Bridal Shower

I went to a bridal shower for the first time in my life. I didn’t event know what it was all about. Obviously, there’s no theme like lingerie party or anything. So I assumed it would be somehow low-key, held at a restaurant in a charming town in NJ. It turned out to be a HUGE shower, inviting over 100 guests. I can’t even imagine the scale of their wedding…. A huge banquette room decorated with lovely red roses was full of her friends and mainly family.
Nor sure why the shower involves games so much. Perhaps an American thing? Anyways, there were three games. Quiz about the bride and broom. Crossword puzzle about them as well, which was very well made. And bingo, guessing what gifts she would get.

I was wondering if she would actually open all gifts. Yes, she did, thanking each one of the senders. The volume of gifts completely blew my mind. If I got married right now, we wouldn’t even have a space in our tiny apartment kitchen to store all the gadgets. And as a tradition, she wore a hat made of ribbons from the gifts.
It was very good experience.

Roast Chicken

We once in a while get a whole chicken and roast it on a weekend, aiming to bring pieces for lunch the following week. But letting the juicy chicken stay on the counter and get cold is almost a sin, so we usually eat the out-of-oven chicken for the evening meal and use leftovers for the lunch. Our usual recipe is to rub fresh herbs and stuff with herb, garlic and lemon. This time, we made herb butter and rubbed all over chicken before roasting. I didn’t see a major difference from the standard recipe but it was very aromatic for sure. The side is roasted fennel roots, which I loved when my friend who used to live in France served at her home party. It was supposed to be simple but nothing like what she made.

Steak Time

My boyfriend, ex-8yr-vegetarian, loves steak. When I get home late, he almost always cooks steak for himself. While I worry about his health, I indulge myself in his super carnivore pleasure. You can’t go wrong with skirt steak. Easy to cook and tender. But this one time, the dish was superb. Perfectly cooked steak (I hate too chewy) and the sides of grilled asparagus and rosemary potato brought us a French bistro dining experience.

Bulldog Skin

If someone is mean to you or something gets you down, watch this clip.

Click here to see the movie on YouTube.

There Will Be Blood

Arguably one of the best actors of our generation Daniel Day-Lewis's new movie and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood. In very short, it's a movie about a life of a man whose ambition was to become an big oil tycoon and his struggle with power, money, faith, God, family and royalty and others. From the preview, which shows only the scene with Daniel Day-Lewis, I was suspicious that this movie may end up one of those with one major actor and nothing else is good. I was wrong. He was good, of course. Really good. But the sound, cinematography and direction were all great.

After the Wedding

I rented the 2006 Oscar Foreign Film nominee, After the Wedding. The story is kind of complicated so I won't say much to reveal the ending:

Jacob has spent his life caring for Indian street kids. When a Danish businessman Jorgen offers him $4 million to his orphanage, Jacob is asked to fly back to Denmark and meet the guy. Upon Jacob's return to Denmark, Jorgen insists Jacob to attend his daughter's wedding. At the wedding, Jacob finds he didn't fly back only to receive the donation but to deal with his own life in an unexpected way.

Children in the orphanage are just charming and beautiful. And the actors are very good, I thought. It's not a suspense but the story is intricate enough to ask for a really good screenplay. You look around and find many people who need help. But you only can save so many, and most importantly, your own family is the ones who really need you. I thought about this a lot.

Thanks for the Comments

I am not good at commenting on my friends' blog. But I appreciate when people write comments on my blog. Absolutely selfish. I don't blog to hear responses. This is probably the kind of pleasure authors find in writing. You don't know who would be reading when. And that intangible communication with unknown readers is exciting. And yet, my target audience of my blog, my mom, has never written me a comment. I don't even thing she's reading it. What a parent...

Lettuce Battle

Our recent argument over a very trivial issue over lettuce in sandwich. Characters: Miko (me) & Man (my boyfriend).

