2016-05-27 09:29 Kikkoman, you are here!
Y (Kuma's owner)
The first time when I visited Australia, Japanese food was not common at all. Sometimes, I felt like eating Japanese food but I couldn't eat it because most Japanese restaurants were expensive. I remember there had been several Japanese restaurants in Sydney. The regular customers were Japanese business people.
I still had those memories when I came here about five years ago. So, I thought Australians don't eat Japanese food.
However, I was wrong. There are a lot of Sushi Bars everywhere. I'm not exaggerating, it's true. Every shopping centre has at least one Sushi bar, some have two. What a surprise!
What happened in Australia?
One day, I went to a local supermarket. I got vegetables, meat and then I looked for soy sauce, but I didn't expect a local supermarket to sell it.
I thought that if they sell it, it would be in the international food corner. Then, I followed the sign and found the corner. Hm, there's no soy sauce. I didn't expect it but still I was disappointed.
I was beginning to give up to buy soy sauce and kept walking inside of the shop. When I approached the sauce corner, I found it! I found Kikkoman there! This was my second surprise.
I wonder how people get used to unfamiliar food? What would the first opportunity to eat Sushi be? Did they get used to Sushi first or taste of Soy Sauce first?
Whatever the reason, I'm happy that I could buy Kikkoman everywhere.
2016-05-25 05:06 Pavlova, My favorite Aussie and Kiwi cake
Y (Kuma's owner)
Last week, I bought a small Pavlova at a super market. Pavlova is a common cake in Australia and New Zealand. It's a meringue cake with fruit toppings.
I usually don't eat cakes except chocolate cakes. I'm a chocolate lover, so I eat chocolate cakes but not often. The reason I don't like cakes is most cakes are too sweet to me. I wonder if my tongue is sensitive to the sweetness?
In addition, I don't like spongy textures very much.
However, Pavlova is an exception. It's made by meringue and it's not heavy. I like the edge of meringue most because it's crispy. Even if the base of meringue is a little sweet, the fruit topping is sour and has a refreshing flavor.
My only concern is, it's difficult to cut and put Pavlova on a plate. You know, it's made by meringue, the base of Pavlova is very soft and light but toppings have some weight. Every time I serve Pavlova, it collapses and looks miserable.
Well, I don't mind. However it looks, the taste is great.
I heard that Pavlova is named after a Russian, Anna Pavlova. Why is it not an Australian or New Zealander? This is a bit strange.
When I was in Japan, I have never heard the name of Pavlova. I think Japanese would like it.
I'll have guests from Japan in August and I'm going to buy a Pavlova for them.
I hope they will like it.
2016-05-23 04:09 Moko's nose
Y (Kuma's owner)
I have an old cat named Moko-Nyan. Moko means fluffy in Japanese, and he is a long-hair cat. Nyan is the same as meow, the sound a cat makes. I don't know his age exactly because he was an abandoned cat, but the vet estimated his age looking at his teeth and said he is approximately 13 years old. He is a big boy and he might be a mixture of domestic cat and Main Coon cat.
One day I noticed that his nose was running. I thought he would be good soon but he wasn't. Every time he ate food, he had to look down a little and his nasal mucus came out and it annoyed him very much.
I took him to the local vet and he got an injection for cat flu. Cat flu is a common disease and the vet and I thought he had got it. However, he hadn't recovered and I took him to the vet again. The vet gave him another medicine but it didn't work at all.
Therefore, the vet recommended taking a blood test. The result of the blood test indicated that he might have some parasitic worms. That was very surprising because he is an indoor cat. He has never been outside. I got three tablets of parasitic worms and gave them to him. The blood test also indicated that his kidney condition was not perfect. This is a condition that is common among old cats so I decided to give him kidney diet food. Luckily, his kidney condition was not serious, and the vet said that I don't have to give him diet food every meal.
It was good that we could find out his kidney problems, but this is not the reason that his nose was running. There's something that caused it. The next step was a nasal mucus test. The vet took his nasal mucus and sent it to the specialist's laboratory. The specialist did a bacteria culture and made sure what Moko had in his nasal cavity. Then, we finally found the cause! There were two kinds of bacterium in Moko's nasal cavity; Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus sciuri. I was told before that there was a possibility that he had cancer, but there was no cancer cell found. I was so relieved.
It's much easier to treat him if we knew the cause. The vet gave me some antibiotic tablets that work for these bacterium. He has been taking these tablets for about a few weeks. His nose condition is now pretty good. I haven't seen him with a running nose for nearly two weeks. Finally, it stopped! It stopped but he has to finish all the tablets that we've got because they are antibiotics. He will be finished his medication in the first week of June.
I'm so happy Moko is getting better and I'm very appreciative of the vet.
Thank you, John!