Shells - Toguchi Beach

Sometimes after lunch and it's nice out, I take a walk on the beach outside my office. Here are some interesting shells that I have picked up. I am not a collector, but I just pick up interesting looking shells.

Oden Chibana Again!

Chibana-san's wife again had prepared oden and had him bring me a bowl which I enjoyed yesterday for lunch. Nothing could have been finer for lunch when it was pouring rain and windy outside from the fringes of Tropical Storm Halong!

From bottom left, there was daikon, konnyaku, chikuwa, konbu knot, pork shank, tofu, egg, shirataki bundles, and potato (hidden under). As usual it was oishii!

Sun Toguchi

I took a retiring Foreman of mine to lunch today along with some workers of his Branch plus other Branch Foremen. Went to this place very close to our office - Sun Toguchi, located on Toguchi Beach in Yomitan. In fact the beach continues right past my office window a way down! The place is a city-owned restaurant (probably a concession) on the beach. Here's what the folks had:

Me being the Miso Shiru (みそ汁) freak I am, had it here - ¥500. Just lots of veggies in miso soup with a few pieces of pork and luncheon meat with an egg on top. Love miso shiru! (2 orders)

Okinawan Soba (沖縄そば) - ¥450, soba with pork slices, kamaboko, negi and beni shoga. (3 orders)



Soki Soba (ソーキそば) - ¥600, soba with soki nitsuke ribs, kamaboko, negi and beni shoga. (1 order)

Beef Oyster Sauce (牛肉カキ油炒め) - ¥750, beef slices in an oyster sauce gravy with tofu. Underneath are blanched cabbage greens, there's some peeking out to the right. I've had this dish before - it's ono! (3 orders).

Inexpensive lunch for all - ¥5,200



A formation right outside the restaurant.



And another little one further down.

"poor" man's meal + some extras

For many Chinese and Southeast Asian folks in times past and probably still to this day, most if not all of their meals was just rice and salted fish (hum nyee). Cheap, easily available, maybe of their own making, but so tasty. That's why it's called the poor man's food.

Not that it's inexpensive for me considering what I go through to get the ingredients, but relatively still cheap, and I enjoy it a lot. Couple bowls of rice, piece of hum nyee, a "100 year" old egg (peidan), and some takuan is filling and is certainly a comfort food to me.

Below is the hum nyee after steaming while the rice was cooking. Set up on a trivet so the rice can cook without being restricted. I do the same for lup cheong to heat up while steaming rice. By the way, I only ate half of the piece of hum nyee. A bit of it with rice really is satisfying!

steamed pork hash w/ lup cheong

Felt a little energetic plus had to use some ground pork I bought this weekend.

So made a plain usual dish. Steamed pork hash w/ lup cheong. The pork hash just has besides the ground pork - sliced green onions, chopped chung choi, water chestnuts & soaked dried shiitakes. No special stuffs like hotaru-ika, dried ika, salted egg or hum nyee. Seasonings of oyster sauce, shoyu, sesame oil & some constarch. Then put sliced lup cheong on top and steamed 30 minutes.

unagi & goya chanpuru don

I'm still here! Been very busy at work, and at home I've been just eating regular, simple stuff of mine that I usually cook and posted about before. Don't want to bore you.

Shopping today at San A and bought a bento for lunch - unagi & goya chanpuru don. Cost was ¥420, About $4 at the crazy yen rate we're going through right now. Very oishii!

sake

Some sake or shake that I bought yesterday at San A. There was a display. Big bottle on the left was ¥398 and the two pack on right was ¥298. I have no idea of where they are from. From same place, but different quality?

tori negi don - 鶏 ね ぎ 丼

A donburi I bought for brunch this morning while out shopping at the commissary. From San A on my way back home. Had just been put it out, so still hot! Was pieces of deep-fried chicken (with skin - ono!) over rice then covered with a sauce mixture of round onion, green onion & enoki mushrooms(?). Delicious! Umai! Also bought more dried ika strips, takuan, sake and soki (pig rib tips) to make soki nitsuke.

pork hash w/ hotaru-ika (firefly ika)

Something I just thought I'd try something different.

1/2 lb. ground pork mixed with just chopped shiitake, green onion, cornstarch, sugar, sesame oil, oyster sauce & shoyu. But mixed in also are blanched baby ika, that's sold as pupus here in Okinawa & mainland Japan. Are about 1" long, & very tasty. I can eat a tray of them just dipped in a miso sauce as is the custom or just hot mustard, as I drink my biru. So mixed everything & steamed - see result. Great taste, great smell, & resulting juices are great on rice!

pork hash w/ salted egg

"raw" salted egg (it's been 30 days!)

couple "raw" eggs on top of 1/2 lb. ground pork mixed with strips dried ika, chopped shiitake, green onion, cornstarch, oyster sauce & shoyu before steaming

after steaming

My lanai garden

My little garden on my lanai. From left - Chinese parsley, gai choy (mustard cabbage), negi & basil, more negi.

