Oyster mushrooms

Saturday we mostly go to Onsen and later try out some of the restaurants in downtown Fukuoka. This time we went to Kirin Beer-pub in Tenjin. The potatoe-salad is one of the specialities and it's made with self-smoked ham.

We also had delicious ham-pizza with rosemary oil...

...carbonara-pasta and famous Kirin "Brau Meister" beer.

and on top of that a beautiful view on the shirne and city illumination...

...but on that day, we also found a BIG surprise... mushroom-finds always happen, when you expect them less, but you need the heart to go out and have a look. We took a detour to the Onsen and suddenly found an old tree with MASSES of Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) ヒラタケ.

You can buy them in shops, of course, but from nature they really taste best !!!

My mom invented a delicious and easy recipe how to cook them. It's the same I use for Blewits (lepista nuda) ムラサキシメジ.

You need some chicken-parts like chicken wings... glass-noodles and the mushrooms. Make a broth out of the chicken and flavour it with some broth-spice powder (consome powder). Then take out the chicken-parts (you can grill them crispy later in the oven) and put in the sliced mushrooms. Boil the soup again and add the noodles in the end...

Here is the result on my plate... best fits a good dry white wine with it. Bon appetit ^_^

Happy new year 2012

Since we came back to Japan, I have been very busy... overcoming our jet-lag, laundry, e-mail and snail mail (got 25 letters waiting...) and reading though all the beautiful X-mas and new-years cards.

There is one thing, we were eager to eat: Jinanbo-Ramen !!!!

The store is located near Muu's pet hotel and so we ate these Thai-style Ramen before we picked him up. They taste very different from "regular" Ramen but they are very deliciously flavoured with Coconut-milk and other spices.

The next day we went to Ukitake-shrine to greet the new year.

That shrine is over 700 years old and has a lot of ancient paintings and sacred rocks...

In the evening we took a lovely walk through Tenjin, had some great food at the Hakata Harp and at a cozy restaurant, called "Gaza". Actually, I wanted to take some more pictures, but we were mostly in the mood chatting and laughing, so I totally forgot. Well, I will do so next time ^_^

Today, on our trip to Shikanoshima we were totally surprised to see the very first Cherry-blossom this year. It was the only one and the tree is located at an Onsen (hot-spa) and since Shikanoshima is the warmest place in Fukuoka, it might be the reason, why it already came out.

Now I really look forward to Hanami-season... even if it will take about 10-12 more weeks.

But first I will be busy working on my new big painting for the upcoming show in Tokyo and on some other pieces. Also need to catch up with my mail... >_>