No Reservations

There is a wonderful movie I want to introduce to you. The title is No Reservations.



Kate, the main character of this movie, is a chef of a restaurant in NY. She has confidence about what she cooks.



One day, her sister Christine and her niece Zoe (an elementary school student) were supposed to visit Kate, but they were in a car accident and only Zoe survived. Zoe does not have a father, so Kate starts taking care of her niece at Kate’s house.
After the sad incident happened, Kate’s boss at her restaurant orders her to take a week off, and her boss hires a sous-chef Nicholas during that week without letting Kate know. When Kate finds out that Nicholas was hired, she gets angry. She worked so hard to get that position, so she feels he takes that position away from her, and he might even take the restaurant away from her, too. She is not happy about the decision which her boss made.



In addition to such situation at the restaurant, Kate has another problem, which is about Zoe. Zoe does not open her heart to Kate and does not try to eat anything at all even though Kate always cooks elaborate meals for Zoe.



One night, Kate takes Zoe to her restaurant. Of course, Kate has to work as a chef, but she still has worries about Zoe’s appetite. Nicholas is like an enemy against Kate, but thanks to his cheerful character Zoe opens her heart to Nicholas and finally she eats pasta which Nicholas made.





With this as a start, relationship between Kate and Zoe and relationship between Kate and Nicholas becomes closer and closer…


I want you to watch this movie, so I do not tell you how the story ends. But before you watch it you should know that you can enjoy each person’s character, relationship between different people, and their life. And also, you can enjoy food which looks so delicious in many scenes.


From this movie, I learned 2 big things.

First one is that children like simple, home-made, mothers’ meals instead of meals whose appearance and taste is complicated or elaborate.



Kate is good at cooking so she cooks complicated and elaborate meals for Zoe. But Zoe is still mentally unstable and she is not familiar with such meals, so she does not eat meals cooked by Kate at all. But , Zoe eats simple pasta which is cooked by Nicholas. That scene tells us that when we feed children (especially children who have some problems with their appetite), we should care more about the taste they are familiar.


Another thing I learned is that people can enjoy food not only by eating but also by cooking.



There is a scene Nicholas and Zoe cook. They make pizza and pancakes together. I think that is the first time for Zoe to make pizza, so it must be a good experience for her. She usually is served delicious meals from adults such as Kate and Nicholas, but in that scene she herself enjoys cooking and she serves what she makes to others. That is amazing! As I said, we can and should enjoy food not only by eating but also by cooking.


Before I go, let me introduce good lines which I really like from a conversation between Kate and a therapist in this movie.

Kate: I wish there was a cookbook for life, you know? With the recipes telling us exactly what to do. I know. I know. You’re gonna say, “How else can we learn, Kate?”
Therapist: No. Actually, I wasn’t gonna say that. You wanna guess again?
Kate: Oh, no, go ahead.
Therapist: What I was gonna say was you know better than anyone. It’s the recipes you create yourself that are the best.


Enjoy the movie!


See you:)


Trailer → http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-5RJTf0-Jk

Official site → http://noreservationsmovie.warnerbros.com/

Watch and Eat at Movie Theaters

Do you usually go to a theater to watch movies, or do you usually rent DVDs and watch them at your house? It is needless to say that the biggest difference between a theater and a house is atmosphere. Some of my friends prefer a theater to a house because they can enjoy movies with big-screen impact and can enjoy stories with peculiar and distinctive tense atmosphere. I can understand their opinion. However, I usually choose my house instead of a theater. The reason why is not about the cost or the atmosphere. What I really care about to choose is what I can EAT while watching movies.





At a theater, we should keep good manners in order not to disturb others. For example, we should not talk in a loud voice, should turn off our cell phone, should sit properly and so on. Even though you keep good manners like that, sometimes you disturb others with… FOOD you eat while watching movies. Potato chips? Rice clackers? Cookies? Oh God! If you are at a theater, these are not good because it’s noisy! Let’s think about the food sold at a theater. There are popcorn, churros, hotdogs, fried potatoes… These are the food which does not make noise when we eat. So, we just have to care about noise when we choose food? No way! SMELL also can disturb people. What if people next to you start eating a curry doughnut? It does not make noise, but it has strong smell so you would notice the smell and you could not focus on the movie for a moment. You might be upset, huh? So we have to care not only about noise but also smell when we choose and bring food to a theater.
By the way, I said I prefer my house to a theater. When I watch movies at my house, I do not have to care about others. In other words I do not have to care about the noise or the smell of what I eat. I want to eat what I want to eat even when I watch movies, so I choose my house.


To tell the truth, I want theaters to make more choices of food which is not noisy and does not have strong smell. I always find popcorn and hotdog, but I got bored with them! Food which is not noisy and which does not have strong smell… and it must be easy one to eat, such as food we can eat with one hand. Also, it must be the food which tastes good even if the heat is gone because movies need about two hours to end. Marshmallows are good. Small balls of doughnuts might be good. Gummi candy is also good. What about salty food? It’s a little bit hard to find a good one. But, as I said, not everything is acceptable. We have to consider "manners." What do you think is good? I want you to find good one for me. Well, it’s gonna be good not only for me but also people all over the world (including you, of course!). So if you have any good ideas, please let me know! And I hope some people who work at movie theaters read this blog and make new menu for us!!

What I really want is you, FOOD SAVER!!!!!!!

There is one thing which I really really reeeaaaaalllllyyyyyyy want.

