Last shreds of winter

It's been warming up lately, but I'm glad it's still chilly enough to really enjoy some hot soup. I made this sweet potato soup with miso and ginger tonight, and it's fantastic. My soup is not nearly as orange as the one in the picture, but that's probably from using Japanese sweet potatoes. Oh...and I didn't fry the potatoes for very long... (hungry, impatient.)

It's still yummy and I find I'm really wowed by the difference fresh ginger makes. I don't feel a cold coming on, but if I did, I think this soup would give it a firm kick in the pants and send it packing. I have to get over my fear of moldy ginger (thanks a lot, damp LA apartment).

I've been eating spectacularly for the past 5 days while on a JET conference in Yokohama. The trip motivated me as a cook much more than as an English teacher. I wish I'd taken more food pictures there, but I do have a few that I like from Kamakura - home of the famed daibutsu.



You can never get away from the godforsaken schoolchildren. Sadly, blasphemously, I think I was more taken with the local food than the big Buddha. I found a lovely little patisserie-brasserie joint operation awkwardly called "Maison de 雪乃下." In the restaurant, I had a delicious saffron and seared scallops risotto, and they gave me a complimentary dessert for ordering coffee with my meal. The dessert was a delicate, toothsome, melt-in-your-mouth lemon macaron.

I was so hooked that I had to go downstairs to the patisserie to buy some more.


(photo by Greg)

I picked the pistachio on the right -- they looked awfully cramped in there -- and it was as quirky as I'd have expected.


(photo by Greg)

Sometimes, I think I will leave Japan having gained only a colony of yeast and some bangs.