4 More Sleeps

What, only 4 more sleeps till Christmas?! I realised I haven’t done many “Christmas” things this year.  I haven’t been to Christmas carols in the park, I haven’t seen many Christmas illumination (as I don’t go out at night anymore…), I haven’t taken my son to Santa land in the city, and I haven’t done much baking and cooking!

It’s not a good time to move house during the Christmas season, is it?  Well, I can spend Christmas in our new (20 years old) house – which is a good thing, but I’ve been super busy tidying up and cleaning up the house. :p  And, we are still undertaking the small painting project.  I don’t know how long it will take… we simply can’t find time to do it everyday!

Need to paint shelves and doors, and attach them to the cabinet.

Just to take some break from the household duties, I had a nice family dinner in Northbridge and afterwards we headed to Forrest Place to see the Christmas light-up. The projector lighted up beautiful images to the GPO building…  I loved the last one – shower of snowflakes.

I feel this every year but Perth gets really really quiet during Christmas season!  Very quiet, less people and less cars…

Oh, I had an order for 4 huge Christmas cakes last week.  This is my favourite cake – a sponge cake with fresh cream and fresh fruits.   I love it, but I’m not sure if I will make this for my family this year :p  I’m thinking maybe I will make a tower of profiteroles, resembling a Christmas tree.  Sounds cute doesn’t it?  I’m sure my son will love it!

It’s my little one’s first Christmas this year.  Wish you have a wonderful festive season too!

Add some fun this Christmas from Santa!

It’s almost that time of year again…  Christmas and New Year is coming up!  How’s your 2014?  Mine was…. busy, yet I had new addition of happiness to my family it was overall a wonderful year.

Excitement for festive season won’t fade even you grow up…  I’m excited about Christmas trees, festive music, events and of course presents!!  I also like to shop for presents to give to my special people.  My 3 years-old son knows what he wants from Santa this year, and I successfully found out what it is.  I can’t wait to see his face when he opens up his present on Christmas day.

Have you heard of Portable North Pole? If you are looking for something extra this Christmas, there’s an idea of creating a message from Santa and sending to your loved one.

There’s a free version of message that you can create as well.  You can personalise the video with name & photo.

I’m sure my 3 year-old will be surprised and excited when I show him the personalised santa video I created! 🙂

Now I’m off to take a family photo with Santa!

Happy Union Chinese Restaurant

At my son’s Japanese kindy, mums have been talking about how good Fish Head Noodle Soup is at Happy Union restaurant. I don’t know who started this “boom” in Japanese mums’ community, but now even some mums at my son’s Japanese playgroup talk about the noodle there.  The Japanese kindy is located just behind the restaurant and around lunch time very nice smell wonders around the kindy backyard where mums chat with cups of coffee while kids are inside the classroom (It’s not a proper kindergarten – we call it “Japanese kindy” but parent or guardian have to stay at the premise while kids lean and play inside the classroom), so I think someone went there for lunch one day and discovered Fish Head Noodle Soup… – maybe that’s how all started. 😀

I like Fish Head Noodle Soup and I normally get it from Bateman Chinese Restaurant in Bateman. I like having a choice between Mi Hoon (clear soup noodle) and laksa.  Today I had a chance going to Happy Union Restaurant for lunch (with mums at Japanese playgroup) so I tried the noodle.

I had Fish Head Mi Hoon (clear soup) as I wanted to share with my son.  It was $10.80 for lunch, and came with 3 pieces of deep-fried fish pieces.

The soup tasted different to the one at Bateman Chinese Restaurant.  Clear soup with preserved vegetables and tomatoes – it’s same, but this one had a taste of ginger (which I liked!).  The fish was very crispy, fresh, and I actually preferred them to the ones at Bateman.  My son loved the fish too.  Another thing I liked about is that this place is much bigger than Bateman Chinese so it was easy going inside with a baby pram.

It was nice discovering another nice food 🙂  I will definitely come back here again for Fish Head and other dishes.

Happy Union Restaurant
Shop 1, Somerville Shopping Centre
Cnr Le Souef & McMahon Way
Kardinya WA 6163
(08) 9337 8332
Open for lunch & dinner (closed on Mondays)

They also have Chinese Roast Meat (combination) but you’ll need to pre-book it 1 day before.

Miso-Marinated Pork

Meat is not my most favorite food, but I do get a craving for yakiniku (Japanese version of BBQ- it literary means “grilled meat”) sometimes.  Usually I go for thinly sliced beef if having yakiniku at home here in Perth, but marinated chicken thigh or pork fillets are actually great alternatives.

