My Funny Valentine

I really shouldn't be writing this post. My apartment looks like a giant explosion of toiletries, winter clothes, summer clothes and plastic bags. That's right, I'm packing for vacation! This time around, Blammo and I are hitting up New York, Chile, Argentina, Savannah and The Bay Area for about 2 weeks. Yeah. It's going to be nuts. And awesome. And delicious.

We will arrive in Santiago on Valentine's Day, so I decided to bake some vday sweets well in advance. One of the season cake classes at ABC is a White Chocolate Strawberry heart shaped cake. It was adorable but not really my kid of cake. Buttercream frosting seems to be exclusively American and cakes in Japan are almost always topped with whipped cream or ganache. Nothing wrong with that but just not my style. It's pretty though, right?

For my lovely coworkers, who I am getting to know more and more these days I made a batch of Pink Frosting Cookies. When baking for my expat office, I try my best to bring a little piece of home to them and one bite of these cookies will bring you back to elementary school. My birthday is in October near Halloween, so whenever it was my turn to bring in a treat to share for my class, I always got white sugar cookies with bright orange frosting from Safeway. Well, regardless of what color the frosting is the taste will bring you back to those store bought Lofthouse style cookies.

The batch I made tasted spot on and I was so pleased to hear all the Americans say "oh my gosh, these totally remind me of ". Because I always use a 50/50 mix of bread and cake flour, the texture of my cookies turned out more cakey than I would have liked. They were basically cupcake tops. Not a bad thing at all. I don't mind the softness but maybe next time I'll try an 80/20 bread to cake flour mix to see if it makes a difference. 

Ok, I'm running out of things to say about Valentine's Day. I've watched all the new TV shows on my Apple TV and washed every single dish in the house which means, I have to either go to sleep or finish packing.

See you in 2 weeks with lots of pictures and stories from far and away!

O-Shogatsu :: Eat, Pray, Clap

あけましておめでとう！

Happy New Year! Last year, Blammo and I searched for a traditional countdown party-like atmosphere with disappointing results. This year, Blammo's family was in town, so we did what all the other people in Japan do - we went to a shrine. 

The New Year's holiday is arguably the most important and busy holidays of the year in Japan just like Lunar New Year in China and Tết in Vietnam. O-shogatsu follows a lot of the same traditions, but is celebrated during the Gregorian New Year. Offices close around December 29th until around January 3rd so that everyone can return home to their respective towns and celebrate the new year festivities with their family. Depending on how you look at it, it's a great time to visit Tokyo. It's very peaceful but on the other hand, most shops are closed.

We went to Hie Jinja Shrine near our apartment after a delicious sushi dinner. We arrived around 11pm but the shrine was still setting up. Hatsumode is the most important aspect of o-shogatsu and it refers to the first prayer of the year. Many people visit the shrines around midnight on December 31st because being one of the first to pray brings good luck. Since we got there so early, we were in the front of the line to ring in the new year. 

Around 11:30pm, the line was pretty long. There were police officers manning the scene to lay down the law (don't push, go slowly and exit to the right). There was a lot of bumping and pushing but it was all harmless and probably due to drunkeness. It may be taboo to show up drunk to midnight mass, but it's almost expected that you show up tipsy to a shrine on New Year's. In fact, the shrines sell beer and sake on sight. It's a great time to try warm sweet milky sake called amazake.

 When the clock struck midnight, everyone clapped and yelled "akemashite omedetou!" which literally means, congratulations on the opening. Pro tip - in English, we say "Happy New Year" both before and after December 31st. Not so in Japanese. You say "yoi otoshi o" before the New Year and "akemashite omedetou gozaimasu" after. I've confused a lot of people by mixing them up and am grateful that someone finally corrected me.

The gates opened at midnight to let everyone in to pray. At shinto shrines, you clap twice, bow, throw money into a wooden box, pray and ring a bell. The order is still a little fuzzy to me, but that's the gist of it. On New Year's, monks strike a large gong 108 times so that was going down in the background. I have to say, it was a pretty deep experience and I preferred this spiritual celebration much more than your typical get wasted party/fight for a taxi home.

This being Japan, there was plenty of good fortune to be purchased from pretty young shrine maidens. The most popular on New Years is a hamaya which means "demon breaking arrow".  

When placed in your home, the arrow will ward of evil spirits for the year. A whole year's worth of protection for $16, plus cute bells and a picture of a rabbit? Done.

An interesting fact that will either make you look smart or like a jerk depending on how you present it: In the Vietnamese Zodiac calendar, the year of the rabbit is actually the year of the cat. The word for "rabbit" in Chinese sounds a lot like the word for "cat" in Vietnamese, thus the mistranslation. So this year is both the year of the cat and rabbit, depending on where you are. 

