akemashite omedetou!

FIRST. I want to say. I have maintained this blog (with some infrequency) for TWO YEARS as of TODAY-ish! Congrats to me! And to those of you that read this, well, I'm sorry that the content has varied and has sometimes been pretty awful or just confusing, but I guess that's what diaries are supposed to be, right? Thanks for reading, though. I hope it's mildly entertaining.


SECOND! I have never written a post about oshogatsu (お正月) or hatsumode (初詣). Which is really weird, because it's kind of a big deal around this time of year. I've participated in this tradition for as long as I can remember! (This is me in front of the shrine on Rivers St. in Honolulu, called Izumo Taisha Mission (出雲大社) making my first visit for the year!)

While almost anyone that is Japanese would have at least a faint inkling of what I'm talking about, New Years (we call it shogatsu) is a really big deal. Hatsumode is the first temple visit of the year, which you're supposed to do at midnight but any time during the first day of the year is acceptable.

But let's back it up! New Years traditions are pretty Shinto centered; that is, the things we do aren't really associated with Buddhism, like most people think. My family doesn't do any Buddhist rituals, like the New Years Eve visit to the temple, we just stick to the jinja (神社) or Shinto shrine.

There are a few in Hawaii but this one is my favorite. The wait is always really long on the first day of the year, but it's always worth it! First you go in, wash your hands and your mouth at the washing area. Then when you get to the top of the steps, you make your donation, ring the bell as loud as possible, bow twice, clap twice, make a wish/prayer/whateva! and then bow again! Then the priest says a little chant and you're off on your merry way!

Then you buy your good luck charms. While I'm sure that my year was filled with a mix of good and bad luck, I can honestly say that the years I wore around my omamori (御守) or charm have been far better than the years I didn't go out and get one! This year I got one for myself, the purple one, and one for Dan. I haven't decided where to attach mine, can't get it onto my cell phone so I might have to put it on my wallet.

In addition to the New Years shrine visit, there's just tons of eating. Osechi ryori (お節料理) is the traditional meal. My mom makes a super simple version of it, mostly because she doesn't know how to make a lot of the things and because we can't ever seem to finish it all in time. Traditionally, you eat osechi for about two to three days-- eating the same thing three times a day for two to three days can get a bit boring, so I don't really blame her.



So she makes chikuzen ni (or nishime, as many in Hawaii call it), which is like a root and vegetable stew. Then there's kuri kinton, which is sweet potatos and sweet chestnuts, and it's gold in color so it's supposed to bring you fortune! Then there's kazunoko, which is a salted herring roe, which is supposed to make you more fertile. Kuromame, which are black sweet soy beans, which are for good health. Then there's nishiki tamago, which is just a sweet egg dish. She usually makes tazukuri, which are sweet sardines and are supposed to symbolize great harvest, and konbu, which is just a hard seaweed that's supposed to symbolize joy. I think she just opted to not do those this year.

In addition! There is ozoni. Which everyone knows/loves. Most people in Hawaii call it mochi soup. Depending on what part of Japan your family originates alters the taste of the soup. Eastern Japanese use a clear broth, like my mom does, which is made with chicken and usually simple vegetables, like mizuna, komatsuna, or shiitake. Western Japanese use miso, which I think is where most people in Hawaii are from because they usually talk about it tasting like a fancy miso soup.



Also, and I know this order of food is a little backwards, but the day BEFORE the new year you eat toshikoshi soba! It literally means end the old and begin the new soba. But basically it's symbolism is that the next year will be filled with luck and strength and bring long life!



THIRD: Another New Years tradition is to watch Kohaku or the Red and White Song Festival. It's this long television special that happens on New Year Eve, and basically the top singers for that year are invited to compete in teams. It's usually men vs women, and I think the audience and some judges vote. But basically it's just a super long television program where people perform in crazy outfits. This year Lady Gaga got invited, which I think is weird, because not too often do people from other cultures get invited, but whatever.

Anyway, this post ended up being a lot longer than I had intended but I'm sure it's incredibly informative for those of you that are a little more curious about Japanese New Years culture!

THIS IS WHAT I WANT RIGHT NOW

or this (Thanksgiving dinner)



or this! (Christmas dinner)

ramen + muffins

I caught a cold again this past week and have been feeling like crap since. It's definitely gotten better, but I have long coughing spells that even cough drops can't cure.

I ate at Tenkaippin (which, by the way, is my second favorite ramen place of all time) because I figured hot soup and tons of garlic would help me out. I guess in a way it did. Gyoza was a bit soggy on this visit, but who cares. Kotteri forever!