Man bought a bagel with cream cheese and cucumber for himself and a roll sandwich with lettuce, tomato, egg, ham, cheese for Miko. Miko found these little pieces of iceberg lettuce in this sandwich so incredibly tasty, an exquisite experience you'd never expect from a deli sandwich. It doesn't really have a taste but its texture and freshness made this sandwich perfect. Happy Miko offered a bite to Man. As Man's big mouth started to open, Miko gave a weird look, which she did unconsciously. When it covered the corner of sandwich where all the lettuce was stuck, Miko exclaimed, "Wait!" His teeth was still half into the roll, but Miko let him bite in. She thought it was childish of her to stop him at that point just for lettuce. Fresh lettuce went in his mouth.

To Miko's explanation for her shout, Man started to get indignant: "You offered it. Why are you complaining? I don't even care for the lettuce!" Miko knew she did offer but somehow she didn't expect Man would eat up the lettuce. While Miko admitted her reaction being somehow unreasonable, but to her, there was a reason. It was a temporary moment she got distracted by this disappointment, and now time to go see a movie. Meanwhile, Man couldn't get over the incident, staying angry the rest of the day and making fun of Miko's reaction. Miko still doesn't understand why he needed to be so angry. It was just lettuce. But it was really good lettuce.

Incense Time

Getting sort of tired of super expensive aromatic candles, I've been enjoying burning incense in the apartment. Clean up the house and light the incense, a short one so that it won't get too smoky. It's kind of relaxing. Since I'm too lazy to clean the little incense holder with ashes all around, I made my own incense burner. It has a cover with holes so the smoke slowly diffuses out and makes it safer to leave the incense burning. Just like perfume, incenses smell differently at different places. I bought a nice set of woody-smell incenses in Japan. They were smelling so fresh and almost sweet in the store but not in my apartment. My search for the perfect incense goes on....

Bruschetta

More awesome dishes from my boyfriend's repertoire. Tomato soup is not made from scratch but he added fresh garlic, which made a big difference. Mushroom was perfectly flavored with thyme and butter—cooked crunchy and tender just perfectly to sit on the crispy bread. Ricotta bruschetta seemed really simple but it was a good contrast with rich and flavor-intense mushroom.

Miko's Japanese Breakfast

Rummaging through my empty refrigerator, I managed to make an almost traditional Japanese breakfast.

Rice. Miso soup with Wakame seaweed and yellow onion. Natto (fermented soybean which my boyfriend can't even bear to smell) with dried Nori seaweed. Umeboshi (pickled plum). Omelette with mushroom and bolognese sauce and canadian bacon.

What I still miss is fresh egg over steamed rice (Tamago kake Gohan). You beat fresh egg and drop some soy sauce. Pour it over steamed rice. Japanese eggs are much larger and firmer. Yolk is more like a golden yellow. I don't really feel like eating eggs here. If anyone knows good, fresh eggs you can eat raw, please let me know!

Happy Days

Stage, static, a few actors, absurd. My theater experiences with these elements had never been good. So, even though I knew this play—reviewed by NY Times as the best Beckett's production— was promised to be a wonderful experience, I sat in my seat with little expectation. But the minute Fiona Shaw as Winnie started speaking with her darling Irish accent, I got completely mesmerized and flooded in the sad, happy, realistic, futuristic, desperate, cheerful, absurd world of this play.

Rough story is: Winnie, a woman no longer young, is embedded up to her “big bosom” in a mound of earth, “the Mother Earth symbol to end all other mother earth symbols”. She lives in a deluge of never-ending light from which there is no escape: even the parasol she unfolds at one point ignites, leaving her without protection. We learn that she has not always been buried in this way but we never discover how she came to be trapped so. - from Wikipedia

Imagine what an actor can do only with half of her torso. A bag stuffed with teeth blush, mirror, gun, lipsticks, calm is the only extra the actor can play with. Fiona absolutely used every inch of her acting skill and made this 1.5 hr play so original and upbeat. From my seat on the second flower balcony, I could clearly see her charming smile and every action she made with her arms, neck, head and face. In the next half of the play, the ground has covered all her body beside her head. Simply a marvelous one.

