crazy white girl with a kitchen

I sometimes feel bad that updating this blog has fallen by the wayside. So here are some photos I took in November(ish).

While I love my space here at crazy white girl, I kind of felt like I was missing my audience on Okinawa centric blog posts. They get lost in the volume of posts from Edmonton, and I am certain that most of my readers from Canada do not give a damn about restaurants thousands of miles away.

So, since September last year (!) I have been trying to start a dedicated blog about food and restaurants in Okinawa as well as any other areas I may visit while I am here. It is hard going for English information on restaurants here – many of the blog posts by English speakers tend to be about restaurants close to the bases, and frankly, do not look that appetizing.

I enjoyed rebuilding a blog, especially one with a specific purpose. It took a long time, though, with many breaks as I contemplated my fate in this country.

Each post offers English information about the restaurant, as well as a map. I am hoping it will soon become a resource people can rely on. There are easy to browse sections by location, cuisine type and information about Japanese ingredients as well as shopping for food products and cooking in Okinawa. When comparing it to crazy white girl, there are bigger pictures, better tagging and more features about food in general here in Japan.

There are still a few glitches and changes I am making, so excuse any bits and bobs left lying around there as I move into my final preparations to really promote the hell out of this thing.

I will still be posting here about home cooking experiments, more general Japanese food tidbits and my travels, but most of my blog posts about Okinawan restaurants will now be posted on Eating Okinawa. If you are a regular reader, you will notice a lot of duplicate content up there so far, but from this point on it will be all new. So please be sure to visit EatingOkinawa.com for all your Okinawan food needs.

Think of it as a first year in Japan anniversary present to … ME!

When I was about 7 years old, my parents started a birthday tradition of bringing me to the Japanese Village in downtown Edmonton for a little teppanyaki fun. The last year I went – the year I turned 10 – the staff took a Polaroid of me wearing a huge Japanese wig hairstyle thing…and that was the end of that tradition. Partly because we moved to the UK and partly because even at age 10, the idea of wearing a wig thousands of other of people had worn and “wearing” an experience thousands of others of people had turned me off. Yes, I was a snob even an an early age it would seem.

Twenty years on I think I have returned to my roots. While themed restaurants are not my first stop, I am less likely to turn my nose up at them. Perhaps out of nostalgia or out of expat desperation. While looking for a fun experience for my mom’s last night on Okinawa back in January, a friend suggested taking her to one of the restaurants in the Sam`s Group.

These restaurants (owned by three American brothers) tend to be teppanyaki restaurants. As the idea of a chef  “performing” just for us cooking frozen seafood likely imported from another country made me cringe more and more, I decided to take one for the team and see what it was like.

Seafood display at the front of the rather large restaurant

I might be able to sit at that bar for hours if it had the right view

I was pleasantly surprised. The Sam’s Group has been on Okinawa since 1970, and they know what their patrons want. They mostly appeal to young American military families going out for special occasions or entertaining and to tourists from mainland Japan looking for an American experience in Japan. It is a really weird contrast in diners.

The location we went to, Sam’s by the Sea Awase, was one of the original restaurants. It is loaded with tiki torches, moais, outriggers, rattan furniture, shells, and all sorts of fun Hawaiian bric-a-brac. It could be tacky and gaudy and messy, but somehow it isn’t.

I think the there were three factors in a great experience at Sam`s.

1. my expectations were low. I was not expecting much from an Americanized Japanese restaurant idealizing America in Japan. (wrap your head around that one)
2. we chose to visit the one restaurant in the group that served entrees as opposed to teppanyaki style
3. we had a coupon and dammit, we were going to use it

Nerdy fun with GIFs and my shark mugs.

The drinks were really good, and we walked away with four free themed cups which brought me more joy than you can imagine. One man’s junk is another woman’s treasure, I guess. My mom got a margarita and Mike got a pina colada. As I was driving, I stuck to the virgin drinks.

I’m not kidding when I said besides my mom visiting and some tacos I made on New Years Day, these cups were the best part of my January.

We started with escargot and cheese tempura. The escargot were fresh, garlicky and buttery. They could have come with a bit more toast for sopping up the butter in my opinion, but they were still delicious. The cheese tempura were basically glorified cheese sticks. But when you have not had cheese in some time, you take what you get.

