A magical time

I have so many fond memories at Disney parks.  My aunt took me to Disneyland for the very first time when I was in seventh grade.  My husband and I honeymooned at Disney World.  I was able to take my son to Tokyo Disneyland for his very first Disney experience.  All three of these will always be special memories for me.

Of course, our visit last week will also rank high on my favorite Disney trips because it was the first time I was able to see the parks sprinkled with the spirit of Christmas.  For Tokyo Disney Parks, it was extra special because this year also celebrates the 35th anniversary of Tokyo Disneyland opening.  To commemorate the anniversary, all throughout the two parks, there were fun statues of Mickey. 

We also made sure to enjoy the celebratory parades: "Dreaming Up!" at Disneyland and "Happiest Celebration on the Sea" at DisneySea.  One thing about it, Disney has the best parades!  These were fantastic.

While sitting, enjoying a parade, it suddenly occurred to me - time at Tokyo Disneyland is an incredible representation of my currently life.  Everything looks so familiar, yet I don't necessarily understand the details of what is going on.  With each production, I recognized the music, but I don't know the Japanese words to the song.  I often found myself dancing and enjoying myself, but I couldn't understand the dialogue of the shows.  But no matter the questions I couldn't answer, I joined in and had a great time.

It is so hard to explain to people who don't live in a world where they don't speak the language the daily challenges and burdens one experiences. 

This didn't deter from my magical time.  Instead I just embraced as much as I could.  And my whole family enjoyed all that Disney had to offer.

Spending Christmas with Mickey

I have been wanting to go to Disneyland at Christmastime for as long as I can remember.  I love seeing holiday spirit come alive through lights, decorations, and cheer.  From the images I have seen, Disney really knows how to put on a holidays show.

So, when my husband suggested we go to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea for a few days this holiday season, I was more than on board. 

We (meaning my husband) made lots of plans to see all the Christmas performances.  We wanted to experience it all.  I have to say, there was not a moment of disappointment.  Everything was super beautiful and full of joyful spirit. 

Here is just a peek of our little time in a magical land.

Disneyland: Christmas trees at the entrance

Disneyland: 35th Anniversary tree

Disneyland: Disney Christmas Stories Parade

  

Disneyland: fun decorations!

Disneyland: It's the small touches

Disneyland: The Haunted Mansion now features the Nightmare Before Christmas

DisneySea: Entrance

DisneySea: trees everywhere

DisneySea: fun lights

DisneySea: Even the merpeople were festive

DisneySea: It’s Christmas Time! A show right on the water and on various stages.

DisneySea: Colors of Christmas nighttime show

Soup and chips

One of the best things about soup is that there really isn't a recipe!  Nabe, a simple soup typically made at the table.  It can be as fancy or as simple as you want.

Since I have a bunch of daikon, I decided nabe would be a good dinner.  I put some sake and kombu (a type of seaweed) into a pot of water.  After bringing it to boil, I removed the kombu and added chicken drumettes.  I also put daikon, carrots, and sunchokes in it.  I've never seen sunchokes in Japan before, but I find lots of special and unique ingredients at my favorite organic produce shop, Mart Shiroyama.  After boiling for 20 minutes, I tossed in some daikon greens. 

The nabe was ready to eat.  I grabbed the ingredients and put them in a bowl without any broth.  I then poured some ponzu (citrus soy sauce/vinegar) on top.

Dinner was simple, delicious, and nutritious.  It also used a lot of daikon!

Earlier in the day, my son suddenly requested we make sweet potato chips.  We still had a couple sweet potatoes from his special school trip, so it was an easy request.  My husband used to make us chips back in the US.

Working together, my husband peeled and sliced the sweet potato.

After a quick soak in water to remove the starch, my son dried off all the potato pieces with paper towels.

My husband then fried the chips and laid them on a rack.  We don't even bother salting them because they are so delicious just plain. 

Today's food may have been simple, but it was all great nonetheless.  Lots of Japanese food is pretty simple.  It is the ingredients that matter and bringing out natural flavor.  Today, we succeeded in that vision.

In a jam

In the states I made jam a lot.  I didn't necessarily eat a lot of jam, but I always liked having some homemade options if the desire arose.  I especially liked to make unusual varieties like tomato basil jam and strawberry ginger ale jam - things I can't find in the stores. 

