Miho Fukuhara

It's been a while since I last posted here in my blog. I got a little busy with my full time job, that's why. I was also a bit occupied with my preparations for my training in Japan, but this post is not about my job or my training. This is about Fukuhara Miho, a talented and undeniably beautiful musician/singer from Japan.

I knew about her when two of my friends were talking about her in Facebook. I got really curios so I started listening to her songs. The first one I listened to was "Save Me" which also features Leona Lewis. Miho's voice is amazing. It is smooth and very pleasant to the ears. Since then, I listen to her songs every day. I also watched the drama, "Kaeru no Ojou sama" where she played the role of a cool mom. She can do anything! Truly talented!

photo from her page

It must be fate that a friend of mine is a DJ, (DJ Daishizen), and he performs with Miho. When I heard that fact, I screamed. It's unbelievable, but it's real. He said that if I come to Japan, he would invite me to Miho's gig. I must be really lucky because I was actually scheduled to have my training on bridge design in Japan for 3 months. Yay!

As promised, my friend invited me to Miho's gig in Shibuya.

Inside the venue, I couldn't stop pinching myself to check if I'm dreaming or not. The show was great. Miho has a very strong stage presence. My Japanese is still bad so I couldn't understand what she said most of the time. It didn't matter. Just hearing her voice was enough.

My friends almost died of envy because......... I had a photo taken with Miho.

with DJ Daishizen and Fukuhara Miho

And my luck did not end there. Miura Daichi was also there. Ahhhhhhh.. I almost fainted. Haha.

never mind how I look. 

I had great fun on that day. I actually spent the day walking around Tokyo with another friend before coming to the concert venue but I didn't feel tired at all. 

I'm definitely watching Miho's gig again. I'm coming back to Japan next year and I want to listen to her more.  When I hear her sing, I can feel her passion towards music.

For the meantime, I have to do my best in my training. I am helping out in a certain bridge project now. Someday, when that bridge is done, I hope Miho would use it when travelling around Japan to have her gigs. That would really make me happy. 

Tuna Carbonara

I don't cook often these days because of my busy schedule but I make sure to cook something good every Sunday. It has become a routine here at home. I cook light meals or snack every Sunday afternoon and a special dinner in the evening. 

For our snack last Sunday, I made tuna carbonara. My brother used to dislike carbonara; I don't know why but he ate quite an amount last weekend.

I'm sharing my recipe for the tuna carbonara we had last weekend so you can make it next time you have a family gathering or if your friends come over.

Here are the ingredients:

1 can big evaporated milk
1 can cream of mushroom
1 box of all purpose cream
1/4 cup grated cheese
1 cup sliced mushroom
3 cans of tuna in oil
500 mg pasta cooked according to package instructions
butter
2 tbsp. minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Heat the pan and put the butter. Once the butter has melted, put the garlic. When the garlic turns brown, add the tuna. You can include the oil from the tuna, I think it adds more flavor to the sauce if you do that. Continue sauteing for 2 more minutes then add the mushroom. Saute for a minute or so.

Add the evaporated milk, all purpose cream, cream of mushroom, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Stir continuously over low fire until the mixture becomes creamy. Turn off the fire and toss the pasta into the sauce.

Coco Crab

I'm just running out of ideas; thus, the name of this recipe. As I have said in my previous posts, it's always a struggle for me thinking about what to cook for dinner during Sundays. The coconut milk fan that I am, I instantly thought of cooking crabs in coconut milk when I saw the crabs in the market. I wasn't sure if I remember how my aunt cooks this, but I still proceeded with buying the crabs and went back home.

Ingredients:

1 kilogram crab
4 tablespoons vinegar
4 cloves garlic, crushed garlic
1 cup pure coconut milk
squash, peeled and cut into smaller pieces
string beans, cut shorter
1/2 cup water

Procedure:

Put 1/2 cup of water in the pot, add the vinegar and the crushed garlic. Place the crab and let it simmer over medium fire. When it starts to simmer, add half of the coconut milk. Put the squash and the beans, too.

Add salt to taste and let it simmer until the squash and beans are cooked. For this recipe, I like it when the squash and the beans are overcooked. 

When the squash and beans are cooked, add the remaining coconut milk and let it simmer further for about 5 minutes. That's it. Simple, isn't it?

sinful coco crab

Bopis

Bopis is a Filipino dish made from minced pig's heart and lungs. Sounds strange, doesn't it? I wonder if there are many people in the world who enjoy eating pig's lungs and heart. This dish goes well with alcohol but it goes just as well with steamed rice.

I don't remember where I first tasted this, but I loved it at first bite. It has a very unique flavor and texture. I really wanted to cook this before but never got the chance; I wasn't cooking much back then. One Sunday, I decided to cook it. I got the recipe from Panlasang Pinoy and in this post I'm posting the measurements of the ingredients as posted in that website. In reality, I don't follow measurements listed in recipes because I always adjust them according to my taste. Just use the measurements as a guide and adjust them according to your taste bud's preference. 

The ingredients are not difficult to find; at least in the Philippines.

Here are what you would need in cooking Bopis:

pig's lungs and heart (boiled in lemon grass and pandan leaves)

1/2 cup annatto seeds diluted in 1 cup of water

1 small carrot, minced

4 - 6 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons bird's eye chili, minced

2 tablespoons ginger, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 - 4 pieces dried bay leaves

1 cup water

3 tablespoons cooking oil

salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

No amount of pig's heart and lungs is indicated because I bought one heart and a pair of lungs, I forgot how much they weighed. Boiling them in lemon grass and pandan is essential because it will remove the unpleasant odor of the lungs and heart. Mincing would take a lot of time. It took me more than an hour, maybe it was because I was watching a drama while mincing. Multi-tasking.

After mincing, you're now ready to start the actual cooking of bopis. First, heat the pan and put the oil in it. When the oil is hot enough, put the onion, garlic, and ginger. After about a minute or when the garlic turns brown, put the bird's eye chili and saute further for about 30 seconds.

Put the minced lungs and heart and cook for about 5 minute. Stir every once in a while. Pour in annatto water, that is, the water where you soaked the annatto seeds. Don't forget to strain.

Add 1 cup of water and the dried bay leaves. Simmer until the liquid evaporates. Add the carrots and simmer for 3 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir.

Add the vinegar and leave for about 8 minutes over medium heat. be careful not to stir it right after adding the vinegar. I was told that you can't stir anything with vinegar until it has started simmering. Well, from experience, I think that it really gives you good results if you avoid stirring before the vinegar simmers. I finally understood why my "adobo" tasted strange back then.

I actually thought I cooked a lot of it, but we ate it all up. Happy tummy!

What's Keeping Me Busy Lately

I've been very busy lately so I haven't had the time to post as often as I did months ago. So what's keeping me busy? 

I got a job as a bridge design engineer two months ago! Yay!  This is really a dream come true. I have always wanted to build bridges; that's actually the main reason why I took up civil engineering back in college. 

Another thing that makes me happy is that the company I work for now allowed me to continue having lessons with my Japanese students in RareJob. Yes, I have two jobs now; busier but I'm really loving it.

Since I work for a Japanese firm, I have to study Nihongo. I have always been interested in the Japanese language but I never studied it seriously until I joined the company. I can speak a little Japanese now, but there are still a lot of things about it that I have to learn. I can read Hiragana, but still struggling with Katakana. Of course I study Kanji, too. I have to learn the Kanji for different technical terms. Most of our design drawings are in Japanese. 

I'll probably be in Japan from July to October of this year. I'm really hoping to meet many students there. 

with some of my colleagues. may hair's in a mess. :P