ごがつびょう

Rody

I don't have very much exciting news this week. The picture is of children and their parentls playing on rubber donkey looking toys named "Rody" at Ebisu Gardens (home of the famous beer museum).

The hiragana in the title (gogatsubyoo) means May Sickness. If you remember, we had Golden Week at the beginning of the month - after Golden week nobody wants to come back to work - hence May Sickness. Another term about the month of May I like is さつきばれ (satsukibare) which kind of translates into a clear day in May. This is because the weather starts to become very nice in Japan this time of year and we have had many nice days. The word satsuki also means Azalea which were in bloom earlier in the month.

I have been really bad about my study of Japanese lately - I think I'll go study...

味噌汁

Chef Frank's Guide to Japanese Cooking

This week's topic is misoshiru (Miso Soup) which of course is made from soy bean paste. I love misoshiru and can't believe it is not popular in the United States.

The traditional way is to take dried bonito (fish) flakes called katsuo and steep them in hot water. Then you strain the katsuo out to make a broth called dashi. Then you then put the miso paste, some onion maybe, and some seaweed in to make the base soup. From there you can put clams, tofu, mushrooms, etc. in to make something a little more substantial. There are all kinds of miso but I like the red miso which is a little stronger.

This is a simple recipe as any Japanese person can tell you. So simple that nobody could tell me what the measurements were. I am an engineer, and any decent engineer knows that measurements for recipes are to be followed exactly, the same as any other specification or code requirement. To cook without a recipe is akin to installing wiring without knowledge of the National Electrical Code in my opinion.

But then I found "instant misoshiru". This is pretty good stuff, so I am going to publish the recipe so the rest of you won't have the problems I experienced. I am also giving the cost, converted to US$ so you can see just how economic this stuff is - not to mention delicious, healthful, and easy to make.

Misoshiru with Tofu

Ingredients:

• (1) 18g packet misoshiru, with dashi - about 10 cents each when bought in package of 12
• (1) 200g package tofu, divided in 1/4 - about 70 cents per package
• 300 ml water

Recipe:

As in many good recipes, the first step is critical to the success of the dish.

1. Bring the water to a very light boil.
2. Cut the tofu into chunks the size of a big sugar cube.
   
3. Put the tofu in a cup and just cover with hot water to heat it.
   
4. Put the misoshiru in another cup and pour hot water in it leaving enough room for tofu. Stir briskly.
   
5. Pour water off the tofu when warm and spoon into the soup.

Enjoy - makes a serving for one.

V=2870

Weekend Holiday in Doha

Intercontinental Hotel Beach - Doha

I had to fly to Doha on fairly short notice Friday for meetings on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I got in about 5:00 AM this morning and was unexpectedly met by a driver with a new BMW 7 series who took me to the Intercontinental Hotel. Immediately after having a shower and unpacking I got a phonecall that my meeting for Saturday had been cancelled.

So I ate a club sandwich, put on shorts and a T-shirt, and went to the beach. It was warm with a gentle breeze and I found a chaise lounge under a palm tree and took a nap.

I hope your day takes an unexpected turn for the better too.

こい の ぶり

こども　の　日

I have decided to go a little more bilingual on my blog and start putting some of the Japanese words in ひりがな。 Can you see the characters OK? I would be interested in who can and who can't. To read it you will need unicode on your computer. I went a little further and installed IME so that I can enter and edit it. Kind of neat...

Anyway, this week was Golden Week. We had a number of days off and a lot of the Japanese left town but I got sick and just stayed in my apartment two days instead and then had to do income tax. On Saturday I went into work because I was so far behind there. Some Golden Week. Anyway, the end of Golden Week is called こども　の　ひ　(kodomo no hi) or Children's Day.

For boys especially, it is traditional to fly streamers of a carp design called こい　の　ぶり　(koi no buri) which means rising carp. The streamers are flown at schools, temples, from balconies, etc. The design is meant to show the strength that the carp have in rising and swimming against the current and parents hope that there children will grow strong and have be able to do the same.

May your children, and their children, and ... have the same strength and determination.

Singer in Shibuya

Shibuya is known as a place for young people but I was there the other day at Tower Records because they have a good English book section and I wanted a ひらがな language book for English speakers. This young woman was at the train station singing traditional Japanese songs and there was a group of people gathered around - mostly old folk about my age. I stopped and listened too. I like just about all kinds of music. Is there something I am missing with rap though?

V=2602