It is a day to express Mei-Shun’s gratitude to her family and friends. In her memory, when she stayed in Cheltenham, U.K., her host mother Clair gave Bill, her partner a humorous card only. No sweets were exchanged between couples there. Some say Japanese custom is a kind of conspiracy by confectionary companies, yet it seems all right. Such a small gift always warms up your heart, doesn’t it?
Mei-Shun’s aunt of father’s side, precisely the bride of her father’s eldest brother living in Fukuoka is an excellent cook. One of the most superb is fig jam, made of fruits grown by herself. Normally so popular at a shop trading products of direct delivery from farms, she always keeps some for family and relatives. This time in much bigger bin, Mei-Shun separated it into babies for good preservation.
It is you, Shin. You have already won two items of good fortune since this New-Year Day. One is a fève appeared from a Galette des Rois, his wife’s birthday cake. She put a knife into the piece he chose, felt something too hard to cut. However, he put a golden crown onto her hair saying it was she who be the queen of the night. Another is kapu-suke, very rare to see you on a chocolate.
Mei-Shun met with Shin at one of their favorite restaurants in Takanawa, Tokyo. They make it a rule to date on lunch when the former goes to a nearby hair salon for a cut or curling. It was their great pleasure to greet again this birdy always welcomes them in 椿=tsubaki, camellia room. Dishes were all superb as usual, including 治部煮=jibu-ni, simmered vegetables, 麩=fu, steamed wheat gluten and meat.
It has nice 駄菓子=dagashi, Japanese traditional tea-time sweets. Not only taste simple and good, they also look so lovely that both adults and children can enjoy. Mei-Shun’s favorite is もも餅, peach rice cake while mom-in-law’s 松茸, matsutake mushroom. Shin knows well the latter, advised his wife to choose it as a souvenir. By the way, his first business trip in 2018 is to this city from today.
to you, mom-in-law. Mei-Shun would love to drive Ms. Scarlet toward a pâtisserie and a florist for a birthday cake and an arrangement. It is quite freezing outdoors as we have 小寒=shokan, the 5th of winter 二十四節気 while meaning a start of 寒中=kanchu period. A mother and a daughter in a legal relationship were both born in the coldest time of the year.
She made it. Yes, finally. Mei-Shun treated herself to high-calorie ice cream this morning because the scale showed her success last night. And that’s all. She will keep current eating and exercise as long as being a woman — to reach further goal. Oh, another achievement was informed by fax. She passed the exam to be a legal guardian. Year-end Jumbo, a lottery is now expected to celebrate it.
Here is kohlrabi Mei-Shun met for the first time. They say it means “cabbage and radish” in German, derives from B. oleracea. Its scent might come from the former while shape from the latter. Quite cute in looks, it gives crispy texture before fried. Scrambled with eggs, sweetness and refreshing hotness in a distant dance within your mouth. Easy to grow at home? Well, that sounds very nice.
Mei-Shun learned it the other day. Her soup never became salty enough even after she added 4 teaspoons of the white, dry grain. She took it as coming from her condition, gave up to make more. When Shin tried hearing his wife’s wondering, he also failed, just told her “it tastes all right”. Now, he opened a corn can, spread a pinch of salt on it and burst into laughter — it was granulated sugar!
Mei-Shun has done a course to be a legal guardian, hoping that she could contribute to hyper-aged Japanese society through this system. Her result of qualification test will be informed in a week. DVD lectures were aired at a community center in Ishioka City where a nice confectionary shop 羽鳥屋 serves nearby. European/Japanese sweets are displayed neatly, tastes great with reasonable price.
meishunkikunoe 