok under the sink, that has been woefully underused this year- and go foraging for the elements of tasty homemade fried rice.

A walk to the local grocery and we chose on Pork, with sprouts, and tofu for even more protein. The requisite eggs, and green onion. My husband is great at making fried rice and so he set to work with the mise en place which is key to high heat wok cooking. You need everything ready to throw into your wok as you go along. No time for extra chopping and prep in the proverbial heat of the moment.

So you can see the photos of our purchases, prepped food, and the final result above. A great outcome besides the tasty dinner… is that He is going to come into the restaurant I work at, Fujimamas and work a little on the wok station to learn even more about high heat wok cooking. So I look forward to the wok coming out of the under the sink retirement for good!

Baja Tacos ...coming soon... 

The waiting game.

When you live overseas, in a very different culture, you get kind of funny about food- which is the only way I can explain our overly enthusiastic anticipation of a certain taco stand that will be opening in our neighborhood, Nakameguro Tokyo next week. We miss some kinds of food that were easy to get in Philadelphia or elsewhere that we traveled when lived in the USA. One thing we longed for was a good taco. There are a few decent Mexican restaurants in Tokyo but nothing close to our apartment.

The story goes like this...

About a month ago, I noticed a cute little new store-front on one of the side streets we walk down to get to the train station. It had no signage, no info, but I saw them brining in a front case that could only be used for selling food. Hmmm? I thought- I wonder what this is going to be?

Another week after that, late one evening, my husband I were walking down that same street. At the little white fronted unfinished shop there were two Japanese guys working. We walked by and as we got just past the front door, one of the guys came up behind us and said in English- "Hello, We are opening a taco shop here" he was trying to say please come when we are open but our rampant enthusiasm to just those first few words made the follow up un-hearble. After we settled down he told us about his plan. When, we asked??? Hmmmm? Sometime in August (which was still some 3 weeks away...)

So as the days went past we would walk by the shop looking for signs of signage, (and tacos.) There was just a small paper sign in the window declaring that they would someday be a taco stand... Sometimes we would be walking by when they were working, so we would stop and pretend to order 2 tacos. Which would make everyone laugh(at least the first few times) and they would say in Japanese. "chotto matte kudasai" which means, please wait a little- and so it went on.

On the first of august we thought GREAT tacos!!!! But alas, only a plain white fronted store- no signs of life yet- and no tacos.

Tonight (august 13th) we finally have some good TACO news. No it wasn't opened yet, but this time, there were signs, and activity, and our Taco friend told us that there will be a mini opening party Monday (they asked us to stop by) and they will be fully opened on wed. 8/18!!!! Which I hear is a good day for tacos (course I hear everyday can be a good day for tacos)

The name of our new neighborhood taco place will be BAJA Tacos. And he is going to be selling tacos, burritos, and lots of other yummy sounding stuff. Hopefully it will be good, maybe even greatÂ… fingers are crossed. I hope I can stop by on Monday maybe bring over a nice bottle of tequila to give as a store opening gift.

We will report on our taco exploits next week. Only a few more days to go.

Breakfast- Asian Style 

what a way to start a day!

Nasi Goreng is a great fried-rice breakfast dish served in Indonesia and through-out South East Asia. There are thousands of ways to prepare this dish and the only constant thing about it is Rice… after that the variations are endless. It is often served with a fried egg, grilled or fried chicken, peanut sauce and chips. The photo above is the Nasi Goreng we serve for Lunch and Weekend brunch at the Asian Fusion restaurant I help run in Tokyo. Fujimamas. This has quickly become one of our most popular dishes!

There is a pretty good basic recipe for Nasi Goreng over at Bali Vacation Villa's Website.

If you ever want to try a totally new way at looking at breakfast this is a great one- filling and fun with a unique and rich blend of flavors and textures. And if you are in Tokyo come by any day for our version of Nasi Goreng.

In Indonesian lezat = delicious, very tasty.

crunch crunch crunch 

The Cult of Pocky

Ok, first of all it is pronounced "po-key" Long O, not like hockey… etc. The name is "Pocky", after the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound Pocky makes when bit, "pokkin" (ポッキン). Pocky are a very famous snack candy from Japan. Made by Glico and sold everywhere in Japan. Often exported to other countries as well. The original Pocky arrived on the scene in 1965 and was a cookie stick dipped in chocolate… But never people to stay with just one version of anything- there are new and special flavors of Pocky showing up all the time. Pocky are extra popular with anime fans. (japanese animation fans)

Glico makes GIANT Pocky, Special Edition Pocky, and Men’s Pocky (which is a dark chocolate version of the classic original) There are cute Pocky goods, stationary, mobile phone straps, toys…

And this week, I tried two flavors of Pocky new to me… Lemon CheeseCake Flavor and Chocolate Banana. Both quite yummy. The Lemon Cheesecake really tasted like cheesecake, I was a bit surprised.

