創意和果子 Creativity blooms for Japanese confections in summer

創意和果子 Creativity blooms for Japanese confections in summer

繡球花

Creativity blooms for Japanese confections in summer

2011/06/22

Hydrangea as interpreted by Kasho Kikuya, center, and clockwise from top: Toshimaya; Toraya; Kasho Kikuya; Ryoguchiya Korekiyo; Tsuruya Yoshinobu; and Toraya. Some of the confections are limited production items. (The Asahi Shimbun)

With rainy season at its height, one flower seems to thrive and bloom in the seemingly never-ending drizzle that blankets much of Japan during the early summer months.

While nowhere celebrated like the cherry blossoms, the hydrangea, with its petals in hues of blue, purple, pink and white, adds flair and color to an otherwise monotonous and gloomy season.

So it seems fitting that the flower is a popular theme chosen by creators of Japanese confections, whose intricately designed sweets attempt to capture the sentimentalism surrounding the changing of seasons.

A sampler of the various hydrangea-themed morsels created by artisans at various confectionaries shows the diversity of the ingredients and techniques that are used to create wagashi, or Japanese confections.

One morsel features a ball of bean paste sprinkled with blue- and purple-colored gelatin to recreate an entire grove of hydrangeas. Another more simple creation made of a pinkish, marzipan-like concoction of bean paste, glutinous rice and sugar features a single flower with four squarish petals, while yet another tries to emulate the image of dew lingering on the leaves and petals.

"The shapes, colors and names are essential in creating a sense of the season in wagashi," said Keiko Nakayama, a chief researcher at the Toraya Archives Toraya Bunko, which records the history of Tokyo-based Japanese confectionary Toraya.

According to Nakayama, Toraya, established nearly 480 years ago, has 3,000 titles for confections, some of which are documented in old scriptures.

While adhering to tradition, Japanese confections have also reflected the times.

"With abstract designs, there is the joy of trying to imagine what is being portrayed while listening to the titles. However, many recent confections seem to pursue a realist approach," Nakayama said. "It's a little sad to think that the sense of playfulness has been lost."

While appetites become thinner with the approaching summer heat, the creativity of wagashi artisans appear to reach the apex.

With the arrival of such seasonal motifs as peonies, morning glories, goldfish, fireflies and crystal-clear streams, confectionaries try to evoke a sense of coolness to match the summer weather with "kudzu" and "kanten" (agar) gelatin and other translucent or watery ingredients.

It's not just the artisans who are changing with the times. According to Nakayama, people nowadays are breaking away from the traditional image that wagashi is enjoyed best when served with green tea.

"Some customers tell us that they enjoy their 'yokan' (bean paste jelly) with espresso or cognac," Nakayama said.

Toraya Gallery on the second floor of Toraya's main office in Tokyo's Akasaka district occasionally features exhibitions on wagashi.

banana split

Spotlight:

Banana Split

What's in a banana split? Well, obviously you start with a banana. Split it in half and lay it in an oblong dish. On top of it, plop three scoops of ice cream — traditionally, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. On one scoop, pour pineapple sauce; on one, chocolate syrup; and on the third, butterscotch topping. Top it all off with whipped cream, crushed nuts and a maraschino cherry. Voilá! Banana split! There are a few people and places that take credit for the tasty dessert. Some say it was born at a soda fountain in a drugstore in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in 1904, and cost 10 cents. Wilmington, Ohio, also likes to take credit, and to celebrate, they have an annual Banana Split Festival June 10-11. It's not particularly good for your waistline, but it's a lot of fun!

Quote:

"I doubt whether the world holds for any one a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream." — Heywood Broun

tomato paste

《中英對照讀新聞》Eating pizza can stop sunburn 吃披薩可防曬傷

◎鄭寺音

Eating pizza covered in tomato paste helps beat sunburn and wrinkles, say scientists.

