Potato and Spam Korokke

 

 I watched a video on YouTube before about korokke. The recipe is meat and potato korokke. For my lunch yesterday, I asked our househelper to prepare my meal. I taught her the basics in making a korokke even if I just watched the video online. I asked her to buy Japanese bread crumbs. We didn't have a stock of ground meat at home so I just make use of what's available at home. We had lots of canned goods, like Spam so I just told her to chop it up, and mix it with the mashed boiled potatoes. For the recipe of korokke you can search it online, or you can check out some videos online about making authentic Japanese korokke. Korokke is best served with tonkatsu sauce.

What is korokke? (コロッケ.) According to Wikipedia, it is the Japanese name for deep fried dish. Its related to the French dish called croquettes. It is made by using chopped meat, vegetables, potatoes, shaped in a patty, rolling it in flour, eggs, Japanese style breadcrumbs, and then it is deep fried. It usually goes well with shredded cabbage, or any vegetable of your choice as a side-dish. The photo here is the finished product. Let's eat! Itadakemasu! 

My Japanese Art Theme # 1

   I'd like to show you some of my Japanese theme art. One of my hobbies is watercolor painting. I like to use the Faber-Castell brand. If you like to see all of my artworks please do visit my Deviantart page, just search for the username Bluelei. Aside from watercolor painting I also do paper cut, paper folding art, and graphic drawing.

Sakura or Cherry blossoms is really special, and close to the heart of Japanese people so I decided to paint one. I don't have a formal training in watercolor painting, I just follow the instructional videos online. I often sign my work with my Japanese name, Rei. I read that Cherry blossoms represents the beauty and fragility of life. It's true indeed, for we are just temporary passersby on this earth.

   For the second art work of mine, I decided to draw Daruma, or Japanese wishing doll. I have seen the movie, As The God's Will, and it really creeped me out. Daruma, according to my research symbolized Buddha. As with the Eastern culture and belief, red is an auspicious color. I first learned about the Daruma doll, when I played a phone application game, wherein you need to follow and catch Daruma, in order to have your wish granted, but be careful he must not catch you following, or your wish will not come true. There are a lot of Daruma doll colors which represents different things. Red is for luck and fortune, Purple is for health and long-life, Yellow is for security and protection, Gold is for wealth and prosperity while, White is for love and harmony.

Japanese Super Heroes Review: Hikari Sentai Maskman

           If I have a favorite Japanese superhero series, there's only 3 (Bioman, Maskman and Shaider) that I cannot forget because I grew up watching this. I remember I would even call our househelper to watch it with me every Saturday in the late-afternoon.

           When I first saw the pilot episode I was immediately hooked. Why? because there's a love story in it. The series was dubbed in Filipino. I remember Red Mask, in the Japanese was called Takeru, and in the Filipino dubbed version his name is Michael Joe. While the underground Princess Iyal's human name was Rio, in the Japanese name she was called Mio. Because of this forbidden love, she was trapped and imprisoned in a block of ice, and I wonder if she'll ever escape from it, and if Red Mask will be able to save her. As the series goes on, there was even a sort of love triangle, since a new character has surfaced, named Kiros.

I also like the fact that the Maskman's strength from the story comes from within, it is called the aura power. There's a belief that our body has different aura colors, and if our mood is not good it is evident in the aura that will show. They say our aura is an energy field from our body that  cannot be seen with our physical eyes, it is merely spiritual. Eversince I have seen this super sentai series, in my opinion all the other sentai series is not as good as this. In real life Red Mask, married a Filipina, and he is still very visible in the cosplay convention in my country. (see the photo above that I got online: Mr. Inaba Kazunori with his wife, Ms. Georgette Anne Inaba with their child). There are a lot of adults who cannot forget this series, especially those who are of the same age as mine.We love Japanese Super Sentai series! You should also check out the opening, and closing theme. Below is the Filipino version of Maskman's opening theme.

Kimmidoll (kokeshi style doll)

        Kokeshi, is one of the many popular dolls in Japan. Kokeshi is usually made of wood, and what makes this doll unique is that it has no arms and legs, but a large head only, and a trunk. Kimmidoll is a reminiscent of kokeshi, it is designed in Australia. It is popular in my country, and abroad. It started of as collectible dolls display, then it has expanded into various things keychain, mini dolls, and maxi (much larger than mini) displays, sling bags, tote bags, mugs, phone charms etc. I really like the design, and each doll has a name. The item that I really liked the most is the limited necklace. It is not available here locally even in Kimmidolls stores at the mall, like Rustan's Gateway. I asked my brother to buy it online for me. Since, I am fascinated now with Japanese culture, this collection is really just right for me. Each kimmidoll has a name but the English translation is different from the Japanese meaning. For example a kimmidoll is named 'Ai,' it has an English caption meaning 'feminity,' but the true Japanese meaning is love.

      I bought a mug, eyeglass case, round tin container, and some kokeshi mini dolls, and one maxi doll. I also own two tote bags, and a make-up case which I turned into a lunchbag. If you want to know more about this pretty dolls, please visit this link: Kimmidoll Website. Because of its unique and intricate designs, these kimmidolls are all lovely to look at and you can truly say! Kawaii! You'll really fall in love with these dolls. Below is the facebook cover that I made featuring my Kimmidoll. I also did the photography, (concept and design). On the right lower corner of the cover photo is my name written in Japanese (Rei). The kimmidoll on the photo is Hotaru (the English caption, is passion). As I have mentioned before this is not the real meaning. Hotaru means firefly in Japanese. The facebook cover is really special to me, because the background theme is also Japanese. It really matches my kimmidoll.
   

       (Disclaimer: I am not paid or sponsored by Kimmidoll for posting about it here. I am just a collector, and a fan of anything related to the Japanese culture/tradition).