Keith & Aya
After walking around the old port town of Dejima in downtown Nagasaki, we were very happy to find Jun Murata and his tiny mobile shop, Break Time Coffee.
(Click through to see Jun’s van and his pour-over method.)
Continue reading “Break Time Coffee Van, Nagasaki”
Sudachi are golf ball-sized citrus, prized in Japan for their intense flavour and aroma. You might find a paper-thin slice atop a grilled fish or a curl of rind in a steamed custard.
If you’re lucky, it might be the even-more-fragrant (and expensive) yuzu.
In an brazen attempt to bring down the culture by turning its basic culinary tenets on their head, we decided to make sudachi marmalade.
No-one in the history of Japan has ever done this.
Why would they? It is insane, and not delicious.
We are ill-equipped to judge the sanity of making sudachi marmalade…
…but we can tell you that it is insanely delicious.
Dark, bitter and densely packed with everything good about marmalade, it has the aroma of limes that have been meditating for years on the true nature of citrus.
For our next trick, we decided to make a batch with Key Limes.
Florida was unfazed by this.
Continue reading “Green Citrus Marmalades”
In 2014, Jim Beam’s Japanese marketing division released this TV commercial, thereby fulfilling Jacob’s original vision.
Sleep well, Jacob. Your work is done.
We love you, Japan.
Image: http://www.jimbeam.com/
We drove and camped for a few days in a late summer stretch of warm, dry weather, starting in Skookumchuck Hot Springs and then heading inland to Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park.
Click for pics and map. Continue reading “September Camping in BC”
Tonkotsu ramen is a specialty from Fukuoka, Kyushu. It is famous for its thick, pale broth made from pork bones and its rich flavour. Back in another life, Keith used to refer to it as “dog breath ramen” when passing by the kitchen vents in Kyoto. (He doesn’t call it that any more, as you’ll read in a post to come later.)
The chef at Gonta Nagahama-Style Ramen makes it his daily mission to serve the best, most authentic tonkotsu ramen in south Osaka. He wouldn’t let us take a photo of his broth pot, but we can tell you it was filled with big bones and murky liquid and had clearly been cooking for a long time.
Click through to see the chef make his signature dish, served with diced green onions, ginger and a couple of slices of fatty pork. Continue reading “Tonkotsu Ramen”
Big, crusty loaves of fresh-baked brioche.
The aroma was… intense.
Japanese bakers show no mercy.
Our last Florida Fauna post, wherein we show you cats that we met. Or almost met.
The local surf club on Nakatoorijima is really the hobby of one very friendly fellow, Kyo Nagai. He could not have been more helpful in getting Keith set up with a board and even came along for an hour of surfing on small but glassy beach break.
He also posted two nice pics of Keith’s surfing adventure on his surf blog. The first action photo is Keith, and the second a local hotshot named Mori Junior.
Sometimes it’s “pinch or get pinched”.
Can’t believe we don’t have a photo of the pinchos we ate in Culebra. This is the perfect post for them!*
*Edit: found pics of the pinchos:
This cylindrical box of gum comes with a tiny pad of papers for making tiny notes.
Or perhaps they have another purpose?