Japan

For the last week, while Brandon has been busy getting his sister married off in Nashville, I have been visiting my parents in Aizuwakamatsu, Japan in Fukushima prefecture for the holidays. They will be living here for about a year because my dad is working here at the moment. It is a pretty small town, with a population of about 100,000, so there isn’t much to do except eat! I love all the food I have eaten so far. The weirdest thing I’ve eaten are these little fried dough balls with a bit of octopus tentacle hidden in the middle. They make and sell these at little stalls inside the mall, as a kind of junk food. Here are a few pictures of some of my favorite meals.

The last one is actually Vietnamese food, but the lady who owns the shop where we ate it speaks Japanese so I think it still counts. As you can probably tell, I like eating things from lots of smaller containers for some reason.

After the new year, I will be traveling across the middle of Japan (to Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto) by train with my siblings.

Homemade

I had my very first potluck dinner at my apartment tonight. It was a tight squeeze with my roommate and 4 other friends present, but we all had a great time. There was a yummy and diverse spread of food before us, including homemade roasted red pepper hummus, black bean and hominy soup, and apple blackberry crisp (which I made!).

Here is the apple blackberry crisp at a younger stage. The apples were cooked on the stove for 10 minutes before mixing with the berries, flour and sugar. I made a special trip to Whole Foods at Union Square for the fruit. Actually it was my first ever visit to the actual grocery part of Whole Foods and I was pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of the check-out lines. Much faster than Trader Joe’s down the street!

Here it is after it’s been baked and scooped onto a plate with Rice Dream vanilla ice cream. Delicious! I’m secretly happy we did not finish it all so I can feast again tomorrow.

This is Katherine’s lovely black bean and hominy soup. Completely vegan, topped with fried homemade tortillas (yes, cooked in corn oil), and cilantro. She loves corn, and I do too.

I am hoping this potluck dinner thing turns into a tradition. Since we have vegetarians and vegans in the group it also becomes something of a challenge to find something everyone can enjoy. It helps to use foods that can be used interchangeably with multiple ingredients and dishes so it’s kind of like a big collaborative project.   If you have any ideas of recipes for me to try, feel free to leave a comment!

Well, ’till next time, when I go all document-y crazy again. It won’t be long, I assure you.