Japanese Food Journal: random food items

I planned on making peanut butter balls this evening, but I left the vanilla at the school, and considering I already changed into comfy clothes and have no desire to go back out into that cold wind, I'm once again delaying the candy-making. Wednesday, maybe, since I have the day off.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of random food items:

Let's start things off with my favorite vegetable: the mushroom! (yes, arguably, they're fungi, not vegetables, but this matters little to me.) Japan has wonderful mushrooms, and I've sampled a few of them. These are maitake or Sheep's Head mushrooms. They're delicious, which is reflected in their Japanese name: maitake literally means "dancing mushroom," because people supposedly danced for joy when they found them. We had them at our nabe party.

More mushrooms! Aren't they adorable? These are brown beech mushrooms (bunashimeji), and were very yummy sauteed and eaten with tofu. I've eaten them a couple times since then, and they're probably my favorite variety of mushroom now. Like most mushrooms, they have a bit of an earthy taste, but they're quite mild and delicate.

This is tamago kake gohan, which I often eat for breakfast now. It's steamed rice with a raw egg mixed in. It's delicious, especially with some sesame seed senbei. One of my students suggested it to me, explaining that it's a very filling and nutritious breakfast.

This is yaki manju, which is a specialty in Gunma. It's basically a grilled sweet bun covered in a sugary miso sauce. Some varieties have anko paste inside, but the Gunma variety is eaten plain. It's interesting, and very filling. I could only eat two. I'm fairly certain that I would like them better with the anko paste. Hitomi-san brought in cold yaki manju a few weeks ago, but the above buns were brought to us hot and fresh by one of Benni-sensei's students. Pretty good.

A while ago, I discovered this Minute Maid drink, which is aloe & white grape. It's awesome, especially because it has little pieces of aloe in it. That was surprising at first (I nearly gagged when I swallowed one because I had no idea what it was) but also pleasant. I immediately went to the internet, where I learned that not only is aloe edible, it's lauded for its health benefits, particularly in regards to digestion and immune system boosters. Keen, huh? Turns out that you can take any random aloe plant, skin it, chop it up, and eat it. Apparently, it has a bitter taste by itself, but when added to tea or yogurt, it's sweetened enough to be appetizing.

Not long after finding the drink, I found the aloe yogurt I'd read about. Not that great by itself, but with some granola or sweet crackers (something crunchy), it's pretty good. I usually eat yogurt as breakfast or a late-night snack, but I prefer the fig yogurt more.

I wrote down the name of this fruit, but I can't find it. Hitomi-san brought them in one day and gave me some (since then, she's also fed me chestnuts, seawead-based jello, and baked mountain potato - yaki-imo, which was unarguably the best of the lot). You rip the ends off and eat them with the peel on. They're like mini-kiwis. Not too bad.

And now for some non-Kit-Kat candy. The rose-strawberry combination attracted my attention, and I decided to give it a try.

This is the candy, after being bitten into. It has some kind of wafer on top, covering a rose-flavored mousse, all wrapped in a strawberry shell. Interesting combination. The rose is subtle but distinguishable and a bit intriguing.

Kozue-sensei usually brings me Kit-Kats when we get together, and last Friday, she also brought me this candy. I'm not sure how to explain it, and even Kozue-sensei and Benni-sensei were a little confused by it.

Here they are in their little packages. The one on the left is kinako mochi, which is a traditional treat around this time of year. It's baked mochi coated in soybean powder. The one of the left is matcha (green tea powder) flavored.

And here they are unwrapped. The mochi one (L) was yummy, but the matcha one was actually kinda gross. I found this unusual, as I generally like matcha-flavor. It had a jelly-like thing inside, and that was what I didn't like. The outside was okay.

And that is all for now. Another update on the school's situation is forthcoming, as soon as I get a little more information.