(and for comparisons sake, a photo from my favorite ramen place, Nakamura Ramen)



Anyway, I wanted to bake muffins and Dan suggested cranberry orange so I made some. I found this amazing recipe from Bakingdom and they turned out amazing. The recipe is on that website if you wanted to make them yourself.



This is pre-glaze.



Post glaze with sugar topping. Funny thing about the topping-- I ran out of white sugar so I had to use brown. But it was refrigerated, so it was a little moist and dissolved a bit when I mixed it with the orange zest. Whoops! Still came out amazing though!

where is my mind?

I haven't updated at all lately and it's just out of pure laziness. I've been cooking a lot more at home lately and eating work food a lot more, too.



A few weeks ago I had dinner at my dad's house. He really likes deep fried things (and let's be honest, who doesn't?!) so he made me a breaded feast for at least ten people. We somehow managed to eat most of it among the three of us (my step-mom included).



He took a whole chicken and chopped it up into pieces. Most were hard to discern, the batter morphing them into similar shapes. The only ones easily identifiable were the drumstick and the wings, the rest were just a hodgepodge. The mushrooms were so hot after being deep fried, probably the moisture in them coming out via heat. So we had to cut them in half to have them cool down to a reasonable temperature. My dad learned this the hard way-- out of excitement he quickly bit into the mushroom and burnt his entire lower lip. Had to use a soda bottle from the fridge to get the swelling down. Hah!





Dad really likes the crispy breaded crumbs so he stacked the chicken like a tower to get to them. I have no idea if they managed to eat through the rest of that chicken. I'm sure it'd be easy, though. It was pretty amazing.

I've kind of been on a chicken fix as of late, though. There was this pretty amazing (and simple!) chicken and mushroom recipe on Food Wishes that I wanted to try out. It came out even better than I had anticipated. Paired it with some steamed rice and a simple mixed green salad.

Developing film = Automatic blog post

My commute to work is pretty tranquil. So much so I decided to take a photo. The weather (up until late) has been beautiful-- perfect breeze and coolness while still being incredibly sunny. I can't even explain really how happy I feel when I ride down this particular stretch of Kapahulu. Sometimes nature is just really awesome.



I saw Matt and Kim with Dan and it was a pretty amazing show! I really love Aloha Tower-- it's a pretty surreal venue. Unlike the Cat Power show, this one was really hot and muggy. Probably because of all the kids dancing. I punched a guy in the face! T'was a good night!



Kaz moved to Japan so SRSS has a new guitarist. Their last show was on the 29th. Still torn that he's back in Kyoto. I definitely need to make a trip out there soon.



And then here are some not-film photos of food. Takoyaki and Unagi+Ikura Chirashi-don.



These are my favorite chocolates. Before, the ones that are green tea latte cream flavored were pancake flavored. I miss them. The rest are delicious, though!





These were tarts that were on sale at Nijiya. They were actually pretty good! I really liked the caramel almond flavored. The yuzu one was okay.

Then I went shopping at Safeway and discovered that they sell sourdough bread bowls. So I made myself manhattan clam chowder and a salad for a late night dinner. I didn't know what to do with all the bread I took out (for the soup), but discovered that the chinese actually deep fry bread and eat it for breakfast! Next time!

holy pic spam update

So I've been really preoccupied with school and work and have been neglecting the food aspect of this blog. I think apart of it, too, is that I've been waging a pretty serious food photo war and there is just too much mediocrity to upload. So here are some of my favorites over the past few weeks.

I love steak salad. Even more when feta cheese is involved.



Juvana and I get lunch almost every Monday and Wednesday. Govinda's is one of our favorite spots. Cauliflower curry.



Joe and I went to Kaka'ako for lunch/coffee/study sesh. We ate at Kua'aina Burgers where I got my favorite avocado burger, then stopped by Mocha Java for lunch.




Then Joe got trapped in a space-age massage chair that had a "zero gravity" setting.



Some days I make myself a fancy breakfast. Homemade yogurt! Really upset that mom ran out of bacteria to culture anymore. Need to find a place here in Hawaii that sells it! Tea press = divine.



Another fancy brunch!



(and I saw Cat Power! with Fred. It was sweet.)



