Chicken Katsu and Apple Store

Today it’s raining, but it had been wonderful weather here in Perth.  Warm, sunny spring.  Not now though… Heavy rain outside. News of Steve Jobs has been everywhere since Thursday. I knew him just as little as other people did, but D has been one of the people who admire Steve since long time ago.

I didn’t really think about how we started to use computers and Internet in everyday lives many years ago, until I saw the news. GUI, mouse… To think about it, we wouldn’t be leading our lives like today if Steve didn’t invent these gadgets… I can just say “sugoi” about him. He changed the way we live.

D wanted to visit Apple store yesterday, so we headed to city. We had quick lunch at Matsuri in Enex beforehand. This Matauri does special bent box for $6.00. The menu changes day to day, but yesterday was chicken katsu again. They keep 1 ~ 2 in the counter showcase so that busy people can just grab and run, but you can also ask for fresh-made.

The Apple shop was busy just like normal Saturdays. There’re flowers and fruits for Steve in front of the store, and people had written few words for him in Post-It and sticked to the shop windows. Few people were gathering around the flowers and taking photos.

Inside the store has been changed.  There are iPads placed next to each products, and customers can brows the info of the products on iPad.  You can call staff via iPad if you need assistance or purchase the item as well, by tapping the “call staff” button.

We bought a iPod Nano because D wanted to use it as a watch. New Nano has new watch faces, which you can also download online.

They look so cute! Colorful Nano would go with Carmit and Micky watch faces, but D bought dark silver and wants to get metal watch band, so he will probably use something less casual for the watch face, I guess.

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Sweet Fix

Our window shopping at Carousel shopping centre ended up as a hunting trip for sweets this week. We found a stall in the centre of hallway selling unique candies and soda drinks.

They all looked colorful, and reminded me of a candy shop I used to spend my whole afternoon while I was little. The products they sell at this stall are different from what I used to eat in Japan though. They are more like  American-style sweets which are in different colors and flavors.

D wanted to buy something, but I thought they’re bit expensive compared to other chains such as Darrell Lea. But, they all looked cute and we bought few packs of sugary candies. One of them, “fruit sticks” tasted like the one I used to get from a game centre machine in Japan, and recalled my memory of feeding the sugary candy to my brother when he was sick. He was around 5 years old and that candy was the only food he could manage to eat. I remember I thought he was dying (he was actually having measles) and worried about him a lot. So I got lots of the same candy and kept feeding it to him until he said “enough…”.

While remembering these childhood memories, we walked pass Darrell Lea and went inside the store to have a look around. Then we bought 2 packs of peanut brittle and 1 pack of caramel snows (which is finger-sized candy with layers of chocolate, caramel and white icing). Caramel is usually not my favorite thing, but I felt like eating it then. I even wanted to buy caramel McFlurry (which I ended up not buying). Our bodies needed some sweets!

That night we went nuts over these sugary treats…..   I had stomachache afterwards, but no regret! :p

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A Beautiful Spring Day

It was bit cloudy yesterday morning.  I thought it was going to rain. I checked the weather on my iPhone and it had a illustration of half rain/half sunny.   The whole week seemed to be like that.

I felt like eating Japanese food in the morning, so I quickly prepared my breakfast.  Steamed rice, umeboshi (sour plum pickles), natto, seasoned nori, and osuimono (clear soup).  That’s it??? You ask.  Hmmm, it doesn’t seem to be a meal, does it?  But yes, it is to me.  I love soshoku (plain/simple diet).  Placed on a box of toy….  This is my dining table now.

During the day I took Hiro to a neighboring Duck Park for a walk.  The sun was blight then and it was a perfect weather for strolling in the park.  It was just after 1PM and there was no one around, except one mum and one baby girl sitting near the pond enjoying their quality afternoon.

This is what I love about Perth.  There are so many parks… almost everywhere.  The beautiful ones.  Lots of greens, lots of birds, lots of nature….  Walking through a quiet park in such a beautiful weather, I just wanted to scream! “I LOVE THIS”

For lunch, we headed to Northbridge because D wanted to buy some Indonesian noodles.  We went to the usual Vietnamese place on William street, again.

D ordered Pork Chop Rice and I ordered Mai Fun with Braised Chicken.  D loves this place because there’s always not many people inside.  Yesterday when we arrived, there’s no other customers- only us.  It was lucky because Hiro was screaming while we were eating our lunch.

We had a look inside Kong’s and VHT, but D couldn’t find what he was looking for.  D wanted this particular Indonesian instant noodles which we haven’t seen anywhere for a while.  Maybe it’s not permitted to import to Australia anymore.  We could go to other grocery shops to have a look, but we didn’t want to bother.  There are many Chinese grocery shops, but I wonder if there is any shop selling many Indonesian items.  Maybe the one in Market City in Canning Vale?  We’ll give it a try another day.

I actually wanted to go to Emma’s Seafood to buy some Japanese stuff too.  But it was bit too far to walk….  I felt like making kappamaki (roll sushi with cucumber).  I have lots of wasabi left at home.  Well, I will come back another time.

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Winter to Spring

D and I get a craving for juicy chicken karaage (recipe is here) once in a while…. I made quite a lot, but we finished them all in one night.  I can’t believe the size of my stomach :p

The best accompaniments to karaage, for us, are Japanese mayonnaise and Srirachang chili sauce.  And, of course, steamed rice.  I need lots of salad too.  Oily food needs to be eaten with some vegetables.

Karaage is one of the easy dishes to make.  You just need to toss all ingredients in a plastic bag and let chicken get marinated in the bag.  I added 1 tablespoon of roasted sesame seeds this time.

I made white  soup (recipe is here) with hakusai (Chinese cabbage) to serve with karaage.  This time I didn’t use chicken thigh but used bacon.  Other ingredients are similar : onion, carrot, broccoli, mushroom, etc.

I love soup, especially in winter.  Soup with lots of vegetables fuels me up and warms my body.

The winter is almost over though.  My garden is very colourful now.  Lots of green, lots of yellow, and lots of sunlight.  Bees and butterflies are everywhere.  Yet, early morning is still bit chilly….

I realized I had frozen scone dough in the freezer, so I baked them off just now.  Smells good.  Oh, I don’t have cream…..  That’s ok, I will eat them with whipped butter and sweet strawberry jam ;_)

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Taka’s Kitchen and San Churro

Sigh… I regret that we went to crowded Fremantle market area on busy Sunday. We didn’t do much – just had quick snack at Taka’s Kitchen then had churro and iced chocolate at San Churro. We walked around the busy cappuccino street and it just tired us out. We really shouldn’t go out to a busy place on weekend. We should go to a quiet park or beach instead and relax. It was Father’s Day but I don’t think D enjoyed the day. We were both tired from pushing a big stroller around and watching for cars, people, and trying not to get blight sun light on Hiro’s face. It’s not like we really wanted to eat Taka’s food and churro and chocolate. We simply just wanted to do something together. No more going out to busy places on weekends!

Miso-katsu-don and kaki-age-don.

I don’t know why D chose to go to Taka’s kitchen… It’s the worst place to go with a big stroller and a grizzly baby.

San Churro was also crowded as usual. It was much nicer when I came here with friends in early morning the other day. It was quiet, much less people, food and drink were perfect (because they weren’t busy and had time to prepare with care), and we could totally enjoy the moment. Yesterday was opposite. …Well, at least D enjoyed the churro and white chocolate..