As great experience as the play was the Harvey Theater itself.

Mini Show

My work had a little exhibition of artwork and paintings done by our members. Invited by my CEO, I included some of my pottery pieces. Probably the first and last time my pieces get such exposure. Hopefully, I can have a private show with better stuff in the future!

Happy Ps!

Happy New Year! In its third year, we made an original holiday card. This year again, my boyfriend came up with an idea: Biggy P and Shorty P. The tall P is a birthday gift from my friend this past year. Coincidentally, my mom sent me the short, chubby P for my birthday too.

In case we missed to send you the card, here's
"Happy Holidays from M & M"

New Blog Name

In case you haven't noticed, my blog title changed. Why?

I was talking about my blog to my boyfriend's parents over the Christmas holidays. His Dad asked for my blog link. I said "littlemiko..." As I were saying, he typed "littlemiko.com." My real old blog name ends with "blogspot.com." And suddenly a bunch of naked Asian teens showed up on the monitor. "Is this your blog?" Of course not.

So no more "littlemiko." Anyways, nobody knew the meaning of "Little Miko Needs to Blog." It was named after a documentary called "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" by Werner Herzog. If you have any good idea for my blog title, please let me know. For your curiosity, it was www.littlemiko.com.

For A Good Sleep

Sacha, my creative, sweet, smart friend from the pottery studio we go to, is a holistic health counselor. During the holiday season she sends me a helpful newsletter on living healthy, living well. This time about sleeping well. According to her knowledge, foot bath in cold water (ideally switch to warm water back and forth) is one of the solutions. And I tried. Water was pretty painfully cold at first (as she instructs), but once you get used to it, it was pretty comfortable. It's supposed to be good for constipation, which I for one struggle with.

For more articles and tips, please check out www.stiggly.com. She also offers workshops regularly, which is open to anyone by registration.

Healthy Pork

I felt like grated radish. It warms the body and fight against bacteria. Or it's simply tasty! Browsing for economical grocery at JAS Mart on the 23rd, I picked burdock root and sliced pork belly. Haven't decided exactly what to cook. Noodle with pork? Oh I have a leftover bowl of rice. So forget noodle.

"Sliced Pork Belly and Burdock Root Scrambled with Egg - Grated Radish Topping"
It's a long title but really easy.

- Thin sliced pork belly
- Sasagaki Burdock Root (shredded or super thin slice, soak in vinegar water for couple minutes)
- Fresh ginger (chopped or sliced fine)
- Hot chilli flake (not required)
- 2 eggs
- Grated Daikon Radish (squeeze out excess water)
- Umeboshi (pickled plum - not required)
- Sauce: Sake, Mirin, Shoyu, Sugar (or soba dipping sauce to replace all)

1. Heat the sauce (should taste a bit sweet and not salty too much, very light amber brown color) in a skillet or pot. Put pork, burdock (discard water), ginger and cook till the pork is completely cooked.
2. Beat eggs and pour over the pork in the pot evenly and quickly. Cover with lit for 30 seconds.
3. Serve pork on a plate or bowl and top with grated radish and umeboshi on top.

Scallop with Corn Cream Sauce

I posted another scallop dish by my dear boyfriend earlier. Tonight, he made another version with sweet corn cream. It was like the one we had at our favorite restaurant Marlow and Sons in W'burg. Lots of sweet corn is lightly flavored with half&half and prosciutto. Although prosciutto was a tad gamy to my taste, this was another very happy meal.

Why Am I Blogging?

My boyfriend checks many websites and blogs and he rarely checks out my blog. My parents, for whom I write almost all blogs also in Japanese, don't seem to be reading it much. Last time I heard was a year ago from my mom commenting on typos. This isn't encouraging... I guess it's because I don't update it often enough. True. I am not close to be a blogger. Some people update every day or several times a day! My friends have started posting comments lately. Thanks you so much. I will try be a more serious blogger...

