Sushi restaurant

お寿司

luxury food, Sushi

As you may know, Sushi is one of the representative Japanese food.
It is one of the traditional food. Since the Edo period, Japanese people have been enjoying eating it.
Sushi is kind of expensive and fancy food. If I have sushi at a "real" sushi restaurant, I would say "I treated myself for fancy dinner tonight".

But they say that Sushi used to be a fast food like Macdonald's back to the Edo period. They used to be sold in street stall.

Sushi grew cheaper and entertaining 

We have Kaiten Sushi restaurants while we have expensive fancy Sushi restaurants where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt.

At fancy Sushi restaurant, we sit at counter seat in front of Sushi chefs and order and a chef serves.

a Sushi chef

But we see chefs over a conveyor belt , even we can't see them at Kaiten Sushi restaurants. And Sushi will be conveyed on the rotating belt. We need to pick up Sushi we want to eat by myself. Sushi at Kaiten Shushi places are made by special machines, not human chef mostly. Kaiten Sushi places are kind of a fast food shop.

The first Kaiten Sushi restaurant was opened around 1960. When I just wanted to eat "Sushi like", I visited Kaiten Sushi places some times. Because they were less tasty than ones at fancy Sushi but much cheaper.

Sushi covered go around in a restaurant

However I realized recent Kaiten Sushi places are very entertaining too! Lately I visited a Kaiten place for the first time in the past 10 year to learn it.

We see no chefs there and can order what we want from the spacial device equipped with each tables, other than Sushis coming up on the rotating conveyor belt.

Desert plates are conveyed around as well.  It is fan to see them sliding forward on the belt.

Your orders are conveyed on another belt in front of you.

Nepali "Oyatsu"(snack) foods

ネパールのおやつフード

Nepali local snacks are yummy and healthy.
Since Nepal is a multiracial and multicultural country and additionally has three neighboring-countries, it represents the broader diversity of food too.But you can find common ingredients in Nepalese foods like lentils and potatoes, cumin, coriander, chilies, peppers, garlic
You can enjoy foods influenced by Tibet and India, Newal and others even you are just in Nepal.I make a list of foods I have tried here.
Ah Curries and Momo are absolute foods. You can see them here. 

ネパールは多民族、多文化国家で、3国に囲まれているため、食べ物も多岐にわたります。でも、ネパールの食べ物によくある食材はあって、レンズ豆、ジャガイモ、クミン、コリアンダー、チリ、胡椒、ガーリックです。
ネパールにいるだけでチベットやインド、ネワール族などの影響を受けた食べ物を楽しめます。わたしが食べたことのあるものをリストアップ。
　ちなみにカレーとモモは別格でこちらをどうぞ。

Thukpa

It is like Japanese Ramen containing bits of meat and vegetables. Noodles are thick. This roots in Tibet and influenced by China.

トゥクパ

ラーメンみたいな感じでお肉と野菜が入っています。麺は太麺。チベット料理のひとつで、中国の影響も受けているそう。

Nepali Amazing Sweets

ネパールのオイシイお菓子

Mithai

When we stopped by one cafe on our way to my friend's house from thamel, I discovered one new taste for me. It is this, called "Mithai" in Nepali. Actually there are countless names for it but "mithai" is the most common.

Curry! Curry! Curry!

カレ!ーカレー！カレー！

"Curry" is just one category of dishes?

We Japanese sometimes joke about meals in India like, " their meals must be always curries". Actually we don't expect that they really eat always curries while saying it. Because if it so they must be tired with them.

But the answer is.... Yes they mostly have curries for their meals! Ah.. this is about Nepal, not India. But I believe they have similar customs.... And somehow you don't get tired with meals of curries even if breakfast and lunch, dinner are curries.

Because curries vary more in their kinds and tastes than you think.
When I visited my friend San's mother, she cooked curries for me.

Spring in Japan

日本の春

Official announcement of Sakura's blooming

Spring is arriving in Japan.
Today the Weather Ministry made an official announcement that the cherry trees are in bloom in Fukuoka and Nagoya today. Actually I found on tree in full bloom last week in Tokyo. But they haven't announced it for Tokyo.

I found this Sakura in the night

That is why there are some kinds of Sakura trees and when to bloom depends on them. For instance, Kawazu-sakura blooms in the middle of February but the most bloom from the middle of March to the middle of April.

Fun in Mi's shop

楽しいミのお店

Mi’s shop in Dhapasi 

I like looking around in local grocery stores when I travel abroad and I could experience a real Nepali local shop! San’s anti, Mi is running a grocery store where I got yummy Nepali snacks that I introduced here before.

