Noodels

Now I'll show what kinds of noodles there are in my house.From the left, "Soumen", "Soba", "Udon", and the upper is "Beefn", the down is Chinese noodle.Each of them has various types; thick type, thine type, long type, I prefer thine type from thick type (because of my tooth problem for the present)
And there are various types to eat; soup type, dip type, fried type, or hot type, cool type --- only 4ways?Now we are in the humied and hot summer, I like cool &dip type.For example, I boiled "Soba". And I prepared cool a little bit thick soup. After cooling soap with running water, I strained the water and put "Soba" on the plate. And I take some with chopsticks, and dip them into the cool soup, and eat them.
Soba, made from buckwheat ( Unfortunately my younger daughter has a slight allergy to Soba, though Soba is the favourite noodle of my husband)Udon, made from wheat
Both of them are typical Japanese noodles.And other things are
Somen, made by wheat, and they are really really thin. The similar noodle is "Hiyamugi", that is a little bit thick than Somen, but also really thinner than Udon. "Somen" and "Hiyamugi" are typical summer noodle in Japan, though it's OK to eat in winter (it might be difficult to get these noodles)
Chinese noodles, probably you know "RAMEN". According to Chinese people, Japanese Ramen is different from Chinese Ramen.And "Cup Noodle " was born in Japan, but the taste is completely different. My daughters used to like them. In summer we like cold type, this is called "HIYASHI CHYUKA". Usually we boil the noodles.Have you heard "Yakisoba"? This is steamed type. We fried the steamed type with vegetables and taste them Worcester sauce. In the festival we can see "Yakisoba" here and there.
"Beefn" is ---, according to the dictionary "rice vermicelli". Do you know that? The way to eat is similar to "yakisoba". Steam them and fry them with vegetables. The seasoning is pepper & salt i (usually), it's OK to use Worcester sauce.
And unfortunately I don't have now, but one of my favourite Japanese noodles is "saraudon".I heard Chinese noodle is used "salt water"(Kansui) . On the other hand the noodle looks like deep-fried Chinese noodle, but is not used Kansui. We put thick vegetable sauce on it and eat it."Saraudon" is famous in NAGASAKI. And another famous noodle in Nagasaki is "Chanpon". it is like udon and like ramen.
Oh, I almost forgot. These days Korean cold noodle is popular, the noodle is clear. Have you seen it?

stiches are still left.

Yesterday, I went to the clinic to remove my stichese, but he didn't. Becsue my gums are still swelling and hurt. Aging may delay my recovery, or I went out too much instead of relaxing at home.

Anyway, I'm still striggling against my tooth problem, though it is getting better.

Of course I'm a good patient, so I often rinse my mouth with warm salt water . ( Can Jan hear ?)

And this week I can eat usual food except some dishes for example SUSHI. (I can't open my mouth enough to eat SUSHI.)

Until last week, I had only eaten noodles, (fortunately in Japan we have lots of kind of noodles, UDON, SOBA, SOUMEN, REIMEN, RAAMEN, PASTA)

This morning I baked pizza with basil that are growing in my garden.

I'm getting better.

Without problem my wisdom tooth has gone, though it was a hard time. I think, it's not a cure, not an operation, it's kind of construction.
Now, on schedule my gums are swelling and I cant't stand without taking pain killers, but the condition is better than the condition that my gumes were swelling two weeks ago, because I am able to open my mouth.

This week I am on vacation for taking a rest. I canceled all my lessons. Well what do I do? I found an intereseting brain game, that was created in Japan. Do you know SUDOKU?
http://www.sudoku.name/

Sudoku rules
- Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid, divided to 3x3 sub grids called "regions":
Region
- Sudoku begins with some of the grid cells already filled with numbers:

- The object of Sudoku is to fill the other empty cells with numbers between 1 and 9 (1 number only in each cell) according the following guidelines:
1. Number can appear only once on each row:
2. Number can appear only once on each column:
3. Number can appear only once on each region:
- A summary of these guidelines would be, that a number should appear only once on each row, column and a region.

Now I have cleared easy, medium and high levels, so I've tried high ++ levels. My husband alreday gave up. Now I'm into Sudoku. Most of the day time I'm solving a table in the bed.

This week end

This weekend an American lady came to stay with us. She is going to study Asian religiom at a university in Japan for one year. So I served not Japanese specailty, this city's specailty "Gyoza".

Gyoza is one of the famous dishes of this city. Gyoza comes from china. In China, steamd Gyoza is common. In Japan fried Gyoza is mor common, though we also have steamd Gyoza and Gyoza soup. There are three kinds of Gyoza in the picture above; kimuchi, vegetables, and meat (it is a standard.)

And of course I served my special dises; shiso jelly (using vegetable gelatin), pickled Myoga in rice-bran paste, and baked tofu-cheese cake. All of them are really healthy.

When you come to stay with us, what would you like to eat?

P.S Tommorow, I'll go to a hospital to get my wisdom tooth pulled out. I hope everything goes well without pain and swelling.

Next Monday

Now, I'm fine. And I have to keep in good shape, because--- I'm going to get my wisdom tooth pulled out next Monday. The doctor said it would be a little surgery. Yes I'm going to be put under total anexthesia, though fortunately I'm going back home in the day.

Well, this weekend we are going to have a woman from America. She is in her 30's. We are looking forward to chatting with her. Now I'm thinking what meals I will serve. Of course I have to serve "GYOZA". Because it is a special dish in UTSUNOMIYA, and what else--?

I'm going to serve that SHISO jelly, and I'm going to serve "NUKAZUKE"; vegetables pickled in rice-bran paste. I don't make it for a long time. Because it is a little bit difficult to keep it good. The other day I got MIZUNASU; kind of egg plants, but they have more mositure, from my friend. She told me "You sould make NUKAZUKE". So I preparet it. Have you eaten NUKAZUKE?

And I'll tell another thing that I'm thinking now. As you know I teach English though I haven't lived in foreign countries and I haven't enougn knowlege about English. These days around me (or kids) casual or spoken or slang Enlish are here and there. But unfortunately I don't know what is slang , what is usual, and what is polite. (I know, "be quiet" is usual pharase, but "shut up" is not good in usual communication.)

So I want to put together usual conversation English phrases.

If you study Japanese, do you have such usual conversation Japanese phrases table?

or have you seen such conversation english pharses table?

give up!

I knew, these days I was very tired. And suddenly my gums swelled up. I could hardly open my mouth, it means, I could hardly eat anything, and even drink anything.

Now I'm getting better, I sart to eat semisolid food slowly.

But the problem is not solved.

After the swelling goes down, I have to get my wisdom tooth pulled out. At that time, I might have another problem, my gums might swell up again.

After these hard steps, I will be free from this problem.

Now I feel down, "give up".

Well, for something completely different, I'll show these days foods.

Though some people remember I love SHISO, SHISO leaves are growing in my garden. The end of summer I'm going to make SHISO juice as usual. This time, I made SHISO jelly for the first time. Does it look cool? Does it suit to summer sweets?

And my husband got some zucchini at a local farmer's shop. It was the first time for us to see round zucchini. We thought zucchini looked like big cucumbers. Anyway I cooked them, to bake zucchini bread (I grated them) and to grill whole zucchini.

---- eating is great fun, so I'm very sad now because I can't enjoy eating.

I have one wonderful and surprising thing.

Do you remember that my husband, my friends and I are going to have a concert at the end of Aubust at "the " tearoom where I play the piano once a month. Last week, all the chickets were sold out. We are really surprised, happy, and --- nervous.