My summer vacation in August



I visited Okiniwa (the southern iland of japan) for a week.


















Okiniwa has a special culture.It is very different from kyoto.

I enjoyed the beautiful beaches,seeing many world heritages,
and the local foods .

















This is one of the popular dish "Stir-fried Bitter gourd and tofu".




This is also very popular "Okinawa noodle and mixed rice".

This soup is very delicious and the toppings are pork,pickled ginger
andgreen onion.





Tacos are very popular,too.I loved it!


















The various colors of fishes at the food market


















This is one of the famous okinwa sweets.


I had a wonderful summer vacation there.


Just I apologize deeply that i could not have a classes

during this time,

and could not make a few lessons because of my flight problem by typhoon.

Gion festival


July 16

Tonight it is Yoiyama,which is the eve of the grand parade for gion festival.
My house is located around this festival,so I usually visit and see
Hoko and Yama floats after the dinner.


I ate this menu,I often eat Hamo and Ayu very much during Gion festival season.


・Grilled Ayu(fish) with Tadesu(smartweed and vineger sauce)

・Hamo-sushi(grilled pike conger fravored teriyaki)

・Hamo&cucumber salad dressed with sweeten sour sesame dressing)

I was walking around with my neighbors and felt the summer tradition in kyoto.

Tsuki Hoko(Tsuki means "Moon")

Koi yama(Koi means "Carp")

Kamakiri hoko(Kamakiri means"Mantis")

I had a great evening!

Summer Cooking in Kyoto


July is the month of the Gion Matsuri festival in Kyoto.
This festival has 1,200year's history.
The area around my house are starting to prepare the decorations
and special events and foods.

Recentely many summer ingredients are starting to show up
at the market. I am so excited!

Today I would like to introduce my favorite summer ingredeients and cooking.

Hamo(pike conger)

We have a custum to eat Hamo in Gion Matsuri festival(July) in Kyoto.
The best season are summer and autumn.
Hamo has many hard small bones so we need to cut them using
special heavy knife.This need high skill for cutting.

The popular cooking for Hamo are sashimi,broiled,teriyaki,sushi,tempura.



"Botanhamowan"

This elegant soup has a beautiful flavor using kombu&katsuobushi stock!
Hamo boiled with kuzu,Yuzu,Bainiku(pickled plum paste)



Junsai(water shield)





"Hamo to Kyuri no sunomono"

This salad is aslo one of my favorite.

Sliced cucumber,hamo,myoga(japanese summer ginger)

dressed with sour&sweet dressing

Kamonasu

Kamonasu is a one of the famous Kyo-yasai(kyoto traditional vegetables) in summer.
This round giant eggplant has a beatiful purple color and is called"Queen of eggplant".
We can find it between May and August at the market in kyoto.


"Kamonasu-Dengaku"

Kamonasu is a very good combination with oil.The skin becomes much more
vivid color by deep-frying in the oil.
2 different types of miso for topping,
which are Shiromiso(sweet type kyoto miso) andAkamiso(red type deep flavored miso).


Manganji tougarashi(Kyoto sweet pepper)






"Jako(dried young sardines)&Manganji Togarashi
( Kyoto sweet pepper) no Taitan"

June 30


Today is the day which we eat "Minazuki".

Minazuki is the name of this sweets but also it has the meaning "June".

So you can see this square Minazuki everywhere in June.

Especially June 30,we have a custom to eat this wishing for

we could spend good health in summer time.




I eat this after dinner as a dessert

Okonomi Yaki

Usually I introduce traditional dishes in my cooking class.
However some of people requested me to make
"Okonomi Yaki" the other day.

Okonomi Yaki is one of the most popular food in Kansai area,especially in Osaka.
And I like to make it.
It is very cttractive contrast between the soft texture of yam and crispy
fried batter.And pour on plenty of okonomiyaki sauce.


Using hot plate on the dinning table

For making batter
flour,yam,dried bonito stock

Fillings
egg,thin sliced pork,cabbage,green onion,tempura batter,red pickled ginger,
fried bonito flakes,green laver,Okonomiyaki-sauce,mayonnaise...


This is called "As -You-Like-It"Pancake liek a pizza.
You can put other things for fillings.

If you visited Kansai-area,
You have to try this!!

Summer noodles


In summer time, I like to eat Somen noodles.
A dish most suitable for a hot and sticky summer.

Usually I place water and ice in a big wooden bowl,
and arrange the somen noodles.
And serve the dipping sauce and condiments in separate individual bowls.

It is still rainny season in kyoto,but today was really hot day.
I prepared this noddles with cold soup & vegetables.



