サンドイッチでピクニック

月曜がLabour Dayなんで今日から３連休！明日から３月、早いなあ(>_<)日本ではもう春の兆しが見え始めてる時期で、ひな祭りの歌とかあちこちで流れてそう。こっちはこれからだんだんと秋に突入して、雨の季節である冬が始るよ。…って、まだ暫くは暑い日があるかもしれないケド。

３連休で良い天気なんで、ピクニックにでも行こうとサンドイッチを作り始めました。でも冷蔵庫にはあまり材料がナイ…☆今は車が無いから買い出しし行けないし、（まあサンドイッチの材料買うだけに車運転するのも面倒だけど）だから唯一あった卵を使ってカリーエッグサンドイッチを作りました♪

カリーエッグサンドイッチ(curried egg sandwich) って日本で見た事無かったけど、コッチじゃ普通に家庭で食べられてる一般的なサンドイッチ。何もスペシャルなモノじゃ無いんだけど、前に働いてたホテルのルームサービスでこのサンドイッチのオーダーもらって、私はこのサンドイッチの存在を初めて知りました（汗）実は最初はあんまり美味しそうじゃなかったこのサンドイッチ☆でも今では時々家で作って食べてます。

作り方は簡単！作り方載せるほどじゃないかもしれないケド一応☆☆☆潰したゆで卵にカレー粉とマヨネーズを混ぜて塩こしょうするだけ。レタスも一緒にサンドしてちょびっとだけでも野菜を摂取してマス。

あ、ゆで卵をスクランブルエッグに変えるのもオススメ♪卵にミルクかクリームを混ぜてスクランブルエッグを作る時、 well done になるまで火を通さずにちょっと半熟状態でストップ。しっとり仕上がるんでパンに挟んでもポロポロ落ちずに食べ易いです。カレー粉の他にマスタードとかアボカド、マヨやチャツネ etc をサンドしてもgood☆卵大好きな私はコレだけで充分なランチです(^^)v

Tra Vinh Vietnamese

I love Vietnamese food.  Well, I love any cuisine, but the Vietnamese food uses lots of herbs and vegetables, and they are not as oily as Chinese food.  I don’t get to eat Vietnamese food often in Japan, so I go out for Vietnamese quite often here in Perth.

There are few Vietnamese restaurants around Perth.  Viet Hoa is on the main street in Northbridge so many people should know this place.  (Even Japanese holiday makers know this restaurant)  But I haven’t been there for a while, actually.  I usually go to Tra Vinh (or Vinh Hong).

At Tra Vinh, the food is nice and the price is reasonable.  I, however, don’t really like the atmosphere of the place.  It’s just like a space with few tables and chairs.  I guess this style is normal in other Asian countries?  People just go there and eat, and leave…  I don’t think this place is suitable for a date, but I still come here with my fiance to enjoy the food 🙂        

The dish I always order is fresh spring rolls.  I love their sauce.  Yum!

Pork chop rice is my favorite too, but I ordered combination rice noodle soup.  I actually prefer hofan noodle (white, flat rice noodle), but this dish came with transparent rice noodle.  There seems to be many kinds of rice noodle in Asia, and I love them. 

Some Vietnamese noodle come with fresh bean shoots, coriander, cut chili and lemon wedges.  I just love eating the bean shoots with chili sauce!  The chili sauce is on each table in the restaurant, and it taste so good.  It kinda taste like miso paste, little sweet.  I keep dipping fresh bean shoots into the chili sauce and munch it :p  Can’t stop…

Theme Restaurants in Japan

This Ninja themed restaurant is located in Tokyo, and their menu looks so interesting, such as: Shuriken star-blades grissini, Turban shell bombs a la escargot, Ninja-style grilled lobster with black bean sauce etc…  Umm sounds delicious! (and expensive)  I would love to go to this restaurant.  

“Ninja” thing is not only their menu, of course.  The entire restaurant is designed in the image of a Ninja house, and waiters are dressed up like Ninjas too!  I’m curious.. how it feels like to be served by Ninjas?? :p 

There are many theme restaurants in Japan, like “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “Cinderella”, “Prison”, “Hospital” etc.  

I’ve been to this “monster house” themed restaurant in Osaka before, and it was a frightening experience (seriously!).  First, the place seemed to be a normal restaurant except for their menu (cocktails in test tubes, weird naming for food such as “human experiment carpaccio”…)  I was about halfway through the meal, then alarm started ringing.  According to the restaurant staff, a “monster” from their basement escaped and was heading to this restaurant.  I hate scary things, I can’t even go to a haunted house in a small amusement park.  I was so scared but the “monster” (actor) came to me and tried to kidnap me.  I was seriously screaming!

