HOT(cake)

Yogurt Pancake with ginger syrup

Is it a craze or what? There is wave of pancake lovers in Japan, mostly in the trendy Harajuku area. Can you believe it? In the midst of a mainstreaming ‘gluten free’ movement in the US, Japanese are discovering ‘gluteus’ pancake? People lined up to get in pancake restaurants like Egg’n Things, Café Kailla (both are from Hawaii), Bills (Sidney, Australia) or Sarabeth’s (New York) for hours. Average waiting time is 1 hour and on the weekend?- Brace yourself for 3 to 4 hours! For inflated price of $15 or $20? If you call pancake ‘hotcake’ you know that you’re out of vogue, right?

I like pancakes, yes but…are we in the Magic Kingdom?… is this the line for ‘Star Wars Adventure?’ I sure hate slow eaters.

The pancake I’m introducing is Harumi Kurihara’s yogurt pancake. Light and fluffy, this is a cinch to make, pan- cakewalk recipe and I adore the 5 inch egg pan I used for these hotcakes… oops! It’s hard to stay on the bandwagon.

Ingredients and instructions for ginger syrup

• Ginger roots about 200g clean and thinly sliced
• Sugar Sanonto (三温糖) is preferred –500g
• Water 2 cups
• 2 cinnamon sticks

1. Bring sugar and water to boil.
   
2. Drop in sliced ginger and cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour at low heat.
3. Add cinnamon sticks and simmer for 30 minutes or longer.
4. Cool completely and strain thru fine mesh. 
5. Pour into a clean glass bottle. Keep in the refrigerator. Also nice; Dilute with water or club soda to make a drink.
   

Ingredients and instructions for 10 5-inch diameter pancakes

• Plain yogurt 1 cup. Place paper towel on sieve to extract liquid from yogurt for 1 hour.
  
• 4 large eggs separate white and yolk
• Sugar 60 g
• Milk 1/2 cup
• Weak power flour or cake flour 200 g. Sift with baking powder below.
• Baking Powder 2 teaspoons
• Salad oil or butter

1. Put egg yolk and 1/3rd of sugar (20 g) in a large bowl and whisk for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add prepared yogurt and milk and mix well. Set aside.
3. Beat egg white till stiff peak (but not dry) with rest of sugar (40g) Set aside.
4. Add sifted flour and baking powder to the egg yolk mixture (step #2) and combine with whisk.
   
5. Change the whisk to a rubber spatula, Add egg white into egg flour mixture and fold it in. Do not over mix.
    
6. Heat oil or melt butter in non-stick skillet at medium-low heat. Scoop 1 ladle full of batter onto the skillet and cook until golden brown or the holes in the pancake stabilize then flip to cook the other side.About 2 minutes each.
   
7. Serve with ginger syrup or maple syrup.

So nice to see my brother-in-law and his family visiting from Utah last week. We tried to do as many fun things as possible including fix his car. Took them nearly 20 hours to drive up here so a little tender care was needed.In Down Town Portland…We all wanted to have VooDoo doughnuts but….We don’t want to wait for 2 hours. I don’t get how in the world people can wait 4 hours for pancakes either.I feel like I’m already weird…probably I am.I had this for lunch at a food cart just because it was featured in bon appetite! It was huge. I should have ordered just half a sandwich.

We persuaded him to try to knock down the blocks at city’s 13th annual ‘Fun In the Park’. Almost! Missed! Not even close!Hey, look! Someone selling U of O caps and other crochet arts. Doesn’t that dish cloth look like one I made before?

This is cute! Matsuri (festival) staple water balloon YO-YO for 1 dollar!

The snake handler – the double wide snake looks so heavy. Kids are totally fascinated with reptile and sit in the from row. I just zoomed in.

Hello there! Here’s looking at you baby!

The Country Singer was an American Idol contestant. Sounds good!

I couldn't participate in the cul-de sac garage sale because of company but last garage sale, she and her daughter put up signs around block and put a notice in Craigslist and all that to help me out. Very nice people indeed.Isn’t this unique? I thought so; a lawn ornament of some sort. Originally $200These sellers (my next door neighbor) – forget about pricing each item, everything is $1. Smart! Their beautiful flower scape.K-9 customer was just a looker, didn’t buy nothin.Checking in neighbor’s yard for cut flowers..Glorious dahlias! It was fun to arrange in my new vase.Sierra Rich(?) peaches and black berries I bought at the Lake Oswego Saturday Market were really nice! I made fruit tart for a dinner invite last Sunday.Strawberry chocolate mochi were a souvenir from Japan. My neighbor just got back from the trip and I’m totally yaki-mochi (jealous). Almond in an antique mason jar is gift from my brother-in-law.Thanks bro, sis, goofy nephews and niece!