akemashite-omedetou!

【明けましておめでとう】 
akemashite-omedetou, happy new year

happy 2015 everyone! today is january 1st or gan-tan. being the first day of the new year, it's traditional to go visit your local shrine (hatsumoude), say a little prayer for the new year, and get yourself an omikuji which is a small strip of paper with your luck on a scale of super lucky, lucky, sorta lucky, maybe lucky, and unlucky. it also has advice about whether it's a good idea to travel, how business will go, etc, etc. while omikuji aren't just for the new year, most everyone who goes to hatsumoude gets one.

this was the scene at my local shrine, the sumiyoshi shrine, this afternoon. everyone's lining up to offer their prayers. when my turn came, two miko (shrine maidens) were standing behind the offering boxes (where you throw in some coins or, if you're feeling really generous, some bills). the rule of thumb is first, ring the large bells near the top of the shrine, then bow twice, clap twice, and pray. while you're praying, the shrine maidens swish really large paper shide which look like paper strips of lightning, over your head. once you're done praying, you bow once more and you're done. after that, i went to pick my omikuji. they're all scattered inside a box and you pick out one at random. so here's what i got:

chuu-kichi! sorta lucky! which is a vast improvement over last year's maybe lucky, hehe. the rest of the fortune was...just as you can imagine for being sorta lucky, heh, but it's not bad per se. and so with that, my new year's excursion came to an end. tomorrow i'll be headed to the cafe to pick up the nengajou or new year's cards that should have arrived. which means i'll be writing more on those tomorrow!

have a great 2015 everyone!!

nen-matsu

【年末】nen-matsu, end of the year.

alas we've come to the end of 2014. after the tinsel and glitter of christmas -- and i do mean RIGHT AFTER -- japan turns into nen-matsu-mode with traditional japanese music everywhere you turn, decorations like shime-nawa and kagami-mochi (like the one pictured above).

this is actually my first year to put up an actual kagami-mochi, which is pounded mochi rice that they shape into two rounds, a big one on top and a small one on the bottom, with either mikan or daidai at the top (the little clementine looking guy). now buying it is all well and good, but i had no idea WHEN to actually put it on display, so naturally i decided to ask my husband since he's, y'know, japanese. 

"hey," i says to him, "so when do we put this thing on display?" the kagami-mochi is sitting in a vacuum-sealed piece of plastic at this point.

"uh... the 31st...?" 

clearly he's making this up and has no clue.

"oh really?" i says, pulling out my iphone, "let's see what google has to say then."

according to the internets, kagami-mochi is traditionally set on display on the 28th, because 8 is a lucky number, and then it's taken down and eaten on 1/11 (having all those 1s in a row is apparently auspicious). so after boiling the mochi in its plastic packaging, i set it on a piece of white paper with red edges (red and white as auspicious as well), and then bought a bag of small mikan with their leaves still attached and balanced one precariously on top. and voila! 

now all that's left to do is to wait until the 11th and either boil or broil it to crispy mochi perfection!

hope everyone has a great new year, and look forward to more posts in 2015!!

stuff you miss

it's been a long time since i had thanksgiving at home.

so long, in fact, that i can't even remember what year it was -- though i recall it was at my aunt and uncle's house in missouri. i think. this is before i went back to japan for work, so already pushing 8 years ago.

i won't lie -- i miss thanksgiving. it was one of those holidays that i really enjoyed. getting up semi-early to help my mom in the kitchen, making stuffing, sweet potatoes, and hoping that this year the turkey would come out perfect. i never got the chance to ask my mom her recipes for thanksgiving before she passed away, and when faced with the chance to make not a turkey, but a roast chicken, i really wish i had. 

so i made a roast chicken today for the first time. i found i reliable site to help out with chicken prep, but i couldn't find just the right stuffing recipe. 

scrolling through pages on my phone, i started to piece together fragments from that kitchen in columbia. raw turkey wrapped in white paper. boiling the neck to make broth. lots of cubes of bread. mushrooms. onions. sewing up the turkey. butter. taking snapshots of memories and turning them into a patchwork movie. and then i got to work. 