I wouldn’t go back to the “monster” restaurant, but would love to try other fancy restaurants 🙂

Wondering around East Perth

This is one of my favorite walking spots in Perth 🙂  Peaceful environment, beautiful waterfront houses and cafes, the view of Perth city… it was a perfect day to walk around this area.  Watching people in the cafes drinking wines/coffees made me relaxed even more.  Lovely Sunday afternoon…

After a while of walking my fiance and I took a break at Antico Caffe.  Friendly wait staff served us just perfect coffees.  We had such a relaxing time there.  

And a slice of strawberry cheese cake.

Figs – Caramelized and Compotes

My friends gave me a basketful of figs from his garden.  I love figs, they are sweet and nutritious!  Fresh figs should be eaten asap as it drops its nutrition and flavor quickly, so I cooked them up in few different ways to enjoy the best of them.

I caramelized figs with a dash of marmalade jam, and served with cottage cheese + whipped cream and drizzle of honey.  It was a great night time snack.

<Caramelized Figs>

• 1~2 fresh figs
• 1/4 tsp marmalade jam
• 1 tsp cottage cheese
• 1 tsp fresh whipped cream
• honey, cinnamon

1. Halve figs.  Spread marmalade on the fruit.
2. Heat up a frying pan over medium heat, and place the figs face down (the fruit side).  Grill them for about 1~2 mins, or until it’s golden colored.  Do not try to move it around while grilling as it will break the fruit.
3. Mix cottage cheese and cream.  Serve grilled figs on a plate, top with the cheese cream.  Drizzle honey and sprinkle cinnamon if you like.

I left few figs for breakfast tomorrow, and used up the rest to make this fig compote.  This is a great way to preserve fruits 🙂

Love Toast

Do you eat toast for breakfast every morning?  How would you eat them, simply just with butter?  or with eggs and meat?  

While I’m in Japan my dad and I always have breakfast in the cafe on weekends.  We wake up quite early every morning, and drive a car there.  “breakfast at cafe” = “morning” in Japan, for example we say “hey, let’s go for morning.”  I read an article about the “morning” culture the other day, and I found out that middle eastern – middle western Japanese people go for morning more often than people in other regions in Japan.  (I’m from Shiga, centre of Japan island)  

The basic morning menu is : one drink, one piece (or half piece) of thick sliced toast, one boiled egg, and small bowl of salad or seasonal fruits.  Very simple menu, and it costs around 250~500 yen.  (depends on the cafe)  Of course there are more menus there, such as scrambled eggs, sandwiches etc, but I always go for basic “morning” menu.

I love Japanese bread.  Texture and taste are different from ones in Perth or other countries.  Moist, kind of chewy, yet soft…  And the toast you get from cafe is really really thick! (about 5 cm)  Very nice :p  I usually enjoy them with just butter, or sometimes spread jam/boiled red bean on.

In Perth I sometimes make morning type breakfast.  One boiled egg, one piece of toast… but the bread is different :*(  Ummm.. but what can I do.

BTW you can enjoy toast menu in some of  Izakaya as well.  I love “toast tower” … which is a whole loaf of bread with lots of butter, syrup, ice cream (usually vanilla) and sometimes with red beans or chocolates on the top!  They are served on a plate as stood up in lengthwise, and there is a hollow on the top where ice cream and some other food are served in.  It’s toasted, so ice-cream and butter are melting…  Sounds very high calorie food (it is), but it’s yummy…!  It looks huge but just two girls can eat it up.  … well, I can!

Melty Chocolate Balls

How did you spend your Valentine Day??  I made some round petit cakes with melty chocolate inside.  They are drops from haven (?)  The chocolate is so yummy!  I used Takoyaki grill plate to make them.

< Melty Chocolate Balls>

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs melted butter
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• vanilla extract
• 50 g dark cooking chocolate
• 50 ml fresh cream

1. Heat up cream in a sauce pan.  Turn off the heat and add chocolate.  Mix it through.  Place it in the fridge once it’s cool.
2. Place milk, egg, butter and vanilla in a bowl.  Mix it through.  Shift in the flour and baking powder, then  fold that in using a spatula.
3. Heat Takoyaki grill plate.  Pour the mixture into the holes, and drop 1/2 tsp of ganache.  Once the bottom of the mixture is set, turn it over and cook it around (360º).
4. Serve on a plate and dust icing sugar over.

