Gyoza anyone? I guess we call them “dumplings” here in the US of A…
Simple to make.
Tastes great (or at least that’s what my kids say).
And it’s FREEEEE at Chez Mustang.Koji’s! LOL
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Completed gyoza
Ingredients:
Ground pork (kurobuta type preferred!)
Green onions
Napa cabbage or regular cabbage is just as fine
Sesame oil
Crushed garlic (raw)
Sugar
Salt and pepper
Shredded ginger if you like
Chopped water chestnuts if you like
Do not press meat mixture.
Combine ingredients but do not press. Spoon about a tablespoon of mixture into gyoza skin. Fold. Add a touch of oil to coat bottom of cast iron skillet (non-stick does not work!), medium high heat. Cover, add about 2-3 tablespoons of water to steam. Remove when botton is browned.
Serve with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, “ra-yu” or chili oil, and Japanese vinegar if you like.
November 6th – and the horrendous boulevard the public was forced to navigate – took a toll on me.
A form of depression, perhaps?
All the cheap shots. Stupid propositions to fatten someone’s pocket. Pot. Programs that cost millions – millions a state government doesn’t have.
And the bozos that led us onto the verge of fiscal collapse were re-elected. Criminy.
And of the most STUPIDEST state propositions that passed in “my” state was one that will make it ILLEGAL for porn actors to “do their work” without a prophylactic. A rubber. OK. I wrote it.
There are (I’m guessing) several hundred “adult” actors here. A law for several hundred actors. Geez-louise. For what purpose? No need to discuss that.
In a nutshell – with inference to the White House and Capital Hill as a whole – I am depressed about our country’s future. And of our brave souls in uniform stretched to their physical and mental limits protecting those same people with their lives. And what’s REALLY crappy about that is the “special elected officials” get a full salary and benefits for life while our soldiers, Marines, sailors and aircrews can’t even get proper medical care after they leave honorable service.
But there is nothing more depressing than finding only crumbs left in my bag of Lay’s BBQ potato chips.
Crumbs
Will a kind blogger set me up with a four year supply?
I had a date last night…and she was a varsity high school cheerleader, no less. Any man’s dream as they say.
It was the most wonderful evening for me in close to two decades.
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Oh, her name is Mari Jo and very happily married. Darn. Double darn. Her loving Husband was kind enough to “lend” her to me for our 40th high school reunion. They both bought me my ticket to make sure I’d go to the reunion. How embarrassing for a man of old ways.
Mari Jo and I have been friends since six or seven years of age – from around (ahem) 1960 or so. We went to a great elementary school in the heart of East Los Angeles called 4th Street Elementary. It still stands. Brick auditorium, too.
She had a touch of freckles, blond hair with the slightest of curls and an infectious smile back then. More than 50 years later, she still does. Priceless.
True childhood friends. The best. No walls. No mask. Out in the open.
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Nearly all of us were pretty much in the same boat. Our families were trying to make ends meet. Since we knew no other lifestyle, we all looked upon each other for support. I see this in hindsight now.
Mari Jo is at the left on the third row. Me? Guess.
It seems as if mom stopped by for this “May Day” dance perhaps in 1966. Mari Jo can be seen being twirled around by another childhood friend Ralph – he’s the tallest one on the left.
Tall one on the left is Ralph. The cute blond girl he is twirling around is Mari Jo. The “Asian” in the middle… Well…
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We were all blessed to have stayed together through what we called junior high school back then. That school, too, is still standing. Junior high school would end up giving Mari Jo a lot of memories – both painful and happy. One of her proudest moments… I think she looks fabulous, don’t you?
Mari Jo was a “Tower Queen Dance” princess in 1969.
Mari Jo was cheerleading even in junior high. She is at the far right.
You know which one is Mari Jo by now…off to the right.
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In high school, our friendship continued. Mari Jo was a popular young lady. She was funny, outgoing and cared about others…and she was one of our varsity cheerleaders. Odd that bubbly Mari Jo would be one. Are you kidding me?
She is off to the far right – it is from a frame from one of my surviving negatives from back then.
Not a very good shot (I would crop later) but there’s Mari Jo on the far right cheering on our football team.