I think that's more than enough for now.

merry christmas!

okay, so technically it's the day after but i'm up late and it still feels like christmas to me (whatever that means).

today was a pretty laid back day. mom and i had kotteri ramen at tenkaippin for lunch and shabu shabu at home for dinner. then we had this for dessert. she got it as an xmas gift/omiyage. sweet potato tarts! yay! it's really too bad it only came in a box of eight.



i didn't really get any gifts. just the usual bit of cash and a ton of snacks from my mom. we aren't too big on christmas. i'm really excited about new years, though. ozoni and toshikoshi soba and osechi and all the rest. in case you didn't know, new years is a pretty big deal in asian cultures, particularly in japanese. each food has some spiritual or cultural representation (e.g. toshikoshi soba are usually longer buckwheat noodles that represent long life). i don't know if mom is making it this year or if we're opting to just buy it. i might have to call around just in case.

anyway. the REAL reason for this post is because this past may my brother turned 20. we went out to dinner with him and his friend (sean) stubbs. my digital camera still worked then and i took a short 9sec video clip of stubbs eating corn on the cob. i promised craig i'd mix the video for him. here it is nearly seven months later! to the tune "sexy boy" by air. it's not as funny if you don't know him, but still pretty damn hilarious and ridiculous.

food pix spam

so after having a smartphone for over a month i finally set up my email services. initially it's been annoying as 90% of the emails i get to my gmail account are web exclusive sales newsletters, so having to delete them manually off my phone has been a pain. the bright side and real reason i set it up was because now i have the ability to email all the photos i take and post them here! yay!

over the last few weeks i've been eating at home a lot. mostly because i've been home a lot working on papers and i've been trying to save money.



bento. grilled salmon, rice + chirimen sansho/wakame, bell pepper and corn, fish cake, grape tomatoes and lettuce, and kiriboshi daikon!



sukiyaki in the comfort of my own home!

thanksgiving isn't a really big deal in my family. culturally speaking, i suppose that makes sense. my dad would always prepare the traditional thanksgiving meal (although on occations he'd make a ham instead of turkey, but that's a story for another time) but my mom would always be utterly disgusted. i realize now that it's not so much the food itself that she hated, but the idea of eating so excessively. she doesn't appreciate or understand gluttony and thus hates this holiday.

we made it a point to spend some kind of quality time together. we ate at zippys before i had to go to work.



my oxtail soup.




mom and her turkey. not so appetizing. tastes just like how it looks.



i went to tsunamis on friday for my coworker's birthday party. i forgot what it was like to be in a really azn room. the last time i've been to a place like this was back in 2007 when i went to xylohs with a friend of mine on a near weekly basis. anyway, tsunamis brought back a lot of those memories of feeling out of place but i totally embraced it. the food was miraculous. in this photo i'm eating their pork cutlet. it had a horseradish mayo dipping sauce which was nice but unusual. i also had some of the poke which was delicious, and my friends were saying the hamburger was really good. they need a better beer selection.

i've been on a real downtempo fix which is weird because a) i kind of really hate DJs b) i hate the repetitiveness. but i discovered jon kennedy and my opinion has been transformed.



there's a few other artists i've been listening to a lot of as of late. thanks, last.fm.

wearing pants in the kitchen

so on tuesday i woke up really late and missed all my classes. sometimes you just need days like that, you know? when you sleep in and let the body do it's thing. okay, so maybe my sleeping in might have had something to do with drinking the night before and getting in bed at 1:30am. but really, who are you to judge?

so back to the story. oh. i forgot to add this. i don't like to wear pants when i'm at home. is that weird? i don't know. i've talked about this with friends and no, it's not weird. i mean if my brother or mom are around then yes, of course, i throw on some shorts. but otherwise i am in boxers or underwear. you know. whatever.

so i was making bacon and eggs in my kitchen without pants on (because uh, it was 12pm and i was home alone) and BAM. just like that. the bacon crackled and the oil shot up in the air and hit my thigh. now i have this awful burn on my leg! okay, it's not that bad. but still. this is the point i was trying to get to.

always wear pants in the kitchen. always.

life lately

how i've been feeling/looking/acting. blarrrghhh.

lately i've been enjoying overly simplistic meals. rice, karashi mentaiko (spicy pollock roe), sometimes miso soup. i crave just the flavor of good quality rice and have been eating bowls upon bowls of it lately. maybe it's just an asian fix i'm in... or maybe it's because it's too hot and i don't want to do anything in the kitchen. this is not good, guys. my laziness is even leading me to consider eating the somen that sits in our fridge. i absolutely hate somen more than any other noodle in the world.

i want to start baking again. my desire to make pies is so great. perfect timing since it's cherry season and it'll be over very soon! i was at my dad's house a few weeks ago and discovered this show called "cupcake wars." have you seen it? it's like this super extreme iron chef style cooking competition. it's so intense! i made my dad hold off taking me home until we saw who won. it was this sort of amy pohler-esque girl and her really hippy eco-designed cupcake tower. then it turns out it's an actual SERIES?! there has been more than one episode aired? my mind = blown. i really really wish i had cable tv but am half glad i don't because then i'd never be anywhere anymore.