since we always have baguettes in the store, i took the leftovers from that day and cut it up into cubes, then let them sit out overnight. heaven knows it's so dry in hiroshima you could probably make beef jerky overnight, i figured they should be good and dried out by the morning. my plan worked perfectly. by the time the lunch shift ended, i was ready to prepare the stuffing. chop up an onion and some mushrooms, sautee in butter, then add the bread cubes. since the chicken was coming in later in the afternoon, i had to make due with chicken broth, adding in a little at a time til the consistency was like i remembered. salt, pepper, and some herbes de provence for good measure. surprisingly, it tasted a lot like i remembered.

turkeys are massive -- that's about the only thing i could think when the chicken arrived that evening from our meat guy. turkeys take 4-6 hours, whereas chickens take 1. i'm fortunate to have a gas oven since y'know, own a restaurant, so i at least have an easier time baking chickens than your average japanese electric oven. 

one of the other snapshots that sticks out in my mind is sewing up the turkey at the end. it's such a bizarre image -- i mean, it's a turkey, not a pillow, right? but it's also really fun. and so after cramming as much filling into the chicken as i could, it was time to finally bake the thing and see if my hard work had paid off.

oh yeah, it did. i also made way too much stuffing, so i baked the rest separately.

 

the whole time the chicken was in the oven, i couldn't just stand around watching, i had to like peek in every 10 minutes, brush some more olive oil over it, and then peek in again. it just made me so happy to have this pseudo-thanksgiving going on in the kitchen. it brought me right back that kitchen i loved so much, waiting for the turkey to finish.

and when i finally cut into the chicken and took a big bite of stuffing, it was like coming home. it tasted EXACTLY like the remembered it, even if it wasn't baked in a turkey. 

it's things like this that i find i miss the most. stuffing used to be the november norm, something you could count on like clockwork. and then you move to another country and that clock stops. i just happen to be fortunate -- i'm in a situation where i can get whole chickens year round from a great distributor, and where i have a reasonably large oven to fit it too. 

but i won't ever be able to have turkey and stuffing that my mom made again. or any of the meals that she used to make either, for that matter. 

that's what i miss the most. 

so for now, i'm just going to have to try and recreate them in my own way. and i'm pretty sure my mom would like that, too.

momiji-gari and miyajima

omg, how long as it been since i last posted?
wait, nevermind, i don't wanna know.

hey-lo there everyone, i'm back (sorta? for now?) and i've got a picture-filled blog for you today on momiji-gari and miyajima! hooraaaaaaay!

so, what's momiji-gari? 

well, it literally means "maple leaf hunting" but before you picture bands of japanese armed with hunting rifles against snarling maple leaves, let me tell you it's a little less exciting than all that. it just means hanging out and looking at the pretty foliage that lasts about 2 weeks or so (if you're lucky). hiroshima has some gorgeous foliage this time of year and i finally got to head out to miyajima to capture some of it.

wait, what's miyajima?

it's a small island off the seto inland sea right next to dear old hiroshima prefecture and it's home to the itsukushima shrine (world heritage site, what what), wild deer, oysters a-plenty, and momiji manju (maple leaf shaped cakes). it's also got a lotta nature and a lotta foliage, making it a prime place to go huntin'.

so this is the giant torii gate that towers before the itsukushima shrine -- it's like the most cliche picture i could have taken, but this is like THE sight to see when you come to miyajima. see how little those people are? fuckin' HUGE. the tide was out so i was able to walk right on up to it too! 

here's those wild deer i was talking about. they're...pretty tame for being wild, but they will follow you around if they think you have food. this kid was pretty chill though.

 this is the 5-tiered pagoda which is on the hill next to the itsukushima shrine. also fuckin' huge.

but i digress. 

the purpose of my visit wasn't the deer or the shrine, it was maple leaves and foliage, so without any further ado...

whew! these were mostly all taken at the momiji-dani (maple leaf valley) park behind the itsukushima shrine. they were all taken with my olympus PEN SLR and i definitely finagled with the colours.

if you're ever in japan in november, really recommend going to hunt some foliage down -- but avoid going on a weekend. i was there on a tuesday and it was pretty jam-packed, so i can't imagine what the weekends are like, sheesh. 

