Diary 1

I was invited to Halloween Jack-0’-Lantern carving by the daughter of the landowner. She is a very lovely eighteen-year girl. She kindly expected me to contact with a part of Western culture. I liked this kind of activity.

We got in the car with her parents. The car driven by her mother arrived at the Kerrisdale Public Centre soon. There were no participants except for us yet; we were the first to arrive. While some women were preparing for the event, a few families entered the room one after another. There were five long tables covered with paper in the hall. On the desk at the wall, there were some sheets of paper with typical designs such as bats, cats, ghosts or skeletons. We could choose some among them and get photocopies of them.

What I was interested in first were the tools for the carving. I satisfied myself that Canadians had invented their specific tools for making it easier and enjoyable. Every culture has developed its own specific tools as we can see in the ethnic cuisines.

We chose two bigger sized pumpkins. Each family was allowed to use two ones. I had had an idea of a bat as my design; however, I found there it was too simple. I changed it into putting two bats diagonally. First, we had to cut out the top of the pumpkin. I cut it into a star shape, but the size of the star was too small to take  pumpkin seeds and other stuff easily out of the top!

Anyway, I enjoyed my first experience a lot like a little child.  

Diary 2

I was too late for the meeting with other students at fixed time at Granville Island for Writers and Readers’ Festival. The others had already entered the hall. There were no tickets sold there.

I gave up soon, and changed my mind and dropped in the farmers’ market. I was really lucky eventually because I found Korean chestnuts there, which I had never thought I could see in Vancouver. (Read another article about the sweet)

We call it “kuri” in Japanese. The quantity of the chestnuts of the year affected the number of the times of bears’ appearance to human areas. Recently a lot of bears have appeared in front of humans and people are scared when walking around mountain villages. Bears eat a lot of nuts including chestnuts before the hibernation. Depending on the weathers, it was sometimes harder for me as well to get chestnuts at the supermarkets in Japan.

Around this time of the year, I want to cook chestnuts in a traditional way I showed the other day. Japanese traditional sweets, wa-gashi, is strongly connected with its season, because it has something to do with tea ceremony (sa-do).

My mother learned how to cook it for the first time in my family from my co-worker’s wife many years ago. The couple had been already dead, and my mother has been old and ill for a long time. Instead, I tried to remember the recipe a few years ago and made it sure by checking websites. I tried at home kitchen over and over again until I completed my recipe.

When I found the chestnuts labeled “Korea chestnuts” in the market, I was already imagining their soft and sweet taste spreading in my mouth. “Oh, I can do it here!”

How to Cook Chestnuts with Inner Skins (Kuri-no Shibukawa-ni)

Furtunately I chanced on chestnuts produced Korea at farmers' Market at Granville Island. They were surprisingly cheap. At the moment, I grinned because I could add grear value to them. It takes a long time to complete; it requires patience. However, you will be able to enjoy their good taste without fail! Here is the recipe, my original English version.

1.    Boil water and turn off the stove after boiling.                                                                                                                

2.    Soak the chestnuts in the boiled water.

3.    Leave them in the hot water until it becomes cool. (By doing so, the chestnuts’ hard shells get softer; it gets easier to be removed.)

4.    Make a small cut in each shell with a knife and remove the shell with your thumb and fingers.(Photograph. A)

5.    Put the chestnuts into the water full enough to cover them. Put some sodium carbonate (baking soda) to skim the scum (bitterness) from them.  Boil them on high heat. Just after boiling, turn down to low heat and let them simmer for 30 minutes.  Turn off the stove and lower the water temperature adding cool water little by little. * You will be shocked to see the color of the water which is almost black or deep red purple! (B)

6.    Remove the chestnuts from the water and clean up the black surfaces of the chestnuts with bamboo skewer or a small brush.

7.    Put the cleaned chestnuts into clean water.

8.   Boil them on high heat. Just after boiling, turn down to low heat and let them simmer for 30 minutes.  Leave them until the water cools down naturally.

9.    Measure the weight of the chestnuts. Prepare granulated sugar equivalent to 80% of the chestnuts’ weight. Prepare some starch syrup.

10.  Put clean water full enough to cover the chestnuts, but you don’t put the chestnuts now. Put the granulated sugar and the starch syrup to the water, and boil it until they dissolve in it. After boiling, gently place the chestnuts back into the pan.

11.  Boil them on high heat. Just after boiling, turn down to low heat and let them simmer for 30 minutes.  Leave them until the water cools down naturally.

12. Remove the chestnuts from the sweet syrup. Add some brandy to the syrup in the pan and boil it again. Turn off the heat and return the chestnuts into it. Leave it until cooling down. Now you can eat! (C)

Ingredients: chestnuts (Kuri), Sodium carbonate (Baking soda), granulated sugar, starch syrup (mizuame), Bandy, water

* photograph: from upper A,B, andC.