FOOD SAVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I saw TV commercial about Food Saver at mid night. Since that night, I can not forget about it and I am crazy in love with it. OH MY GOD!!! I want it so bad!!!!!

It has many good points and we can use it in many ways. I want you to know them and want to let you buy it for me! haha!



Food Saver is a vacuum pack. We can vacuumize any kind of food with it. Meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, snacks, and even soup and stewed food is ok!
Food Saver can keep food fresh for longer time. For example, it keeps vegetables fresh five times as longer as normal plastic wrap. In case of meet, we can keep it for three years, and fish can be kept for two years by using vacuum packing. We can use that advantage very effectively.
Students or workers are really busy. If they live by them selves it’s gonna be busier because of housework. Cooking needs time, and shopping at grocery stores needs more time. So, if they can save time for shopping and cooking, it’s better, right? Well, Food Saver can help them! Even though they buy lots of food at once, Food Saver can keep food fresh for longer time, so they do not have to worry about food safety. Therefore, they can spend their important time for shopping for less time or fewer days.
Busy people don’t want to spend much time for cooking, but they need healthy meal, right? If they can cook a lot at once and can keep it for a long time, it’s convenient, isn’t it? Food Saver’s advantage makes it comes true!
Besides, if a certain food is much cheaper than usual, people want to buy it a lot to save money, but it is possible that some amount of the food become bad before they actually eat. So when people hoard food, they can use Food Saver to keep it in good condition.
Wow! It seems that Food Saver saves not only food, but also our time and money!



Keeping food fresh for longer time is wonderful, but that is not the only thing Food Saver can do. It can cook, too! When we make marinated food, we need time. But Food Saver need short time to make delicious marinated food. Vacuum packing makes food easier to permeate in marinade.
In addition, we can use it for boiling or heating up food. So if we keep cooked meal or leftovers with Food Saver, we do not have to put the food out of Food Saver. We can heat vacuum-packed food by using microwave. When we boil vacuum-packed food, we do not have to waste the food’s nutrition or flavor. So it leads us to have more delicious and healthier meals. It is safe because it is made from heatproof material! Yay!



Not only people who cook at home, but also chefs at restaurants use it. It means, chefs who are really responsible for food safety and good taste use it. That fact tells you that it really helps and you can rely on it.



Now you know why I am so crazy in love with Food Saver!
Do you remember the purpose I talked about it? I did not try to make you like it. I tried to make you BUY IT FOR ME!!!!!! Please please please pleeeeaaaaaase buy it for me! If you do that, I will cook delicious food for you by using it!





More information:
http://www.shopjapan.jp/disp/CSfLastGenGoodsPage_001.jsp?GOODS_NO=77067

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee...

I am sooooooo sleepy now because I did not sleep last night. I did not feel sleepy at all. Why not? Well, I woke up at around 10 o’clock, and did not take a nap whole day, so I must feel sleepy at night, right? But I didn’t. Hmm… what did I do?
Ah! I drank a cup of coffee at 10 p.m., so it might be the cause! But almost every night I drink coffee and the kind and amount of coffee I took last night was the same as usual. So… Isn’t coffee the cause?
By the way, does coffee really make us awake? What kind of advantages and disadvantages does it actually have? Is it good for our health or not? Wow. It seems that I have many questions about coffee and I do not have good knowledge about coffee at all! I think I should learn about coffee. Don’t you think so?
I like coffee, but the image I have about coffee is not so good, actually. So I want to know mainly about the advantages of drinking coffee.

According to the site, http://ajca.or.jp/health/index.html, coffee has great advantages to keep our body healthy.

1. Hangover
It’s good for us to drink a cup of coffee when we have a hangover. The cause of the headache when we have a hangover is caused by “acetaldehyde”. In order to recover from the headache, we must get acetaldehyde out of our body and must make blood circulates well through brain. Caffeine helps us to do that! (You know that coffee contains caffeine if it’s not decaf.) So we should drink coffee after having a drinking party with friends!!

2. Diet
Human being has two autonomic nerves, and one of them is called the sympathetic nerve. That nerve controls our appetite and helps fat to be vanished. Coffee helps the sympathetic nerve to function actively, and then it leads to have a rapid metabolism (代謝). In short, coffee helps us to digest fat, so if you care about the weight you can drink coffee!

3. In the morning
Many people drink a cup of coffee in the morning. Maybe you drink it in the morning? So, do you know why it is said that having coffee in the morning is good? In fact, a cup of coffee can make good blood circulate. When the circulation is really smooth, the energy goes well through our body and we can move actively. However, if you have coffee and do not eat anything, coffee can give damage to your stomach by activating the secretion of gastric juices. So please be careful.

4. Diabetes
Diabetes is one of a serious disease. Well, I have good news for you. Coffee can prevent us from diabetes! According to the study in Finland, the people who drank 3 ~ 4 cups of coffee a day have lower percentages of having diabetes. (Women is 29% lower and men is 27% lower.) Besides, women and men who drank 10 cups of coffee a day have 79% and 55% lower possibility to have that disease. By the way, Diabetes occurs when body can’t change sugar into energy properly or smoothly. It is said that chlorogenic acid which coffee contains can avoid this phenomena.

5. Cancer
Peroxidized lipid is the cause of cancer and aging or senility. Coffee has antioxidation effect, so it is said coffee may prevent cancer.


Wow! Coffee actually is good for our health! But we have to think about the good amount to take it. Too much is not so healthy, so maybe 3 cups a day is good.
I hope you can spend healthier days with coffee!

Ciao!


(The information is from http://ajca.or.jp/health/index.html)