Sick of Garlic?!

I love garlic, so I always forget that I cannot eat it too much...

My favorite garlic product is taberu la-yu. But it makes me feel sick after eating a tablespoon of it. Damn, I totally forgot about it and had it on Sunday "a lot" and believe it or not, now I feel very sick for whole week!!!

It happened to me in Italy, too. I think they use a lot of garlic for any food. I always have severe stomach cramps on the last day of the trip, so I'm afraid to visit Italy again. I love CARBONARA!!!!!!!

Maybe I am I seriously allergic to garlic!

OMG... I wish I could be sick of garlic.

Do you have any food that you like but you can't eat?!

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Easy Tasty Cold Tofu - Video Recipe

This is the No.1 Cold Tofu, which was ranked the 1st on Lettuce Club's website before!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KBR1RE6iRk

I used momen-dofu (cotton tofu) which is pretty filling! The seasonings work up the appetite!

It's a dish to go with sake or beer, too :D



Please try it out!

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Easy Tasty Cold Tofu

Difficulty: Super Easy
Time: 5min + refrigeration time
Number of servings: 2

Ingredients:
300g (10.5oz.) momen-dofu (cotton tofu)
A
*1 tbsp. sesame oil
*1/2 tsp. salt
*a touch of cracked black pepper
*a bit of grated garlic
chopped scallions
white sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Boil water in a large pot, break tofu into chunks (with your hands), place in boiling water for about 2 minutes, drain in a colander, cool enough, and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
2. Mix A in a bowl and dress the tofu.
3. Serve in a dish and garnish with chopped scallions and white sesame seeds.

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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By boiling tofu, you can remove excess water! Thus, it absorbs the seasonings well!!!

Enjoy!

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Jyoshikai @ Kyodo

Last night I had dinner with two girls in Kyodo. I seldom get off at Kyodo station but I heard there are many nice restaurants there!!!

We tried 2 restaurants last night :D

The first restaurant is called alden. They serve nice and cozy Italian foods.

The second restaurant is popular, SALVATORE CUOMO. Their location is nice, actually! They have a nice lawn in front. We had wine outside and was really relaxing!!!



We had a nice girls' talk there. hehe

BTW, how often do you (girls only) eat out with girls?! We call this kind of gathering 女子会 (jyoshikai) "girls' meeting" in Japanese.

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Stir-Fried Watermelon Rind - Video Recipe

What do you do with the watermelon rind?!
Do you throw it away?!

Then, I have a good recipe.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riJKm2bvtOg

It's a Chinese-style stir-fried recipe that goes great with white rice ;)

BTW, I used the magnetic cracked black pepper that I bought in NY!!!



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Stir-Fried Watermelon Rind

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 20min
Number of servings: 2

Ingredients:
200g (7oz.) watermelon rind (white part only)
1 tsp. salt
100g (3.5oz.) thinly sliced pork
50g (1.8oz.) carrot
100g (3.5oz.) bean sprouts
6 Chinese chive
small piece (about 1/2 inch) of shoga (ginger root)
A
* 1/2 tbsp. honey
* 1/2 tbsp. sake
* 1 tbsp. soy sauce
cracked black pepper
1/2 tbsp. starch
1/2 tbsp. sesame oil

Directions:
1. Remove hard green rind and weigh the white part on a scale. You may leave a bit of red portion.
2. Cut the watermelon rind (1.) into short and thin strips. Sprinkle salt over the strips, let stand for 5 minutes until soft and watery, then squeeze out excess water.
3. Also, cut the pork and carrot into strips. Trim the bean sprouts at both ends if you prefer. Cut Chinese chive into 2 inches long. Cut shoga into thin strips.
4. Heat sesame oil in a frying pan, fry shoga until fragrant, add pork, carrot, bean sprouts, watermelon rinds, and Chinese chive in order. Add A and stir-fry until the seasonings blend, turn off the heat, add starch with the same amount of water, heat again to thicken the sauce, then sprinkle cracked black pepper to finish.

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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I'm thinking of making katsu curry someday soon since I receive so many requests for that!!!

Bye for now :)

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JUMBO Ebi Katsu

On Saturday morning, I had a dream eating JUMBO Ebi Katsu, so I had it for dinner to make it come true!!! Luckily, it was offered with 10% summer discount :D And a glass of beer was 50% off! (I don't drink beer, though.)



Actually in my dream, I couldn't eat it since I woke up when I realized... I told my darling why he woke me up (maybe he didn't...) but he said he knows nothing, of course. Sometimes I'm sleep-fogged, never mind!

