pinku

Banana protection

A while back an old Japanese friend who also has a babe about the same age as J came to visit. At lunch time she pulled out a banana case. At first I thought the concept of a banana case was silly but now I'm a complete convert and of course we have one and use it ALL the time. I mean how many times have you found a black squished up old banana at the bottom of your bag. It's a pretty big boom in Japan right now due to the fad banana diet that I blogged about last month!! Of course we got the yellow one and they are advertised with the guarantee that 90% of bananas will fit inside the case - so far all of ours have fit.

Where are the bananas?

A few days ago our local supermarket ran out of bananas. I thought it was weird but went back the next day to get some bananas. Still no bananas. Then I read Mari's blog post about the latest craze in Japan - the morning banana diet. You can read the rules of the banana diet in Mari's blog post. The people at our supermarket confirmed that is why they are selling out of bananas everyday!! How nutty is that! So where can I get me some bananas??!!!

I'm working on J's 11-month post, but we just found the USB cord for the camera so hopefully it'll be up in the next few days. I can't believe it is October and that J turns one in less than three weeks. Nutty. It was also my mum's birthday yesterday - happy birthday mum!!! All the beautiful and talented people are born in October!!! Love you.

I made peanut butter cookies last night...

I subscribe to the blog 101 cookbooks as I'm sure many other people do, but when Heidi posted her peanut butter cookie recipe, I bookmarked it and yesterday I finally got around to making them.

First I told Darin I was going to make them and mentioned that I'd never had peanut butter cookies before. He was shocked. I also didn't know about the criss-cross thing on top and Darin said that I had to make them with the criss-cross.

So anyway, these are super simple and I pretty much followed Heidi's recipe except that I used 1 cup of buckwheat flour and 1 cup of plain white flour (I will try two cups of buckwheat flour next time) instead of whole wheat pastry flour (I'd just run out), I also used honey instead of maple syrup because MS is just SO expensive around here and I also only added about 3/4 of a cup or a little bit less, and I also didn't add vanilla and added walnuts since I used a smooth peanut butter instead of crunchy. I really wanted these to work out because natural peanut butter is so expensive....I had to use a whole jar to make these cookies.....

They turned out great and I think I ate like three straight out of the oven - baking is not good for weight control!!! I also cooked them a little longer - maybe 15 minutes. I love that I used olive oil instead of butter (which I usually do with my banana muffins too), no eggs and no sugar. I know these are far from a healthy snack........but I can kid myself right??!!

Photo to come later.

No cupcakes in Japan

After I read Mariko's post about cupcakes, I thought to myself - I've never seen cupcakes for sale in Japan.

I live in Tokyo, one of the world's largest cities - SURELY there is at least one cupcake store. I started on my quest to find at least one (via google), but all I came up with was a bunch of Japanese people blogging about all the awesome cupcake cafes/stores in New York, LA and London. I did read about some shop on an American air base that makes cupcakes, but I want one in Kichijoji. It could totally be the next big thing.

The photo is taken from one of the first pages I found - see some more amazing cupcakes here.

I totally think cupcakes would be the biggest hit in Japan - why has nobody tapped into this yet??!!

I also would love for someone to prove me wrong and find one in Tokyo....coz I so wanna go there. Sure there are PLENTY of other amazing desserts here in Tokyo, but of course we always want what we can't have. I guess in the meantime I'll have to make my own. This isn't a problem, but I can guarantee you that I'll eat more than one. That's the danger.

Do you like chunky?

The other thing I wanted to talk about the other day is chunky knits. What do you think about them? Are they just for the skinny models?

I just pre-ordered Wenlan Chia's upcoming book, Twinkle's Big City Knits. There are a few sneak peek photos here.

including this one

I'm also considering cancelling my order. I'm sure the photos and the designs will be super cute (this point may win me over in the end), but how would they look on me? I'm not a petite person as I (unfortunately or fortunately) did not inherit my father's Asian body shape. I love the Kim Hargreaves cardigan I made out of Big Wool, but it teeters on the edge with regards to chunkiness for me. I don't need any extra bulk (even though it is very warm and toasty). I love the idea of quick knits - fun times for sure, but I just don't know about chunky knits. I think the book would be super popular here in Japan where baggy is IN (which is good for me too because their baggy is my fitted).

