I made some yuzu marmalade …. yuzu is one of the many citrus fruits grown here in Japan. It tastes like a cross between a lime, lemon and grapefruit and is incredibly pippy.

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One of the contestants on GBBO (Great British Bake off) used yuzu curd so I made some. Maybe not a great idea since eating eggs gives me itchy skin these days.

Staying with GBBO, I made some mince pies using a Paul Hollywood pastry recipe. I think my results would have had me kicked off the competition. I bought some vegetarian suet whilst in the UK and using this and dried fruit that I could buy here I made my mincemeat.

The baking of them was rather more tricky as I have a small microwave sized oven with one solid shelf. I couldn’t buy a mince pie tin (too large), the oven rapidly loses its temperature and doesn’t cook evenly. Yes, I know the saying that a bad workman blames his tools …! They don’t look great but do taste OK. I’m hoping to make a better looking batch to share with Japanese friends.

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Moving on …

….. to more interesting food posts. It was our wedding anniversary recently so we went out for a meal. Our recent find of a great little Japanese/French bistro was full, and of course we hadn’t booked. The waitress was so apologetic and as we walked away she rushed after us with pieces of chiffon cake.

We wandered around trying to find somewhere interesting, full but not too full, etc etc. We seem to be the only westerners in this area of Tokyo & that is a mixed blessing. Some restaurants & cafes like to sit us in the window whilst others have ‘no tables’; we can only presume they have previously had bad experiences with Gaijins (outsiders).

We decided on a place, and as it seemed to have tables we walked in. The menu was written in kanji whilst google translate uses katakana but we were ready to take pot luck by asking to bring us some dishes. However the waitress called on the services of another customer who had lived in UK some years ago. And we had some amazing dishes, including this horse mackerel that was caught by the chef earlier that day.

The chef and waitress kept an eye on us, coming over every now and again to indicate what sauce we should dip various things in. All in a kind helpful manner. Fortunately our years in Asia mean that we are reasonably proficient with chopsticks .. it would be unnerving otherwise. When we left the restaurants other diners smiled & waved to us so we must have passed the test!

All set for 2022

I often do my grocery shopping at Hanamasa, a local supermarket mainly aimed at the catering trade. And again, I have never encountered another Westerner in the store. I felt I had passed the test when I was presented with a calendar

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Every picture is meat! So maybe not a calendar for vegetarians or vegans …