Alternatively you can cook them in a frying pan.  Drop a small batch of mixture in a heated pan.  Just before you turn it over, drop 1/2 tsp of ganache in the centre of the mixture, and cover the ganache with another small drop of mixture.  Cook both side.  You can use egg rings or some sort if you like.

Chinese Food in Perth

I get to go to Chinese restaurants quite often while my future-in-laws are in Perth.  Although I like Chinese, I prefer not going there more than 3 times a week…  It’s just bause I know Chinese food are high in calories.

Chinese restaurants , which I often go to, include Chinese, Chinese Malaysian and Chinese Vietnamese.  Here are some of my favorite dish at some Chinese restaurants in Perth….

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you like bagels??

I wrote a post about bagels here, and I’ve tried bagels at the Trackside Bakery down by the Perth Train Station as Angie recommended me.  I loved the whole “bakery smell” 🙂  Freshly baked bread…  yum!  and bagels are really nice! but I wish there are more bagel shops in Perth.  

I’m starting to wonder… do people in Perth know what the bagel is??  I mean, of course some people should know, but is it like 20% of the population??  Not so many shops sell bagels, does it mean people here prefer soft & light bread?

Personally I love hard, crusty and difficult-to-tear-off type of bread.  I can get those hard crusty bread from my favorite bakery, but sadly they don’t sell bagels on regular bases 🙁

Do you like soft bread, or hard bread??

Three Colored Rice (San Shoku Go-han)

The weather was great this weekend.  Fine, not too hot, lovely breeze…  Is autumn just around the corner?

In Japan we call autumn as “eating season”.  There are lots of seasonal food such as rice, grapes, kuri (chestnuts), nashi pears, sweet potatoes, and fish are taster than ever!  Migratory fish eats lots of food in Northern ocean and swim down to South along Japanese Islands around autumn, so we can enjoy juicy tasty fish in this season.  Samma (saury) is the typical autumn fish in Japan, it’s written as “秋刀魚” (autumn sword fish).

People tend to put on weight during this season as the food is so great.  I’m not the exception…  My family owns few rice fields, so we get lots of fresh rice in this season.  I can’t resist these juicy rice and tasty food!  I eat a lot, a lot, and a lot…

Today I felt like stuffing my stomach with rice.  I made this three colored rice (called San-shoku Gohan)  As the name indicates, this is a dish with three different color food on top of steamed rice.  The red (pink) is salmon, yellow is egg, and brown is chicken mince.  You can use any food to make the color contrast.

<Three Colored Rice> for one

• 1 serve of steamed rice
• 30g salmon
• 1/4 tsp sake (or white wine)
• 1/2 egg
• 1/2 tsp milk
• 30g chicken mince
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/6 grated ginger
• pinch of sugar

1. Heat a frying pan (or small sauce pan).  Place salmon, sake and pinch of salt.  Try to break the meat, and cook through.  Set aside.
2. Beat the egg with milk.  Make scrambled egg.  Set aside.
3. Place chicken mince with soy sauce, mirin and oyster sauce in a pan, and cook over medium heat.  Keep stirring.  Once the chicken is cooked, add ginger and pinch of sugar.  Cook until all the liquid is absorbed.
4. Arrange these three food on the top of steamed rice.

The key for this dish is to season well on these three food.  You can add miso paste to the chicken and make it miso flavor.  I can eat lots of rice with those!

Okonomi-yaki

Here is another Osaka food recipe.  After posting about Takoyaki , many people actually asked me “we don’t have a Takoyaki grill plate, but really want to try making them!”.  Indeed.  People shouldn’t have this special grilling plate at home.  As I said earlier, it’s pretty difficult to find one of those in Perth or elsewhere outside Japan.  Then, I thought I should post a recipe of Okonomi-yaki.  Okonomi-yaki uses almost same ingredients as Takoyaki, and you don’t need any special equipments to cook.  Here is the recipe.

<Okonomi-yaki> makes 4 x 15cm φ

• 1/4 small cabbage
• 2~3 tbs red ginger (40g)
• 60g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 20g dried shrimps
• 2tbs chopped spring onions

If you have an electric hot plate, I recommend to use it to make okonomi-yaki.  You can make okonomi-yaki while watching tv, and eat fresh made one straight from the hot plate.  You won’t even need to use a serving plate – simply spread the sauce over while sizzling and decorate with the toppings.  That’s how we eat okonomi-yaki in Japan anyway!

