Being a Soupaterian

I am a fishaterian as a way of compromise. Really, I want to be a Breatharian, but I don’t find that feasible.

Misha once told me about the Breatharian guru in Santa Cruz.

Apparently, there was a scandal in Santa Cruz because the Breatharian guru who was preaching to others to not eat food, was spotted walking out of the local burger shop with a big fat hamburger in his hand.

I know…. It’s not possible for us to live entirely on bacteria-free water and air. I know I know and yet that’s what I would LOVE to do.

I sometimes turn into a breatharian part-time. This stems from the fact that I have a not such good habit of frequently turning into a breatharian during the day when Misha is not around to put food on the table. This is especially likely to happen when my work is going well and I am really into what I am doing. I keep saying, “oh, let me just finish this up and then I will get up and have that rice.” But really, that moment keeps getting pushed off until, well, Misha’s turns up.

Slightly concerned about my state of health, Misha recently started to tell me exactly what kind of ready-to-eat cooked food is in the refrigeator. Today, he had told me about 味噌汁　(miso soup) in the fridge. So, I turned into a soupatarian until Misha’s return.

 

Update on Green Tea Icecream

It’s the hype!

Haagen-Dazs has finally debuted green tea icecream in the US.

Here’s the proof: http://www.haagendazs.com/products/product.aspx?id=358

I spotted it in the stor about a month ago. Today, I had my first taste.

It seems to be slightly lighter in taste than its Korean and Japanese counterparts, but you can definitely taste the 抹茶 in there.

Hoorray!!!

 

Like Breathing

Keeping Kosher in Manhattan, especially in some thickly Jewish areas, is like breathing.

Especially if you are vegetarian, it’s like you have to go out of your way to not keep Kosher. Amazing.

 

In Praise of Formula

Me? Well, I am actually a hundred percent breast milk kind of a gal. Perhaps a little extreme by some people’s standards. Yes, the La Leche League-type. Well, what can I say? My mom is a hard-core LLList and I was inculcated by their ideologies–via my mom, of course–from birth.  I am not such a radical type, in fact, rather compliant, so I have followed in the footsteps of my upbringing here too.

But, I must say, I do think that formula changed the world for a lot women: Formula made it possible for women who did not want to breast-feed in public to go out with their babies and not worry about when the baby got hungry; it made it possible for women to go out without their babies if they needed to take some time-off; it made it possible for them to not get sleep-deprived because if the baby needed a feeding at night-time, someone else could do it just as easily.

What a revolution!!

And, that is the luxury of living in today’s world, where, if all else is equal, you can choose to breast-feed only, to mix-and-match breast-feeding and formula-giving, and to give formula-only.

Thank you, foremothers and forefathers, scientists and social activists.

I am a child that lives in the privileged world that you created for me and my friends and our children.

 

Pesach (a.k.a Passover)

Pesach is coming up.

Incidentally, this happens to be my favorite holiday.

I always looked forward to it as a kid and still do as an adult.  It’s also the holiday that was most difficult for me to be away from home because I had such fond memories of celebrating it back home.  Two years ago, which was my first time I was able to be back home for Pesach again in ten years, was a truly memorable occasion.

My memory of Pesach was that our eating habit became incredibly simple.

Most of our meals would consist of Matzah, creamed cottage cheese, jam, very simple vegetable soup, and very simply flavored fish.  Everything seemed so magically and simply flavored compared to our usual rich flavorings using shoyu (soy sauce) and miso.  Plus, I loved the sweetness of matzah (still do) and the specialness of matzo ball soup being served.  This was the only time of the year we would get matzo ball soup because my mother refused to make it any other time of the year.

This year, Misha and I are planning on making Japanese potato croquettes (fried mashed potato balls).  I can’t wait!! My mouth is already watering….

 

The Ultimate Colonial Drink: A Recipe

The other day night we watched Chocolat starring Juliet Binoche.

I was enchanted by it the first time I saw it six years ago. I was a little embarrassed about my enthusiasm though because I thought that the movie was merely a conventional sweet romance comedy and that was not usually my type. I said to myself, it was probably because of Johnny Depp (who in fact does not play such a big role).