Since I don't have my canning equipment in Japan, I haven't been dabbling in this fun activity.  Since I never make big batches, it doesn't really matter if I fail.  (I once made sweet cantaloupe soup because my jam didn't gel.)  Recently, we have been gifted several fuyu persimmons, so many in fact that they were ripening faster than we could eat them.  Instead of letting them go bad, I found a recipe for persimmon jam on the internet.

I'm usually wary of recipes from new (to me) websites, but I figured it was worth a try. 

I gathered 850 grams of persimmons (fuyu, not hachiya), 500 grams of sugar, 200 ml of lemon juice, plus the zest of one lemon. 

The persimmons were very ripe (which I think they need to be for this recipe).  I used the back of the knife to scrape all the good flesh from the skins and then pulled the seeds out.  As I was doing this, my son, eager to help, zested and juiced the lemons. 

I tossed everything in the pot (first the persimmons and sugar, cooking for 5 minutes, then the lemon juice and zest) and boiled it for 45 minutes.

I prepped a couple jars by pouring boiling water in them and soaking the lids in boiling water as well.  Once the jam didn't run on a cold dish, I transferred the jam to three jars and let them sit upside down for a while.

All in all, the jam took less than an hour to make. 

I tasted the jam several times as I was making sure it was fully cooked.  Although it had good persimmon flavor, it also tasted a lot of lemons.  I think I will play with this recipe a bit to reduce the sugar and increase the persimmon flavor. 

Since the taste of persimmons always remind me of autumn in Japan, it will be a nice treat to play with and perfect to my liking.

***

The recipe was found at masalaherb.com.

Curry braised pork and daikon

Tasked with cooking 3 huge daikon before they go bad, I looked at my small collection of Japanese cookbooks.  I have acquired several of them over the years, some with both Japanese and English while others are just in English.  I prefer the dual language cookbooks as they tend to be more authentic (according to my husband). 

As I flipped through the books, one of the recipes caught my eye.  It used a lot of daikon and I had most of the ingredients.  Plus it looked super simple, which is always a plus on a Monday.

After school and playing at the park, my son and I headed to the store.  We grabbed the items on my list, and a few other items as well.  I had read the basic directions and thought adding some carrot and mushrooms would add some good flavors to the recipe and make it more substantial. 

After getting home and settling my son down with some workbooks to keep him occupied, I got cooking.  The first thing I did was remove my meat from its package to marinate for a short time while I cut up the vegetables.  As soon as I removed the plastic wrap, I realized my mistake.  I had purchased pork ribs (called country style in the US, as it had a lot of meat on it) instead of pork belly.  Ugh.  Well, I wasn't going to let that hold me back.  I proceeded anyway.  I mixed together the marinade and tossed it with the meat.  At the same time, I also mixed up the braising liquid.

I then started to peel and cut up the daikon into half moons.  My son then popped into the kitchen and asked if he could help.  Since he has been peeling things for me for a few years now, I gave him the task of peeling the remainder of the daikon and carrots. 

In a large pot, I heated up the oil and added the meat to brown it.  As soon as I finished cutting up the daikon and carrots, I tossed them into the pot.  I stirred everything around to get the curry powder all over the vegetables.  I then added the mushrooms and braising liquid.  After bringing to a boil, I covered the pot and reduced the heat to a simmer. 

I grabbed a second pot and stuck it on the burner to boil some water.  My son and I cut up the daikon greens (which are packed full of nutrition).  After it came to a boil, I generously salted the water and then added the greens for about 5 minutes.  As soon as we shocked them by draining the greens and putting them into icy water, we let them sit while everything else cooked.

I made sure to stop by the pot of daikon periodically to stir.  But, to be perfectly honest, for the next 20 minutes, I was much more focused on reading to my son.  He has a collection of Mickey Mouse books that he's determined to get through. 

On my last visit, the daikon was nice and tender.  So, I squeezed the greens to remove excess liquid and threw them into the pot.  A quick stir, taste, and adding a touch more soy sauce and sugar, finished the dish.  Dinner was ready.

I looked up from the kitchen to see my son had fallen asleep on the couch, holding his book tightly.  He had helped, but missed the final product because I didn't want to wake him up (he's a growing boy and needs his sleep).  I guess he'll just have to enjoy it in his bento tomorrow!  My husband and I both thought it was fabulous!

