Sakura Picnic

Happy Golden Week, May Day, Star Wars Day, Children's Day and Cinco De Mayo (all are belated though) haha!! Well, MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!! I'm so wishing all kids all over the world their happiness, especially those who've lost their both parents by all the recent disasters.



I finally got to go see sakura for the first time this year. We had this lunch viewing beautiful sakura trees. This one has mayo-shrimp, dashimaki-tamago (a kind of tamagoyaki), butter-sauteed purple potato, curry flavored shimeji and chicken, four kani-mayo norimaki, and rare cheesecakes with strawberry sauce for a treat after lunch.





This type of norimaki is very easy to make even without a sushi mat because it doesn't need to be rolled tightly or sliced. You could gobble it down nom nom. Kanimayo is crab meat tossed with mayonnaise. It's okay to use any foods you like as filling -- cut cucumber, scrambled egg, cut tamagoyaki, sauteed spam or hotdog, meat or chicken soboro, umeboshi, canned tuna, sliced avocado.... mmm any suggestions?

babykins Kanimayo Norimaki Recipe
Crab meat or crab kamaboko
Sushi rice or plain rice
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Salt
Nori
Plastic wrap

1) Prepare kanimayo. Toss crab meat with mayo, a little lemon juice and salt.
2) Place a nori on plastic wrap, and then spread rice thinly and evenly over the nori, leaving an even border of uncovered nori along the top edge. If you use plain rice, sprinkle a little salt over nori at this point.
3) Place some of the kanimayo on the rice, and then roll it up like a roll cake. Decorate and wrap as you like.


babykins Sushi Vinegar Recipe
5 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Put the ingredients in a jam jar or something, and shake it.
Add it to steaming rice and mix well. --- 1 - 2 teaspoons sushi vinegar per cup of cooked rice.

Note
Adjust the sugar and salt to taste.
Fresh-cooked rice is preferable, but you can use microwaved leftover rice as well.
In order not to make your sushi rice gooey, cook rice with somewhat less water than usual.




Actually we went to the public library I can enjoy all kinds of books, and feel so refreshed and comfortable each time. So I love to visit there so much. These pictures are of the park right beside the library. Fortunately, the day we went, the sakura trees were just in full blossom! Although it was still windy and chilly, we were ever so excited and impressed with the beautiful and spectacular sight.







The park is a historic place where there used to be a Bugyosyo (magistrate's office of the samurai period) until 140 or so years ago. A part of the bugyosyo was duplicated in the center of the park two years ago. We were able to look around inside of it as well. It looked like a gorgeous mansion of the highest samurai.





You can hardly see the way this moat is a huge star shape, but you could check it out from the top of this tower. Tooons of sukura trees are planted along the edges of the moat! The moat was made around the magistrate's office in order to prevent enemy invasions.







Don't stare at meee! Bye!



Plop!



We're having another holiday left. Fabulous weekend everyone!!