New York, New York

Does it feel right

Does it taste like
New York, New York

Does it burn like

All the stars light

Do you know my name

Do you even care

Do you love when I take you up there

Yes!!

Chairoko, Kiiroko and me (Miffa) will go there. This is something my father promised me sometime ago.

We will keep u updated

There will be no second one in our Challenge

Katanga Studios PLC did our team's corporate image
Any doubt of our origin?

Switzerland has no sea but they won the previous America’s cup. The winner decides where and when (some limits apply). And they decided Valencia. Some people say that it is because Valencia has an average 150 days a year with the optimal winds. Others may think that several thousands 500 euro notes have more power.

Anyways they need some wind speed but not a lot. The great spinnaker sails that they use when the wind is coming from their rear part or “reaching” (stern or “popa” in Spanish) are fragile.

Of course there are many types of fabrics and shapes (symmetrical and asymmetrical ones). But still the spinnaker is the biggest sail in a vessel and of course a lot of meters to place your ad.

Together with my sisters we have decided to organize our own Bunny Challenge. We have been training in our 40 feet Oceanis Clipper with nice results. It’s a nice ship but too heavy. After some research we have decided to use a Farr designed Oceanis First.

Our design agency Katanga’s has developed our main sail and hull graphics.

The south sea will be bunny or it won’t be!

Chairoko and Kiiroko master Spanish Cuisine: Paella II

The team after their hard work cookin Paella

Ingredients for up to six people.

Use a large frying pan or sauteuse (more than 28 diameter). Use a shallow flat pan. It’s very important that rice height over pan surface will not exceed 2 centimetres.

Seafood:

• 12 (two each) fresh big shrimps (Malaysian tigers will do well), but you can use whatever specimen from your country. You can use defrosted ones if you like.
• Six medium squids (calamari) as the one you can see on the picture
• 1 medium Cuttlefish (this is additional stuff to add or a substitute for the squid
  500 grams fresh mussels
• 12 Norway lobster or crayfish (Spanish Cigala) is similar to river crabs. May be too difficult to find in your country.
• 400 gram small clams

Additional ingredients

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed (do not crush them if you don’t like garlic)
• Fresh parsley (minced if you like it)
• 1 generous pinch of saffron / tea spoon yellow food coloring
  ( This is up to you, we suggest food coloring the first times)
• 2 green peppers, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 4 small tomatoes / or natural tomato sauce
• 4 cups of rice
• 7 / 8 cups of water
• 1/3 cup of Olive Oil, add more if necessary according to pan dimensions
• Salt

Introduction

The main goal when you try to make paella it to “catch” the point to the rice. Let’s say somehow is like cooking “Maki” if the rice texture and flavour is no good all efforts are in vain. Only the experience and some tricks can help in this matter so we will give you the only ones that we have found useful:

• Add 1 cup of rice and little more than 2 water cups per person.
• Do not overheat the pan – use medium fire- when cooking the rice at the end
• Add water if needed (very little)
• Remove when the rice heart is still hard and serve immediately. If not the rice will overdo and texture quality is bad (we call it – se ha pasado el arroz-)

Cooking directions

Boil some water in a bowl and add the mussels and the clams. I you want to add a couple of marine crabs (small ones) it’s a good idea. When done just take apart and do not throw the water. Just let it there for a while.

Add oil to the pan and heat it up. Then add the garlic, tomatoes (that you will have to peel it up and smash previously if you don’t use sauce) and the sliced peppers. Add only one shrimp (do not peel them) and one crayfish (reserve the others). After cleaning and sliding those with a knife add the Calamari (Squids). Add also half the small clams (do no forget to keep the water after filtering it using paper or other device).

Remove it gently using medium to high fire until you notice the ingredients are almost done. (see our work in progress picture)

Now if you have all this done you actually can stop and take a rest. You have done the basic stuff.

Add the rice and the water (use some of the boiled water you kept after boiling the mussels and clams, this gives it a nice natural fishy flavour) . It’s a good moment to add the colouring food ingredient or saffron if you have not done it before.

Fifteen minutes are fine but keep an eye on it and do not overheat the pan (medium low fire is ok). Do not remove the rice! Just use a wood spoon or similar to move a little bit those spot that have run out of water.

Try the rice and add salt if needed or desired. When you have reached the desired rice cooking point remove it from fire (I usually do so when a little water is on it and rice is slightly hard).

Good luck! Chairoko and Kiiroko did it perfect with Grandma bunny.

Chairoko and Kiiroko master Spanish Cuisine: Paella

Some ingredients to make a good Paella

As I have told you Their parents are very skilled Japanese cookers and they are training Miffo in the noble art of Japanese Cuisine.

