Homemade Gyoza

In addition to flowers, I also grow a lot of vegetables in my garden. My garden is a cottage garden where all kinds of plants grow together so my family and I get the many benefits of fresh vegetables in our daily life.

I recently felt like making homemade gyōza for dinner. I picked some napa, nira (garlic chives), green onions and Korea perilla from the garden. I also grabbed a head of garlic I had harvested from my garden and dried this spring.

I chopped everything up into small pieces, mixed in some ground pork, ginger, and soy sauce, and wrapped the mixture in homemade gyōza wrappers. I don’t always make homemade wrappers but I had an extra energy to do so this time.

My favorite dipping sauce is easy:
1 part soy
2 parts rice vinegar
A drizzle of hot chili oil

Our son ate so many. He reminded me how much I loved making and eating gyōza at home with my family.

Gochisōsama deshita!

The Dahlia

Looking up into the sky, I see a lot of birds flying from the north to stay here for the winter. Living in the Northwest, I appreciate our rich and beautiful fall. Still, fall is when we start preparing for our long, grey, dark and wet winter. Am I ready for it? Heck no! However, it comes regardless. The blue parts of sky and the sun will be hidden until next May.

From the beginning of September till mid-October, my dahlias are in their prime. They start flowering in the late spring and keep growing. If you pay good attention to them during the hot dry summer, they will get even bigger and shoot endless flower buds. 

I like dahlias because they are so vibrant in color and energetic, and they share their strong life force energy with me.

I hope our first frost will come a bit later so I can keep them around in my garden longer.

Rose Gardening

This is my first time to blog since officially closing the UpCountry.  

I have chosen to share something from my garden. Gardening has been a hobby of mine for more than two decades. I got started in gardening because my mother-in-law has a beautiful garden that inspired me. Over the years, gardening has transformed from a hobby into an activity that gives me space where I can reflect. 

Let me share the words from Venetia Stanley-Smith, a British gardener who lives in Kyoto, Japan, and whom I respect and admire deeply: “The simple joys that nature gives us in our gardens become our refuge from the pressures of each day. The sun in the garden warms us, the storms give us energy and the winds blow away our worries and cares, and our heart becomes still.”

Along with many other plants and vegetables, I have a collection of about 60 rosebushes.  This year, all of them bloomed dramatically. They showed me hundreds of thousands of beautiful flowers throughout the spring and autumn seasons. Some of them are still blooming.

Why do I like growing roses? Although it may seem a bit strange, I think the reason I like them so much is because they are so high maintenance. I am a pretty quiet and calm individual but when the new growth and flower buds come on in spring, I become very aggressive and protective against the deer. So I guess it’s the pesky deer that keeps me motivated to grow these wonderful flowers!

Bento Dinners

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this crisis!

Since there is no indoor dining at restaurants during the Stay Home order, I’ve switched gears to make take-out bentos.

Here are some pictures of the bentos I made this week.

I make the bentos to order. To reserve, please call the restaurant and leave a message with the quantity desired. The pick-up time is between 5 and 7 on Friday and Saturday evening.

Sunday Pastries and Hanbāgu

Thank you everyone for coming out today!

Tomorrow, I’ll have more pastries. For the to-go plate lunch, I’ll have hanbāgu—which is the Japanese version of Hamburg steak and similar to how hamburger steak is served in Hawaii. It comes with rice, my grandma’s potato salad and house-made kimchi.

Hours are 11 until everything sells out–the pastries and hanbāgu are limited. Credit cards, please, as I have no till 😊. To keep everyone healthy, only one person/group enters at a time, and thank you for keeping a safe social distance when in line.

Stay healthy and safe!

Weekend Pastries and Kalua Pork

I hope everyone is doing well.

With so many concerns and uncertainties, I wanted to do something to cheer people up that is safe, so I decided to sell some pastries on the weekend. (I did this when the Great Recession hit, too.)

I will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to sell out. Items are limited. Cards only, please, since I don’t have a cash register!

I also have some lunch items to go: Hawaiian kalua pork with rice, my grandma’s potato salad and house made kimchi.

I hope everyone stays safe and healthy.

Presenting UpCountry Beer by Atwood

Atwood UpCountry beer labels

Atwood Ales of Bellingham has recently released two specially crafted beers just for the UpCountry, and what a delight they are. Thank you, Atwood Ales!!

One of these special brews is an amber ale, bottled with a red label, and the other is a saison with a green label. Made from local ingredients, including Skagit Valley malt and hops grown on premises, these beers are a nice complement to a meal or simply great on their own.

Available exclusively at the UpCountry, this amber and saison are relatively low in alcohol content. As always, please enjoy responsibly!

Kimchi

I first tried my hand at kimchi after a trip to South Korea in the early 1990s. When I got home, I went to a Korean district and bought the napa cabbage, gochugaru (chili powder) and other ingredients. I salted the cabbage leaves and covered them with the chili powder, and let everything ferment for a couple of days. (See “Napa cabbage kimchi” for a recipe with instructions and pictures.)

It wasn’t as good as some of the kimchi I’d had in Korea, but it was still really good and the hardest part about making it was waiting for it to ferment.

After that, I bought a Korean cookbook and asked Korean friends about their traditional home recipes. There are lots of ways to make it!

Sometimes, I make kimchi at the UpCountry. The kimchi in the picture is cucumber kimchi. When added to a salad, it gives a nice crunch as well as excellent flavor. I prefer my kimchi fresher to letting it sit until it gets sour.

Kimchi goes with any meal, but my favorite way to eat it is simply with white rice.

Orange Rolls

I love passing my passion for good food on …

A recent batch of orange rolls

I still vividly remember the first day Kim Smith taught us how to make these heavenly delicious orange rolls in pastry class. They are incredibly light and fluffy, yet very flavorful.

I started making these rolls every weekend in 2003 when I opened Hiroki, my bakery in Seattle. They became popular quickly and got write-ups in “Seattle Magazine” and other publications. Even after all these years, they are still one of the best-selling items.

Orange rolls made in a Bundt pan

I made them the other day with my son at the UpCountry. He loved them so much, he ate two. I love passing my passion for good food on to the next generation.