科學家說，吃覆蓋番茄醬的披薩，有助對抗曬傷與皺紋。

Volunteers who stuffed the topping for 12 weeks had a third more protection against UV rays and higher levels of anti-ageing procollagen.

志願者吃這種口味的披薩12週後，對紫外線的防護能力增加3分之1，抗老化的前膠原蛋白含量也較高。

Researchers believe lycopene, the powerful antioxidant in tomatoes which gives them their colour, is responsible.

研究者相信，給予番茄顏色的有效抗氧化劑茄紅素，是原因之所在。

It has the ability to neutralise harmful molecules produced in skin exposed to UV rays.

它有能力中和皮膚暴露於紫外線時製造的有害分子。

The chemical, known to slash the risk of prostate cancer, is boosted by cooking.

這種化學物質，已知可減少攝護腺癌的風險，可藉著烹調增加。

And paste for pizzas is made from highly concentrated cooked tomatoes.

披薩的醬是從高度濃縮的烹煮番茄製成。

Volunteers ate five tablespoons of it plus ten grams of olive oil a day, while a control group had only oil.

志願者每天吃5湯匙的番茄醬，加上10公克的橄欖油，對照組則只吃橄欖油。

Prof Lesley Rhodes, of the University of Manchester, said："Tomatoes can’t replace sun creams but may be a good additive."

曼徹斯特大學的羅德斯教授說：「番茄不能取代防曬乳液，但或許是個不錯的添加物。」

新聞辭典

slash：深砍、割破 、鞭打、大幅削減、苛刻批評。例句：The reviewers slashed the composer’s work.（評論家猛烈批評這位作曲家的作品 。）

paste：糊狀物、醬、膏。例句：She spread some tomato paste on the fried fish.（她在炸好的魚上塗了一層番茄醬。）

stuff：大吃。例句：They’d been stuffing themselves with snacks all afternoon, so they didn’t want any dinner.（他們整個下午大吃零食，所以完全不想吃晚餐。）

Nara eateries get shot at fabled Michelin Guide

2011/05/31

Kakinoha-zushiAsuka nabeChagayu porridgeBernard Delmas, president of Nihon Michelin Tire Co., announces the addition of Nara Prefecture restaurants to the Kansai edition of Michelin Guide on April 13. (Wataru Kishigami)

While Nara Prefecture has long attracted tourists to its ancient capitals and historical sites, the food here has always been just an afterthought.

That could change in October, when the Kansai edition of the fabled Michelin Guide will include Nara Prefecture restaurants in its ratings for the first time.

Many Nara Prefecture residents and restaurateurs say they cannot wait to see how their local restaurants will stack up under the scrutiny of the world's top authority in the gourmet world.

Junichiro Horie, owner of the Italian restaurant Ristorante i-lunga in Nara's Kasugano district, said the prefecture's tourism has been characterized by a passive business approach targeting tourists who visit the Great Buddha in Todaji, Nara Prefecture.

"The Black Ship has finally arrived in Nara," Horie, 40, said, comparing the Michelin Guide to Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in a Japanese port in 1853. "I hope the upcoming Michelin Guide will help revitalize the city."

According to the Michelin Guide secretariat, about 200 restaurants in Nara Prefecture had been tagged before the French editor in chief and seven Japanese inspectors started researching them last fall. It is not known if the new guide will cover restaurants in the prefecture or in Nara city.

The news had local restaurateurs searching their memories to see if any inspectors may have dined in their restaurants.

Rating restaurants is conducted by Michelin inspectors who go undercover as customers. Their identities and methods are secret.

In early April, Obana, a Japanese restaurant in Nara's Takahata town, had a middle-aged woman in a suit as a customer, owner Minoru Shindo said.

She ordered a "kaiseki" Japanese set course meal priced at 3,900 yen ($48.28). While dining, she took pictures of the dishes and asked questions such as "Where is this from?"

The level of her questioning was quite high, Shindo, 60, recalled.