Unfortunately my parents are no so good in traditional Spanish dishes but still with the help of Father Bunny’s Grandmas and Mother Chairoko and Kiiroko will have enough knowledge as to open a chain of Spanish restaurants in Tokyo.

If you think about the best known Spanish rice dish, what do you think?

Paella (Pa-e-ha), right.

A Chinese Bunny like me will say that Paella it’s just ok, but I am still looking for the bonus, but Kiiroko and Chairoko – surely they saw something “typical” in our Sagrada Familia visit – asked me to know more about it.

Doing some research we have founded what almost everyone knew about this dish. The origin is a place called Albufera (near Valencia) where people use to cultivate rice here in Spain. According to some people it would have and Arab origin, because it would be a local variation of cus cus.

Anyways what is clear is that people use to add what is easily available and the cruel reality is that they put duck meat, pork meat, chicken and EVEN RABBIT meat.!!!!

Surely from there it jumped to the coast where people begun to include seafood on it.
I totally agree with the fact that fish and meat do no match great and some people say that the mixed Paella is far away from the original recipe.

Obviously the recipe you will find here is SEAFOOD.

Miffa's syndicate to win the bunnies's cup

We will keep you informed about the best bunny sailor team on earth. Meanwhile you can see some pictures of the advanced training program that we have been attending this past weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miffa

Cooking with Miffa and her sisters Part 2

In the first post we told you about how we have joined to Miffa’s restaurant. We were cooking a special menu for Mother Bunny that included a Ochazuke (Nozawana one) that we made. Next time we'll made the Miso soup. (Miffa did a little mistake and... we will tell you about that in other ocassion).

In this one you can see the results of our effort and of course dining the good stuff together.

Bon appetite!

Cooking with Miffa and her sisters Part 1

Miffa Chan with secret ingredient from Japan

The team (from left to right): Chairoko, Miffu, Ninjin, Draculina and Kiiroko

Chairoko checking if everthing was going right.

Final Check by Japanese cookers

Now let's go for the second course.

As Miffa has told you sometimes we are in Barcelona and her sister Miffo is in our house in Tokyo. We don’t meet Miffo, we were flying from Japan and she was flying from Spain at the same time. But Miffa went to Tokyo and she met some of my sister and my parents.

They gave a lot of Japanese food as a gift for them. We love to cook and we have learnt a lot of recipes from our Parents. Unfortunately Miffa is not a good Japanese cooker and neither they are good on it.

On the other hand Miffa’s parents know quite a few Spanish dishes, Miffa has her own restaurant with her sister Miffu and Father Bunny.

After some days training hard with Miffa, she opened her restaurant again and we did a special menu for Mother Bunny. In this link you will find a pdf document with the menu. We actually think that Miffa charged her mother a lot for the menu but Miffu told us that previously the bills were even higher.

We prepared a Japanese miso soup, to which we added our secret ingredients. Then we had some shellfish (Oysters and big shrimps).

- We didn’t find complicate to prepare seafood.

We asked Miffa where the difficult thing was on doing it.

- The great amount of experience that you need to select the good stuff in the market

She replied

May be she is right but we think that she was pulling our leg.

Visiting Barcelona, again.

I have travelled to quite a few places but, surprisingly, only a litte in Barcelona. Now with my friends from Japan Father Bunny promised us to visit all the nice places Barcelona has.

And, as one image can tell more than many words, here you can see some pictures of us visiting our city.

Kiiroko and Chairoko adventures in the country.

During our holidays in Leon visiting Father Bunny’s Grandma we have had a lot of adventures. We saw a lot of animals: sheeps, dogs, pigeons, etc. We also find the county at its most after April rains.

Everywhere you could see blossom trees and green fields, beautiful flowers and beautiful - and tasty – vegetables.

We asked Super Grandma Bunny to have Fabada and together with Kiiroko and Chairoko we made it for Father Bunny.

Fabada is a white bean stew. Its origin is Asturias, but is common in Leon and other parts of Spain. It is made with dried large white beans. In Leon we use a smaller white bean that we found mellower.

Here it’s our recipe (that differs from the original a little bit)

Ingredients:

- 250 grams (one cup) white beans
- 150 grams Spanish chorizo sausage
- 150 grams pork shoulder
- One small onion
- One clove of garlic
- Two Bay laurel leaves (Laurus nobilis)
- Salt (one or two tea spoons)
- Hot paprika
- Olive oil

Soak overnight the beans before cooking. We suggest you to use only a cup because this dish is quite strong and for two people 250 grams is enough.

Put the beans into a pressure cooker and add water until all of them are fully covered. Add a little more water (1 centimetre above the beans will be enough). Add the onion, chorizo, pork shoulder, garlic, laurel, salt, etc.

