2012 January | Tokyo Kawaii, etc.

Do we need so many kitchen tools?

Posted by: kirin on date

Jan 19th, 2012 | filed

Filed under: Japanese foods, Something Interesting

I found an interesting video about cool kitchen tools that was broadcasted by NHK.

The player will show in this paragraph

There are many interesting cooking tools in Japan. I’m not really interested in them however, because my kitchen is small and I know I’ll eventually suffer from finding a small space to store them. I’d try to make use of limited tools as often as possible instead of enjoying a collection of various tools…well I totally feel familiar with the Ugandan woman’s comment at 10:15. ^ ^;;

01:40 I’ve used the silicon wrap but I didn’t like it at all. It was not for me…I’m sorry I threw it away. (Oh that sounds I’m so eco-unfriendly!) There’s no room to keep things that I don’t use any more! I’ve been wondering if I really I want to buy a new Tamagoyaki pan for over 6 months, since the old one got damaged. Maybe it’s only when I find extra room in my kitchen.

03:50 I have only 1 cutting board (まな板 “manaita” in Japanese), 1 big frying pan (フライパン “furai pan” in Japanese), 3 pots (なべ “nabe” in Japanese) sized small, medium and large, 1 deep pot, 1 earthen pot (土鍋 “donabe”), 1 milk pan…I guess that’s all. :p

05:56 I know this. We can easily peel off the eggshell by letting the air out of the bottom of the egg. But I wouldn’t buy a special tool to do that. I usually crack the bottom of the egg slightly before boiling, and I never screw it up. (But don’t do it too strongly, as you’re going to break it.)

10:56 It’s true, however, that we can enjoy cooking more if we have variety of interesting tools. OK, I will love to use all these tools if cooking has become my hobby. :p Unfortunately it’s nothing but an everyday’s chore… -_-

12:32 I think I also feel familiar with the Indonesian woman’s comment, or the kiwi woman’s comment at 12:44.

13:10 It’s true, we cook various cuisine such as Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French-inspired cuisine, German, Russian, Korean, or whatever at every single home.

14:03 I also use oven! (You’ve noticed we pronounce it as “O-bun”. There are many English words we imported into Japanese but have different pronunciations.)

You may have wondered how my kitchen looks like… ^ ^
Here it is.

It’s about 2.5m long and it’s 80cm between the kitchen and the cabinet.

The bottles of water are there to keep Pi-chan out. I don’t want her to come into the kitchen while cooking.

I wish I could have a second small sink exclusive for Pi-chan’s sponge and dishes. The yellow dishes in a small basket are only for Pi-chan to use. I also wash and dry plastic plates, milk container, bottles, cans, pet-bottles, pet-bottle caps and etc., for recycle…so I need some space for those as well…

I have to place a coffee maker, a tea pot, a kettle, some mugs and etc. on the counter because I cannot find space for those. -_-

It’s about 65cm between the sink and the stove. Cooking would be much easier if I had more space here…

A cupboard and some storage. I pull the board when I’m cooking rice, because the rice cooker ejects steam upward.

A kitchen like this is average for a family of 3-4 people in the city. But it’s almost impossible to have 2 people cooking together in this kitchen. That’s why I carry minimum kitchen tools and I want to make it tidy all the time.

What do you think about the interesting kitchen tools in the video for example? Do you have anything that you wish to have? I guess I will have to organize the storage space more effectively before I think of buying something new. ^ ^;; But I will love to make use of the kitchen tools with which I can reduce my labor. ^ ^;; In that sense I don’t think I use kitchen tools for fun cooking, I’d use them to make cooking easier and less time-consuming. How about you?

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Comments (16)

Tags: kitchen tools

Donbei pot noodle stand

Posted by: kirin on date

Jan 15th, 2012 | filed

Filed under: Japanese foods, Something Weird...

I didn’t even notice there was a pot noodle stand in Shibuya station until the other day!