December: Party Month in Japan

With a poor immune system against digesting alcohol, Japanese still love drinking—for occasions to gather with close friends or grumble about their work. Eventually, many get wasted, puking on the platform or passing out on the train. (Thank god our city cleaning system is impeccable.) Such scenes become more ubiquitous in December when many companies and college clubs host bo-nen-kai. The spirit is: Let’s forget what happened this year and charge up for the coming year.

While Western countries warmly celebrate the holiday season, usually surrounding a table with families, Japanese toast to the end of year at bon-nen-kai. It is more of a social engagement than a party. You have to attend. You have to drink. Bosses encourage the staff to forget about the hierarchy, which you shouldn’t. Yet alcohol makes people speak honestly, act inappropriately. Some go through embarrassing situation next morning in the office, often with a heavy hangover.

In December, cities at night are full of students and salary-men (Japanese office workers) struggling to make it home. If they are not too wasted, they are unusually friendly and funny.

Little Miko on Publication!

With my boss's last-minute cancellation, I spoke at the workshop we had in Tokyo a few weeks ago. Today, copies of a Japanese trade publication on my desk. OH MY MIKO! The photo of me speaking is published on the entire back page. Worse, it reported my presentation throughly. More than 5 times of "Ms. MIKO says..." If I knew, I would have spent more time firming up the preso and spoke more responsibly. Let's hope I didn't say anything inaccurate...

When Dad Goes Wild

We went to Karaoke. My dad, me, brother, his wife and my boyfriend. This night, my dad was having fun more than anyone. I don't know how to react when my dad starts singing Carpenters and dancing to my songs. Everytime we go to karaoke, he sings English songs. He likes speaking English. But it's not that good.

Japan 2007 - Monkeys

Japanese monkeys have red butt. Until I moved to the States, I didn't know they were indeginous to Japan. First ones are monkeys in Tokyo Ueno Zoo. Below is wild monkeys enjoying the sun in Nikko, northern Kanto. My boyfriend calls me Monkey. Don't know why. I don't think I look like monkey. But he loves monkeys so I probably should be happy about it.

Japan 2007 - Sea Food

Tsukiji market is one of the most popular sightseeing distinations. The bet happens 3am - 5am. But the shops and restaurants around the market is open till noon and you can see all the fresh fish sold in the market till late morning.

All chefs including my favorite sushi chef goes to this market and makes such a beautiful assortment of sashimi.

This stripe shrimp is rare to find at restaurants. Our local sushi chef got them just for our visit. It may sound cruel but the shrimp still moves if you put it in your mouth. Rich, creamy and cruncy as well. Means it's super fresh. While we deplete the ocean, give us some credit for eating almost any part of fish. Even this shrimp head returns on the table later as a miso soup. We eat fish bones as well.

Another yummy from winter Japan is fresh oysters. They are much bigger and rich, more flavorful than wester oysters. Left is grilles with soy sause and left is fresh oyster in vinegrette.

I guess it's called alfonsino in English. This red fish in Japanese is called Kin-me-dai (Golden eye). Usually we stew this fish but if fresh enough, it taste so good as sashimi or sushi. Heaven!

Japan 2007 - Food

After taking hundreds of pictures from our trip to my sweet-home Japan, I was a bit shocked that 80% is pics of food. Hope you can enjoy the taste through this blog... Vegetarians, please bare with my country.

How many times did we eat Ramen? My boyfriend loves ramen and he actually wanted to have ramen once a day. This picture is a place in Shibuya called Ichiran. It was good and you can customize the level of richness, spices, noodle texture and etc. In here, you sit on the count with each seat devided with a sparation and a bamboo curtain between customers and kitchen. Completely privacy. Perfect Ramen spot for salary men and ladies who don't like people to see her slurp.

