Fairy Tale Tea

A couple of weeks ago I was out exploring a mall in the middle of Osaka called Namba Parks, (I'll have to do a post about it one of these days) I spotted these cute tea bags in one of the random shops.  I thought they were so pretty and couldn't resist getting a few to take home!

I've been saving them for a rainy day, and sure enough it is raining today, so why not?!  They also gave me an excuse to play with the camera a little bit more.  I'm getting better at the whole manual thing, especially when I am somewhere where I can really take my time and not feel like I am getting in the way.  I am certainly not in anyone's way in my little apartment!

I made the anzu orange flavor today and it's really nice!

 

The perfect accompaniment to an afternoon of TV to catch up on! I'll stash the rest away for the next lazy Sunday in! 

(Oh, and the background is a fun handkerchief I found to use as a headband.)

Falafel Garden, Kyoto

At work on Friday someone mentioned the humus they had eaten the night before.  Humus is one of the few things I miss about the UAE (I've always liked humus!) and I don't have room to store a blender or food processor to make my own.  I asked if there was a good place where I could find humus, and 3 people immediately suggested Falafel Garden in Kyoto.  Of course I immediately Googled it, and according to their website, it would be pretty easy to find. 

I woke up to a beautiful warm and sunny day on Saturday, and decided it was the day to venture into Kyoto to have some photography practice and grab lunch as Falafel Garden.  It's so easy to get to Kyoto now that I live in the city...I only have to change trains once, it takes less than an hour and costs 390 yen!  I stood on the train ride and didn't hold on to anything - I was SO proud of myself!!

Once I arrived in Kyoto, I decided to walk down the Kamo Gawa from Shijo street, to Sanjo street (home to perhaps my favorite Starbucks ever).  Kyoto was surprisingly not crowded, or maybe it was just too early for everyone to be out and about.  The open streets and paths made it easy for me to take my time playing with the settings on the camera.

Every now and then I get a decent shot, but I'm finding it difficult without a proper view finder.  This is especially true on really bright days when it's almost impossible to see what's on the little screen.

After a proper iced coffee at Starbucks, I decided that instead of taking the subway 2 stops to Falafel Garden, I would walk.  It was a straight shot up river, and took about 30 minutes, and I was walking really slow.

I found the restaurant with no problems (thanks to my handy dandy iPhone and Google Maps) and chose a seat in the semi-outdoor area.  There was one other couple there (probably university students) who seemed very uncomfortable to have a white girl come in by herself, haha...get over it! The place filled up pretty quickly while I was there - I have gotten the impression that it's pretty popular.

I ordered a small falafel pita with a side of humus and a fresh mint iced tea.  It didn't take long at all for my food to come, and I was shocked at how tiny it was!  Three falafel balls, a bit smaller than golf balls with some lettuce, tomato and a tahini dressing in a cute little pita half, a tiny condiments cup of humus, and a juice sized cup of tea.  It was all really good (the mint tea was excellent - made the whole meal worthwhile!), but I paid 1000 yen for it, a little pricy for the amount of food in front of me! 

It was nice to find a new place though, and the atmosphere was really cool and relaxing.  It would definitely be more fun with more people though, but eating alone in restaurants has never really bothered me.  I think I could be convinced to go back!

All in all it was a great way to spend a Saturday.

 Even saw a geisha and a maiko out and about!

Patio Diary

Bryn here. As I mentioned in my previous post, it's warming up rapidly here in Al Ain. Summer here is extreme. As far as gardening goes, the milder "winter" months are the growing season, and the summer is when most plants either die or shut down to a sorry state of shock until the autumn. We don't have a garden here (sadly), but I have converted our kitchen micro-patio into a garden of sorts. It has been so nice and colourful these last couple of months, but now things are starting to struggle. The colourful annuals have dried to a crisp (though the pansies have surely scattered seeds everywhere, ready for next winter) and the surviving plants need watering every day. It's like autumn back home, only the leaves are falling because they get so hot and dry! haha

Anyway, I know some of you are gardening enthusiasts, so I thought you might be interested in seeing what sorts of things we have flowering on our patio here in the middle of the Arabian Desert:

bitter melon

When Liz and I lived in Japan, we were introduced to a new vegetable called "goya". This was an Okinawan gourd which was usually thinly sliced and stir-fried with tofu and egg, etc. The dish was called "goya champuru". We later learned that "goya" was called bitter melon (or bitter gourd) in English, and that it wasn't a uniquely Japanese thing. They are also very common in India, it seems. They are readily available in grocery stores here. In Japan, they were grown in summer outside windows to act as a sort of sun shade (it's a fast growing climbing vine with long curly tendrils). I thought it might do ok here too, so I got some seeds from Daiso (the Japanese 100 yen shop, which is also popular here in the UAE). The seeds grew really well, and it wasn't long before the vines were overtaking my patio and needed severe pruning. It's great having big green leaves out there, and the delicate little yellow flowers are bright and pretty too. I now have several "goya" growing on the vines.

