Life Filled with Yummy Stuff

Japanese Souvenirs

2009-01-09T12:11:00.001-08:00

When you go to pick up someone at the airport, you can usually figure out where arriving people are from by looking at the gift shop bags of the airport. When I used to work at Detroit airport, our team used to check the passengers group by looking at those bags. This one on the photo is the bag from Tokyo Narita Aiport which my cousin Mon-chan brought.

Inside the bag was filled with yummy stuff!

These are ramen noodles produced by famous ramen shops in Japan. Inside the boxes are uncooked soft noodles and soup.

Mon-chan couple and we ate one of them together with lots of vegetables, and after Mon-chan left, Aibo-kun and I ate the other box. Both of then were so tasty and we enjoyed them more than eating at any ramen restaurants in LA.

Ramen is so popular in Japan that whenever we go back, it is on our "must eat in Japan" list.

The next one in a red wrapping is spicy cod roe. We usually enjoy them with freshly cooked write rice, but Aibo-kun's favorite way to eat them is with "kuri-gohan", so I cooked some and enjoyed them together. This was a very good quality one that I was very very satisfied!

The sweets was special, too.
As soon as seeing the round packages, I was soooo excited! This is one of the most famous and most difficult caramel candies to get in Japan right now. They are produced by a famous Japanese comedian who owns his own farm in Hokkaido (northern Japan), and even you are in Japan, most people have hard time getting them.

Mon-chan ordered them on-line and the moment you put one in your mouth, it melts on your tongue. The photo is the chocolate flavor one, and we also got to taste the original one. Personally, I like the original one better.

Then the main gift really made me excited! It is a egg pan made with copper. I always wanted one, and when Mon-chan and I went shopping together in Tokyo last spring, I almost bought one, but didn't, and really regreted that I didn't get it. Mon-chan wanted to try using it, so we cooked two eggs, and voila! It turned out beautifully.

For sure, I will cook eggs more often then ever.

Thank you Mon-chan!

Received from Japan!

2009-01-06T16:16:00.000-08:00

My blogger friend iikayo-chan sent me a gift package from Japan. She sent it so I can open it before Christmas, but for some reason, the package got lost and my previous landlord called me and said "I have a package for you" on the New Years Eve. I guess I was lucky to receive it because the package was almost sent back to Japan!
Anyways, iikayo-chan is a friend whom I met through the Japanese blog, and she and her husband has a photography business in Japan. They have a very good taste and I like their work style as well. This is their business URL.

Opening a cafe at home is easier in Japan than in the USA (which actually is one of my dreams for the future, too!), so they are planning to open one this year, and she sent me two kinds of organic tea they may use at their future cafe.

Darjeeling had a very fresh straightforward taste without any additives, and I liked it a lot. The tea bag one had a nice flavor, too. You can tell that both of them are very high quality teas.

Then the pretty traditional Japanese candies made me smile!

The leaf shaped one is made from a traditional special sugar called "wasanbon", and since you are tasting the sugar itself, the quality of "wasanbon" is very important. This one is very delicate and has a good aftertaste.

The other sweet is called "konpeitou". You can find all kinds and colors of "konpeitou" in Japan, but it is quite difficult to find a high quality ones because "konpeitou"'s taste also depends on the quality of the sugar.

Iikayo-chan ordered them from her favorite sweets shop in Kyoto City which is the most popular site seeing place in Japan because of its old temples and atmosphere.

Being apart from home, it is always nice to taste and feel Japanese things in the USA, and that is because my sweet family and friends always care about me. Thank you a lot!

A Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T17:34:00.001-08:00

A Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

I hope everyone had a nice and peaceful holiday.

For us, my very close cousin "Mon-chan" who is like a sister to me and her husband visited us from Japan for a week during the new years holiday, so we spent a Japanese style new years eve and a new years day. This was very special for me because the New Years eve and day are important family holidays just like Christmas is in the USA. Aibo-kun and I used to visit Japan around this time of the year, but since I went back in spring, we've decided to stay in LA this time.

Since the New Years Eve was a pretty cold day, we decided to stay home, cook warm dinner, and watch this Japanese music show called "Kouhaku Utagassen" which most Japanese people watch on TV right before the new year's countdown.

LA has such a large population of Japanese people that we can watch this show on a local channel! My friends in Michigan wish if they could have it, too. It is a pretty big deal.

Another tradition is to eat "Soba" noodle (buckwheat noodle) before the countdown, so during the show, Mon-chan and I cooked some and tried to finish eating before the "Happy New Year!!!"