Depending of water hardness it will take more time the beans to cook. In Barcelona regular water (from the tap) is very bad for cooking and it takes a lot of time. After some talk with several people we will suggest you 45 minutes to cook the beans.

After those 45 minutes open the pressure cooker and prepare that we call “sofrito”. Add some olive oil to a fry pan and a smashed clove of garlic. Just a few minutes until the garlic gets lightly brown, then add two tea spoon of Paprika and a little bit (one tea spoon) of vinegar. Remove from fire and add it to the beans. Mix it a little bit and cook the beans with the pressure cooker opened until the stew boils.

That’s it. ! The Chorizo, Pork Shoulder and additional ingredients – including a nice red wine bottle- are in their way to japan.

PS: Do not prepare this stuff for dinner or you will regret it with terrible nightmares, ;)

Barcelona...BCN...and city center

Finally Father Bunny, Mother Bunny and me did we have our time to visit Barcelona with our Japanese Guests.

Father bunny is critical about Barcelona and he is still more cynical as long as life here is getting worse and worse. But I have severely warned Father Bunny about this, because life is nice and sun in over there shining.

Here you will find some pictures from our first 100% weekend devoted to Gaudi. Kiiroko and Chairoko did enjoy it but they founded all the mess around our home an unnecessary mess.

And sure It’s but in a few months we’ll move.

Burgos and its Cathedral reviewed by Miffa, again!

Chairoko and Kiiroko in front of Burgos Cathedral

Our previous post was not enough to satisfy our demanding readers and so another one (another post) will try to solve this unpleasant fact.

Burgos Gothic cathedral is the only Spanish Cathedral listed in the world heritage list maintained by UNESCO. They started to build it in 1221 and they spent several centuries working until they really finished the building.

If it takes you more than 100 year to take and order surely you will not give the keys to the new owners. In fact several architects worked on its design.

Very impressive when you are outside but the interior and surrounding area can not compare to other Cathedrals, as the one they have in Leon or the one they have in Köln.

Nuestro post anterior no fue del agrado de nuestros lectores y por lo tanto esperemos que el siguiente documento gráfico colme sus ansias de saber.

La catedral Gótica de Burgos es la única catedral española presente en la lista de patrimonio de la humanidad que elabora la UNESCO. Se comenzó en 1221 y tardaron varios siglos en construirla, como casi todas.

Si tardas más de 100 años en completar un pedido seguramente no serás tú quien le de las llaves a los nuevos propietarios. De hecho varios arquitectos trabajaron en el diseño y la obra.

Impresionante cuando la ves por fuera, pero su interior y zona anexa no se pueden comparar con otras catedrales como la que hay en León o la de Colonia.

Burgos and its Cathedral reviewed by Miffa

Burgos is a nice city but that’s it. A nice Cathedral, a nice river, and a nice motorway that allows you to by-pass this city. But my Japanese friends ask me for more action!!!!

Someday we will visit Valladolid, where my father was born. He, seldom, speaks about this place and we – the bunny board of trustees- do we have the feeling that this is an evil place ruled by evil witches.

Surely it’s one of the worst places to get lost and if you are visiting Spain it’s a place to avoid.

Anyways Burgos will deserve your attention as its cathedral and old city town are outstanding.

Kiiroko and Chairoko adventures in Burgos

a long journey from Barcelona to Villamizar

I convinced Father Bunny to visit his grandma past weekend. We actually took one day off because May 1st is a major holiday across Europe.

I was very excited, like my friends from Japan, about the fact of such a long trip (750 kilometres) to the country where one can relax and enjoy real almost untouched nature.

Besides Father Bunny told us we will meet some nice bunnies out there and surely his Grandma will cook delicious typical food for us.

Father Bunny planned to get up at six am, but sincerely I was not in the mood, and so wasn’t Mother Bunny and my friends so he got a little bit upset when we finally started our journey at 8:15 am.

Except him, nobody has ever been in a nice place called Burgos. A city well known by its nice gothic cathedral and because The Cid Campeador was born here. There are thousand more reasons for visiting this nice city that is in the middle of Camino de Santiago and just one its food.

We will recommend you a place in front of the cathedral “La Mejillonera” where you can have wonderful “tapas” five times cheaper than in Madrid and Barcelona (and surely several times better). Do not miss this place!!! But expect a crowd during peak hours.

If you are in the mood to taste more consistent food we will suggest “Mesón del Cid” a nice old building with nice old Castilian décor and, of course, great food.

Kiiroko and Chairoko tasted red beans and some other vegetables but we are vegs and only Father Bunny tasted “lechazo al horno”.

We visited the Cathedral too, but this and much more we will tell you in another occasion.