we are bread people. - the story of bread, vol.1

(taken with nikon f on tmy400, developed and printed by me, the same for the one below.)

hi.
i'm really impressed that i've kept posting here almost everyday recently.
blogging here has successfully been promoted to a daily routine!
or i may take this as a summer homework for now. ;P


btw, this morning i was thinking what i would eat for my breakfast.
i wasn't ready for it, though it was really a rare case for me.
because i'm a breakfast person (i even would believe in the god of breakfast, did ever exist), i usually am very ready by the time each morning begins.
but this morning was a rare exception.

as i had told you yesterday that i was going to have blueberry shake today for each my breakfast or lunch, i decided to have that for breakfast.
then that made me think about what i would have with it.
having a bagel with shake seemed to be a little bulky (though i eat a bagel almost every morning), and i was at a loss for a substitute.
while i was preparing a cup of darjeeling tea (another daily basis) and blueberry shake, my thought reached the idea of having a (or two) slice of toast.
i grabbed a slice of bread from a freezer and set directly it in a pop-up toaster. (my freezer has a good stock of some kinds of bread constantly. ;p)

when i gave a bite to a bit burnt toast, the crunchy and fragrant surface made me ponder how i have been fond of bread since a child.
yes, i was a bread girl.
and so am i as well now.

when i firstly recognized my food preference in my life (probably 3 or 4 years old?), my family's breakfast had already been bread and something.
and i have never expected my breakfast to be rice and something, which is quite typical in japan.
the type of bread changed one after another.
soft butter rolls, raisin bread, sugary pastries, crunchy toasts, and so on.
our family used to live in the same bag of bread.

that's why i eat bread for my breakfast even though i stay in japan as a little hiatus of the life in the u.s.

the top picture is of the bread i liked the best during the stay in japan in last april.
hard crust, very lean dough, pieces of walnuts and cheese kneaded in; perfectly artisan!
the picture below is of my mom and her favorite.
soft and elastic dough, lots of walnuts kneaded in, smell of milk and eggs; her never changing taste.

we still love to start our mornings with bread, and making fuss over bread through an international telephone call or skype is our pleasure, too. :))


so, today is friday, 13.
being afraid of something cursed, hope you all have a nice weekend. :))
i'll give a post of another story of bread next week.
see you.
xoxo.

another 2 pounds of blueberries

(taken with contax rts on fuji superia 200)

hi.
i noticed that i've inclined to eat more berries this spring and summer.
it's a rare case for me.
i love fall and winter fruits, like figs, persimmons and apples the best of all fruits.
and when it's out of the season of those, i usually eat bananas.
so, i didn't think i liked the tartness of fruits very much.

i come up with idea for the reason why i'm in such mood (of liking berries).
maybe because my 1-year-old girl friend looked so pretty when she forgot herself with eating strawberries when she visited my home in the past early spring.
or maybe because my 63-year-old girl friend is always eating cheerios (one of cold cereals) and strawberries for her daily basis.
i kind of adored those inclinations toward something small and pretty, then berries stood as a candidate for me as well, i guess.
i've been buyin a pack of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries one after another as soon as one has gone.
and now, 2 pounds of blueberries are in my fridge. (needless to say, i've already eaten some.)

here's a small list of plans for blueberries.
1, weekend blueberry pancake breakfast (buttermilk is already waiting for its time in the fridge, though i usually don't buy any dairy milk.)
2, make blueberry shake for friday breakfast or lunch (with bananas and soy milk)
3, buy another 2 pounds, then zip and put it in a freezer (for the future pleasure)
4, take pictures of them on polaroid (the most must)


have pretty rest of weekdays!

p.s. fyi, i bought the embroidered cloth in the pic at a flea market in orvieto, italy on one sunny saturday in '09.

how i liked japanese food last april.

(taken with nikon f on rdplll, same for all 6 photos below)

hi.
do you still remember that i told you on the past weekend that i would publish a long post sometime this week?
here's the one.
as i completed writing and saved it last week, the expression is kind of old now.
but i don't dare to amend that.
and i'm sorry that recent my post's topics fly here to there in the world.
yesterday from italy, and today from japan!


hi. (this was supposed to be said to you last friday.)
i've just come across a bunch of slide films i took when i was in japan last april.
i went back to japan by myself and stayed there for roughly 3 weeks to take care of my mom who got an operation with one of her knee.
because of the nature of the body part, i didn't have to be much nervous about that (i didn't think a bad knee would kill my mom), and that made me enjoy food life in japan!
lucky me. :))

as i've been proud of myself as a food fanatic (is this really honorable?), i seriously thought about the possibility of what, when and how much i could eat during the stay.
then, one day something merciless hit me badly, and i lost such my ambition for food.
well, i won't tell you about the incident which honorably overcame my appetite here.
anyway i enjoyed my food life in japan at least until then.

and today, i want to introduce 7 of my favorite food which i ate and took a pic of to you with some episode.