 You can also buy your year's fortune, おみくじ (omikuji). These are pretty complicated and if you can't read Japanese, a waste of a dollar. There are 12 fortunes ranging from a great blessing (daikichi 大吉） to a great curse(daikyou 大凶). I visited another shrine with my Japanese friend a few days after the new year and my fortune this year was right in the middle - kichi 吉. Phew!

Your omikuji also goes into length about travel, romance, lost items, law suits, examinations, business and health. According to my fortune, my lost items will be returned and I will win a law suit this year. It also said that I if I consult others about my problems, I will have a good year.

You can also buy a daruma, the red doll shown above. These are little dream catchers. You set a goal and fill in the right eye and when you accomplish your goal, you fill in the left eye. 

 And of course, there's incredible food during o-shogatsu! Typically, families eat very special bentos (osechi ryori) on New Years. They're very symbolic but according to my friend, not that tasty. She was a little late to pick me up from the train station because she had to buy some bread - they were tired of eating Japanese food! We visited one of her local shrines, Hikawa Jinja in Omiya. It is the largest shrine in Saitama and also the 8th most popular during the new year. (Meiji-jingu in Harajuku is #1) It was indeed very crowded, but the food was INSANE! I was wearing a very expensive kimono that didn't belong to me, so I couldn't really get down on it, but it looked great. Lots of fried and grilled meats covered in butter, eggs, mayonaise and salt. If your new year's resolution is to eat better, this is not the place to visit.

Monjayaki on a stick with a fried egg on top. It's not clear to me how you eat this, but I definitely would have ruined my friend's mom's kimono had I tried to figure it out. 

Grilled fish on a stick.

Mini okonomiyaki

 Takoyaki with a whole mini-octopus inside. 

 Grilled potatoes with butter

The 7 spices that make up shichimi. Chili pepper, mikan peel, white sesame, black sesame, hemp powder, ginger and seaweed. 

 Our big souvenir of the day was a personalized blend of shichimi. I like to put shichimi on everything. Plain rice, chicken meatballs, soup, noodles etc. At this stand, you tell the spice guy what you like and he makes a special blend just for you. Blammo likes spicy so he asked for a very spicy Blammo blend and the man did not disappoint. As much fun as all the talismen and fortunes are, this is a nice practical souvenir to remember our first traditional oshogatsu.

Merry Christmas! :: Cookie City

Merry Christmas from Tokyo! Apparently my family is having a big German Christmas dinner back in California. Me? I just ate a 5-piece Chicken McNugget kids meal set for lunch and am baking my last batch of Christmas cookies from Blammo and Company. Last week, I decided to give some homemade holiday cookies to friends and coworkers. It. Was. Crazy! But fun too! When I was growing up, our neighbors, the Hendersons, always gave us a tin of Mrs. Henderson's homemade Christmas cookies.They were so delicious and unlike anything I'd ever had before. The memory stuck in my mind and I've always wanted to carry on the tradition. 2010 marks the beginning of my cookie tin holiday giveaway. 

This event began on December 6th, with some pre-planning. I took out all my cookbooks, bought the Martha Stewart Holiday Cookie magazine and looked up all those Google Reader starred recipes I'd been eyeing all year. I think my first list of cookies was 13 recipes long. Eventually, that got whittled down to the final 6. Then came all the converting - Martha is not metric friendly. The flour cookbook came in handy because throughout her book, she lists how many grams X amount of sugar, flour etc. weighs. And this butter conversion website is a lifesaver. 

The plan was to make my staple chocolate chip cookies, 2 icebox cookies that could be made days in advance, 1 stovetop treat and something classically Christmas. The decision to do 2 icebox cookies was my saving grace since they're so easy to make and can be made up to a month in advance. You can freeze the doughs in logs and when you're ready to bake, you just slice and go. Martha has a genius suggestion of saving you paper towel rolls to store the logs in so that they don't flatten out at the bottom. It worked like a charm. 

Brown butter rice crispy treats (Flour cookbook), cranberry coins (Martha Stewart Magazine) and buttered rum meltaways with no powdered sugar topping (Martha Stewart Cookie Book). 

Chocolate chip cookies (my own recipe adapted from The NY Times), gingerbread men (Martha Stewart Cookies) and buttered rum meltaways with powdered sugar (Martha Stewart Cookies). 

I couldn't fine suitable tins anywhere in town, so I got these egg carton looking boxes and did what I could to jazz them up and make them my own. Not to shabby, I have to say. 

Our apartment's reception desk and my coworkers got extra big boxes thanks to Ziploc Snap 'n Seal tupperware. 