Then a small salad that was alright, served with our choice from four different dressings. Following that, a bowl of housemade piping hot Indian curry soup. People rave about this on Okinawa web forums, trying to figure out the recipe for when they go home. I thought it was alright – better and more unusual than most standard complimentary restaurant soups.

Finally, our entrees.

Going all out I got the theatrical sounding “flaming sword shish kababs.” Out came the chef with a sword laced in … fuel, and placed my rare steak chunks and veggies on my plate. It was a nice experience, but I wish I had just gotten regular steak after tasting my mom and Mike’s beef. My meat had a sweet marinade on it which was good, but I really love the taste of just straight up beef.

I’d place the steak on a level above the Keg but below Carnevino in Vegas, which was the last truly awesome steak I had in North America. It is probably unfair to even make that comparison, actually. But, this is better than average steak for a restaurant, and the presentation and fun atmosphere make it a great destination restaurant.

With a last minute change of order, I switched my side of bread to garlic rice, at an extra cost. I am glad I did, and recommend it to others, even if you are “riced out” – a situation that does not happen to me often here as the Japanese rice is so good. Sam’s rice was tender and flavourful. The bread was decent at Sam’s, but the butter was tropical fruit infused and was a bit sweet and fruity. At first we thought it was the bread itself, but that was not the case.

Chevron-shaped impressively high coconut cream pie…sadly not as good as I had hoped.

We closed out with a piece of mile high coconut cream pie. I had been eyeing it across the dining room, but it was probably the weakest element of the meal. The meringue was a bit sticky and soggy, not fluffy and light. I would probably forgo dessert next time and just get another tropical drink.

Sam’s has been around on Okinawa for over 40 years, churning out steak, seafood and classic cocktails to soldiers and tourists alike. They are good at what they do, and I know we will return there again sometime in the future.

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Sam’s by the Sea, Awase
(other locations in the chain, visit Sam’s Group for more info)

ps: while my photography on the blog is normally standard at best, thank you for sticking through this substandard stuff. Not my best. It was part of the reason I delayed this entry so long, actually!

Although there is a lot of weird stuff going on in Japan, one of the strangest places (I think) is an area called American Village near a town called Chatan. It is near a few of the bases in the middle of the island of Okinawa, and so there is a high concentration of American military members and English in general.

Ballpark Hot Dogs, Chatan

This, right away, sets it apart from anything else on Okinawa. Add to this more “foreign” restaurants; Indian food, Mexican food and Thai food are scattered amongst the more traditional Japanese offerings, add a sprinkling of some “American size” clothing shops, a Starbucks outlet and a huge ferris wheel and there you have American Village. I thought it would be so horribly kitschy and touristy I could not stand it, but I guess I have been away from home long enough that I enjoy it. Your standards change when you move overseas.

Standards change when it comes to food as well. A friend recently asked me how I was coping with the different food. He meant cooking at our place, as he knows I think Japanese food is stellar, but sometimes you just need a taste of home.

You can get pretty much everything here if you look hard enough and pay enough money. Or, if you are willing to experiment, you can substitute. So the cheese is not as good as it is back home, but that’s okay, your tongue has a way of forgetting.

That brings me to hot dogs. I have not had a good hot dog in some time. I did not make it a point to even stop in at Costco or Fat Franks before I jumped ship in Edmonton, let alone make my own, so it has been a while. However, while we were in American Village a few weeks ago, we saw a new restaurant had opened; Ballpark Hot Dogs. It opened early in February 2011.

I was skeptical. I have had good burgers here, but not every burger is automatically good. Would a hot dog be any good?

Turns out it wasn’t good…

IT WAS AWESOME.

Perhaps this is a result of my tongue forgetting, but I really do think these hot dogs were quality.

Mike got the dog with chili, melted nacho cheese and sauteed onions. I got “The Nationals” or the dog with onions, chili and cheddar cheese. The buns were soft, the dogs juicy and plump and the toppings pretty fresh. They really pushed up my sodium intake, but they WERE delicious.

At the suggestion of the clerk, we also got some ranch bacon fries. The fries were a little underdone which made things a bit soggy but the bacon and ranch were a great combination.

