Rice

 Towards the end of August there was a shortage of rice. I remember going into stores and seeing empty shelves. I heard a couple of reasons for this, one was a bad harvest last year, the second was panic buying because of an earthquake advisory put out after a large earthquake near the Nanki Trough.  Now there is rice again but it's so expensive. Last year 5kgs of rice was between 1900 yen and 2100 yen, about 9 to 10 pounds. Now the cheapest is over 3000 yen, about 15 pounds, big difference.

So I'm trying to find other carbohydrates to use, pasta, noodles, bread and potatoes!  Problem is Japanese cuisine is based on rice. Having a pot of rice cooked is so convenient, just add some soup, which is quick to make, fish and salad and there is a meal in about 20 minutes. If I prepare some of the dishes in the morning then just warming up again when we get back from the other house is so easy.  For example the other day I made a pot of miso soup, and a salad in the morning, when I came back I just cooked up some fish.  Having a pot of rice ready really helped. Also there was enough rice, soup and salad for dinner.

I love potatoes and would eat them everyday but they take time to prepare, noodles and pasta are okay but finding what to do with them is hard.  I spend ages looking for recipes that I can use but most recipes aren't doable because the ingredients aren't available here. I've done spaghetti bolognaise a few times this past couple of weeks. I would love to make a meatloaf and mash potatoes but the minced beef here is so fatty that it just doesn't work. But Costco is opening near here, they have minced beef that is 80% beef, very good for meatloaf, I'll just have to wait on that.  It's still warm enough for salads, so a big bowl of pasta chicken salad would work, but Christopher doesn't really like pasta.  Plus I always make too much, so we are eating it for two or three days!!

We've had sandwiches and pizza a lot as well. I could eat sandwiches everyday but nobody else is keen on them. Fillings are a problem, basically just ham, cheese or eggs. I would love corned beef but it's only available in these very tiny tins, that are very expensive.  I wonder if Costco does that?  Also Japanese bread is not so good, tasty but not filling!

I guess I'll have to think about what to make, we have rice but I would like to last for more than a , couple of weeks.  We might end up eating a lot of take out food for the next few weeks. We are planning to go to the other house almost everyday, there will no one here to cook, so picking up something is the easiest thing to do.  But I'm not that keen on having obento that often!  

I'm also wondering how the cats will handle the move!  I'm expecting a lot of marking and fights, should be interesting!

The weather is a bit cooler, the cats are starting curl up together!

couple of days ago!!