KG's Verses KM's

In the words of ABBA " Thank-you For The Memories " hum hum hum !!!

We have saved hard over the past couple of years to do our Italian & Beyond  FOOD TOUR , the Research & Development budget has had a real workout over the past couple of months that's for sure.

We have both sooooo enjoyed every KG's that has been " loving " put on !!!
Enjoyed  even more and more the 100's , proberly 1000's of  KM's that we have had to do to keep that belt in the same hole ... Ouch  now that was hard...
I must admit the cruise was my big down fall, as the walking did not out way the KG's ..
So we had to do some serious KM's in Venice and Italy over the next several weeks as our punishment, but not a bad punishment...
We have lost 2 inches ... Ha ray..  But not from the hips !!!
From the bottoms of our feet ....
We have walked heaps,  I would say to Sandy.... I just want to see what's over that hill ..... What's around that corner...  Sandy has humoured me and walked every Km with me.

As for the food journey
We have been to some truly amazing cooking schools and classes, cooked and eaten with fantastic  local families at their homes, cooked and eaten in some of the most traditional Osteria and Trattoria right up to misrule star restaurants,
meet many a world class chef, was wined and dined in the worlds 3rd best restaurant, tasted and made a variety of Italian and Japanese food ...
Two really truly amazing food cultures.

Sooooo Many Memories ...

- Oh a bit more breakfast R & D is needed ...

- Need to try that new dish we have leant to make ...

- Off to the markets to try some local inspired food ...

- Another cooking class and so much we have learnt ...

- 5 tastes of Italy - sweet - acid - fat - salt - aromatics ...

- Out to dinner so where should we go tonight ? what about the worlds No. 3
or a small local Osteria ...

I feel that all we have done over the past months is eaten ... " Poor Pete, where's the little violin so the readers can play you a sad squikey tune " !! ...

But really we have sooooo enjoyed the whole amazing food experience ...

I put it down not as a holiday, but as one of life's great experiences, and one that I have truly been sooooo blessed to have had and who else other than MY Sandy would I have wanted to do it with ... Love you

Also Ciao to my readers and thanks for coming on Our Food Tour with us ...
Hope you picked up a recipe or two and have given them a try ...
Can't wait to get home and try some ourselves.

All thought I was a very dislecticly writer,  with my bad spelling and not enough  of those little " , " and " . " thingy's I wrote as I speak , without drawing a breath.

But after all grammar is soooo overrated !!!! , don't ya think !!!

Love to you all  Pete xoxo
See you next time in the south of Italy and Scotland...
Bonanotte from Italy
Ita tera shai  from Japan

My own house scuffs

After a day out tramping in the streets around Yokohama  I get home and Hiroko presents us with our own house scuffs.
Early in the week when she asked if she could measure how long my feet were I was slightly suspicious that a foot cover up was in order. They are made by some of her arty friends from Summer kimonos plated to form the sole and straps very cleaver soft and comfortable. All her friends were fascinated as they had never made a pair for such big feet so photos were taken and shared amongst the group. I am thinking of a career in male foot modelling for the larger fellas.

Careful Don't Get Lost In A Grey Grey World

back in Yokohama Hiroko has so many traditional friends and she is also a volunteers at a Op Shop in the little cluster of shops at the end of her street. Mind you the streets are not as we know them and the houses are also not as we know them. The streets are a bit of a navigational nightmare as they are on a grid of some square blocks but a lot of triangle blocks so it is very easy for me to get lost and never to be found again!
Now I know that sounds a bit melodramatic but I get lost in David Jones in Sydney. So letting me loose in this small sector of Yohahama is a bit of a worry but one that I am trying to navigate around. So many of the houses look the same and as they are all very narrow and appearing much taller than they are. The streets are extremely narrow and very hilly and the houses are built up towering over their own little off street concrete car space and a very little garden if any.
Went past many a double and even a triple story domestic car park,  you drive in and then the lift takes the car up 2 m and you can then drive your other car in under it. There is no on street car parking in this densely populated sector of Yohahama. Even at a school that I walked past the kids bikes were stored in multi storage racks as ground space is such a premium.
A lot of the houses are grey and  a lot of the cars are grey and the streets are grey so one block just seams to blend into the other so a real mine field for the disorientated and me!!

Another Cooking Lesson With Hiroko

Its an early morning wake up by many rays of sun streaming in the window.
The sun is up so early, but one can't complain as it makes me get up early to enjoy the ever changing view over Mount Fuji, it  is so beautiful early in the morning. The band of fog in the valley and at the base of the mountain and Fuji's peak pushing through to get the first touches of sunlight. I grab a coffee and sit in the lounge and marvel at her beauty, as we are heading back to Yohahama the day after tomorrow.

Today after another great breakfast it is some traditional cooking lesson with Hiroko. to start it was beautiful fruit and some special white peaches that Hiroko's son in-law had sent up for us to have from his family farm in another province, they were the size of a small rockmelon and so sweet and juicy. Following that was the typical smorgasbord of delectable food delights. Red Onion is often eaten it is so soft in flavour that you can easily eat it at breakfast.

