Yakisoba for dinner and Wyclef's effort to help Haiti + my encounters with him

I know. Today's title is too long. I have to come up with better title. Anyways, since I did not eat dinner last night, I am going to post something which I made about a week ago. Another Japanese dish! This is Yakisoba which is Japanese stir fried noodle with pork and vegetables.

You might have seen some commercials on TV lately for instant Yakisoba noodle so you might be familiar with what Yakisoba is. It is yet another popular dish in Japan. Sometimes, when you go to festivals in Japan, you see street venders selling Yakisoba. I would say Yakisoba, Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake) and Takoyaki (Octopus dumpling) are some of the most popular street food!

I bought fresh Yakisoba noodle at Japanese super market and froze it. It comes with sauce also so all you need to add is some meat and vegetables.

I use lots of vegetables for my Yakisoba.

I also add some red pickled ginger on the side.

Yesterday, when I was driving and listening to the radio, Wyclef Jean was asking people for donation to help people in Haiti.

For those of you you might don't know who he is, I would like to tell little bit about him. He is a musician and record producer. He is originally from Haiti. He used to be in this group called "Fugees" but now he is making his own solo album, collaborating with other musicians for years. He is one of my favorite musician. And he has a foundation called "Yele" which helps Haiti to transform itself though Education, Sports, Arts and Environment. It was founded in 2005. If you are interested in this foundation, Click here for the link to Yele

If you are interested in Wyclef himself, Click here for the link to Wikipedia

If you would like to listen to one of his old songs, Click the video below.


I have encountered him three times at random. Well, first one was not really at random but sort of. Here is the story of my fatal encounter with him :-)

First time was when I was in college in Japan (quite long time ago), one of my friend was studying in Australia so my friend and I decided to go visit her in Australia. One day, we were just walking down the street of Sydney and saw a poster of Fugees (which is a group he was in back then). I have heard of them but I did not know about them too well then. We were looking at the poster and my friend said "Oh, I like one of their songs" and we looked at the date on the poster and it was that same day they were having a show in Sydney. We thought it must be too late to get a ticket but the venue was close by so we just walked there and asked if they still have tickets. And they did. So we bought ticket and went to the show that night.

The ticket did not have seat number and they said if you come early, you can be in a front row. We went early (not too early) but still were able to get a front row. The show was awesome and at the end of the show, Wycle told us from the stage that they are having a after party at this club and everybody should come by. So we walked to that club to see if we can actually get in. They did not let us in but soon after we arived, Wyclef arrived also and he was just hanging out and talking to some of the people on the street in front of the club. I thought he was very down to earth.

The second encounter was in NY. I used to work in downtown Manhattan and there was a venue for a big party close to my office. I always passed by this place on the way to subway and sometimes I saw red carpet and lots of camera people waiting for celebrity to arrive. And this one time there was Wyclef on the red carpet, going into the venue.

The third time was also in NY. I went to an Indian grocery store after work and walking to a subway station and saw this guy who is well dressed and being interviewed in front of this boutique hotel. It was Wyclef! I felt destiny at this point (am I exaggerating?) I did not talk to him or anything but I felt special connection to him (OK. Maybe I am delusional). He drove off with this classic convertible car.

That night, I was watching some kind of award show and Wyclef was singing with Shakira in a same outfit I saw earlier.

So anyway, because of these encounters, I have a special feeling for him and his voice reached me through the radio and I donated small amount of money to Yele foundation yesterday.

I know it is very small amount but I believe that small individual contribution will make a huge difference if there are many of these small contribution.

It is a devastating situation and my heart goes to people in Haiti.