Pukman @ WinK: the community that time didn't forget

France, Italy, and Greece are some of the countries mentioned in connection with the Mediterranean diet, which is praised by many doctors and medical researchers as the main reason for the low rates of heart disease in these countries.

The Greek diet includes lots of olive oil, some in almost every dish. Greek people often eat beans, olives, cheese, and fish. Their most famous kind of cheese is feta cheese. This is a kind of brined cheese, which means that it is made in salt water. It usually contains a mixture of cow's milk and goat's milk. I have seen it on sale in Hello Green and other supermarkets; unfortunately, it's rather expensive. The picture shows Greek salad made with feta cheese.

Do you like Italian food? I like it very much. Pizza is great, and so is pasta. Unfortunately, in Japan it's difficult to get various kinds of pasta, and especially whole wheat pasta is difficult to obtain, except in one kind of spaghetti. Two relatively good places to get pasta are Premier Cru and Tsuruya

I like Earl Grey tea very much, and recently came across Earl Grey tea from the East India Company. The East India Company is famous for its trading, political, and military activities in the 17th to 19th centuries, but I hadn't realised it still existed, so I bought the tea with interest. I later found out that the makers of this tea are actually a company founded in 1987, with no link to the original East India Company. But that doesn't matter because the tea was great!

Most Earl Grey tea gets its distinctive flavour from bergamot oil. According to the company's research, however, that oil wasn't known in the early days of Earl Grey tea, and they suggest that neroli oil (oil from the flowers of the bitter orange tree) is likely to have been the original flavouring, so that's what they now use in an attempt to recreate the original tea.

It looks like the best place to find out about different kinds of Earl Grey tea is the Tending Towards Tea site.

The other day, my family took me to BaskinRobbins Ice Cream on East Bypass. It was a little late but it was to celebrate Father's Day. Pekyo likes Cookies & Cream, but I tried Lemon Cranberry Cheesecake. It was delicious!

Mos Burger is a little expensive for a meal, but I like the cafe latte, which is quite cheap. Also, Mos Burger has a nice, quiet atmosphere outside of meal times. Sometimes, I go there in the late afternoon when I'm doing research but feeling a little sleepy.

One of my favorite coffee shops is Karan. It is in Nagamine, near Hello Green and the Yamaha music shop. They sell coffee beans as well as serving coffee in the shop. I like their cappucino best.

Just across from the west gate of PUK is a small restaurant called Little Kitchen. It serves many kinds of food, though Mediterranean is perhaps the main type. It has a lunch set at 740 yen. It's a little expensive, but it includes soup, salad, a main dish, a dessert, and a drink. Drinks you can choose from include not only tea and coffee but also homemade ginger ale, which is very good. The best thing about Little Kitchen, though, is the drinks menu. It has about 20 kinds of foreign beer, including many English beers. This is very unusual in Japan.

What food blogs do you like? My favourite is Cooking with Amy. You can search for recipes there. I like this recipe for pancakes.
Please recommend food sites that you like!

Are you interested in Indian food? Check out this site!

If you found last week's podcasts rather difficult, try this one. They speak very slowly and they have a transcript too.

If you're interested in food, look for dining in the tag search section.