in not-food-blog related news, i just watched 120 days of sodom today. i downloaded it yesterday after reading the top 10 most horrifying movies of all time (it was like number 4 or something on the list). i figured it couldn't be that bad because it was ranked below the exorcist and that movie was more funny than scary. I COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG. i mean, it wasn't really that bad but it was a lot worse than i had anticipated. reminded me of hostel.. except a lot more graphic in a eww that's gross as opposed to a ho shit that's fucked up kind of way. you know?

this video is not safe for work/home/life. just a warning.

inspiring me to read the book, though.

semi-food related

man, writing about food all the time isn't so bad. i guess it's hard because i feel strange just describing what i've eaten. i wish i could show you guys, but my camera is still broken/i haven't bought a new camera. kind of getting back into the film thing again. i bought a snappy lxii at my friends garage sale this past weekend for a $1. very typical point and shoot, except that it automatically winds. yes! replaces my now defunct colorsplash.

speaking of cameras, i really really still want the canon ae-1. i wish i had it already. blah blah.

the other day i made the most amazing ramen. there's this open market on fort street three days a week and i picked up some choy sum there. generally speaking after that chinatown rat scare i've been really hesitant about open vegetable marts as i don't really know where they've been sitting. but the old lady at one of the stands is really sweet and always offers to help me out (as i'm clueless when it comes to picking out good veggies) so i guess i trust her.

i was a little unhappy that i had to use thinly sliced beef instead of shabu shabu pork, but it was delicious either way. poached egg on the top with togarashi seasoning!

did you guys know you can freeze certain vegetables? it really cuts on prep time. i've been doing this with green onion! a few weeks ago i bought some green onion and only used a third of it before it went bad. frustrated, i googled ways i could save green onion. shazam! my mom has been using most of it, though, which i guess i don't mind.

anyway more pictures later i gotta play sims 3!

updates for updates sake

It's so hot. I'm eating ice cream and it's almost 7PM (dinner time). My diet hasn't been the healthiest lately. Today I ate a slice of vegetarian pizza from Boston's Pizza, two spring rolls from Pho Tri, $14 worth of sushi at Genki, and a fudgey cupcake from the Starbucks cafe. I know what you're thinking. "Arisa, you're so skinny! You don't have to worry about your weight!" Shut up. I am skinny fat and I should probably be working out so I can get toned and shit.

Anyway this isn't a blog about me it's a blog about food. I forgot to write about my slow-cooked ribs adventure. Basically I discovered what I did wrong the last time and reattempted some weeks ago. It was an absolute success.

I followed all the steps except the part about baking. The oven was on bake at 275degreesF. I wrapped the ribs in two sheets of foil, top and bottom, and then sealed the sides closed. Then I put it in a casserole dish of sorts, with a lid! This way the moisture stays inside. Who would have thought!

So after baking for about two and a half hours I opened up the foil and then basted them with BBQ sauce. Then I broiled them for about twenty minutes.

FALL OFF THE FUCKING BONE! I was in disbelief. Ask my mom! I almost started crying!

Anyway it turned out to be a horrifyingly oily meal that I won't attempt again for a while. Maybe broiling on a broiling pan instead to help with the oils sitting. Either way, aaaaaaamazing!

magical acai sundays!! +recent lunches

Not that I'm trying to push drugs onto you but man, my new favorite Sunday routine is a bowl to myself and then an acai bowl. I've been meaning to make a trip out to the Health Bar but it's kind of out of the way. So lately I've been making regular trips to Blue Hawaii Lifestyle. Sure, $8 for an acai bowl is pretty damn steep (considering the economy yadda yadda) but a once-a-week treat, I say it's alright!

How could you resist that? None the less, I kind of want to make it a routine with someone else (instead of uh, randomly calling up people to have them watch me eat, hah). So if you're interested, holla at me! Also side note: the teas there are pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

Unreleated (but totally important!). I have lost weight as I mentioned before, so I've been making it a new habit to eat healthier, with the occasional It's-it sandwich as a treat! But here's a picture of my lunches lately.

I KNOW YOU'RE JEALOUS. So here's the breakdown. Basically I'm in love with spring mix salads (prepackaged because it's a pain to get all those assortment of leaves). Topped with sliced tomatoes, thinly sliced onions, cheese (usually mozzarella/cheddar mix) and dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette. Then on half to 3/4in. slices of baguette bread, I top them with a margarine, diced onions, cheese, and sometimes tomatoes if I have some left over! So so so good. The cheese is a great protein instead of meat which really helps hold off hunger. Love this.