Monday, December 31, 2007

Banzai Brighton and moar goodies

Sad news; the Banzai 99 cent plus in Brighton Beach seems to be closing and most of their *cheap* stuff is getting sold out. Some of the items there are more discounted than usual so you should go visit! But among the coughdustcollectingcough items there, I found an awesome suribachi! (Traditional Japanese mortar) It was only $.99 and the sides are a bit lower compared to the traditional suribachi. Sadly, it didn't come with a surikogi (pestle). I went to MUJI last month and saw separately sold suribachi and surikogi for about $9 each and that's just a rip-off. I went to Sunrise Mart last friday and found a suribachi for $6 and was planning to buy it. But I'm happy with the one I have now, and will buy the cleaning brush from Pearl River Mart in SoHo; $1. Yes... I'm such a money-minded loser.
















On Christmas, my mum told me to bake something and we were kinda short on butter. I dug in my bookmarks and found a recipe from Lovescool for Green Tea Sweets. With my new gingerbread man cookie cutter, I cut out two gingerbread man-shaped cookies and with the rest of the cookie dough, made leaf-shaped cookies. Oddly, I didn't think my family would like it much, but I got a lot of praise and the kiddies were running around the house with cookies in their mouths. YAY. I would've loved to make gingerbread cookies, but the spices are damn pricey and I'm too lazy to buy molasses, ground ginger, and all that other stuff. Maybe next year, along with a gingerbread house. Thank god for the $4 matcha bags at Sunrise Mart.















On Friday, I finally bought a candy thermometer from that shop in Little Italy to make marshmallows. That's right. MARSHMALLOWS. Those sweet, white lumps of airy goodness made its way into my home and I plan to never buy the Jet-Puffed and even the Krasdale stuff again. It was a lot of work to cut them to pieces with a knife (when I should've used the scissor) then cover and remove excess confectioner's sugar from each and every marshmallow. They were a bit larger, but they're very satisfying, so I cut them a bit smaller to portion out. mm.. :9















Next up: Mushi Manju with homemade shiro-an!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it how your always being creative in cooking.

☆Hachiko☆ said...

aww thanks

Unknown said...

Yum! I wish my mom let me bake as much as you do. :D

☆Hachiko☆ said...

D: My mum gets a bit annoyed when I bake too much, but her co-workers give praise which makes her happy.

Unknown said...

My mom doesn't like to think that I'm wasting eletricity and thus am harming the environment. She feels that heating my "large" oven is a waste of energy. D;

☆Hachiko☆ said...

Well. Since I live in the projects and don't have to pay for water and electricity, my mum doesn't feel the least bit responsible for conserving energy and water.


poupeegirl fashion brand community