One of the dirty little secrets about me is that I love to cook. Especially since I left the ex, it has become something that I really enjoy. Swilling beer and making dinner, now that’s a good way for me to start the evening! That said I am not a great cook. I am one of those guys who slavishly follows the recipe book. The S.O. on the other hand is a GREAT cook. She has a real knack for knowing how to season exactly right, figure out what should go in the food, improvise and she has a real flair for presentation. However she does not really like to cook Western food. So she and I have an agreement, I do most of the cooking and when Nihon no Ryori (日本の料理、Japanese food) is required she cooks. It works out well for both of us as she is very picky about how the kitchen is cleaned, I hate to do dishes.

Hyashichuka (冷し中華、Cold Chinese Ramen) is one of those things I cannot get enough of during the summer. The S.O. really makes this in a way I like. Since Sourrain has posted some yummy things here in the past, I tought I would too.

Anyway, the S.O. knows that I love Hiyashichuka and it makes a great summer time meal. Its light and fresh and during the hot, hot days of summer here that follow the rainy season, a great meal.

You start with a special Chinese ramen. Easy to find over here, I am not so sure about how easy it is to get in America or Europe, however I suggest looking in an Asian market:

Nama Hiyashi chuka ramen（冷し中華らめん）。

Inside the bag are packets of Ramen and packets of Shoyuu(しょう油、Soy Sauce) You can also get it with a special Miso sauce, but I prefer the Shouyuu. One packet per person. You cook the ramen in boiling water just like spaghetti. While that’s going on cut up some salad veggies:

Cut veggies.

The S.O. normally uses the following:

Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumbers cut into long thin strips
green Onions chopped up
Daikon ( Big Japanese Radish)
Carrots
Celery

At the same time she also makes 2 eggs scrambled into a thin omelet like sheet. Boil a boneless breast of chicken and cut up some Luncheon meat ham.(I’ll bet it might also be good with some fried Spam!)

When the ramen is done, first put the soy sauce from the packet on each plate( 1 Packet per person). Then drain the ramen and allow it to cool. ( S.O. uses a small strainer to do this as she cooks the packets of ramen separately in 2 different pans. ) Put the ramen over the soy sauce like this:

The ramen placed on the plate in the special soy sauce.

Now comes the fun part. Each person should then take some wa karashi(和からし、Japanese hot mustard). Warning! A little goes a long way and its spicy! However squeeze some into the noodles and mix it up into the noodles with your hashi (はし、chopsticks). Here is what Japanese mustard looks like, its in the yellow tube:

The tube is the mustard and the soy sauce is in the packet.

Either before or after serving, put all those cut veggies on top of the ramen. Put some of the ham, chicken and egg strips on there too. Load it up. As you can see in the picture she makes some Tofu with sauce as a side dish.

More to go

And that is it. This goes well with a nice white wine or a good cold beer. Its a great meal for 2 people on a hot summer’s day. Enjoy.

Skippy-san

I can’t quite figure out if I have just been “bitch slapped”. I’ve re-read Sourrain’s last post several times and I think I’ve either been insulted or insulted her. Oh well, if you are going to go around watching what you say……you will never get anything said! Go get on the plane!^-^

The quizzes are rigged by the way…..

ANYWAY……..

Unlike those who are young and carefree, some of us have to work hard for “the man”. And “the man” was wearing me down today. Today was the invevitable “lessons learned” flail where we put slides together to show the powers that be what we should have done differently if we had just known what we were getting into before we got here.

And people don’t understand why US postal clerks “go postal” and gun down and a whole post office full of people………..I had a couple of deserving candidates in my sights today!

The lesson here is too much technology can be a bad thing. This week I’ve been involved in the technical details of a project that will allow people to work in a “virtual office” distributed between key places in the Pacific. Here in Hawaii I was with people who had cell phones on their waist, next to a crackberryblackberry. As for the video teleconference, well don’t get me started!

Do you ever wonder if this rash of instant communication is such a good thing? Now mind you, I’m not anti progress, but I wonder if we are giving senior leadership too much information and so, inviting them to micro manage. Whatever happened to the days of yesteryear, where the fate of entire nations rose or fell, based on the intuition of some young Major…Possibly nursing a hangover while he made the decision? In some cases it seems to me that may be a better alternative.

I’m not anti-technology at all, but it seems to me that too many decisions this days are pushed higher and higher and the decision makers involved have less and less time to understand the issue in play and make a decision. So the decision increasingly rests on who can package it the best.

I often wonder if I could, if I could go back in time and remove one item of technology. If it were me, it would be the video teleconference. I hate them! If one wants a meeting, give me a plane ticket, a nice location and drinks at the bar at the end of the day. That’s where the real business gets done anyway. Now with VTC’s, there are less and less problems solved on bar napkins. To our detriment I think.

So, what say you? If you could turn back the clock on one item of today’s technology, what would it be?

(cross posted to Far East Cynic)

No blogs yesterday…which can only mean I’m off sick again.It’s the stress I tell you, the stress!

I am having problems getting excited about my upcomming wedding..for the fact that we did the whole official shebang earlier this year and I’ve been getting used to the Mrs. title. So it’s been quite interesting to see my made to measure wedding gown for the first time..courtesy of dreydrey.

If this can’t excite me,nothing can.

Now, to try to fit into that is another problem altogether

Good evening, or good morning depending on where you are. Sourrain like all up and coming businesswomen, has decided to lower her labor costs. So she outsourced her blog for a couple of weeks. Just like the government she outsourced it to the lowest bidder. ( I asked……). So if you are looking for Hemingway, you’ll have to look elsewhere or buy one of his books.

Sourrain said I could write anything I want, but I could not post any porn! So I guess that rules out asking her for a play by play description of her honeymoon…….

I promised her that I would try to stick to the tone of her blog which is about the trials and tribulations of life in a land far away from the land of her birth. Its also about( in my opinion only)…. a fascination with the world and the things that are in it. So I’ll try to keep the blogfires burning until she gets back and can apologize to each and every one of you for letting me in the door.

So if you want to read about politics, travel off the beaten path in Asia, US Military issues, babes or beer, then go visit my blog here. If you want to apply to be my next ex-wife, send a full length foto of yourself here. If you want to hire me for a fabulous job in Singapore or Hong Kong, please leave your name and number. I promise I’ll call back! . (My idea of a joke…..well sort of a joke……actually I have my resume right here……..)

Shameless self promotion is over.

I am currently in Hawaii for a project for my company. Hawaii is great but the hours have been long and blogspot is blocked on the server of the computers of the place I am working. So its kept me from going back and looking over her whole blog(s) in order to find worthy things to write about. So when I get back to my adopted country, Japan I’ll do that research. Till then, however I’ve been thinking that what with this being Sourrain’s second wedding and all, no one has gotten them a suitable present. I know some readers here have, but many of have not. So I am going to close this post with a question and I hope lots of folks answer. If money were no object, what would give Sourrain and Bacon for a wedding present? What do you get the girl who has, by her own postings: a nice car, colorful red strawberries, an affinity for Krispy Kreme donuts ( as do I….), a desire to run away to a desert Island, and as I just learned while posting these links a new wedding gown!

So what do you get the bride who has everything? Give it some thought and post answers in the comments. There is a prize for the best answer!

Oh, and one more thing, exactly which day is the wedding?

Skippy-san