Ballpark Hot Dogs is basically a take out hole in the wall, but there is ample indoor and outdoor seating on the top deck of Mihama Carnival Park, where the restaurant is.

The hot dogs are named after baseball teams and feature different toppings like nacho cheese, sauerkraut, salsa, onions (raw and sauteed) and various sauces.

Hot dogs run 390-450 yen which is a decent deal, since the hot dogs are made to order with fresh toppings. They also have sets with fries and drinks. The menu is bilingual and the guy who helped us had extremely good English.

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Ballpark Hot Dogs
2nd Floor, Mihama Carnival Park (by Freshness Burger, by the ferris wheel)
American Village Chatan
open 11am-11pm everyday
Map

Our search for great dim sum on Okinawa continues. A few months back we made our way to a small Chinese restaurant in a very residential neighbourhood of west Naha.

Unlike Tong Tong, Eva Kui offers a more complete dim sum experience with special teas, the requisite lazy susan tables and offerings beyond dumplings. We got a set menu which provided tea, soup, salad, shu mai, har gao, sticky rice and pudding as well as sesame balls.

The server taught us the best way to brew our own tea after elaborately preparing the pot and cups for our golden liquid. I am not sure what kind of tea we got (perhaps pur-eh?), but it was a fine one, and beyond the norm. Not on the level of the Mariages Freres we had in Bangkok at China House, but still great.

We had a small pot of constantly hot water to make pot after pot of the tea with which was much more preferable than signaling down an always rushing server at a large dim sum restaurant for some bitter tea. Some would say that is the only way, but I liked having executive control over our tea.

a

We started with a seafood salad, then moved onto a clear broth speckled with green onions. Then the steamed items came out, super hot and fresh; pork buns, har gao, three kinds of shu mai and a glutinous, flavourful steamed rice in banana leaf.

Tender, hot char siu bau, or BBQ pork buns. Three different kinds, at once dense and light, sweet and savoury. They are one of my favourite dim sum items. Unfortunately not every place decorates them to look like beautiful peaches, however.

This sticky rice was well balanced, and not too sticky and gloppy. It smelled of its leaf wrapper and was fresh and warm. Normally I think of this item as filler that is stuffed with sub par ingredients and MSG, but the rice at Eva Kui was amazing.

Some of the shu mai had little pockets of ginger in them, adding to the flavour explosion. Some were pork and others were shrimp.

Wonderful har gau, with tender wrappings and crisp plump shrimp inside.

Finally pudding and some molten, freshly fried sesame balls that crackled as you bit into them, giving way to glutinous bean paste filling. The greasy, cold gluey balls you get at most Asian bakeries and restaurants do not hold a candle to this. It makes me very excited to hop over to Hong Kong one day and get dim sum straight from the source.

The pudding is addictive, and there is never enough. It is often called tofu pudding, but there is no tofu in it at all! Almond based, it is silky and smooth and I have to scrape the bottom of the bowl every time I get it.

I highly recommend Eva Kui. There is very little English, but if you have an idea of what to expect from dim sum, you will know what to expect and will have a good idea of what should be coming out if you get a set menu.

The food is above average and the atmosphere is authentic, with emerald green carpet, large rosewood tables with glass lazy susans, jade scupltures and groups of Chinese ladies. It is worth the effort to find, and very affordable.

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Eva Kui Taiwanese Teahouse
Oroku, Naha
沖縄県 那覇市 小禄 5-15-22
Map
Closed Monday, open 11am – 3pm, 6pm to midnight.

Just completed a run to the grocery store for some storm goodies ahead of the news that a storm is headed for Okinawa. Goodies means canned fruit and instant noodles. The storm (typhoon Kompasu) is ramping up and may be as strong as the last big typhoon here in 2007.

I have pulled down my laundry line, filled my tub with water and we will see how this brand new apartment building weathers the storm.

I just hope that the power stays on. See you on the other side!

I had to drop off  “the guys” at an extremely helpful and kind acquaintance’s home the other day. She’s got a number of young tarantulas and scorpions and is going to harbour our friends for a while. Considering tarantulas live decades, this is no small task.

So, thank you to local photographer and very wonderful woman and insect sitter Jennylynn Fields of SPYD Photography.

Here are some photos from one of the last feedings.

