Some days just call for soup and last Friday was definitely one of them. When Keizo got home from work, we bundled ourselves up against the strong wind and went to check out the local library. It's not very big, but they have a huge shelf of cook books, a large picture book section (just about my Japanese level) and even a tiny shelf of English language books, ranging from travel guides to novels. Perhaps most importantly, they also have central heating. We spent over an hour browsing and left with a nice stack of reading material and rumbly tummies. Who can look at cook books and not get hungry?
Given the weather, we decided a warm, hearty meal was in order. We selected a recipe from one of the new borrowed books "3 Step Cooking" and headed to the grocery store. Although the book is written by a Japanese woman, who writes under the pseudonym "Yummy-san" it features recipes inspired by different international cuisines. She must live in Tokyo, near a nice import store, because some of the ingredients proved a bit hard to find in our "local" grocery store. For example, we couldn't find a can of garbanzo beans and had to make do with two plastic packs of mixed beans; nor could we locate a bag of "Oriental" style frozen veggies, so we bought the "Japanese" style ones. Thankfully the taste did not suffer from our substitutions and we ended up with a steaming pot of delicious minestrone soup in under 15 minutes.
Sprinkled with some parmesan cheese and served with two slices of reheated Costco pizza (featuring real melting Mozzarella and basil leaves!) it was a fabulous way to heat up after having the wind cut through all every single layer of clothing. Thanks "Yummy-san!"
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