Keeping up with Keizo

Given the title of this blog, I think it's kind of important to keep you all appraised of what Keizo has been cooking and eating too.

First, thank you for the kind notes and inqueries in light of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Thankfully, Fukuoka, where Keizo lives is located at the opposite end of the island chain from Sendai. His family lives on Shikoku, and they are also safe and sound. Still, the devastation to the north is a big shock to everyone and it will take a very long time before life returns to some semblance of normal for those in the affected area.

Now with the geography lesson out of the way, time for the food!

It seems my love of pasta had rubbed off quite a bit on Keizo:

Bow-tie pasta with sauteed onions, chicken and pesto sauce.

Yummy-san's 3 step minestrone soup with carrots, chicken meatballs and pasta.

But he's also been cooking up some more traditional recipes. He had some teammates over to help him eat the kimchi nabe below:

And this week he is visiting his parents at their traditional house way up in the mountains of Tokushima. I was lucky enough to visit at the end of the my first stint in Japan, and his parents are amazing cooks. Homemade okonomiyaki:

One day we will be back cooking and eating together, but for now, this will have to do.

East meets West

Since almost everything made on this blog is a mix of East and West, the title of this post really doesn't tell you anything about the contents.

Tuesday's fusion dinner was a kimchi nabe accompanied by some Mexican beer and finished with American-style ice cream for dessert.

We've been meaning to make kimchi nabe for a few weeks, since it would be an excellent way to use up some of the mochi that is still hibernating in the freezer. We picked up a packet of soup at the grocery store, chopped up a bunch of vegetables and added several varieties of meat from the freezer (chicken meat balls, bulgogi, and sausages.) Put everything in a pot and cover.

When it's ready to serve, use a ladle and chopsticks to transfer desired ingredients to your

individual bowl and top with a bit of shredded cheese. Cut the spice with some Corona.

When most of the meat and veggies have been eaten, add the starches to leftover broth. On Tuesday, this included a long frozen pack of udon noodles and some mochi. Keizo and I both decided that this was our favorite way to eat mochi so far; its gooey texture worked much better in soup than as a pizza crust.

We continued to clean out the freezer after dinner with some left over Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake from Shinya's going away party. Shinya is one of Keizo's teammates who after spending most of the season injured, is retiring from rugby and moving to Australia to be with his French girlfriend. (And I thought Keizo and I had a complicated long distance relationship, but at least there are only two countries involved--so far!)

Mmmmmm chocolate! The cake kept us fueled while we completed a surprisingly challenging, 500 piece, underwater themed jigsaw puzzle. I bought it at the dollar store at home before I left, and we estimated it took six hours (over two days) to finish. Six hours of entertainment for $1? That is a pretty good deal!