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