Me on the way to work carrying about 150 freshly baked cookies. 

My coworkers and friends seemed to enjoy the treats however, I get the sense that people don't bake and share in Japan as much as back home. It was almost expected that people bring in treats once and awhile at my old office in NY. I think it mostly confused people here. 

I had a lot of leftover cookies, so I've been passing them out to local restaurants we frequently visit. It's been really fun to share a little American tradition. 

To top off my 2nd Christmas in Japan, I made a raspberry chocolate Buche de Noel at ABC Cooking Studio. ABC Cooking Studio friend and I have never taken a cake class so this was a lot of fun for us.

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tokyo Midtown :: Designed to Blow Your Mind

If you're ever in Tokyo, I highly recommend stopping by Tokyo Midtown. You will most likely make your way to the Roppongi neighborhood to check out Roppongi Hills. Tokyo Midtown isn't that far away and in my opinion, there's a lot more to see and do here. First of all, it's where I take bread classes at ABC Cooking Studio. On the weekends, ABC offers 1-day English cooking lessons where you can learn how to make some Japanese dishes but they're only offered at the Tokyo Midtown location. Second, Tokyo Midtown is a great place to pick up not-cheesy souvenirs. It's a design nerd's wet dream and they're always hosting interesting art and design exhibits on the premises.  

Their annual Design Touch event took place last month and I took a few pictures of one of the cooler displays. Basically, a computer takes a picture of you and prints your silhouette on black adhesive sticky tape. Sponsored by Epson, the idea was to have people put their shadows up on a wall with a message about what they cared most about in the world, such as the environment or community. It was a really cute idea, even though most people ignored the whole social message angle. 

Currently running at Tokyo Midtown is their holiday light show. Oh man. It is BONKERS. Most Japanese people don't even celebrate Christmas, but boy do they love holiday decorations. And this being Japan, they took the original idea, flipped it on it's head and made it bigger, over the top and totally fun.  A few weeks ago, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I turned the corner and saw the incredible light show taking place. The garden lights run every night until December 26th from 5pm - 11:00pm. Here is a description of their concept:

In a large grassy space of around 2,000 square meters, 250,000 blue and white LED lights represent the vastness of space and the night sky.


I don't know what the vastness of space has to do with Christmas, but I don't care! It's gorgeous! People, there's dry ice and fake shooting stars! Pictures really don't do it justice. And the holiday cheer doesn't stop there. There are Scandinavian Christmas shops, red "cracker" streamers draping from the ceiling and lights everywhere. Perhaps you won't be in Tokyo this holiday season, so here's a little preview of what you're missing:  

Infinite box of lights that will make you feel like you're in a Madonna video. 

 Happy Holidays!

Potato Latkes and Chunky Holiday Apples :: Happy Hannukah!

Today while I was running, I was thinking about what I would eat for dinner. I ran the fridge inventory through my head and realized that I didn't really have much to work with tonight. Some old potatoes, onions, creme fraiche, kimchi and eggs. Oh and some leftover apples from yesterday's muffins. At first, it looked like it was going to be a take-out night. But then it hit me - Hanukkah! A few hours earlier, I had just seen a friend's blog post about the festival of lights (it's so early this year!) and as it turns out, I just so happen to have all the ingredients needed to make potato latkes. Bonus: I could try to make some sort of applesauce substitute. How resourceful. This got me very excited and the next few miles were a breeze. I mentioned a few days ago that nothing fuels my desire to exercise more than guilt, but a close second would be knowing that I can eat whatever the heck I want because I just burned a butt load of calories. It's a vicious cycle, but it works for me.

I cook the same way I bake. I like to map everything out with pen and paper and measure out all my ingredients before starting any of the cooking. But I was so excited about the latkes tonight, that I just skimmed at a few recipes on my iPhone on the train ride home and gave it a go. It was quite liberating! Here's my recipe as best I can remember:

Ingredients


3 medium sized potatoes, grated  
1 medium sized onion, thinly sliced and quartered 
1 beaten egg
3 TB potato starch flour or just regular flour 
salt + pepper 

1. Place the grated potatoes in a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes. I have no idea why you do this, but I remember seeing it on a few of the recipes online. I assume it has something to do with making the potatoes ready for crisping.

2. Dump the water and put the potatoes in a dry bowl covered with a towel. Gather the corners of the towel together and squeeze all the excess water out of the potatoes. Water and oil are not friends and if you don't want to be dodging splattered oil during the frying stages, make sure you put some muscle into wringing out the towel. If you save the excess water in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes, the starch from the potatoes will sink to the bottom. You can fish this out and add it back to your potato mixture. It will naturally thicken up your batter and make shaping your pancakes a little easier. I happen to have potato starch flour on hand, so I used that instead.

