Chiang Mai, I was at...

Just came back yesterday after spending a few days at Chiang Mai, northern Thailand...

Purpose was to thrash out the final details of a student program that we are experimenting with...

Thanks to our counterparts, I managed to meet several key persons and I am happy to say that the negotiations turned out very well...

In the off-hours, sneaked out to steal some shots of the happenings in town...

Before long, I could not help but to hear some traditional Thai music...

There was a 'big band' of about 15 musicians... guitars, cymbals, xylophones, keyboards, drums, traditional trumpets, gamelan-like percussions...  

It seemed like a religious event... people were praying and there was a make-shift Thai shrine set up just for this purpose...

And the dancers... so colorfully clothed, and their movements so graceful ... 

In the evening, took a stroll at the night market... 

I have seen quite a few night markets here and there, but this one in Chiang Mai, hmmm, should I say, really 'pulsates'?

There is really so, so much activity there... and the range of stuff sold there is immense... as in bags, clothes, accessories...

Tidbits... as in corn... dried squid...

 Sausages, anyone?

 Goodies on skewers...

 Decorative little bulbs... 

Fried noodles... now if I could only muster enough courage to try out stuff like these...

Avocado salad, among other stuff...

Temperatures these few days have been dipping below freezing point...

We had minus 4 degrees one morning, and there had also been some brief moments of snow...

Not much going on in our potager in this cold season...

I spend almost all my time in weekends chopping wood for our stove... 

And my sweeto haato, as usual, had been very kind to cook me some sumptuous meals...

Had this avocado salad for dinner last night...

We always throw the avocado seeds into our garden and they do germinate...

We have a few of them, growing up to about a meter or so... wonder if they will ever fruit...

Sometimes we have some cheeze (Camembert, this time) with crackers before the main meal...

Fried rice noodles was what we had for lunch today...

Bean sprouts, mushroom, leafy greens, tofu, chillies, a little meat and spring onions...

And for tonight, butter scotch pumpkin salad...

We have been eating pumpkin quite a bit these days...

Am very happy that we can grow this lovely vegetable in our garden...

Sea bream fishing boats galore...

January 9 it was... 

Took a walk in the hills with my suweeto haato...

Up at the lookout point, was pleasantly surprised to see so many leisure fishing boats in the sea...

A neighbor crossed paths with us...

Sea bream fishing, he said... and he too had never seen so many fishing boats out in the sea like this...

Over 60 boats in all, I counted...
with most of them cluttered near the lighthouse at Inagejima, one of the four uninhabited islands...

So much so that the marine police had to come by to patrol...

 

Switched position to a lower angle to catch the action...

And woah, just then, the passing of a ferry boat returning from Shodoshima to Takamatsu...

Zenzai, natto, etc...

Without a doubt, one of my all time favorite sweets...

Zenzai, that is...

Put simply, boiled red beans sweetened lightly with brown sugar and accompanied by shira tama dango (white plain dumpling) and yam...

Strange as it may be, it is wise not to consume this stuff in the evening before bedtime...

Reason is, red beans have a diuretic effect and you might just pee uncontrollably during your sleep...

My missus warned me and I said, 'only a small bowl of zenzai, so should not be any problem'...

That particular occasion, in the deep of the night, I found myself literally blasting out of my futon and dashing towards the toilet...

My missus still enjoys a good laugh over that incident...

Noodles for one of our lunches in the weekends...

Lots of vegetables and just a little meat with a slice of whole grain brown colored o-mochi (rice cake)...

Just what my body yearns for in this winter cold...

Natto or fermented sticky soy beans...

Many non-Japanese are not very fond of eating this sticky stuff...

An acquaintance from Italy once mentioned that the natto reminds him of how a cat feline that has been dead for two weeks, smells... (apologies to cat feline lovers...)

[Update: Of course, I do not agree that the natto smells like a dead cat... (my wife asked me to add this comment after she read this post... ;)]

These days, I like to tell my friends that it took me 15 years to 'like' this dish... 

Maybe not precisely 15 years, but it does take quite a while to get used to this dish as even some Japanese folks do not take it...

Anyway, why natto? 

Depending on our diet (especially the consumption of meat and animal fat), our blood vessels may get clogged up, thus obstructing the smooth flow of blood through the system...

This is one cause for heart attacks or strokes...

Here is where the natto comes in...

Apparently, the fermented sticky elements in the natto have the ability to 'dissolve' the blood clots that accumulate in the vessels...

On normal days, I take a pack during my lunch at work and sometimes, I share a second pack for dinner with my missus...

Aside from the so-called benefits, I think the natto actually taste quite good...

And fresh sardines... yes...

We are fond of ao-zakana 青魚 or 'blue-back' fish as opposed to 'white' fish...

'Blue-back' as in fish with a bluish back, such as the sardine, mackerel, yellow tail, salmon, and tuna, among others...

Ao-zakana is supposed to be a rich source of 

EPA and DHA n−3 fatty acids... and 'supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA [n−3] fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease' (source)...

Yes, sardines laced with ginger, garlic, and chillies, and boiled in a dash of soy sauce and Japanese sake... a bit too much on the bony side, but we like the taste of it...

Happy Lunar New Year to folks who celebrate it...

Clearing granite stones from our garden Part 1

The big granite stones in our garden have been on my for a long time...

How to get rid of them, that is...

They are taking a lot of precious space and I need the space to work on...

Had been asking an acquaintance of mine to take them away...

He finally came, after about one and half years later...

Was fascinated with this one machine he brought...

It was very compact, and when he got it to spread out, woah... a spider-looking workhorse it turned out to be...

The stones were mainly from the leftovers of material used to construct the stone walls in our garden...

Most of them were of the 200 to 300 kilogram range, according to my friend...

His specialty is actually in chiseling grave stones...

All in all, he came on three occasions, each time working for about half a day...

(Part two here)