We woke up late on the New Years Day, and I prepared a simple small New Years dish setting using the plant in our yard. I used to cook the whole new years dish when I lived in Japan and would love to make them here, too, but we were just too busy this year. Maybe next year.

Then the main course was a soup bowl with mochi (rice cake). Mon-chan and I made the soup from the leftover crab from the night before, and it made a really good broth! Right before putting the mochi into the soup, we cooked the mochi just until they puffed up.

Surprisingly, we were still not full, so cooked some more mochi and this time, ate with a drop of soy sauce and nori.

The mochi I bought this year was organic brown rice mochi from an organic Japanese supermarket, and this was a big hit!

Then came the dessert time♪

Mon-chan brought this cute Japanese sweets just like fortune cookies made for the new years, so four of us broke a few pieaces each.

Mine were "Procrastination is the thief of time.", and "Better now than later", so I guess I should be more active this year!

It was a very peaceful new years with lots of laughter, and hope that this happiness will continue throughout the year 2009, not only for me, but for everyone!

Friend's great Christmas Party

2008-12-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

My very good friend Nadia held a great Christmas Party at her home over the weekend, and she wanted me to bring the rectangle cheesecake after she saw one in this blog, so I've decided to decorate it with the marshmalllow snowman.

I also baked my recent favorate, a chocolate pecan pie. Both of them are my favorites.

The holiday season traffic was pretty heavy, but we finally got there and as I walked into the house, the main table was filled with great looking tasty food!

The first ones came into my sight were beautiful main dishes, ham and salmon.

Then follows other good looking side dishes such as salads, special rice, and bite size quiches.

Chicken and sauces were great, and the whole table just looked so beautiful!

I was so proud of Nadia.

Another thing I really liked with this party was that the idea of the cool drink bar. So many different drinks with cute ice container with fresh cranberries.

Each glass had a real leaf with a ribbon so the guests could write their name with a sharpie to identify each other's glasses.

I would love to use this idea if I have my own party in the future! :)

There were about forty people at the party and everyone was having great time with great food and decoration. Kids were having fun, too.

For myself, I was really glad to see people enjoying my cakes because making people smile with my sweets make me happy!

Celebrating holidays with great friends is always enjoyable and precious. Cheers to a great party!

Happy holidays to everyone, and have a great rest of the year 2008!!!

Christmas Decoration Class

2008-12-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Holiday seasons!

This time, I taught how to decorate cupcakes and cookies with Christmas theme. We made two kinds of cupcakes, and decorated two kinds of cookies.

The flavors of the cupcakes were vanilla lemon and carrot cake. Both baked very well.

There weren't enough time to bake cookies in class, so I baked vanilla and gingerbread cookies the night before and took them to the class for decoration.

Since this was everyone's first time to decorate cookies and cupcakes, it took more time than I planned, but many of them turned out very cute, and the class was very fun.

The cream cheese frosting with the carrot cake tasted very good, and the cookies were so cute!!!

This would be a good class to have in different seasons with different themes, so I would love to held more of them in the future.

Happy holidays!!

Company Christmas Party

2008-12-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

Aibo-kun's company Christmas Party was held over the weekend, so we attended the party for the second time. When we attended the last year's party, it was right after I moved to CA and didn't know anyone, but this time, I could see a few people I know, so it was more relaxing and fun.

Here are the photos of the dinner served.

Blue cheese and pear salad. Since Aibo-kun cannot eat cheese, he got the one without cheese. (Thanks to the server!)

The main course was beef and white fish. The beef was cooked with red wine sauce, and the white fish was served with beurre blanc sauce. Accompanied with potatos, mini suqash, and other vegetables.

Dessert was key lime pie with coffee or tea.

The party was very simple, but it was nice to talk with other people, and have a holiday photo taken by the professionals.

Because of the slow economy, many companies have stopped having holiday parties, but I hope things will get better so people can share a happy time together again.

Appetizer & Hordorve Lesson

2008-12-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

There was a request for fancy looking appetizers and Hordorves lesson for home parties, so I taught two kinds of terrines, a Vegetable Consomme one, and a salmon one.

We used fresh vegetables from a farmer's market. With the vegetable terrine, we made a dressing using citrus vinegar and maple syrup. This terrine holds together with gelatine cooled in a refrigerator.
With the salmon terrine, we made yougurt dill creamy dressing which also would go well with the vegetable terrine. This one was cooked in a water bath in the oven. Both of them were done right on time, so I was really relieved when we could try some after the class. Usually terrines taste better after sitting at least for over night.

While we waited for both terrines to be done, we made three kinds of hordorves.

