The world cup is finally over. After Germany lost to Spain in the semi final, I thought I don’t have to watch soccer for another four years, but I watched the final match in the end. Congratulations to Spain! And Paul the Octopus, you did it too! You are so popular!
Yesterday was my first Independence Day. I baked cheesecake, decorated in red, blue and white and brought to a barbecue party at friends house. I thought there would be flags everywhere in the city, but it wasn’t like that in San Francisco. There was a big fireworks show at night but I became too sleepy, I just listened to the sound in bed…
In SF, the soccer World Cup games are shown live from early morning. Yesterday’s England and Germany game started 7am. I was sitting next to C, who is from Germany and supports Germany. I was on the England side but… the problem wasn’t only the misjudge… it was a complete victory for Germany.
We had English Breakfast yesterday, we hadn’t had that for a while. I find that Japanese people tend to dislike baked beans, but I really need them for English Breakfast. In the UK, a can of baked beans (415g) only costs something like 20 to 60 pence, so I suppose everyone buys them, nobody makes them at home. But I live in San Francisco and it’s not easy to find them (there are American baked beans, but the flavour is different). So I cooked them from scratch, it was very easy and tasted better than the one in a can.
When I was a student I used to live in London. I always had English breakfast the morning (or afternoon) after drunken nights. It has to be at a good local greasy spoon, not a fancy restaurant. Of course we drink very hot white tea (it comes with milk automatically), not coffee. It was the best way of eating English Breakfast. This reminds me a bit of the Japanese drinking style, where we often finish heavy drinking nights with ramen noodle in a greasy hot soup!
The FIFA world cup kicked off in South Africa today. Football isn’t really my favourite sport to watch, but the world cup is different. I’m ready to enjoy this big event! Since yesterday one song got stuck in my head and repeating over and over.
This is an unofficial England football song for the world cup in 98. It’s amazingly silly and I love it. I didn’t realise that it’s made by Blur’s bassist, he did a great job! I used to live in London, so the lyrics makes me laugh a lot.
Last week I made Japanese hamburg (hanbāgu) with tofu. Just in case you never heard of this before, hamburg is a short word for hamburger steak in Japan! This is one of C’s and my favourite Japanese dishes, so I will probably post the recipe soon.
On Sunday morning, I went to the new farmers market at Fort Mason Center in the Marina District. It’s open every Sunday until October. Actually, the Golden Gate Bridge is in the background, but it’s hidden in the fog.
I arrived just after the market opened at 9:30 am.
マーケットが開く時間、朝9時30分ちょうどに到着。
There were many organic vegetables and fresh fruits in season.
オーガニックの野菜、旬の果物がたくさん。
Annie Somerville from Greens, a popular vegetarian restaurant, was signing her cookbooks.
マリーナ地区にあるベジタリアンレストラン、グリーンズのシェフ、アニー・サマービルさんのサイン会。
It would nice if the colour of pink oyster mushrooms stays like this after cooking.
ピンクのオイスターマッシュルーム。調理してもこのままの色だったらキレイだね。
I’ve never tried this vegetable kohlrabi, aka German turnip (kohl means cabbage and rabi is turnip in German). I thought about getting some kohlrabi, but I got daikon, the Japanese turnip (radish) instead. Their daikon looked really good.
I wasn’t meant to buy this much from the market. Actually the main reason I travelled to the Marina district was watching the sailboat race C participated. Carrying the groceries, a coffee cup, and a digital SLR camera and watching the race was not easy!
It was also not easy to read the number on a sail, even using the camera’s zoom lens. I felt like I was reading letters on a chart for an eye examination. But I did manage to find C’s boat!
The tropical fruit Cherimoya is native to southern Ecuador and northern Peru, now it is also produced in Southern California. The season is from February through May. I’ve just made it.
As soon as I cut it, there was a sweet smell of pineapple or banana, or bit of both. Maybe it was slightly overripe.
ナイフを入れるとパイナップルの様なバナナの様な甘い香りがいっぱい。ちょっと追熟させすぎたかな。
The texture is like a ripe pear, not as rich as a durian fruit, but it has a very sweet taste. I can understand that cherimoya is called the tree of ice cream.
The street looked very different because of the numbers of people. I usually don’t want to take my digital SLR camera with me on this street, I know I worry too much, and it was just fine.
I bought my lunch at Ike’s Place. It’s a good place to get meaty sandwich, I was craving for meat so badly (they also have lots of vegetarian/vegan sandwiches). All sandwiches come with a bag of crisps and a candy as a default. Well, to be honest, I just want their sandwich…
Two hands are not enough to deal with this big sandwich. Don’t even think about playing cards while you eat this, my Lord! There are lots of thinly sliced ribeye steak, vegs and special sauces etc. This isn’t healthy food but I needed it.
Last Sunday, we went to Maker Faire in San Mateo. It was my first time to go there (it’s 40min by train) and I need to experience something tasty everywhere I go, so I searched on the internet and found Romolo’s Cannoli & Spumoni Factory near the event venue.
