Dandelion Coffee

It's Saturday night. I am in my PJ (just about my favorite thing to be in), unwinding from the week's stress (I work Saturdays) with The Japan Times Weekly on couch, warm in my apartment living room. Nora Jones on. Easily my favorite time of the week.

Not so long ago, I would have likely poured myself a glass of Pinot Noir or Chardney to highlight my evening like this, but tonight, I am opting for a big cup of dandelion coffee.

Yes, it's dandelion. More specifically, it's roasted dandelion roots in a form of powder. It looks and smells, and actually tastes a lot like coffee, thus the name. You also make it just like you do coffee, with a drippier.


It smells very...roasted, is the word I'm looking for, to a point where you expect it to taste really bitter that you have to squint, but it's actually really mild and almost sweet on its own.

It makes your body really warm. It's also supposed to cleanse your liver and it's highly recommended for a nursing mother (not that I am). And since the caffeine is 100% absent unlike regular coffee, you can have it late at night without the insomnia effect.


Cheers!
Have a lovely weekend, world!

Until next time,

Sak

An Aunt I Am

On Wednesday 13th January 2010 around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I became an aunt. My nephew was born.


I haven't met the little one yet, but I am already a big chub of love right now.

I'm so glad I have a nephew because I can buy him stuffed dinosaurs and books about dinosaurs and make him wear dinosaur PJs without making my sis-in-low feel standoffish (I am a big dinosaur nerd). Now if it was a niece I had, I would probably have to consider a little more girlie option, I would imagine.

Meeting the baby boy this Sunday. Can't simply wait!

Until next time,

Sak

Life Macrobiotic

And so it begins.

The whole concept of macrobiotics has always been in my head but I never thought of actually practicing it because, one, I didn't have it in me to cook all the time for myself, and two, it costs a lot. So why do it?

I'm doing this because, upon turning 30 in March, I feel the need to start, really start, taking better care of myself. I have always been naturally allergic to many things: sun, some nuts, fabrics, certain liquids, etc,. My stomach and intestines are naturally weak, and in the recent years especially, I have had some gastritis and other stomach-related "conditions" that were enormously inconvenient for a working girl. I don't want t let my "biological" inconvenience be a factor to fail the things I chose to do in life.

And, the most fundamental thing in one's biological life has to be the food, wouldn't you agree? If food that I eat everyday make the person that I am or will be, why wouldn't I gladly pay a little extra to get what's best for me? It's like a fail-proof investment. The money I pay three times more for the grocery and condiments in the kitchen will one day make a three times better version of myself.

With that self belief in heart, I am going on this macrobiotic journey.

Until next time,

Sak

Whole Food Enlightenment

I've been reading a lot of macrobiotics books lately. It's my new thing.

...actually, it's not a completely new thing, come to think of it. I once practiced vegetarianism in college. But right about the same time I thought I was a lesbian, too. So, thinking that I was just confused and thus having a distorted judgment on self, I kind of dismissed it as just a phase.

I have to say I am semi-converted, since my commitment isn't yet the whole nine macrobiotic yard. Besides, I am not giving up my baking on my days off, and I will not, WILL NOT, bake with soy milk and tofu butter as long as I can sift and whip. But I did order 300 bucks worth of organic, micro-sized and macro-priced whole food goodies on line. Ready to cook those vegetables up and whole-grain myself!


I never really eat fish or meat anyway simply because I don't really care for it. So the concept of living on all things non-animal on a regular basis seems easy for the most part. Besides, as I read on, there is more to this macrobiotic way of living than just plain I-am-a-vegan craziness. Well, that's really the reason why I'm turning to the concept anyway. Being a vegan for the reason that killing an animal is brutal, to me, is just plain stupid. But I respect all opinions of every one and definitely not going to judge the vegans for both their choice and reason. Let them be, I gracefully will.

And I am sure there are readers out there who gracefully will let me be with my choice of macrobiotic semi-conversion, so I will not dwell on explaining what I think is good in the whole-food concept. After all, it is a personal preference that can be seen a bit like a religion, I find. And I know that I don't like it when people get hyped up talking about the god or goblin or gargoyle or whatever they believe in and what they do to practice the belief, so I am not going to bore my precious readers with the concept of macrobiotics and what I believe in. If you are interested, you will look into it yourself. You are already on line and that shouldn't be too hard.

I just believe in doing what makes me happy.

Until next time,

Sak

Happy New Year!

Let bygones be bygones...

This year, I am becoming a lot of things that I wasn't before. One, an aunt (any day now). Two, 30 (in two and a half months). And three, macrobiotic.

