In transit

Well well well.  Seems like I’ve missed an entire season, summer, and this blog!  ご無沙汰しております。That’s –it’s been awhile.  I have to admit things have been hectic over here–I’ve moved across the waters (well, just a little bit) to Shanghai.  It’s taken me awhile to get used to new surroundings, and I’ve been establishing my jewelry line, that I have long been neglecting this.  I thought it might be fun to show you all what kind of food I have been eating, and through tasting, hopefully I will be refining my tastes to make better dishes!

Cherry blossom cake from Shibuya

Wet market in Shanghai

Soup buns - A Shanghai specialty!

Lemon curd with blueberry topping from GOGA

South African Braai - aka BBQ!

Abalone, Daikon, & Ginger from Madison

Today's freshest Jujubes (aka dates)

On with that, onto pure cooking!

Bento Envy, Chapter 1

Today, I am going to blog not about cooking, but of some major envy I have been having ever since I ate lunch with one of my kindergarten classes.  Now, I have always considered that my job here in Japan (Elementary/Kindergarten/Pre-School teacher) to be more or less, training to be a good mother in  the future.  I used to think that I was going to be a great mom.

Then came the big shock–the first time I saw my students’ bento boxes.  They are lunch boxes that mothers (the kids told me their mommies made it, so I am not being sexist) obviously prepare with a lot of care and attention to detail.  In fact, I almost considering this bordering upon OCD when compared to the states.  We simply cannot compare.  Brown bag lunches what’s up?

I have made it a little goal to figure out the secrets of making bento boxes (especially for kids) because they are just SO adorable.  This week, I have done my best to rush into each class to take photos of everyone’s lunches for your viewing pleasure.  I will also post in the future about the little tools that make these little lunches the cutest in the world.

Hello little seaweed fishes! Oh, are those little wiener flowers and a winking sun?

Smiley boiled egg! All the little paper cups that hold stuff have messages for the kids to read after they finish eating.

Do you see the kitty and puppy on the eggs?

hajimemashite

Hello!  初めまして!  In case you were wondering, hajimemashite means nice to meet you in Japanese.

My name is Kim and I am a former New Yorker,  takeout food addict, a person that felt that more was better, always impatient, and definitely, always anal…aka- a really lovely and wonderful person deep down, but seriously needing to learn a lesson or two about how to focus on only a few things, relax, and have fun.

Cut to 1.5 years ago.  I decide to pack up and move myself to the countryside of Japan.  Serenity, mountains (grass? what is that), smiling laughing children (New job: elem/preschool English teacher), and FREE TIME are all of a sudden placed  in my lap.  As Joey from Blossom would say, “WHOA!”

So I took some time and learned about mysel–BLAH BLAH BLAH, SO, the real point is that I realized that Japan has lots of great Japanese food, which is really palatable and wonderful, but sometimes you just miss the sugary/spicy/savory/packs a punch food.  So I figured out how to navigate Japanese supermarkets on a low budget and realized that they have everything you need to recreate almost EVERY FOOD you EVER MISSED from home!

So here goes.  Leave me comments if you like it, or have any suggestions/questions for me.