hope you guys enjoy this little bit of fall from me to you! 

typhoon

【台風】taifuu

it's typhoon season (well, okay, it's been typhoon season since like september) and that means one thing for hiroshima: rain, rain, and more rain (three things?).

so what's up with typhoons? well, they spin the opposite direction of hurricanes and have names like bad sci-fi villians (vongfong, phanfone, kalmaegi...? bad sci-fi, that is). they also bring nothing but rain and strong winds and typically tend to destroy okinawa first before moving on to the rest of japan, so okinawa is kinda like florida.

in fact, there's a typhoon here now. it's actually the biggest typhoon to hit hiroshima in like 7-8 years. but you won't see me panicking. why? well, because even though hiroshima is pretty near the storm, all we've gotten is a bunch of rain and some gusty winds -- it's nothing more than a really rainy day. i'm not complaining, mind you, but i do sorta feel like if we're going to have a typhoon, then we should have a fucking TYPHOON, y'know? hiroshima's got that maryland thing going on where everyone on TV will say "OMG GOING TO SNOW" "OMG GOING TO STORM" and then like nothing happens except for like this:

we do tend to get some sideways rain.

oh, and to top things off, today is a national holiday (sports day...? i dunno) and a monday, making it the last day of a three day weekend so basically this typhoon wrecked everyone's weekend (not that it matters to people like me who don't get three day weekends but...). we actually had a typhoon barrel in last week too (though we didn't get nearly as much rain), so it's just been fabulous weather these days.

the moral of the story?

don't visit japan from september to october.

unless you really love typhoons, then by all means you should head to okinawa.

kaiki-gesshoku

【皆既月食】

kaiki-gesshoku otherwise known as "full lunar eclipse" happened tonight.

to be precise, from about 18:30 to 19:30 the moon slowly turned rust-red, and from 20:30 it started to turn back to its usual colour.

now this all happened during my dinner shift, but that wasn't going to stop me from going to see it. i would step outside and scope around, but being surrounded by buildings, i couldn't see a thing. i was about to resign myself to an eclipse-less night when one of my regulars came in to buy the rest of the cookies we had. he's all excited when he asks if i saw the moon, to which i replied that i hadn't. he points down the street and says "but it's right there!" and so of course, i had to go see. down the street, i can see about 6 people gathered, all looking at the vacant lot where there used to be 3 different houses (all demolished last year). there's a perfect view of the moon, silvery white on the top and rust-red on the bottom. 

gathered there are our neighbors (they own the fresh fish store), the ladies from the korean bbq place across from us, and more keep coming. strangers that happened to be on their way home from work see us all gathered there and come to join us, making polite conversation. one of the korean bbq ladies asks, "will we get to see the moon come back tomorrow?" to which the fish market husband replies, "it's not like soccer where you get to see them tomorrow if they win! it's just tonight." the korean bbq lady presses on, "so you mean we can't see this tomorrow then?" fish market husband chuckles, "no, just tonight." they all start joking about how they gotta see it now 'cause who knows if they'll be alive to see the next one (they're all 60s-70s) and our group grows to about 10 or 11. there's another group on the other side of about 8 or 9. 

it's a chill autumn night and the good people of dobashi are watching the lunar eclipse.

it's funny how things like this can bring perfect strangers together. i can't remember the last time i really talked to my neighbors more than just saying "good morning" or "good afternoon" -- the moon turns completely to rust and i have to get back to the store -- by the time i return with my camera it's about 20:30 and the moon is peeking back out again, but the crowds are gone.

the perks (and not-so-perks) of being a foreigner

okay, first -- the recent lack of posts is mostly because i started a side project and it's really taking up my time. sorry. but i have good news!

i'm going to be featured by one of the local TV stations here, talking about the wonders of the seto inland sea! hooray! what's even better for you guys is that it's going to be a segment in ENGLISH and it's going to be on YOUTUBE so you guys can actually watch it! yay! *cue streamers and confetti* 

this is one of the perks of being a foreigner -- especially if you're a business owner and a foreigner. 

but i'm getting ahead of myself.

