Ume

A few weeks ago,I went to Osaka castle park to see Ume(plum-blossom).
The season Ume is usually Feb-early March.
Osaka castle park is huge and very beautiful!!!

Osaka business street

Here is the center of  business in Osaka!!!

Osaka city hall

Sakana

Sakana means fish.
In Japan,it's very popular to use this kind of  red sausage for a bento  because it's colourful.
I made a shallow cut in the sausage to change the shape as sakana (fish).
Do you want to eat???

Ingredients

*meat ball(prepared food)
*sausage
*thinly sliced boiled carrot
*boiled green pepper
*bok choy(chinese green vegetable)

cookie cutter is a convenient tool

Sakura coffee

"Sakura(cherry blossom) coffee" is the name of a cafe that I found when I went to visit the grave my paternal grand parents in south part of Osaka.

Last year I dropped in after noticing the large car park and beautiful shop front.It was very quiet and peaceful,Sakura theme and the price were very reasonable.

It seemed to me the perfect place to relax,but I had forgotten,all about it until I found the business card tucked away on a table top.When I found it the memories came flooding back to me,and I had finished with dinner and other household chores.I decided on an impulse to spend the evening there.
Luckily,this cafe is open until 10:30pm although it is a bit of drive about 90mins.

Anyway I got there around 8pm and spend about 90mins.

The cafe is quite big and built around a courtyard with Japanese garden,complete with cherry blossom tree,racked gravel  and rock "mountains".There were no cherry blossoms yet,the season starts in early April,but the whole atmosphere was very Japanese.

On the menu there is no green tea as it's a coffee shop.But there are Japanese style cakes and parfaits.For me the most fascinating thing is the tableware,all tied together by the sakura and bamboo motifs.

There were cherry blossom shaped plates,sugar cubes were wrapped in paper bearing the shops motif and piled on petal-shaped plates.

The parfait which I ordered was served in a cup cut from green bamboo,in the old traditional Japanese style.

we can buy some cookies as for gifts or souvenirs

Ichigo-daifuku

It's a 6months(usually Jan-June)seasonal Japanese Wagashi(Japanese sweet).
I love it but quite expensive so I rarely buy it.
Today my mother came to my house and brought me ichigo-daifuku.
It's a fresh strawberry coated in yellow bean paste and wrapped in side a rice cake.

Omake

Omake is a small free gift(it's hard to explain...somebody help me!).
A few weeks ago I bought a bottle of apple juice.It came with  one of the characters from "ONE PIECE" (Japan's NO.1 manga in recent years)on a small mobile phone strap.

It's a promotion for boosting sales,one of many in Japan where choices are many and competition high.
In this case the juice company is using the huge popularity of "ONE PIECE"and timing their promotion to coincide with the soon to be released movie version.
It was a huge success the product was sold out with in a few days.

Maguro

I think Maguro(Tuna) is the most popular fish for Japanese people.I know there is a big issue in the world with over fishing of Tuna but it's a long tradition with Japanese people and we love it.

Sometimes we have a chance to see Maguro carve up usually in a department store or sea side shops,as a kind of public performance,complete with shishoku(free tasting).

Today I will show you how to carve up a whole Maguro with a lot of pictures.

For Sushi  and Sashimi(fresh slices of raw fish) it's important to cut the slices in the right way.




This Maguro is 40kg

 



100g=780yen