The “My Hashi” Movement

I always thought food tasted better from real utensils than the disposable take-out variety (I hope that doesn’t make me a food snob).

One of my pet peeves is when the disposable chopsticks doesn’t separate cleanly and the sticks are uneven or worse, I end up with one short stick and one long stick. Another pet peeve is when the edge on a plastic utensil has extra plastic that cuts the inside of my mouth when I eat. 😦

For a while now, we bring our own non-disposable chopsticks and forks to restaurants that we know use disposable utensils. As  rule, I carry a spork in my backpack, just in case.

 

My Spork

 

I didn’t want have to carry a set of utensils (fork knife, and spoon). The spork is a good compromise. We’ve even brought our own Pyrex containers to carry home our take-out orders from some restaurants.

I recently learned about the “my hashi” movement where people are encouraged to use their own non-disposable chopsticks. Hashi is Japanese for chopsticks. The goal is to help the environment by reducing the use of disposable chopsticks. Now we have a reason to bring our own utensils without people looking at us strangely.

Here’s some statistics to consider: http://shanghaiist.com/2010/08/17/disturbing_statistics_about_disposa.php

The statistic about unhygienic conditions is scary. Where else is this a problem? I’m sure the problem is not only in China but other places as well.

We found these chopsticks at our Japanese warehouse membership store they were under two dollars each. We don’t really have to worry too much about them if they get lost.

 

The Mouse's Traveling Chopsticks

 

 

The Cat's Traveling Chopsticks

 

My chopsticks are stainless steel. The Cat’s chopsticks are six-sided to prevent them from rolling.

Who knows, maybe the “butterfly effect” really can work.

Getting off of the soap box now.

By the way, Have a happy and safe Halloween.

The Mouse

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Japanese Green Tea

The last time we were in Shanghai, our friend D re-gifted us a Japanese tea caddy with green tea. Someone gave it to her and she thought we would like the caddy (I posted a picture previously, see 08-July-2010).

Japanese Tea Caddy

What’s interesting about this caddy, the design changes slightly as the caddy is turned.

Japanese Tea Caddy, Alternate View

So, getting to the tea. We don’t know specifically what kind of tea this is except “Japanese green tea.” There’s no indication on the package.

Tea Package

The texture of the tea leaves are very thin and fine.

Tea Leaves

Because the leaves were so thin, I used more than usual.

Japanese Green Tea

The taste was very “grassy” and bright. There was also a bit of nori aftertaste, in a good way. The also smelled like grass, very fresh. I think the tea would go very well with sushi and poke. I’m not too sure about this tea and sashimi.

Too bad we don’t know the variety of the tea.

Enjoy.

The Mouse

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Black Foil

At the Japanese membership warehouse market, a couple different kinds of black foil was on sale. I picked-up the foil to roast sweet potatoes. The store also had foil to roast corn on the cob and to steam fish and vegetables. I could tell the foil was for sweet potatoes by the picture on the box.

Black Foil for Sweet Potatoes

One side of the foil is black, the other side is regular.

Black Foil

Based on the pictures on the box, the black side of the foil faces out (doesn’t touch the food).

Black Side Out

We usually roast Okinawan sweet potatoes (the purple flesh variety). The Okinawan sweet potato I had was too large to roast whole. I peeled the sweet potato and cut into chunks. Half of the sweet potato was roasted using regular foil (for control purposes), and half with the black foil.

I usually roast sweet potatoes for one hour in our toaster oven.

The sweet potatoes on the left and center were roasted with black foil, the sweet potatoes on the right were roasted with regular foil.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

The sweet potatoes roasted in the black foil seems to be cooked at a higher temperature. There was more caramelization on the surface and the texture was softer on the inside than the sweet potatoes roasted in regular foil. Next time the foils are on sale, we may try the other selections.

Enjoy.

The Mouse

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