My Mother’s Story

Posted on Sep 24, 2020 in Hiroko's Blog

The world has been dramatically changing under the Covid-19 pandemic.  Once upon a time life was slower, more mellow, and gentler for me.   I was a boomer.  I begin to feel that I am a dinosaur. And my mother turned to 93 this year.  She had health issues but was happy and in good spirits and had a healthy appetite until 6 weeks ago.  She led her life even at her late age in the same way she has been doing for the adult part of her 93 years.  This means that she did her...

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Kagami-mochi, what to do with it?

Posted on Jan 6, 2010 in Hiroko's Blog

Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu (Happy New Year)!  As Christmas trees decorate American homes during holiday, Kagami-mochi decorate a room in Japanese house from the end of yeaer (December 28th).  It is an offering to the god who protected us during the old year (he departs and new god arrives in the New Year).   Kagami-mochi is actually a rice cake decoration that comes in two parts – small round rice cake (mochi ) sits on a larger round rice cake.  On top of the rice...

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My mother’s beef tongue stew

Posted on Apr 22, 2009 in Hiroko's Blog, Recipes

Upon receiving my request for my mother’s delicious beef tongue stew recipe my Mom with a help with my sister, Yoko, produced the dish after many years of not making it since I left home.  My Mom had an excellent excuse to make her beloved beef tongue stew again.  Buzz, my husband, who currently staying in Tokyo for many weeks has become a regular Sunday dinner guest at my Mom’s house, and was therefore an ideal Guinea pig to taste the long-forgotten tongue...

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My mother

Posted on Mar 16, 2009 in Hiroko's Blog

My Mother’s childhood in the 1920s and 1930s in Japan culinary world was surprizingly Western in style. My mother, Tokuko Shimbo, was born in 1927 in Takada City, Niigata Prefecture. Niigata Prefecture is located northeast of Tokyo, facing the Japan Sea. It is a city known to receive one of the heaviest annual snowfalls in the country. Her father, Ryuta Okada, was a pediatrician and became a good friend to a Canadian missionary family whose children came to see him as...

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