Riding to Mandurah

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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…