when a new restaurant or cafe opens up in hiroshima, you'll get calls from local TV and magazines asking to let them come and interview you, take pictures, compliment your food, etc, for free. new shops are featured all the time and it's really awesome because as a newly opened shop, you're generally pretty broke and ads are expensive, so getting free publicity is always welcome. so we too got the media welcome (4 different local TV shows, local radio, magazines, the newspaper, you name it) -- but you have to keep in mind, i'm a white chick that speaks japanese. you don't really see a lot of them around, let alone opening their own cafes. this means that my face is plastered on magazines and TV. you get this reputation as that white chick from cinnamon who speaks japanese. this means local media will start to call you up to be on shows that are about being a foreigner in hiroshima, not so much about your cafe.

this is how i ended up on a segment called "heart in japan" -- about 5 minutes where they interviewed me about coming to japan, things i found quirky about japan, etc. and this is also how i ended up getting the youtube gig too. it's pretty cool. not like i'm getting paid for it or anything, but it's fun to get the chance to see the TV industry, plus this time i'll be able to show you guys too! and they're filming it at the cafe! 

i will definitely let you know more when i can, for now though, we film on tuesday.

but there is a downside too. i have a pretty recognizable face living you know, amongst mostly japanese people, and so whenever i'm on TV, i get random strangers saying, "hey! you're that cinnamon girl i saw on TV!" even if i'm in the middle of lugging 20 kilos of groceries around on my morning trip to the grocery store or hurrying to get somewhere on time. in the age of instagram, it means that people i follow and who follow me (but i haven't actually met) will leave comments like "i saw you in such and such a place!" and i'm like oh. well. that's kinda. stalker-y? even though i know they don't mean it like that., you never know who might be watching you when you're in the city. 

it's like being a walking, talking billboard for the cafe too -- and you get people who stop you in the street on your day off to try and make a reservation (uh, hello? do i look like a phone?) or ask for directions to your store or when your day off is or...any other silly question they have (please use google, thanks). 

so while there are indeed lots of perks that come with being a white chick, there are also a lot of annoyances that come too, and you learn to deal with it. but hey, if i can get my 20 seconds of fame and promote the cafe while i'm at it, then yeah, definitely down for being on TV. 

review: japanese chestnut häagen-dazs

häagen-dazs is holding out on you guys back home.

seems like every month there's some new limited edition flavour that i'd never seen in the US.

cafe au lait.

white peach and raspberry.

lemon ginger float.

pumpkin (which i need to review!)

and today, i'll be reviewing the latest fall addition: wa-guri (japanese chestnut).

it's essentially chestnut flavoured ice cream with swirls of chestnut paste -- not like in the marron sense, but in the "i boiled some chestnuts in sugar and made 'em into a paste" sense. it's got a great natural chestnut taste to it -- not too syrupy sweet, just buttery and rich chestnut. i only wish that there was more of the chestnut paste in there. come on, it's like...the width of human hair, give me MOAR!

these guys generally show up at konbini first and then move on to grocery stores, but you can bet i'll be buying it again. seriously, häagen-dazs needs to get their game together and give the US some of these flavours too. 

unless i'm wrong and you do get them? i dunno, someone fill me in.

aki-bare

aki-bare 【秋晴れ】 fall clear

ah-kee-bah-ray -- literally "fall sunny day" or "fall clear" 

it tends to get more cloudy and dreary in the fall and winter in japan, so they have a special word just for beautiful autumn days. and that, is aki-bare.

so enjoy my little piece of aki-bare -- this is what it's all about.

review: fall wagashi (or momiji-an never fails)

it's becoming more fall-ish everyday. 

the humidity is less oppressive, the cicadas have finally stopped their incessant chirping, and the stores are filled chestnut and sweet potato flavoured snacks galore.

it's 食欲の秋 (shokuyoku no aki) -- loosely put, "fall is for food!" and you can bet i'm making the most of it by going to my very favorite local wagashi-ya, momiji-an!

let's have a look at their fall line-up: kuri daifuku, tsukimi ohagi, aonori ohagi.