Do you know Donbei? It’s a long-selling pot udon and soba noodle made by Nisshin, the famous cup noodle maker in Japan. It’s common to see a soba stand (or a udon stand) in a train station, but I’ve never seen a pot noodle stand ever before. I thought it was new but I was wrong. It’s been there since Nov. 2010, according to their website. It was supposed to be a limited-time shop but they didn’t close the shop because people just loved it so much.

I’d have felt quite embarrassed to take pictures there if there had been more people around. But it was in the daytime and there were not many people around.

It seems that they serve Donbei that is usually limited to certain areas such as “only available in Hokkaido” for example.

Each Donbei seems to be priced 200yen or so here, served with hot water, while it’s sold at about 100yen at supermarkets. I see.
It’s a Donbei character fox. As always, setting an image character for a certain service or product is quite important in Japan. That’s how the service or the product is spread smoothly in Japanese market. But the point is that the character must be kawaii or cute, as you may notice! ^_^

I must say it represents how our economy situation is bad. Working men may live with instant noodle lunch as cheap as 200yen and they finish their lunch within 10 minutes. The other day I also saw a young working man who bought 2 pastries and 1 yogurt as his lunch and paid 187yen at a supermarket. It looks like a breakfast but he would work until 8 or 9pm. I think I’m eating more than that guy, and I’m already starving before 8. :p

As for myself, I don’t like pot noodle so much, but I believe many people love it. It’s true it’s cheap, easy and handy. A pot noodle station…but I don’t think it will be well-received in Europe, for example. How about other Asian countries or in your country? What do you think??

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Comments (29)

Tags: instant noodle, Japanese noodle, Nisshin, pot noodle

Tofu vendor

Posted by: kirin on date

Jan 10th, 2012 | filed

Filed under: Daily Life, Japanese foods

I found a Tofu vendor, strolling about my neighbor today. I can immediately tell them from the sound they are making. I’ll show you the image video. When you hear this tone in Japan, that means a Tofu vendor is somewhere around.

On the other hand,

this is how sweet potato vendors sound like.

Laundry pole vendors. (I wouldn’t recommend you should buy poles from them. They repeat “2 poles for 1000yen” but they are in poor quality. Good ones cost way too much. )

Ramen vendors.

These music (?) never changes no matter how many years pass by. I feel these all familiar from my childhood. I think it’s the same no matter which area in Japan we live in.

Going back to the original topic, I found it interesting to check out the Tofu vendor. I’m not a big fan of Tofu myself, and I don’t usually buy quality Tofu from these people or at special Tofu shops, but I end up with getting ordinary ones from supermarkets.

Yes, I brought my camera with me because I thought I could blog about it, especially for some people who love Tofu! It was however a bit embarrassing to ask the vendor if I can take pictures for my friends. :p But he was kind enough to tell me that nowadays foreign people are sometimes more serious learning how to make Tofu, Soba or Ramen. So it’s not like an out-of-the-blue kind of story that foreigners are interested in getting apprenticed to a Tofu maker to be independent Tofu maker/vendor. I see!

I didn’t notice this difference until he told me but it’s true we used to bring a pot or bowl to buy Tofu from them. At that time, Tofu was not packed. It was simply in the water and the vendor cut it and we received it in a pot or a bowl. I remember I had to run up to the vendor with a bowl in my arm when I was little. (I helped shopping Tofu for my mom. ^ ^) Since some time ago, every Tofu must be packed for hygiene reasons, according to him.

Also, it was not only Tofu he carried but also some Tofu related products such as soy milk cake, Yuba (soy milk skin), Okara (Tofu refuse), and some pre-fixed food and frozen food made from those.

The vendor is focused on sales but his friend eventually got involved in production, he continued. His friend has to wake up at 3 in the morning to start making Tofu. It requires a lot of work to get soy milk from soy beans, however, the price of Tofu doesn’t allow his friend to hire employees. “It’s a tough job and it’s not easy! People prefer cheap Tofu from supermarkets. Tofu vendors like us are decreasing…” he said.

I purchased Tofu hamburg, deep-fried bean curd and a Tofu dressing from him and paid 1050yen. I already had a Tofu at home, so maybe I could try their quality Tofu next time.