Canada Day treats

I baked red velvet cupcakes for tomorrow , July 1st, Canada Day.
It is easy to make but little bit hard to find nice recipe because not so popular here.
I can imagine everyone likes this cupcake. but why not all bakery don't have it...
Recent years finally, I can find red velvet in cakeshops sometimes.

This time I searched internet to get recipe from US.
While I was baking, I realized that I should put so much food colour in a bowl.
Wow wow... that is ... just surprising. Maybe this is reason it took so long time to be popular in Japan ? We didn't use vivid colour in baking at home so far, red, blue, etc.

Red velvet reminds me Canada!
Also, baked maple leaf cookies, put maple leaf flag for making dessert table.
Yes, looking Canadian☆

I am emotionally involved in Canada. I will talk about it later.

Towel Museum in Imabari, Ehime

  

Towel Museum

http://www.towelmuseum-group.com/english/asakura_museum.html English

http://www.towelmuseum.com/ Japanese


When we hear the word, "Towel museum" , seems boring. yes, I was bored.
However, once I got in the museum, can feel so happy to be there.
I bet that Imabari towel has high quality, traditional, and famous brand worldwide.

We can watch towel manufacturing process, towel arts and collection, and get good quality towel made in Imabari in the shop.

It is not easy to get here without a car, of course we can take trains and taxi but a little bit  inconvenient from Osaka.

I really wanted to go towel museum in Imabari because it also has Moomin Exhibition inside. Moomin character is popular among Japanese girls, but originally comes from Finland.

 

This is 40 meters towel with Moomin, which has one story.  Isn't it great?

Still don't know why they has related to Imabari.

Anyway I love so fluffy towel and Moomin.

Middle Easten Rice Pudding

I found that rice pudding is so good more than I expected.
Actually, I don't remeber I had it in the past, so probably I did'n t use to the taste of it.

However my family didn't like it. he was very honest, and said,
" I challenged to eat so hard, but could eat just 3 tsp."

So funny.
He didn't have to try hard. It's just a pudding.
I am always greatful for him to eat my homemade desserts because sometimes dessets could be main dish for dinner that day. It happens a lot.

Anyway, I wonder rice pudding is not so popular in Japan. Of course we have recepi. but, I think we have reasons it is not popular dessert.

The reasons are
Rice should be meal,
Rice should not be sweet,
Rice pudding tastes like sweet rice porridge, porridge should not be sweet.
etc.


Eventually, I had to eat all rice pudding I made.  but it is OK.
I sprinkled lots of pistachio and almond.
That was awesome!

【Help Me】I wanna eat Kunafa?

If someone know this, please show me how to eat.
I can't read Arabic at all.

I want to make kunafa, Arabic sweet, but it is hard to get ingredients even know how to make it. I've never had kunafa before, but one day I knew it on internet, and that looked so good. I decided I was going to make it.
Melting cheese, smell like butter, and soaked it in hot sweet syrup, seemed very yummy, but still don' t know what is kunfa like noodle...? I can't imagine.

And then, I asked to get kunafa like this noodle to my sister, who lived in the middle eastern country. She didn't know neither, but got it in the supermarket and gave me.

She said, "This is kunafa maybe, or maybe not."

So......, of course I tried to make Arabic sweet.
But....., I couldn't. looking different comparing to one I searched on internet.



Noodlelike was gone into butter after baked in the oven.
I screwed it...


I know my sister is very kind.
She is very helpful all the time.
But this time she might have misunderstand...??
Anyway what is this, and how to use or eat..??




If someone knows, could you explain kunafa and this for me ?

YAMATO Museum in KURE City, HIROSHIMA

When we go Kure maritime museum in Kure city in Hiroshima,  we can learn history and culture of Kure, and feel how Kure city developed to worldwide shipbuilding city.

And we can have fun to see many objects in exhibition room, one-tenth scale battleship YAMATO, submarine, zero fighter etc.

I spent 2 hours here. It is enough time to look around of whole museum, but I came back to look again after once I went out of museum. It's worth it!


English
http://www.yamato-museum.com/download-data/ref_201604_eng.pdf

Japanse website
http://yamato-museum.com/

GOHEI MOCHI

GOHEI MOCHI is local cuisine in Chubu region of Japan, especially famous for northern area of Gifu prefecture, Hida.

This is GOHEI MOCHI, which is skewered rice cake with sweet sauce. This Sauce is made of miso, soy sauce, sugar and walnuts, so very thick and tasty.  I love that!


