Monday 24 June 2013

Making Umeshu

'Tis the season in Japan! The season to make umeshu and umeboshi, that is. Early summer is when green plums (ume) are unripened, yet ripe for the picking so they can be pickled or soaked in booze to produce tasty concoctions that will be ready months down the road. 

This time of year, the grocery stores set up whole displays devoted to the do-it-yourselfers in Japan. They sell all the necessary items for making umeshu and umeboshi - liquor, rock sugar, glass containers, pickling containers, salt, and akashiso (perilla). My Facebook was full of proud posts by moonshine making English teachers. Naturally I had to get in on the action.

This year I have tried making two kinds of umeshu, aka plum wine (or fruit liqueur): one without sugar (not sure how this will work or taste...) and one with some sugar. Both batches will be flavoured and coloured with akashiso leaves. I must admit that I'm not very good at following recipes. I immediately begin to alter them as I read them. So in the case of my plum wine, they loosely followed recipes. Well the sugared one loosely followed a recipe, the sugarless one, not so much. So it remains a mystery as to whether they will work.

To make your own umeshu you need approximately 1 kg of unripened green plums, they recommend approximately 500 g of rock sugar, approximately 1.8 L white liquor (any tasteless one will do - usually it's vodka or shochu, I used 35% shochu that was sold right beside the plums), a 3-4 L airtight glass vessel, and anything else you want to throw in. I threw in akashiso as well. First you must sterilize your container, I did it with boiling water... The jury is out on whether it actually sterilized the thing. I should have just taken the easy route and used the liquor to sterilize it, but I digress. Also, you must remove the stems from the ume, they are "innie" rather than "outie" stems, so you need something small and pointed to help dig them out. I used a tiny fork. You also must wash and dry the plums taking care not to use any blemished plums. At this point I washed and dried my akashiso as well. 

** warning ** apparently you shouldn't eat the unripened plums because they are acutely toxic. I found out the hard way. They are very astringent little buggers. They will most definitely cause you to feel as though  your intestines are drying up and dying. I assure you the discomfort is temporary and not too bad. It just hurt. Perhaps if I had eaten more, I would be in worse shape. Anyway, now you know.

Having prepped the vessel and the fruit, it is time to layer the ume in the vessel. Since I didn't use sugar the first time, I layered plums with akashiso until the vessel was half full. Then I poured the liquor on it until it was an inch (2.54 cm) above the fruit. With the second batch I did add some sugar, so I alternated plums, akashiso, and rock sugar. Then after pouring seal the vessel and hide somewhere dark and cool for 2-3 months (longer is better, especially if lower sugar was used... I think I'll have to age the sugarless one a year or two).

Of course after I did all of that, I had to post it on Facebook ;) Hopefully my experiments will workout. We shall see in at least 6 months!

It's worth noting that most households make their own umeshu and umeboshi. I didn't bother with umeboshi because it is more intricate and much more can go wrong with it. Plus I haven't ever eaten umeboshi before, I don't even know if I like 'em! Umeshu on the other hand... The nectar of the gods. It's delicious. This is all part of the curious drinking culture that Japan has. Often it seems that people cannot show their true selves or say what they really think unless they are drinking. Work places all have enkais (work parties), girls have joshikais (girls' night parties), and at Christmas or New Year, there are extra fancy enkais called bonenkais. In addition there are welcome parties, goodbye parties, transfer parties, etc. And at each party there are second or third parties. It's nuts. I've seen fights break out at enkais, apparently it's normal because this is the only time that people will address their problems or frustrations. The next day, no one talks about it. What goes on at an enkai and its afterparties is sacred and it seems to serve as a release for people. I've also heard that if a boy wants to confess his love for a girl, they have to go drinking together, so the true feelings can come out. Crazy. Umeshu is ever present during these frequent yet special occasions. :)







Sunday 16 June 2013

Happy Father's Day

Dear Dad,

Another Father's Day has come. I think this is the first one we've ever been apart for. I wish I could be there, but I can't. It sounds like you spending the day well, any way.

I want to thank you for everything. You're always there for me, always willing to walk with me, always making sure the fridge is well stocked for me, beating me up in karate... I appreciate everything you do and I miss you a lot!!

I especially miss you when I go for walks by myself or run out of food ;) 

Happy Father's Day Dad, and thanks for everything you do. I really appreciate it.

I'm thinking of you on this day and remembering all our times together :) I'm also remembering your funny smile, crazy accents, and silly jokes. I also miss your BBQ prowess!

Love you!! 

XOXO

Friday 14 June 2013

What I've been doing.

The past couple of weeks have thankfully been busy. Two weeks ago I played in a soccer tournament and last week I went hiking with my students. It's left me a bit tuckered out.