You can take two different Pocky Quizes at Sugardew.com or Blogthings.com
and find out what flavor you would be if you were a Pocky!
My results below! rebellious me!

You Are Reverse Pocky

Your attitude: rebellious and clever Non-conformist, but curiously a trendsetter With you, up is down... and it's a wild ride!

What Flavor Pocky Are You?

From Wikipedia
here is a list of some of the many Pocky Flavors in the world;

Chocolate (also in Giant and Little sizes) / Almond Crush (in single- and double-dipped, as well as Cafe au Lait and Anglaise) / Men's (dark chocolate) / Marble Royal Milk Tea / Giant Double Chocolate / Chocolat Orange / Pumpkin / Reverse / Caramel / Yogurt / Strawberry (also in Giant size with dried strawberry) / Almond / Coconut (Milk and Chocolate) / Mango / Banana / Choco Banana / Coconut Milk / Pudding / Milk / Cheese Cake / Pocky G (Chocolate and Berry) / Decorer - Mont Blanc Chocolate, / Strawberry Gateau, / Fraise au Chocolat / Chocolat de Caramel / Gateau Chocolat / Bananu Semi-Sucree / Mousse – (various) Chocolate, Whipped Chocolate, White Chocolate, Strawberry, Green Tea, Black Latte / Blueberry Yogurt / Extra Chocolate / Royal Milk Tea, Mild Chocolate / Azuki (a type of Japanese bean) / Special Occasion/Seasonal - 2001 (7 kinds of rainbow-colored Pocky in a box)/ Kuchidoke (pretzel sticks dipped in ganache, sold in winter) / Honey (spring) / Kiwi Mango (summer) / Regional - Grape (Nagano) / Yubari Melon (Hokkaido) / Giant Mikan (lemony, sold in Kyushu) / Powdered Tea Azuki Bean (Kyoto) / Kobe Wine (Kobe)

Order your own Giant Pocky And flavored Pocky and other japanese snacks are available at QuickSpice.com
Crunch Away!

Dinner on the way to Fujirock Festival 

Bentos on the bullet train

This past weekend, me and my fella got out of the big city and headed off to the FUJIROCK FESTIVAL a three-day extravaganza of music, camping and fun. Friday we packed our new tent, our borrowed sleeping bags, and some gummy bears and headed off to the train.

For the last few years, the home of FUJIROCK has not been at mt. Fuji… but up in the mountains of Nagano, toward Niigata, at the Naeba Ski Resort. The way to get there is by the famous Japanese Shinkansen or Bullet train. We were in one of the double decker MAX version train--- Takes about 1 ½ hours.

What does all this have to do with food and the fancy glass…? Well, one of the most popular and traditional things to do when one is riding the shinkansen is to buy a delicious, popular and traditional Japanese Bento (meal in a box) from Tokyo Station- before boarding, and then eat dinner on the train. So pictured above you can see our meal that started off our great mini vacation weekend.

A note about other FUJIROCK related food… A friend of ours who went to the festival last year was bemoaning the bad and expensive food choices. He told us we should bring a lot of our own food, and I was quite worried about it BUT… Things must have changed a lot since last year cause we found the food at FUJIROCK to be quite good indeed. And Inexpensive.

They had food booths featuring dishes from all over the world, Africa, China, Thailand, America, Britain, France, Spain, --- and most of the best stuff was being offered in booths by independent Restaurant owners. There was the corporate food area, bad pizza and other rock concert fare… but there was also – no lie- a small homemade pizza co. booth where they had a real wood burning pizza oven, that they had brought up the mountain! And it was incredible pizza, some of the best I have had since coming to Japan 9 years ago. Everything was about 500 yen per person! Beer, food, sake, softdrinks, even our Sunday morning British Breakfast of fried eggs, sausages, bread, and bacon. 500 yen!

I didn’t take many pictures of the food as it was raining on us off and on through most of the three days- we had so much fun anyway but my camera stayed nice a dry in a plastic bag in my backpack most of the time. I do have a few shots of music etc. I may put these up on one of my other blogspot areas.

In the meantime, the Bento above featured a nice piece of salmon, steamed rice, tamago yaki, (sweet cooked egg) spinach, seaweed, potatoes, and tempura veggies. YUM! And all for about 8 dollars- which in Japan is good!