Speaking of fitted, one up and coming knitting book that I won't be cancelling is Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. I have high hopes for this book and am sure I will be satisfied. I think Steph's designs flatter all types of body shapes and I like the idea of fitted knits.

On a completely unrelated note I found out yesterday that employees from my company get a 20% discount at all Dean and Deluca stores throughout Japan - I think there are only five though. Luckily one is right near my work. The discount still doesn't make lunch there cheap - it just makes it affordable. I was also very strong today and resisted the doughnuts from Doughnut Plant. A great thing about D&D in Japan is that they offer half sizes of all their sandwiches, bagels and quiches, so today I had half a piece of Quiche Lorraine and half of a lox bagel. Yum!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! See you next week!

Birthday Duck

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Lucky for me it was a long weekend (this Monday was also a holiday) so I was able to celebrate for three days and even managed to have a semi-productive day on Monday (I cleaned up my clothes pile!). I've been pushing my birthday FORTNIGHT (why celebrate for one day when you can celebrate for two whole weeks) on Darin for a while. Unfortunately that all comes to an end tomorrow.

On the day of my birthday it was cold and it rained and it rained and it rained. I had plenty of plans but they all got thrown to the wayside and we ended up staying at home all day until 6:30. I was treated to coffee and cake in bed and I got the cutest present ever (I've named her teenie) from the best husband ever.Then Martine made my day by bringing over croissants, an awesome birthday present AND a birthday cake!! We sat around and ate and ate and we also watched Pretty Woman - the Director's cut (personally I couldn't tell the difference). So as you can see I had a great day regardless of the cold mean weather (especially when I usually celebrate my birthday in the middle of summer).

my cake (thanks again, Martine!)

The food didn't stop there. We headed to a great new Chinese restaurant we discovered recently - Chinese Cafe 8 with some friends. We went to the main branch in Roppongi but there is another one is Ebisu and one is opening soon in Akasaka. I consider myself a pretty good judge of Chinese food considering my parents have a Chinese restaurant. This place is great: it's open 24 hours, the food is cheap but delicious and their peking duck is devine (3860 yen for a whole bird).

When you order a whole duck, they bring it out to show you before cutting it up. My photo of the whole duck sucked but here is one of the cut up duck.

The decorations in the restaurant are somewhat intriguing. Yes it is what you think it is.

The company was also fantastic! Daz the mountain man - seriously he's made out of mountains.

C&J.

Ty, Sachi and Andrew

But it didn't end there. We ended up checking out another two izakayas before making it home in the wee hours of the morning. It's good to know that I can still party with the best of them :)

I want to write about three new restaurants we have discovered/rediscovered recently but I'll leave that until tomorrow. See you then!!

Our first week back

Has involved catching up with our cute pigs. We missed them terribly. A big thank you to C&J for taking care of them and giving them lots of cuddles.

It also involved our first experience with caviar. A few weeks ago I did a favor for someone at work that was travelling to Azerbaijan on a business trip so he brought me back some Azeri caviar. I was scared of those tiny black eggs even though I've eaten plenty of fish eggs here in Japan.

To make a night out of it, we headed to C&J's place for a Russia themed night and man did we feast - Chicken Kiev, creamy cheesey mushrooms, mashed potatos, champagne, caviar, white russians and all the Russian music you can imagine. So we braced ourselves for the caviar tasting and made sure we had some cream cheese on hand (we heard it complements the taste of the caviar). It turns out that we all LOVE caviar. We are totally prepared for high society.

We also spent time enjoying our park and the autumn leaves. It sucks how they've stopped people having fleamarkets on the weekend by the way. Mitaka city - stop trying to take the impromptu fun out of Inokashira Park!!!

oh and here are my jaywalkers! I finished them with a light pink yarn and they are still cute, cute, cute. Not so mutant like at all.

