New Job and Another Experiment!

 

Hamantaschen with Prune Filling.

I made these Jewish cookies for the coffee shop I started working.

Finally, I have got a new job here in Fairbanks!
I started working as a baker for a decent coffee shop in Fairbanks last month.
The job in this shop is what I have wanted for a long time.  It is an ideal place to work for me.
I have been making several kinds of cookies, eclairs, French macarons,and so on.
On my off day, I also bake something we want to eat at home as usual.
And sometimes I brought some samples to the shop and share some new ideas.
It is pretty fun!

先月からフェアバンクスにあるコーヒーショップで、ベイカーとして働き始めました。
これまで家で自分たちや友人たちに作っていたのが、実際に、こうして仕事につながって
本当にうれしいし、楽しいです。

 

Chocolate mille crêpe with caramel whipped cream.

I brought some pieces to the shop to share this as a new idea.

It is quite popular among Japanese, but 

most of the people here in U. S. have never heard about it.

 

I could have put more cream in each layer.

 

The kitchen manager in the coffee shop gave me a present!

 

He keeps 2 quail hens and these are their eggs!

I haven't seen the fresh quail eggs since we left Japan.

職場のキッチン・マネージャーからウズラの卵をもらいました。

2羽、自宅で育てているそうで、新鮮なのを頂きました。

 

They are all pretty!

 

Here are some Alaskan shrimps

we got from the guy selling shrimps by the street.

He was selling 3 pound bags, but

when we asked him to sell by smaller portion, 

he just gave 1 pound of the shrimp for free!

They all have eggs, too.

道路脇のトラックでアラスカ産エビを販売しているおじさんから、

1ポンド分、ただでもらってきました。

ホタテも安く売ってもらいました。

 

Here are the quail eggs after boiled.

日本を離れてから初となるウズラの卵。

 

The inside of the shell was pale blue

and it looked pretty.

 

We had the eggs with boiled shrimp.

The quail eggs was so rich in flavor! 

黄身の味が濃厚で、おいしいです！

 

These cupcakes were the ordered ones at the coffee shop.

Their request was something navy, teal, and anchor,

so I made some blue flowers with some accent of 

yellow, peach, lavender flowers,

and white anchor with Italian meringue buttercream.

I prepared 4 different kinds of frosting on top of the cupcakes;

Vanilla, Lemon, Chocolate, and Peanut Butter. 

お店で、カップケーキの依頼があったそうで、

デコレーションさせてもらいました。

希望のテーマは、「ネイビー、ティール、錨」

とのことでしたが、いまいち濃い色に踏み切れず、

ブルーの花を基調に、

黄色、ピーチ、ラベンダーで挿し色にしてみました。

Kusatsu, Gunma (May 29th - 31st)

Sai-no-kawara in Kusatsu. The hot spring water runs in the river.
You can see the steam in this picture.

Here are some pictures taken near the center of the Kusatsu town.
There are more than a dozen of small public bath for the local people, which are also available for the visitors like us. This area has several hot springs, so you can enjoy different kinds of water depends on each bath. Most of them are really hot and strong acid. So you have to be careful not to bathe for too long.




One of the local public bath.


The inside of the bath above. It was really hot, so we can't even move in the bath, because the tiny movement of the hot water made us feel even hotter.


Our favorite restaurant near Yubatake, named 'Dan'.
This one is the pork ginger set. The pork is really thick and tasty!


At the same restaurant, I ordered the Tuna Sashimi set on the second day.
Some part of the tuna tasted like so-called 'Toro'.

Mt. Takao (November19th)

Momiji-dai near the summit of Mt. Takao.
The colorful leaves were bright through the sun shine.
もみじ台にて。美しい影絵のような光景。

Today I went to Mt. Takao. There were quite a few people visiting there even on Monday. At the summit you can see lots of red and yellow maple trees.

久々に高尾山へ出かけてきました。月曜にもかかわらず多くの人で賑わっていました。紅葉もかなり進んでいて、頂上のカエデ類は見事に色づいています。今朝もかなり寒かったのでひょっとしたらと期待していたのですが、さすがにシモバシラはまだ霜を花を咲かせてはいないようでした。


Tripterospermum japonicum (Tsuru Rindou)
ツルリンドウの液果。




Mt. Fuji from Momiji-dai.
もみじ台からの富士の眺め。


Red maple leaves at the summit of Mt. Takao.
高尾山頂の紅葉。






I went down the mountain using the chair lift.
初めてリフトを使って下山しました。


I had lunch at the Soba noodle restaurant, Sakae-jaya. They make noodles by themselves.
栄茶屋さんの手打ちそばをお昼にいただきました。


十割そば。きちんとおいしいお蕎麦がいただけて大満足でした。

Jindaiji, Chofu (November 7th)

Beautiful blue sky for the last day of autumn on the Japanese calendar.
暦の上ではもう秋も最後の日。見事な秋晴れです。

Today I went to see the chrysanthemum exhibition at Jindai Botanical garden. There were more chrysanthemum flowers than the one I saw at Shinjuku Gyoen Park the other day. Each flowers were pretty beautiful but the way to display them didn't look like as elegant as the one at Shinjuku Gyoen. The maple leaves were just barely starting to change the colors there. We have to wait a little more to see nice autumn color around here in Tokyo. After that, of course I went to eat some Soba noodles at Yuusui Soba shop. It tastes always good!

