Kee Heong Honeycomb Cookies (Kee Heong Sha Qi Ma)

Omg, can I just say, these are the most addicting things ever!! I think Steff's mom brought a bunch of these with her when she came to visit with Simon and Shirlene (was that her name??) Anyway, these things are soooo good. I've seen some lookalikes and I've bought a bag or two, but they weren't as good as this one. I did some research and discovered they are Malaysian!! The ones I bought looked like this, but I think they were imported from Taiwan. They weren't bad, but these ones were definitely better.

Of course, you cannot buy these online either. Poopie. The internet has been my new friend. When I need a DVD, I go to the internet. When I want black tea that is not going to cost me $5 a box, I go to the internet. It's way cheaper and it's delivered to my door. But these yummy sweet things, cannot be bought over the internet unless I want to bring in a 40 foot container of them. Hmm...idea....nooo bad. Where am I going to put a 40' container of these? But I want....mm, so light and crispy...sweet and mmmm. *sigh* I want to go to Malaysia. Hmm, I wonder if Hawaii people would buy something like this if it was in the stores? Hmmm. I'm trying to figure out where the food market is going, since my parents company is in distribution. We don't really have a big Malaysian population, but I suppose you don't need to be from Malaysia to appreciate these. They're soo good. Mmm, sweet and crispiness.... *drool*

Hannari Tofu and Friends

So here are some of the many pictures I have of the Hannari Tofu and friends series. So the original hannari tofu, who is from Kyoto apparently, since "hannari" is Kyoto dialect, was this square stuffed toy series, the bottom of the pyramid in this picture. They're all sorts of different colors to represent different flavors from yuzu, ume, okra, etc. They're characterized by small limbs (they have hands and feet in the front), round eyes and smiling face. They look like they could have been designed by a six-year old. But they are very cute. I think the ones I have are the yuzu and the ume. Ume-chan is pink and yuzu-chan is yellow. I have other flavors and pictures somewhere, but they'll have to be in a follow up post, since I am so incredibly disorganized when it comes to these things.

Anyway, so the originals are the tofu, which have spawned many spin-offs and lookalikes. (see left picture) So the, I guess rabbit, the pink square on top of ume-chan is a spin off, something like a doubutsu series we saw at a game center. And my favorites, the manju-chan series. I think these are onsen manju, so steamed buns filled with sweet bean jelly, I think is what they officially describe them as. These also have sakura, ume, yuzu, chuuka nikuman, etc. If you look closely, you can see many miniature versions from keychains, to keitai straps, to floating mini bath toys.

I also have other things, like the cute pink onsen manju that's hanging there happily from Steff's mom and the capibara with the little butterfly on its head (from Steff). Ooh, I just noticed my gumball machine and the little soft serve ice cream timer also from Steff. I think he may have been either a birthday present or Christmas present. I love him. Who wouldn't love a timer in the shape of a soft serve ice cream cone? Anyway, I think I've done enough rambling about my soft toys for now.

Strawberry Clips

Steff got me these for my birthday. There's a bunch of other food related merchandise she also got me, but the documentation is somewhere else in some other picture folder. Aren't they just adorable? They're clips in the shape of strawberries!! I'm not too sure what exactly they're good for, but I've used them to keep my chips from going stale and as cute decoration as you can see on my laptop. There's a picture of me somewhere where I've gone a put the clips on my hair just for the heck of it, but I won't put those up here.

I think I'm in the dining room here and that doorway is the little kitchenette that Steff and I always monopolized. Hey, it's not like those girls were like cooking or anything, though come to think of it, my last year there were an awful lot of freshmen making bento every night. Don't get me started on that. Those girls are nasty. They don't clean up after themselves when they cook. Okay, so them not using hot water to wash the dishes is bad enough, but anytime they cook anything from ramen to stewed vegetables, I swear the kitchenette is always a forking mess. Packages, remnants, garbage, plates, all strewn about. Hey, at least when Steff and I cook, it's clean. And the refrigerator...they make a million onigiri to save time during the week, but they can't put them in a plastic bag or container so that when I get my ice cream they all don't avalanche on me?! No common sense, I swear to god. But yes, oh well. Kinda scary that these are the future mothers of Japan though.

Bat-shaped Meringues

I pulled off some old pics of my keitai and was reminded of some old adventures. This I know was one of the many occasions we (Steff and I) made meringues. I'm not sure if we needed the yolks for something else and we just turned the whites into meringues or if we just wanted meringues and we dumped the yolks. In any case, chalk it up to another egg based adventure for the retards.

So meringues are super easy and a hell lot easier if you've got a good oven. The dorm's oven was seriously from the 80's and not only did it cook unevenly due to uneven heat distribution, it was just a pain to work with in general since it was so small. No American-sized jumbo ovens here. Anyway, if you've ever got some egg whites lying around (from making egg wash or pudding or something), you can easily make meringues without an egg beater. We've done it many times. You just add some sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat until stiff. You can then use a pastry bag to pipe, or if you haven't got a pastry bag, a plastic ziploc bag should do the trick. Just snip the corner off and pipe away onto a piece of parchment paper. The trick with meringues is that you can't cook them on too high heat or they'll burn on the outside and the inside will still be runny and uncooked. Basically, you just put it on low heat, a couple notches above the lowest setting your oven can do should be fine and just let them bake slowly for about 10-15 minutes. They should dry out and get little golden brown tinges when they're done. You just let them sit after you pull them out and voila. Meringues.

