Sushi Chefs October 22, 2008

Yesterday, Jordi and I attempted to make our first sushi.  Though most Japanese women continue to eat raw fish during their pregnancies, I’m still waiting until after the baby is born to indulge.  It is difficult to resist, however, when I see those yummy slices of tuna and salmon all packaged up at the supermarket.

My main method of instruction for our sushi making was videos from Youtube.  They were very helpful in learning how to properly prepare sushi rice, and how to roll up your sushi before slicing and eating.

When we tried it ourselves, we were fairly confident we had the hang of it.

In fact, our sushi turned out pretty well for our first effort, but it didn’t really stay together the way the professional stuff does (read: it totally fell apart when I tried to cut it, and the ones that did stay together sort of looked more mashed and oblong than beautiful round sushi pieces).  But they tasted good for the most part.  There was something lacking, we agreed.  And the rice was a bit too chewy (perhaps because we just used the regular brown Japanese rice instead of buying real sushi rice?).  I’m not entirely sure I used enough vinegar on the rice either.  I was too worried about ruining the rice by making it taste like Easter Egg dye.

If anyone out there has any hints, suggestions, or good websites to check out to improve our sushi making, please share!  Until then, we will keep scoping out the supermarket sushi around markdown time in the evenings!

And the doctor said the baby could show up any day now…which means the real sushi is not too far off.  Yippee!

Fast Food Nation October 12, 2008

Admittedly, Jordi and I have been hitting McDonald’s more frequently than in the past.  For us, it is comforting to find food that we know, understand, and can identify…and no, it is not so healthy, but we do get a happy feeling that only McDonald’s fries can supply.  (By the way, frequently is about once every two weeks, so no worries, Mom.)

Fast food is fairly abundant here in Tokyo – some places are familiar, like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Subway.  Though even these familiar friends have their Japanese twist.  McDonald’s features a cheeseburger with a half-cooked egg on top, along with a shiny plasticky orange sauce.   Wendy’s has an eggplant-tomato topped burger.  And no Frosty!!!!!!  Criminal.  What am I supposed to dip my fries in?  Plain ketchup?  Of course, the standards are pretty much there as well.  And happily, they taste exactly the same.

Other fast-food joints are more Japanese, with their wares showcased in the restaurant windows as not terribly appetizing plastic displays.  And most have some sort of fried pork cutlet component or barely cooked egg (seriously, don’t they have salmonella here?) as a major ingredient…hence, our visits to Mickey D’s when we are out and about.  No raw eggs when you’re prego!  And for me at least – no fried pork cutlets ever.  Blech.

Upon arrival, we had several odd adventures eating Japanese fast food, but being unable to identify all the ingredients, and neither being fans of undercooked eggs, either here, there, or anywhere (eeeew, slimy), we now rarely venture beyond tempura, sushi, and bowls of noodle soup.  We did have a couple of good laughs at some of the meals we ordered…sometimes, when food is selected from a plastic showcase it can be misinterpreted – and let’s just leave it at that.

They even have Denny’s restaurants here.  I was so anticipating a Moons Over My Hammy sandwich yesterday, that I practically ran up the stairs…only to discover that Denny’s Japan is not quite the same.

They do not serve breakfast all day.

No Pancakes!

No diner food whatsoever…

On the menu?  Pork cutlets.  Undercooked eggs.  Rice.

I did not get my Moons Over My Hammy.  But I did have a salad with big delicious chunks of avocado.  A bonus: thankfully, the egg in the salad was cooked.

The bacon which sat atop said salad?  Not cooked.  Raw bacon?  Haven’t they heard of E. Coli?  Trichinosis?  Fire?

At least it wasn’t a pork cutlet.

That would have really sent me over the edge.

Big Spooky Baby October 7, 2008

The doctor’s visit went well yesterday.  All of the tests were normal, as usual, and I didn’t get yelled at for gaining too much weight!  Only a kilo, and 3/4 of that is the baby.

She is measuring at a week-and-a-half bigger than she should be, so they changed the due date to Halloween!  Of course, I have heard repeatedly that these measurements are a whole lot of hooey, and that she will arrive when she decides to…whether she is a superbaby or not.  They did manage to get a really good scan of her face, in which I could actually see her lips all puckered up, her turned-up nose, and her eyelids, as she was fast asleep.  It was pretty darn cute.  I’m not prejudiced or anything.

Anyway, just a few more weeks, and we’ll see exactly how much English knowledge is actually needed by the midwives to communicate during my labor…

The Noisy Neighbors October 5, 2008

I’ve lived in close proximity to people before. In Chicago, my downstairs neighbor Andrea insisted on having heavy metal rave parties until 4am at least twice a month. During the week. Once in a desperate attempt to get some sleep before facing my grade one class, I called the cops. Then I spent a week terrified that scary Andrea would find out that I was the narc. I am somewhat (read: extremely) non-confrontational. I was not sad when Andrea moved out halfway through my two-year stay at that apartment.

But the noisiness here is of a different scale. For one, we live on a big road – which means big trucks roaring down the street at 5am for their deliveries. Number two: one of our neighbors is learning the violin. I think. Sometime around mid-day and occasionally the evenings, she practices the same two notes repeatedly (I have no idea the gender of this “musician,” but I picture her as an eight-year-old Japanese girl with glasses and pigtails). Third, one of our neighbors in the next building (which is approximately three feet away) likes to set two alarms. But he (I imagine him as a twenty-something “hip” Japanese guy with sort of spiky, and highlighted hair – in my little world, he works at one of the mobile phone companies, probably SoftBank, during the day, while trying to get his computer gaming groove on at night) does not like to wake up, which means his two alarms go off for at least 5 – 7 minutes. Then, they typically turn off on their own…which means that they go off again about 10 minutes later. This morning, apparently he had to be somewhere quite early, as his alarm clock symphony began at 5:20am. Just after the big trucks made their deliveries to the Family Mart down the street.

But the icing on the noisy cake is this:

We live next to what appears to be a Japanese middle school. There are four large megaphones which are positioned on the roof of the school. And every single morning, at 7am, Monday through Sunday (yes, EVERY DAY) some Japanese lady yammers away at her announcements. Right after the requisite – DING, DING, DING (like the secretary that hits the xylophone in “Grease,” but more electronic, and way more loud) to get everyone’s attention. Of course, I have no clue what she is saying…but does she really need to say it on the weekends? Are other members of the neighborhood community not annoyed by this practice?

Megaphones seem to be a fairly accepted mode of communication here. Politicians drive around in vans with megaphones and wave their silky white-gloved (!) hands. I’d like to see the US politicians do that. With pretty gloves. The “big trash” pick-up truck also announces its arrival with a megaphone. (If you want to throw out something bigger than a shoebox, apparently you have to call these guys and purchase some sort of a sticker before they will toss out your old footstool. But they also seem to drive around randomly.) Anyway, announcements are also made by the school at other times during the day, and I pretty much have learned to tune them out…but the 7am wake-up call really bugs me.

I get the need for public announcements. For instance, if there is some sort of cataclysmic event heading our way, by all means…get out the megaphones!

Of course, in the event that does happen – I will probably just think that the school secretary is announcing that it is time for lunch.