Did I mention she was a ham, too? She was one of my favorite candid photography subjects. I was apparently known as the guy who always had a camera hanging from my shoulder. While sports photography was where I exceled (with basic equipment), many of my photos ended up in the school newspaper or the yearbook. I had taken tens of thousands of photos, then developed the negatives at the house then printed them. And the friends I gave the prints to were happy… and that made me happy. The plumbing was never the same after all the processing and printing. That didn’t make my parents happy, I’m sure.
I treasured the negatives for decades…but about six years ago, my littlest firecracker Brooke decided to let the air out of an IMMENSE three tier inflatable pool full of water… but the darn wife had put the IMMENSE pool IN the garage (where my CAR should have been) so that the kids would not get dark from the sun. Why have an IMMENSE three tier pool bigger than Lake Erie if you don’t want your kids to get dark??
When my angelic Brooke pulled the plugs, the garage flooded – and all but one set of the high school negatives were ruined. The prints from those precious days that survived were also gone…including my most favorite one which was a double-exposure of Mari Jo immediately after losing the football league championship game in the final seconds.
A devasted Mari Jo – and school – sobbed after losing in the final seconds. Scanned from our yearbook. My most favorite photo of all.
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I last saw Mari Jo later that year – 1972 – after graduation. She was moving to Las Vegas to get married.
While we had written a letter or two soon thereafter, for the next 37 years, I oft thought of Mari Jo (and of two other childhood friends, “Fritos” and Ralph)… What happened to her? Was she happy? I was so angry at myself for failing to stay in touch…
Then… I came across a lead. I sent off another blind email like I did for my dad’s high school yearbook; I guess that’s my MO… and she replied! OMFG.
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We learned of each other’s paths since parting. But most of all, she was HAPPY. That was all that mattered to me. She is now happily married with two great kids…and a granddaughter!
But good ol’ Mari Jo… She knows of my life’s recent events and she – with her good husband’s encouragement – came to my rescue last night. If I can sum it up as best I can, she said basically you plan for life – but what happens is life. Life is but ambiguity and dwelling does no good… to move on.
Before we met, I kidded her my hands were sweaty and that I was nervous… like a certain escort she had one night when she was young. She called me poop head. Loved that. But I was nervous.
She snuck up on me and surprised the dickens out of me… and man, it was worth it. She looked stunning – gorgeous if I may say – but it was Mari Jo. That same infectious smile. From 4th Street School. In East LA.
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Speaking personally, I had the most grandest of times… It started with Mari Jo screaming – just a tad. After picking her up from her hotel, I did a burn out in my car. It was just a little scream, Husband. Really. Well, it was more a case of Mari Jo sinking her manicures into the ceiling.
Needless to say, she was the most ravishing one there… and she was my date! Thank you, Husband!
I felt so good, I did the cha-cha with her… Well, kinda. I had forgotten how to… but the song was “Suavecito”. An East LA favorite. My legs hurt this morning.
I won’t go into the reasons but the varsity cheerleaders and I overall had a special relationship – and four of the eight were there!
Three of the four cheerleaders there at the reunion.
Aren’t I a lucky old fart?
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Thanks for rooting for me, Mari Jo. You blew in fresh air and helped rekindle a smothered flame.
Dad’s eyes got a teensy-weensy bit watery again today.
Perhaps its becoming a routine.
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Went to see Dad this morning. Took him his “bentou”, or Japanese lunch to-go, as a change of pace. They only serve America cuisine there.
Pork cutlet bento
Not that he complains. He doesn’t. But all the servers there know he WON’T eat fish. He makes sure of that.
Also took him “yokan”, “senbei”, “manjyuu”, and Morinaga caramel (his favorite from decades ago)… Oh. And “anpan”. Gotta feed his sweet tooth. Make him happy is all that matters now.