The first one is buckwheat mini pancake topped with smoked salmon and creme fraiche. Creme fraiche is something similar to sour cream, but is lower in acidity and higher in fat. It is a common cream used in Europe.

The next one is America's favorite, "Deviled Egg". The name comes from "strong, spicy taste". In order to add the hot flavor, we used tabasco this time. The red color on the top is the sprinkles of powdered paprika.

The last one is mushroom tapanade. Sauteed mushrooms with different herbs, ground and spread over miniature toast. This one has a really good flavor, and it sure will become a nice accompaniment to wines.

All of these will be a popular starters for your holiday season parties!!

Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-11-28T23:53:00.001-08:00

It's been a very hectic week for Aibo-kun and AKO because we moved to a new place. We started to move small things about a week ago, and oficially moved in the day before Thanksgiving.

While lived in Michigan, I usually cooked the Thanksgiving dinner at our place and invited friends over, but last year, I was working at a private country club, so from very early in the morning at work, we baked many many pies and cookies for the members' buffet and take home dinner orders.

This year, my really close friend invited us to her parents' home, so after cleaning our previous place, Aibo-kun and I joined the dinner. Since this is my first Thanksgiving in California, it feels a little weird not to have snow, but it is actually nice at the same time.

My friend and her sisters cooked the dinner this year, and everything tasted very good!

Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashpotatoes, vegetables, etc... Both Aibo-kun and I were starving, so we ended up eating so much, probably too much!

Here are the pictures of the Thanksgiving yummy dinner!

Roasted Turkey is simple, but actually a delicate dish because it can easily get over cooked and dry. This one was very moist and had good flavor. Good job!

Not only they tasted good, but the table was very colorful with different types of dishes, and they looked pretty as well.

And last but not the least, can't forget the desserts! I was planning to bake pies, but since my kitching was not in a working condition right after the moving, I could not take any with me, but it was actually nice to enjoy the dinner all prepared by someone else!!!

Apple pie, pumpkin pie, toffee and chocolate truffles really filled me up! My friend made this really delicate tasty chocolate covered toffee, and it is literally addictive.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with lovely people, and it was a great escape from the moving work. Now Thanksgiving is over, here comes Christmas next!!!

Birthday Cupcakes

2008-11-21T08:40:00.001-08:00

Six years old girl's birthday cupcakes to take to school on her birthday!

At the beginning, the girl's mother and I planned for buttercream decorated cupcakes, but then they received a notice from school that the sweets they give out to the classmates are preferred not to have too much cream on them, and the drinks should be healthy things like water or fruit juice.

Therefore, I baked cupcakes in two flavors, and decorated them with little icing and sprinkles of colored sugar instead of buttercream.

Since I still wanted them to look cute and girlish, but not too much, I went to different stores and finally found pink cupcake liners with white dots!

For the vanilla cupcakes, I added some lemon zests from the lemons picked from my friend's lemon tree to add flavor.

Colored the icing into a very pale blue to make a contrast with the other color.

The chocolate cupcakes are brownie type. No cocoa powder added, only the real chocolates, so they are very moist and full in flavor.

Topped with white icing with colored sugar sprinkles.

The girl's mother said these cupcakes were popular, and some of the mothers who tasted them enjoyed the flavor, too!

Another happy moment for me.

As a birthday gift from AKO, I made an iced sugar cookie with the girl's name on. It turned out into a very cute looking one with my signature royal icing flowers! This is one of my favorated docorated cookies among the ones I've decorated.

Happy Birthday H!!!!

Rectangle Cheesecake

2008-11-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

I was invited to a birthday party, so asked the birthday person what she would like for her birthday cake since I've decided to bake one as her birthday gift.

Right away, my friend said "cheesecake"!!! She wanted a simple, no flavor added baked cheesecake. In order to add a giftlike looking to the cake, I made some gum paste flowers and leaves in addition to the usual chocolate plate.

Also, instead of making a usual round cake, I used the rectangle tart mold so it will be easier to serve the guests at the party.

Here is how it looks in whole.

The image of my friend's color is spring green, so I made the cake board with the pretty colored papers, and the flowers were made with the matching colors.

Instead of baking the cake over the common graham cracker base, I used some tart dough. This actually tasted pretty good, and my friend and the other guests really enjoyed it. When I served the cake, I plated it with some raspberry cream and people liked it as well.

However, I found out that the gumpaste flower does melt a little from the moisture of the cake, so I should try other methods in the future.

It always makes me happy to see other people smile when they put my pastries into their mouth and taste them. This turned out to be my happy day, too! Happy Birthday Friend!!!

