Easy cooking of Japanese HOME taste !

It is the special extra holiday for me cause the office is closed :-D
It is rare to be off on the week day and I have something to go. But for my relaxing time, I finished them up in the morning (going to the hospital and bank). In the afternoon, I took 90 minutes Oil massage after shopping around in the department store.

The best floor I like in the department is FOOD section. We call '' Depa-Chika'' meaning the basement floor of a department store where the delicatessen sections are usually placed. The big department floors have 2 floors for food sections. Usually,1 floor has various shops of Sweet, bakery, and delicatessens etc. And the other sell the daily food stuffs with meat/fish/vegetables shops. I like to buy meat at meat shops and fish at fish shops if possible.. but unfortunately those local shopping stores are taken place by the super mkt.
But, when I go to the department store, I can find the small shops of fish/meat/vegetables at once on the same floor. It gave me the enjoyable time of shopping. Shopping should be fun always.. right ?

And what I shopped there is '' Beef'' :-D

Normally the sales unit is per 100gm at the meat shop. These are already sliced or cut for each menu ;
  
すき焼き　＝　Sukiyaki   (thin slices of beef cooked with vegetables at the table in soy sauce, sake and sugar)
焼肉　＝　thicker slices for BBQ
こま切れ　Komagire ＝ Hash. Usually the most reasonable one

Also, beef for stakes or minces are available.

Above picture is just one corner of a lot of types, reasonable products.
But, pls take a look this !

This is selected and branded beef - JPY1,575 per 100gm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The good beef Japanese people thing are marbled one,  fat and red part good balanced. This kind of beef is like melting in the mouse.
But, this is not highest one. The highest price one in this shop is JPY2500 per 100gm !
Who buy ??? 

And what I bought was,

The cheapest hash one - JPY298 per 100gm.
That is the best for '' Nikujyaga'' -(simmered) meat and potatoes. It is Japanese popular dish for home cooking.

Today, I got the very easy recipe. Normally we use the soup from dried bonito. But, this recipe does not need it. All seasonings we need are SUGAR, SOY SOURCE, JAPANESE SAKE.
The ingredients are sliced beef, Onion, Potatoes and carrot.

Here is the recipe.

1. stir-fry the sliced beef with a small amount of oil
2. put Sugar , Soy-source, and Sake : rough ratio  Suger:Soysourse:Sake = 1:2:1
3. put other vegetables and stir-fry
4. stew with sometime string up.

It is Typical Japanese taste. The potatoes are not soggy and very nice !!!!

Korean food stuffs

It has been really hot here. I feel Japan is becoming more like sothern country...
On the hot day, I want to eat something spicy. For me, Thai food must be perfect ! But, unfortunately, it is hard to cook and uncommon here. So, today, I picked up some Korean foods at the super mkt. Yes, Korean foods are popular and already common food stuffs I easily buy even at the local super mkt :-D

キムチ(ki-mu-chi = Korea's traditional fiery pickle) - JPY250 around
I can find several kinds of Kimuchi at the stores. Some are imported from Korea. This is common one the famous Japanese Tsukemono (Japanese pickle) company.

And also picked up another major Korean food.

The package says Korean Traditional Seaweed.   JPY100 per pack .
I love this seaweed. This is seaoned by sesami oil and salt. Good with RICE too !
I have ordered 1 box of this seaweed on the web once. It is much more reasonable price.

Korean food is already well-recoginized also in Japan. There are many Korean dinings. Korean BBQ is one of major ones. Korean food taste ONIGI with this seasoned seaweed is on sales at the convenience store.

Anyway, tonight, I put Kimuchi and Seaweed over TOFU with a seasoning soy sourse. It was good.

コンビニ＝convenience stores

The convenience store (call '' Konbini'' in Japan) didn't exist when I was a child. But, now I can not imagine the world without the convenience store. It has been increasing and developing. Today, i can say too many in Japan. It is not good for the company running the convenience stores. But for me, a customer, it means it gets more convenient... that is great thing.
And, too many stores means more competition in each shop/convenience store chain. So, the quality of food or sweet has been improving. The new items are released so often not to get us tired.

On Friday, I overworked and dropped at the convenience store to get a Bento for the dinner cause my hubby was out for a drink with his friends...  I feel so easy cause I don't have to take care of the dinner..hehe. What I bought today,

Pasta, Bread, coffee, sweet, drink and Tsumami (Tsumami means the snacks for alcohol drinks).

Around JPY1,200 in total

Tonight, I went to CIRCLE K . They have the best PASTA dishes in the taste, variety. And they often make a new item and naturally makes me feel to try it. The sweet corner was also tempting me. I bought a new item, Creamy baum roll. But, actually, the taste of that is so so....  My best sweet of convenience store is Roll Cake in SEVEN ELEVEN. So, Yammy, it may be better than the cake shop's one.

And, the drink I recently like is '' Hi Ball''. It is Whiskey and Soda (with Lemon). Not sweet and refreshing with a soda. It is a kind of traditional alc-drink also here. It used to be no so popular, but this year, it gets hot !