"goya" or bitter melon, almost ready for eating.

coleus

Back when Liz was working at the international school here, one of her co-workers brought tiny little baby coleus plants for each of the teachers. Liz knew I'd like to have another plant, so she brought the piddly little thing home for me. One of the other teachers at school didn't want hers, so she offered it to Liz. So then we had two tiny, sorry-looking coleus plants. We went to Ace and bought a third (dark red colour, you can't see in the picture but it's chopped back behind the green ones). I planted them all in one round pot, and boy did they grow well!! The leaves ended up growing to the size of dinner plates! Like, a foot long! The red one grew really well, too, and they looked very striking together with their variegated foliage. The red one flowered and so I chopped it back. It's coming back now, but you can't really see it in the picture. I'll be chopping the two green ones back pretty soon, too. They seem to love the heat here.

oleander

Some weeks ago, I went to Ace Dubai with some friends, and came back with a few plants. They were on sale (probably because summer is drawing near), so I couldn't ignore the bargain. This oleander has a great scent, but you have to get up close to smell it. It has been flowering steadily for a while now, so I hope it will survive the summer.

Arabian Jasmine

This plant smells!!!! in a good way!! You can smell the sweet scent of jasmine from quite a distance away. At the university they have many gardens filled with jasmine, and the whole campus smells amazing in the mornings and evenings. The boys will sometimes pick a jasmine flower and drop it into a cup of tea, or simply walk around holding it to their nose. I have had several students bring me a jasmine flower over the semesters. They seem to be very popular here in Al Ain, and when I saw them on sale at Ace, I grabbed one without hesitating. EVERY EVENING my patio smells amazing thanks to this wee fella. I often open the door and let the smell waft inside.

hibiscus

When I was a kid growing up in Brunei, my Mum had a beautiful big garden. It was mostly lawn, with many trees and bushes dotted all over the place. We had many hibiscus bushes. They grew really well in the tropical conditions. I remember pruning them regularly with Mum. We would chop them back severely and they would always grow back quickly and strongly. We had all different colours and shapes, and we had one just like this that I got on sale from Ace a few weeks ago. In the few weeks I've had it, it's had about almost a dozen flowers and has grown about 6 inches taller. I could have bought a red, sterotypical hibiscus (which I think is really beautiful), but this one just really reminded me of growing up in Brunei, so I really hope it survives the summer.

The main issue with the summer is that I won't be here. I'll be in Japan with Liz, so there will be nobody to water the plants. I have arranged to take them over to a friend's place so that his maid can water them for me along with his own. I did this last summer too (with another friend) but the person they paid to water the plants didn't do a good job, and I came back to find most of them dead. Fingers crossed this doesn't happen this time round. If it does, Ace is only a 1.5 hour drive away! haha.

Happy gardening!!

Mango Season!

delicious Alphonso Mangoes

Bryn here. Man, life has been BUSY here in Al Ain lately! I apologise for not posting in a long time. It's cranking up towards summer here. This morning when I left the house at 10:00am it was 40 degrees  (104 F), and when I got home at 11:20, it was 43 (109 F)! It's now afternoon, and I can only imagine how high the mercury has climbed since 11:20am.

The warmer weather means it's mango season!!
All the supermarkets here have huge piles of mangoes, and some great low prices too. I've been taking advantage of this "mango fiesta" (as one of my local shops called it). I've been buying bags of mangoes and making smoothies, deserts, lassis, and just eating them straight. My favourite is a creamy drink I've been making with "laban", a sort of drinkable yoghurt popular here in the UAE.

Basically, the recipe is:


2 mangoes peeled and chopped
2 cups-ish of "laban" (could do half milk, half yoghurt if you don't have access to laban)
a squirt of honey
a small dash of cinnamon and cardamom

Blitz mangoes in blender till smooth, and add other ingredients. Blitz again until combined. EASY!

Of course, you don't have to do the spices if you're not big into spice. I've been thinking of mixing it up and changing the spices, perhaps trying nutmeg? it might be gross, but the mangoes are cheap at the moment, so now is the time to be experimental. If you have any ideas, let me know and I might try it.

I have found that the Badami Mangoes tend to work better in the smoothies than the Alphonso Mangoes because they are creamier in texture, almost like a banana. I think the Alphonsos taste better as raw fruit, but they tend to be very slightly fiberous or "bitty" in a smoothie.

anyone who's ever made a smoothie before will know how easy this is. But it tastes great! Sometimes I add some milk to make it more drinkable, because the laban tends to thicken up when blended). If you like mangoes, and if the weather is hot where you are, I recommend you treat yourself to one of these mango smoothies. Liz wouldn't like it though, what with the yoghurt/laban and all...

large, sweet, creamy Badami Mangoes

Anyway, one day, while chopping up some big sweet Badami mangoes, I decided to plant one of the seeds, just out of interest. The trick is, you have to split open the pithy outer shell without damaging the soft seed inside. This sounds easier than it is, because imagine trying to hold a slippery slimy mango "seed" while trying to force it open with a sharp knife... haha. Not easy, but paper towels helped.

the slippery outer shell

the successfully split shell and the soft seed that came out of it

Once opened, I planted the seed in an empty yoghurt pottle. I planted it so the seed was lying flat. it spouted within a week!!! As I said, it's getting pretty warm here, and I kept it well moist, so I guess the conditions were perfect.