I credit our fun and tasty bento with getting our weekend off to such a good start.

the snail- the emblem of "slow food" 

political food

I am a big believer in Slow Food. Mostly my food writing is upbeat, but today I found a passage on the slow food usa website that reminded me how serious and important the politics of food and the environment really is...

A sober thought, and a reason why we should all be concerned about food and the environment, and recognize that they are intertwined-


From - Carlo Petrini
Speech at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Conference

This is how I was convinced to become an environmentalist: I went to eat in a small restaurant in my own native territory near Turin. I had grilled sweet red peppers with olive oil and garlic, a specialty o f the Piedmont region. I tasted it, and there was something wrong with it. They just weren't that good. I asked, "Where do these peppers come from?" They said "Oh, they're from Holland." They were grown hydroponically. They were all identical. There were 32 to a box, not 31, not 33. "And they cost less than ours," the cook was proud to say. "And they last longer than ours." But of course, there was no pleasure of taste. And so I asked the farmers around this restaurant, "Hey, where are those local peppers you used to have around here?" And they said, "Well we just don't grow them anymore because we can't make money on them." And I said, "Well, inside those hot houses where you used to have red peppers, what do you have now?" And they said, " Tulip bulbs!"

And you may laugh, but in your hometown this is happening everyday. Look what you've got on your plate, and you'll see your red peppers come f rom Holland too. And tourists come to Piedmont because they are told there are famous red peppers. And this is the great cheat. There is cheating every day on our plates. There is deceit. we must go back to local agriculture, and go back to giving pride to these farmers, having a human rapport with these farmers.

Full speech at Slow Food USA
Make sure you care, make sure you have a relationship with where and who your food comes from. If each one of us starts to make more deliberate choices then we can and will reverse the trend o f too fast- too impersonal- before it is too late…

*Lauren

My friend Terri and author, Neil Gaiman 

Visiting VIPs

Over the years at Fujimamas (the restaurant I work at)we have had some pretty cool folks stop in. And of course we believe that all our guests are VIPS… but a few days ago we had a great little visit from Sci-fi Fantasy Author Neil Gaiman… one of my best friends and political compatriot, Terri, is a big fan of Mr. Gaiman’s and when she found out he was going to be in Tokyo on a short stop over- she wrote to his assistant and offered to show him some sights in the city.

Sure enough, it all worked out, And Terri, being the terrific friend that she is, and being almost as proud of Fujimamas as I am, brought him over for an afternoon original ginger lemonade in our café area.

Neil wanted sushi for dinner, which is not our specialty so after chatting with them a bit I sent them off to see some of the famous cos-play kids at Harajuku station and then off to a popular sushi and Japanese traditional food spot that is fun for visitors. I think they enjoyed it, though over on Neil's blog he admits to being back to the hotel by 8:30! Not a late night for sure, but then this layover in Tokyo came at the end of a “round the world ticket” so he certainly deserved the rest.

The best vip’s I have met in the restaurant biz- are “real” people who have their heads screwed on right and who have not let fame or success get the better of them. Neil was like that. Easy going, easy to talk to and quite charming.

Thanks for coming by Neil. Next time you have bring the family and autograph something for us.

Thanks for bringing him by Terri- you know we love you!

By the way, you can read about the tasty Ginger lemonade that they had, in my blog may 2005 archives about three quarters of the way down the page at….
Fancy Glass in May

Momo is Japanese for Peach 

Peaches in the Summertime

One of my favorite things about summer in Japan is the peaches. These big pinkish fruits are not at all like the Georgia peaches and local North East Peaches I knew in America. The US Peaches are great for baking and eating, these Japanese peaches are not good for baking at all- but they are extremely delicious. White and pink flesh inside, much more delicate taste and so much juice. Eating one guarantees a lovely tasty mess… juice dripping down your arms, much more like the experience of eating really juicy watermelon.

Peaches are famous in Japan, from the legend of Momo-Taro the peach boy to the expensive individually wrapped peaches in the department store food boutiques, to Japanese peach tattoo icons… Our friend aaron even got obsessed with Peach juice from vending machines while he was over here visting us.

Peaches are available in Japan only from beginning/mid July to the end of August. So you have at best 6-8 weeks of peach enjoyment time. This makes me love them even more in a way as it makes them a bit more special. The photos above are of a fairly small whole peach, some can be bigger than large fuji apples… and a cut peach that we are enjoying today, on My husband’s birthday.

I would have to say, that Japanese peaches are hands down my favorite seasonal fruit in Japan.

Some interesting links
For any true science geeks…. Japanese Peach-genome mapping

A great blog post about peaches from “she who eats…"

A little info and photo on Peaches from Nagano

If you ever get a chance to try these wonderful summer treats, I highly reccommend them!

Harry and A Hogwarts favorite... Trifle