Japanese nice snacks

日本のお菓子

Today I want to introduce Japanese snacks. Japanese snacks are great as much as Nepli!
From the left....Calpis Gumi Drops, Umaibo, Koala's martch, Caplico. On the top is Look A la mode.
今度は日本のお菓子の紹介。日本のお菓子はネパールのお菓子に勝るとも劣らずすごいんです！
左からカルピスグミ、うまい棒、コアラのマーチ、カプリコ、Look A la modeです。

Calpis Gum Drops

This is gum drops flavored with “Calpis”.

Unique tastes in Nepal

ネパールのお菓子は独特に美味しい

You can find foods of complicated tastes in Nepal.
Today I introduce three snacks here.
ネパールでは複雑な味の食べ物に出会えます。

JEERA COOKIES

This is JEERA COOKIES. Cookie is supposed to be sweet, right? But this cookie is sweet and spicy at the same time !
Because it is flavored with jeera. Jeera is always associated with curry to me and it felt weird for the first time when I tried it but I could not stop eating it after I tired two.
これはクッキー。
クッキーは普通甘いと思いますよね。でも、これは甘くてスパイシー！　クミンが使われてるから。クミンは、わたしの中ではカレーと結びついてるので、初めて食べたときは変な感じがしましたが、二つ食べたらもう止まりませんでした。

Amazing Nepali sweets

ネパールのオイシイスイーツ

Discovery of new tastes

I discovered new taste in Nepal. After I came back to work, I shared them with my colleagues.
One of them fell love in with them and asked me to ask San to send a plenty of them. And they arrived today!

SOAN PAPDI

I sheared this with my colleagues. :) Everyone appearanlty enjoyed eating this.
San told me that is from India. When I tasted this for the first time, I was thrilled actually. The taste and texture is amazing.

Its main ingredients are

Delicious foods and buffalo

Nepali curries and green peppers

I love spicy food and often eat Indian and Thai food. I have them twice a week at least.

I looked forward to tasting real Nepali curries!

But…Nepali curries pretty spicy and hot to me. First time I tasted a local curry, tears came out from my eyes. San was eating it sometimes tasting green peppers….

San told me that Nepali curries are not hotter than Indian and Sri Lankan ones.

Anyway I enjoyed fully many curries because my San's sister, Pun kindly changed her recipes and cooked curries which were less spicy than regular ones.  And always I visit there, she cook many dishes for me.

She is a great chef and doesn't have any dishes that she is not able to cook !

Nepal is suffering from outage so often and people don't have microwaves in their house. I have never seen any processed meals like in the US.  Meals are hand cooked. That is why every meals are so delicious and feel healthy.

Nepali MOMOs are stuffed with Baffalo

This is "momo" which is a traditional dumpling. Originally this is from Tibet.

Pun cooked them for me!

"momos" are filled with vegetables or buffalo meat. Nepali people basically don't eat beef,  instead they eat buffalo a meat.  Nepali people consider cows holly animals because they produce milk. 

Slaughtering of cows and bulls is completely banned.I remember…. There are wild cows walking on the streets….　

I asked San whether he had never had beef in his life. His answer is … indeed he has never eaten beef;Actually buffalo's Japanese name is "water-cow" . Yes, they are one kind of cattles to me.

わたしはスパイスを使ったお料理が大好きで、頻繁にインド料理やタイ料理を食べます。1週間に2回は少なくとも食べるかな。なので、ネパール本番のカレーを食べることを楽しみにしてました！

でも、、。ネパールのカレーはわたしにはスパイシーで辛すぎました。初めてカレーを口にしたとき、辛すぎて涙がでてきた。そのよこでサンは青唐辛子をかじりながらカレー食べてたけど。。。

サンによると、ネパールのカレーはインドやスリランカのものに比べれば、辛くないそうです。

ともあれ、サンお姉さんのプンがレシピを変え、スパイスを減らして作ってくれたので、カレーを存分に楽しみました！プンのお料理の腕はすごくて、なんでも作っちゃうんです！

ご存知のようにネパールは貧しい国。電子レンジなんて誰も持っていません。結果、食事用の加工食品は見かけず。その結果、お食事は基本的にオーガニックになるわけで、だから何食べても美味しくて、健康的な感じがします！

これはネパールの餃子、Momo。もともとはチベットから伝播したとか。プンの手作り。

momoの中身は、バッファローのお肉。水牛です。ネパールの人は、基本的に牛肉を食べません。ネパールでは牛は牛乳を生み出すことから、崇められているんです。殺すことは禁止されています。そういえば道を野良牛が歩いてたの見たな・・。

サンに聞いた、では今まで一度も牛を食べたことがないのかと。答えは・・ないらしい！

日本語ではバッファローって水牛。つまり彼らも、わたしにとっては牛ですが。