So I found cabbage from Hokkaido today at a new store I was checking out! First cabbage in months;)
Watch this space for nabe in the next few days!!
Tonight will be chicken pasta bake, side pizza, salad and depending on weather I go fit a tomato or cream based pasta bake, there might be minestrone soup too(from a can;)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
200th post
I feel pressure to write something deep and meaningful for the 200th post here, which is possibly why I have been on hiatus for weeks again?
No the truth is that
1) I just don't have the time to do ANYTHING these days, let-alone blog
And 2) buying and cooking food is now a stressful and time consuming task.
A lot has changed since 3/11. I know that everyone has their own opinions and ideas, but for me, my life in Japan has completely changed, and trying to procure safe food for my kids is something that I think and worry about each and every day.
So I am a born worry-wart, glass-half-empty, kinda gal. I try to err on the side of caution.
These days I fear the unknown threat of radiation in food products, the air around us, the ground we walk on, the grass the kids play in, the acorns and leaves the kids want to pick up when we go for walks....,,
So long as we are still in Kanto (Japan, even) the only thing I can try to control (as in, try to have as little radiation exposure as possible) is through food. So I refuse to buy from the usual suspects like Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki.... But I also stopped buying local stuff too. now I try to source everything from Kansai, Kyushu or Hokkaido(certain things) and avoid anywhere in the 500km radius of Fukushima, since, in my opinion, there are so many areas affected by fallout, current testing is questionable and government-set limits are too high.
Paranoid, much?!
Probably.
But at the moment, trying to avoid possibly radiated food is the only thing I can do for my family, the only thing I can do to keep myself going and get through.
Unfortunately, sourcing products from non-affected regions is hard work. Most supermarkets are overflowing with cheap produce from Fukushima (cucumbers come in bags of 4 or 5 for 100yen or less!! But I have found certain shops, like the OK store providing foods from Western Japan a lot more, obviously due to demand!! With cooler days lately, J is craving for some nabe, but until I can find cabbage from somewhere other than Gunma, we won't be having any...:-( anyway, I also haven't bought mushrooms for months, bar some shitake I found once from Shikoku.
instead, these days I like to "brag" to other Overly-cautious buyers like myself about the small, but great finds I sometimes have.
So here are the results of a recent shopping expedition:
**Cucumbers from Kyoto, 100yen EACH
** tomatoes from Kumamoto 400 yen for 5
** frilly lettuce from Fukuoka, 100yen for a teeny tiny head of lettuce
** eggs from Hiroshima, 300yen for a pack of 10
** sole from Holland, 78yen each.
Yes, nowadays not only can I list up nearly every item I buy each time I go shopping, but I can also say where the product s from, and the price.
Ouch! (that's the purse strings tightening on me again) Our food budget has gone through the roof - the meaning of -a "bargain" has
changed to mean "Something I can buy and feel comfortable feeding my family with"
So, yeah, finding time and energy to write about food has sorta lost its appeall these days.....I make do with what we have, the fridge is often almost bare, and i find cooking in itself a chore most days due to limited ingredients:(
I wish I had a nice one-liner to sum up this post, but I don't. ...right, I am off to give the kids some Kagoshima rice with Oita-shirasu to eat:-)
No the truth is that
1) I just don't have the time to do ANYTHING these days, let-alone blog
And 2) buying and cooking food is now a stressful and time consuming task.
A lot has changed since 3/11. I know that everyone has their own opinions and ideas, but for me, my life in Japan has completely changed, and trying to procure safe food for my kids is something that I think and worry about each and every day.
So I am a born worry-wart, glass-half-empty, kinda gal. I try to err on the side of caution.
These days I fear the unknown threat of radiation in food products, the air around us, the ground we walk on, the grass the kids play in, the acorns and leaves the kids want to pick up when we go for walks....,,
So long as we are still in Kanto (Japan, even) the only thing I can try to control (as in, try to have as little radiation exposure as possible) is through food. So I refuse to buy from the usual suspects like Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki.... But I also stopped buying local stuff too. now I try to source everything from Kansai, Kyushu or Hokkaido(certain things) and avoid anywhere in the 500km radius of Fukushima, since, in my opinion, there are so many areas affected by fallout, current testing is questionable and government-set limits are too high.
Paranoid, much?!
Probably.
But at the moment, trying to avoid possibly radiated food is the only thing I can do for my family, the only thing I can do to keep myself going and get through.
Unfortunately, sourcing products from non-affected regions is hard work. Most supermarkets are overflowing with cheap produce from Fukushima (cucumbers come in bags of 4 or 5 for 100yen or less!! But I have found certain shops, like the OK store providing foods from Western Japan a lot more, obviously due to demand!! With cooler days lately, J is craving for some nabe, but until I can find cabbage from somewhere other than Gunma, we won't be having any...:-( anyway, I also haven't bought mushrooms for months, bar some shitake I found once from Shikoku.
instead, these days I like to "brag" to other Overly-cautious buyers like myself about the small, but great finds I sometimes have.
So here are the results of a recent shopping expedition:
**Cucumbers from Kyoto, 100yen EACH
** tomatoes from Kumamoto 400 yen for 5
** frilly lettuce from Fukuoka, 100yen for a teeny tiny head of lettuce
** eggs from Hiroshima, 300yen for a pack of 10
** sole from Holland, 78yen each.
Yes, nowadays not only can I list up nearly every item I buy each time I go shopping, but I can also say where the product s from, and the price.
Ouch! (that's the purse strings tightening on me again) Our food budget has gone through the roof - the meaning of -a "bargain" has
changed to mean "Something I can buy and feel comfortable feeding my family with"
So, yeah, finding time and energy to write about food has sorta lost its appeall these days.....I make do with what we have, the fridge is often almost bare, and i find cooking in itself a chore most days due to limited ingredients:(
I wish I had a nice one-liner to sum up this post, but I don't. ...right, I am off to give the kids some Kagoshima rice with Oita-shirasu to eat:-)
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