kuri daifuku 【栗大福】 chestnut daifuku

a small, rounded daifuku made of soft mochi with a chestnut (boiled) and koshi-an inside. usually you see these with a sickeningly yellow chestnut inside (kanro-ni -- basically they boil chestnuts in sugar and likely add yellow food colouring) but not so with momiji-an. they give you the chestnut almost as is -- boiled until fluffy and slightly sweet. these guys only come out once a year, and you can bet i'll be back for more.

tsukimi ohagi 【月見おはぎ】moon-viewing ohagi

tomorrow is actually the traditional day for moon-viewing -- it's always held in september when the full moon is its brightest. it's more an excuse nowadays to eat tsukimi dango (moon-viewing dango, little rounded balls of rice flour or mochi) and drink, but i digress. this ohagi is mochi rice wrapped in sweet potato paste (see? it kinda looks like a glowing full moon!) the sweet potato is so smooth and creamy with a great natural sweetness to it. to contrast, the mochi rice inside is slightly salty to balance it all out.

aonori ohagi 【青海苔おはぎ】 green seaweed ohagi

okay, i was skeptical. i mean, look at it! it's frickkin' green! but being a HUGE fan of aonori, i couldn't pass it up. tsubu-an wrapped in mochi rice, rolled in fluffly aonori -- the aroma of the aonori hits you first -- it's...hard to describe how it smells. but it's kinda of like the green grass smell that green tea has, but with a salty tang. that salty tang works so well with the thick sweetness of the tsubu-an inside and i'm in love with this ohagi at first bite. aonori is usually used on more savory things (okonomiyaki, yakisoba, takoyaki...basically if it has sauce on it, it's usually got aonori), so i was surprised at how well it worked with sweet things too. 

hiroshima: the good, the bad, and the ugly (episode 1: the good)

i know what you're thinking.

another "episode 1" series?

sheesh, how many episodes you planning on starting?

okay, look, i promise there will be follow-ups on the other episodes too, there's just a lot of stuff to say about "episode" topics and i don't want to kill your eyes with tl;dr posts (that's too long; didn't read for anyone who might not know...but i'm sure you do).

moving right along -- as you all are aware, i live in hiroshima city, hiroshima prefecture. 

hiroshima prefecture is located in western japan, on the seto inland sea.

here.

and hiroshima prefecture itself is here.

i live in that big middle bit that says hiroshima (the smaller middle bit -- this was the best map i could find, sorry)

most everyone's impression of hiroshima (in the US anyway) is, of course, the atomic bomb. that's understandable -- that's about all you learn about hiroshima and it's definitely an important thing to learn, don't get me wrong. but that's not all there is to it.

what stands out me about hiroshima most is that it's not just a city that was bombed, it's a city that recovered from the bomb.

and that's what's most important.

let's get started.

the good.

1) peace. despite the horrors that the atomic bomb inflicted on the city, hiroshima turned its tragedy into a plea for peace, not war. there is such a huge movement for getting rid of nuclear weapons and encouraging worldwide peace here in hiroshima -- you don't find animosity towards americans nor does anyone try and put the blame on america for the bombing. i'd say that's pretty big of them, and deserves some praise.

2) greenery. hiroshima city is, no doubt, a city. tall buildings and shopping arcades, the works. but it's also a very green city. peace memorial park stands out as an example -- they turned the area around the atomic dome into a vast park where you can find tourists and hiroshimans alike. but everywhere you go has their own greenery -- flower pots line the outside of apartments and stores, flowers grow on the side of the road, between buildings, and in any space they can find. 

like here.

and here!

hiroshima is cut up and down by rivers too -- weeping willows and cherry blossoms line most every river bank, which gives you a great sense of the seasons, too. i dunno, i tend to think that cities with this much botanical variety are good cities (tm).

3) world heritage sites. okay, so i know UNESCO world heritage sites probably aren't as a big a deal in the US (at least i didn't know about them until i got here), but hiroshima is home to two world heritage sites: the atomic dome, and the itsukushima shrine at miyajima (i'll get into that later, just keep it in mind). that means that hiroshima gets a fuckton of tourists from both inside and outside of japan, which in turn means they've got a great, easy-to-understand public transportation system, and more guide books and pamphlets than you can shake a stick at (do people still say that?)