Their appetizer tofu was really nice with wasabi :D



I wore my everyday hoodie since I got up late and didn't feel like dressing up. LoL I totally understand what Kym said before. Hoodies are my go-to item of clothing!



Katsukura is my favorite tonkatsu restaurant! We've tried many other tonkatsu restaurants, but I think here is the best!!!

Last but not least, I edited a new video last night but damn iMovie again didn't save the project... I wonder why this happens often (I gotta call Apple)! My one-hour-work ended up nothing X(

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Heart Cloud In The Sky

My darling found this heart-shaped cloud in the sky.



It changed the form quickly so we were lucky to see it at that time.

I think I'm so busy that I'm kind of forgetting to see up the sky now...

How fast! It's already Friday today!

Have a good weekend!!!

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Watermelon Sangria - Video Recipe

Watermelon is a rich source of water. This sangria is not only refreshing but it will help prevent dehydration during summer! Try it out!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqucJzHqYq4

If you cannot drink alcohol, you can substitute red wine and honey with orange juice (or any kind of fruit juice that you think it goes well with watermelon).



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Watermelon Sangria

Difficulty: Very Easy
Time: 5min
Number of servings: 2

Ingredients:
200g (7oz.) seedy watermelon
200g (7oz.) seedless watermelon
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. lemon juice
200cc red wine

Directions:
1. Grate the seedy watermelon and strain the juice through a mesh strainer. (you can remove the seeds in this way!)
2. Dice the seedless watermelon into small cubes.
3. Pour the watermelon juice (1.) and the red wine into a large pitcher. Add honey and lemon juice, and mix well.
4. Add the diced watermelon (2.) into the mixture (3.) and chill in the fridge for few hours and serve.
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Enjoy :D

BTW, I finally saw the message on YouTube! "Data for the July 11th to July 18th is known to be incorrect. We are working hard to restore the correct data." I hope they fix soon, because the view counts make me feel like creating another one... you know!

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CHOJIRO

Monday was a holiday (Marine Day) so my darling and I went to the gym, had Hawaiian lunch, shopped at Futakotamagawa, and had dinner at kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi) called CHOJIRO.

CHOJIRO was a pretty fancy Kyoto-style sushi restaurant and I really loved their sushi!!! It wasn't that expensive than I thought!!! I loved Avocado Tuna since their avocado was huge :D I will go back there again!!!



Speaking of shopping, many Spring stuff were 70% off so I could finally say CUTE and get some clothes at Jill Stuart. (because I don't even think or say it's cute when the price is too high. LoL)

My darling bought me earrings at a different store, so I wore that in my next video :D

My outfit on that day! I carried my Spring COACH bag which was 30% off in NY. Still nice in Summer!



Have a good one :D

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Lady Gaga Bento - Video Recipe

Many people asked me for an easy bento recipe, so this is the one!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-vKQOs2poQ

When Lady Gaga came Japan in July, she was in green, so I came up with this idea. LoL



In this tutorial, I will use ohitashi which is a common dish cooked in Japan. It is a boiled leaf vegetable (usually spinach) eaten with soy sauce. In my video, I used Kamada Dashi Shoyu (dashi flavored soy sauce) for the seasoning which you can create an authentic Japanese dishes easily!. Try out if you get a chance!

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Lady Gaga Bento

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30min
Number of servings: 1 bento box

Face: salmon flakes
Hair: komatsuna (mustard spinach)
Lines: Fujikko ni (boiled kelp)
Eyes: nori seaweed and mayonnaise
Hearts and Mouth: ham
Lips: ketchup
Earrings: quail egg
Beauty mark: nori seaweed

Spinach Ohitashi

Ingredients:
100g (3.5oz.) fresh komatsuna (mustard spinach) or spinach
1 tbsp. Kamada Dashi Shoyu (a bit strongly flavored for bento)
*2 tsp. is enough if you are using regular soy sauce
1 tbsp. ground white sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Boil water in a large pot. Add a pinch of salt in the water (salt removes oxalic acid - bitter taste, and makes the spinach nice and green).
2. Wash komatsuna and add in the boiling water from the stem side.
3. Boil spinach for about one minute. Drain and soak the spinach in water to cool. Drain and squeeze the spinach to remove the excess water.
4. Cut spinach into about 1.5 inch lengths.
5. Toss the spinach with Kamada dash soysauce and ground sesame seeds.
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Have fun XD

BTW, I noticed recently that YouTube freezes the view counts at around 300 for few days (sometimes up to a month). I kind of looked forward to seeing how many people viewed my videos, so too bad X'( As a YouTube user, I become to know some facts (not gonna mention but there are more...) that I didn't know as a viewer, which sometimes make me feel bad... but thanks to all the comments from subscribers and my darling's support (he always says "take it easy! it's not your work" haha), I feel positive creating another video soon.