Unnamed scorpion of Tityus falconensis species.

“Feathers” the salmon pink birdeater

“Truckee” the green bottle blue

Yes, I cried after I dropped them off.

This has been my living room for about 10 days. Finally, today, most of it was packed into suitcases. I think I’m overweight on one, but I have squeezed most of what I know I’ll need into the bags. 5 days to go.

credit: Rick Guzzell

This is me, my brother and our good family friend Ryan chilling in Thunder Bay sometime in the late 80s. Weren’t summers the bomb when you were a kid? Trips to the candy store (no adults, penny candy and fudgsicles), diving into Silver Lake at 8am and only coming out to eat a breakfast of pancakes and bacon cooked on a fire, solo bike adventures to find a new awesome playground, falling asleep in the family Honda Civic hatchback on a road trip somewhere in the middle of Manitoba.

I hope my last two weeks in Canada are half as good as I remember those summers being. Perhaps they could be about the same, only with some adult beverages sprinkled in.

Because at this point even I am over my own wedding, it seems like the perfect time to finally post photos. I’ll just post some highlights, however. For the full set, please click here for the album.

First, the panoramas. Ryan Jackson, our photographer and my coworker at the Edmonton Journal, is well known for his panoramas. He does them for sporting events, building openings, fire scenes and just because in his work at the paper. I was so pleased he could do a few for our wedding.

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CLICK ANY PHOTO TO MAKE IT LARGER. Especially recommended for the panoramas. Give them time to load, however.

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Neon Boneyard photo panorama (Credit: Ryan Jackson)

Wedding Ceremony photo panorama (Credit: Ryan Jackson)

In the new wine cellar at Lotus of Siam after the rehearsal dinner

Shot in the parking lot of Lotus of Siam

I seriously hated my veil.

There's only one answer.

My maid and man of honour help me with my dress

Mike gets dressed...and realizes his pants are back on the Strip

This is my "Oh shit, the pants aren't here and are back on the strip and there is another wedding right after us and who is going to go and what are we going to do" face.

Of course, the show went on, slightly later than expected and everything was awesome because my friends and bridal party Matt and Amy are awesome and they went to retrieve the pants from the Strip.

My hands were shaking and I had trouble getting his ring on

wedding high five!

More neon boneyard photos

cruisin in the 1966 caddie

This is my standard WHHHHHAAAT? look

Of course, a food photo. I'll do a round up on the food at another time. (Photo by me)

Afterwards, we had a party that went into the wee hours in a suite at Mandalay Bay

This may only matter to photo nerds, but this is the HDR filter in Photoshop CS5. It's also a photo shot on a tiltshift lens.

There is only one way to get rid of left over wedding booze. And that is to drink it next to a fountain on the Strip. Mike's classy, and that's why I love him. (Photo by me)

Again, there are more photos here.

I have mentioned this before, but it took me a long time to get my Science degree. Over a decade, in fact. Throughout the genetics labs, English classes, late nights of studying and hours of time in the stacks at Cameron Library, I had one end result in mind: moving overseas.

I blame my parents for the influence. From a young age my family always took risks and challenges in stride, moving to places were things were fascinating – but not easy.

We lived in several different countries, each with their own culture and nuances. We moved home from overseas assignments in 1996, and I’ve been steadily accumulating friends, a mate, pets and belongings for the last 14 years. Now I’m about to give it all up again and go on the road.

In November, I submitted an application for a job overseas with the JET programme in Japan. I jumped through hoop after hoop, submitting a long personal essay, going through health and background checks, accumulating references and surviving through an interview in Calgary in February. And also waiting. Waiting a lot. At least I had the wedding to take my mind off of things.

Finally I was offered a job in April and I’ve accepted it. JET is a Japanese government run program that places teachers from around the world in Japanese classrooms as a sort of cultural exchange. The teachers learn Japanese and experience Japan, and the students learn English and learn about our home country. We get paid well and are offered extraordinary support from the Japanese government, board of education members and other JET participants. I’ve heard things ranging from great to mediocre about the program. Nothing really terrible, though. And a lot of people write and blog about their experiences. There’s only one way to find out what it’s really like, I guess.