My feelings about all these three things: yay me!


Until next time,

Sak

Cadeaux de Noël: du Canada

I know Christmas has long passed, but I must show the world what made the holiday more special for me than it was already becoming since my best friend E's arrival. I had a very lovely reunion with my friend K from Toronto over the holiday in a very special place, Kyoto. And he brought with him a whole bunch of goodies for me!

Everything is actually from K himself and T, another friend of mine in Toronto that I admire and respect for his cooking skills. He is the first male being that is not a chef in northern America that I have ever come across that knew what "shallots" were.

Pringles Salt & Vinegar!

How did he know it's my favorite flavor for chips? And how did he know we don't have the flavor in Japan?

Skippy Crunchy peanut butter!

This, I actually requested from K. We don't have peanut butter in Japan, let alone the crunchy kind. How do they expect me to make my PB&B sandwich (peanut butter & banana) to snack on the way I want it? We do have so-called "peanut butter" but it does not bloody deserve either peanut OR butter in its name if you ask me.

Magnets from Canada!
I requested one from Montreal, actually. I collect magnets from places I visit, and I somehow managed to forget to find one when I went there last summer. K was nice enough to top it with the cute "the Canadian white house" one that I absolutely adore. Both on my fridge door right now.

Chocolate cooking/baking book!

This might be my favorite of all. It's the most perfect gift K and T could have possibly given me because K is a serious chocolate addict, and T is into cooking/baking, AND I love receiving books. I love it next to receiving flowers and handwritten cards. (http://diaryofajapanadian.blogspot.com/2009/10/roses-are-red-violets-are-blue.html)

T baked a bunch of cookies but we ate it all in Kyoto at the hotel. I should have taken a picture!

Thank you, K and T!

Until next time,

Sak

Cadeau de Noël: d'Evelyn

My dearest friend, E, from my So Cal years is visiting for the holiday, and she surprised me with a Christmas gift placed on my bed when I got home tonight (she was fast asleep when I came back, jet-lagging).


I happen to loooooooooooove Susan Boyle's voice.

And a hand-written Christmas card! She just knows me too well! ow I love getting one!

In there she wrote,

...you remind me to embrace both goods and bads in our lives.
Thank you for being my true friend.
Thank you for listening and sharing.
You are a very important person in my life.
My world would be very different without you.
Thank you, Sak.

A Christmas card does not get any better than this.

Thank YOU, and love you, E!

Until next time,

Sak

Cadeaux de Noël: La Boîte de Turquoise

A very special box that makes a girl's heart jump at her first glance at it.

My dear friend S posted a blog recently on how Tiffany is overrated and just a label of love, not love in and of itself. I agree with her on a very fundamental level. Still, what can I say? I love turquoise. Besides, she was talking about engagement rings; not Christmas gifts.


Until next time,

Sak

Merry Christmas, Maple!

I'm about to welcome my third Christmas in Japan.

And every time the season comes around, it takes me back to December 2006 when I was crazy busy packing 12 years of my life into 10 boxes and saying my goodbyes to all my beloved friends in southern California. The worst thing of the madness of moving to another country was that I had to say my tearful farewell to the feline love of my life, Maple. (My name being the national tree of Japan, cherry blossoms, I named my cat that of Canada).

I first met her at a local animal shelter. Merely 2 weeks old, she was in a glass case amidst other kittens. I picked up and held her, and I remember how she scarcely weighed anything in my hands, and yet, she was this warmest hairball thingy that I had ever felt. Though shaking, she barely moved. I looked at her, and she was just this tiny life, unaware of my strange hands that were holding her yet trusting in them that they will not let go of her (or not knowing how not to trust yet, really). And I knew that moment that I had to have her.

I can't go on talking about her without choking up, so I am just going to put up a bunch of pictures that highlighted my last part of my life in the states.


She is now with my co-worker/friend K and her family and is living happily. She is in good hands, and she is lucky to be with people half as nice as them. Yet, I miss her. And I miss her the most in December.

Merry Christmas, Maple. I love you!


Until next time,

Sak

Go Loco

Was in Tokyo Sunday evening, spending the night at my cousin's apartment in Ebisu to attend a meeting in Shinjuku the next day. She took me to this fun Hawaiian restaurant, Loco Blue Ebisu, for dinner near her place, and it was really, really nice! http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g949300/

The guava cocktail that I had (twice!) was to die for (on the right. The white one is my cousin's coconut something)!


Highly recommend to anyone who has an access to the central Tokyo.

Until next time,

Sak