This is a particularly nice picture because it reminds me of Steff and the dorm. You can see the cheap white plastic coated dining tables and that mustard colored chairs. There's Steff's keitai in the background and Steff's food. How do I know it's Steff's food and not my food? Well, the salad. Steff always ate the iceberg lettuce--none of that purpley leaves--no dressing. And I always eat the cabbage drowned in goma dressing for my daily rabbit grass intake. So that would be Steff's plate. And well, you see the little bat shaped meringue hanging out on the rim of the mugicha (barley tea) that we have every night. Only Steff. This is why we are partners in crime.

Gingerbread House

Ah, don't you just love the smell of freshly baked gingerbread? I know it's the middle of May, but this was a gingerbread house that Steff and I made, I think the last Christmas she was in Japan...which would have been December 2006...kana?

Ever since I was a kid, I've always liked making gingerbread houses. When I was a kid, we used to use graham crackers rather than the actual cookie baked into sheets. But when I went to Japan, there of course are no graham crakers on the store shelves--why would there be? I mean it's not like Japanese people go camping, sing songs around the fire, and makes s'mores with roasted marshmallows.

So, I realized that if I wanted to make a gingerbread house, I would have to make the gingerbread base myself, since I was not about to try building a house out of soda crackers or digestive biscuits. Back to why I love gingerbread houses. Well, I love the spicy smell that fills the kitchen when you bake gingerbread, but the real reason why I like gingerbread houses is pretty much because it gives me an excuse to turn a half a kilo of powdered sugar into royal icing and just buy up candy of all shapes and sizes for the heck of it. Check out my snowmen. Aren't they cute? They have jelly bean mittens and peach gummy candies for hats! I have mini takenoko growing in my "garden" and the steps leading to the house have gummy sushi stuck on them!! Come on, when else am I gonna have a good excuse for buying gummy candy in the shape of sushi?! I think the front of the house has a candy shaped like a strawberry shortcake or something. I love adding all these random touches to it!!

Just as a side note, we had this displayed during the Christmas party, and I was afraid that it might collapse while the icing was hardening, so since I didn't have anything to support it, I stole some of the plastic butter containers from the sisters and used them to hold the sides of the house up. I think I took two or three and stacked them up inside the house before putting the roof on.

Flamingo's Pearl City - Banana Pie

There's this little hole in the wall restaurant in Pearl City that I used to frequent when I was a kid with my family and grandparents, called Flamingo. It serves local favorites like chicken katsu, hamburger steak, and fresh island fish at very reasonable prices. You can get a complete meal (entree, starch, veggies, soup or salad, drink and dessert) for in most cases under $10. The food is not what I would call exquisite, but it's more like comfort food. This is one of the places I would go if I had been away from home for a long time and I was in the mood for something reasonably priced and tastes like a home cooked meal.

This picture over here (sorry it's a bad shot), but is of their famous banana pie. Yeah, banana pie. Actually, I had never heard of banana pie before (except in the case of banana cream pie), but this is just like an apple pie with huge chunks of banana mixed with what tastes like a vanilla-y custard and baked in a buttery flaky crust brushed with a bit of egg yolk as you can see. It tastes the best when warm and is my grandpa's favorite pie. Everyone always said that was one of his pleasures in life. He was a typical ni-sei. Samurai-like and a man of few words. He seems crusty in his old age (he's 85) since he hardly talks and he's gone a bit hard of hearing in recent years (only because he used to work for the fire department back in the days when they didn't know those sirens caused hearing loss for the firemen riding on the truck). But, I am certain that he's as sharp as he was 30, 40 years ago. He's really old school--honest, good-hearted, hard-working and would never would hurt a fly. I haven't gone to see him in a while. I think I better bring him one of these this weekend.

I definitely recomment this pie to banana lovers. It's a little on the sweet side and very buttery, but definitely worth the calories! (^__^)b

Omuraisu (Omelette Rice)

Ahh, omuraisu (omelette rice). Basically this is in every family restaurant, and Japan actually has restuarants dedicated solely to the preparation of omuraisu. The best one I've tasted was in Ehime, when Steff and I went to go see L'Arc~en~Ciel in concert. They had sizes based on how many eggs they put in....something like 3 egg, 4, egg, or 6 egg omuraisu. How's that for puny Japanese sizes!