1 (top): hukashi-imo/ steamed japanese yum potatoes

this is a kind of snack or treat which we can easily prepare.
they are just steamed and cut into a bite size and sprinkled with pinch of sea salt ant roast and ground sesame.
i've loved this so much since a child.
on the day when i reached my home in japan, the thoughtful neighbor lady who my mom keeps in touch so close with brought these yum potatoes and something more to welcome me back.
the yum in the pic was the kind called as "naruto-kintoki", and this kind is famous for its golden color flesh and the sweetness as "kintoki" part of the name suggests.
another part "naruto" suggests its cropped area. (naruto is one part of tokushima prefecture.)
i love the simpleness and tastefulness of this food.



2: ann (anko)-toast/ a toast spread with sweet red been paste (the right one of the two)

i'm not sure if this is popular, but this formula is surely adopted from the sweet bread usually sold in convenience stores or supermarkets.
some people would like to have this with smearing a margarine before spreading red bean paste, or topping with whipped cream.
the red bean paste in this pic is not much paste like, and it has a lot of solid red beans in it.
it depends on how you cook your red bean paste or what brand's can of red bean paste you choose if you don't have time to prepare by yourself.
the one in the pic was canned, and i'm not sure the brand name as i incidentally found that lying in a pantry.
when i was about to spread the paste directly from the can, my mom warned me that it might not be sweet enough as she always simmer that with adding some more sugar.
but actually it was deadly sweet by itself and i doubted if my mom's taste bud really works!



3: ichigo/ strawberries

you don't need an explanation for this, do you?
yeah, simply strawberries.
but i want to say out loud, japanese strawberries are totally different from those of the u.s.!!
they are much smaller, juicier and sweeter!
to my surprise, every time i go back to japan, i find some new kinds of strawberries newly produced recently as a result of farmer's eager effort of hybridization.
sometimes they are enormously big, but still surprisingly sweet.
i guess that japanese strawberry makers are all mad at experiment. ;)



4: ichigo-daifuku/ japanese style cake with a strawberry
so you need an explanation this time, don't you?
"daifuku" (the last part of the name) tells the style of this cake.
as most of japanese traditional style cakes are so, this one is consist of the skin part and the filling part unexceptionally.
the skin, which is made from rice flour, is very elastic and stretchy.
the filling is usually red bean paste or white bean paste, either smooth or rough type.
this ichigo-daifuku is the seasonal special version of daifuku, and has a strawberry in its very center.
the ones in the pic was given to my mom and me from one of her friends when my mom was hospitalized.
i liked the combination of the sweetness of smooth white bean paste and the tartness of a strawberry.
the one thing we had to worry about was that this cake didn't last long.

oh, sorry for the ugly yellow line in this pic.
i don't know why i got that.
also i remember that my mom explanatorily put the red paper which the name of this cake is written right next to the cakes.
thanks mom, she's always cooperative to my photography!



5: hanami/ the party under cherry blossoms

it's not really the name of food, but of the event.
this is one of the traditional japanese event to cerebrate the arrival of spring and the beauty of cherry blossoms.
most japanese like this, and sometimes this event are made most of as an excuse for eating and drinking outside.
this event is not necessarily held in the daytime but at night also.

my mom and i found something prepared at a supermarket's deli corner, and had the event just after we visited the temple where my father's bone is held.
as the park we had the event in is next to the temple, we felt and talked as if my dad had been participating in the event though he is actually not in this world but in the heaven.
we were so glad to be able to do that, because my father used to love this pretty event when he was alive and we used to do this a lot.



6: sakura-mochi/ a japanese style cake with a pickled cherry blossom leaf

of all japanese traditional cakes, i like this one the most.
basically the formula of the cake is same as daifuku (4).
as for this one, skin part is more thick and have a texture of sticky rice as the recipe for this calls sticky rice or an expensive version of sticky rice (called as "domyoji-ko").
filling is either of smooth or rough style of red bean paste.
the most remarkable character of this cake is that the pickled cherry leaf wrapped the cake part up.
you can either eat or leave the leaf.
i do both depending on the toughness of the leaf. ( if it's softly edible enough, i eat it.)
the subtle balance of the saltiness of the leaves and the sweetness of the cake is so irresistible!!

oh, don't you think this is in a similar theory of the "dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves; one of famous greek food)" ?



