Steamed buns with semi-dried apple

At the beginning of May, I met my friends in Tokyo and had a very good time. Before we went back home, one of them kindly gave me a vegan present. It was a pack of semi-dried apple she had bought on her trip to Gunma Prefecture.

Though I like dried fruits such as raisin, prunes, and berries, I had never eaten semi-dried apple before. But somehow, I was sure that it would taste delicious when used for steamed buns. On the Internet, you can find many recipes using wheat flour or rice flour (gluten-free). It was interesting to find that steamed buns are often made for weaning food, and some of the recipes are intended for children allergic to eggs and dairy products. This time, I used about 150cc of soymilk, 100g of rice flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, and a banana in addition to the dried apple.

The recipe is simple;
1. Mix the soymilk and the banana in the blender.
2. Mix the above into the rice flour, add the baking powder, and mix well.
3. Pour the paste into molds and steam for 15 minutes with diced apple on top.

When the paste was ready, I found it was too much to steam at a time in my small steamer. So, I used just three molds of paste for buns and made a pancake with the remaining paste. I didn’t add semi-dried apple to the pancake. It was good as it was, but I thought it might have better to eat with peanut butter.

These are buns taken out from the steamer after 15 minutes.

The inside looked like this.

It seemed that buns had been steamed sufficiently as they were spongy. This was the first time I had made steamed buns, and I was quite satisfied with them. Since the semi-dried apple was sugared, I didn’t need to add sugar. The buns tasted moderately sweet with the apple and the banana. Semi-dried apple can be used also for cookies, muffins, pancakes, etc. and all of them can be made from rice flour instead of wheat flour. The rice flour I used seemed to be intended to make such sweets because it has some recipes written on the pack. I’m wondering what to make next time.

Veggie hot dog newly launched in IKEA

Last Saturday, after visiting the exhibition in Matsuzakaya Museum, I went to IKEA in Nagakute, a town adjacent to Nagoya. On May 16, IKEA introduced a veggie hot dog and a plant-based banana soft-serve ice cream in the bistros in their stores. I was excited to hear that as I had never been in their bistro due to the lack of vegetarian/vegan options.

At IKEA, I was surprised to see how many people were standing in the line in front of the ticket vending machines. But the line moved faster then I expected, and I could get both veggie hot dog and soft-serve ice cream smoothly. I tried the ice cream first before it would melt. I heard this is 100% plant-based and made from only banana juice. It had a light taste and quenched my thirst.

The veggie hot dog cost only 100 yen, but it was satisfactory to eat. It was made from chickpeas, green peas, kale, carrot, etc. and reminded me of the vegan sandwich I had in SUBWAY in Rovaniemi, Finland last year. It had also red cabbage on top, and I added ketchup and mustard. I thought it was a good value for the price.

According to IKEA, the CO2 emission of the veggie hot dog is 10% of that of the conventional pork hot dog. Though the bun still contains egg and dairy products, it will be vegan in the future. I also learned that 30% of their customers in Japan come to IKEA to eat. I hope more and more people get interested in sustainable and healthy food provided there. From June, they will have a plant-based food fair with two new kinds of veggie hot dogs.

In addition to visit to the bistro, I had another important thing to do at IKEA. These are wholegrain crisp rolls, multigrain crispbread, rye crispbread, and sugar-free oat biscuits I bought in the food market. All of them seem to be vegan.

In addition to them, I bought also thin bread, my favorite, which I have already eaten up.

Exhibition of Astrid Lindgren and world’s strongest girl

Yesterday, I went to Nagoya to see an exhibition “Pippi Longstocking and the World of Astrid Lindgren” held in Matsuzakaya Museum. It is one of the memorial events for the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Japan. Astrid Lindgren is a world-famous writer of children’s books whose image is used on the Swedish 20 crown bill.

In the exhibition, I could see many original drawings and paintings in her books. Pippi Longstocking is the most famous characters created by Astrid Lindgren, who is the strongest girl in the world.

When I was in elementary school, the TV series of Pippi was very famous among children. I think almost all the books of Astrid Lindgren are translated into Japanese. Personally, I like Emil series and was glad to see some humorous illustrations of Björn Berg.

But the most interesting things for me were two films about Astrid Lindgren. One of them presented  her life and background, including interviews with her family members and celebration of her 80th birthday. The other film was an extraction of her speech “No Violence!” made in Germany in 1978. She was opposed to corporal punishment to children, and I was very impressed by her words. She said something like this: Children should respect their parents, but parents should also respect their children. I completely agree with her.

In the next year, 1979, Sweden became the first country that banned corporal punishment to children. But in Japan, there are still many parents and teachers who think such punishment is necessary though it is already 2019. They consider children as immature people and just want to control them without hearing their opinions and feelings. Children under the control of such adults are required just to be obedient.

