Flowie, represented by G.H. Carriere & Co., can be seen in The 69th Tokyo International Gift Show:

2/2 ~ 2/5
10am~6pm (4pm on 2/5)
Booth#3046
Active Design, west hall
(trade only event)

Flowie’s 2010 new designs will debut at the gift show!
It is trade only event. If you have any questions or would like to attend the event, please contact G.H. Carriere & Co.:

G.H. Carriere & Co.
3-1-28 Baba, Tsurumi-ku,
Yokohama 230-0076, Japan
Tel: +81-45-710-0884
Fax: +81-45-710-0885
http://www.ghcarriere.co.jp/

“Hot Pot", my favorite meal of all time In Taiwan, there are so many different types of hot pot. Whenever I go back to Taiwan, I at least eat 2 or 3 kinds of hot pot. My sister-in-law sent me pictures of the place she went recently in Taipei. She said that their hot pots were very good. It makes me really want to just fly back to Taiwan right now, and go eat the hot pot.

The restaurant doesn’t have a English name or website. Their Chinese name is in the second picture. It is located in the food court in the Breeze Department store next to the Taipei train station. Here is the link to the department store website: http://www.breezecenter.com/bts-1.htm
And, this the link to review of the restaurant with a map: http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/shop.php?id=39135

If you read this blog often, you must be thinking, “When are them going to finish their backyard?” The answer is, “I really have no idea". We purchased this house as a fixer-upper, and our real estate agent told us at that time, “It will probably take you 3~5 years to finish fixing up your house". I was thinking in mind, “No way, I will finish it in 1 year.” One and half year has gone by, we are still fixing the backyard! I guess she was right.

We are adding a stone patio next to the deck we built, so we can minimize the grass area and create more visual interest in our backyard. More on the stone patio next week! (My entire body is so sore now from moving the heavy stones!)

Masa made this delicious tonkatsu (deep fried pork) for dinner last Saturday. I was working on something else, so I didn’t have a chance to take the step-by-step pictures to share with you. Maybe I will ask him to make it again this coming weekend. Yummy!

It’s cold, rainy and gloomy. It’s not the type the weather that I enjoy the most, but it’s certainly a good time for some hot soup. I made Taiwanese style “winter melon soup” for dinner one night:

Ingredient

winter melon, cut in cubes (about 1.5 inches)
pork bones (I used back bones)
a few slices of ginger

Boil water in a big pot. In a separate pot, cook the pork bones in boiled water for about 3~5 minutes to reduce the smell of pork and keep the soup clear. Put the boiled pork bones, cut winter melon, and ginger in the big pot. Bring the soup to a boil and slow cook the soup in medium heat for about 45 minutes. Season with salt.

You can replace winter melon with daikon or corn. Or, you can mix two or three kinds of vegetables together.

We did a little landscaping in front of the storage shed last weekend. We put a trellis on each side of the entrance door (an old door I recycled and refinished. It took 3 days to strip off the 6 layers of old paint on the door). We planted a lilac on the left and a jasmine on the right. Also, we planted African daisy in the planting beds, which I built using old bricks recycled from our friend D’s front yard. Once the plants start to blossom in the coming Spring, it should look very nice. I think the paint color of the shed works now. It does provide a nice neutral backdrop for the plants as I hoped for.

We finished painting the shed. I mixed the leftover paints with some paint color tints. This is the color that came out. I feel lukewarm about this color. I can’t say that I like it or I hate it, but it is neutral enough to be a nice backdrop for the plants that we will put in front of the shed this coming weekend. We will see how it turns out.

We started to doubt our gardening ability. Everything we grow in our vegetable garden is tiny. Our daikon radish is about 1/6 of the usual size. It still tasted good. Masa used it in the “zoni” soup for the New Year.