Anyways, yesterday was Marine Day (national holiday), so I had a little fun with my darling for a change :D Maybe I will write about it tomorrow!

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What I Bought in NY

We always shop something interesting that we can't get in Japan in NY!

Mini Magnetic Salt and Pepper Balls
What an idea! No wonder I bought it :D


Revol White Crumpled Cappuchino Cup 18cl
I simply liked the idea Crumpled. I got it at MOMA store. (I love to shop there.) It was 3 for $36... pretty pricey X(


Say Hello Palette - Memoirs Of A Kitty
Very useful colors! I got it without question! The product is made in Canada! I found the Metal Hello Kitty brush set at the store which suki has, too :D


Just Bunches
I love crunchy bunches in the cereal and what an idea they took out the flakes :D I think the product is too heavy so that's why it is not available in Japan.


Frosted Shredded Bite Size Wheats
I love wheats, too! But also, it is not available in Japan because of it's weight, I guess...


Softsoap and Palmolive
Speaking of the weight, I bought many dish soap and hand soap products because they were way cheaper than in Japan. I got them all at less than $1. Amazing!!! SpongeBob was cute :D


Daisy Shaped Egg Fry Ring
I got them at Williams-Sonoma because they were 50% off. Their products are pricey but I love to window shop there. Lucky me I found them :D


Vapur water bottle
My darling loves this kind... so he bought it.


And more... LoL

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Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai @ You Tube

I again took my hula video of the spring class in NY!

Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai is a very famous traditional Hawaiian song :) The song is about how wonderful it is to go to the beautiful ocean to pick all different kinds of limu (seaweed).

As usual, I posted it on my YouTube account. I took my dance for many times but just because the sun hid in the cloud in the second half, i used the very fast video which was kind of getting an unwanted suntan X(

Anyways, I will share this video with my blog buddies who keep in touch with me on a regular basis or Tipness club members who took this "hula hula" class. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and send me a message. I will add you as my friend to share the video.

※Tipness（ティップネス）のHULA HULAで習ったKa Uluwehi O Ke Kai（カ ウルヴェヒ オ ケ カイ）の振り付けをビデオに記録♪シンガーでクムフラ（古典フラの継承者）Sandii（サンディー）さんのアロハセラピーな楽曲です。見たい方は私のチャンネルに登録してリクエストメッセージを下さい☆

Mahalo :)

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Non-Fried Korokke (Croquette-Like Potato Salad) - Video Recipe

Korokke (Croquette) is a parcel of food such as minced meat or vegetables, shaped into a cylinder or circle, encased in breadcrumbs and deep fried. I already posted my korokke recipe before but this one is different.

I served the potato mixture on a rusk instead of deep frying it with panko, which makes it really healthy. The rusk gives crispy texture like panko, so you can enjoy korokke in a different form.

BTW, it's a yummy tasty potato salad as well ;)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-SMSvi2jwo



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Non-Fried Korokke (Croquette)

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30min
Number of servings: 12-14 croquettes

Ingredients:
12-14 rusk
1 egg
200g (7oz) potato
40g (1.4oz) ham
50g (1.7oz) onion
2 tbsp. mayonaise
salt and cracked black pepper
dried parsley flakes

Directions:
1. Boil egg and potato together until cooked and soften for about 20 to 30 minutes.
2. While cooking, roughly mince ham and onion.
3. Drain and peel potatoes. Peel egg and add egg yolk in the potatoes and mash them together.
4. Mince the egg white.
5. Add 2, 4, mayonnaise, salt and cracked black pepper in 3 and mix together.
6. Serve 5 on each rusk and sprinkle parsley flakes.

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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Enjoy :)

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Movies

I watched 4 movies on the plane to NY. Also 2 movies on the way back.

The best movie was The Adjustment Bureau. A romantic thriller. I wouldn't write more than this. You must watch it! It conveys a great message to you. I love it :)



The other movies I watched were:

No Strings Attached (2011)
Just Go with It (2011): Jennifer Aniston is beautiful!
What Happens in Vegas (2008)
Valentine's Day (2010): Not that interesting movie than I thought...
Hall Pass (2011)

I think The Adjustment Bureau is the only one that is worth to pay to watch at the theater...

What do you think?!

