Feudal Lord's Procession (Hakone, Japan)

Start:	Nov 3, '10
Location:	Yumoto Hot Spring Town City:Hakone-machi, Ashigara-Shimo-gun, Kanagawa, Japan

Daimyo Gyoretsu

The old Tokaido Highway that used to link Tokyo and Kyoto comes alive again with a faithful reproduction of the olden days' feudal lord's procession.

Picture from the net:


"The Daimyo Gyoretsu (feudal lord’s procession) brings to life the experience of traveling the Tokaido road with a total of 170 people dressed up as samurai warriors and princesses. The suite of retainers, each assigned with his role, and armed with spear, bow and arrow, or gun, march on as they carry their lord in the palanquin. The festival is made all the more merry by the performances of the marching bands at the front and at the very end of the daimyo procession, and the dance performances of the Geigi (women who entertain guests at sake parties with song and dance). Once the festival is over enjoy a relaxing bathing session at an onsen hot spring."

*thinks of only the onsen, never mind the Daimyo ..hehehe*

I'm beginning to detest the number 10.25 followed by the percentage sign. Whoever thought of loans with high interest rates should be beheaded....quartered, hanged, tarred and feathered, buried under a pile of old bones or something..

Rake Fair (Japan)

Start:	Nov 7, '10
End:	Nov 19, '10
Location:	Otori-jinja Shrine and other shrines City: 3-18-7, Senzoku, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Tori-no-Ichi

This fair in Asakusa features stalls selling lavishly-decorated RAKES (yes, rakes!).

The "kumade" rakes are thought to bring good luck and fortune. The good-luck rake is made of bamboo and is festooned and decorated with masks and koban (old gold coins), paper etc.

This famous annual event is held on the day of the Tori (Rooster) in Chinese calendar. Days of the rooster occur every 12 days in November, which means that the month of November has at least 2 or even 3 days of the rooster, depending on the year. The date changes every year as it is based on the lunar calendar.

This year, the day of the rooster seems to fall on 7th and 19th.

From the internet:

Btw, this is a woodblock print by Koizumi Kishio featuring the Asakusa Tori-no-Ichi Festival, September 1940.


Here's a link explaining about the fair's origins etc.
http://www.torinoichi.jp/english/index.htm

EID’L FITR (FEAST OF RAMADHAN)

Start:

Sep 10, '10

As September 10, 2010 as a regular holiday in the Philippines in observance of EID’L FITR (FEAST OF RAMADHAN).

Warm greetings to our Muslim brethren.

Seven-Five-Three Festival (Japan)

Start:	Nov 15, '10
Location:	Japan

Shichi-Go-San

This celebrates children of these ages (who were once thought of be in danger of imminent misfortune). Parents dress their children aged 3 or 7 (for girls) and boys aged 5 in miniature versions of kimonos, haoris and hakamas and go to the Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Because the date is not a national holiday, most families pay their Shichi-go-san respects on the weekend just prior to or after November 15.

A good photo opportunity!

Photo below from wikipedia:

Festival of the Ages (Tokyo, Japan)

Start:	Nov 3, '10
Location:	Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Jidai Matsuri

This festival takes after the much bigger and older one held in Kyoto a few weeks earlier (October 22).

On National Culture Day, locals dress in their colorful costumes to represent historic figures from their history and parade around the Sensō-ji temple (this is Tokyo's oldest temple) precincts in Asakusa.

Sample photo taken from wikipedia:

Getting Creative with Leftover Toast

My stomach was gnawing my spine but I didn't want to cook anything which would take me more than 5 minutes, preparation time included.

So tonight after my last phone conference, I decided to just scrape together whatever I could get my hands on instead of going to sleep hungry. 

Probably to make sure I mopped up my meals,  my mom told me when I was a young, impressionable child that if I went to bed hungry, my soul would go wandering around looking for food while I was sleep.  
It would go on a rampage and run through pots and pans in search for food and if perchance somebody would close the pot while it was inside, it would be trapped and would be unable to return to me *gasps*

Moving away from that frightful idea, I went off to check my resources.

Ticking off on my fingers, I knew I had the basics: eggs, milk, butter, sugar...and a loaf of Gardenia's high-calcium milk bread...which incidentally was 1 day over its expiry date. Now that gives me an idea...

The easiest answer was of course French toast.
While bread pudding was doable, but much as I liked the idea I didn't have any raisins or calamansi  (Philippine lemon) on hand. The latter gives a subtle hint of that indefinable something to bread pudding.  Additionally, it would take a while as I would need to steam it the concoction and it was already past 10 pm! 
Grrrr...that time of the night and no dinner yet!

Grimly determined to shut out the noises of my complaining stomach, I gathered (without counting or measuring them out meticulously) all of the basic ingredients for French toast and started off. 

The reason I am putting them here instead of in the Recipes section is that well, it all went by in a blur and not at all organized like I usually do for my recipes.


+++++++

My ingredients for tonight's dinner:

• stale bread, preferably thick slices of it
• native chicken eggs, whisked
• a few tablespoons goat's milk
• a teaspoon or so of goat's milk powder
• a few drops of vanilla extract (the dregs in my small bottle)
• a couple of dollops of cream (for a richer taste)
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• teaspoon of brown sugar
• a pat or two of butter

• honey
• peanut butter
• blueberry jam

Simple instructions:

Try to find a basin which is more flattish than a bowl so that you can comfortably dip your bread pieces in it without bending your bread out of shape.

1. Crack the eggs open one at a time and beat 'em black and blue *grin*

When combining two or more eggs, I try to open and put them in separate containers because sometimes one of the eggs you might end up with is not that fresh. Maybe in other countries its not that way, but I like to play it safe.

If you have ever tried making home-made mayonnaise and finding out the 10th "fresh" egg you just dropped into your main bowl of 9 eggs was rotten and you will cringe at the waste.


2. Add the milk and cream to your beaten eggs. Mix 'em up good and then add a few drops of vanilla extract. If you don't have it..then just get some drops of vanilla flavoring.



3. Since I love goat's milk, I added the milk powder I had as well as the brown sugar. I then sprinkled the cinnamon and nutmeg into the liquid mixture.

You may skip the brown sugar or milk powder if you like. Since all I had was salted butter, I knew my creation would probably end up a bit saltier than I would have liked so I wanted to balance out the flavor.



4.  I first toasted my bread to get them a little more brown and dry. Then I dipped the slices (I cut them half since I didn't want too soggy a bread) into the mixture I made.



5.  Meanwhile, my non-stick frying pan had already a couple of pats of butter, and was heating up evenly.

You can forgo butter if you have a non-stick pan..but well, isn't butter just delicious when it also flavors a little bit of your toast?

Take your soaked bread and fry them in your pan until both sides are a nice golden brown.



6. Serve immediately.


I tried mine with a dribble of honey, a spread of peanut butter and a flick of powdered sugar.
All separate toasts of course *grin*

Happy breakfast ...I mean..dinner!

mage somewhere on this page is from the internet as I had already eaten my concoction.

Note though that there are a lot of variations of french toast, so I am sure any experiments you might have (and I high encourage you to do so) will be a lesson for your palate....

*Cat looks for ginger and mango to add to french toast next time*

- Jun 16, '10 10:31 AM