Mexican Food...in Japan

Oh, Mexico, I never really been so I don't really know.
And oh, Mexico, I guess I'll have to go now.

James Taylor

Sure.  I’d like to go to Mexico at some point, but this post is really about Mexican food.

I love Mexican food.  As a kid, Chichi’s was one of my favorite places to eat.  I mean seriously, can anything beat fried ice cream?  It’s like eating an oxymoron, for crying out loud.

Awesome.

Going out to eat Mexican in Japan is not impossible, but it might as well be.  It’s either over priced, or just not good.  We rarely bother.

Instead, we make burrito salads, inspired by the restaurants Chipotle and Burrito Union.  We do the best we can without staples like fresh cilantro and varieties of peppers. 

But we make do.  The results?

 Delicious.

Recipe

Prepped lettuce

A couple tablespoons olive oil

one sliced onion

one sliced green pepper

one sliced red pepper

one sliced yellow pepper

minced garlic

sliced tomato

sliced avacado

one can of black beans

1-2 cups cooked rice

sliced chicken

juice of 1-2 limes

grated cheese                                               

cumin seed

ground cumin

salt

pepper

cilantro (fresh if at all possible)

tabasco

Heat up olive oil in two pans.  Sautee garlic and cumin seed in both pans over medium heat.  In one pan, sauté onion until beginning to soften.  Add peppers and sauté. 

In other pan put in cooked rice.  Spice desired amount.  Add lime juice and black beans.  Cook over low heat to blend flavors.

Once the veggies are sautéed, remove from pan and set aside.  In same pan, add a bit more oil and heat up.  Put in some minced garlic and sauté.  Add meat of choice and spice as desired.  Fry until just cooked through. 

Assemble salads in a pretty fashion!

Note:  I apologize for the ambiguity of amounts…I tend to not measure ingredients.  Start with a small amount and spice from there, tasting along the way. 

We like drinking either Negra Modelo Mexican beer, piña coladas or margaritas with these salads.  Yum!

Thoughts for Sanity

Here you are. Hired to teach English in Japan.  Which is most likely your native language.

You arrive in Japan.  Reality begins to set it.  Teaching is merely part of your job.  Learning to work with the Japanese teachers is goal number one.  And every single one of them has different expectations. 

Every.  Single.  One.

Some teachers are completely in control.  Some want balanced team teaching.  Some don’t participate at all.

Although I have only been an ALT for six months, I feel I have already learned the most important aspect of my job:  roll with the punches.  Or go crazy. 

So for sanity’s sake:

• Talk to teachers before class.  Being on the same page during class is crucial to having a good lesson. 

• Be proactive.  If you don’t know Japanese, study.  Especially in elementary schools (such as mine) most teachers hardly know any English.

• Be genki.  People-attitude is important! Even if you make lots of mistakes, smile and try your hardest.  Everyone will love you.

• Listen, consider then respond.

• Develop a thick skin.  Sometimes things will happen that could be taken offensively-let them roll off your back.  99% of the time it isn’t you. 

• “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”  Remember you are constantly dealing with a different culture and language.  Be respectful, even if you don’t agree or understand everything.  

One last thing-remember that even though you are teaching, this is also a learning experience for you.  Enjoy it!

The Land of Cute

Babies. Puppies.  Kitties.  Bunnies.  Duckies.

I feel these are “normal” cute things.

Then there is Japan cute.  Japan has it's own category in cuteness because, well…there is really no other way to say this: It’s weird.

Now.  All the regular cute things are here in droves.  Puppies, kitties, bunnies, etc.  The weirdness starts when you discover things like stickers of glittery, multi-colored piles of poop.

That’s right folks: Poop is cute.  I bet you didn't even know that. I didn't. 

I am really not sure what the cute aspect of poop is.  Perhaps it’s the little faces drawn upon them.  Or their shapes, like little dollops of whipped cream.  Go figure.

Another bazaar cute item in Japan is slime.  My students love drawing pictures of slime with faces.  Again, go figure.