Monja-yaki is a typical Tokyo food, particularly popular in Shitamachi area (old downtown Tokyo). You eat and cook yourself - that's the fun of it. On the iron pan, scoop all ingredients except the soup and cook a little. Then make a small bank in the middle of ingredients. Slowly pour soup from the bowl. Without letting the soup run over the bank, mix from inside slowly. When the soup starts to get thicken and browned, you scoop directly from the cooking pan with a little spatula. It's not visually appealing but the taste is GoooooD!

We had tons of yakitori at different places and this join in Kichijoji was arguably the best. Although, it's not really yaki-tori but yaki-buta. They serve pork organs. They are so fresh and liver sashimi is superb. It's not fancy but always get packed early in the evening. No server. You just tell the guy behind the counter what you want. I'd love to go back there. In new york, decent yaki-tori restaurants are way too expensive. This dish is supposed to be reasonable, casulal snack or quick bite.

Squid ichiya-boshi is a good snack with sake, beer and shochu. Usually, we broil the semi-dried squid lightly and have it with mayo. Though it's not raw, overnight drying process keeps the squid tender inside. My boyfriend finished thie whole squid by himself.

NYC Marathon 2007

I don't have any willpower to even try run more than a mile but I did get myself out on the street, in a flip-flop, to cheer the 2007 NYC marathon runners. Amazing, over 20,000 people ran such a long distance. Luckily, I only need to step outside of my apartment as we are right on Bedford Ave, one of the main course the crowd run along.

The top 3 Japanese runners were all above 40 yrs old. Unbelievable. Maybe someday, once in my lifetime, I should try this. But maybe not. I can't event think of walking all the way from the Island to the city. I will start with joinning a gym, I guess.

Hair Cut

My super hair stylist Shin-san has a cute, cozy salon in the E.V. All the drawings on the wall are works of his wife, Kimiko-san. When my appointment is not later in the day, we often spend the session with a glass of wine.

His cut last at least 3 months and easy to handle. Lazy Miko can't do fancy curl or blow dry in the morning. If you'd like a bit of fun with your hair, he's the man.

Bear Mountain Park

Not to miss the foliage, we hopped in a Zipcar and drove up to Bear Mountain in upstate. BTW, Zipcar is really awesome. Easy to use and cheaper than rental cars. Bear Mountain is just off the Peekskill and it doesn't feel like it's only 1.5 hours away from Manhattan. We drove a bit, enjoying the colors of leaves. Then we ran into the last day of Octoberfest. Lucky us! German wine, beer and sausages. It made Miko's hungry tommy happy happy. Bakc on the car. I insisted to drive, on a 25mil/hour road. I officially have both Japanese and US license. But I never felt safe driving. In fact, my boyfriend (current and old) rarely let me drive. But hey, we are in the mountain, I can do it. I drove for 2 minutes. Just keep the same speed is hard enough. 4 cars are making a line beind me. Panic. Give up. What's wrong with me?I loved the rocks. Huge rocks. Some with beautiful surface made by moss and water dropps. We did a bit hiking and found a small fall. The iron racoon-dog is actually a grill. How cute!

Wave Hill 2

We visited again the Wave Hill garden in Riverdale, Bronx. The last time was in early summer. It was a bit chilly but enjoyed the plants and flowers of this season. All the funny-looking plants give me inspiration for my drawing. Nature creates so many amazing shapes and colors. Simply amazing.

Korean Parade

I happened to be in Korean town on the day of Korean festival. A huge parade on the Broadway from 34th. While waiting for my friend, I totally enjoyed the parade. Interstingly yet rightly so since we are in NYC, there were non-Korean people in the parade. I wish Japan had such major event to celebrate our own culture.