When the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg started the school strike for climate last year, I thought her very courageous. But at the same time, I felt the maturity of the Swedish society in which children are also treated as individuals with their own will and allowed to speak out what they believe. I didn’t think that there were any Japanese teenagers who could do the same.

On May 24, the 2nd Global Climate Strike took place all over the world. I heard that a climate strike was held in more than 100 places in Sweden. In Japan, 300 people gathered in Tokyo, and 100 in Kyoto. The numbers of participants have increased compared with the 1st Global Climate Strike. And in “Friday for Future Kyoto” on Twitter, I saw a picture in which someone was holding a board with a message “Go Vegan” written in both English and Japanese! Since the relationship between climate change and meat consumption is not widely known in Japan, I hoped many people would notice this message.

It has been hot today. In Hamamatsu, it was around 30 degrees during the day. But in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, the temperature reached 39.5 degrees, which was the highest temperature ever recorded.

Traditional tofu cheese from Kumamoto Prefecture

The other day, I found a stand selling very interesting tofu products in Entetsu Department Store. They were from Itsukiya Honpo in Kumamoto Prefecture, a shop that specializes in tofu no misozuke or tofu pickled in miso.

According to one of the clerks, this food has a history of more than 800 years and was originally made by fleeing Heike-clan warriors who came to and settled in Itsuki Village. Itsukiya Honpo had developed several kinds from the traditional one and let me taste two kinds of soft tofu.

One of them was Yamauni Tofu original packed in a red box. Yamauni literally means a “sea urchin from mountain”, and Yamauni Tofu is the brand name of the products. I don’t know exactly how a sea urchin tastes, but this tofu was creamy and smoother than I expected. The other one was smoked cheese tofu. After tasting it, I was worried if it contained milk, but the clerk assured that all their tofu products contain no animal products.

As for hard type tofu, they had two options. I heard they are served in local pubs in Kumamoto as nibbles for sake.

I bought them both and Yamauni Tofu with yuzu flavor home. First, I tried Yamauni Tofu with German bread bought in the basement of May One in the station building. Somehow, I thought rye bread would best match the tofu among other kinds of bread.

Before spreading on the bread, I tasted the tofu as it was. It had a refreshing flavor of yuzu, a citrus fruit in Japan, as well as richness of miso. I was glad that I had chose this one among products of different flavors.

But as I ate it with the bread, I realized that I should have chosen other kind of bread. Though I usually like the distinctive sour taste of rye bread, it didn’t go well with the yuzu-flavored tofu. It prevented me from fully enjoying the taste of the tofu. Maybe baguette or something with a mild taste would be better.

Next day, I made pasta with Yamauni Tofu for lunch. The ingredients were only five: Yamauni Tofu, pasta, soy milk, Shimeji mushroom, and dried parsley.

I made it according to the recipe on the website of Itsukiya Honpo. It was very easy to make. The sauce that contained just yuzu-flavored Yamauni Tofu and soy milk matched the pasta, and I thought it could be used for some other kind of food. So, I prepared salad for dinner, using this sauce, wakame seaweed, broccoli, and onion.

As wakame is often eaten with yuzu dressing, the salad was as good as I expected. In addition to this, I had rice and the two kinds of hard type tofu cheese. One was plain and the other was smoked.

In fact, I had not been very interested in vegan cheese before, because the ones made by some other companies had disappointed me and I had thought they were just fakes. But the ones I ate this time were different! Their tastes were as rich as those of animal cheese. Especially, the smoked one surprisingly resembled dairy smoked cheese. I wished I could drink alcohol because they surely go well with sake or wine.

And they were also good to eat with rye bread.

I highly recommend trying their products. If you are interested in them, search with just “Itsukiya Honpo.” They have an informative website written in also English and French.

Souvenirs from Singapore

Last Saturday afternoon, I visited my uncle and aunt. They are sociable people, and I can often see and hear something interesting in their house. This time, they had boxes of tea and cookies that their neighbor brought from Singapore as souvenirs. The boxes bore the name Raffles Hotel. I thought it was a famous hotel because I had heard the name somewhere. We were excited when my aunt opened the boxes finally to taste them.

The tea box contained 25 tea bags of Darjeeling tea. We could feel the fragrance even before taking them out from paper bags. We drank the tea with fine teacups with flowers. It was good. The cookies were white chocolate macadamia cookies. They were crunchy and had a rich taste of nuts.

We talked a lot. Before I left their house, my aunt gave me some tea bags and cookies. I thought I had to write an article about them, so I took pictures of the boxes.

Later, I learned a little about Raffles Hotel on the Internet. It is an old colonial hotel opened in 1887. As I imagined from the picture on the cookie box, it is a hotel of the highest quality. I also found that the tea company The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. written on the tea box is Singapore’s oldest tea producer. It has partnered with Raffles Hotel for more than 20 years. The products of The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. are one of the most popular souvenirs from Singapore because they have no shop in Japan.

