First Weekend Out

Hooray, we survived our first week living in Japan!

If you are curious about our first weekend here, you have come to the right post.  We stayed on base mostly, but did get a chance to go out with one of Ryan's coworkers, his wife and their baby.  Otherwise, we were confined to the base area since we did not have a car yet.  We did get smart and rent some bikes.  The rental cars were all out, so this was the next best option.

Most of the eating was done on base as we explored the various dining options.  In Europe we had some different Fanta flavors, but nothing like this:

Sweet!  That's green apple Fanta.

The food here was not all that great, but it is one of our 24 hour options.  I have never quite been served a veggie wrap like this before.  The middle was jam packed with cold shredded lettuce, but the outer area was sauteed mushrooms and peppers with cheese.  I wasn't really sure what they were going for with this one.  I don't think I have ever had something even close to this when ordering a veggie wrap before. I will not be ordering this again because I don't like shredded iceberg that gets served cold on warm things so it starts to turn slimy and wilt.  Iceberg just isn't all that appealing to begin with, but mushy and wilted makes me cringe even more.  At least I had some onion rings to enjoy with it!

   

Saturday night we took our first trip to the closest major city, which is like 30 minutes away.  The first stop was a furniture store.  They had lots of cute and tiny furniture.  It was a little like Ikea, but not quite, and lots of fun to walk around and look.  Also fun was the bathroom.  Yes, again with the bathroom.  Many toilets also have a little washing sink on top.  I just think it's funny.

 

Dinner was at CoCo's Curry House, which is another top spot people kept telling me about.  If you have lived in Japan you know about CoCo's.

 

Here's how it works: You either pick a curry dish from the menu, or go ahead and create your own.  Here are the steps in the picture below:

You pick your sauce, then your rice portion, then your spice level, then your toppings.  When you are ready to order, you push this button and someone will come take your order.

 

Since the curry was meat, I had a nice salad with some crispy shrimp.

 

Ryan had the curry with chicken cutlet (think katsu chicken) and cheese.  From what I gathered from Ryan and the others we were dining with, this is just amazing food.

 

I really liked my salad, and we also enjoyed some cheese naan.

 

Sunday we decided to go out on the bikes and look at cars.  Somehow we wound up going on a long bike ride around the base to explore everything.  With a little off-roading, we found this area.  Kinda spooky.

 

Then we found the base beach at the lake.  You can rent these little cabins to camp out in our just use for the day or something.  They are tiny, but cute.

 

We also stopped by the golf course and explored there too.  I was pleased to discover they offered a vegetarian menu at the club house restaurant.  I ordered a veggie burger with a side of veggies.  This was a great lunch.

 

Ryan had a grilled chicken sandwich. 

It was just what we needed before continuing back to the other side of the base and getting some rest before Ryan's first real week of work (although we did have 2 tours that were mandatory scheduled for the week).

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever heard of CoCo's?  Ever tried Japanese curry?  Do you like spicy foods?

Tamarillo Adventures

Ever heard of a tamarillo?

Me either.  That is until a few weeks ago when I spotted it in the store.  I was think tomatillo, but that wasn't it, and it was in with the fruits.  Not to mention it was pricey, so I passed.  After passing by and passing by, I caved, and bought one.

Meet the tamarillo...

 

It looks like a nectarine skin, but a softer flesh, and a different shape.  It even resembles a nectarine in color inside, but that is where the similarities end.

Here is some information from www.tamarillo.com:

Tantalise your tastebuds with the exotic tamarillo.

Just dig a spoon in, eat it raw, or tempt yourself with one of our tasty smoothie, pizza, muffin, dinner or dessert recipes. Juicy and packed with goodness the tamarillo fruit is a very good source of vitamin C, and is low in fat and calories. 

Add sliced red, amber, and gold tamarillos to your cheese-boards, salads and decorate your dishes for a distinctive look and flavour. Tamarillos can be poached, fried, grilled, baked or casseroled to add taste and nutrition to every meal.

The website also gives some nutrition information:

• Low in fat and hence calories
• Low in carbohydrates and the carbohydrate present is mainly in the form of fibre
• High in potassium but extremely low in sodium, which is a desirable balance for a healthy diet
• Contains other trace elements important for health, in particular copper and manganese
• Source of fibre
• Source of Vitamin A, B6 and C. Also contains Vitamin E and Thiamine

Not that I needed to list those facts for you here, it is a fruit and you can imagine it packs in some good nutrition.

The flavor is very tart, but in a good way.  The inside is juicy and contains edible seeds.  It is hard to explain what these are like, but it reminds me of a nectarine and passion fruit, but tangier.  I give this 2 thumbs up.  I wish that they had the other 2 colors here to try, but they only offer the red ones at the commissary.  I'll be buying this again.

Ryan's mom and aunt (they are twins!) are coming to visit later this week.  I know I will wind up with many pictures of all the fun, so I need to clean out the folder of pictures on my desktop that are just piling up.  Please excuse the randomness...it's for a good cause.

Ryan made me this fun egg and cheese on a bagel sandwich.  A little like Mickey Mouse.

