Nabe, Mochi, etc..

Nabe (Nah-Bay) is a Japanese dish that is popular in the colder seasons. Last week we were able to purchase a Nabe pot and portable gas stove for our table so that we could make it at home. The dish consists of a broth, in our case it was soy sauce based, and then meat and different vegetables are mixed in. The vegetables that take the longest to cook are started in the pot first. Pictured below is mainly daikon and carrots in the broth.

When those items are cooked to a satisfactory level thin slices of meat are added. For ours we also added some kind of seafood ball. Finally the vegetables are piled on in two main stages. The ones that take a little longer to cook are added first and then last are the ones that cook quickly. Here are some of the vegetables we used.

Kate took this picture when it was almost finished. You can see the portable cooker. It helps to make a nice environment for socializing as the food is cooking in front of everyone. Once it is finished each person can take the things they like from the pot to customize their own soup.

This is what our finished product looked like. It was very good, especially when you consider this was the first time we made it. I think it will only get better from now. We have already made a kim-chi based Nabe pot since and it was also tasty.

Last week Liam did a presentation for his school about recycling and garbage. He worked with 3 other boys to prepare and deliver his presentation. Part of the presentation was on garbage disposal, when Liam was in America he and Kate were able to take pictures of how the garbage was handled in our old neighborhood. At the time of our return they already knew he would be making this presentation so they knew what pictures they wanted. He used those pictures to explain how it worked. Below is his story board on American trash.

Each of the 4 boys had their own speaking parts. We have a tape of Liam, but it is 7 min long and so until I can find time to edit it I will have to settle for the picture of him presenting it on the blog.

This is Liam and the 3 other classmates that did the presentation with him.

They all did a great job.

Today we made Mochi with the Takanezawa community center. Mochi is a rice based product that is typically pretty chewy. It comes in a number of forms, another is like a brick that you toast before eating. Mochi is very popular around the new year, but it is recommended that children and elderly be very careful when eating it because it is easy to choke on. It is made by pounding a special rice in a wooden bowl with a wooden hammer. When the Mochi is placed into the bowl it is still quite warm. Today was cold and so you can see there was a fair amount of steam rising from the rice.

The first step is to walk around the bowl pushing the rice down with the hammer to start breaking it down.

Each family got their own rice to make into Mochi, here are Liam and I working on ours.

After the rice starts to break down from the pushing you start hammering the rice with the mallet to break it down even more. The video below shows a little of that.

Colleen was also able to give the hammering a go. Both children were able to swing the mallet and help out. I don't have video, but Kate would jump in and turn the Mochi by hand every so often to help the Mochi break down evenly. With Kate turning the Mochi and me and the children pounding it there was no one left to take pictures. As a result Kate is not in any of the Mochi making photo's.

The finished product is very gooey and sticky. We broke it into smaller bits with our hands so that we could take them home and freeze them. There was also bean paste and Kinako (a soy based powder) to give the Mochi extra flavor, we ate what we could at the time and then we were allowed to take the rest home to eat at a later date. I was able to freeze most of it to eat at a later date.

Sunday evening we went to a party on the 5th floor of an apartment complex. It was a potluck style dinner as well as some fun games. While we were at the party Colleen was able to sit and make traditional green tea. This tea is made from a powder and mixed with a whisk. It is a very thick tea (almost creamy) and has a very distinct flavor. The strong green tea flavor has grown on me since we have lived here, I even like the green tea flavored ice cream now.

The entire family was able to have a good time hanging out and socializing. I think Liam liked dressing up a little and I know he enjoyed the food.

This is a group photo of everyone from the party.

Hope everyone has a good week....