Riding to Mandurah

Posted September 30th, 2008 in Perth WA | No Comments »

It was a lovely weekends, the weather was nice and wind as warm.  I headed to Mandurah by scooter on Sunday.  Since I left home in the afternoon, it was already past 4pm when I got there.  Many people walking along the shore, the sunshine so blight and beautiful.

I sat down at table in a cafe, and ordered iced white chocolate and banana + walnut muffin:)

… iced white chocolate didn’t taste like chocolate at all, but i didn’t care :p  The sight from the seat was so beautifull.

After I left this cafe, I found this shop “chochas” chocolate company Australia.  Inside there are cute chocolate and wrapped gifts.  This was also a cafe, and on the board it said “chocolate brownie and coffee for $5.60”.  Damn, if I found this place earlier I would definitely take it! (><)  Maybe next time…


Banana French Toast

Posted September 27th, 2008 in Food | 2 Comments »

Today’s breakfast (^0^)

I had some sandwich bread in the fridge, and I was thinking “umm maybe I should finish this stale bread up otherwise some green stuff will grow on it”.

First, I halved bread slice and then made hole inside.  Look like inari skin.  Spread butter inside and stuff up sliced banana:)  You can sprinkle cinnamon ground if you like.

Mix 1egg, 1tbs of milk and 2tbs of suger.  Immerse those bread pockets in the egg mixture and leave them for 3 minutes.  Heat 15g of butter in a frying pan over low heat and cook the bread.

Dust icing sugar and drizzle chocolate syrup.  Kids will love them!!


Japanese Curry with Pork Katsu

Posted September 26th, 2008 in Food | No Comments »

When you are really really hungry and want to stuff up your empty stomach, katsu curry could be one of the options.  Japanese curry is quite filling as it is, and once you add katsu to it the meal is now super source of energy!  

oops, the pork katsu is little bit burned :p

You know, there are many types of curry like Malay curry, Thai green curry, red curry… and most of them contain coconut milk.  When I came to Perth I realized that the curry I knew in Japan and curry people eat here is totally different.  Japanese curry does not contain coconut milk at all.  In Japan, curry is one of the easy meal you can cook.  Even a kid can make it.  It’s because we use this packaged roux which can be purchased from any supermarkets.  

What you have to do is just dissolve this roux mix in the water.  You can add any veges/meat to it, and once the ingredients are cooked through the cooking is done.

I liked Japanese curry when I was in Japan, but now I don’t eat them so much.  It actually doesn’t taste natural to me anymore after knowing how you can cook delicious curry with all natural ingredients from scratch.  I’m not saying that Japanese curry roux is not good, I still eat them sometimes.  I just feel that maybe we shouldn’t eat like this processed food everyday:p  However this type of items really is a timesaver for busy people.


Chunky Miso Soup

Posted September 23rd, 2008 in Food | 2 Comments »

It’s been very cold lately…(><)  To warm up, I cooked miso soup!  You know, miso soup is not always with just wakame(seaweed) and tofu.

Dashi Powder

Dashi Powder

Dissolve this Dashi powder (stock) into water.  The amount is about 4g of Dashi : 600ml water.

You can put lots of things into miso soup, like root veges, tofu, potatoes, konnyaku, legume, fish, clam etc…  In Japan we also put pork meat into miso soup too, the dish is called “buta-jiru”.  It’s really really nice and I can eat just this with rice.

Konnyaku, Tofu, Wakame

From left:Konnyaku, Tofu, Wakame

Today I put some root veges (like daikon radish, gobou (burdock), carrots…), tofu, konnyaku, abura-age(deep-fried bean curd), shiitake mushroom, onion, wakame and satoimo taro potatoes.  See, from just with one bowl of miso soup you can get lots of nutrition:)

You can also use like this frozen veges.  You don’t need to cut, peel or wash, just chuck into the soup:p

Turn off the heat, and then dissolve miso paste.  Do not boil the soup after putting the miso paste as it will kill the flavor.

You can actually EAT miso soup, not DRINK 🙂


Teriyaki

Posted September 22nd, 2008 in Food | 2 Comments »

When you go to Japanese restaurant here, you will always see this menu: TERIYAKI.  But in Japan we don’t eat them so often.  Besides, so called “teriyaki chiken” “teriyaki fish” etc are not really “teriyaki” at all.  

Well, “teriyaki” means just a technique used in Japanese cuisine.  It’s not really a name of dish.  “Teriyaki” = foods are broiled or grilled in a sweet soy sauce based marinade.  However, In restaurants in Perth “teriyaki fish” the fish is deep-fried and coated with some sauce.  “Teriyaki Chicken” chicken is sometimes cooked in a pan.  Ummm they are totally new food to me.

I like them though.  I do.  When I have chance to go to Japanese restaurant in Perth I usually order “teriyaki fish”.  It’s just because I like fish and there is nothing much on the menu I want to order.  The menu in most Japanese restaurants here is quiet boring to me.  (except for Japanese restaurants which are owned by Japanese:  their menu is ok, like Banzai in Leederville, Ha-Lu in Mt Hawthorn, Kanta Japanese in Langford…)

I had Teriyaki Fish tonight.  

Yoko’s Gourmet Cafe in Kardinya

You sure don’t get chance to eat this dish in Japan:p  You won’t find it anywhere…


Baked Chicken in Tomato Sauce

Posted September 21st, 2008 in Food | No Comments »

One of the easy food 🙂  If you have lots of veges in the fridge and want to use them up, you can chuck them into the tomato sauce and make pasta bake.

