Nice look for the fall, love the hose!!!

Gobo and Carrot Recipe

Here is a great recipe for Gobo (Burdock Root) and Carrot Stir-Fry:

Gobo (Burdock) Root
Carrot
Ginger about 1 tsp (sliced)
Rep Pepper (to taste)
Oil 1 tsp
Water, Chicken Broth 1/2 & 1/2 enough to soften the Gobo
Chicken/Pork Slices (optional**)
Soy Sauce 1 tsp
Sesame Oil

Take two gobo root, scrape of some of the skin with the back of the knife, cut it in thin diagonal slices and soak it in a bowl of cold/room temp. water for approx. 20 minutes.
While soaking, cut the carrots into thin diagonal slices (approx. the same as the gobo root) and cut the ginger into thin slices.
Start stirfrying the gobo in oil, once it has become hot, put in a ladle of chicken stock (make sure it's sizzling in the pan) and then cover with a lid to steam, next put in a ladle of water and repeat, ..repeat the process for about 15 min, or until the root has softened.
Next, add the carrot and ginger and stir fry for approx 3-5 min, add the soy sauce, red peper, and chicken or pork slices and stir fry until the meat is cooked through, add sesame oil stir fry and you're finished.
** Please not that whily adding the rest of the ingredients into the pan, if you feel that the root and/or carrot is becoming too dry you can add in water or chicken broth to give it some more liquie, keep the stir fry moist!!!
Good luck :)

Nabe!!!

So some time ago, Ken and I had Nabe - a hot pot - this particular hot pot contained beef intestines, it was great. A littel history on the dish, for the generation of Ken's parents, and probably other's of the same age, eating intestine was considered a low class, or a cheap dish, one for which you woulnd't go out to eat... however, our generation sees is as unique and adventurous...either way, it was great!

GW Part 2 Tokyo Aqua Line & Yokohama

Yokohama at night



Yokohama in all it's glory - actually the night pictures are at the Yokohama Chinatown - the first one happens to be a parking garage with beautiful neon lighting on it.




This is the bay area, with a ferris wheel and other attractions.

This is a huge bridge that goes across Tokyo bay, a part of the bridge is an underwater tunnel that goes 57 m below the surface, when you come out you're in the middle of the ocean. Here is the entrance to the tunnel - the one in the middle of the ocean and the large structure on top is a rest stop.

Golden Week Part 1

So for the first couple of days of Golden Week (GW) we went to Chiba and Yokohama.
In Chiba, we stayed at a traditional japanese hotel and our room had a private hotspring bath outside - it was so nice! They also served a traditional japanese dinner and breakfast - unfortunately for both of those times I forgot my camera :(

Spring Time!!

Here, I'm sitting in Omotesando looking great ... hehe... jk, just trying ot be artsy ;) Actually it was a lovely spring day and sitting outside was the most appropriate thing to do!

The other day we went to a really good pork shabu-shabu place.

Okonomiyaki!

The best part of okonamiyaki, besides eating it, is preparing it. You sit around a hotplate do all the prep yourself, stir frying the vegetables and liquid mix and then adding some mochi and cheese, afterwards you thin it out so that it all cooks through. You eat it by scraping away a little bit at a time...yuuummm....
ps afterwards, you must go home and shower - this is not a date food!!

Sakura of a different variety

This sakura is outside of Ken's parents' home, it's a different type than the sakura shown earlier and blooms later.

Amore, Amore, Amore!!

So this is probably the best Italian food I've ever had, the restaurant is in Nogizaka and it's called Amore - there is no menu, you come in and ask for salad, pasta, main course and out comes the food - on this day

we had a pasta hotaru-ika (firefly squid [in season right now]) - which was tomato based sauce with baby squid, eggplant and basil a beet salad and
horse steak with potatoes - it was really really good!!!

Later

For lunch we went to Nakamoto for some ramen - this place is known for spicy ramen, Ken had #9 and it was very very unforgiving for the rest of the day, hehe. He also didn't finish it, he had about 2/3 and then we left.
The next picture was inside a restaurant we went to for dinner, we had daikon salad, homemade tofu and some fried chicken.
Some sakura at night, it's lit up and glows pink - pretty awesome if I may say so myself...

A random wild japanese cat we saw in the gardens of a nearby hotel where we went to look at some sakura.

And some more sakura...

This is some sakura that grows by our apartment. In the first picture, the tallest building is our future apartment, but we haven't been there yet because it's still under construction.
The weather is perfect, low sixties...
On this path, people camp out and have huge picnics - they call it "sakura watching" - it basically means drinking under the sakura :)

Sakura - finally!!!

At the top, is a hotel by our apartment in Akasaka.
Bottom: This is Ken's friends' place - a lot of land, a pond, a beautiful restaurant with traditional japanese food. The sakura was at its best!

Turkos are Everywhere

This is just for fun ;)


Here are some rather cool pictures from Roppongi Hills sky deck and in front of the tower..

Cars!!!

The Mori Art Museum had a classical car exhibition - or rather the Tokyo Concours D'Elegance - here are some highlights...