Japanese crab hot pot カニさん鍋

Yesterday was Matt's birthday so I decided to have some of our friends over to have a crab hot pot.

Hot pot, or Nabe (pronounced like nah-be) is everyone's favorite in Japan. When it starts to get cold outside, families gather around the table and enjoy nabe together.  It is kind of like a symbol of happy family dinners to me.

I actually did not grow up having the occasions of nabe with my family.  I was an only child and my dad was never home. When I started elementary school, my mom was working till late so I prepared myself a small dinner every night. So, now I have "family"-like friends around me, I get to have nabe . How awesome !

Nabe recipes evolve forever.  There are already so many kinds of traditional nabe recipes , which usually represent the regional flavors from all over Japan. Then, we also have new or modern recipes combining some flavors from all over the world, such as curry nabe or kimuchi nabe.

When I had girls over for dinner/wine  night, I chose the healthy vegetarian soy-milk nabe.  It fills you up really good because of the soup and lots of veges, but you can keep it very low calories. I love that about nabe.

Crab nabe was delicious.  Here is how you prepare.

1. Get the ingredients:
- Crab legs: I bought 3 lbs this time for about 7 people.
- Vegetables:  Napa cabbage, Daikon radish, Green onions, Onions, Mizuna ( Japanese water greens) and Tofu.
- Broth:  Konbu seaweed, Bonito flakes, Mirin, Sake, Soy sauce, Salt


2. Prepare the broth... good broth is the most important part of nabe.  I like very simple taste for the broth so that it does not overpower the natural tastes of vegetables and crab.  First you soak dashi-konbu, which is the dried seaweed for broth, in 6 cups of water for a 2-3 hours. Then heat the water to boil and take the konbu out.
Next , you put the bonito flakes in it , boil again for about 5 min and take those out.
Add 4 spoons each of Japanese sake, Mirin and light soy sauce. Add a little bit of salt. I like adding a bit of sugar too.

2. Cut the vegetables and crab.  I cut veges then put them on the plate. Nabe is the ongoing cooking. We keep adding more food in the pot to keep going as we eat. So it is good to have those vegetables cut and ready. Taste it and adjust.

3. Start adding vegetables in the order.... Root vegetables like onions, daikon radish or carrots go first.  Mushrooms , tofu and crab legs go next.  Greens go last as they cook very quick.

That's it. You can keep adding vegetables and crab legs as you eat and the pot gets more room.
Traditionally we add noodles or rice in the left over soup to 'close' the nabe dinner in Japan.
But I tend to replace that with the room for some beers :)

Life is good.

Night walk at So-Co

South Congress is filled with cute restaurants and vintage shops.  But it is somewhat exhausting to walk around during the weekend because there are way too many people and tourists.

When we went for a walk on Thursday night, it was quiet and nice.  Ah I love October in Austin. This weather makes me want to walk around just to walk, or just to breath.

Bakasana-ing at Mount Bonnell :)

http://blackswanyoga.com/teacher/reiko

The last couple of days have been amazingly beautiful in Austin.  It feels so great to practice outdoor in such beautiful days.   I found a secret spot in Mt. Bonnell where it's very quiet.  June was crying like a baby as always because we were on the cliff.  But, June look at this view!!
 I took some yoga vids. Check my yoga channel  http://www.vimeopro.com/blackswanyoga/reiko

or my youtube channel ! http://www.youtube.com/user/reikoota7?feature=mhee

My mint, Haruko chan

I got two plants recently and they survived through the dry summer.  I had a history of ruining some plants before, so I named them and have been giving some love everyday.  My pot of mint, (her name is Haruko),  has grown up enough to become something else, so I gave her a chance to become mojito!

When you order mojito at restaurants and bars, they usually use club soda and sugar so 1 drink is about 160 calories I think.  I grinded fresh mints and splenda together,  and shook them with fresh lime juice , rum, and sparkling water.  It was so delicious that even Matt (who usually is really picky ) agreed.   

I never knew that it's so easy to make mojito, that's also low-cal! 

I eyeballed all of these so don't rely too much on the measurements, but here is the list of ingredients. Yep, so simple! 

0 calories- 1 tea spoon of splenda 

1 calories- 1 lime (juiced)

0 calories- some mint leaves

70 calories - white rum (2 - 4 oz)

 0 calories- sparkling water ( 4 oz)

ACL ! ウィーケンド

オースティンで何が有名かっていうと、やっぱり音楽です。　毎週のように色々なアーティストがコンサートに来るのはもちろん、年に３，４回、各地からファンの集まる大きな音楽祭があるんです。そのメインになるひとつが、ACL,   Austin City Limits  http://www.aclfestival.com/.

今年はメジャーなとこでゆうと、コールドプレイとか、スティービーワンダーとか、アーケイドファイアーとか、カニエ・ウェスト,あと他にも いっぱいインディーズのバンドがわんさか。
今までそこまで知らなかったアーティストにはまったりすることも。　

私のお気に入りは、Cut Copy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dNPLRTB-SA&feature=related
Fitz & The Tantrums http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cF_S8MDfuA&feature=relmfu
Pretty Lights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXOSwUWcrE0

次の大きな音楽祭は ファンファンファンフェス！http://funfunfunfest.com/ こっちはもうちょっとインディーよりなお祭りだけど、これもまた楽しみっすね。

Colorful East

Even though Austin is not a big city , there are so many different faces to it.  Tokyo was the same way, but in a little bit bigger scale. I used to walk around the city and enjoyed how much of the flavors changed from one place to another.  I never drove in Japan and always walked around, which might be why I noticed a lot of small cute things. 