Chinese parsley


gai choy (two weeks)


basil (just sprouting)

Miso Shiru 2

Miso shiru from a different place for lunch today. One of my workers was going out to get something so I asked him to get me one. Not as big as the other Miso Shiru I wrote about a little while ago, can tell by the rice container, but it was so different, good tasting and inexpensive! Only ¥350 - couldn't believe it!

In the miso soup was tofu, luncheon meat, chikina, bean sprouts, round onion, and bits of pork. Then with the rice was a bit stir-fried chikina/tuna and stir-fried bean sprouts. And I didn't discover until I reached sort of the bottom that there was an egg in there. The white cooked by the hot miso soup with the yolk still runny! A very good lunch! Perfect size! And again only ¥350. おいしい!

This place is called Tsubaki and it's card is below. Terriffic place! Going to have to try and eat in there, not taking out.

Plain jook again

Plain jook but this time my sides are an Okinawan dish of stir-fried liver and chives, kinpira and takuan. Simple but tasty!

Chinese parsley + satoimo

Update on my Chinese parsley - doing well! Could actually start using the young tender stems ad leaves.



Also have planted some gai choy (Chinese mustard cabbage) and they have come out. Gotta thin out shortly. Maybe in a couple months I can make sin choy (salted mustard cabbage) and have with yau nyee (ika)! A favorite dish of mine at home - Sin Choy Chow Yau Nyee.



RONW asked about taro - this is what I have - a couple small satoimo plants growing on my lanai.

Jook lunch today

Plain jook I cooked. With it I just brought peidan (century eggs), rakkyo (pickled onions), tofu mui (fermented bean curd) and the prepared sake I just posted on. Just wanted to eat the jook plain, heard it is more Shanghai-style. Plain jook but each spoonful is then intensely flavored each time differently. Was pretty good! Will expand what I eat with it. Can eat picking at a piece of hum nyee, a patty of pork hash, a fried fish, or some Okinawan stuff - maybe stir-fried chikina - it's wide open. Just like eating plain rice. Called qing zhou (Mandarin) or tseng jook (Cantonese). I also read that it is in the small plates genre getting popular everywhere.

cheap & tasty breakfast

For some strange reason, almost all of the egg/luncheon meat musubis were sold out at the usual 7 AM time at Oasisu, when there's usually still 2 or 3 dozen. None of my favorite sake, or even my second favorite of chikina. Only a couple ume and a potato croquette. Must be some projects going on somewhere close by. So settled for a little bowl of soba (¥100) and some mini sake musubis (¥130 for the pack of 2). I like the soba for the jiru - hot & salty! Nice for the chilly & rainy 60° weather yesterday morning.

yamazuke sake

I asked some of my folks about the sake in the musubi. One girl said you can make your own, cooking and flaking the salmon. Someone else said it can be bought premade, and today brought in a bottle for me. There are probably different brands from all over Japan. So I'll go check out the markets. Think this would be really good over a bowl of hot rice! And a raw egg yolk! Might be really good sprinkled over jook.

Banyan tree

With the soon to be coming typhoon season - June to November, thought I'd bring back the Banyan Tree out in front of my place that I posted about last year in July after Super Typhoon Man-yi. It's back to normal as you can see from comparing the pixs. Starting to get into the typhoon thinking mode, both at work and at home. Bought myself a crank powered radio for one thing.

Salted eggs

Salted eggs - should be duck eggs but cannot find here in Okinawa. Used extra-large chicken eggs. Put these to pickle 16 Mar so got couple more weeks to go. My mother said 30 days. 4 cups water & 1-1/2 cups kosher salt, boil to dissolve salt, cool, add eggs. After salting, store in refrigerator, hard boil when want to use. For jook & pork hash.

KC-135 over Yomitan

KC-135 tanker flying over Torii Station in Yomitan, taken yesterday. Might have been an aircraft I took at one time or another on leaves to and from Hawai'i. There's a squadron at Kadena AB here. Hard to believe but all the KC-135s in use are ~50 years old! But still relied upon each and every day.

Update on my camera...

Decided to try and get a new battery. Since my camera is 6 years old, figured the lithium-ion battery must be shot, think one of you suggested that. So went looking for a battery, couldn't find in Hawaii. And then places here in Hamby Town, even the Fuji store (camera is a Fuji FinePix 6800Z - top of the line 6~7 years ago) did not have the battery. Asked one of my workers to go look around around where he lives (he's good at it), maybe a small shop would have. And he found it!

Put the battery in to initially charge and after a few times, the functions slowly have come back. Almost all! Primarily the important zoom feature. Camera is still good, though off and on! Pixs of the musubis are by the camera. It was taking a chance, since the battery cost ¥4,500. Now maybe I should invest in another battery, for 5~6 more years. Save $s.