Restaurant review

I am interested in organic, healthy foods so I went to "Tamana-shokudou" in Minami aoyama. The location of the restaurant was a bit difficult to understand, but I could arrive at there. 

The atmosphere was very homey. The core customer stratum was women.

I ordered a daily set meal of dinner.

At first, a waitress served up a salad.

The main dish of the set meal was shiitake mushroom steaks.

There we're bite-sized avocados on the steaks. This steaks didnot contain any meats, so its calorie might be very low.

There was side dishes and they were pickles, hijiki and sesame and salt.

We could sprinkle sesame and salt on brown rice if we wanted.

There was a miso soup and all of them were very healthy and delicious for me.

In the restaurant, there was only one bad point and it was that a waitress forgot serving water to me.

However I like the atmosphere and healthy foods, so I want to go there at lunch time next time.

Why you should be eating avocados!

http://youtu.be/BdyIH7LfjmE

Many people tend to avoid eating avocado too much, because its fat level is high. However, the fat is very good for our bodies and it makes healthy skin, hair and nail. I like avocado very much, but I thought its calorie is higher than other vegetables, so I tended to avoid eating it frequently. After watching of the movie, I think it is not bad thing to eat avocado everyday.

Steve Gardner's concert

I was very impressed with Steve Gardner's performance and songs.
I had not listened blues, so the rhythm and atmosohere were very flesh for me.
After the concert, he told us about American food culture very much.
I was surprised that he was knowledgeable about food culture in countrysides and Coca-cola  very well. His lecture was so profitable for me.

2nd Harvest Japan's Charles Mcjilton

Charles Mcjilton has been the CEO of an NGO in Japan (2HJ) since 2002.
The organization contributes foods to people who are in straitened circumstances.
2HJ has provided food to Tohoku region, too.
Last year, he established the first incorporated food bank in the Philippines.

I was very shocked to read that each day in Tokyo 6000 tons of food are thrown away.
In the world, there are many poor people and they can not eat enough food to live.
We should decrease leavings of a meal.

Sushi and beyond p.32~

In chapter 6, Michael wrote about Japanese food program on TV. He went to watch "Bistro SMAP", which is one of corners of  "SMAP×SMAP". He said that SMAP changed Japanese prejudice that men didnot cook in the kitchen. Recently, I also think that there are many men whose hobby is cooking. Perhaps SMAP is one of factors of the trend.

Next chapter, he went to tempura shop with his family. They ordered whitebait, squid,eel and shrimp.  He was  so impressed of the tastiness. Particularly, he want to know how to make these crunchy batter, which is called"koromo" in Japanese.
He wrote that although the technique of deep-frying was originally introduced to Japan by Europeans and Chinese, the Japanese have elaborate the way of making tempura. I was amazed by the information.
He told that Japanese always serve tempura with grated daikon mixed in with the dipping sause, because daikon helps the digestion of oily foods. I thought we should eat daikon-oroshi before I eat tempura.
It was interesting that he thought Japanese people are very careful about eating, because they believe that Tokugawa ate tempura too much, so he died. 

Sushi and beyond p.20~

In this chapter, the author tried to enter an "izakaya" in Tokyo. At the izakaya, he ate yakitori. He seemed to be impressed with the taste of yakitori. He couldnot imagine to eat cartilage, called"nankotsu" in Japan, so he was amaged that of oral sensations.
He experienced some transportations of Japan. When he caught a cab, he was very surprised. Because it seems that in Paris, catching a cab is like trying to capture a wasp and requires a great deal of patience.
In next chapter, he went to a sumo stable. He learned how to make "chanko-nabe". In the sumo stable, he had a chance to look inside of the refrigerator of the stable. He had thought that there were a lot of chocolates and cakes, however, he saw there were many healthy foods like tofu, sweetcorn, chicken and  vegetables.

It is very interesting for me that foreigners think yakitori is one of Japanese original foods, and there are some strange kinds like "nankotsu".

The author saw inside of refrigerator in the sumo stable, and  I also wanted to know what rikishi eat. Unexpectedly, although rikishi eat large amount of foods, they eat relatively healthy kinds of foods like tofu and vegetables.

So far, he can eat  a variety of  Japanese foods satisfactorily. I want to read what happens  and he eats in next chapters.