7: soramame/ broad beans or fava beans

i ilke this very much!!
of all the pea and bean families, i love this the most.
so did my dad.
whenever i eat this, i can't help remember how he loved this.
i'd like to eat this with very light flavor of salt or soy sauce.
though i was simmering broad beans with slightly sweet soy sauce flavor soup in the pic, i also love to have this boiled lightly in salted hot water.


oh, it's a long post.
sorry for the kind readers who have been with me recently, and i so appreciate you all.
i didn't expect to write this long today, but i did after all.
because the topic is related to japan, i must have been excited.
and though i didn't mean to be nostalgic with my dad's remembrance, i utterly was.
as i live in the u.s. for ten years, most of japanese food are in the taste of memory...


hi, again :)
see, this is a too long post!
probably the first longest or so ever.
thank you for being with me!

this dinner; another way to enjoy the trip

(taken with nikon f on kodachrome64, the same other 3 below.)

hi.
yesterday's post induces me to write something about the food affair i had in italy on another day.
i'm utterly in the mood of reminiscing, yearning and daydreaming of italy!!

yesterday i talked about an amazing ristorante i visited in florence, and today i want to introduce another pleasure of the food affair in matera.
matera is the famous cavernous city in south italy. (it's situated in basilicata region.)
my husband and i stayed two nights there at the very beginning of the trip in last may.
i think i'm very good at searching for nice and affordable hotels, and the hotel we stayed in matera was the another proof to tell how much i'm such.

hanging around the town with favorite cameras with keeping my eyes on restaurants for the night is fun.
or otherwise, being tired away from the hotel with some bulky plastic bags of wine bottles, packages of fresh veggies and fruits, some kinds of wedges of cheese and an artisan bread for the dinner party planned to be held at the balcony of the hotel is fun, too!

here's one example we had in matera.
we bought 3 pieces of different kinds of focaccias and a bag of taralli (famous southern italian ring-shaped crackers, i love these soooo much!) from a local bakery, two plastic bowls of salad, a package of cherry tomatoes and olives and two bottles of local wine from a grocery store.

dinner was ready at the balcony in front of the room.
though the weather was cloudy and mildly windy, and the temperature was a bit cold, i wanted to stay there as long as possible because of this panoramic view!

as our dinner party began rather early in the evening, i'm not sure if i stayed outside till this dark.
i wished if this had happened in the early summer and imagined of the smell and warmth of the air the summer would bring.

with this calm and serene surrounding, the night fell upon us.
we spent our time sipping the rest of wine, taking pictures and feeling that we are amidst of the vacation.
doesn't it sound pretty?

so, this dinner, which we often have in our trips, must be another way to enjoy the trip!

a miraculous victory

(taken with nikon f on rdplll, other 2 below were the same.)
hi.
another monday and new week.

this morning i just came across some photos taken in italy last may.
whenever i look again a bunch of pictures taken during the past trips, my eyes are caught by ones related to food or cats.
today, i was caught by food ones.

today's pictures are from florence, italy.
when i visited there with my husband last may, we had a terrific lunch accidentaly.
the street was not busy, that's why we became returning customers at the hotel which is situated 2~3 next to this ristorante.

when we reached florence around noon after taking about-1-hour-train-trip from bologna, we were terribly tired. (because of the bad air quality of big cities, the cold and bad weathers and the literal tiredness.)
so were we, after we made check-in at the kind of intimate hotel, we went out for lunch which would be won effortlessly but still be something.
yeah, i always suppose that a terrific meal is supposed to be "won" after some kind of effort and research, especially the situation occurs in an unfamiliar place.
against my belief, we were unfortunately luck of energy in florence.
so, after we left the hotel we entered in the ristorante which was be able to be reached with only a few steps.



miraculously, we did win effortlessly!
everything here was more than ok; the elegant decoration inside, porchini risotto and house red wine, the friendly chefs and waitresses, and time flew so slowly and decently.
i was totally stunned with the risotto.
because i'm originally from japan where people mainly eat rice for their starch, and i was in florence on the 5th day of the trip and was eager to eat rice, especially in a way carefully cooked by a skilled chef and quickly brought from kitchen to my table in order to be eaten at the right temperature.
every my stern ideal was easily cleared at this ristorante!
bravo!!
i regretted again and again that we had passed by this ristorante last year.
now i know that if we visit florence again, we'll be returning customers of this ristorante!



lovely chefs at ristorante "nerone". :))
i'm sorry about the blur, but your kitchen was too challenging for a slow speed film! ;P