4) which is a great segway into my next topic: public transportation. i touched on this on the streetcar post but STREETCARS. efficient, timely, cheap -- what more can i say? there's also a loop bus that goes around the city to major tourist destinations, along with the regular bus service that goes ALL over the city and beyond, not to mention the train and bullet train system that go from hiroshima to ALL over japan. it's not just hiroshima's public transport though, japan's public transport on the whole is amazing.

oh, and there's ferries too! hiroshima has lots of little islands in the seto inland sea, mostly all connected by ferries.

5) safety and security. while there are some seedy places in hiroshima city, it's not like you're going to be mugged for going down the wrong alley. i've never felt unsafe, even if i'm out walking at night. this is actually true for most of japan, but -- unless you're like an elementary/middle school girl, you're very likely to be left alone (esp. if you're a foreigner). though sometimes weird old guys will try and use their terrible english on you... but that's nothing a glare of death can't solve!

6) food. being surrounded by mountains on one side and the ocean on the other, you get the best of both surf AND turf. the seto inland sea has a long and rich fishing history, dating as far back as the yayoi era (300 BC...!) oysters are the main brand seafood, but there's also octopus, billions o' fish, ocean eel (anago, OMG SO GOOD), squid... you name it, they've probably got it. as for turf -- hiroshima-brand kuro wagyu (prime japanese beef), pork, chicken... not to mention brand name rice, local vegetables and fruits...pretty much anything you'd need for everyday cooking, you can get locally. 

7) (mostly) lack of natural disasters. major snow storms? nope. typhoons? rarely ever a direct hit. earthquakes! this is japan right?! nope. sorry. hardly any, and even when they do happen, they make people in tokyo laugh by how small they are. other than the recent landslides due to the inordinately heavy rains we've had, hiroshima rarely has anything newsworthy happen.




okay, wait -- this is getting to be a tl;dr post, so i'll hold off here for now. but there's still more good to come! along with the bad, and the ugly. eventually.

"traditional"

so, a tourist came into the cafe the other day.

not that this is unusual, but anyway.

he asks the usual questions (where are you from? is this your cafe? how long has it been open? etc, etc) and goes about enjoying his cafe au lait.

meanwhile, it starts to pour down rain. i'm talking like rainin' sideways type lashing rain.

it was still august then -- and hiroshima has gotten 3 times its usual amount of rain. we had all of two sunny days last month, no joke.

i'm looking out the windows at the head of the cafe and scowling. business gets slow when it rains like the world is going to end.

tourist boy notices and casually asks what there is to do in hiroshima on a rainy day.

"what indeed," i replied, and went to rattle off a list of stuff to do in the rain. it was a short list, but i digress. the tourist taps some stuff into his ipad, nodding every now and again at my explanation of landmarks, before he asks,

"do you know any good places to eat for traditional..."

traditional japanese food, my brain finishes, immediately pulling up kaiseki (super traditional japanese lunch/dinner courses) restaurants and places to get good, authentic japanese food. i've got like 6 mental tabs open by the time he finishes saying the word "traditional" and moves onto the next word.

"oh, oko&$#@%&-yaki?"

okonomiyaki?!   

my eyes must've bugged out.

okonomiyaki is a local hiroshima dish (okay, they have it in osaka too, but that's osaka-style, it doesn't count), but it's just not something that ever struck me as being traditional. i mean, i guess it is? because it's been around for ling enough, but it's not. it's b-kyuu gurume which basically means like cheap, everyday foods. you'd never hear okonomiyaki described as "traditional" --- it'd be like calling grilled cheese or PBJ a "traditional american sandwich".

y'see what i mean?

can food be considered traditional even? 

does that even make sense?

classic, sure i can see that, but traditional?

you got me there. 





