I like, she like, he like, we like chicken roll

No it is not a type of sushi. Kinda looks like one though but there is no rice.

Before we get into the cooking, I’d like to share with you all a band I found from Japan called Versailles. Versailles in a J-Rock band who also does Visual Kei, visual kei translates to “visual lifestyle” so it’s all about the visual. In Versailles case, the visual is Victorian Aristocrat. One thing about this band that really threw me for a loop is that they are all boys…

Anyone else think it’s unfair that they make cute girl(s)? The band members are Kamijo (vocals, with the big white coat), Hizaki (guitar, the one in the pink dress), Teru (guitar, sitting on the floor) Yuki (drums, behind the couch to your right), and Jasmine You (base, the one behind the couch to your left).



I am sad to report, however, that in 2009 they lost their band member Jasmine You. Jasmine You had been experiencing health problems and he passed away suddenly on August 9th. They have not replaced him and I do not think they will.



Below is their music video for the song Serenade off their upcoming album Jubilee (10/01/10)




For more you can check out their webpage: http://versailles.syncl.jp/ (yes it is in Japanese)
They also have a myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/versaillesjp (it’s in english)



Onto the food!



It was a somewhat frustrating cooking experience to say the very least. I think the easiest thing I cooked all day of yesterday was the rice (since pre-made lunch as cereal doesn't count).

For this meal one needs boneless chicken thighs... I could not find any so I used chicken breasts instead. The other thing I substituted was a yam for a carrot, ew!! I hate carrots! Moving on-I also left out the sake because I thought we still hade some white cooking wine at home hiding. Well either it's hiding really well or we just don't have it anymore since I didn't find it.


So yesterday I took he chiken out of the freezer and into to the fridge, it wasn't complete thawed by the time I was ready to poundthe crap out of it. While I let it keep thawing I grabbed a few handfulles of spinache ad threw them into a pot of boilng water for a few minutes, just to wear them down-for lack of better term.

Once they had wilted the way I wanted, they got drained, splashed with cold water, and lightly wringed out. Putting them on a plate I re-filled the pot with water and put one yam cute up like french fries. I haven't cooked yams before and figured I'd try it like cooking a potato so they were just fork-tender. It worked. Yay!

As the spinache and yams cooled down it wa time to smash my chicken! Muwahaha! I used a freezer bag, putting the chicken in it, and a rolling pin since I don't own a mallet... yet. Pounding food is noisy. Anyone else every notice that? The chicken got thin enough to roll so in the center I put a few spinach leaves and one too two yams.

I'm not sure the tying job I did would be considered right but it did hold up. Cooking the chicken is where all this got me frazzeled. Adding the mirin and soy sauce got them all golden-brown like what was asked for, however, when I cute open the first one... it was not done in the center. Can you say health hazard? So I put them all back in the skillet for about 15 - 20 minutes. I also added to the side of the skillet some panko covered yam fries. Those cae out yummy!

After the chicken finally got cooked and succeeded in ruffling my blonde feathers, mom could not stop going on about how good this was. And boy was it!

Now I had hopped to have a picture or three of the meal up for you all to see. Sadly I couldn't find batteries to my camera and the other was with my dad. I'll have pictures next time! :)