It is familiar food even I don't live in Chubu area because GOHEI MOCHI vendors come to Kansai area from Hida. However, when I was a small child, a vendor came to supermarket near my place just once a month. I remember my mom was excited when she found a vendor. She knew my father loved GOHEI MOCHI.


Also, MITARASHI DANGO is good.


We can buy MITARASHI DANGO anywhere, but sauce is different as regular one.


This very tasty sweet sauce is special, that's why I really like those sweets, and probably makes me miss my childhood.
Now I can find HIDA vendors, anywhere in Osaka, and very often. I can buy anytime not once a month.
But, every time I see GOHEIMOCHI vendors, I can't help have feeling to buy it.
And actually buy, sometimes too much!

Blueberry Cheesecake

Chessecake is the king of homemade cake for me.
It's not first cake in my life but probably second, or third,
anyway a little bit special because looking fancy and easy to make. The taste is good for sure.

When I was a kid, I believed Morozoff was the best.
I went to shopping with mom, sometimes took a break at a coffee shop,
that was Morozoff coffee shop. I remember this was the part of going out with my mom. Now we can see lots of old or middle-aged women in Morozoff, so I guess that having coffee in here a sort of popular among people decades ago.

And then, it was getting normal to make a cheesecake at home.
I made cheesecake very often, sometimes gave my friends as a gift.

I made blueberry cheesecake yesterday. I thinlk this is the change of my cheesecake history because never combined with blueberry before.
Of course, I use blueberry jam side of cake as as sweet sauce, but didn't use blueberries fruit in recent years. Maybe blueberries is a little bit expensive in Japan comparing other fruits and other countries.

Anyway,this cake is good☆　
I enjoy making and eating blueberry cheesecake.

**Blueberry Cheesecake recipe**

favorite cookies ( I used OREO）
melting unsalted butter
150g cream cheese
30g granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup blueberries
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
8g powdered gelatin with 1cup water

Make cookies crumble and add butter, put them in to cake pan. Push dough into bottom of cake pan hard. Sit it in the fridge.
Combine softened cream cheese and sugar.
Put blueberries, lemon juice and heavy cream into blender and mix them well.
and then combine with cheese mixture.
Mix the mixture and gelatin water and pour to the cake pan.
Sit them in the fridge for 2 hours.

Lemon DORAYAKI

Basically DORAYAKI has bean paste inside.
Today I made Lemon DORAYAKI using homemade lemon curd which I made yesterday.

That is awesome.
I don't know which is the best homemade lemon curd or Japansese pancake,
maybe the idea of combination.
Also good to eat after sitting in the fridge for a while, especially for summer cool dessert.

Take a look at basic DORAYAKI below, fluffy sponge and also yummy.



**DORAYAKI recipe**
(4-5 DORAYAKI)

2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tbsp cane sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp mirin (sweet sake)
1/6 cup milk
bean paste or favorite jam for inside

Whisk all ingredients together and bake on non-stick pan.
Without oil when you bake, nice and brown color.

Lemon Curd

I got this from my mom.

My mom liked lemon curd.
First time I ate it more than 20 years ago, but at that time I guess not known in Japan.
Good to eat with toast, cupcake, crackers or anything ,and then lemony flavour in heaven!

My mom got this recipe from a newspaper clipping as usual.
She read about English tea time, and knew it. Now I am guessing she had often imagined about english life, like her longing.

Now we can find buy lemon curd in supermarket, but I love homemade one because not too sweet and easy to make.

My mom recipe became mine, which has 2 more egg yolks with regular recipe.
I will make lemon DORAYAKI tomorrow☆


** Lemon curd recipe**

2 eggs
2 egg yolks
3 lemon juice ( I didn't use zest this time)
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of melted or softened unsalted butter

Put all together except for lemon juice.
After mix well, add lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into saucepan and simmer on medium low heat until the curd is thickened.
Cool it down.

Not only for Japanese kids -RANDOSEL-

Amazing colorful school bag! We call RANDOSEL, which comes from Dutch , " ransell" means carry somthing on shoulder.

When I was a kid, I had a red one because I am a girl.
I didn't have a choice. Everybody knows girls carried red, boys did black.
No one doubted.

Now we can have any color in a shopping center, pink, light blue, purple etc.
So cute.

I still  feel weird foreigners carry our red  RANDOSEL because it reminds me that it seems I am now carrying it , but I can imagine if fashionable foreigners have very beautiful color like light purple randosel.  Very stylish.