So, I decided. I will spend next few weekends to just walk around different spots in Austin.  

I'll start with the East Austin. 

East side is very different.  Strong personalities.   Colorful bikes.  Half sleeve tattoos.  Trailer parks.  Jorts. ....  

It is also fun to see the newly remodeled parts of town and the older parts left untouched. 

 

If I disappear, this is where I would be...

Red Bud Isle..... I can call this place as my best favorite spot in Austin this summer.

What I really appreciate Austin for is that the variety of awesomeness is concentrated in one city.  You can feel the city-life if you go out to downtown, and by driving out from downtown for 5 min you can find a quiet spot by the water surrounded by trees.  When I lived in Tokyo, this was never the case.

Because Red Bud Isle is a round shaped island, there can be many people elsewhere in this park, but you can still find a spot where you don't see anything or anyone but just nature.

I also love Barton Springs , where lots of happy people gather and enjoy the water.  Every Austinite loves the springs.   However I often enjoy this peace, science and space to myself.   It feels such a luxury to feel the fresh water and see some green,  while we are facing the extreme heat and drought in Texas.

Look at this happy face.  June absolutely loves this place.   :)

Don't just cook rice. Do it right.

I encountered many words and situations that could not be translated word to word from Japanese to English, and vice versa. "Washing rice" is one of them. We don't use word "wash" to wash rice in Japan. We say 研ぐ (to-gu), which literary means " polish". I noticed that many people here just wash rice for a few second and put them in a rice cooker. No, wait! We don't just 'wash' rice, but we are supposed to take time and 研ぐ before cooking.
I know, I will grow old to become an annoying Asian old lady who corrects white kids on how to correctly cook rice. And this is me, starting this process already .
So here are the steps :)
1. Rinse rice 2-3 times very quickly. The initial rinsing should be very quick, because the white water will leave the weird smell and taste to the rice. A little side note....This white water you get when you wash is called "kome-nuka "「米ぬか」and it is very good for the skin. Asian cosmetics often use this essence in their moisturizing lotion.
2. Now, we are ready to take some time to really wash (or polish) the rice.
Put the heel of your hand then slide it to the middle. You almost feel like you are grinding the rice with your hand. Change water 2-3 times and repeat this step. At the end, the water should not be as white as the initial round anymore, but it does not need to be transparent.

3. This third step makes your rice sticky, rich and soft. Say bye to your dry, hard, old rice you used to have.
First, soak the rice in the water for about 30 min. You can leave in the room temp.
If you live in Texas like me, where everything melts in a few seconds, then go ahead and leave it in the fridge.



Now drain the water and dry the rice for 10 min. This step makes the rice to absorb the water very good when you cook.
4. Put the rice in your cute little rice cooker, add water, and switch-on!



5. When the rice is done, gently stir the rice from the bottom to the top. This easy one last touch makes the rice fluffier.

Next time you cook rice, remember these steps please. You will notice the difference.

Btw I am not going to do recipe blogs, like all other Japanese moms in the US are already doing. This was something I needed to share with y'all simply because rice is so stereotypically Japanese!

Perfect for my secret plan here, Japanizing Americans. (- _ -)!!

Sushi, made by a Japanese

 Austinites love sushi.


When I lived in East Lansing, Michigan, the only way for me to get to sushi was to find a restaurant with a panda on its sign.  They used to line up fake sushi next to some fried dumplings and fortune cookies on its buffet table. yeah.


But here in Austin, there are so many sushi restaurants.   They are good and stylish, and their "sushi" are 'Asian fusion creative meals inspired by sushi'.   I don't know why fried things are rolled with rice.  I don't know why they put mayonnaise in every roll.  But hey, I enjoy them too!


A side note..... Sake-bomb.   what? Never heard of a drink like that in Japan either..... I can see how they came up with this name. "Sake? from Japan? Truman? Bomb? ohhhhh, Sake bomb! "

Authentic sushi is hard to get, even in this cultured city Austin.  That's why I decided to make sushi for our dinner with my close friends last night. 


The first time I made sushi was ..... believe it or not, in Austin.  A blue-eyed, blonde, white boy taught me how to make sushi. Surprise!
But now I've gotten a hang of it, and I have been pretty good at it.


I went to select fish at DK grocery and cooked all from scratch . (I will post how to make them some other time.)

I made many rolls (Maki-mono) , Nigiri (Simply a piece of fish on sushi rice - nigiri is a lot more common than rolls in Japan.) , Kinpira-gobo , Dashimaki-tamago (rolled eggs.  Yes, we roll everything.), and Inari-zushi (wiki: Inarizushi (稲荷寿司) is a pouch of fried tofu filled with usually just sushi rice.) 