"She was apparently not an ordinary customer," he said with great interest. "Maybe we were being graded."

Previously, a survey by the Nanto Economic Research Institute in 2003 found that Tokyo residents did not expect much of Nara food when they visited the city. Asked what they looked forward to in Nara, "food" ranked only 10th.

But an official said times have changed.

"Before, there may have been restaurants which offered tourists' dishes, thinking any which they were prepared was OK," said Miho Kakuyama, a marketing official of the prefecture. "But it is no longer so."

The prefecture has hosted the Nara Food Festival since 2009, inviting noted chefs from across the country and having them prepare dishes using ingredients produced in the prefecture, such as Yamato vegetables.

About 100,000 people showed up to the month-long event during the festival last fall. An event attended by local chefs also attracted many visitors.

"Nara Prefecture meets the standard as a candidate for the Michelin guidebook," Kakuyama said proudly.

On April 13, Bernard Delmas, president of Nihon Michelin Tire Co., was in Nara to announce that the prefecture would be added to the Michelin Guide's Kansai edition, and said at the news conference, "I enjoyed the 'chagayu' porridge I had for lunch."

That surprised Yoshinobu Hasegawa, a 69-year-old "minshuku" inn owner, who said he did not think chagayu was popular among foreigners.

Four to five groups of foreigners stay every month at his Hatago Hasegawa inn, known for its local specialties, and many are from France, where Michelin is based, but most of them do not even try chagayu, he said.

"Westerners are not familiar with rice gruel, and the yellow color may make them refrain from even trying it," he said.

According to Hasegawa, one popular dish among foreign guests is Asuka nabe, a traditional pot cooking method using a broth made from milk, soy bean paste and chicken.

He said since milk is an internationally common drink, it is liked by people from all over the world.

Hasegawa is circumspect about Michelin's upcoming book, saying, "While I am grateful that the guidebook appreciates our tradition, I am worried on what scale the high-end oriented Michelin will grade us."

Michelin's guide for the Kansai area, which was first published in 2009, has ignored Osaka's trademark regional specialities such as "takoyaki" (octopus balls) and "okonomiyaki" pancakes.

Yoshihisa Masui, deputy secretary-general of a Nara-based NPO to study food culture in Nara, said, "As far as I have read, the guidebooks have been edited under the supervision of foreigners. I have not come across any review that has insights into popular food culture."

(This article was written by Daizo Teramoto and Masaaki Yashiro.)

Chagayu

---

Content Number:20644

This traditional rice broth of the Kumano region has the flavor of tea. It is easy to digest, and known locally as "okaisan." In the cold winter people eat it hot, and in the summer, when it is hard to work up an appetite, it is eaten cold.

創意肉干派對Jerky Party

譬如說有數十攤 與會者繳約180美元 可以任意吃 並評選
前一陣在NHK 看到報導美國的創意肉干派對
相當有創意的料理

肉干的种类繁多，有猪肉干、牛肉干、羊肉干、马肉干、兔肉干 鹿肉乾......等，这类产品的水分活度很低，大多数细菌已经不能生长，故保质期较长，这类产品的蛋白质 ...

牛肉乾，係零食、乾粮、手信、東南亞有名土產嘢食，星加坡、澳門同埋台灣都話佢哋最出名^{[未記出處或冇根據]}。牛肉乾係牛肉用柴炭燒乾而製成，有時加上唔同嘅汁，好似蜜糖、果皮等。'

ジャーキー【jerky】

乾燥肉。「ビーフ―」

What the Hell is a Jerky Party?!

