Rainy Season Days and the Dining Table.

When it gets hot, I start craving something refreshing.
I finely chop okra, myoga ginger, cucumbers, and eggplants to prepare 'dashi,' a local dish from Yamagata.

I mix it with natto or pour it over tofu.

Dashi is a savior for summer fatigue.

In the midst of busy days, the time I spend in the kitchen is a moment for me to take a deep breath.

It might be an exaggeration to say that just looking at fresh ingredients gives me the energy to live.

When I pick up fresh, succulent vegetables, when steam with a sweet and salty aroma rises, when fish is grilled to a crisp, delicious perfection, when the plating comes together just right.
While I'm cooking, I stack up these small, happy moments.

On my days off, I go to the fishmonger. The fish market is my power spot.

Just looking at the glossy, fresh fish makes me feel energized.

Before I know it, I'm putting one thing after another into my shopping basket.

Shrimp and crab.
They are a hassle to eat, but for the sake of this deliciousness, the desire to eat them outweighs the trouble.
Seafood bowls and sushi toppings are delicious, but they don't feel like enough.
I really want to peel them myself and stuff my cheeks with them.

Sardines are always cheap. And delicious.
At the local conveyor belt sushi restaurant, I always made sure to order the vinegared sardines. One plate wasn't enough, so I always had two. That's how much I love sardines.
I always buy plenty to grill with salt or make into nanban-zuke.
I also tried making them simmered with plum.
Every time I eat sardines, I wonder if it's okay for them to be this cheap when they're this delicious. A single fish doesn't even cost 100 yen.
I'm glad sardines aren't a luxury fish.

I don't actually like tuna that much, but I love yamakake don. I pour plenty of grated yam over tuna marinated in soy sauce.

Sea squirt is something I start craving when summer arrives.
But the sea squirt I buy at the fishmonger just doesn't compare to the kind you eat locally. I'll save that treat for when I visit home.

Perhaps because the Day of the Ox is approaching, eel was also on sale. But eel is expensive, after all. Since the conger eel next to it was reasonably priced, I decided to make chirashi-zushi with that. Store-bought grilled eel becomes plump again if you simmer it in sake.

I like my fish grilled with salt, so I had always ignored the Saikyo-zuke and Kasu-zuke (miso-marinated and sake lees-marinated) fish at the fishmonger, but once I tried buying them, I was hooked.
I borrowed the DVD of the drama 'Kyoto People's Secret Pleasures' from the library, and the food prepared by Chizuru Ohara, who appeared in it, looked so delicious that I read several of her cookbooks in a row, which made me want to eat Kyoto-style food. That's why I tried buying Saikyo-yaki at my regular fishmonger.

I've been buying Saikyo-yaki for three weeks in a row now.
My favorites are silver cod and Spanish mackerel. My husband's favorite is rockfish.
It goes so well with rice.
It's fluffy, sweet and salty, and fragrant.

I love river fish as much as I love sea fish.
It's the season for sweetfish, and they've become plump and large. They have that refreshing aroma unique to river fish, and a light, fluffy texture. It makes me feel like summer has arrived.

Since you just eat sweetfish as is and it doesn't really serve as a side dish, I also made cold shabu-shabu that day. I drizzled plenty of Asahi Ponzu, which I bought recently, over the cold shabu-shabu. I learned about Asahi Ponzu from Chizuru Ohara's book. Its clean taste goes well with meat, fish, and vegetables.

I also cooked ginger rice to go with it. The only ingredient is ginger.
It's a simple seasoned rice flavored with dashi, mirin, and soy sauce. Ginger rice is a recipe I learned at a restaurant where I had lunch with a colleague recently. I was so impressed that it could be this delicious with just ginger that I tried making it myself. It's simple and deeply flavorful.

This year, I also tried my hand at 'ume-shigoto' (plum work).
The tasks I thought would be a hassle were over in a flash while I was breathing in the scent of the plums.

I prepared plum juice with green plums, and made Mami Imai's recipe for plum Darjeeling with Nanko plums.
I love how easy plum Darjeeling is, as you can eat it the day after you make it.
You can enjoy plums like fruit. I put it in yogurt or dilute it with water or sparkling water.

On a day when a friend stopped by while on a trip, I showed them around my favorite soba noodle shop and a Taiwanese dessert shop.

My recent days off are mostly spent alone or with my husband.
Time alone and time with my husband are both precious, and I enjoy them, but I really do think it's nice to meet up with someone.

When I was a student, it was natural to see my friends today and tomorrow, so now that I'm an adult, when I meet up with friends, I feel like even if we spend the whole day together, it's not enough and we haven't talked enough.

Healed by my friend's smile and full of delicious food, it was a wonderful day off. It really is a joy to eat delicious food with people you like.

I have plans to meet a friend from university next month.
My friend reached out after a long time, and we decided to meet up. I'm grateful that they remembered me.
Just having plans makes me feel warm and happy.

On the night I hung out with my friend, my husband made fried chicken for dinner.
He usually uses thigh meat, but this time he used breast meat.
It was surprisingly delicious. It might even be better than the soba and Taiwanese sweets I had earlier in the day.

I had always thought that fried chicken was definitely better with thigh meat, but the meat marinated in shio-koji was tender and refreshing, and it might even be better than thigh meat. It was satisfying, and it's cheaper than thigh meat, too. I asked my husband to make it again.

While organizing the refrigerator, I noticed that the cream cheese had expired. I had bought it on a sale day, thinking I wanted to make a quiche with salmon, spinach, and cream cheese. There should have been about two months left until the expiration date, but it seems those two months slipped by while I kept putting it off. I am naturally very lazy.

I hurriedly bought salmon and spinach and made the quiche.
Once I made it,thanks to Motsu-san's recipe,it was so easy and delicious that I wondered why I had put it off in the first place. I might not learn my lesson and end up buying cream cheese again on a sale day. Next time, I want to make sure I use it before the expiration date.

I bought Minazuki on the weekend. It's a sweet eaten for the Nagoshi no Harae purification ritual on June 30th. I'm eating it a little early.

I feel deeply that half of this year is already about to pass.

No, this is no time to be feeling sentimental.
I haven't finished the things I need to do at all.
Or rather, there are many things I haven't even started yet.

That said, there's no point in panicking.
I'll eat delicious food, build up my strength, and put my health first. I'll do my best, little by little.

May the remaining half of this year also be a good time.