The toppings are
Grilled eggplant,summer ginger,eel,egg,cucumber and green onion.

After the dinner,
I like to eat Suika(water melon) in such a hot day.
There is all the time in my refrigerator in this season.


Japanese water melon is so sweet!!

Rainy season in kyoto


June is the rainy season in kyoto.
We see many types of hydrangea(ajisai)or sweet flag(shobu) everywhere.

Tonight,it was very quiet.

So i spent the time to do cooking,reading,writing,and drinking matcha tea to be reluxed.
When I come back home,I cooked Hungarian dish"Paprikas csirke"
(Grilled chicken with paprika soup).
Because yesterday,a friend of mine gave this paprika as a souvenir from Hungary.

It was very delicious and I loved this paprika flavor very much!





Paprikas csirke
Served with Itarian parsley and sour cream


After the dinner,
I made Matcha (green tea).It was a very rich and quiet time.



Matcha(green tea ) and japanese fresh beans cake

The Flavor of Green Tea

I love Japanease tea very much.
We enjoy having different kind of tea in each season.

For example,May is a season of new tea leaves.
We can enjoy it for a few weeks of a year.

In summer time , cold barley tea(Mugi-cha) is very popular.
When I drink it,I feel "summer is comimg!".
In cold season, I often drink toasted(roasted) tea.
It has caffeine-free.

Sometimes I visit IPPODO tea shop at Teramachi-Nijo to buy tea leaves.
They have many kinds of green tea in Uji.And we can try some tea
which we are interested in there.

It is not only that the taste of tea depends on a quality of tea leaves ,
but also depends on the way to serve like a water temperature.
I try to serve tea carefully.


The green tea of the left side is Sen-cha,which is green tea of new leaves(Shin-cha).
We will enjoy it until around middle of June.
The another one is roasted tea.We call it Hoji-cha.




This dark green colored tea is cold &sweet macha tea.
When I was a child,I loved it very much and
it is one of the popular summer cold tea.

The light colored green tea is cold Gyokuro tea.
Gyokuro is a little bit thicker than Sen-cha.
The taste is very rich & mild.It is one of my favorite tea.

Golden week-japanese holidays in May


I had 5 days holidays between May 2nd and 6th.
In this week,many japanese people go traveling around or visit hometown.

I spent the time to go to BBQ,invited my friends, visited firend's house
and went shopping to IKEA in Kobe.

These are the pictures when I went BBQ in Shiga prefecture.


At Ootsuchi Dam in Koga area(south-east side of the Biwa Lake)

This area is a famous for Ninja.
And it is also famous for green tea field.

May is the season of new tea leaves.
Tea fields in Uji(south of Kyoto city) in May
become a patchwork of beautiful fresh green
as well as this area.




It was a beautiful day !!





Salmon with onion&mashrooms



In another day ～

Here are the pictures of dinner, when I invited my friends.


Carpaccio of a flat fish


Coleslaw with breast chicken and japanese shiso herb



Steamed pork with japanese style sauce



Rolled cabbage-minced chicken and tofu meat
simmerd with kombu soup flavored sansho pepper



I also made others like a clear soup,flavored rice,
japanese style spring roll etc...


Pickles of chinese cabbage

I like to cook the western-japanese foods such as these dishes sometimes.

It is fun to arrange the western dishes flavoring with Japanese

seasonings!!

Soybean's product


There are many traditional shop for "Yuba" and "Namafu" in kyoto.

Yuba is a delicacy made from the skin forming on the top of
gently-boiled soybean milk.

And Namafu is a food made of wheat gluten.

Both of them are tyipical traditinal products in kyoto.

Yuba has some style like fresh skin form and fresh melted skin form or dried.
Also there are fresh Namafu and dried Namafu for bread-like.


In this evening,I visited "Hanbefu"which is one of the traditional Namafu&Yuba
shop near Gojo-bridge.And I got these items.


fresh Yuba 　生平ゆば


fresh melted Yuba 　汲みあげゆば


fresh Namafu(millet&mugwort)　生麩（あわ・よもぎ）



I made six kinds of dishes using them.


Deep fried shrimp wrapped with Yuba


fresh Yuba gratin with miso&mayonnaise sauce


melted Yuba soup


deep fried Namafu with cheese


Namafu steak with sour soy sauce with grated radish


Yuba-Don Rice with fresh Yuba and thick starchy soup






Toyu Yuba とゆゆば　dried rolled yuba




Deep fried Toyu Yuba とゆゆばのから揚げ




Fresh rolled Yuba 生小巻ゆば



Deep fried fresh rolled Yuba

This is good much for simmering with soup.