Posts made in May, 2013

Bistro India

Posted on May 15, 2013 in Restaurants | 0 comments

May 8th

I went to Bistro India for lunch with friends. It’s located in a residential area and was quiet. Sounds like this restaurant is popular among local Indians as well. We can expect a good Indian food here!
Lunch sets were between$9.90-$11.90, which was very reasonable. They served us quite mild curry. After the meal, we asked about it, and we could have requested the level of spiciness. Well, they didn’t ask us… For some of us, they are a bit too mild. But they were good.

Fish Curry (deep-fried white fish) & Garden Veggie Curry. You can choose nun bread or rice.

Fish Curry Garden Veggie Curry

One of my friends said that if you pay $10 in Japan, this would come with salad. Hmm, that’s true. Even though $10 feels quite reasonable here, Edmonton (or Canada) might be still a expensive place.

Bistro India
10203 116 St NW
Edmonton, AB T5K1W3
(780) 482-1700

 

We went to a friend’s place to keep on chatting afterwards. She served us really nice hand-made sweets! Lucky us. Thank you very much! They were very delicious! We had a fun time.

Home made sweets @ friend\'s

Tabetai

Posted on May 15, 2013 in Internet | 0 comments

I renewed “Tabetai”, “Kaitai” & “Ikitai” @ HK Mama Benricho (「香港ママの便利帳」) that I helped to create the website and managing!

If you live in Hong Kong or Visiting Hong Kong, please check these sites! *Sorry they are only in Japanese.

Paul Kelly @ Starlite

Posted on May 15, 2013 in Music Others | 0 comments

May 4th

We went to see Paul Kelly @ Starlight, who is known as Australia’s Bob Dylan. We were surprised that the tickets weren’t sold out by the morning of the performance.

Paul Kelly\'s liveWhen we were driving around Australia back in 2005, David was playing Paul Kelly’s Songs from the South, he told me. So that’s why I kind of remember some of his songs.
I couldn’t really follow the lyrics at that time, but when David told me the stories of his songs, they are so significant. The songs vary from pop, country to jazz. He is 58 years old! David shouted and asked how old he was between songs, and he answered. ^^ He also has grand children.

The tickets were only $20. The venue was a small bar & restaurant (downstairs from the Starlite).

We got there so early and were able to sit at a table close to the stage. Lucky!
I was wondering if there was any other singer or a band as an opener, and yes there was. Paul’s nephew, supporting guitarist and singer, Dan Kelly. He sang 6 songs.

Dan Kelly\'s playlist

David took a photo of Dan’s playlist that was on the floor. ^^

It’s a bar & restaurant, and they only had pop as a non-alcohol drink for me… I don’t usually drink soft drinks, but it would be about 3 hours sitting and enjoying the concert… So I got a coke. 2 cokes in total. I consumed my coke for a year.

The performance has started.
The first one was “Pregnant Conversation.” Are you singing about us (me)? Seemed so timely for me.

And then the next one was “Baby Bonus.” In Australia, if you deliver a baby, you get $7,000, Dan said. Wow! That’s so nice. We should move there for the 2nd child! ^^
He must have become a father lately. Heart-warming.

Dan Kelly

After his performance, Paul Kelly made his appearance.

Paul Kelly

He sang a whole bunch from his new album, and then he sang his older songs wonderfully.
I don’t know if they can’t help but is it because it’s a bar, some in the audience were chatting pretty loudly for the first half as they were maybe not so interested in his new songs. It’s quite rude and annoying not only for the artist, but also other fans who want to listen. But all of the audience loved his older hit songs and they got quiet later.

Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly

David explained a lot about the songs he sang and it was good for me understand more. Depends on the songs, he sounded like Bob Dylan.

With Paul Kelly

After the performance, he was socializing with fans, signing autographs or shaking hands. So we joined the line up too. David got his autograph on the souvenir we bought here. David told him that I was really moved and almost crying over “Deeper Water.” Yes, I’m an easy weeper and even more when being pregnant, I guess.

I think I like “Deeper Water” the best so far. It really tells a nice story and the melody is also nice and catchy. One of his greatest songs:

It was a nice evening. Thank you, David!

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Strained Back

Posted on May 12, 2013 in Living, Pregnancy | 0 comments

At the end of April, the temperature went down to -6°C and it snowed. But the last Sunday it went up to 30°C. The season is skipping spring seriously!

At night it’s still like 5 °C and the temperature differs a lot in a day. It’s nice to hear warm warnings about it from many of my friends. Yes, we really have to take care of ourselves not to catch cold. Thank you.

