Mochikichi Saturday
The Good News:
≠ Lakers finally won a game in Round 2 of the Western series against Oklahoma. It’s about time! The series is now 2 – 1. After a total whooping in Game 1 by over 20 points (a complete embarrassment), and yet another loss in Game 2 by one lousy basket, the Lakers finally, although barely, beat Oklahoma by 3 points, 99 – 96 during last night’s Game 3. I was so crazy nervous the last 10 minutes of the game, I was sweating. I don’t know if it was because I’m sick, or because I was really THAT nervous. Yes, it was that bad. Game 4 starts in a few minutes! I’m getting anxious.
≠ Bebe E is coughing, but she’s over her cold and she’s well. She finally got to leave the house to do something fun today. She went to the park with Dada, so she’s happy. She said to me, “Mommy, you can go to the park when you are ALL betta. We can go together and we going have SO much fun!” ♥
≠ The weather today was blue skies, breezy and absolutely beautiful.
The Bad News:
≠ All last week I wasn’t feeling well, thinking that I caught Bebe E’s cold that she had the previous week. I finally went to the doctor the other day and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I was prescribed strong antibiotics, told I was contagious so to be careful, get some rest, and that I’d be feeling better once the antibiotics kicked in.
≠ Contagious = no bridal shower. Today, I missed my friend’s bridal shower that Bebe E and I were invited to. Since we aren’t able to attend her wedding in Hawaii, I was really looking forward to celebrating with her at her shower. Such is life. At least I can live guilt free knowing I didn’t give the bride and her guests bronchitis. :)
≠ Strong antibiotics = feel ill from medication, but no more bronchitis (in hopefully the very near future).
From the Bad, Comes the Good:
When I was home alone today while Dada took Bebe E out, I was hungry and scrounging around the kitchen. I found a box of Mochikichi brand arare (rice crackers) that I had forgotten about. Yay!
The great thing about having relatives in Japan is that they will send you uber premium rice crackers that can only be found in Japan. Mochikichi. LOVE this brand of Japanese arare and osenbei.
My all-time favorite Mochikichi is the chocolate covered rice cracker that is only sold in the cooler months, available in late Fall through Winter. During this time, I crave “Choco Arare” and look forward to the time when my Sasaki Auntie sends me a special little box, knowing how much I love these little rice crackers.
During the warmer months, we are fortunate to have my Auntie and Uncle Toh-chan send us our favorite “Salad” flavored senbei and “Shoyu” (soy sauce) flavored senbei, along with “Nori Maki” or rice crackers wrapped in sweet and savory nori seasoned dried seaweed.
What I found in our kitchen, however, was a special edition of arare. One box contained multiple pretty little packages. Inside each package were 8 adorable little rice crackers, each with a different flavor and shape.
A rundown of the Irodori Arare (from the top, clockwise):
- The long rectangular arare: salt flavored with soy nuts
- The smaller rectangular arare with pink: slightly spicy with shrimp
- The dark triangular arare: dark soy sauce flavor with black sesame seeds
- The white oblong arare: aonori (green seaweed flakes) with salt seasoning
- The round arare with small black nori squares: classic soy sauce flavored arare with small bits of dried seaweed
- The sakura shape arare: shiso (perilla leaf) flavor = this was my favorite
- The round arare dusted with sugar: sweet arare = not a favorite of mine
- Finally, in the center is the classic nori-maki arare: soy sauce flavored wrapped with dried seasoned seaweed.
This tiny little package of arare made my otherwise nice-weather-day-spent-indoors, ill-feeling, bed-ridden, bridal-shower-missing Saturday, just slightly better. :)
GO LAKERS! (I can still hope….)
Judy
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