Spicy Cod Roe

A few weeks ago N gave me some spicy cod roe. She ordered it from Fukuya in Fukuoka city, where she lives. Fukuya was the first store that started making spicy cod roe. This season the store brought back it's original recipe for one season.

I received 3 different packs - mild, regular and original. The original was the spiciest but the most delicious! I really recommend it. I don't think you will be able to buy it in department stores, so you might have to call the Fukuoka store direct.

I made lots of different dishes with the roe ...

Simply on rice!

Fettucine with cream sauce.









As a snack with Italian crackers, cheese and blueberries.










Mixing the left over sauce in the container with yogurt to make dip.







And these are scallops in miso sauce also from Fukuya!

Summer Tiredness?

Japanese has a word 'natsubate' which hasn't an equivalent in English. My translation is something like 'summer tiredness'.

At first I thought this word was silly! My hometown is MUCH MUCH hotter than Japan but no-one says they are tired because of the heat. Nowadays I truly believe in 'natsubate'. In fact, this week I have been suffering from it!

It is quite hard to explain to those who don't live in Japan. The best way I can describe it is feeling lethargic, often having a headache, no appetite and generally not feeling well.

How to get better? I don't know! Right now it is over 30 degrees and the humidity is high. Some days in the rainy season the humidity is almost 100% and it is really hard not to feel awful :( My solution is to set the airconditioner to 28 degrees and 'dry', try not to go from inside to outside very often, drink lots of water (over 1 liter a day) and eat light but nutritious food. For example, last night's dinner was a green leaf salad with olive oil and lemon juice dressing, green beans, creamy tofu and a half serving of pasta with homemade basil sauce.

Yesterday I skipped breakfast and lunch because I didn't feel well, but I don't think that is a good idea. Even less energy! So this morning I ate a piece of baked sweet potato :)

Maybe we should eat more food like the traditional Okinawan people or people in South East Asia. If you have any good recipes for 'energy food' please tell me.

The Star Festival

July seventh is the 'Tanabata' star festival in Japan. (In some places it is August 7th.)

I don't have children so I didn't do anything special for Tanabata like writing wish papers to hang on bamboo. But on Friday afternoon Mrs N gave me a lovely paper decoration and showed me how to make another one. This picture is her decoration and it is on the artificial bamboo (shhhh - don't tell everyone it is not real!) in my classroom. I made another decoration for my house at night.

According to the tale of Tanabata, the Weaver Star and the Hunter Star can only meet each other by crossing the Milky Way. If the night is cloudy they must wait another year. Um, I think this year it was cloudy but I forgot to look! But I did get this very beautiful picture of a pink Tanabata sunset.

Look at Mr Spider weaving his web right outside my bedroom window. He looks kind of small but is really very large :( Spiders are EVERYWHERE outside my house this season. Hah, hah, no burglars will come because the spiders will catch them!

Look carefully at the picture!

Take a careful look at these pictures before you read on ...










Last Sunday morning I saw a mini nature show in my front garden. When I looked over the rail of the veranda while putting my futon out to air, I thought "Oh, what a big black worm." But it wasn't a worm! And then I saw what the 'not worm' was doing!

This is a baby snake, and maybe it is called 'hibakari' in Japanese. -->
http://homepage3.nifty.com/japrep/snake/namihebi/hiba/text/hibakari.htm

Anyway, baby snake (which was about the thickness 0f your little finger and about 20cm long) was holding onto a baby frog (which was a little bigger than your thumbnail). Baby frog was desperately trying to escape and was actually pulling baby snake along!

I am not sure what happened in the end because they went under the veranda. I suppose baby frog became breakfast. Maybe a little sad but baby snake also has to live! Most of us happily eat meat and fish, etc every day without any thought. Baby snake might have to get his own food, but what an effort it must be!

Now I wonder where daddy snake, mummy snake and sibling snakes are???!!!