So it’s been warm or hot for the last 2 weeks outside. But somehow our basement suite has been about 3°C colder than the temperature it’s supposed to be. It is set for 21.5°C. But it’s been much colder! As soon as we get home from the hot outdoors, we feel chilly and I have get on a turtle neck sweater right away. A turtle neck sweater is an all-year-round item for me in this basement.

I had a headache this morning… chilly, chilly.

After living in a basement suite for 2 years, now I finally understand how it is. It’s like a cave. Cooler and colder. My hubby’s cough didn’t get better quickly because of this chilliness here. So a year and a half ago, we bought a small heater. But we found out the usage of it can make the house short of the electricity and also found it’s restricted on our lease. Oops… so we bought it, but we couldn’t really use it.
But in this case ( 3°C colder  for 2 weeks), we need to use it. We explained and got permission from the landlord. They didn’t know why the temperature was like that here. They have 23°C up there, they said. Wow, nice!

Anyway, when you live in a basement, you always have to have heat and the lights turned on, even though the outside is warm/hot and very sunny and bright. It’s quite anti-eco, but how can we help ourselves…?

AND… today I strained my back! This might be a bit serious. I’ve had a back pain once or twice since I came to Canada, but I recovered within 1 or 2 days, and it wasn’t serious like the ones I got in HK. I think some yoga and some certain foods helped. And also since I got here, I was practicing some poses once in a while that can prevent back pain. I think that was good. But that pose is difficult to do when your belly is big. So I stopped doing it. Maybe that’s why… My balance of weight has been changed, which also could be a reason.
Tying a shoe lace is quite difficult now. When you crouch down, you have to open your legs because the belly is there. So the maternity denim skirt that I bought wasn’t so practical. My legs don’t open side to side (Can’t do that anyway when someone is watching!?).

I don’t want to catch cold anymore during this pregnancy! So I’m wearing a turtle neck, a fleece, and then a blanket on top of it, while sitting around the desk.

I really don’t mind moving out soon!

 

May 5th, 2013, Hawrelak Park. The last snow (30°C) :

Hawrelak ParkHawrelak Park

North Saskatchewan River:

Hawrelak ParkHawrelak Park

 

By the way, now 100 Japanese yen = CAD$1!

Tororo (the Japanese yam, Dioscorea opposita)

Posted on May 5, 2013 in Home Meals | 0 comments

The other day, it was 20 c degrees. Yes, it’s hot for May! After 4 days, it was -6°C. And now (May 4th) it’s 20°C again! Harsh weather!
At our home, the temperature is supposed to be maintained at 21.5°C all the time, but when the temperature outside goes up so suddenly, the gadget doesn’t work accurately and our basement suite goes down to about 18-19°C. It’s been like this for the last few days, and my hubby can’t recover from his cold because it’s kind of chilly down here. We say staying cold is the origin of all sickness, in Japanese. We miss the Sun! (Even thought it’s right out there!)

IMG_3322
The other day, Ms K gave us a nice piece of fruit tart all hand-made! Thank you so much! It was so beautiful and delicious. We were so impressed when we found out the base was also baked by her!

 

I’d like to talk about tororo. I just bought it here in Canada for the first time. It was $5.93 for 1 kg. A bit expensive?

I love tororo and the yamakake gunkan (tuna sushi and tororo) is one of my favorite sushi dishes.
We saw it sometimes in HK, but we rarely see it in Canada. So I really missed it.

In HK, when I saw tororo on the menu, I had to order one. The item I liked the most was Neva-neva Don at a restaurant at the Japanese Club. Neva-neva means slimy-slimy. ^^ It was a dish of tororo, natto and  molokheiya over a bed of rice. All neva-neva! So healthy and delicious! I want to eat it now….

Examples of how to eat tororo:
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I usually ate it at my parents’ or at restaurants and I’ve never really bought some myself and served it. It should be served just grated, I imagined. But wait. It’s a potato and it should be cooked. Can I eat it raw? Its name is Nagaimo (long potatos) or Yamaimo (mountain potatoes), it must be a potato but maybe it could belong to some radish!? Then it can be eaten raw. So I checked. Yes, it was a potato (as it claims)! You can cook it, but we can eat it raw. Great! It must be a good food for raw food eaters as well!

I grated it and put it on somen. Craving it for a long time makes it even more delicious!

IMG_3335

It’s a potato, so it’s a carbo. But it stimulates the digestion process and is good for stamina, it is used for Chinese traditional medicine as well. This sliminess is called mucin and it is good for activating your cells/blood stream, anti-aging, your skin, causing a quick recovery, loosening up constipation! Sounds all good!
Reference: J-Medical