Sunday, December 22, 2013

Japanese Eggnog: Festive Drink or Sickness Remedy?

For me December 2013 has been a time of sore throats and coughing that has developed into a very special Holiday Bronchitis. There is no cure for Holiday Bronchitis, but there are treatments. Sure, NyQuil and Tussin and cough drops maybe, but my favorite is eating my way through my Japanese ramen supply:
 
Salt Flavored Ramen with Yuba
Add an egg. Do it.













Tempura Ramen




 Good stuff for a sore throat. What else can Japan offer to ease the Holiday Bronchitis?








Tea. Looking up Japanese folk cures will result in Japanese Ginger and Lemon Tea.  AKA Shoga Yu.



Which is great, but so completely universal, it's not exactly a Japan exclusive. It's been in use in Western medicine for a while. In fact, my money is on China for being the originator. But seriously, it's not bad to try this stuff if you're sick. Warm and zingy.  But for the love of Pete, strain your ginger out.

Back to the post title theme. The other sick remedy you'll bump into when looking for Japanese folk wisdom is Tamago Zake or Egg Sake or some translations say Eggnog.
Okay, this looks doable, and even though I only have the dregs of Holiday Bronchitis left, I am all about Eggnog. Full disclosure: there are 2 different types of Eggnog in my fridge, and I plan to make a 3rd for Christmas Eve involving almond milk. This will be a 4th if you count it as real Eggnog.

Taking a look at Cookpad, it looks like the traditional way is indeed egg, sugar, and sake.
Here's one recipe.

Fuwa Fuwa=fluffy
2 methods, 1 for kids









 And this is another.






It looks like if you want it to be "creamy" and/or kid-friendly, add milk in place of some of the sake. I'm going to try the traditional way. I have enough milk-based Eggnog to last me till...well, shortly after Christmas probably, but anyway, I want to try this sake-based version the traditional way.
Looks like this guy had some issues with high heat and eggs scrambling:

So I've got to be careful. Here I go!
Ingredients

OK, stir the heck out of 1 egg, add 2/3 cup sake and like almost 2 Tablespoons of sugar. Turn on the heat to lower-is-better. Stir always, stir well. That's why I went with a whisk instead of cooking chopsticks. It gets all foamy. Good.

Whhhhisk
Then it gets a little bit steamy and I notice it's slightly thicker. Good. Then I hear the Ima-bout-to-boil rushing sound, and then sure enough little boil bubbles appear, and they seem to chase away the eggy foam. I wait a few more moments to make sure it has boiled through everywhere, then I take it off, still stirring.
Hmm...definitely thicker, but...
Into a mug.
Oops.
Well, it was promising, but it turned out slightly broken. Mayhaps I should have taken it off once I heard the sound of the almost-boiling. It was a little thicker in parts and thin in others like pudding with puddles. Not a bad idea for a sore throat with the alcohol heat in your throat and the soothing creaminess. Or just something to build up energy if nothing else. Probably not so great if you're nauseous. But perfect for Warm Holiday Cheer.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Shinsaibashi-suji: It's like a mall, but you can get run over

It seems like there are many malls in Japan that follow the old fashioned format of one long, narrow walkway with a tall arched roof. We saw Nishiki Market in Kyoto is like this.
Nishiki Market
And that other place from the 2011 trip. The Nakano Broadway shopping arcade?
Me in Nakano Broadway Shopping Arcade
This time around we went to Osaka for the last day to be closer to the airport, and it was an easy walk to get to the big shipping arcade that apparently, according to Wikipedia, has been around since the 1600s. Shinsaibashi-suji. But back then, there was no fro-yo, so there were significantly less visitors. I made a crappy video to give you/me the idea of the inside/outside effect.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Wafer Thin: Wafer Chocolate and Cookies in Japan


I will confess I like Japanese KitKats. Kinda obsessed. You hear good things- better ingredients, variety of flavors, even some that are exotic, created by a master patissier (Takagi).


And I look out for Kit Kats when I’m in Japan. Apart from milk chocolate and "adult" otona dark, they are harder to find than you’d think. (Although I found the most varieties together at Narita airport.)


So what I’m saying is there’s good things to be said about putting together some wafers and chocolate. I found a few other wafery things to try. 


Wafer 1: Fujiyama Home Pie



These things looked promising…and even a no-kanji reader like me can tell these things are both chocolaty and wafery (and clearly not pie), but they were the croutons of the wafer world. A hard crunch with a very light chocolate taste, like they just spritzed a layer of chocolate-flavored lacquer on. Okay for a snacky munch attack, but not memorable.



Wafer 2: Cara-Mate



I don’t know if these guys are related to Calorie Mate, possibly the most boring-yet-popular food in Japan.

But it looks a heck of a lot yummier. And who doesn’t like the smooth mellow taste of caramel? It’s probably a caramel palm kernel oil, and I wish I could read the ingredients to find out…

But it’s good stuff. 6 individual bites, lots of wafery crunch with a clear caramel flavor. The caramel layer is nice and thick. This I could get again. It’s a good Kit Kat-like-but-different product.
 Wafer 3: Not a Wafer?

Well, it certainly looked like a wafer to me…waffled shape and all. And I didn’t read it till I took it home- it says “senbei”. As in those soy-sauce glazed crackers. Ack, what the heck is this? It was clearly in a dessert counter at the foody mall part of Tokyo station. So it turns out to be more of a thin Milano-like cookie with whipped plain frosting sandwiched in. So…actually light and yummy, but not as wafery as I hoped.


Wafer 4: Kit Kat

Then there is the original, the star, Kit Kat. In its Japanese form. 3 mini 2-bar hits. And this one was just the plain milk chocolate variety (I’ll look at the complete range I have horded later). Elegant little bites of airy light wafer with sweet creamy chocolaty enrobed over top. Smaller than the American form, but I like the daintiness.