Doughnuts, Cookies & Love

When we moved to Nagoya, the only Western fast-food chains here were McDonalds, Subway, Dominos, and KFC. In the three years that we've been here, 3 Krispy Kreme Doughnut shops have opened, as well as a Burger King. I've always refused to go to Krispy Kreme in Nagoya, for 3 main reasons:

1. I don't really like Krispy Kreme - I can have real, homemade, fresh donuts anytime I'm home at Sweetwater's. I'm sure most cities have better local bakeries and doughnuts than Krispy Kreme.

2. The lines in Nagoya have been ridiculously long. I'm not waiting 2 hours for a doughnut, period.

3. How much are these doughnuts in the U.S.? Because here they are 180yen, or about $2 EACH.

Picture is from Krispy Kreme Nagoya.

But it's Valentine's Day, my hubby likes these doughnuts, and I decided to give in and go there. I went early in the morning to the underground shop in Sakae to avoid the crowds, and luckily there was no line! If there would have been, I would have likely turned around.

After a successful morning, I decided to bake my favorite chocolate chips cookies. Sorry in-laws, I know you swear by Grandma Tichota's recipe, but I just can't get into putting Crisco into my cookies. After testing a variety of different recipes over the years, I've discovered that the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is my favorite

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips (I use more)

- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.
- Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mix on low speed until incorporated.
- Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Drop tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown (I usually do 9 or slightly less, so they're nice and gooey).

While eating heaping spoonfuls of cookie dough, I started to think about the raw egg and how the U.S. tells me that I shouldn't eat it. It got me thinking - people in Japan eat raw egg every day. It's a common ingredient in many dishes here - they mix it with rice, include it with noodles, plop it on top of pasta dishes, etc. Even their scrambled eggs are super runny... and a hard-boiled egg is a joke. So why is it that Americans can't eat raw egg, but Japanese can? No one gets sick or dies here from eating raw egg. This thought eased my egg anxiety and justified my cookie-dough eating frenzy. But, do you want to know something interesting? The Japanese wouldn't eat raw cookie dough because of the egg - that's no problem - they wouldn't eat it because they believe eating raw flour will make you sick. hmmm it certainly makes me wonder why the differences...?

We had a nice Valentine's Day, filled with doughnuts, cookies, chocolate, and most importantly... love. 

Happy Valentine's Day!