Stories of Persimmons

2008-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

A bag full of freshly picked persimmons arrived from my friend's co-worker's percimmon tree.
For some reason, I had an image that percimmon is a Japanese fruit, but it actually originates in China. Nowadays, persimmons are very popular in Korea as well, so you can find large, tasty percimmons at most Asian supermarkets.

There are two kinds of percimmons, sweet ones and bitter ones. It has something to do with the tannin, but not sure about the detail. The bitter ones are too bitter to eat as is, but my grandmother used to air them outside under the roof, and after a while, the percimmons dry out covered with white powders, and that is the sign that the bitter percimmons have turned into sweet dried fruits.

Of course, the ones I received this time were the sweet ones with less seeds, so all I had to do was to peel and eat!

There used to be a small park with percimmon tree next to my parents' house in Japan, and every fall, my brother and I used to pick them. The funny thing was, every year, the percimmons took turns in taste, sweet and bitter. For example, if they were sweet this year, they would be bitter next year. I'm not sure if that's an usual thing for percimmon trees to do, but we were surely disappointed in bitter years.

The sad thing is, the park is now gone, and a large apartment building is standing after where the percimmon tree was. Memory...

Here is the picture of percimmon tart I made earlier this year. Fresh ripened percimmon flesh over creme parissier filled tart shell. Maybe I should make one before Aibo-kun and I finish eating up all the percimmons!

Chestnut Rice ~ Kuri Gohan ~

2008-11-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

As I planned the other day, I got more chestnuts, and instead of making more "shibukawani", I've decided to cook chestnut rice this time.

After returning home, I boiled the chestnuts for a few minuts, and let it soke until the water was cool enough to put your fingers in. This process will let the outer skin soften and makes it easier to peel.

When I just started peeling them, Aibo-kun got home earlier than expected with hungry stomach, but I really felt like eating the chestnut rice, and in order to prep dinner, had to finish peeling them.

Finally the peeling was done, and time to cook the rice! Washed the rice, added sake, soy sauce, and salt to add flavor, and cooked the same way as I usually cook my rice, in my favorite "Le Creuset" pot.

While waiting for the rice to cook, I prepped other side dishes like vegetables and soup.

Good quality "Tarako" (salted cod roe) was in my fridge, so I added some to our dish as well.

Then finally!!! Our dinner time has arrived.

Introducing a traditional Japanese dish, "Kuri Gohan" (chestnut rice).

Chestnuts kind of taste like Japanese yellow sweet potato (not yam), but has its own crunchiness remaining in this dish. It turned out so well, and Aibo-kun was so pleased, I should make it again before the chestnuts disappear from the store.

Debut in Korean Town

2008-11-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

LA is a very international city, and for a foodie like me, it is very exciting because there are more variety of cuisines to choose from. I've tried Little Saigon, Little India, Little Taiwan (not sure if people really call it so) since moved to LA, but wanted to try out more.

This time, Aibo-kun and I got to explore Korean Town for the first time. Thanks to one of our friends whose parents are Japanese and Korean, we had a great first experience! It was amazing to see him order in Korean language. He speaks English, Japanese, and Korean perfectly, and both Aibo-kun and I were so impressed.

He took us to this restaurant that serves Pork Korean BBQ. According to him, pork is wallet friendly, tasty, and high in nutrient, so it is a very popular meal amoung young people.

Vegetables, Kimchi, Squid, and Korean pancakes were placed on top of the special table cookware, and slices of pork bellies were grilled in the center.

Besides what's on top of the cookware, cold soup, scallion salad, lettuce, and rice cake sheets were served. When the pork is ready to eat, you can wrap them in either rice cake sheet or lettuce, or even both!

I really enjoyed the taste of the rice cake sheet. Our friend told us that eating with the rice cake sheet was started in the US, then it becamse so popular that someone introduced it in mainland Korea, so now it's a common way to eat in Korea, too. It sounds just like California Roll which was invented in the US and now you can see them in some restaurants in Japan.
At the end, we ordered a single serve of rice, and it was fried with the leftover vegetables and meat with hot Korean miso sauce. That was very tasty, and great way to finish up the meal.

It is a very clean, nice restaurant and we would definately go back with more friends again.

Our debut in Korean Town was a success and can't wait to explore more.

Honey Pig
3400 W 8th St.
LA, CA 90005
Phone: (213)380-0256
Valet Parking next to the restaurant

Pumpkin Tart & Tofu Brownie

2008-11-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

Here is another fall item. Pumpkins!!!

I saw sugar pumpkins lining at the farmer's market. They were really cute.

It was before Halloween, and I thought I should make something with these pumpkins.

