Saturday 16 November 2013

For Amy

I may have been slow at emails, but I have been taking some pictures to answer your question about food here! So here's a tiny snapshot... 

Last week our koto (traditional Japanese harp - I'm finally learning an instrument!!) teacher gave us a bag of potatoes from Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, with the instructions: たべてください - tabete kudasai, or 'please eat.' It was an unexpected but lovely present, and lacking an oven we made these: 


Or, 'Hokkaido butties'. Yum. 

Yesterday we visited Hakone, a mountainous region west of Tokyo where you can see monkeys (apparently) and Mt Fuji and a 'coffee and sausage restaurant.' Lunch was not coffee and sausages, but a set of vegetables, rice, pickles, and miso soup: 


The little purple thing on a leaf is pudding, sweet red beans in powdered rice starch - surprisingly delicious! 

Most things here that sound horrible actually aren't; for instance BBQ tea, chicken womb, this: 


One thing sounds disgusting and is: natto, or sticky, slimy, fermented soy beans.

There is less sushi than I imagined, and sometimes we hunt for sushi and end up lost, confused, and eating Vietnamese food. But you can get really good sushi from the supermarket - this was 3 quid: 


Properly settled in, we plan to cook more now, and today bought, amongst other things, katsuobushi (smoked dried fish shavings used to make soup etc) and Kyoto red carrots.


Here is a superhero made out of toast, to end this rambly response to your question!

2 comments:

  1. so interesting Chaz! Can't wait to visit xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eep me neither man :D we will be such fatties :) xxx

    ReplyDelete