rice porridge (aka congee) and the shelf life of thousand year-old eggs

I tested out the おかゆ(okayu) function on my rice cooker. Okayu is Japanese rice porridge, quite similar to Chinese rice porridge or congee. It worked quite nicely! Soft rice that still maintains its texture.

However, my thousand year-old eggs expired in December, so I am left with the burning question, do thousand year-old eggs really have a shelf life of a mere 3 months?

Update: Happy New Year! May it be a good one.

a little behind

You know you're a little behind on things when you have email from 2004 sitting in your inbox.

At least that message was not awaiting a reply. The oldest message awaiting a reply is from January, 2006. Erk. I probably have older email sitting in Outlook though.

In unrelated news, I am always amused when Japanese acquaintances comment upon my facile use of chopsticks. People use chopsticks for non-Japanese food too! In contrast, I get surprised when I encounter people who cannot use chopsticks. It's funny what we consider to be 'normal.'

Happy Holidays!

It's been a while since my last post. Work and other things have swamped me, but at least life has been interesting.

I have several New Year resolutions that I am mulling over. There are the usual ones like "get more exercise," "study kanji," "cook more,"and "go to sleep at a normal hour," but one new possibility is "don't sweat the small stuff a.k.a. see the big picture."

Happy Holidays! I hope that you are with the people that you care about, and may there be peace one day soon.

the best pumpkins ever

Check out these carved pumpkins at Andrea's blog. I defy anyone to produce a cooler pair of pumpkins.

I suppose some people might find it a bit off color, so if you are very squeamish about vegetables perhaps you should not look at the link. Still, I don't imagine that anyone would have a problem with it.

bone marrow donors

I just heard that a friend's mother needs a bone marrow transplant.

Have you registered for bone marrow donation? I haven't, but apparently the process involves a mere 15 minutes and a swab inside the cheek. I will look into it. In the U.S., there is the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) Registry: www.marrow.org.

Asian donors in the U.S. are uncommon.

gift from a new neighbor

Gee, the new neighbors recently have been very polite. Last month my new next-door neighbor presented me with two little sets of towels when he introduced himself. Then, last Sunday I found a big blue envelope with a message from my new neighbor downstairs. A JCB gift certificate for 1000 yen! I think the new neighbor is a girl, but it's just a guess. I was out all day so the neighbor couldn't introduce him/herself in person. I believe it's traditional to give soba (buckwheat noodles) to people who have just moved. So maybe this weekend I'll give them some. I need to find out what kind of soba is appropriate - regular stuff from the grocery store seems kind of weak.

manner mode

When I first moved to Japan and got a mobile phone, the term "manner mode" (マナーモード) quite baffled me. To begin with I wasn't quite sure what the katakana stood for. Guess what it means!