Indirect Delivery

It’s been another cold week again.  How is everyone feeling?  I had sore throat the other day, but I’m feeling ok now.  (Thanks to my big appetite..)

I received an email from someone who lives in Geraltdon WA, asking if he could get bagels delivered to his home.  I told him I wouldn’t be able to deliver to his house, but I could post it via Aust Post.

In Japan, sending bagel orders (or any other food including cakes, fruits, raw fish/meat etc) via post service is normal.  (They normally send “chilled” or “frozen”)  Unfortunately post service in Perth doesn’t have any “chilled” or “frozen” options, so I will have to pack bagels in a tightly sealed bag so that they will keep as fresh as possible.

It’s actually the first time that someone ask me to post the bagels.  It’s new, and little exciting…

And, I appreciate people using the pick-up service at Wasabi & Green Tea in East Victoria Park.  There is no “minimum order” or “delivery fee” if you chose to pick-up the order by yourself.

I’ve been baking sweets a lot lately.  This apricot tartlet was a hit among my friends.

This cheese cake consists two layers: the bottom layer is New York style cheese cake which is creamy and heavy, and the top layer is light cheese sponge cake.

In winter I get a craving for sweets too.  Last night I had hot choco fudge with vanilla ice cream.  Yum! I can stop…. (><)

aa

One Third of 2010

I can’t believe it’s May already!  It means that 1/3 of 2010 is finished…

 Let’s look back what my 2010 New Year\’s resolution was …

• be nice to everyone !!
• don’t get angry, calm myself first before talking ( :p )
• visit at least one city in Australia (maybe Melbourne)

It got most of the famous Japanese kids stories!  Momo-tarou (A Peach Boy), Toothpick Warriors etc.  Reading it made me feel all warm inside.   I wanted to buy it for myself, but I thought it’d be nicer if I buy it for someone else as a gift.  

How to Eat Bagelier Bagel

Many people have asked me this question “how to eat your bagels?” .   On the website I suggest customers to buy bagels in bulk and keep in the freezer, as they can be kept frozen for up to 2 months in a tight container or freezer bag.  But, there are many different bagels in Bagelier and some flavored bagels may be difficult to eat if you eat the same way as plain bagel.  Here is how I eat frozen Bagelier bagel…

(note)

* Bagelier bagels are individually wrapped and delivered.

* Wrapped bagels are stored in a freezer bag, tightly closed, and kept in the freezer.

• Take out from the freezer.  Leave outside to defrost, or microwave.  
• Slice in half.  Sandwich some food (eg: ham, cheese etc), and toast using a panini press, or sandwhich grill.
• Or, slice in half, toast using a bread toaster.  Enjoy with your favorite spread.

  

Other Bagels

 

(for soft texture)

• Take out from the freezer.  Microwave for 35~40 seconds.  (depends on the model of the microwave)

(for crusty texture)

• Take out from the freezer.  Microwave for 30~35 seconds.  
• Toast using a panini press, or sandwhich grill.

  

 

 

For flavored Bagelier bagels, such as Chocolate and Cranberry Cream Cheese,  I normally toast the bagels very well done so that it’s really crusty. (you can see the thick crust on the photo)  When you eat toasted Chocolate, Cafe Au Lait, Coffee Praline, Rocky Road, Oreo Milk or Milky Maccha bagel, be careful not to burn your lips with hot melty chocolate coming out from the bagel.  I’m saying this because it happened to me few times already… :p

  

A Little Change on Umeboss Website

You may have noticed already, but there is a slight change on this website.  On the side bar, there is a “Search For” button followed by “Recipes”.  There used to be 20+ recipe posts shown under the “Recipes” , but now only 10 are shown and you can click “More Recipes” to view other posts tagged with “recipe”.

Now it looks little tidier than before (?).

How did you spend this Easter holiday?  In my case, my husband’s friend and his family visited here from New Zealand and stayed at our house this weekend.  They will go around down South by hired caravan for 10 days from Tuesday.  I wish I could go with them!  While they stayed here, I cooked some food for them… chunky Japanese curry with beef and lots of vegetables, potato salad, coleslaw,  yakiniku, miso soup, salmon carpaccio (I will post the recipe soon), creamy chicken gratin etc etc.  And, I made chocolate cakes, almond jelly, cookies, bagels, etc.  Too much! I know!  I was too excited to have a guest. :p

Parmesan Cheese bagel!  A cheese bagel is also known as a “volcano bagel” in some countries such as Japan, as the melted cheese looks like volcano eruption.

April… it should be a peak time for hanami (a Japanese custom of enjoying cherry blossoms along with the arrival of Spring) and there should be many people at parks…  So shame I couldn’t see them (><)

Banana & Walnut Cake

As last week has been super busy for me, I am so happy to have this long weekend  Less than 2 weeks to go, I’ve been meeting my friends to say “bye” before my trip to Japan.  … yes it’s just a 2 weeks trip and this may sound like I’m over reacting ( :p ), but that’s what we usually do

I’m not a phone person and I don’t really like talking on the phone, even to my family.  I don’t know what to talk about!  My family is all the same, when I occasionally call them, they are like “so… how are you?” “I see… we are fine here” and no more conversation.  So I (we) prefer just e-mailing.  While in Japan if I wanted to say something I just emailed people.  We can email from mobile to mobile in Japan and it is super cheap to use (we kind of have sms but never used it before - expensive and sucks..) and you could send photos, voice message, image character etc etc on the e-mail since long time ago.  So, if I find something funny, even a tiny thing, I took a photo and sent to my mum “hey I found this” ” how about oyako-donburi tonight?”  My mum is like my best friend.  .. she looks young too.  So, flying back to Japan and seeing their face & hearing their voice is something I need to do.  I try going back at least once a year.

Anyway, the orders for Bagelia last week has been different…  Someone asked me if I could make cheese cake with fruits, and another asked me if I could wrap banana cake individually.  I normally wrap a whole banana cake in a plastic film, but she said that her kid wanted to bring the cake to the school and give to the classmate.

I, of course, said “yes” and I individually wrapped the cake with ribbon and small tags (so that classmates know what it is).  They turned out to be cute.   She ordered 48 pieces of banana cakes, plus other cakes and bagels.  I hope the classmates liked it…