Mei-Shun’s new rice cooker loves clean workplace. It must be washed every time after job, or would not work precisely. Here is much おこげ=okoge, baked rice at the bottom of a pot. Actually, she neglected cleaning just once before making it. It would be all right if other cereals like millet are mixed, yet awful if she should serve Shin a bowl of white pearls, his favorite.
Mei-Shun would like to use comfortable adjectives like warm and cool more here, yet it seems we only have extreme change between torrid and freezing these days. On the other hand, plant ladies know the best timing to bloom — our garden princess already puts on a thin veil in pink, backyard plum in 80% blossom while green tea is served full in cherry.
Here Mei-Shun’s new rice cooker follows. This shining black from T. Co., Ltd. has an inner pot of earthenware, easy to serve aromatic baked rice at the bottom. Only a problem is a slight smell of vinyl aired just after pearl white grains are finished. Shin calls 一日の長, one-day longer technique for the previous one made by P. Co., Ltd. that his wife took as a smart expression.
One of Mei-Shun’s dream here is to gallop with you, honey. Oh-no-no, you are a cotton candy while Miro, a half-bred boy privately owned should take that name. If you two share a field going around to the orgel-tuned music they always air, it will make a real attraction. And Vanilla-san, could you lead them completing this sweetest and hottest dessert hard to control?
Maria, La Belle
Mei-Shun is a fruits lover. So was her late father, had some after every meal. They used to enjoy various citruses in February, never thought of strawberry — quite expensive, only for inpatients at hospitals, he said. Daddy, thanks to agricultural research and development, we have already rushed into another best season of those red, crispy and juicy babies.
Mei-Shun visited her mother’s home today carrying a box of jellied and chocolate-coated apples made by a chocolaterie in Hino, Tokyo. They enclose leaflets with each product, quoting famous words on what human life is. Since mom opened her younger daughter’s 10-day-belated St. Valentine gift after lunch together, the latter found it accompanied by Dr. Pascal for the first time.
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.
meishunkikunoe 