Then there is food.  Cute food is a way of life in Japan.  There are bento lunches, pudding puddings, mameshiba commercials…I could keep going for a long time.  Believe me.

While I appreciate cuteness as much as the next person, I feel a line should be drawn at some point. I really don’t think illustrations of cute poop and slime would fly back home. 

I like to think I keep an open mind.  There is that saying, “Beauty (I’ll substitute cuteness here) lies in the eye of the beholder.” 

I get that.  But poop? 

Call me blind, but I fail to see the cuteness of poop.

They Stared At Me

They stared at me, their little eyes wide with amazement, their little jaws dropping to the floor.  Speechlessness is not a regularity when it comes to first graders, however.  Soon they were chatting away, no doubt about what I was doing.

I was eating an apple.  Not a cut up apple, but one right from the core.  This is, apparently, not usual in Japan. 

For some reason unbeknownst to me, school lunch was not provided yesterday.  That means it was bento lunch day. 

School lunches exist because of the Japanese group mentality.  Everyone eats exactly the same thing, from the Principal to the first graders.  School lunches also prevent something that would only happen in Japan: a war of cuteness.  (And by that I mean the students would compare their lunch cuteness.)

If you have ever perused the lunch box or container aisle in a Japanese supermarket, you have no doubt seen the countless little trinkets you can buy to make ridiculously cute bento lunches.  Look at this to see what I mean.

I have a hunch that school lunches are in place for similar reasons as school uniforms.  They provide a sense of equality and no chance to compare.  Of course, it is easy to argue for either side of this issue, but uniforms and school lunches seem to be working out splendidly for Japan.  

But despite the unexciting school lunches and uniforms, there is certainly no lack of cuteness in this country...

Roosters

I was sitting at work trying to create some lesson plans the other day.  There is a chicken coop at the school right outside the teachers' room.  For some reason, one of the roosters was extremely vocal that morning. 

And he was driving me crazy. 

I channeled my annoyance for this obnoxious bird and wrote this poem.  Ahem:

There once was a rooster so loud,
he strutted about haughty and proud.
He preened and he cried
to the hens who just sighed:
It's amazing his antics
are enough to romance us
to dream of becoming his bride.

New Salad?

Yes, please.

I follow a really fun cooking blog.  Look at it here. 

So when I decided to make French Onion Soup yesterday, I needed something fresh and light to go with it.  Then I remembered this salad.  I tried it.  And it was amaaazing.

The recipe calls for an egg yolk in the dressing or a substitute of Greek Yogurt...I had to use plain regular yogurt (yay, Japan!) but it worked out fine. 

This salad was very easy and incredibly delicious.  You should go make it. 

What do you do when...

...someone gives you thirty pounds of onions?

You make French Onion Soup.  That's what you do.

Last week, one of the teachers at Obusuma Elementary school asked me if I like onions.  I said yes.  The next day, he showed up with a h-u-g-e bag of onions from his farm.  For me.

So I made soup...

This was my first attempt at French Onion Soup.  I poked around online looking for recipes and watching videos but ended up making my own version.

French Onion Soup is traditionally served over crusty, delicious French Bread, covered in cheese and then baked till the cheese is roasted. YUM.

Unfortunately, I don't have oven safe bowls.  So we had to do with dipping baguette and sprinkling with freshly grated Parmesan.  It could be worse.

So here is what I did:

7-8 onions (red, white, yellow combination)
2-3 T. olive oil
2-3 T. butter
one bulb of minced (I use a garlic press) garlic
salt
pepper

Heat up a pot over medium heat.  Let the oil come up to temp and melt the butter before adding the onions and garlic.  Saute over medium-low heat until the onions caramelize.  This will take about an hour.  Sprinkle on some S and P.  (I used freshly ground.)

1/4-1/2 c. Dry red or white wine
3-4 c. beef stock
3-4 c. chicken stock
1 t. dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Once the onions are beautifully caramelized, stir the wine. Stir in the stock, mustard, salt and pepper.

Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with parmesan (or another cheese-our cheese choices are limited here.) Eat with a baguette.

So. Yummy.