The next time I watched it—last night—I was enchanted all over again and fell in love with it for what it was. I did not know why I had loved it so much the first time around. This time I knew why. Aside from the obvious reasons like great acting and direction, I really liked the strong subtext of feminism (the kind that leads to humanitarianism) embedded in the story. It’s a story with a happy ending that starts with a unique woman saving women unhappy in their marriages. Yet, it is a very sweet fantastic story. It is inspiring and satisfying—just like the hot chocolate and chocolates that she makes. It is actually quite an amazing movie, which leaves me wondering what the book this film was based on is like.

The Food:

The first time I saw the film, I started to put a pinch of hot chili pepper in my sweet-tasting shakes and baked goods because the secret to Vianne’s hot chocolate was the pinch of child pepper.

Putting a tiny bit of salt in was already something I did as I had read that the little touch of salt enhances the overall flavor of sweet things by emphasizing the sweetness with a frame around it—keeping the sweetness in check yet flavorful. I found that the chili pepper gave it a little kick if done exactly right and has since become regular practice.

Last night as I paid closer attention to the hot chocolate drink in the movie, I noticed that there were many special things about the drink and it was not simply hot chocolate. She puts in chili pepper, but she also adds a dollop of whipped cream when she serves. What exactly is that drink and how can I make it?

As I sat on the couch and talked out loud these words, Misha answered me: “That’s called Xocolatl and it’s an old Mayan drink. I don’t think it has any cream or sugar in it.” “Really?” I said. “My mom made it for me once when I was a kid and I thought that it tasted disgusting.” So we did a quick websearch to find a recipe and found that, perhaps, the original recipe was not going to be so good tasting after all. So, inspired by the idea of xocolatl, Misha embarked on making what we might call “the ultimate colonial drink” as almost all the main ingredients are a result of European colonialism.

This is what we used for two mugs of spicy yummy xocolatl (measurements are approximate):

Cocoa powder-about the same amount as the sweetener

Brown sugar (that happens to be what we had)-about the same amount as the cocoa powder

Cayenne powder-to taste

Cinnamon-to taste

Full-fat Goat Milk (again, what we happened to have)-2 mugs full

1. Make a chocolate paste with the cocoa powder and brown sugar and water.

2. Pour in the milk and heat the mixture on medium heat.

3. Pour in the cayenne and cinnamon. Be generous, but also taste it as you go for the perfect mix.

4. Once the milk is heated up, voila! You’ve got it.

My experience with this magical drink was that it was warm, spicy, and sweet. It was nothing like hot cholocate. It was really like a chocolate drink. Delicious!! Thank you, Misha! And I hope that this becomes a staple in our diet….

 

Open Dialogue

I don’t know if my expectations are wrong or what, but I find having open dialogue concerning religious observance level nearly impossible around here.

I want to know: what are your Kashrut standards?

I want to tell you: what my Kashrut standards are (and whatever else you might consider relevant to that).

That way, together we can come to the decision of how much dishware and utensils we can share.

I am not offended if my standards do not allow me to share my cooking ware with others. But many people seem to have this attitude that it would be embarrassing for both of us if we should find out that we cannot completely mutually share everything at all times. Weird… That seems to stand on the premise that if you cannot completely share, you don’t want to share at all.

I understand and assume that all of us and all of our households are different in many ways. I want to share where I can and be okay with not sharing where one of us feels uneasy.

No, it’s not “rude” to ask about “personal” things when it is related to larger communal issues or your home too. Considering each household business strictly personal and private seems very Victorian English well-to-do society-ish behavior for no good reason to me.

For me, the fact that many people assume a lot of things about our Kashrut standards and religious practice standards based on one of our institutional affiliations (which is nothing more than misguided) is simply a shame and frustrating.

 

The Proper Way to Break a Fast

Of course, in our household, that would be delicious misoshiru and hot steamy rice, which stayed warm in our fabulous rice-cooker.

Courtesy of the kimchi-pickling and pasta-loving Chef Misha!

 

The Story of Cukes

I love cukes, aka, cucumbers.

