Azuki with Home Made Bread

Azuki is red colored tiny beans which oftenly used for Japanese sweets.  In Japan we use azuki bean paste (paste is called “An“) as a filling for manjyu (Japanese cake), steamed buns, bread (An Pan), etc,  or as a topping for pan cakes, sticky rice cake, ice cream…  there is azuki ice cream too.  I’m sure you’ve seen azuki ice cream in Japanese restaurants. 

An has actually different types: very smooth to chunky.  I like chunky An as I can enjoy the texture of beans.  

Here is the recipe for “An” …

• 250g azuki beans (raw)
• 250g sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

My friend gave me this beautiful loaf the other day, and I enjoyed thick toast with chunky An.  I love this bread!  It’s dense, and chewy.  Scent of honey really whet my appetite.  I can’t get enough of this.  So nice ♪ 

The Miami Bakehouse

It’s been a while since Miami Bakehouse opened its second shop in Melville.  They represent themselves as a winner of more than 300 awards, and their range of pies is amazing: more than 30 pie varieties.  Crab & Feta, Big Breakfast, Chili Beef and Stockmans (combination of kangaroo, camel and emu!!) are just examples…

All the bread are baked fresh every day, and they have a huge range of cakes / sweet items at the counter as well.  You can either take them away, or eat in.  They serve nice coffees and other beverages to accompany those baked food.  You also can choose to get gourmet rolls if desired.

Last week I went to Melville shop with my friend, and had a wonderful time there.  

My friend had decaf soy latte with coffee eclair, and I had skinny long mac with danish.  

There’re about 8 tables inside, and 5 tables outside.  

I definitely would love to try one of their famous pies - probably Seafood Medley!  combination of prawns, fish and scallops served in a lemon pepper sauce… sounds yum!

Bagels in Perth

I’ve been eating bagels quite often lately.  This Bagelier is an online bakery shop settled in Metropolitan Perth, which deliver freshly baked bagels and other baked sweets right to your door.

I love bagels, but I also miss Japanese style bread.  I hope someone open a Japanese bakery shop in Perth!  Japanese bread are different, and there are many many flavors.  Is there bakeries owned by Japanese bakers within Australia?  

By the way I love my Cranberry x Cream Cheese bagel at Bagelier.  Green Tea flavors are also nice.  After toasting they are nicely crusty and I can enjoy the hard crust as I like.  Personally I love very crusty bread, or very chewy bread.  The bagels from bagelier are nicely chewy and reasonably hard when you heat up.  If you have a small oven toaster it makes them nicely crunchy and chewy!  You can buy them in bulk and keep in the freezer, in this way you can enjoy a bagel anytime

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

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!