Another favorite of Dad’s – anpan
While he asked how “Sue-boh” is as usual (his favorite brother who was KIA), he – by coincidence – talked about how he broke his elbow again. 😉
But this time, I had the pictures I had taken last month with me! Blew his mind. He “kinda” remembered my son and I went to Japan, but he couldn’t comprehend how I got those pictures. Oh well. Anyways, the most important thing was that yes, that was the large stone he jumped from…but he asked, “Where’s the benjo? There was a benjo there behind the tree.” A “benjo” is kind of like an Japanese-style outhouse. 🙂 And that definitely was the (remnants of the) branch.
You should have seen his boyish smile.
I took along what vintage pages I dared to from Grandmother Kono’s album today. I was concerned as they were so fragile… but Dad handled them gingerly.
He said there was a butcher shop in the brick building in the background. That brick building at King and Maynard is still standing.
He particularly liked the photo of him, Mieko and Suetaro… He had a nice smile. I wonder what was going through his thoughts then but I wasn’t going to interrupt.
He is smiling while looking at the three of them. By the way, the stone bracelet he is wearing was from Masako and Izumi. He says he doesn’t take it off but doesn’t remember where it came from. 😉
I think his eyes got a bit watery.
He said, “That was a long time ago,” and “懐かしい”
Just a teensy-weensy bit.
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About an hour later, he remembered looking at the vintage pictures.
It was there at Grandfather Hisakichi’s feet… a Coleman stove! My guess is circa 1920 up near a Mt. Rainier campground… It’s just so…unexpected to see a Japanese family of the early 1900’s with such an “American” icon. I hope I am not a rascist but I sure didn’t expect it.
Grandfather Hisakichi at the right. Unretouched.
And amateurish-ly (is that a word?) retouched with free software. I’m El Cheapo:
As retouched.
Grandmother Kono is not pictured but I wonder who snapped the photo.
There was a photo of Mt. Rainier dated August 1920 on another page in the deteriorating album kept by Grandmother Kono.
Unretouched.
It is remotely possible the man on the right is also Grandfather Hisakichi but I doubt it. I feel this was at a separate outing from the campsite photo.
Life can be fulfilling, emotional, filled with awe…and eerie. All at once. In ten short days. In a country far away.
But life and its generations help you live it backwards and forward.
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Ten great days were spent in Tokyo and Hiroshima with my oldest son, Takeshi. He is 24 years old. We had never been on vacation together. My loss. I admit to being worried he was not going to enjoy himself.
There is so much to write about for family and friends but jet lag affects more than sleep. There is a cavernous disconnect between my (normally minimally functioning) brain and my fingers.
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But during this trip…
My son enjoyed his time with my dad’s side of the family immensely – so much so he shed a few tears at a farewell dinner they threw for us. He even found a new drinking buddy – my cousin’s intelligent and beautiful granddaughter, Yuu-chan:
My son Takeshi and Yuu-chan in Tokyo
With my cousin Toshio Nakano, we saw my father’s station he served in as part of the 8th US Army’s G-2, Military Intelligence Service in Yokohama; because I carried some photos of him in uniform inside, the Public Relations Officer escorted us to a view from the (unrestricted) roof:
Dad’s Army station while in the US 8th Army in Yokohama
Was able to meet my cousin Masako (78) once again and the family – and we were royally treated:
Great fun with family in Hiroshima
Took the cremated remains of my Aunt Shiz (95) for internment; she was my dad’s last living sibling. He is now the last one:
Ceremony for Aunt Shiz
Saw the most beautiful parts of Japan:
Miyajima’s grand Tori’i
A most EMOTIONAL meeting with those responsible for finding my dad’s 1937 high school yearbook:
A most wonderful meeting of peace-loving people
And the most STARTLING and tear-jerking finds of generations past – including those of my father’s younger brother who was KIA as part of the Japanese Imperial Army:
Unbelievable family discoveries
I hope you’ll stay tuned until this old mind functions again. Not that it ever did. Thought it best to say that before someone did.
Julia Child in Kandy, Ceylon during WWII and as part of the OSS.
I am a bit of a World War II history buff. While primarily focusing on the Pacific War due to my family’s connections, I thought this may interest the foodies here.
Julia Child was a member of the OSS – Office of Strategic Services. Spying. Intelligence. James Bond. Well, maybe not James Bond. But she was in some dastardly conditions.
Masako and Spam Musubi 