It will be incredibly hard to leave what I consider my dream job at the Edmonton Journal as a photo editing assistant and web producer. Working at a newspaper has been a fascinating experience and one I never expected myself to have. I can say nearly every job I’ve had has been a dream on in one way or another, and I hope that Japan offers the same. If I could do my current job from Japan, I would. It’s not the job or the people – it’s the city. It’s time to go.

Just another day at the office, scowling at stealthy photographers snapping photos. Credit: Ryan Jackson

Standing with Journal staff photographers and other photo deskers, 2008. Credit: Walter Tychnowicz

So, finally, my dream comes true. I’m not sure what changes this blog will undergo yet, but I expect them to be somewhat major. Obviously I’m excited about the Japanese cuisine, but I’m a bit nervous over the changes cooking at home will undergo. All my cooking appliances and cookware will be given away here. Our spice collection will be pared down to the absolute must brings.

Everything I hope to use in the next year will come in two suitcases with me or shipped via boat. Mike will join me a few weeks after I get settled. The initial contract is for a year, but could be extended for as many as five.

My new home: Okinawa. It offers tropical beaches, treehouse restaurants and exquisite uniquely Japanese experiences like sakura/cherry blossom viewing parties

We’ll be living on Okinawa which is kind of like the Hawai’i of Japan. It has a culture unique unto itself even compared to the already unusual Japan, and for this reason is a tourist attraction to “mainland” Japanese. There is a heavy American influence with the US military presence on the island. The climate is tropical and the days are hot and humid, and there are many island diversions we hope to avail ourselves of such as diving, fishing and rock climbing. We’re actually closer to Taiwan than Tokyo, and so I hope to finally begin forays into China.

I’m a naturally nervous person at heart, but I can honestly say that although moving nerves do keep me up from time to time at night, I’m ready to spring into action and start down a new path. I will be leaving Canada July 30…so not long to go!

I once had a pretty great job. (A great job that morphed into an awesome job, in fact.) But, I digress. At the great job I scanned and photographed vintage ephemera. Old scrapbooks, books, cards, diaries. I worked for a research project where we digitized old texts for researchers to use. It was an infinitely interesting job. Sometimes a bit tedious (I come by the nickname Scan Monkey honestly), but still interesting.

Therefore it was with great interest that I checked out the New York Public Library’s digital archives today. They are so much cooler than what I did. What they’ve compiled is a stunning assortment of scans and images from their huge collection, ranging from zoology to science & medicine to “cigarette cards.”

My favourite today is the menus, however. Of course. They all come from one collector: Miss Frank E. Buttolph. Astonishing. From the collection description:

The menu collection originated through the energetic efforts of Miss Frank E. Buttolph (1850-1924), a somewhat mysterious and passionate figure, whose mission in life was to collect menus. In 1899, she offered to donate her existing collection to the Library — and to keep collecting on the Library’s behalf. Presciently, director Dr. John Shaw Billings accepted her offer and for the next quarter century Miss Buttolph continued to add to the collection. Her principal method of acquisition was to write to every restaurant she could think of, soliciting menus. When letters failed, she often marched into a restaurant and pleaded her case in person. She also placed advertisements in trade publications like The Caterer and The Hotel Gazette, but just as often, published news of her collection prompted outright contributions of specimens from around the world.

She collected some 25,000 menus before her death in 1924.

Menu from the Farewell dinner for the Japanese Minister at the Arlington in 1887. I love the champagne and cigarette break.

Menu from the Fourth of July dinner at the Bass Rock Hotel in 1888.

Luncheon en route the R.M.S Oceanic in 1900.

New Year’s Dinner at the Portland (hotel) in Portland, Oregon, 1895.

Daily cafeteria lunch menu at 57 Broad Street, New York City, 1900. Look at the prices and the the way the menu is divided.

Wine list from an Elks’ dinner, on a trip en route to Buffalo in 1905.

I could spend all day finding and posting interesting menus from this archive. My only gripe is that many of the menus are for society dinners and high class events. However, they do offer insight into what was fashionable in food at the time: turtle, sauces, cigarettes and cured meats, it would seem.

I also love the design, artwork and attention to detail paid to the menus. They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to. As I continue to search for inspiration for the design the of the menus for our wedding dinner, I will be investigating this archive closely, I expect.

Here are all the other archives to investigate. There is something for everyone.