I picked up some dehydrated apple rings for a snack and not really to bring back, since fruit in any form would probably freak out the Department of Agriculture guys. I got these over some apple chips I saw because there was only apples and salt listed as ingredients, so I figured sulfites wouldn’t be an issue. As-is out of the nearly-impossible-to-open package, they are sweet and firm and have the unmistakable apple flavor. Just for S&G, I tried rehydrating one in hot water, and it nearly returned to its original form – I “S” you not! The skin ends up being a little tough, but once rehydrated, the flesh even begins to brown like a fresh apple slice! Weird! Guess there really aren’t any sulfites to preserve the color. Continue reading ‘Astronaut Apples’
This ji-biiru from the small Oirase microbrewery and restaurant in central Aomori prefecture is somewhat widely distributed in central and East Aomori – I’ve seen it in Towada, Hirosaki, and Aomori city. Oirase is so close to Hachinohe, I’d really be surprised if you couldn’t find it there.  Oirase brewery makes a pilsener, a weissen, a dark lager, and a “half and half”, which is just a mixture of the pils and lager. All of them are 5% ABV, and other than as draughts at the restaurant, they are sold in 300ml screw-top aluminum bottle-cans identical to those Coke and many other soft drink makers use on the JDM. I didn’t really have the fortitude to try all four, and being unpasteurized, they had to be kept under refrigeration which is difficult on a bus and train trip, so I opted for the pilsener. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Oirase Beer-kan Pilsner’
This is Kirin’s Pilsener offering. I’ve had it in a bottle before, but didn’t realize it was a mass-market product. It was better on draught, but still on the unremarkable side. It leaned toward the dry/highly attenuated side, but the decoction was weak to the point that it almost tasted like it wasn’t 100% barley malt, but had rice as an adjunct. The hopping was adequate to let you know that it was a pils, but it definitely wasn’t the rich offering that the competing Suntory Malts Premium Pilsener is. Flavor is clean and without any really bad traits, but really is somewhat plain. Whee. Continue reading ‘Heartland Beer’
MOS crafts some really good Japanese-style hamburgers. They aren’t modified from a Western recipie to conform to Japanese tastes: They are built from the ground up for domestic consumption – that’s probably why they bombed when they opened two stores in Honolulu decades ago. The Tobikiri hamburger is no exception to the domestic tastes rule. That’s not to say that if you aren’t Japanese, you won’t like this burger – it just isn’t the plain salty charred meat slab hidden beneath ketchup and mustard that you are used to. The patty is made from a mix of beef and pork (aibiki) and is topped with a thick slice of Hokkaido-produced bacon and sauteed onions with a bacon-shoyu sauce. They pride themselves on domestic sourcing, so the beef, pork, bacon, and onions are all domestic. This is reflected in the price, since the burger alone is 420-yen (around $5.38 USD). If you go to their website, they have a breakdown for the sourcing of ingredients on the product page. Continue reading ‘MOS Tobikiri Hamburger Sandwich “Atsugiri Bacon”’
Apples are pretty synonymous with Aomori-ken, and the souveneir hawkers are almost completely invested in apples being the singular omiyage item. Surprisingly, I didn’t find the specific apple item I was looking for – an old-fashioned steel can of apple jam. The apples are generally good, but not all of them are great. Most are grow around the city of Hirosaki, although the first experiments with growing apples were done on the slopes of Hakkoda-san to the South of Aomori City. The apple trees are fairly small and loaded with fruit, like one every 15-20cm. Reflective mylar sheets are placed under the trees to reflect the sunlight and make the undersides of the fruits change color to match the tops. Continue reading ‘Apples and Autumn’
It’s done, a disembodied zombie has bought the AE86. No actually he seems to be a nice guy, even if he does look like a zombie. He actually had a SR5 AE86 that he sold in order to pick this up. Hopefully he learns from Ed, the dude who kind of brokered this deal. Ed is a gear head and knows his stuff, this guy is still a kid and pretty wet behind the ears, but hopefully he will grow with this car. I think it’s awesome that he scraped together the money and I think this car is a great way to get started. He’s not some snot nosed unappreciative punk who’s parents bought him a “fully tuned” Evo or something. Build it to the car of your dreams, zombie boy, enjoy!
So I put up the AE86 “Hachiroku” Corolla up for sale. Put up signs in the window and took it to auto cross on Sunday. Have a taker already, will try meet up tonight, he said he’s got the money and if we can do the sale tomorrow. I drove it for work today and as I was driving it I was almost having twinges of regret! It was certainly fun to drive, the punishing rear suspension not withstanding. I love how the engine winds up and the quick gearing. It’s not fast but it does put a smile on the face. As I think more about it, the dude will be getting a hell of deal considering the work that’s gone into it. Mechanically it’s solid, rebuilt tranny, all new bearings, seals & synchros. Rebuilt rear end, again all new bearings, seals and the KAAZ 1.5 way LSD. All new polyurethane bushings. New front ball joints, tie rod ends. New P/S hoses. Full bling coilover suspension. I did pull the flywheel and clutch. I think I’ll go pull out the micro Momo steering wheel too. Anyway, I’m not going to back out of this, so if he shows me the money, it’s out of here! I sure hope he’s not some yahoo, he’s a friend of one of the auto-x & rally-x dudes who is cool, but you know how friends of friends can be, but once you let it go, gotta let it go!
Washing car saturday night and heard familiar whine of HFD1. It wasn’t totally unusual to hear them at night, but I started to take notice because they were hanging around the area. Sure enough they headed to the Koko crater and lit up a portion of the “stairs”. I had been thinking the other night when this would happen as I watched close to a dozen lights on that trail. Was it sooner rather than later? Hfd1 didn’t hang around that long then cruised over to Koko Head then moved on, so I thought maybe they were just being friendly. Continue reading ‘Good evening HFD1’
WTF?!?! I’m reading the ingredients list on my lunch dessert tiramisu and the word “silicone†comes as a bit of a shock. I’ve seen food-grade silicone spray lube for use on industrial food preparation machinery, but this is the first time I’ve seen it listed as an ingredient! According to the internet, the common uses for silicone in food products is as an anti-foaming agent, but I’m not sure how it’s being used in this instance. This probably wouldn’t prevent me from buying this product again, but the use of margarine over butter would.
With plate lunch and burger prices in Hawai’i rising to the $10 USD mark, let’s see what I got for lunch today from the Seicomart convenience store in Japan. Seicomart is one of the few chains that have actual service kitchens in the back of the store, so they produce hot meals instead of only having cold lunches that the register staff can microwave for you. It took me the entire time it took me to eat my entrée to figure out what the heck it was being called because of the katakana on the label. Let’s see… that’s a “he†with a handakuten mark, followed by a little “tsu†and a “ha†with a handakuten mark and a long sound mark… “Pepper-burg don.†It was essentially a deconstructed loco moco. The flavor was really good. There was even a nice little piece of broccoli and a ragout of onions and carrot as a concession to nutritional balance. For 450-yen, equivalent to around $5.75 USD, it was a good value, considering it was between “mini†and full-sized plate lunch in size, but priced less than a mini. Continue reading ‘Cheap Lunch’