Sushi-Origins and History

http://youtu.be/bdUx0kvvnyk

Sushi appeared in Southeast Asia accidentally. Because at first, people used rice as a preservative of fish and after the soaking, they throwed rice away. In the Edo period, people became to use vinegar instead of natural fermentation.

Nigiri-sushi was made in Tokyo and it became popular after an earthquake in1923. Because sushi chefs spreaded into new areas in Japan looking for works.

I was very surpresed because I didnot know about sushi's history. At first people used rice as a preservative, and fish was soaked into rice. I was also amazed that nigiri-sushi was spreaded after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. If the disaster didnot occur, nigiri-sushi might not existence in the whole of Japan.

I want to learn about other Japanese traditional cuisines' history, too.

Sushi and beyond chapter4〜

Eventually, Michael and his family arrived in Tokyo.

They were so overwhelmed by crowded places in Shinjuku. In this chapter, they went to a "depachika" in Shinjuku's department store. He said depachika was astonishing places selling just about every type of raw ingredient and processed food imaginable, and many beyond imagining, both Western and Asian.

He also expressed that depachika was like a microcosm of modern Japanese eating habits. He was impressed with an array of tempura, tonkatsu, tofu, rice balls, grilled eels.

I enjoyed his expression of soysauce. He said "a strain of dark, tangy-sweet teriyaki-sause, that we would encounter in all sorts  of dishes throughout Japan". 

After reading of this chapter, I noticed that foreigners also like a semi-gourmet, it is called "B-kyu gourmet" in Japan, such as ramen, yakitori and yakisoba.

McDonald's for vegetarian

I watched a news channel and it was about an information of new restaurants in India. India is famous for its particular religion, Hinduism. Eating beef is banned in India, so there are a  lot of vegetarian there. So McDonald's company was concerned about it and opened two McDonald's for vegetarian near temples in north of India.

The restaurants sell McAloo Tikki hamburger, which is made from potato instead of beef pate.

I was very surprised that there were vegetarian McDonalds in the world because I had not heard the information and I thought McDonalds'selling point was junk foods.

Though I am not vegetarian and like to eat meats very much, I want to go to that specific McDonalds and eat healthy hamburgers someday!

This is the URL of the video.

http://youtu.be/eBbdXD-OxC8

The first impressions of my book

It was difficult for me to choose a book about foods, but finally I bought an enjoyable-looking essay on the Internet.
I was interested in it because it was the book about Japanese food written by a foreigner.
First of all, let me tell about the book and its author.
The title is "Sushi and Beyond-What the Japanese Know about Cooking" and  written by Michael Booth. He is british travel writer and journalist. He was influenced by a Japanese cooking book, the title is "A Simple Art", and he wanted to know about Japanese cuisine. So he visited Japan and investigated the state of Japanese food today, to learn about their techniques and ingredients.

It was very enjoyable for me to read the first section of the book. Particularly, I enjoyed reading a scene which he described unique Japanese foods, for example, konnyaku. He wrote that connnyaku was a dense, gelatinous, dark brown to hazy grey cake. I thought foreigners had different points of view for Japanese food, so his expressions was very interesting for me.

He thought Japanese foods were very healthy, so Japanese people could live for a long time.
He also seemed to want to get the secret of key to get health of Japanese.
I want to keep reading the book untiringly!

My favorite food aphorisms

I was impressed Mahatma Gandhi's aphorism "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."

In the world, there are a lot of people being on the verge of starvation. Even I feel hungry and want just only foods if I cannot eat anything till the night.  

People who cannot eat anything everyday are even more hard.

I was also striked "Thanksgiving dinner'sh sad and thankless. Christmas dinner's dark and blue. When you stop and try to see it From the turkey's point of view."

It was very interesting that that aphorism see Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas from turkey's. There are a many aphorisms which are written by human's view, so the aphorism is very uncommon.

Picnic in Yoyogi park

On October 4, I went out on a picnic with my classmates.

It was very cloudy and cold, but I could enjoy the picnic!

I took mini tomatoes and oranges.

I was surprised that Mr.Dias made delicious waffles and gave us.

Thank you! : )

And also I was amazed that my friends made oinarisan, roll-cabbages, sandwich and so on by themselves.

All of them were so delicious.

After the lunch time I tried to do juggling.

I could do otedama with two balls, but I was bad at using three balls.

It was very difficult but I enjoyed doing it.

Although the weather was bad, I thought we could spend a happy time with my new classmates.