3. With your hands, mix the sliced onions and potato starch into the potato hash. Add the egg and mix well. Salt and pepper the batter well.

4. Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil (I used grape seed which is really neutral in taste. Good 'ole veggie oil will do fine too.) in a large skillet on high heat. Spoon some of the potato mixture into the pan and try to form a compact circle. You can probably fit 2 or 3 per batch. After about 3 minutes, turn the heat down to medium low. Flip the pancakes after a few minutes, turning the heat back up to medium high. Cook for another 3-4 minutes or until both sides are nicely browned.

The size of the pancakes are up to you, but I found that the smaller ones are easier to manage. Continue to add oil in between batches.

5. Lightly salt and pepper the pancakes right after you remove them from the skillet.

Traditionally, latkes are eaten with applesauce and sour cream. I was really tempted to squirt some ketchup on these Burger King style, but I refrained. I didn't have applesauce or sour cream, but I did have an apple and creme fraiche. So, I made a quick little chunky apple...thing (jam? chutney? compote?) and it tasted great. Sort of like apple pie filling.

If you're not making these for a traditional Hanukkah meal, try adding in other veggies like carrots, zucchini or green onions. Just be sure to wring out as much water out of all the veggies you use before mixing.

Ingredients for Chunky Holiday Apples 


1 apple, diced into chunks (I used a Fuji...as I am in Japan)
1 tsp cinnamon 
2 TB butter
3 TB apple juice (for some odd reason, we just so happen to have 1 pear juice box in the fridge)

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium high heat. Add the the rest of the ingredients, coating the apples with the liquid. Once the liquid starts to bubble, turn down the heat and simmer until all the liquid has evaporated.

Thanksgiving in Tokyo

Nothing will make you miss home more than the holidays. For me, this especially means Thanksgiving. I totally get being annoyed by the stress of Thanksgiving. The travelling. The family. The football. But until you've been separated from the tradition at least once in your life, you won't truly appreciate what you have. Last year, I pretty much ignored Thanksgiving. I thought at least that way, I could pretend it never even existed and it wouldn't hurt so much that I wasn't with my friends and family. It only semi-worked. So this year, I tried my best to embrace it. On Wednesday night, I baked 2.1 pies for my co-workers in the hopes of bringing some holiday spirit to my quiet and semi-antisocial officemates. I baked until 1am and suffered my first baking casualty ever - a little burn on my arm from taking the pies out of the oven. Youch!

The taste of home was much appreciated (even by the Aussies in the house, who eat pumpkin pie at Christmas before they go swimming on the beach - weird, right?) with the exception of a few needy folks who asked if I also brought whipped cream. I told them the same thing I tell 4 year olds: You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. 

 Some leftover batter for a teeny tiny pie. 

For Thanksgiving Day, I made reservations at Beacon in Aoyama. They do a really nice Thanksgiving dinner every year. I ate here for my first birthday in Japan last year so I knew I was in for a treat. To make things even more fun, I got to treat my Japanese friend to her first Thanksgiving dinner ever! It was adorable. 

 Smoked salmon with curried egg salad on rye toast and mixed baby greens. Just like Thanksgiving at home, salad is just a formality. This came after a pretty mind blowing cream of seasonal wild mushroom soup. 

 Peace! (At Thanksgiving) 

 Beacon did a nice job with the sides. Very seasonal, very earthy and very Thanksgiving. Brussel sprouts with shiitake, creamed cauliflower and pearl onions, whipped candied yams with sour cream and toasted pecans. 

 Oh, why hello there Mr. Turkey! Thank you for invited your friends apple, chestnut and sausage stuffing and cranberry-persimmon relish. Please make yourself at home!

Cute story #1: After eating her turkey, friend exclaimed "I just don't understand why we don't grow Turkeys in Japan!" 

Cute story #2: I tried to explain the tryptophan-induced turkey coma thing at dinner but it was really loud and I had a hard time explaining why it makes you sleepy. When we parted for the evening, I told her that she'd probably fall asleep on the train. She emailed me today and said: 

i was so sleepy on the train as you said.  it's turkey magic?

Pumpkin cheesecake with pumpkin gelato. No gracias on the gelato but the pie was very good and I much prefer it to the recipe I used for the 2.1 I baked the night before. I've come to the conclusion that I like pumpkin cheesecake pie better than regular 'ol p-pie because it's lighter and creamier. And yes, it was better with whipped cream. 

Blammo had a work related thing to do so he missed the Thanksgiving outing. Thankfully, the portions were so big that I could bring him home leftovers, thus completing my quest to recreate Thanksgiving in Tokyo. Leftovers are the best part anyways, right?