<Tomato Sauce>

Just saute chopped onion, garlic, mushroom etc…  Add tomato tin, and simmer for few minutes.  Season.  You can add herbs for more flavor.

* When you saute the veges, you can use a lid while cooking.  This technique is from a French chef.  “Stir fry with steam”  This takes out the most flavor and juice from the food 🙂

Now, pour over this delicious tomato sauce over the cooked pasta.  Sprinkle cheese (Mozzarella) and bake in the oven!  Easy.

You can add chicken, tuna…  enjoy the variety 🙂



Chinese Restaurant in Kardinya

Posted September 13th, 2008 in Eat out in Perth | No Comments »

This Chinese restaurant “South Ocean” is one of my favorite Chinese restaurant in Perth.

The place is not so big, but the food is really nice!  I have been there only for dinner but every time I have to make a reservation.  This place is always full, even on weekdays!

There is a waiter who I always talk to; he seems like a floor manager.  At first, to tell the truth, I didn’t like him at all:p  I thought he was rude and bossy because he always tried to decide the menu for us.  But then, it turned out that the food he choose is always delicious and just what we wanted.  His choice is always our favorite.  He is really nice, I like him:)

Tonight, I had Sang Choy Bow, Fillet Steak Peking Style (which is my favorite), Chicken with Snow Peas and Japanese Tofu with Seafood and Broccol.  These are really really delicious and we ate them all!

Sang Choy Bow

Sang Choy Bow

Chicken with Snow Peas

Front:Fillet Steak Peking Style, Back:Chicken with Snow Peas

Seafood with Japanese Tofu

Seafood with Japanese Tofu

I can recommend this place to anybody!


A Trip to Swan Valley

Posted September 7th, 2008 in Perth WA | No Comments »

Just half a hour away from Perth city you can enjoy totally different scenery.  Swan Valley is pretty popular tourist destination in WA and famous for their wineries:)  I don’t usually drink wine but when I visit there I do the wine tasting and sometimes purchase few bottles.  

On Saturday, I had a trip to Swan Valley with my partner’s family.  We headed to a strawberry farm first, which is located at the corner of Wilson Rd and Toodyay Rd.  They were selling not only strawberries but also some other veggies and trees such as nectarine.  We tasted the strawberries and they were really sweet and nice!  so we bought 4 packs of those:)

Next, we headed to famous chocolate factory.

 

I bought a pack of Premium Fruit & Nut and some Macadamia nuts coated with chocolate.

 When we were leaving the chocolate factory we saw a sign saying “Free Honey Tasting in 1km”  so we decided to try :p  The place was actually somebody’s house, and there were few bottles of honey in their shed.

Those 100% natural honey is of course made in WA (Jarrah Honey), and there are few kinds of products.  2 kinds of honey (one was not sweet, and another was normal), Cream (mixture of those 2 kinds of honey, interestingly the mixture looks like cream and it can be spread on toast) and Pollen.  I didn’t know that you can actually eat pollen.  The person who owns the place told us that some people have an allergic reaction to pollen.  You should try a few grains first, and then increase the amount.  This will strengthen the immune system and you can actually control hay fever if you have.  I thought this was very interesting! (even though I don’t have hey fever)

We finished our trip at Lancaster winery.  This is located in front of chocolate factory and we tasted few kinds of wine and cheese there.  We purchased one bottle of dessert wine and headed home.  The sky was blue and it sure was a lovely day tour:)


My favorite bakery in Japan-2

Posted September 6th, 2008 in Eat out in Japan | 4 Comments »
Boulanger Bakery 

Boulanger Bakery

 

This bakery, Naoki’s Boulanger has many shops in Western side of Japan. (around Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Shiga …)  The reason why I love this bakery is not only their variety and the taste, but also their price:)  ALL the products in this shop is 105yen (about A$1.00).  Everything, even a roll or sandwiches!!  And I can’t believe they are all 105yen, the size of the products is not small, and the every product uses lots of ingredients such as mango, sausages, potatoes, egg etc…

     

Everyday the shop is full of people, especially with mums and kids.  They also have dine-in area and you can order a meal set as well.  

In the kitchen there are 3 sections; one is for baking, one is for wrapping the rolls & sandwiches and finishing the decoration of products(like glazing danishes), and another is for cooking.  Yes cooks work there as well.  They roast the chicken and deep-fry the prawn flitter.  Those food are for meal menu and sometimes used for rolls.

Why I know so much about this shop??  It’s because I used to work there before :p  I know how many denominations of bread they have!

They also make yummy drinks such as iced moca and coffee, smoothies and hot tea.  Further more, they have special sweets menu too.  Parfait and some Japanese style sweets.  They are really really popular!


Chocolate Chip Cookie

Posted September 1st, 2008 in Food | 4 Comments »


“These cookies are the pinnacle of perfection! If you want a big, fat, chewy cookie like the kind you see at bakeries and specialty shops, then these are the cookies for you!”

I agree!! 🙂

<Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie>

  • 250 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 g baking soda
  • 3 g salt
  • 170 g unsalted butter, melted
  • 220 g packed brown sugar
  • 100 g white sugar
  • 15 ml vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 335 g semisweet chocolate chips

* Preheat the oven at 165.

  1. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the lined cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 7.5cm apart.
  2. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

From All Pecipes