Japanese Fall Tsetses;

* Lunch with Aunt and Cousins*

Around middle of last month,  my aunt and cousins invited us to my birthday lunch.  Although my birthday is Sept., we needed to fix our schedule.  The restaurant serves high-class Japanese meal♪

    I had a wonderful day chatting and singing at Karaoke after lunch.

                                                             Dobin mushi (土瓶蒸し) 

It is a traditional Japanese broth, steamed and served in a earthenware called dobin tea pot with shrimp, chicken, soy sauce, lime, and matsutake mushroom. The special mushroom is a bit expensive and have great spicy aroma♪

Let me add chestnut-rice and pumpkin I cooked before fall is over :-)

                           Thank you SO much for stopping by♡♡♡

Shellfish Digging and Miso soup;

*Shellfish Digging*

White going home from errand, we spotted some people were digging shellfish. The shellfish is Cyrenidae Gray，we call it 'シジミ, shijimi'.　

This particular shellfish said to have the medicinal effect of enhancing the liver function and live in the brackish waters (of an estuary). I knew they live in the area 'estuary' which has water that has more salinity than fresh water. My husband proudly taught me the area is called '汽水域, kisuiiki' in Japanese :-)

With this shellfish, we normally cook miso-soup. I had urge to eat bowl of conger eel and rice. Believe me, they are yummy.

Thank you SO much for stopping by;

Winter Dish;

*Hot-Pot Dish called "Nabe-mono 鍋物"* 

This hot dish is popular diner in Japan during cold winter season. As my aunt kindly sent us Crab as 'Year end Gift' last year, I cooked with them more tasty gorgeous Nabe than my usual one :-)  Here is the links of Wikipedia and picture pages.

I  use dried sardine and sea weed then add powered one later for soup.  After eating food in Nabe (earthen pot), we enjoy rice porridge made with the yummy soup left inside the pot. My husband prefers to add some vegetables as well. 

             Thank you very much for for stopping by,

Sweet Red-Bean Soup and "夫婦善哉, meoto-zenzai'；

Zenzai, 善哉;

Sweet Red-Bean 'azuki 小豆' Soup, which we call ‘zenzai,善哉’ is one of my favorite winter sweets.   I made the one in the first picture a couple days ago; and the one in the second was the lunch post from 2,012 here.

"夫婦善哉, meoto-zenzai'    (meoto means married couple)

          This Japanese phrase came to describe "happy married couple".

The old Zenzai restaurant (opened 1,883) in Osaka serves two bowls of them for one person. This menu became SO popular and because of the menu is called 'meoto-zenzai', this phrase started to express the couple who are cooperating their marriage life each other through ups and downs. 

picture from restaurant's home page

Noble and movie were made with this menu title. And even the Enka song whose lyric I love was sung by one of the singer. It was released in 1,987; I was married 1,977 :-)  At that time I was helped by my husband's mental support after the infertility treatment for me didn't work.   Let me paste the video from You-tube introducing both the place and the song from last year.  Haha, I was happy to find this one.

(Sorry it's in Japanese and bit long, I'm happy if you could feel what Japanese Enka sounds like.  But this video is kind of for myself.  She is the original singer of this song.)

I couldn't find the lyrics in English, my poor translation only for the first passage;
          living like duckweeds,  you laugh 　
          around our shoulders, alley autumn shower dancing
          even if we have nothing, my heart can be called a brocade
          I'll follow your foot steps, meoto-zennzai
          your back is my guidepost

Thank you very much for for stopping by,

Seven Herbs Rice Porridge (Nanakusa-gayu 七草粥)

*Jan.7th, is Seven Herbs Rice Porridge eating Day*

Nanakusa-Gayu with side dishes (grilled turban shell)

This is a New Year's Tradition of eating a rice porridge with seven-medicinal herbs to bring good health and longevity. After enjoying New Year food (osechi), this simple vegetarian rice porridge is very refreshing, help digestive system that is stuffed and exhausted.  Okayu (お粥. rice porridge) is the traditional meal to eat when you’re sick; I suppose the Japanese equivalent of chicken soup:-)

*Seven herbs*
My husband's acquaintance who works at the agricultural high school kindly gave us this package of seven herbs which were grown by the students of the school.

Please enlarge the graph below to know what herbs are used :-)
I remember my late mother memorized the names and saying like a song.

We can buy the seven traditional greens conveniently packaged together at supermarket.

And I found the one we are given sold at the store we regularly use. (left side)

Thank you very much for stopping by;