So in a pastry class, I taught Pumpkin Tart and Tofu Brawnie. Usually punpkins are made into pies, but for this particular filling, I prefered using tart shells rather than pie dough.

Using a few kinds of spice such as cinammon, clove, and freshly ground nutmeg, the tart turned out very aromatic. To add some extra flavor, home made orange marmalade I made earlier this year was added and it matched very well with the other ingredients.

With the left over tart dough, we made them into different fallish shapes using cookie cutters so we could decorade our tasting dishes.

With Tofu Brownie, instead of using cane sugar, I used natural liquid sweetner such as maple syrup and agave nector. There is no butter used in the recipe, so it is healthy and less guiltiness!

This tart is not only for Halloween, but can be served at a Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner as well. Very tasty, fallish sweet for the holiday season. Yummm...

Panna Cotta with Apple and Pomegranite

2008-11-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

Aibo-kun (my husband) brought back a nice colored pomegranite from work which one of his co-workers gave him.

I remember when I was a child back in Japan, our neighbor had a pomegranite tree and when fall arrived, they gave some to us. Even though it is not an easy fruit to eat, or really tasty one for a child, I was still excited with the bright red color they have, and the seeds looked like red jewerly to me in those days!

There are different ways to deseed pomegranite, but I think the cleanest way is to break or cut one in quarters, soak them in a bowl filled with water for a little while. Then get the seeds out, and they should come out easily.

You can juice them and make some syrup or jelly, but this time, since I only have one, decided to simply enjoy it as is. Fresh!

I loved the flavor, the aroma, the tartness, and the look.

The next day, I made some vanilla panna cotta topped with caramelized apple. Then I noticed the dessert was missing something... Color!

I opened my fridge, and there they are, the left over pomegranite seeds from the previous day. Perfect natural decorative color.

So, here it is, the vanilla panna cotta with caramelized apple topping with a finishing touch of pomegranite seeds. Yummmm♪

Shibukawa-ni ~ Cooked Chestnut Sweet ~

2008-11-04T22:53:00.000-08:00

It's already November, but since the leaves are not colorful nor temperature is dropping enough to wear winter coats in LA, I don't feel like winter is coming up.

However, foodwise, the fruits and vegetables we see at the farmer's market are different from the kinds in summer, so I've decided to make something fallish today.

I bought large good quality chestnuts, peeled the hard shell, boiled them with baking soda for a couples of times, then boiled the batch the third time, and finally cooked them in a syrup made with two kinds of sugar, and rum to add extra flavor.

The most time consuming and difficult part of making this is cleaning the excess fiber and skin without breaking the inner skin of the chestnut. You need patience, but it does take your mind away from everything else, so it is like meditating in a way.

This chestnut sweet is called "Shibukawa-ni" in Japanese. You can eat it by itself, or make chestnut puree out of it, or bake different kinds of cakes using it.

Just thinking of different ways of using "Shibukawa-ni", I may run to the store tomorrow and buy some more chestnuts, so I can try out making different sweets and upload in this blog!

Starting a new blog in English

2008-10-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Keeping a blog for almost 3 years in Japanese, I have finally decided to start a new one in English, so I can share my life filled with yummy things with my non-Japanese friends as well. For ones who can read Japanese, or just want to check out the photos, here is the link to my Japanese blog.

For you who haven't read my Japanese blog or don't know me in person, I would like to write a little about myself.

My name is AKO. I moved from Japan to Michigan 6 years ago, and then married aibou-kun (this is a nick name I use to call my husband in my blog that means hubby-parter in Japanese). When I first moved to the US, I've decided to change my career path from business world to culinary world which was my long time dream since I was in high school.

Through attending culinary school, I realized that I have more talent in pastry field rather than hot food cooking, so addition to my culinary degree, I also received a pastry certificate and started my career in a pastry kitchen of a fine dining French Restaurant where I learned so much about plated dessert and delicate pastry production.

After a while, I moved on to work for a private golf country club. Here, I learned more about baking breads and volume pastry production for various banquets.

Even though I truely loved what I did at work, I had to admit that spending time with aibou-kun and do traveling which I love was not very easy because aibou-kun works during weekdays in office, and kitchen schedule usually works the opposite.

Therefore, after we moved to California 10 months ago, I have decided to find a way to keep doing what I like, but in a different style. Right now, I have just started a pastry class, offering to help people cook in their own kitchen, and also work as English-Japanese interpretor on the side.

I think this is long enough for today. Thank you very much for visiting my blog. I hope you got to know a little about me, and would love you to keep coming back to check out more about my life filled with yummy stuff!