Ankake Night

Pork and vegetable ankake, miso soup, and some sweeeet mini tomatoes.

Saba Mirin

Mirin-marinated mackerel with a tofu salad and eggplant miso soup.

Sukiyaki and Tako Salad

Tonight's dinner: a hearty sukiyaki and a refreshing, gingery octopus salad.

Stuffed Eggplant and Spinach Shiraae

Some new recipes you try once and then forget about them, but these two were so memorably yummy the first time I tried them that I decided to repeat them tonight: pork stuffed eggplant and spinach shiraae. Idea from H: sprinkle some green onions on top of the eggplant next time for more color! Some leftover kabocha pumpkin stewed with ground chicken rounded out our meal.

Niku jaga and Miso soup

A colorful dinner tonight of niku jaga ("meat and potatoes" stewed with onions, carrots, and yam noodles) along with spinach and mushroom miso soup and some veggies.

Pork and Cabbage with Veggies

Made this always yummy layered pork and napa cabbage dish, along with an assortment of veggies. Today, instead of adding any water to the pork and cabbage layers, I just used sake - almost 1 cup - and the dish seemed more flavorful than ever. If you're worried that we're eating too healthy, no need to worry - after dinner we paid a visit to our favorite new patisserie for a slice of fluffy and delicious pineapple cheesecake.

Ukulele Festival

Today I had the chance to play in the 40th annual Ukulele Festival on Oahu, and it was so much fun! While solo performances can be nerve-wracking, being able to play amongst a bunch of happy smiling fellow ukulele players kept me in good spirits throughout our performance, even though my ukulele slipped out from under my arm during a song. =) The highlight of the festival was the final performance by Jake Shimabukuro, who is such an engaging performer.

Moving on to food, we had pretty standard Hawaiian plate lunches at the festival, meaning rice, meat, and a macaroni salad - so almost no veggies at all. For dinner we tried to make up for our veggie-less lunch: we had a salad of mahi-mahi sashimi over spinach, and a baked tofu dish with lots of tomatoes, eggplant, and basil. I love veggies.

Happy July

Can't believe it's already mid-July! Ever since coming back, we've been taking some pictures but not getting around to posting anything, so here is a snapshot of what we've been eating recently. But first, a lovely picture by H of some 4th of July fireworks...




Iridofu with hamachi salad.


Salmon oyako rice with miso soup.

Sweet and sour soup with catfish and tofu, pork stir fried with watercress and onions.


More soup with salad and fried tofu stir fried with green bell peppers and bonito flakes.