Hydrangea in Mimurodoji in Kyoto

Blooming hydrangea!
I love here, Mimurodoji in Kyoto.
http://www.mimurotoji.com/  (Japanese)

I hate rainy season but walking around wide open space in Mimurodoji makes me feel so refreshed.

I heard we can see heart shaped hydrangea here, just ten out of ten thousand hydrangea, so I tried to find it.


Easy to find it unexpectedly.
Gradation colour is so pretty.

I didn't know the origin of hydrangea is Japan.
A little bit far from my place, Osaka, or center of Kyoto, but worth it!

Sweet Sweet Potato

Sweet potato was one of my snack when I was a kid.

My mom just mashed sweet potato with sugar, heavy cream and butter, and then put it into an aluminium cup. No fancy, no pretty looking. Very simple.
However, I love her sweet potato.

Decades has passed, then I bake sweet potato a lot, still simple even though I can find tons of recipes on internet.

Sweet potato makes me back to starting point when I think of something.

ABOTAKU -Abocado wtih Takuwan-

ABOTAKU is a dish which my mom made for my family.

Just prepare avocado chopped into chunked and takuwan  (Japanese pickled raddish, usually this is yellow)

 

Mix those with soy sauce and wasabi.



Good to eat with sushi, on crackers or natto, if you like.
All people I gave recipe are happy to eat, and this becomes popular food now.

Nothing better than this,
My mom had made this for my family more than 20 years ago, in no internet, unpopular food at the moment.

She was a great seeker based on books or papers she read every days.
She is good at getting small tips from books, and always had challenge mind as she tried anything she had never done before.

She is amazing.
Abotaku is amazing.

Deep-fried GOBO

I can't stop eating deep-fried Gobo (burdock).
Soak Gobo in soy sauce and sake, and then deep-fry Gobo with starch into vegetable oil for several minutes.
Hot and crunchy Gobo is so tasty. Putting mayo with it is also amazing.

Anyhow I want to tell foreigners how delicious gobo is.
I know basically they don't eat Gobo.

lots of fiber,
various kinds of dishes,
easy to cook,
healthy for sure.
Those notes are known since old times but the reason people don't like is bad look?
looking roots? Or smell like soil...?

In the past, I was cooking dinner using canned tuna.
A Canadian, who lived with me, getting in kitchen and said,
" Oh, you are cooking fish. Looking great! but my friend is coming over soon, so open the window please. I want to put away the fishy smell."

...I was awkward at the moment.
my dinner looked great.
but this meant smell was bad.

Probably Gobo could be same situation.
Looking good, like fried potatoes, smelling terrible, like roots.

Matcha flavored shaved ice

Early summer has come!

This shaved ice is the best in my life.
With matcha syrup and condensed milk, and this has vanilla ice cream inside. Fluffy and silky in my mouth.

This cafe "Kadoya" in Osaka has lots of kinds of flavors. Can arrange as you like.

I never thought about I make shaved ice at home.
Love KADOYA☆

KADOYA address
2-8-22, Morishoji, Asahi-ku, Osaka

"The Choice"

All I love in this movie is filming location.
I've never been to North Carolina, but Nicolas Sparks films always make me imagine as if I were in such a beautiful place.

I found this site!
https://www.visitnc.com/story/12-ways-to-experience-the-choice-in-real-life
Could be the next place to go.... or not.  I often put off  to go to the places I really want to visit, don't know why. Maybe just save the best for last.

And also love the story for Travis and Gabby for sure.
Everyone has "the Choice" sometimes in their life.
They want to have better one, and most of them have a right choice in real, but I always have some regrets later after I chose.
I wonder that I am a critical person...?

I have one more part in this movie to love.
Doggies are so cute☆

Matcha Macaron

How long have we called green tea "matcha" in English?

I remember my green tea story.
Nobody around me said matcha at least 12 years ago when I was in Canada.
Just one of my host mom's friend was interested in green tea when she recognize I am a Japanese. She knew green tea was healthy beverage, so probably getting popular in there, not called matcha, though.

One day, Canadian neighbor kids and me talked about green tea, which I had it I got in Korean supermarket every day, one of them tried to drink it,  others didn' t want to, though. They hadn't had green tea, so must have thought my dark green drink was weird. I never forget his words.
He said,
"Tastes like swamp"

We laughed a lot. I had swamp water every single day in Canada.

A word is interesting.
One day it becomes worldwide.


**Today's baking is matcha macaron.
Totally in heaven!