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| Spring has sprung |
March 20th is a public holiday, celebrating the spring equinox. According to Japan Australia it should start to warn up now. It has actually got much nicer, but I am not packing away my woollens just yet!
We thought it would be appropriate to eat some 山菜ご飯 (sansai gohan or mountain vegetable rice) to enjoy some of the "wild herb" of spring (which I bought in a packet...). There's a nice article about sansai in the Japan Times. The version I made only has warabi (bracken/fern fronds), gobou (burdock root), takenoko (bamboo shoots) and carrots.
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| A cross between a spring meal and a cold-and-flu cure |
I have quite a nasty cold at the moment, so along with the 山菜ご飯 and miso soup (which feels amazing on a sore throat, probably because it is so salty) I made tofu stewed with an entire bulb of fresh ginger and a cucumber salad with garlic and lemon dressing.
When I was on my way home in the afternoon the owner of my neighbourhood bar/Tex Mex joint came running out with a bottle of apple juice for me to help me get better! I live in the nicest neighbourhood.
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| Surprise juice! |
Speaking of being sick, Hyogo Prefecture has just become the second prefecture to ban smoking in schools and hospitals. You read that correctly... only two prefecture have bans on smoking in schools and hospitals. Still, two is better than none.
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Always good when there is a National holiday and a great chance to admire nature and the love of living things :)
ReplyDeleteJapan Australia
Indeed! I don't know what part of Australia you're from, but down in Tassie spring is pretty miserable: rainy, windy and grey skies. I'd never understood all the poetry about spring before coming to Japan!
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