*I am able to share this recipe because I have made it my own.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!*

Curry braised pork and daikon radish

Vegetables:
1 kilogram / 2.2 lbs daikon radish (1 large daikon), including the greens from one daikon
1 or 2 carrots
1 package shimeji mushrooms

Meat:
500 grams / 1.1 lbs country style pork ribs

Marinade:
10 ml / 2 tsp sake
10 ml / 2 tsp soy sauce
20 ml / 4 tsp curry powder

Browning:
10 ml / 2 tsp vegetable oil

Braising liquid:
100 ml / .5 cup sake
400 ml / 2 cups water
10 ml / 2 tsp sugar
30 ml / 2 tbsp. soy sauce

1. Season and coat the meat with the marinade.
2. Peel and cut the daikon and carrots into 1.5 cm / .5 inch half moons.
3. Heat browning oil and sear the pork meat.
4. Add the daikon radish and carrots.  Stir to coat with curry powder.
5. Add the braising liquid.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. While the daikon is cooking, bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Cut up the daikon greens and add them to the boiling water.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Drain and shock in cold water.  Squeeze out the excess moisture.  Set aside.
7. When the daikon is tender, remove the meat and shred as desired.  Put it back into the pot, along with the greens. 
8. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
9. Enjoy with a bowl of rice.

Pull harder!

Several weeks ago I received a pamphlet at my Japanese class for a Nerima daikon radish pulling experience.  Nerima is famous for these long white radishes.  The Nerima City Office Regional Promotion Section offers these tours for free to foreigners interested in learning more about the area.  The agenda looked fun, so I signed up my whole family.

We had to be there before 10, which meant getting out of the house and onto our bikes by 9:20.  It was a brisk morning, so we were bundled up to stay warm.  We met the group at a community center and headed off on foot for our tour.

Our first stop was the Makino Memorial Garden.  Known as the "father of Japanese botany", Tomitaro Makino identified and names over 1,500 plants, many of them native to Japan.  Since 1958, his personal garden has been open to the public.  We received a guided tour of both the garden and museum on the grounds.  While the tour group included translators, my husband conveyed lots of information to me.  It was great learning about the different kinds of bamboo on the property and the camellia they recently moved. 

Although typically I prefer to be in the garden, I found the museum really interesting.  Makino and his apprentice were amazing artists.  They drew pictures of plants that looked almost like photos.  They were so detailed and beautiful.  If I could, I would have purchased several of these drawings to hang in my house. 

After spending about 30 minutes at the garden (which I could have spent much longer), we continued on our tour.  We walked to a wagashi shop.  I have eaten wagashi before, a sweet traditionally eaten with tea.  Although beautiful, they are a little dry and not loved by everyone.  Someone from the shop explained that each wagashi represented something from nature - like flowers or autumnal leaves or the first frost.  The offerings also always change according to the seasons.  Hearing about the reasons for each shape made me appreciate wagashi on a whole new level.

From right to left: camellia, rose, ginko nut, pigeon, autumnal leaves

Not pictured: chestnut, baby boar, and first frost

Up next was pulling daikon!  We were all so excited, as this was the reason we even joined the activity in the first place.  We arrived at the farm and saw rows and rows of daikon greens sticking out of the ground.  Upon further inspection, there was about 8 inches of radish peeking out above the ground. 

The farmer gave us a short speech about Nerima daikon (which interestingly grows down and then up).  My son was so excited to get pulling, but first we had to dig around the daikon to loosen up the dirt.  Since daikon are super long, they are really deep in the ground.  If you wiggle the daikon too much, it will simply break off in the dirt.  The farmer and several of his farmhands had shovels and a long pointed stick that helped loosen up the dirt if it was too compacted. 

We took turns digging and pulling and finally we unearthed a huge daikon.  We were all excited and super proud that we got it out all in one piece.  My son was just a tiny bit disappointed we were not successful in having it fly out of the earth with a loud pop sound, but he quickly recovered due to the excitement of getting to pull a second and third daikon (each person gets to pull a daikon).

Every time we go on an agricultural excursion, I am so excited.  I love learning about this stuff and getting to experience it first hand is awesome!  I am also continually shocked that I get to pick Asian pears and peanuts and so forth in Tokyo.  It just blows my mind. 

After everyone had pulled  their daikon, we left the farm and headed back to the cultural center.  Lunch was waiting for us - a dish called Nerima spaghetti.  It is pasta with canned tuna sautéed with daikon, vinegar, sugar, salt, and soy sauce, then topped with shredded nori (dried seaweed).  One of the park moms told me her son loves this dish.  It is served for lunch at the elementary schools in the area.  I'm not surprised her son loved it.  It was delicious and my son gobbled it up.

I'm so glad I decided to join this activity.  It was so much fun!  Up next is cooking all that daikon.  I guess I'll be testing some new recipes this week.