We cooked some " Eggplant Oysters " which are made without oysters !!! But they look like oysters !!! and also made some Pot Stickers a real BIG Yumo....
So for the Eggplant Oysters get your your long style eggplant and cut into thick sections on a 30deg cut say about 20mm thick
Then cut this into 1/2 along the length but stoping say 10mm in from the other end so you now have 2 flaps of eggplant and a hinge so like a Oyster Shell !!!
So now for the filling a mix of minced pork and beef with fine onion, salt and pepper Stuff, roll in beaten egg and sake mix then in breadcrumbs. Fry in oil till golden at 180 deg. Hiroko had a great cook top that you can preset the temp you want your pan to be heated to and maintain the same temp during the cooking process very clever.
Before you fill your " Oyster " coat the inside and outside with flour so that the filling sticks and stays in the middle.
Now off to the local village shops and yet another fascinating food experience.  Venders selling eel off the BBQ coated in sweet soy sauce sent an aroma through the car park that made you just have to try one. This is festival foods and now eel is getting very expensive they are trying to mimic the flavour and texture with such things as tofu and eggplant. But the real deal was amazing. The door opened and there was oysters as big as the palm of your hands, 100s of different raw fish choose from, octopus, monster scallops and prawns in every size. What really strikes you is there you are in a huge fish supermarket and there is NO fish smell it is just so fresh and beautifully clean. Japan is an amazing Asian country like no other.

Now with shopping done we head past the local bakery to buy sandwiches Japanese style for lunch the bread bun was pipped with different flavoured fillings prior to baking the result was full of flavour and the softest bread we have ever eaten. They were all individually wrapped and decorated. In all our trios to Japan this is the first time we have tried this style of food but we will be looking for it next time. Luckily for me we had them many times during our stay.

Out to dinner and to Kens favourite restaurant further up in the hills it is an Italian restaurant that serves German beer and you eat with Japanese chopsticks. Hmm and we though we were multicultural!
After a huge day back to our country house to drink some local Japanese scotch night caps for tomorrow we head back to Yokohama.

Traditional Japanese B & B!!!

So many surprises and things we have done and experienced and today Hiroko and Ken wanted to present us with a present. As our bags are a bit on the overweight size Hiroko wants to give us an experience rather than more stuff to transport home. So tonight they have treated us to a night in a traditional Japanese B & B!!!
First today they drove us to a traditional timber shrine high in the mountains that sits isolated and hidden away from the highways on a small lake. We wander for an hour or so and take in the views of this historical building with it beautifully laid out gardens and the oh so few visitors.
This place is huge and only comes to life on special occasions but being in the mountains it is a great place for someone to escape the crowds and heat of the city's below.
Not many places that we have been able to do that in Japan so it has been a great look into an area that is more remote and without tourists.
Then it was off to the snow fields that have been transported into a flower wonderland. This area is normally covered in skiers but in spring the grounds under the snow when it melts come alive with millions of Lillim's a beautiful tall Lilly that comes up each year in huge rectangular beds down the slopes. There is no better way to see them than to walk down the hill side through the strong smell of spring.
Once we were at the bottom the ski lifts took you back up the hill and you could then view them from above, a truly magical site and 10's of 1,000's of people.
The money goes to charities so the cash registers were red hot that day.
Then finally we are dropped off to the B & B like two little school kids and told to enjoy our time and you will be picked up again tomorrow at 10.
I have no idea where we are as we have been driven around all day but it is still high in the mountains.
Our hosts Speak NO English!! but Hiroko has instructed them to look after us and given us a contact No. if we get into verbal difficulty.
So we are taken to our room with our host pointing out all the features to us in Japanese so missing most of the important details! But we all keep smiling and nodding at each other. We are on the 1st floor and we walk past 6 closed doors with Japanese writing on them so assuming they are the other guest rooms.
Our room is in 2 section and very traditional area with it tatami floor and a low table and two cushions and a TV from the 60's. Off to the other side are 3 single beds and a door into a toilet ( buttons and all ) but no bathroom.
The room lacks some details ... like maybe a picture but is comfortable and I'm sure we can rearrange the bedding to suit.

Through Hiroko dinner was arranged for 6 pm hmmm a bit nursing home time so I will try to rearrange a late time so we can enjoy the traditional bath facilities.
We are then taken down stairs and shown the bathrooms there are 2 private bathrooms for all guests to share. It is a two room configuration. The first area was 2 meters by 2 meters for you to undress you go through a down a step into the open wet area. There was 2 little (tiny) white stools with a shower novel and 2 taps each only 600mm off the floor. So you first shower and soap and wash off then plunge into the huge 2 person hot deep square bath. Well as we had checked it out before we went in we were armed with bottles of sake and glasses.....and as we were not able to understand any instructions we had no time limit so after spending maybe a little too much time in the bath we emerged ready for dinner and a que. Opps so empty sake bottle in hand we head to the dinning room.


Laid out on the table was an amazing Dinner many tiny dishes of just perfectly presented food tastes there was some Tempura grated daikon and Japanese mustard, Lotus root sandwich with fish cake and shiso leaves, Sesame silken tofu in light soy, whole fish skewered and cooked over a smoker with all the little sauces and pickles.

After a great night sleep we against went to the the dinning room as had breakfast all laid out it was truly a work of art. There was a grape that he'd been cut and 4 petals peeled back to exposed the fruit all we can say is presentation presentation presentation....and yes another bath :) sadly with no sake Hiroko was there waiting outside the door to collect us and take us back to the country house.