On my birthday I went out for lunch with my friend and her boyfriend and then headed into Utsunomiya for some hanabi, or fireworks. It was a nice quiet way to spend the day. The next day my friend, who plays in a community orchestra, was performing, so I went to see her. There was a soprano soloist for the first half of the program. She was excellent. She sang selections from various Italian operas. The concert was in honour of Italian music. The latter half of the performance was just the orchestra. They did very well, although if you asked my friend, she would say the opposite. 

The next weekend I joined the Saitama Saiborgs for a football tourney in Nagano. There was both a boys and a girls team, naturally I played for the girls and I got some friends to come along and play for the boys. My friends and I rented a car (a hybrid Toyota Prius) and drove up instead of getting the Shinkansen. It was a little far to drive in one evening so we stopped at a place in the mountains called Sakudaira and stayed at an onsen. My friend failed to tell me that there were no rooms nor beds. Where we slept was a common room. We slept on recliners! I'm pretty sure I was the only girl in that room, amongst snoring men. Hahaha. I didn't mind. Before we went to sleep we got to soak in a hot spring.... It feels sooooooo good, even if you have to be naked. The next day we had a full day playing games. The girls played 3 games, with 6 people per side. The boys got to play 4 games with a full team. We tied our first game, won our second game and lost our third. We should have won the last game, but we had no ball luck. I had 3 beautiful shots: 2 hit the corner post and cross bar and one hit the cross bar. It was a frustrating loss... The boys lost all of their games. They unfortunately had to play some very serious teams that belong to various metro leagues. After the games, we went back to our hotel for another much needed onsen soak. The second night we stayed at a real hotel and there was a dance with all the players. It was fun. I got really sunburned despite all the sun cream I put on. I guess I sweated it off. The next day I was really sore. Everyone was really sore. We had no subs for the girls. Luckily we just played one game. I also refereed in between playing and cheering for the boys. After Saitama had definitively lost, we headed back home, though not before I tried driving in Japan! Success! No one died!

The next weekend on Saturday I went for a long hike with the "wondafogill" club, aka mountain climbing club. We hiked 4 mountains, 25 km, total ascent of 1400 m. It was gorgeous and really fun. Every time the mountain climbing teacher sees me he talks about my debut with the club.... They were very surprised at my agility. It's quite embarrassing because now the whole school knows. During the hike we have an assigned formation, Taguchi-sensei leads, followed by the 1st graders, then my coworker and her boyfriend, then the 3rd graders, then the 2nd graders, and finally, me. He put me last!! I guess it's a compliment, but it was painfully slow at the back :p. the last mountain we climbed was a well known local mountain in tokyo, Mount Takao. It was a very steep walk down. On the way down, you can visit the temple and shrine of Tengu, a mountain god. He was originally a bird of prey, so some statues of Tengu are men with wings and beaks, and other statues are of a man with a long nose instead of a beak. Tengu used to be thought of as a disruptive demon and a harbinger of war, but now he is a god of the mountain or forest. He can be dangerous, but is generally protective. 

The next day my friend took me to the ocean! I haven't seen the ocean in months! We went to a town called Ōarai. It is a beautiful seaside town. The first thing we did was wade in the ocean. There were lots of surfers out.... Definitely gotta go back! I also managed to drop my iPhone into the ocean. As a result, I bought my first ever bag of rice. When I got home, I didn't have any rice, so I stuck the phone in a bag of quinoa. The next day I bought some rice and left it in there for a few days. Luckily it still works!! Not perfectly, the volume controls seem to be out of order, but the rest of the phone works like a charm. I'm so lucky. After wading in the sea we went to the aquarium, which is famous for having the most number of sharks in Japan. There were hammerhead sharks! I really enjoyed the aquarium, it was very fun. I saw a capybara for the first time. It's a large animal that looks like a guinea pig (a giant one) and likes to swim. It's from the Amazon river area. We also watched the dolphin and sea lion show. It was great. They had four dolphins and a pair of seal lions. All of them were very talented. After the aquarium we went for a little exploration on the beach. I found a bracelet that once belonged to Ayaka and a little glove filled with sand. The water is very clean in Ōarai and it isn't too crowded. Can't wait to go back. On our way back, we stopped at "Mentai Park", a fish egg factory that appeared on TV and is now a destination. Mentaiko (明太子) is essentially an eggbsack from walleyed cod that is flavored with Mentai spice. They had free samples at the factory, so I tried some and was pleasantly surprised. It was quite delicious! I didn't buy any though... 

So that's my update. Next week I'm off to go surfing, hopefully. I'll be visiting Itō city, a coastal town with lots of onsen. Yay. Also, the rainy season (梅雨) has started :( It is very, very, very muggy. Bleh!