by admin 11:35am - 03/05/2010

On June 30th, 2010, hundreds of people flowed through the doors of Brooklyn Fireproof East to enjoy handfuls, mouthfuls, and beer-mouths full of jerky; and there was much rejoicing. I won't bore you with the heroics that made the night possible. No, really, I'm not going to. Seriously, I've got-- fine. : Though the jerky was center stage, it was nearly overshadowed by the mind-melting music party that simply had to break out, given the number of acts we booked. We had some body-humpin' beats from Trifling Mental Soundsystem, a palate cleansing opening act by Dexter Scott, and an historic appearance by the highly regarded but totally un-beefy (except jake) Freelance Whales. Accommodations were provided by the always host-pitable Brooklyn Fireproof East (thanks Leslie, Thomas and Sean, and of course James for hookin us up), copious PBR by the all-giving Rachel Lennon and Her Fruitful Connection, exquisite snapshots Liz Vidyarthi, and [jerky] tacos by the dudes of Tacolada Taco Truck. We are also severely indebted to our creative-photoshop consultant, Brenna Powers, who supplied the art work. And of course, the SlantShack Jerky girls (photos to come): Alyson Baker Mai Teshima Elif Muyesser Lizzie Olson Sarah Millsaps Megan Edwards Julie Maddox Christen Currie Nina Mahjoub Debbie Williams Brigid Abraham Ashley Kurose Gina Grinstead Ailie Jenkins If you missed it, I'm sorry. There may be more, there may not. We can't say for sure. Jerky makes its own rules...our job is to oblige.

sushi roll

Sumida Ward "bento" maker Koichi Shindo, center, and his sushi roll that won the ward's official seal of approval (Louis Templado)Closeup of the Sumida Chanko Roll (Louis Templado)

Sumida rolls out specialties ahead of Tokyo Sky Tree tourism surge

BY LOUIS TEMPLADO STAFF WRITER

The tower attracted nearly 40,000 visitors to the ward during the Golden Week holiday from April 29 to May 5, which is quite a feat when you consider it isn't even finished yet.

Come next spring, it will open to the public as the world's tallest tower, measuring a height of 634 meters.

But Sumida city hall isn't waiting for the finishing touches to cash in on the tourism bonanza.

Long in the shadow of famous Asakusa district across the river in Taito Ward, Sumida Ward is making moves to raise its profile and find things to fill the tower's souvenir shops once Tokyo Sky Tree finally opens.

"Sumida has always been known as a place where people make things, real things," explains Kazuhiro Kashimada, chief of the ward's economic affairs division.

"But unlike regional tourist spots, we don't have a definitive product, such as towels, for example. We have many workshops and factories producing very different products. We want to make that diversity the our selling point," Kashimada says.

Last year, the ward created its own seal of approval, Sumida Modern, which it bestowed on 28 items deemed the best in the ward.

Ranging from hand-chiseled calling card cases and copper water sprinklers to water-repelling swimsuits and giant rolls of sushi with the diameter of a CD-ROM, the items were chosen from nearly 150 local businesses.

At the end of April, the ward restarted the long selection process, with an eye to creating a lineup to show off in a 650-square-meter tourism showcase to be set up inside Tokyo Sky Tree.

The ward itself is the product of samurai minds turned to handicrafts, according to historian Mitsuhiro Seki.

After the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when the warriors were no longer needed, they moved from the precincts around Edo castle to land across the Sumida river. There they were urged to take up trades to support themselves.

During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), they produced uniforms, shoes and buckles, as well as mechanical parts for Japan's modernization. After World War II, small factories settled in, giving the area its vanishing working-class vibe.

Selling the Sumida Modern brand means product-placing some of that history.

The whopping, ward-approved Sumida Chanko Roll, for example, is themed around sumo because the sport's Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan is located in the district. The sushi roll's 15 ingredients are all things that grow above the soil or have no hands to touch the ground (because that means defeat in sumo), or they have names that pun on the word "victory."

"I didn't really believe that design and presentation would help make money" until ward officials teamed up designers and food coordinators with his product, Shindo says. The attractive and amusing packaging draw the eye.

At a test run of the extra-large sushi roll at a ward-sponsored event, he sold out of all 300 pieces he'd brought in a single day.

