Azuki Kabocha

This is Azuki Kabocha dish, one of the typical macrobiotic dishes. I made this dish for a client who has weak kidneys. It is very nourishing as well as tasty! Azuki (sometimes spelled Aduki) is a Japanese red beans and Kabocha is Japanese pumpkin. You can find them in Japanese stores or any health food stores.  
Azuki beans are very good for our kidneys and strengthen your blood and Kabocha is very good for nourishing our spleen and pancreas. Many people including me love sweets. I ate so much chocolate and sweet baked foods in the past. Those foods in highly sugar contents and baked goods wear out our spleen and pancreas in time. So, it is very good to have this dish for our organs and enjoy the natural sweetness!

Azuki Kabocha:

1 cup Azuki beans soaked over night or 6 hours (Also use the soaking water)
Kabocha pumpkin (about 2 cups cut into cubes)
1" square piece of Kombu
water

In a stainless pot or a cast iron pot, put the kombu then put beans and cover with the beans' soaking water. Bring it a boil. Skim the white foams with a strainer. This will help digest beans better. If the water level reduces, add a little more water to cover the beans. Put the lid on and simmer until the beans are 90% done. Put the Kabocha on top of the beans. Simmer 10 minutes until the kabocha becomes soft.
sprinkle 2 pinch of salt and gently shake the pot to mix the ingredients.

Now I am getting back to blogging...

Hi! Sorry about the long pause. I know....it has been a long time. I didn't realize...Well, I have been traveling in studying. After my KI Europe training, I ended up taking more extended classes in Japan. At Kushi Institute Japan, I was able to learn many things about cooking since Japanese people are very keen when it comes to cooking. The taste and the presentation is fabulous, it is part of our culture. Learning there really brought me in depth understanding of Macrobiotics.

I am back in LA, doing private chef, personal coaching of macrobiotic cooking. It is challenging to cook healing foods sometimes, but it is always a good education for me. It has been a joy to promote this healthy living movement. In a month, I will return to Japan to complete my level at KIJ, the level 3. I am looking forward to it.

the photo is plumeria flowers in Waikiki, Hawaii. I was there for a photo shoot assignment last month. Such a vibrant energy!

photo work! / 写真撮影

I photographed the Deshima trio, musicians from Amsterdam. I get to know them from Deshima, the macrobiotic restaurant in Amsterdam. I attended their concert at the summer conference and it was amazing. I had a opportunity to photograph their portrait the other day and this is the photo. www.deshimatrio.com

Also, I finally started to photograph the cookbook today. It was a good start! We worked very hard but the shoot environment was pleasant. It's a long way to go but I am looking forward to the accomplishment!

写真はアムステルダムのミュージシャン、デシマトリオです。マクロビのレストラン、デシマそして、クシインスティチュートで仲良くなった彼らのポートレイトを撮りました。（写真）

彼らのクラッシックコンサートに行きましたが素敵です。生のピアノとバイオリンの演奏は心に沁みました。

そして、今日からいよいろ料理本の写真を撮り始めました。一日目の出だしは好調です。先生たちのお家は日本風の庭があって、とても和やかです。撮影は料理の量がたくさんあるので大変です。頑張らなくては〜。

Beach in the Netherland

Yesterday was one of the hottest days in Amsterdam. Apparently lots of people went to sea and there was major traffic jam everywhere. I was in Egmond, a beach town, one hour from Amsterdam helping out the shop here. After the traffic time, we decided to hit a beach. It was beautiful! The water was perfect to swim.

The other picture was the view behind the warehouse that I was in. Radish field...flat land....

昨日は夏の涼しいオランダでも記録的な暑さでした。３３から３５度くらい。エクモンドという、ビーチタウンでお店のお手伝いをしていました。たくさんの人がビーチに詰めかけたために交通渋滞で駅も道も麻痺していたようです。幸い、仕事帰りにビーチに連れて行ってもらったのですが、海で泳いで気分も体もリフレッシュしました。

オランダの土地は見てのとおり、とても平です。これは倉庫の建物の裏手にあるラディッシュ畑。

Flood of information/ 情報の洪水

It has been nice to attend all day lectures and cooking classes. It will take a while to process all these information. Over all, I really enjoy attending this conference. Especially chatting with friends and teachers, which gave me different insight outside the class room. In level 3, we learn more profound topic and special cooking such as Credo or Non Credo (use your own judgement and 7 great consciousness; macrobiotic theory). For cooking, we had a workshop that we teach student how to make a miso soup. Being a teacher is whole new thing I experienced! I enjoyed it.

cooking class /クッキングクラス

I have been so busy and am tired, so it has been hard to keep it up with my blog...

Today I had a really nice cooking class with Patricio. He gave us cooking with Natto!

Very interesting! His cooking is just fantastic. full of inspiration! I think some of his natto dish maybe will satisfy some of my friends who doesn't care about Natto. We'll see...

summer conference

I am in a countryside in Holland, in a forest 1 hour away from Amsterdam. I started level 3, advance macrobiotic Art of life course yesterday. Here, there are about 200 people attending this conference from all over the world. It's a very energiging event! I met Patricio, the head of the Kushi Institute of Japan, who is teaching here this year. He also gave us a cooking class today. He brought such a frech energy into our course!

It's going to be full schdeule till mid August here in the conference.
I will start a day with Taichi or Nordic walking in the forest.