Marinating in miso based marinade gives meat tender and full of flavour.  I bet you’ll love it with freshly cooked steamed rice and some shredded cabbage!  Yummmm…  So does other marinated meat, this one gets burned easily when cooking so make sure you keep an eye on it while grilling.  Searing the meat in a hot pan gives great flavour of caramelised sweet miso paste to the meat.    You can cook this in a yakiniku plate and eat as you cook in the table, or cook in a pan and serve with shredded cabbage and hot steamed rice.  You can also make it in a donburi style by arranging the meat and cabbage on a bed of steamed rice in a serving bowl.

This pork is also great to have with somen noodle in summer.  Chilled somen noodle with dipping sauce sometimes doesn’t satisfy your hunger, but serving that with this freshly grilled pork and some summer salad makes a great treat for a hot day!

<Miso-Marinated Pork> serves 2~3 people

• Pork fillet 300g (I used pork loin fillet)
• Miso paste 3 tablespoon (I used red miso paste)
• Mirin (sweet cooking wine) 1 tablespoon
• Sake (cooking wine) 1 tablespoon
• Honey 1 tablespoon
• Soy sauce 1 teaspoon
• Sesame oil 1 teaspoon
• Garlic & ginger, grated, around 1 teaspoon each

1. Mix all the ingredients except pork.
2. Place pork fillets in a ziplock bag with the mixed sauce.  Marinate half-day or overnight.
3. Remove pork from the marinade.  Cut into 1~2cm width.
4. Heat a frying pan and spray oil.  When the pan is really really hot, add the meat and quickly move around the pan to sear the meat.  Be cautious not to burn the meat.
5. Serve with rice while hot.

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Boundary Fence Issue…

Sigh….  It’s been a troublesome winter for me this year as the boundary fence in the yard had been giving me a headache for almost few months.

Part of the fence broke few months ago because of stormy wind.  There’re 2 neighbours who share the fence with us, and one of them approached me saying they’d organise everything including finding a cheap fencing company and book for a service.  They said they will even get a quote to fix another neighbour’s part for me.  Such a nice couple.  They called up fencing companies and the earliest service we could get was 2 weeks away.  Apparently our boundary fence wasn’t the only one which got broken by those wind.  So waited, waited… for 2 weeks.

Because another neighbour was tenanted and the owner resides overseas, I tried contacting their real estate agent about the boundary fence.  The agent wasn’t helpful and he kept saying he can’t do anything because he can’t be in touch with the property owner.  That’s weird.  I thought taking care of these things’re their job.  I tried calling him everyday like a stalker.  I also mentioned that in order to fix the fence they first have to cut down the tree which was growing towards our yard.

The part of the fence with friendly neighbour was fixed after 2 weeks.  Still no news from another neighbour.  The agent kept telling me to wait until he gets information of house insurance.

… few weeks (more than a month) passed.  One day when I called the agent, he said he’s not the person to call anymore.  The owner of the house changed the real estate agent and I had to call another real estate company.  Gosh, can things get more complicated?!  But when I called up a new agent, I was surprised how friendly and helpful she was and I was relieved when she said she will organise everything including forwarding the quote to their insurance company and cutting the tree branches.   Things seemed so easy!  I’m not surprised that the original agent was sucked.

It felt forever until I saw the branch was being cut and trimmed.  Ok, things are looking good. I called up fencing company to book for a service.  Again, we had to wait for another 2 weeks as they’re very busy at the time.

Unluckily, during the 2 weeks there was another storm, and because the tree was removed and there’s nothing to support the fence, another part of the fence (connected to the part which had already been broken) had broken down!!!  It seemed endless, and I felt like I was to deal with boundary fence forever.  I got a quote for newly broken part and claimed to the insurance company.  Had to pay excess twice… sigh.

The last part of the fence got fixed up pretty quickly and now my mind is at peace.

A guy from fencing company gave me a great tip.  Next time, if part of the fence is broken and other part of the fence seem to be affected as well, kick the fence and knock everything down so insurance will pay all at once. Thanks!

Saving, saving, saving…

Life has been hectic for the last few months around me, but now things seem to be settling ok and I’m now little excited about what to come next…

My husband and I had the biggest shopping in our life recently, and we are now trying to stay on top of our budget each month.  We’ve created an excel sheet to record our spendings so we can keep an eye on what we spend and what we save on each month.  I actually like saving money – I’d say it’s a kind of my hobby.  When I started working in Japan, I was 15 years old who had several jobs and worked almost 7 days a week & went to a correspondence high school.  All I did in my last teens was saving money.  I didn’t really spend money on fashion and beauty.  I was quite different from my friends and other high school girls in Japan at that time who’s major interests were putting cute make-ups and buying trendy clothes.  My early childhood environment (family issue) was the biggest reason why I kept saving money, but also I had a dream to live overseas, especially in Australia in future, so I kept saving, saving, saving… till I graduated college in Osaka and flew to Perth.

