Recipe: $1.60
Per Serving: $0.80
Before getting into this delicious tomato scramble...
...let's talk about Japan. So moving to another country is fun. There are a lot of perks in the way of cultural experiences, new foods, and learning a language! But moving to a new city and leaving an apartment for a shared living experience is certainly a challenge. You might think that not speaking the language would be the biggest challenge in Japan, but it's really not. It is, of course, the living/cooking/eating situation! If I could change one thing, I would leave behind half my clothes and fill a suitcase with food and cooking gadgets.
Here's what my first week in Japan looked like:
Hotel Pros (4 nights):
- Heat!
- An Iron for all my wrinkled work clothes!
- Blow dryer!
- Helpful front desk guy with decent English.
- 3 minute walk to the station
- Mini fridge
- Free use of washer & dryer
Hotel Cons:
- Microwave livin'
- 35 minutes from work (including changing trains once - ugh)
- Kind of secluded
Guesthouse (5 nights so far) Pros:
- KITCHEN. I never want to use a microwave again.
- Many people - expats and locals - to talk to and get tips from
- 15-minute walk to work (move yo' body)
- Iron!
- Blow dryer! (Although, I'm not sure if it is "for all" or if I'm stealing someone's blow dryer...)
Guesthouse Cons:
- shared bathroom/showers (ew)
- 15-minute walk to the train (cold)
- Gotta pay for the washer, dryer, & heater in my room
- ONLY ⅔ A SHELF IN A SHARED mini FRIDGE. (THIS IS NOT OKAY.)
Also, speaking of change - that SNOW. Man, so strange. Apparently it only snows 2 days a year in Yokohama. Once in January, and once in February.
So far, I've been pretty lucky. My achievements:
- I've taken the correct subway/metro train EVERY TIME. (knock on wood, kthanks.)
- only gotten a little tiny bit lost
- I've worn slippers 90% of the time
- haven't bombed a class yet!
- haven't broken any serious cultural norms…that I know of.
It's fun! And I like that I haven't royally screwed anything up! But, if you want the stressful part, read on.
Moving from a hotel to a guest house late at night without ANY experience in the new area, and no idea how to get to the train station, grocery store, work, etc...is stressful. On Wednesday night after my 3rd day of training I moved into my guesthouse. I arrived around 10pm, and basically set up my bed and went right to sleep. I was SO hungry, but had no idea where to find food!
In the morning, around 8, I set out to find the grocery store so I could eat some REAL food, only to discover that the grocery store I was directed to didn't open until 10am! WHAT? Luckily, my rumbling belly motivated me to wander a bit, and I found a little Co-Op grocery store with decent prices. Score!! It is little and it accept credit cards and I am happy! I stocked up with about 2 days' worth of food. And then realized that there really isn't enough room in my designated fridge area for 2 days' worth of food...oops. I elected to eat the salmon sashimi right away to save room. Hah!
So there ya go, that's the update from Japan! Once I finally found food and cooking utensils, I made myself a tomato scramble, because fresh tomatoes and eggs are so so good together. And I've eaten it most days (sometimes with shimeji mushrooms) since. Unfortunately, I have yet to locate beans, AND there's a really serious butter shortage here, so my Japanese version is a bit different from the recipe below. But, still delicious! You should use the butter.
The secret is in the tomatoes. Buy 'em fresh and bright red. Cherry tomatoes are great here. And, you should probably wait until they're back in season - around August - for the best results! Sorry for the non-seasonal February post!
Tomato & Black Bean Breakfast Scramble
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon butter divided
- 2 roma tomatoes chopped (or any ripe tomatoes)
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup black beans cooked
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 cup spinach optional
- optional toppings such as cheese, salsa, avocado
Instructions
- In large skillet over medium-high, melt half the butter and sauté the tomatoes until very soft, almost sauce-like, stirring occasionally. Add the spinach and stir until wilted.
- Reduce heat to low-medium. Whisk the eggs together in a bowl. Melt the remaining ½ tablespoon of butter and add the eggs to the skillet.
- Scramble together until cooked all the way through, then stir in the beans. Serves two people!
Nutrition
Glad that you sound happy and things are going pretty well. Enjoy your adventure! Love you!
Thanks, mom. :)