神代植物公園へ菊を見に行ってきました。数も多くて、中にはとても見事に仕立てられた菊もありましたが、見せ方でいったら、やはり新宿御苑の方が、美しいと思いました。カエデも若干、色づき始めた木が数本あるくらいで、紅葉の見頃はまだまだ先のようです。お昼には、湧水さんで、おそばをいただきました。いつ来てもおいしいです。


Waterfall of chrysanthemums.








Miniature cyclamen started to bloom...
ミニサイズのシクラメンがひっそり咲いていました。


Autumn colors of waterlily leaves.
スイレンの葉も紅葉するんですね。


Maple leaves just started to change into yellow.


Citrus tachibana (Tachibana). This plant's flower is used as my family's crescent.
タチバナの実がなっていました。小粒のみかんといった感じです。


For lunch I ate Yuusui Soba, Vegetables Tempura and Soba Tofu.
湧水さんの平日２０食限定、湧水そば。今日は野菜天とそば豆腐もいただきました。


I stopped by the JA Mitaka on the way home. They sell lots of vegetables and flowers grown by the hands of the local farmers. I made the chicken meatball soup with a hint of Yuzu citron flavor.
帰り道にJA三鷹の施設に立ち寄って、地場物の野菜たちを仕入れてきました。白菜、からし菜、ルッコラ、泥つきねぎ、ゆず。夕食は、たっぷり白菜とねぎの鶏団子鍋にしていただきました。

Shinjuku Gyoen Park (November 1st)

Autumn color at Shinjuku Gyoen Park.

Today I went to Shinjuku Gyoen Park to see the chrysanthemum exhibition. I saw many different kinds of chrysanthemums in different ways of display. Then I went to have lunch at Berg in Shinjuku sta. After drinking a little beer, I went to Gokokuji sta. on Yurakucho-line to get some famous Mame-Daifuku (Rice cake mixed with red peas and stuffed with sweeten red beens inside) at Gunrindo. It tasted so good!

新宿御苑の菊花壇展を見に行ってきました。種類によってはまだこれからのものもありましたが、英語での説明も丁寧に書かれてあって、とても分かりやすく展示されていました。中でも一株から３００輪余りもの花をつけるように仕立てられた大作り花壇は圧巻でした。お昼は、新宿駅構内のベルクでビール片手にいただきました。ちょっとほろ酔い気分で、有楽町線は護国寺駅すぐそばの群林堂さんまで噂の豆大福を買いにいってきました。期待以上のおいしさに大満足の一日になりました。


Oogiku (Large-flowered chrysanthemum) is a representative variety of the chrysanthemums. The size of the flowers is even bigger than my both hands.
新宿御苑に伝統的に伝わる手綱植えという手法で、黄色、白、紅と整然と並べられています。


This kind is named after the famous Haiku poet, Bashou.
芭蕉と名づけられた美しい紅色の菊。


The training technique to make a small-flowered chrysanthemum to look like wild ones flowering on the cliff is called Kengai style (cascade style).
懸崖作りの花壇。見ごろにはまだ早かったようです。


Saga-giku. This classical variety derived from Kyoto has thin and straight petals.
嵯峨菊。真直ぐな細い花弁が特徴の古典菊のひとつです。


Saga-giku.
こちらも嵯峨菊。


Chouji variety has anemone-like flowers.
丁子菊。こちらも古典菊のひとつ。


Chouji-giku is trained to be called Ichiroku-zukuri; one flower in the center is surrounded by six flowers.
丁子菊は一六作りという手法で仕立てられています。


Ise-giku. This variety derived from Mie prefecture has crinkled and drooping petals.
伊勢菊。なんとも個性的な花弁です。


伊勢菊。


Oozukuri style. It takes a year for one root division to produce hundreds of flowers in a dome shape by unique technique of pinching and training.
大作りの花壇。




Can you see that thin one stem at the bottom of all those flowers?
たった一株の細い茎から何百もの花をつけさせ、美しい山型に仕立てる技は見事です。


Edo-giku. This variety is a classical medium-flowered chrysanthemum developed in Edo (Tokyo) during the 18th and 19th centuries.
古典菊のひとつ、江戸菊。


The characteristic of Edo-giku is that flower petals change in appearance as the flower opens.
江戸菊は、咲き始めから満開になるにつれて、花びらの形が変化する面白い種類です。


Ichimonji and Kudamono-giku bed.


Ichimonji is a single, large-flowered variety and is also called Gomonsho-giku (The imperial crest of the chrysanthemum).
一文字菊。丹精込められて作られた菊はどれも、葉っぱまで美しいです。


Kudamono-giku variety has thin and straight tubular petals.
針金のように細く繊細な花弁の管物菊。


Beer bar, restaurant, cafe...whatever you may call..."Berg" in Shinjku sta.
新宿駅東口改札をでて左に行くとすぐのベルク。コーヒーで一息、昼ビール、ブランチなどなど、老若男女、それぞれのスタイルで楽しめる素敵なお店です。


Beer, bread, sausage and ham....everything is so good. Especially I would recommend their herb liver paste! Yummy!
私も午前１１時からビール片手に、ブランチです。パンもソーセージもうまいです。中でもハーブレバーパテはお勧めのおいしさです。


Gunrindo. The sweet shop near Gokokuji sta. on Yuurakucho-line.
おやつには、行列のお店として噂の護国寺駅すぐの群林堂の豆大福。
講談社の目の前です。


This famous Mame-daifuku contains much more red peas mixed in the rice cake and they tasted so good with the sweet red bean paste inside. Their wrapping papers were also lovely.
期待以上に赤えんどう豆の密度が高くて、餡子の塩梅も文句なしの逸品でした。柿色の包装紙までかわいいです。