Soba Dinner

Another evening by myself. Another chance to cook myself a nice Japanese meal. Tonight's menu is soba noodle soup and kabocha pumpkin. Soba is Kake-Soba style, just with scallion and tororo-conbu (slimy seaweed). Simple simple. Kabocha pumpkin is not like squash. More flavor and sweet. It's pretty cheap and easy to get at supermarkets. The skin is really tough when uncooked, but it gets soft and edible (actually taste really good) once cooked. Kabocha is perfect for pumpkin soup.

Butoh America

Japan Society has hosted another week of Butoh performance. This year commemorated the 101 birthday of Kazuo Ohno, the founder of Butoh, who is still teaching actively. Our first pick was the last performance by Kazuo's son, but it was sold out. So we went to a show directed by one of Kazuo's students. To my surprise, 6 female dancers in American Aparrelish costume. My body was stiff for the first 5 minutes. But then I began to feel the softness within the powerful movements. I really enjoyed seeing female playing—Butoh is normally known for male performers. 6 girls act completely different moves. How could the director come up with all these moves and how can they remember that? Finally, the director/choreographer Akira Kasai, who himself is a mid-aged man. The concept for this show was to produce a new Butoh that cannot be produced in Japan or Europe, but only in America. Next, I aim to see Kaisanjuku.

Apple Cider Season

Instead of coffee, I got a cup of fresh hot apple cider for pick-me-up. Many farmers have hot apple cider but this one was pretty good, a bit sour and lots of apple. $1,50. It's the orchard that sells famour juices. Nice way to start a Monday morning...

Adam's Rib

Desprate for some fun movie, I picked this movie, one of the highest rates on Netflix. Turned out this movie features a feminism—specifically the equal rights between Man and Women before the law. Story is simple. A love, mid-age, lawyer couple (Spencer Tracy and K Hepburn) gets assigned on a attempted murder case: A housewife finds her husband flirting with another woman in her apartment and shot him. Spencer on the husbund side, Hepburn defending the wife. Hepburn's eloquent and powerful approaches and her passion toward equal rights unfortunatelly brings inaccordance to their house. Besides the story itself, Hepburn's costume is so worth watching.

Scallop and Beets Salad

My boyfriend made scallop in cream sauce and beets salad with mustard dressing. He's always a good cook but this dinner was one of my favorites. So lucky to have a boyfriend who likes to cook.

The sallop was top-notch. He browned the scallop and cooked in the cream sauce which had shallots, butter, cream, garlic and white wine. Top it with fresh basil. His signature beets salad is the recipe he learned from the chef he used to work for as a waiter in Minnesota. Roast the whole beets. Cover them and cool. Peel and slice beets. The dressing is a mixture of olive oil, ground mustard, dijon mustard and a bit of honey. Top with sliced caramelized or roasted onion and some blue cheese.

Hofstra University Visit

I was invited to speak to a small group of students at Hofstra University. One of the students picked me up aa the LIRR Mineola station with his MINI. The group was small but they were all very nice. Creative advertising is not the main focus for these marketing students, but they were all well-mannered and listed to me without dosing off. This campus is a state arboretum as well. Seasonal flowers and plants are nicely planted throughout the campus. Evangelistic Miko enjoyed this one-day trip.

Natto Noodle

I was craving for Filet-O-Fish, hesitated to have junk food, went to Japanese grocery store and ended up buying an instant noodle (Nakisoba, stir-fried noodle in worcestershore-like sauce). I also picked up some Natto (firmented, slimy, stringy, stinky soy beans) to help myself with nutrition. The noodle's sauce was a bit too intense and I came up with a solution. Add Natto. I love tomato sauce pasta like Amatricciana with natto. I love natto. The result was above expectation. Natto make the sauce mild and balance up the saltiness. How about slimy yakisoba?!

Flat Tire Sadness

On my way to my friend's place in Prospect Heights, I got a flat tire. Glad I wasn't speeding—my vintage-looking heavy bike cannot speed up anyways—and I didn't get in an accident, and it was a walkable distance where the tragedy happened. Still, I was looking forward to this Sunday evening bike ride and upset enought to be grumpy. See my face...