 

We tried some more ice cream.  Too bad it was not freezing and the motor overheated.  We got creative and used the immersion blender to aerate the mixture and then froze it anyway.  We seem to be striking out in the kitchen recently.  Oh well, we are making the most of it.

I bought this when I was in the States.  I am still wondering how this actually made it to store shelves.  Really? Crunchy Nut?  Nuts in Every Bite?

Plus, it was not all that good.

Wanna talk about random?  Grandpa, I know you are reading, so this is for you.

My grandfather decided some time ago that he wanted to buy a bike in a bag.  This way it is portable.  Good idea, right?  Wrong?  He was so worried he would never get it back in the bag that he never took it out.

My grandfather just sent it to us and Ryan assembled it.  I will take a picture of the thing out of the bag as soon as I can.  Here is what it looks like before becoming a ridable bike.

How funny is that?

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever seen or tried a tamarillo?  Any new produce finds?

Jumped on the pumpkin bandwagon

I just couldn't resist the fall spirit and had to buy this at Trader Joe's. I just had to have the pumpkin! Sunday morning seemed like a great time to make these. Ryan was assembling my bike, so I directed myself to the kitchen to make some pumpkin waffles.

Working on a nice, smooth, pumpkin smelling batter.

Here is my fun little waffle maker. Ryan bought it for me last year for Hanukah.
Not perfect, but not too bad. I at least did not make a huge mess everywhere with too much batter. We usually over fill, so I was cautious this time.
They have a little orange tint to them.

Then the strangest thing happen after breakfast. I won't lie, I did ignore the pounding on the dorr the first 3 times I heard it. My neighbors are doing some construction and I thought maybe it was just noise from this. Finally I got up and checked the door to find my next door neighbor outside with some food. WOW, they brought us food they had cooked. These are little pastries with a custard filling. I asked what was inside and they said natas, which is cream.

And for Ryan there was chicken and pineapple (galina com ananas- I think I got that right). We are hoping this is not one of our little chicken friends that lay our eggs over there.

It was a gorgeous day so we went back to the ExpoTerceira. Much busier Sunday than it was on Saturday. We also wanted to come back so we could eat at O Pescador.

I just had to stop at this booth again and watch this man make funny sculptures out of produce.

This is why we really went back.

Awesome looking menu selections. Some different and some the same from the regular menu. Of couse you see the pumpkin soup, which would complete my pumpkin craving kinda day.

Bread

Plus Speadable Cheese

Equals YUM! This was actually very good cheese although processed. I admit, their real cheese in the restaurant is much better.

A smaller, but equally as tasty, portion of their delicious bruschetta with banana chutney.

Here's my pumpkin soup. Color was good, taste was not as good. I liked it, but I have had better. This was thickened with a lot of potato.

Veggies and tofu for me.

The small steak for Ryan. The food was good, but not as spectacular as usual. I give them credit for trying as they were cooking out of a makeshift kitchen on a pier in the marina. So with that in mind, it was actually good.

Now you know the meal has ended!

Then we walked around the expo a little. I found the Michelin tire guy made it all the way to the Azores.

They had a booth out displaying the many cheeses of the island (ilha quijos). This was a heat lamp that melts the cheese to make it spread on foods. Almost like fondue, minus the fondue pot.

Since this expo displayed local business and the economy of the island, there were also some home items on display.

This is the Prius, but not just any Prius.

This Prius is SOLAR powered. This is the panel.

A hot tub. It just looked very relaxing.

This is a TV. Look how thin they are these days. That is just crazy.

So that was mostly it for Sunday. Remember this bike I bought when I was visiting the States. Well Ryan reassembled my bike and the weather was just amazing, so we went for a little ride just to test it out. It was great. There are some massive hills here, so I will need to practice before giving those a try. The inclines are insane.

I also want to review this product for those of you with curly hair. I bought this at Sephora when I was home after my mom gave me an article about it from the newspaper. The woman at the store gave me great advice...use less than what the bottle says. The bottle says a QUARTER sized dollop. Then rub into wet hair and comb through. I did get my hair cut wile at home so it is much shorther than usual, but boy am I glad I followed her instructions. I have been using a DIME sized dollop and it workd great. The humidity is no match for this product. I could tell the difference that same night. I am very happy with this purchase and I will continue to use it for as long as I am on the most humid location on earth. My curly hair thanks this product!

Today is the last of my EASY days for a while. Tomorrow until Friday I am substitute teaching for the high school science teacher at the American school here on the base. That by itself does not sound busy, but it is also my one week Master's course (Creative Problem Solving) on base. At least all my precourse work and papers are completed. I just have to attend class 6-9:30 pm Tuesday-Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. Still, not too bad. But tonight I teach 12 am and 2 am seminars, and Thursday is a 12 am seminar, so I am wondering when I can get some sleep. I am hoping to still get some short posts up, so we will see!

QUESTION: My assigned day to bring food for class is Saturday. Any suggestions for a quick and easy, healthy brunch type item? I was thinking just grab some yogurts, but I feel very uncreative with that choice.