Kabuki and Bread
I popped down to london yesterday for the Kuniyoshi exhibit and had a great time. The exhibit itself is fantastic and well worth a look; my uncle and I enjoyed some of the slightly more bizarre prints (turtles with the heads of famous kabuki actors, for example!), but agreed in the end that our favorite piece was the one of the poet in exile on Sado Island. For those who haven't seen it, it's of an old man in a traveling hat walking up a snowy cliff in a blizzard.
I was then thoroughly spoiled with lunch at the Japan centre. We shared a sushi and sashimi set, which would really have been too much for one! It came with miso soup and a wakame seaweed salad that was really so good I could have eaten just that and been happy. My sister joined up at the end for ice cream as my uncle had cards for free helpings. I had green tea and she had Yuzu citron, which had a nice marmalade-y taste.
I was also treated to a dim sum dinner before heading back (we just wandered and shopped after lunch) and had some amazingly good sticky rice although the spring rolls were a disappointment and the menu was very short and quite western orientated. We parted ways in the evening, I with a bunch of gifts which included a big bunch of fresh asparagus, a new alarm clock, a little bag of wagashi sweets and a loaf of my Uncle's homemade walnut loaf. <3 It's so good, but quite savory so I made an ordinary walnut-free loaf today so I can eat the one with jam and the other for lunches with cheese and pate and things.
This is the walnut loaf; it's a really dark chestnutty brown and although it looks crispy, the crust is actually more chewy than flakey. It's a nice soft, light brown bread.
and it has some huge chunks of walnut in it! <3 Uncle was pretty generous with the measurements!
And this is the one I made. it's very crunchy on the outside and the inside is somewhat dense.
Here's what it looks like cut. I'm pretty pleased with it considering my recipe is one of Granny's and so very vague, without any specific measurements, but I think next time i'll use more salt. it came out a bit bland.
I was then thoroughly spoiled with lunch at the Japan centre. We shared a sushi and sashimi set, which would really have been too much for one! It came with miso soup and a wakame seaweed salad that was really so good I could have eaten just that and been happy. My sister joined up at the end for ice cream as my uncle had cards for free helpings. I had green tea and she had Yuzu citron, which had a nice marmalade-y taste.
I was also treated to a dim sum dinner before heading back (we just wandered and shopped after lunch) and had some amazingly good sticky rice although the spring rolls were a disappointment and the menu was very short and quite western orientated. We parted ways in the evening, I with a bunch of gifts which included a big bunch of fresh asparagus, a new alarm clock, a little bag of wagashi sweets and a loaf of my Uncle's homemade walnut loaf. <3 It's so good, but quite savory so I made an ordinary walnut-free loaf today so I can eat the one with jam and the other for lunches with cheese and pate and things.
This is the walnut loaf; it's a really dark chestnutty brown and although it looks crispy, the crust is actually more chewy than flakey. It's a nice soft, light brown bread.
and it has some huge chunks of walnut in it! <3 Uncle was pretty generous with the measurements!
And this is the one I made. it's very crunchy on the outside and the inside is somewhat dense.
Here's what it looks like cut. I'm pretty pleased with it considering my recipe is one of Granny's and so very vague, without any specific measurements, but I think next time i'll use more salt. it came out a bit bland.