 

september densen

it's already september...

densen, again

just because.

matsuri (episode 1)

matsuri【祭り】

hiroshima has a good number of matsuri throughout the year. these lively events have less to do with the god or godlike being that the festival is held for, and more to do with the gathering of the community and having a good time, eating yatai food and wearing yukata or dancing the bon dance.

here are some local and prefectual-wide festivals in hiroshima city:

ebisu-kou 【えびす講】

touka-san 【とうかさん】

flower festival 【フラワーフェスティバル】

zenzai matsuri 【ぜんざい祭り】

sorasaya-inari jinja matsuri 【空鞘稲荷神社祭り】

kawahara-machi jizou-son【河原町地蔵尊】

there are likely more, and i also don't have all the proper names, but these are the main matsuri going down in hiroshima city and in the dobashi/tokaichi area (where i happen to be centered).

today we'll be looking at the kawahara-machi jizou-son matsuri, held in late august.

summer festivals are great -- bon dancing and yatai under the chouchin (paper lantern) light.

we were apparently too late for the bon dance -- which is a simple dance that involves moving around in a circle around a large tower-thing where taiko drums are being played. was looking forward to getting some pictures, but alas. summer festivals are also great places to wear yukata (light summer kimono), and i did see some people dressed in them here. but then again, this is a really small festival, taking up maybe 3 blocks of the street for the weekend. here's a look at the main road:

lots of yatai, which are street vendors that sell everything from food to toys to goldfish. we got some takoyaki (octopus dumplings?) and some taiyaki (fish shaped cakes with anko in the middle), which are standard fare for any matsuri. the place is milling with locals enjoying a beer and chatting with neighbors and friends.

mmm...octopus.

there's an altar with candles and incense surrounding a jizou statue. often translated as the "guardian deity of children", these jizou statues are often built at the site of tragic accidents or for stillborn children. they are also placed at city or village limits to protect the land and its inhabitants. 

since i wasn't sure the implications of taking a picture of a jizou statue while a festival was being held in its honour, i didn't take a picture, but here's one i found on the web of a typical jizou statue.

(they almost always have red bibs around their necks)

next to the jizou statue was a stage where lots of different events were being held. high school bands, bingo games, and kagura, which is a type of "shinto theatrical dance" (thanks wiki!). basically, ancient myths and folklore are acted out using song, dance, and dialogue with ridiculously elaborate costumes and flashy movement. the music is all traditional japanese instruments -- high pitched flutes and drums of all ranges, working together at fever pitch during the intense fight scenes, or quietly giving rhythm to the performers' speech...not like i could understand the bulk of what was being said since it's in like old-school japanese, but that's beside the point. the point is, it's hella entertaining -- this was actually my first time seeing live kagura and i have to say, i was enchanted. there are still lots of kagura-dan or kagura groups that are active in northern hiroshima and shimane prefecture (just north of hiroshima prefecture), and if given the chance, i would LOVE to see another performance.

what struck me most about this festival was the sheer locality of it. kawahara-machi is by no means a huge part of the city. there were likely 50 people there, at best, and all of them residents of the area. parents talking to parents while kids run about with plastic masks or glow sticks, elderly residents watching kagura with their grandkids, middle school girls moving in herds while snacking on kara-age (fried chicken)... it's just a great way to unite the community, if only for two days, and a great excuse to go outside and enjoy the (relative) cool of summer nights in hiroshima.

review: le triskel

yesterday was my birthday and also 5 year wedding anniversary. yay!

as such, husband made reservations at le triskel, a french restaurant listed in the hiroshima michelin guide (listed, not rated). i'd seen the place before and had had my eye on it, but completely forgot until we actually arrived.

it's on the second floor of an old building in nobori-machi. the interior is well-lit with about 5~6 tables. lunch is course only (i think there were 3 courses to choose from, varying in price) -- he reserved the gourmand course, ranging from amuse bouche to dessert. here's the run-down.

amuse bouche

foie gras crème brûlée 

beneath a crunchy layer of bittersweet burnt sugar lies a thick, yet light foie gras mousse. the combination of sugar and salt was great -- it was unlike anything i've tasted to date, that's for sure. there was also a hint of rum in the mousse, which just added to the overall taste experience.

