happylife

Chinese bamboo steamers

Chinese dim sum such as pork buns and shrimp dumplings are great menu items which are not only tasty but also convenient because we can get frozen ones in supermarkets or Chinese restaurants. These frozen items are great because their taste is not deteriorating like any other Western frozen items such as pasta if we use bamboo steamers. They are round shaped baskets literally made of bamboo whose bottoms are made of bamboo mesh so that steam can come up through them. We put some dim sum items on each steamer and stack two or three of them over a pan poured with water and heat it. Lots of frozen items are steamed effectively with them. The taste of buns steamed with bamboo steamers and those only heated with a microwave oven is so different that even a little child can tell the difference. I think this simple cooking tool is a great invention.

PocketMod

While I was looking around the web, I found a good idea about a personal organizer. The site name is PocketMod where we can use free Java applet. By using the service we can make a self customized personal organizer to be printed out and carried out with us. The most excellent point of this organizer is that we can use the back side of leaflets which are delivered everyday only to be wasted. A special method of folding paper is shown as a flash movie and we can make an 8 pages of self customized pocket notebook from a leaflet. I'm thinking about using it in my life instead of my old Palm organizer whose battery is sometimes gone.

Napolitan

Do you know what is this spaghetti called? It is called spaghetti Neapolitan which is a very popular, traditional menu item at Western restaurants in Japan, but I have never seen it at Italian restaurants in Vancouver. I'm not sure but I guess this item was invented in Japan. The main ingredients are chopped onion, sliced sausage, green pepper, and a lot of tomato ketchup. It resembles to spaghetti Bolognese served at Italian restaurants, but it is sweeter and more dry. Unfortunately I don't know any restaurant in Japan where this great item is served, so I sometimes cook it myself. I like it better with a lot of Parmesan cheese powder on it.

No flight

I went to the airport to exercise upper airworks late this afternoon. Although the weather was bad and the ceiling was not enough for me to fly solo, by the time I was supposed to start excercises, the weather had been improved. After getting the sign up from my instructor I boarded the Cessna and started the engine, but when I asked the tower for my taxi clearlance, the tower refused my request. He said something about the reason for the disapprovement and asked me if I could wait for a while. As I didn't want to wait in vain losing time and money, I canceled the flight and came back to Downtown. It was just the time of traffic congestion and it took almost one hour to come back to my room. I'm now full of the feeling of waste.

Teriyaki

We can enjoy teriyaki beef or chicken at any Japanese restaurants in Vancouver and we can easily get a bottle of teriyaki sauce at groceries or supermarkets. Sure there is teriyaki in Japanese original menu, but it is different from the one in Vancouver or any other North American cities. Teriyaki originally means "broiled and glistened with sauce" in Japanese and we don't have so called teriyaki sauce in Japan. We make it from soy sauce and mirin, Japanese sweet rice based seasoning. Today I had this teriyaki beef at a food court in Downtown. It was nice but I miss the real Japanese teriyaki a little.

Say again!

Today I flew to Abbotsford Airport with my instructor. It is a large airport where airline jets often land on and take off. When I was entering the control zone of Abbotsford I talked to the tower as usual like "GVNM is over Alderglove at 2,000 feet, inbound for touch & go, going to Glenvalley." Then the tower replied something longer than usual including some phrases I couldn't understand. In such a case, we are supposed to call back to him "say again!" instead of "repeat!" or "pardon?" But this time, the tower seemed too busy and I couldn't ask him to repeat the long sentences although I didn't understand them perfectly. Fortunately my instructor helped me and nothing dangerous happened, but I thought it was a very dangerous situation because dis-communication between pilots and towers sometimes causes critical accidents. I have to get more used to radio calls with towers in order to avoid potential danger.

Burns bog fire

These couple of days in Vancouver, the air is smoky because of burns bog fire in Delta. No one was killed by the fire but it smells a bit, just like a smell of camp fire. According to the radio news, quite a few people are complaining about their troubles in their breathing and eyes. I don't think it's so terrible because I was born and grown in Tokyo. The cause of the fire hasn't been revealed and the fire hasn't been ceased. My pilot friend said that a lot of water bomber, large seaplanes for fire-fighting, were flying busily around the Delta area. I'm worrying much about my flight lesson is interfered by the air traffic congestion.

"Healing Back Pain"

This morning I still had backache and it was hard even to get up. My friend recommended me a book whose title is "Healing Back Pain" written by John E. Sarno, a professor of New York University. I drove to Chapters in Downtown and got the book and read it roughly for an hour on my bed. Of course I have not understood all of the contents, but what I guess written in the book is that backache is a kind of mental problem rather than physical one. From my hard experience about my backache last year, I agree with this theory. There was no obvious symptom in my back, however the pain was terrible and unbearable. It was not in my back but in my mind where the cause of the pain was staying. Sure this theory is not a brand-new idea because an old Japanese proverb says "worry is often the cause of illness", but at least I could recognize the importance of mind against body owing to this book. Fortunately I've almost recovered from the backache mind.

Japanese cafe style fried rice

I cooked this tomato based fried rice for my lunch today. It is so called Japanese cafe style fried rice. Whenever we go into a cafe in Japan, we can enjoy this kind of fried rice which is different from Chinese one. Ingredients differ according to the cafe, however the main taste is commonly ketchup. I don't know who invented this tasty dish and why it is served at a Japanese cafe. Although this dish looks like Chinese or Western food, it is made in Japan. I think if it was served at Japanese restaurants in Vancouver, it would be a popular menu. Today I used cheesy sausage as the main ingredient, it was more tasty than ever before.

Backache's back again

The season changed from summer to autumn, and my backache has come back again. A few days ago, I carried heavy baggage and it was the trigger of this backache. When I carried it, I didn't have any kind of pain in my back except for tire, however the feeling of tire changed gradually into pain. This morning it was too painful to get out of bed. I'm very afraid that the nightmare of last year comes back again. As I am living alone in a foreign country, it is critical if I can't get up and walk around. This afternoon, I went to see a shiatsu therapist in Yaletown and took an hour treatment. Although I told him that I have terrible pain in my back, he massaged mainly my legs. I guess he was afraid of getting my back worse, but I wasn't satisfied with his treatment. I'm now thinking about seeing the same acupuncturist who treated me last year. My backache repeats itself just like history. I hope to say good by to it forever.