White Gyoza Recipe

Posted on March 2nd, 2007 in Customary Drivel by Deas

This one’s for Clay. He linked to a picture on his site, in this entry, of a recipe for “white gyoza.” Mentioned that he wanted to know how to make them. So, I’ve done a really loose translation of the instructions that I could make out from the picture. It was blurry, so I may be completely off in a couple of spots. If so, please, correct me! Anyway, here’s the recipe, as near as I can make it out.

How to Make White Gyoza

1) Boil some water. Also heat some oil to about 50 degrees C. (122 degrees F.)

2) Pour some oil into a cold frying pan, and line up the gyoza in their frozen state.

3) Simultaneously ignite the burner and add the hot water. Let the gyoza heat for 8 minutes.

4) Turn the gas up to high heat, close the lid, and let it cook for another 8 minutes.

5) When they’ve (plumped?)… (no clue on the kanji I translated in italics)

6) Add the oil you heated up, submerging the gyoza. (This is a point.)

7) The hot water and oil will become cloudy. Leave the heat on high.

8) 3 minutes later, the water will evaporate and the oil will become transparent. Add more oil.

9) The bottoms will become dark brown. Add (flavoring of some kind?) and drop the heat to medium.

10) Return the oil to its canister, leaving just a bit in the pan. (You can use oil 3 to 4 times.)

11) Put the browned side back down for a bit and turn the gas off. Put the remaining oil back into the canister.

12) Turn the gyoza out onto a plate, and you’re done.

(Here’s the photo for quick reference: )

There you have it, folks. Hope it works. I’ll give it a shot sometime next week, but first I gotta buy that awesome futuristic powder that solidifies your used oil into one gelatinous mass. Hope it’s yummy.

Best Week Ever (Hakatajima Style)

Posted on March 2nd, 2007 in Customary Drivel by Deas

Recap of this week: Monday night at Jo’s kitchen, Tuesday night at 英会話 (adult English classes) for the first time, Wednesday night sleeping like a log (yay!), Thursday morning 卒業式 (graduation ceremony), Thursday night 飲み会 (drinking party with co-workers, in this case) at some place on 大島 (Oshima) which was freaking awesome, Friday night will be spent discovering Italian food with Will - because who on earth would guess that my little island has an Italian joint?, Saturday night in 今治 (Imabari) helping Aileen host a singles party of some kind….yeah, that last one was a recent addition - and it will either be hysterical or hysterical. Yes, those are slightly different options. The first version involves tons of laughter. The second version involves tons of tragic mishaps, nervous chuckles, embarrassment, and fun like that which will be looked back upon as hysterical. I’m looking forward to it. And you should too, because I guarantee that I’ll have something on here afterward. Ha ha. :-) Been one of those weeks. Feels good.

Here’s something completely unrelated that just popped into my head. There are many things that catch my eye and cause me to think “oh, I should buy one of those” every time I pass by, and yet I never do go ahead and buy it because it seems too trivial when I get around to it. Or I just plain forget. Take your pick. One such item is a USB memory stick. I have wanted one ever since I completed one full circuit of working at all of my schools. I have been using Gmail to store searchable files for use at schools, but whenever I update them I have to delete the old version so that it’s up to date and I’m not wasting space. (Yes, people, I understand that Gmail has abundant space, but keeping files tidy isn’t a crime.) Anyway, I think I’ll buy one soon and use it for storage and for mobile applications. Then I’d be able to use Firefox and whatnot wherever I go, with my bookmarks intact, etc. That would be nice. Perhaps I’ll pick one up in Korea.

Another thing I’ve thought of buying about a thousand times without following through is a decent bag for school. I’ve been using the same lousy cloth sack that they gave us at Tokyo Orientation with the orange JET logo printed on the side. (I’m actually not sure if it’s orange or if the bag is just so old it merely appears to be orange.) I need a more teacher-ish bag. Black. Preferably durable. Needs to handle being manhandled, abused in the bicycle basket, dropped, etc. with regularity. Maybe I’ll pick up one of those in Korea too.

Ok, I think I’m done with this post. Random. Oh well. Crazy comes in flurries here.