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Introducing western Japan's life

I am a Japanese woman. I introduce western Japan area information and culture. And I will write about my life style. But I am not good at English.This is also for English practice.If you find an error in my text, please let me know.

Western Japan is strawberry season

Hyogo food life

Western Japan is strawberry season.

I ate a lot of strawberry sweets.

Afternoon tea set at hotel lobby on Awaji Island on Saturday.

This is an artistic flower beds near the hotel.
There are still few flowers.


On Tuesday, I ate a strawberry  parfait.
The combination of strawberry and chocolate was very delicious.
My stomach was full.

Immediately after that, I was scheduled to go to an oriental medicine examination.
The Doctor  always awares of unreported my hralth conditions just by meeting me.
For example, "Your throat is not feeling right now", "Your left shoulder is really heavy", etc.
The Doctor said, "You eat too much. Eat frugally".
Of course, I didn't tell him that I ate too much.
This doctor has a mysterious power and can tell if a living spirit is possessed.
I once had a living spirit on my left shoulder, and following this doctor's advice, I apologized to the living spirit every day, and the pain in my left shoulder healed.

Strawberries can be eaten all year round, but the best season for strawberries is from March to April.

 

rice cooker

A retro hot spring

Hyogo health life

There is a public bath in the old streets of Kobe.
This bath is a natural hot spring. Moreover, the hot water is not reused. This is a free-flowing hot spring.
There are many hot springs in Japan, but most of them circulate the hot water and disinfect it with chlorine. 

It seemed to be mostly loved by local elderly people.
I got warm too. This is a nice hot spring.

 

 

Okonomiyaki

food cooking

Okonomiyaki is an inexpensive popular meal.
Okonomiyaki has different shapes and recipes depending on the region.

This is the Kansai version eaten in Osaka and Hyogo.
In Taiwan, it is called Osaka-yaki.

It's easy, so let's make okonomiyaki.

Ingredients (1 serving)
cake flour ; cup 1
baking powder ; 1 teaspoon
Dashi broth ; cup1 (powdered dashi dissolved in 1 cup of water. For the dashi, use your favorite extract, such as kelp or fish such as bonito.)
3 cabbage leaves
1 green onion
Eggs, grated Chinese yam, rice cakes, if desired.

your favorite meat. squid, octopus, tenderized beef tendons, and pork are often used in Japan.

Japanese sauce, optional mayonnaise

Mix flour and dashi stock well and add chopped cabbage and green onions.
Add eggs and grated yam if you want.　These make the dough fluffier.

Heat oil on a griddle or frying pan.
Spread the mixture of vegetables and flour in a flat, round shape on the frying pan.
Add meat of your choice on top.
Cook over low to medium heat.
When the bottom side is browned and hardened enough to flip over, flip it over.
When the whole  is cooked , put it on a plate.

Pour the sauce over the top. Adding mayonnaise is also delicious.

This Japanese sauce is sweet and sour, solty. We call Okonomi souce.
If you can't get this sauce, I think you can use soy sauce for a light taste.

Food sample magnet made by Japanese craftsmen Mini Okonomiyaki

Advertising (Rakuten Ichiba) 　Overseas delivery

Japanese sweets in September　"Tukimidango"

food life

This is a Japanese sweet eaten in September in the Kansai region. This is a rice dumpling with red bean paste on it.
In the Kanto region, it is a perfectly round rice dumpling with no red bean paste on it.
The full moon in September is beautiful. In Japan, people eat dumplings on the day of the full moon.

This is the Kanto version.

Eating out in Hyogo 2021~2022

food Hyogo

Favorite restaurants I ate out from March 2021 to July 2022

 

Gohanya Ichizen 
Great Japanese meal. It is delicious even if I took it home

 

Wabisuke
Delicious Japanese meals. It is delicious even if I took it home.

 

Italian food

 

Gandhi palace

I like the cheese naan and mango lassi.

 

Kusum
South indian restaurant

 

 

Indian

 

Very delicious bread. The shop is small and popular, so there is a line.

 

Lots of delicious breads.

 

Sophisticated bread

 

Gokokushichifuku
I like the millet bread and the rice flour muffin.

 

Ikemen Daisyugo
luxury bread

 

Gluten-free foods. Sandwiches, galettes, beautiful parfaits etc. The beautiful parfait has 12 layers.

 

 Rice flour sweets shop in Ashiya. It's so cute.


Cake, Cookie

 

 

Delicious cake with new design.

 

I ate a cake with mango from Miyazaki prefecture. It was wonderfully good quality.

 

Sanyo Taiyaki
I've loved this since I was a kid. Taiyaki is a fish-shaped Japanese cake. I eat Taiyaki from the head. I like cream and red bean paste.

 

Gozasourou
Azuki is in the cake. Long-selling Japanese sweets.

 

 Shikine
I love this japanese sweets.

 

Sentaro
I  want to buy the Japanese sweets and take it home.

 

Mangetudo
Manju with light skin.

 

rice cracker

 

Ohagi

food life cooking

Ohagi = rice cake covered with sweet red bean paste

We eat Ohagi in Obon. The spirits of the dead people come back during Obon. At home, we entertain the spirits of our ancestors. We offer vegetarian dishes and ohagis.
In Japan, dead people are not gods. They are just dead people.

I cooked Ohagi with my mother.
This Ohagi recipe was passed down from my mother's mother.

How to make Red bean paste = Anko

1. Boil the red beans in plenty of boiling water until the skin is soft.

2. Filter the red beans. Don't use a food processor. Because it will be smoother if you use a pestle. Occasionally pouring the boiling juice over them will make them easier to crush.　Catch it below.  Throw away any leftovers on the strainer.

  

3. Squeeze the accumulated paste and juice with a cloth.

 

4. Put the paste left in the cloth into the pot. And add white sugar about 30% to 40% of the paste and a small amount of salt.

5. Put this pot on fire. Sugar melts and blends. Don't burn it. 
　Taste and add sugar if needed.

 

How to make Rice cake 

Soak half glutinous rice and half white rice in water overnight. For example 200g of water for 150g of rice.  Add a little solt. And steam. Cook normally in a rice cooker. When steaming in a microwave oven, heat for 10 minutes at 500 watts, then leave for 30 minutes.
When the rice is cooked, pound it with a pestle. Only glutinous rice is crushed, and grains of white rice remain. 
Shape the rice into balls whille hot.

 

At the end
Wrap rice cake with red bean paste.