Spicy Seafood Japanese Curry

It was another hot day…  Onece I stepped outside, I could feel that my body was getting cooked in this heat.  Japanese people tand to eat hot/spicy food in summer to overcome the heat, and today was the day for me.  I cooked spicy Japanese curry with seafood.  I chose Udon noodle to accompany the curry instead of steamed rice as I wasn’t in a mood for rice.  I prefer noodle to rice in such hot days.

It’s always easy to cook Japanese curry: you just need to buy Japanese curry roux which is available from Asian grocery shops or some supermarkets.  Then you can arrange any flavor: pork, beef, chicken, veggies and seafood.

The key for tasty curry is the cooking time.  Longer you simmer, deeper the taste develops.  I used Japanese curry mix “Hot” and added extra chili to make it really spicy!

<Spicy Seafood Curry> for 3~4 ppl

• 1/2 Japanese curry sauce mix “hot” (about 110g)
• 3 cups water
• 1 onion
• squid, prawn about 250g

1. Slice onion and squid.  Heat a sauce pan and saute onion.
2. Add squid and prawn into the pan.  Saute until lightly browned.
3. Add water and bring to boil.  Turn down the heat and add curry sauce mix.  Simmer over low heat for about 20~30 minutes.  Add chili (or chili powder) if you like.
4. Enjoy with steamed rice, noodle, whatever you like.

The standard Japanese curry uses sliced meat (pork, usually), potatoes, onions and carrots.  They are the ingredients that you can see at the back of the Japanese curry mix package “how to cook Japanese curry”.  The standard curry tastes great, but why not try more varieties??  You can add any vegetables like cabbage, eggplant, capsicums, corn, and broccoli.  Or, add boiled eggs (shells off) into curry and simmer.  The egg absorbs the flavor of curry, and you can enjoy the different texture.

By the way, I also like eating pieces of bread dipped in Japanese curry too.

Grilled Octopus Balls (Takoyaki)

Since we got back from Japan my fiance and I have been craving for Takoyaki: octopus balls originating from Osaka Japan.  We saw Takoyaki grill plate at electric shops in Japan, but after a while of discussion we decided to not buy.  Now, however, we really think that we should have bought it!

It’s really difficult to find one of those in Perth.  Some Asian shops sell Takoyaki plates for stove top, but I’m after electric one.  Electric one cooks Takoyaki evenly and it’s more fun: you can just cook them before you, while watching tv.  eBay and other online shops sell Takyaki plates/machines, I know, but they are quite expencive.  It just costs 2000yen in Japan.  Obviously I needed to get transformer for voltage though if I bought it in Japan.  (Japan 100V, Australia 220~240V)

Luckly one of my friends here actually got an electric Takoyaki plate! 🙂  so I asked her to lend me.

It’s the second time for me to actually make takoyaki myself.  Besides, I don’t have packaged Takoyaki mix or Takoyaki sauce here!  I could go to Asian shop and look for them, but I knew it would be expensive.  so, I decided to make them from scratch.

I don’t think many people have chance to make Takoyaki at home, but I will show the recipe here anyway…

What I used: plain flour, 1 egg, Dashi powder, cabbage, red ginger, spring onion, octopus

1. Crack one egg in a bowl, and add plain flour (about 2~4 table spoons).  Add water (about 3~5 cups) to create really runny mixture.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of Dashi powder (if you have).
2. Chop up cabbage, red ginger and spring onion.  You won’t need them much, as Takoyaki is pretty small food and you can’t  make perfectly round Takoyaki if there are too many ingredients.  For 18 Takoyaki, you will probably need 1 leaf of lettuce, 1 tbs of red ginger and 1 spring onion.
3. Cut octopus into pieces (small enough to be put in the Takoyaki grill holes).

<Sauce>

• 1 tbs Worcester sauce
• 1 tbs tomato ketchup (tomato sauce)
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp honey

Just mix them up, and done!  Set aside.

<How to make>

You will have to heat up the grill plate really well.  Once the grill plate is hot, pour the mixture into the holes (fill about 1/3 full)  Sprinkle the chopped cabbage, red ginger, spring onion and octopus into the holes.  Pour the rest of the mixture over.

Cook for few minutes.  Once the mixture starts to set, try to push the mixture into holes.  You can slowly try to turn them around and make them shape like balls.

Cook 360 degrees.  Once cooked, transfer to a serving plate and brush the sauce over.  Sprinkle Bonito flakes, Ao-nori and drizzle Japanese mayonnaise.  Enjoy!

p.s…  I found a Takoyaki grill plate on eBay and bought it straight away.  Now, we are enjoying making them at home anytime we want. 🙂