Today, I had the tea and cookies again. The tea had a beautiful color and reminded me of wine somehow. It may be because today is my uncle’s birthday. Cheers!

Hamanako Garden Park (4) - Waterside scenery

Near Art Museum of Flowers, there is a stand selling snacks and drink. I went there to buy something cold. In addition to juice and soft-serve ice cream, they had frozen fruits: pear, pineapple, white peach, and yellow peach.

I chose frozen pear.

Unfortunately, it was so cold that I couldn’t feel the taste very much. Frozen pineapple may have been better, I guess.

Then I started to walk toward the entrance. On this side of the waterway, the combinations of flowers and water were beautiful. These are irises with waterlilies beyond them.

I saw a bridge over there.

It was refreshing to walk along the waterway.

In fact, my feet ached after a long walk. So, I skipped some areas on this side. But I could still find some interesting things. This is Shimadaidai with some fruits. They are citrus fruits and looked delicious.

These flowers looked like brushes. According to the website of the park, they are called Callistemon.

There was also a waterfall. The air smelled salty, so I thought that water might be from Lake Hamana.

This is a path with many kinds of ferns.

My feet ached, so I hurried to the entrance. I managed to catch the bus to the city center that left the park at 12:13 (The next bus would leave at 14:13). It took more than an hour to get to the bus terminal behind JR Hamamatsu Station.

The public transportation to/from Hamanako Garden Park is poor. But I recommend you going there if you visit Hamamatsu at this time of year. The most convenient way to get there may be to take a taxi from JR Bentenjima Station. If you don’t want to walk around in the huge park, you can take a garden cruise on the waterway.

Hamanako Garden Park
Address: 5475-1 Murakushi-cho, Nishi-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-488-1500
Open hours: 8:30 – 17:00
            July & August 8:30-18:00
Closed: December 29 - January 3
        Art Museum of Flowers closed in Tuesday afternoon

Hamanako Garden Park (3) - Art Museum of Flowers

After enjoying International Garden, I crossed a bridge to the other side of the waterway. In the most remote part of the park, there is Art Museum of Flowers. It was called Monet’s Garden with permission from France in the event in 2004, because the area has a reproduced house and gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny, France. It is a must-see spot at this time of year, and I came to the park mainly because of this. Claude Monet is an impressionist painter famous for his paintings of water lilies. I think many people have seen his paintings somewhere.

This is the house. It is beautiful with a pink wall and green window frames, but it looked more beautiful with roses.

Art Museum of Flowers has two gardens, a flower garden and a water garden. The water garden looked natural with lush greenery around a big pond. There were waterlilies here and there.

I had thought that waterlilies were white, but there were also other colors. This one is pink, and the yellow flowers are irises.

In contrast with the quiet water garden, the flower garden was crowded with people. As it was the best season, many people were taking pictures like me. You could pass through this path with flower arches from May 10 to 19 only.

These purple flowers that looked like onion heads were seen in many places in the garden. They were beautiful, but I didn’t know the name of them. Later, I searched on the internet and learned that they are called giant onion or Allium giganteum.

This bush of roses looked gorgeous.

These are lilies and roses of the same color.

The mixture of different flowers and colors was pleasant to see.

But the mixture of cool colors was also beautiful.

Blue flowers were eye-catching.

Some flowers showed a strong contrast.

And even leaves sometimes looked very bright with sunlight.

The garden was full of life. I had a very good time there.

Hamanako Garden Park (2) - International Garden

When the international event was held in 2004, gardens of different countries were made in the park. Even now, you can see many of them in the area “International Garden.” The first one is the Nepalese garden.

This is the inside of the garden. The greenery matched the color of the building well.

In this area, the buildings and the objects were sometimes more interesting than the plants. In front of the Indonesian garden, there were two stone statues. I wondered what they represented.

This is the Korean garden. On the top of the gate, I saw characters “友好之門“ that mean the “gate of friendship.”

The garden had a big ying-yang mark in front of an arbor. It reminded me of the national flag of Korea and the Chinese martial art tai chi.

There is also a garden of China. Many years ago, I took a picture of it on April 1 and sent it to my sister, saying “Now I’m in China.” The whole garden is so well made.

When you enter from this round gate,

you see an arbor and a pond on the right.

When I was in the arbor, a visitor standing next to me was feeding the carps.

On the opposite side, there is another arbor.

The waterside view is also nice.

In the English-style garden, there were more flowers.

Roses had a fragrant scent.

Another impressive western-style garden was that of Toscana, Italy.

The bushes were neatly trimmed.

I climbed up the stairs to have a better view over garden.

It was made symmetrically and beautiful.