second course (salad)

kadaif-wrapped hamo (daggertooth pike conger... what?) with zucchini fondant and red pepper sauce

hamo is a popular...fish? conger? ingredient. to use in the summer in japan. it's very much like a light white fish in texture, melting in your mouth. by wrapping it in crunchy kadaif, it gives a kick to the hamo in the texture department. the vegetables in this salad are local and very flavourful -- they're also kept as raw as possible, even the kabocha squash is raw (which i haven't had before -- crunchy!). really goes to show you how much faith they have in their vegetables. the zucchini fondant was also a first for me -- it was light, like a mousse, and captured the flavor of zucchini along with vegetable stock to give it a slightly salty punch. the sweet red pepper sauce and extra-virgin olive oil drizzled alongside brought a refreshing sweetness to the whole salad.

third course (fish) 

koshoudai (crescent sweetlips, which, btw, is a GREAT name for a fish) and scallop sauté (the scallop is underneath -- i really should have gotten a better picture of it. why? you'll see) in a white wine sauce. 

first, the koshoudai. the skin was perfectly crisp and the flesh was tender -- not overcooked, not undercooked, just the right amount of ...hagotae.

damn it, hagotae is one of those words that i really can't put into one english word. it means like when you bite into something, it has just the right ...density? consistency? so that you feel like you're biting into something (as opposed to having it like...mush in your mouth) but it's not like you're biting in rubber or something unbelievably hard. 

it's really easy to ruin white fish when you sauté it, but they nailed it.

but the star of this show is NOT the koshoudai, it's the scallop.

had i had known how life-changing this scallop was going to be, i would have taken more pictures because OMG BEST SCALLOP EVER.

it was actually "compliments of the chef" because it was my birthday, but sweet holy moses, might be one of the best gifts i've ever gotten. the scallop was sautéed in butter, the top slightly crisp and browned. i cut it in half -- the center is still slightly raw so that the scallop has just the right amount of hagotae when you bite into it: soft, yet firm. it's incredibly flavourful --- i would guess that these aren't frozen scallops, but raw ones (i didn't ask -- i should have). you can taste the ocean when you close your eyes, and then the butter hits, the wine sauce hits, and it's like this beautiful explosion of seafood.

life. changing. scallop.

that's all there is to it. 

fourth course (meat)

beef cheek red wine ragu with komatsuna sauce 

komatsuna or "japanese mustard spinach" is a leafy green vegetable that i kinda associated with having a bitter taste. so i was a little wary of the rich green sauce -- but of course, i was wrong. but first, beef cheeks!

beef cheeks, or hoho-niku, are one of my favorite cuts of beef. admittedly, it's a pain in the ass to prepare since you have to stew it for a long time to make it tender and delicious, but when it's done right (and it was), it's just gorgeous. thick cut and tender, you could cut it in half using your fork -- no need for knives with this little beauty -- the meat was so tender it was practically falling off by itself. the sweetness of the red wine paired with a salty tones of the komatsuna sauce brought out the best in each other and i've hardly chewed the meat before it practically dissolves in my mouth. 

the vegetables paired with the meat (broccoli, golden potato, red onion, toumyou or green pea sprouts) are all local grown and packed with flavor. toumyou has that earthy bean taste without being astringent, the broccoli was brilliantly and decidedly green in flavour, and the red onion was roasted perfectly, bringing its own sweetness to the plate. and that potato -- fried until slightly crisp with its own mild sweetness -- it went exceptionally with the sauce.

it was a meat lover's dream and a vegetable lover's dream at the same time.

fifth course (dessert)

terrine chocolat with mango sorbet and fresh fruits 

because it was my birthday, they made a special dessert plate for me. brought out on a chilled stone plate, the first thing that catches your eye is that vibrant golden mango sorbet. underneath is terrine chocolat, which is like a rich and dense chocolate mousse. the intense sweetness of the mango sorbet (it was like eating mango puree, in a good way) accented the rich milky chocolate, and the raspberry sauce underneath it all provided just the right amount of sanmi ("acidic sourness" -- sourness?) to complement the sweetness.

they also wrote "bon anniversaire" on the plate in chocolate <3

an excellent and carefully prepared course using local ingredients well-deserving of its price.

i don't know what more you can ask for.

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le triskel
nobori-machi 5-7
naka-ku, hiroshima-shi

082-511-5031