ChanomiTalk

小松菜の蒸しケーキというレセピーをみつけ、小松菜の代わりに大根葉を使ってみました。実は、小松菜なる野菜を知りません。私の育った福岡では別の名で呼ぶのかもしれません。レセピーでは小松菜をそのままミキサーにかけるとありますので、固そうな大根葉はあらかじめ茹でる事にしました。その後はレセピーのとおりに卵、ヨーグルト、サラダ油、砂糖と一緒にミキサーにかけ、ふるっておいた小麦粉、ベーキングパウダー、重曹を加えて型にいれ、２０分ばかり蒸すときれいな緑色のケーキの出来上がりです。甘過ぎずさっぱりとした味で、蒸しパンとケーキの中間といったところ。大根の葉のにおいはなく、この点の善し悪しは決めかねています。オーブンで焼いてもみましたが、ケーキの外側の緑色がパンのように茶色になってしまい、やはり蒸す方がよいようです。

I have just gotten off of the most exciting and depressing emotional roller coaster that I had to ride these last two months. Finally getting back on a smoother track. I swear, these last two months were filled withe greatest of joys and the lowest of lows. But when you think about it Life is pretty much always a roller coaster.

I really enjoyed the Japanese film “The Twilight Samurai”. Not only was the plot interesting, but also I was able to learn about Japanese history and culture, and in so doing, erase a few stereotypes from my head.

I, like most westerners, thought that samurai were analogous to European knights or warriors in that they existed to fight. However, the eponymous twilight samurai, though he is a skilled warrior, leads a life that bears no relation to combat. He farms a meager plot of land and works as a record-keeper for the local ruler. When he is called to fight, he goes only out of fear of what would happen should he refuse an order from his superiors.

Beyond simply a realistic portrayal of the samurai, we are given through this film a picture of what life was like at the end of the Edo period. Though the movie doesn’t present general information in the way that a history text would, I think it conveys more effectively a sense of what happened leading up to the Meiji restoration. Cultural changes are always grounded in the common man, after all.