real chicken soup

I bought this chicken bones for 20 yen (20 cents) at a butcher, so cheap. I wanted to make a real chicken soup, without any soup stock.

I cooked this chicken bones with vegitables for 3 hours. Turned out greast soup!! how easy to make this.

I quite often use dashi and chicken soup stock, but when I make real soup by myself, it tastes a lot better. I know that. Moreover, when I make my own, I know what's in it, no chemicals or additives.

I should go back to "slow food" No soup stock, no instant food, no frozen food!!

mmh, maybe a little soup stock sometimes..

Debut on "tsuchimono"

I guess I made my debut on Japanese earthenware, "tsuchimono" today. Of course there are many cups and plates in my cupboard, but they were all china.

These are from the ceramic shop "Kusaboshi" along Kawaramachi st. I had known about this shop from one of my friends, who loves the ceramic selection at this place.

The lady owner told me there're about 10 ceramists' works in the shop. I took one cup in my hand. It was very beautiful but looked fragile compared to ones I have in my cupboard, so I asked her "Can I bleach it when it gets tea-stained?" She looked a bit surprised and said "No way!!"

She says I should buy china not those Japanese earthenware (she called them "tsuchimono") if I like strong always clean looking ceramics, and they don't get that dirty looking as long as I take certain care;

1. Before the very first use, put them in a pot with water after washing rice and boil for 10 - 15min then leave them until the water cools down.
2. Everytime before use, soak them in water
3. Dry them completely before putting them away

She also said that they get their own characters as we use. Mmmh, I like that. This happens a lot to other good quality stuff too. They may cause us more care and work, but give us more joy as well.

Let's see how they look after 10 years.