Shindo's "bento" (box-lunch) factory employs 50 people and makes 1,600 lunches a day for offices in Tokyo's central business district. Although the firm produces just eight pieces of the Sumida Chanko Roll in a day, making it a culinary collector's item, plans are to ramp production way up.

The sky's the limit, says the businessman, once Tokyo Sky Tree reaches its pinnacle.

談「懷疑一切」"De omnibus dubitandum"

2005/12/13

筆記：談「懷疑一切」"De omnibus dubitandum"

De omnibus dubitandum. (You must have doubts about everything). ---Marx's favourite motto. -- 【懐疑主義 ( かいぎしゅぎ scepticism, skepticism) 】

馬克思最喜愛的箴言：「懷疑一切。」 "De omnibus dubitandum. "

（" You must have doubts about everything."； 意味は「 Everything should be

doubted （全てに疑念を持つ べきである）」）

[ 英] 戴維 ‧麥克萊倫（David McLellan ）『卡爾‧馬克思傳』（第 3 版），王珍譯，北京；人民大學出版社出版，2005 ，p.430 ）。

這句，很早就聽過，所以決定作筆記。

( 在 "Introduction to Philosophy --Study Questions for Final Exam" 問了一系列的哲學考題：http://www.homestead.com/mscourses/files/spring04finalstudyQ.htm

其中第 31-4題為：（希望這篇「多少」能解答第 34問題）

1. What were the elements in Hegel's philosophy that Soren Kierkegaard found unacceptable?
2. What was the original title for Kierkegaard's short novel Johannes Climacus?
3. How is Johannes described at the beginning of the novel Johannes Climacus?
4. What is meant by de omnibus dubitandum est? )

----

"De omnibus dubitandum." - Rene Descartes

這當然要談一下笛卡爾將許多預設懷疑之、擺開來的方法，不過他的目的是證明物理世界可以用數學來描述。（ 17世紀中）

"…..However, Descartes maintained that the Scriptures were true. This would appear to make a divide between different kinds of truth. How did Descartes, after all, come to know the veracity of the Scriptures? Why were the Scriptures not the object of his scrutiny? His explanation for not appealing to an a priori acceptance of Scripture is that it would appear to unbelievers to be a circular argument. This might make it appear that his "method" was solely for unbelievers. Whether Descartes' nod to Scripture was also designed to satisfy the Church, I cannot say….."

-----

羅素在 1914年之作品

10)Cf. Russell, Our Know1edge of the External World as a Field for Sceintific Method in Philosophy(London; G. Allen & Unwin, 1914), pp.70-72.

　【中文翻譯本北京商務，約 1995年】

「知識の確からしさの程度」にかんしてラッセルは，1914年に発表した『外界にかんするわれわれの知識』 10)において，デカルトの "de omnibus dubitandum" の方法を用いて，この世で最も確かな知識は何であろうかという問の答として，知識の確からしさと疑わしさの程度をきめている。それによれば，心身ともに健康な人ならその確からしさを疑いえないような所与を「 硬い所与」(hard data)と名付けている。

-----

這也是祈克果 Søren Kierkegaard 在1842 之作品：英文本： Kierkegaard's Writings, VII: Philosophical Fragments, or a Fragment of Philosophy/Johannes Climacus, or De omnibus dubitandum est. -- 這，有人說是小說。 (Two books in one volume) Edited and translated by Edna H. Hong and Howard V. Hong

普林斯頓大學出版社

參考 D. Anthony Storm's Commentary On Kierkegaard - Johannes Climacus
Johannes Climacus, or De omnibus dubitandum est. A Narrative;

http://sorenkierkegaard.org/kw7b.htm

-----

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil:

尼采的這本書有幾個中文翻譯本。

他主要說形上學家固然知道『懷疑一切』這句話，不過他們的基本信仰是相信： the faith in antithetical values. （p.16 , Penguine）

這也是他要「破」的。