Pancakes for Breakfast

I get cravings for pancakes once in a while ..   feel like eating fluffy pancakes with syrup, whipped cream and ice cream!  Of course I feel guilty after eating this high-calorie sweet, but my body sometimes need a really sweet treat.

This morning I made up a tower of pancakes, and prepared some fruits and whipped cream as accompaniments.    (recipe)

I can’t resist the sweet maple syrup - but I also love honey with some fresg banana and cinnamon sugar.

And, berry sauce with cream -

When you make pancakes:

• rest the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes before cooking 
• always use clean, teflon coated frying pan
• heat up the pan, then spray oil.  Remove the pan from the heat and cool down the bottom of the pan slightly with damped towel or under running water (the outer side of the pan, don’t make the inside get wet)  Over low heat, pour a ladle of the pancake mixture and cook both side.
• keep pancakes covered with damped kitchen paper or towel until served

Cherry and Coconut Slice

It’s the same recipe as Coconut Slice, and I add dried cherries in stead of jam.

I love dried cherries, they are juicy and nice to be added to baked sweets.  I usually buy them from Kakulas Brothers in Northbridge ( website ) or Kakulas Sisters in Fremantle.  I like these shops as you can buy ingredients as much (or little) as you want.

They sell various types of flour, dried fruits, nuts, beans, coffee, seeds, cheese, olives etc etc.  You can scoop those food into plastic bags and buy at the counter (like a self-service grocery shop).  It’s good if you want to just try out the food (even if just 10 g of spicy Macadamia nuts, you can)

They also sell some exotic snacks from Europe, Asia (including Japan) and elsewhere.  At Kakulas Sisters in Fremantle, they sell home-made cakes such as cheese cake and poppy seed rolls too

These retail shops opened just a year ago or so, but they’ve been doing wholesale service for more than 30 years.

Kakulas Brothers in Northbridge started selling freshly brewed take-away coffee since few month ago.  You can also purchase the coffee beans from there, and there is a grinding machine if you want to grind the beans.

<Kakulas Brothers>  

183 William Street, Northbridge, WA 6003  :  08 9328 5285

<Kakulas Sisters>  

29-31 Market St., Fremantle, WA 6160  :   08 9430 4445

90 Hillsborough Drive Nollamara WA 6061  :  08 9440 6642

Setsubun 節分

Today 03/Feb is Setsubun in Japan.  Setsubun literally means “seasonal division”, and we do bean-throwing ceremony.  Yes, people in Japan throw beans on this day, since long long time ago (even before samurai era).

Temples, schools, city halls, families etc held this bean-throwing ceremony.  We use roasted soybeans, and these beans are edible. (yummy!)

If you do this ceremony at home, usually father wears an oni (demon or ogre) mask and other family members throw the beans towards the “oni” while chanting “Oni wa soto!  Fuku wa uchi!” which roughly translate to ”Demons out! Luck in!”

The purpose of this ceremony is to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come.  When I was little, however, I just enjoyed throwing beans away everywhere around the house, toilets, school and temples, screaming ”Oni wa soto!  Fuku wa uchi!” :)

Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat these beans, one for each year of one’s life for bringing good luck for the year to come.  If you are age 10, you will need to eat 10 beans.

Of course, the house gets very messy after this ceremony and needs to be cleaned up.  But cleaning is also fun part, try to find tiny beans around the house  :)  If you have a pet it maybe easier.

And, on Setsubun, we eat a sushi roll called “Eho Maki”.  ”Eho Maki” roughly means ”lucky direction roll” and it contains 7 lucky ingredients including eel, dashi-maki (omelet) etc.  There are few rules to eat this sushi roll!

It has to be eaten without pause or chatter, while facing the auspicious direction of the year (the yearly lucky compass direction, determined by the zodiac symbol of that year)

Remember not to say “delicious” while eating. You have to eat all without speaking!  Oh, and one more thing.  You can’t slice the sushi roll.  You have to move the whole long piece into your mouth and eat just like that.  That’s why “Eho Maki” in convenience stores are all not cut.  Usually “Eho Maki” is thick roll, so you have to open your mouth very wide

Bagel and El Salvador

Happy anniversary~~!  

It’s been almost a year since Bagelier officially started.  I want to take this opportunity to say thanks to my customers and friends who have been supporting me for this small business

Oh, and, I would like to state here again that our bagel dough needs to be rested for more than 10 hours, slowly in the low temperature environment.  Therefore, all orders need to be placed at least 2 days prior to the required delivery date.  I know it’s not really convenient but that’s how we develop the natural sweetness and flavor in the dough.  Sorry for the inconvenience…  I really appreciate your understanding!  :)

Different subject, 

I received an email from my friend who is in El Salvador.  She flew there on Christmas day, and was so looking forward to meet her in-laws for the first time… but, it seems that she is not really enjoying this long holiday.

She is so angry that everyone over there doesn’t throw away rubbish in the bin even though there is a bin.  There’s garbage everywhere even in the bus.   Besides people don’t even care.

She was saying that “what goes around comes around”.  In Japan we say “if you spit towards the sky, the spit will drop on your face.”  People should take care of their own country.  

She had to compare El Salvador to Japan, and was giving me an example of Lotte Gum.  Each gum is wrapped in a paper with “Please dispose of your litter thoughtfully” message.  It is a kind of etiquette and also education to people.  This is just an very small example, but she realized that these small things have built the present Japan …  

The reason why this holiday hasn’t been great for her is not only the garbage issue, she has been a victim of pickpocket!  :p  It seems that it’s not unusual to have a pickpocket in this country, and police doesn’t even bother looking for her wallet…  Lucky she still has her passport and return ticket to Perth!  I hope she arrive here safely…  

Weekend in Fremantle

Going to Fremantle once a week has been a thing to do since I bought a nikon camera from camera house last year.  They were doing a campaign that anyone who buys a camera during the period gets 12 month free photo prints.  So, since then my husband and I go down to Fremantle every month to get the free print out.

While waiting for the photo print, we walked around the market as usual.  And, there was a person who was entertaining people in front of Fremantle Market, as usual.  I normally keep walking and don’t see the entertainment, but last Sunday the guy was really good!  It was so funny…

On the way back to camera house, we stopped at Pierre’s Kitchen cafe to try out one of their crape.  The price range was around $4.00 ~ $5.50.  Because it was a hot day, we ordered a cheese cake crape with ice cream.

I didn’t expect it coming in a tall glass, I thought it’d be served on a plate.  Well, actually it’s a clever idea, as ice cream kept melting and it was easy to scoop it out with long spoon.  I found that the crape was bit difficult to eat though.  I had to cut it into pieces with spoon each time.  But, the crape was nicely crunchy and it was a good dessert.

The crape cooled down my body.  I picked up my photos from camera house and headed to the car.  On the way, we stopped at REMEDY, one of my favorite zakka shop in Perth.  The goods sold in this shop are all cute and stylish!  Some of them are from Japan (eg Shinzi Katoh)  Yap I can’t wait to shop around in Japan for cute zakka stuff again.