Once sprouted, it rocketed up!! Within two weeks it had several leaves and was about a foot tall.

Growth has now slowed, but the leaves have risen upwards and grown bigger, and I can see many new leaves starting to sprout.

I'm excited about my mango tree. I need to get a bigger pot for it. I have already re-potted it once, but just this morning I checked the bottom of the pot, and the roots are starting to come out the drain holes, so I'll have to find a deeper pot.

I think mango season will be over soon, so I'll have to keep enjoying it until the low prices come to an end.

 

Getting Snap Happy

A few years ago when Bryn and I upgraded our camera, we opted for one that was a little more than a point and shoot, but not quite as fancy as a DSLR.  We wanted one that had a manual mode so that we could play around and see if we did want to invest in a DSLR someday.  We had all these good intentions (we always do), but the camera always seemed to stay in automatic, occasionally picking one of the fun modes to make a picture blurry or old timey looking.

Well, all that has changed!  I came across a 2 week photography crash course online, all about how to take pictures in manual.  I didn't hesitate to sign up.  Photography class is a grand term for it...basically this photography instructor has taken the four basic lessons from her more intense month-long class, and made them available to the crash course takers all at one time (for 2 weeks).  She doesn't give feedback on photos like she will for her more intense classes, but is around to answer questions.  Honestly, it's all information I probably could have found on my own with some online research, but she has packaged it all very nicely in one place, and made it very easy to understand.  I do think it's a bit more thorough than some tutorials I have seen online...none of them have ever mentioned using the light meter, they only explain what aperture and shutter speed are.

I've been snapping away for the past couple of days.  Most of the pictures I take are terrible - blurry, over-exposed, too dark...but every now and then I get the exposure just right and get a fun one!  I only have the kit lens that came with the camera body, so I'm finding that there's not a whole lot I can do with it.  Of course all the sudden I am antsy for a real DSLR or at the very least a lens upgrade for our camera!  (I will need to stay away from Yodobashi Camera, haha...)

All of my pictures so far have had to be indoors since it was gross outside yesterday, but today is beautiful, so I am hoping to go get some practice in.  I'll try to keep y'all up to date on my progress, and hopefully in time I will have some really cool pictures to post!  Here are a few of (what I think) are the better ones so far...

 

(Random.  Very random, but when you live in a shoe box apartment the range of subjects is limited so I had to get creative!)

Cafe du Monde: Osaka

I absolutely love New Orleans.  It might be one of my favorite cities in the US.  Mom and dad took us there all the time growing up, usually just for a night - long enough for dinner, breakfast and lunch before heading back to my grandparents' house.  Now that Prad and Amanda live just outside of New Orleans mom and dad are there even more often, and whenever Bryn and I visit the states we are up for a trip!

The trips ALWAYS revolve around food, and we always eat at the same restaurants - po boys for dinner at the Acme Oyster House, muffalettas from Central Grocery for lunch the next day, drinks at Pat O'Brian's at some point and breakfast is always always always beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde.

 

 

There is an amazing atmosphere at the Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter.  Unless you open the place up (as dad and I have been known to do), you have to wait in line to get a table, but there's always a guy playing some instrument and all sorts of other NOLA characters to keep you entertained.  I love how the beignets come under a mountain of powdered sugar to tap into your coffee.  There's no way you are leaving the place without white powder all over you - it's fantastic!  They are definitely one of my favorite breakfast items.

 

So, you can imagine how excited I was when B and I discovered a Cafe du Monde tucked away in a quiet back street in Chayamachi!  B walked by it again one day while I was at work for a closer look, and reported that they did indeed have beignets on the menu.  The next Saturday morning I was off to downtown Osaka in search of my breakfast!

The "Beignet Set" comes with 2 beignets and a drink.  Now, I really wanted more than two, but I decided since it was my first visit, I wouldn't freak the staff out by being that foreigner who asks for 3 orders of beignets!  Of course I opted for cafe au lait.

They gave me my coffee in a Cafe du Monde mug just like you can get in New Orleans (so far, so good).  I had to wait quite a while for the rest of my order, but it eventually came on a tray with a small square of tissue paper on the side.  The staff person politely asked me to use that paper while I eat in order to keep the sugar off of me and the table.  I wanted to laugh, but instead I nodded my understanding, crossing my fingers that they weren't going to watch me eat them from behind the counter!

 

The beignets were more or less the same, but definitely lacking in the powdered sugar department.  What was I going to put in my coffee?!?  And how was I going to get it in the mug without making a mess on the table?!  Oh the drama Japan can offer...haha

Overall I was really pleased with my breakfast (but not full...I could have gone another order or two!!) The quiet cafe lacked the hustle and bustle of the real Cafe du Monde on Decatur Street, but the flavors were there, and I noticed on my way out a shaker of powdered sugar next to the coffee stirrers, so I can make my own mountain next time :)

 

Uh oh...now I am craving beignets!!!