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Summer 2011 in New York

Hi! I'm back now :D

6 days in NY were amazingly fast. When I leave Japan, I had too many things to do, so I thought leaving them behind for 6 days is not good, but now I think I should have planned to stay more days!!! LoL

Day 1 (7/1):

This was our fast time to take Japanese airline ANA (All Nippon Airways) because there wasn't any empty seat for the cheaper ones (usually we take Delta or Continental). What surprised us was their meals!!! They were amazingly delicious!!! Free alcohol, of course :) I watched 4 movies since the seat was very comfortable. Time we arrived in NY was noon, so we took a walk outside (took a pic in front of 23 foot tall giant yellow teddy bear) and met our friends at night. Every year we stay at Grand Hyatt. The room was nicely renovated this year :)

Day2 (7/2):

We had a breakfast at Grand Central Terminal and went for a walk at The High Line! The weather was really hot but nice. I took my 10th hula video at Hudson River Park (Pier 62). I will write about it later. For lunch, we went to The Fat Radish where I found on a Japanese magazine. Their foods were very healthy and delicious with lots of vegetables: omelette with a bunch of greens :D Then for dinner we went to a Malaysian restaurant called Nyonya. What we ordered were their popular dishes: Home Made Roti Canai (Indian Pancake), Sizzling Nyonya Tofu, and Singapore Rice Noodles. They were all great!

Day 3 (7/3):

We went Rabbithole Restaurant in Brooklyn for Breakfast. I had their recommended Stuffed French Toast! Yummy :) My darling had eggs benedict! Then we shopped around and went to the Brooklyn Brewery. My darling was really excited having a beer there ;) It was raining all day long so we enjoyed shopping. My darling enjoyed shopping at Superdry and bought their tees and bag for himself! For dinner, we went to La Lanterna di Vittorio where is famous for Pizza and Pumpkin Cognac Cheesecake! They were of course delicious!!!

Day 4 (7/4):

OMG! I finally found a place to try the 3-tiered afternoon tea!!! Alice's Afternoon Tea serves the afternoon tea menu before and after noon, which is cool :) So, we had The Mad Hatter menu (2 for $37). Their scones (especially the mixed berry) and sandwiches were amazingly delicious! Yay!!! Then we shopped upper west and walked down to the hotel through the central park. We had a dinner at Rock Center Cafe (as usual - we eat here every year). It's the place where my darling and I dated for the 2nd time. On the Broadway, we found cool Forever 21 electric bulletin board! Can you see us waving hands?! LoL We didn't join the crowds, so we kind of saw the July 4th fireworks from 42nd street. hehe

Day 5 (7/5):

Can you believe it's already the 5th day?! Yeah, I was kind of feeling in that way at this time :'( We took a breakfast at hotel's Market. They are open 24 hours, which is very convenient! For a snack, we went to my long-planned Luke's Lobster! A Taste of Maine, you can try half of lobster, crab, and shrimp! I shared it with my darling but I thought I could eat them all by myself later. hehehe Then we walked up to Union Square to shop (we tried YOGO frozen yogurt - sold on trucks) and went to Limelight Marketplace (originally a church). I never get tired of shopping! For dinner, we went to Hummus Place and tried their recommended dishes: Hummus Masabacha and Shakshuka. No meats?! Yeah, they serve vegetarian dishes. The foods were delicious but we kind of needed meats. haha

Day 6 (7/6):

7/6 is the special day! My darling proposed to me at The Pond of Central Park 2 years ago :) So, we kind of coming back here every year at the same time eating breakfast. (We bought our breakfast at Pret A Manger. I really loved the foods there!) I thought my darling might not answer to my question, but I asked him "why time flies?" then he said, "kiss me and time will stop". Wow! Is that true?! I kissed him, of course. Nothing happened!!! haha We love walking together in the city. Of course, time flies… At night, we planned to go to a cozy restaurant in Battery Park, but it was under renovation (or it was gone…) so we moved to the South Street Seaport. There we found Lobster Paella ($75) at Il Porto. It was pretty expensive, but my darling said okay because it's our last dinner. Thanks XOXO I really enjoyed the dish. Also, I talked him about my recipe stuff (kind of reality) that is not going well, and he said "I don't expect anything, so do as you want." How come he is so nice to me :)

Day 7 (7/7):

Time to go home. Our flight was early in the morning, so we left the city at 8AM X( The way back was Continental, so it was not that comfy like ANA, but was friendly on the wallet!!!

Sorry for my lousy typing… I really want to write more in detail and post more pictures, but need to move on and create my new recipes for contests and YouTube videos! But actually, I spent 2 hours writing this post! LoL

I shoot one video today, so I am going to edit it this week! And tomorrow I have new hula class to attend…

I wish I could have more time!!!

See you again :)

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