My very own starving artist

If you pick up the latest issue of Japanzine you'll be able to read an interview with Darin. You can also read it online at the Japanzine website HERE. Darin has also redesigned his blog so check it out.

It was for their starving artist series which is slightly a fallacy because no-one was starving in our house last night. I whipped up some decadent Mac 'n Cheese (known as Mac 'n Mad Cheddar) using this recipe from Jennifer, who originally found it in Readymade magazine. This is the second time I have made it and I felt just as guilty/happy eating it this time around. I have never made anything that requires SO much cheese. At least I used the low-fat cheddar and skim milk - gah, who am I kidding. But seriously I would recommend this recipe if you like cheesy, tomato-y, basil-y pasta dishes - it's also vegetarian friendly. No need for meat here.

My new obsession

It's Friday and it's hot. Yes I think today is the hottest it's been in Tokes this year and personally I love it! Of course I say this from the comfort of my air conditioned office but I mean it (except when commuting and some hot sweaty guy's sweaty skin is rubbing against your arm). Martine and I have talked about this before but have any of your Tokyo dwellers out there noticed JUST how hot Shibuya station is (particularly on the 1st floor from the Ginza sen exit down to around where you walk over to the Inokashira-sen. Sometimes I think that if for some reason I couldn't get out of there, I'd die from the heat. Yes die.

But I digress. My new obsession is black sesame pudding. They just recently started selling these at my work cafeteria and it is the most delicious dessert I've had in a long time. It's cool, it's tasty, it melts in your mouth, it's not too sweet and you end up with the sweetest aftertaste of black sesame seeds in your mouth. They also cost a measley 60 yen (and yes I've been tempted to buy two) They look gross being a slate grey colour and I only have a crap phone pic for you, but here is my latest obsession:

I'm on the verge of a long weekend here in Japan and I'm excited. Monday is Marine Day in Japan and that means we are going to head to the ocean where the sand is black, but the beer and fun will be overflowing. Have a good one!!!

Healthy eating

I try and eat healthy mostly. Except yesterday after yoga, I walked out carrying my mat, bought a soft-serve vanilla ice cream on the way home and then met Darin in the park for a beer. Hmm, personally I think that my actions are slightly contradictory. Darin believes that all of those things make you feel good, so why not? My dad always says everything in moderation is ok - that sounds good to me.

In general, eating healthy is pretty easy in Japan: portion sizes in restaurants are smaller, there is an abundance of fresh fruit and veges available in addition to fresh tofu, fish, etc. However wholegrains are hard to come by. Sure brown rice is becoming more popular, but it's almost impossible to find real wholewheat bread and pasta. I know I live in Asia, but bread and pasta are both popular in Japan, but I feel it is considered more of a treat rather than a staple like rice, which makes sense I guess. I can still be glum about it though.

I came across this website and it is very inspiring. The recipes look relatively simple and quick and the nutritional information is very detailed. I am glad that chickpeas (or garbanzo beans) are the food of the week coz I have a big bag (of chickpeas) and have just been waiting for a good recipe and also to buy a food processor so I can make some hummus.

For lunch today, I had two onigiri and a steamed chicken salad with wakame. I actually don't really like wakame unless it is in miso soup, so I left it in the container. I felt guilty because I know it is good for you. After reading a few websites about the benefits of seaweed, I went back and ate it. Feel so much better now.

I also came across this list of Top Ten Foods to keep you healthy.

And does this apple tart make your mouth water, because I'm drooling all over my keyboard here at work. Nah, only kidding - I'm not that gross!!

knitting news: Just about to finish the second sleeve of Iris, so then I have to block and seam but not sure whether I'll have enough time before we leave on Saturday. I am also trying to work out what projects to take on this trip. I think I'll take the knee high stripey sock project from the first Stitch n Bitch book, and maybe a crochet top project....hmmm.

*** 5 sleeps until we leave for the U.S. of A - see you soon Angie and Sam!!!