I don't think that there is really an exact science to getting that lovely chicken ketchup fried rice into a neat little mound and surrounding it with a perfectly cooked fluffy yellow exterior. It's pretty simple in composition. And well, while you can't really mess up omuraisu, some do taste better than others. Department store omuraisu, usually tastes like family restaurant omuraisu. Okay, probably a little bland, but not bad--a safe bet if you don't know anything else on the menu. I always thought of it as more of a children's and young people food, but it's very versatile, so even old people and women will indulge in it. I've seen it with everything from curry rice, extra onions, and pork to cheese and tonkatsu sauce. The version Steff and I used to make was the poor college student version--bare bones, but still very flavorful. The recipe for one person/serving is as follows:

1 pack of instant microwave rice (or about 1 scoop of leftover rice per serving)

1/4 round onion, chopped

2 eggs, lightly beaten with 2 T. milk

1/4 cup cooked chopped leftover chicken breast or 4-5 pre-cooked chicken nuggets

oil

salt & pepper

1 T. oyster sauce

1/4 c. ketchup

1. Saute the onions in a frying pan in a bit of oil.
2. When the onions turn transparent, throw in the chicken and saute until cooked. (about 2 minutes)
3. Dump the rice in and incorporate into chicken-onion saute.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste and about a tablespoon of oystersauce per serving.
5. Add the ketchup in and cook for about a minute more. This is a quick fried rice, no need to overdo the cooking.
6. Set the fried rice aside.
7. Take scrambled egg mixture and pour it into another heated greased skillet. Start loosening the sides slightly and when eggs are no longer runny (i.e. half cooked), place fried rice mixture in the middle and fold over sides to make an omelette.
8. Turn over onto plate with egg side up.
9. Drizzle or decorate with ketchup and you've got a meal in less than 15 minutes!

I love omuraisu. Steff and I have this and college student okonomiyaki down pat. Sure you can add all sorts of fancy things. I love cheese mixed in with the fried rice with my omuraisu, but it's sort of like tomato soup. Pairs with a lot of different things--very flexible when it comes to experimentation, but yummy just by itself.

Suidobashi Cheesecake Shaped Shrubbery

One day, I think maybe after school or something, Steff, Miyu, and I went to Suidobashi's Tokyo Dome Amusement Park something or another. Anyway, I saw this in the little courtyard below and was like, "Is that a garden in the shape of a cake?" Lo and behold, it was a little shrubbery set just hanging out down there that looked like a chocolate cheesecake with strawberries on it. Notice the slice that's sticking out. It's half a strawberry!!! Sliced right down the middle~!! Only in Japan. Seriously. Only in Japan do they make shrubbery in the shape of food. I think this country has an almost unhealthy obsession with food (despite the average adult weighing in at like 90 pounds) and making unedible, unconventional things into the shape of various food items. I think it's funny and kinda cool, but most foreigners usually have the 'wtf is that?!' look every time they see something like this.

I have this stuffed toy that is in the shape of an ebi furai. Who makes a soft toy in the shape of a fried shrimp with tartar sauce? I gotta take a picture of it one of these days. It's not small either. It's a pretty big sized soft toy--probably about the same volume as a normal pillow...just in the shape of an ebi furai..... But, on the other hand, this is exactly why I love Japan. Where else in the world would you ever see shrubbery in the shape of half a strawberry in soil that is meant to look like a chocolate cheesecake?

Baskin Robbins Popping Shower

This is from one of my shopping adventures with Steff. We always get ice cream every time we pass by a Baskin Robbins. This looks like the Shibuya branch. My all time favorite flavor, which unfortunately is a Japanese innovation is the flavor, Popping Shower. It's a white chocolate and mint (maybe?) based ice cream with red and green pop rocks mixed in. It is a must if you are ever in Japan and you pass by a Baskin Robbins. I remember the first time that Steff introduced it to me. It was at FujiQ Highland, the roller coaster amusement park. They have a food court that has a Baskin Robbins on the bottom floor. And Steff was telling me about this flavor she really liked. She was raving about this flavor and so I was like, I gotta try this. Ever since then, I have been hooked. It's probably the only ice cream flavor I could see myself eating an entire gallon of without even showing signs of tiring of it. It is that good. (^_^)b

Ryuuhou Ramen

This little hole in the wall of a ramen shop called Ryuuhou was right on one of the side streets near Kagurazaka station. It has one of the best recipes for ramen that I have ever tasted in Tokyo. The portions are huge and the average bowl runs between 700-900 yen, which is normal for ramen bowls of that size. They're also known for their chahan (fried rice), but I always order ramen. Chie and I often went there for lunch before we went shopping. Chie usually got the Ryuuhou ramen, which is pictured here. It's their signature dish with pork, lots of cabbage, vegetables, corn, bean sprouts, and a little quail egg. Last time I ordered it, it was 700 or 750 yen. They do not skimp on anything! Most Japanese people cannot finish it. The last couple of times I went, I ordered the char siu ramen which was my favorite so far! I don't have a picture of it unfortunately, but it wasn't like char siu we have in Hawaii. It's not really hard and red, but it was like kakuni, the fatty braised shoyu-sugar pork. There were 5 huge pieces floating in there and it was worth every yen of the 900 yen I paid. I definitely recommend this hole in the wall if you're ever around the Kagurazaka/Iidabashi area.