My friends really liked Inari-zushi.  I haven't seen any sushi restaurants selling Inari-zushi in Austin yet. Maybe I should start a business lol.  

Inari-zushi

Thank you my friends for such a fun night.

I did it ! I did it!

One of the things that I struggled in Austin, and that my friends and my coworkers always made fun of me about was.... my terrible skill of parallel parking.  

My best friend Elaine listed some important skills to survive in Austin, and one of them was a parallel parking skill.   Austin is filled with awesome restaurants, events, bars and parks.  Wherever you go, finding a free parking spot and get that spot before all the other desperate drivers is a critical skill.  

My car is tiny.  So usually, if you are good, you can fit in a crazy spot.  For me on the other hand,  I try, (getting pressured by the frustrated drivers behind me who is probably making fun of my horrible parking skill), and I give it up.  

So, my first success on Thursday was a big deal. I will mark my calendar and call it " A day of my first success."  I got some beers at Icenhauer's and cheered with my friends for this special moment. 

I did it ! I am getting closer to be a Austinite.

When I miss yoga

I decided to blog about Austin, but I cannot talk about Austin without going into my routine,  yoga!  I was introduce to yoga here in Austin - one of the most 'Yoga Friendly City in the US"  according to the Yoga Journal.

Now I am inseparable from yoga.
What makes me miss yoga is totally random too.


I found this green creature, and somehow he made me miss yoga.   Creepy? Yes totally.  But just look how happy he is.

When woke up, my dog June was sleeping like this. A peaceful Savasana. Ah I want some yoga.

When I was watching a cute puppy in youtube, I missed yoga. mmm, I know that would feel so good, boy.

Yep,  I cannot live without yoga now.  Even if I break up from it, I would be reminded of yoga everywhere. <3 <3

Text fights

My Grandma and grandpa would have never thought of things called "text fighting".  They would say, " why don't you go talk and knock them out?"  Well, we have more things to worry about these days and text arguments became a part of every relationship.  But then everyone comes to conclusion, "yeah let's not do this. it gets nasty."  Right.  Look how nasty we got one time. 

A polite monster

I like Mellow Mushroom on Guadalupe. They have a Karaoke night every Thursday so I went. Japanese people love Karaoke. I used to stop by at Karaoke rooms all the time when I was a high school student in Tokyo.  But here, I don't get to go so often  because I have to sing in front of strangers.  I respect Americans who are okay with this. I am not. I don't know where to look when I sing.  But anyways, there is a random art on the wall of Mellow Mushroom.  A monster saying "I'd like to purchase America, please." in a very polite way.  Are you trying to scare Americans or being pretty diplomatic ?   Next time you see this, take a look. It doesn't make any sense and I somehow like it.

What guys really like. ..

Japanese exchange students in Austin

Here we were discussing what we should bring to a picnic with Japanese kids.  
         Me: bento-box or rice balls? Matt: A burger and fries. 


A couple of days ago, about 60 kids from Shizuoka, Japan came to stay near University of Texas, as a summer exchange program.  Matt was volunteering to be a tutor and let them practice English, so I joined him to go meet them.  Last Saturday was the first day to meet up with the kids. 
Glad that I did not make any rice balls.  Of course, they had BBQ, totally Texan style.  White bread, potatoes, beef, chicken, cookies... to translate, carb, carb, fat, fat, sugar....These skinny Japanese kids gonna get super-sized during their 3-week stay.  Good. feed them good. 


Japanese kids did not recognize me as a Japanese until I spoke in Japanese.  Apparently I am too tanned as a Japanese mid-20 woman.  All my Japanese friends, or even my mom has whiter skin, thanks to the hard-core whitening cosmetics.  I bought a sunscreen with 100spf, but nah, I get darker and darker every minute, I feel.  


Kids at the age of 14 to 16 are all awkward. No matter where they are from. When they are Japanese, the awkwardness points go up to like 120.  
But they were very cute.  Hope they will love Austin, I think they will.

Too much to forget...

I am a Japanese girl, 26 years old. Moved to the U.S. in 2005.  
I am in Austin, Texas now and loving my life here very much.

The reason why I thought of start a blog is (a.) I have too many awesome & funny people around that I like to share with you , and (b). I like to come back to this and laugh when I get old.  Asians get old, really old. So yes, I will be that advanced, tech savy old Asian lady. Maybe I will be blogging about white kids running around and being loud in the neighborhood when I am 95.  But hey, even if I become an grumpy old lady, I can come back to this, remember this good time and laugh.  A good life.

First of all, I love people around me.  I mean it.  Like many Japanese or Asian people, I am not good at keeping friendships with millions of 'friends' who kind of know me.  It takes time for me to open up to people and be comfortable around them.  But these people, my friends here, co-workers, teachers, my dog, and my boyfriend, really started to make me loosen up.

That is why I like to document how I am getting Japamericanized in Austin Texas. What?  yeah... not just Americanized but Japamericanized.  When I am getting some influence from Americans, I am giving them some influence from me, and maybe they might feel awkward, funny, and weird about how Japanese I am.  So this is a mutual process, Japamericanization.  Let's see how this goes (-_ - )y