I used to be a great cucumber lover from infancy (I think), but there was a particular recipe that my mom sometimes made. I was a great fan of this recipe and remain to be today. But whenever I make this cuke recipe, I can’t forget how fortunate I am for being able to reproduce this recipe outside of Japan.

When I lived in Victoria, Canada, I had no kitchen so I didn’t think about foods that I could or could not make with available ingredients. The problem was more severe: I had no kitchen!! As a result, I developed a great fondness for dish washing. It was not such a bad thing. It just deprived me of cooking for two years.

When I lived in New York, I was shocked to find out that the kind of cucumbers that I could get at the local supermarket did not work so well for this recipe…

So my cucumber salad drought lasted for another four years. When I moved out to the San Francisco Bay Area, I did not have a car. That made it a little harder to scout out the cucumber situation so while eyeing the English hothouse cucumbers, I remained abstinant of my favorite cucumber recipe.When I moved down to the neighborhood that I live in now and walked into our local supermarket, I saw Persian cukes piled high sold at a reasonable price. I think I gasped. I knew instinctively that this would be the perfect substitute to my home-grown cucumbers that would allow me to make my favorite cucumber recipe.

They have thin edible unwaxed skin and are smaller than its American cousin. They make great cucumber salads.

The recipe is:

diagonally sliced cucumbers, sesame oil, and soy sauce

Because it is such a simple recipe, there are a few tips that make it better.

One: The cucumbers will taste sweeter if before slicing them up, you cut the ends and rub the head of the cucumber with its tail top. You will see some white foam coming out of the edge where the cucumber meat meets the skin, which is bitter if you taste it. Wash off this foam and slice up the cukes! (I learned this tip in my co-ed Home Economics class.)

Two: Use about the same amount of sesame oil and soy sauce.

Three: Don’t dress it heavily. For about 7 Persian cucumbers, I use probably about a teaspoon each of sesame oil and soy sauce. Too much gets too salty and oily. Not a good thing.

Oh, by the way, pickling cucumbers work fine too.

 

Want Green Tea Ice Cream?

Strangely enough, the longer I stay away from Japan, the more I start to crave the tastes from “home.” 

When I first left Japan, I lived without a kitchen for two years—while I hardly cook nowadays, when I was in my teens, I actually used to cook my own breakfast and lunch.  So for the first few weeks of having left home, I didn’t understand why I was left with so much extra time to doodle around in the mornings.  –Sorry I got sidetracked….

The point is, after about the third year of being away from home, I couldn’t stand it anymore and my dad was offering anyway, so I asked him to get me a rice cooker. 

Recently, I have found myself almost constantly craving Green Tea Ice Cream.  Yes, it was definitely one of my favorite flavors back home too—in fact, it was a dazzling new flavor that came out in my teens that I instantly fell in love with—but one that I didn’t eat it much.  Partially because the best flavor was sold by <a href=http://www.haagen-dazs.com>Haagen Dazs</a>, which as you know, is always a cut above others not only in flavor, but also in price, and also…. Because the heavy cream was often too creamy for me…

Now, though, I have had enough of no Green Tea Ice Cream!  I found a (sort of) local gelato shop that makes good Green Tea gelato called <a href=http://www.angelatocafe.com>Angelato Cafe</a>.  But really, the best place is <a href= http://www.gelaterianaia.com>Gelateria Naia</a>, which has a few shops in the San Francisco-Bay Area and I think makes the best gelato/ice cream.  But, neither of them are hekshered establishments, which prevents me from bringing them back home to serve to guests in my home… 

Since Haagen Dazs makes quite excellent Green Tea Ice Cream in Japan and Korea (and I am sure in China too) and all their flavors are hekshered, I am launching a campaign to get them to sell that great flavor outside of the North Asian continent as well!!

Come on, write to them!!  It’s http://www.haagen-dazs.com/coicou.do.  Suggest to them making and marketing Green Tea Ice Cream outside of the North East Asian continent!!  It will be “the real thing” (as opposed to this “green tea” ice cream widely distributed in the LA area, which tastes like detergent—yuck!!) and will make so many people happy!!