After arriving Perth, I was more a spender than a saver as I was a student and only worked few hours a week at a Japanese restaurant.  There’s not particular reason to save money any more at that time as my goal had been achieved, but I also didn’t go nuts buying clothes and trendy stuff (well, it was rather difficult to do so in Perth anyway…)  Old habit of saving stayed in my vein!

So now, I’m trying to save each month again.  It’s bit hard now as I’m not the only person who is involved in this “saving”.  There are 3 other people (my family) and 2 of them are under 4 years old!   Any tips?  There are things I can’t save any further (e.g. council rate etc) so I’m focusing on food expenses, petrol, gas and electricity bills…  I wish I could get a day job to boost an income, but at the same time I also want to be there for my kids especially while they’re young.  Getting a part-time job will probably happen when they start going to pre-primary, and until then my job is to stay on top of our budget and also do a bit of baking for Bagelier… :p (bagels, anyone?)

Takikomi Tomato Rice

Tomato rice, often used for omelet-rice (omu-rice), is usually made with cooked rice, chicken pieces, some vegetables and tomato sauce in a frying-pan, just like stir-fried rice.  We call the rice “chicken rice”, and I love it even without a thin omelet wrapper.  The problem with cooking this rice is that sometimes the rice becomes bit mashy while stir-frying, and you have to have cooked rice to make this.  so, when you feel like omelet-rice, you first need to cook rice then stir-fry with other ingredients.

I hate mashy rice.  Especially with Japanese rice (medium to short grain rice).  It’s soggy, soft and has no texture that I love about rice.

So these days I often make this “chicken rice” in a rice cooker.  You don’t need to stir-fry in a pan as a rice cooker will do all the work.  It’s easy, time saving, and less washing to do!

The basic ingredients are medium (or short) grain rice, chicken thigh pieces, onion, carrot and sauces, but this time I made it with prawn & chopped bacon instead of chicken.  Yum!!

I added spinach in this recipe.  You can modify this with any vegetables at least you add the correct amount of rice and sauces.

<Recipe>

• Rice 450g
• Tomato Sauce  4 table spoons
• Oyster Sauce 1 teaspoon
• Stock Cube 1 (vegetable or chicken) or 1 teaspoon
• Frozen Chopped Spinach 1 portion
• Chopped Carrot 1/4 cup
• Chopped Onion 1/4 cup
• Chopped Bacon 1/4 cup
• some prawns, no shell, heads and tails

1. Wash rice.  Level the rice in a rice cooker.  Add sauces and stock cube.  Add water to the level marked “3”, or you point your finger down inside the rice cooker, add water to the first line of your finger.
2. Add other ingredients.  Level the surface.
3. Turn on the cooker.

You should leave the lid of rice cooker closed for at least 10 minutes after the rice is cooked.  Mix the rice through within 30minutes after cooking to let the excess steam escape.

Serve with or without thin omelet, and enjoy!

Bringing Japan into our life in Perth

Gosh, time flies ….!!!  It’s August already?  It’s been, what, 4 months since I last wrote a post on Umeboss!

Things have been hectic in my life for the last few months – I had another baby boy, restarted my small business Bagelier  (only occasionally), some of my friends decided to move out of Perth so we had several farewell gatherings, and just keeping up everyday with a 3-year-old boy and a newborn is busy enough. :-[

I missed how a newborn baby smells, moves, smiles and wiggles.

I can’t believe my elder son is attending kindy from next year. He currently goes to a Japanese kindy (not a proper kindergarten though), daycare, Japanese book club and Japanese playgroup every week, so I’m sure he’ll be ok going to school 3 days a week, but it’s just that I can’t believe he is grown up to be a school kid soon.

Looking after 2 children is hard work (especially they are boys!) but I’m not quite sure why I started doing the baking business now! I guess it’s part of my personality (my blood) that I can’t just sit around the house – I feel I need to be doing something… I push myself.  It’s a very tiring personality I have!

So, other than baking, most of the time I’m in Japanese environment where people and I speak Japanese only.  I decided to do this way because I wanted my children to be able to speak Japanese in future.  Japanese is my first language and it feels weird if I had to speak English (second language) to my own children. So I made lots of Japanese mum friends and I spend most of weekdays with them, letting kids play together.  Thanks to that, my elder son (3 years old) speaks more Japanese than English.  So my plan is working in spite of the fact that I’m the only Japanese speaker in the house and all my family are overseas.  I know his English will be stronger once he starts to go to local school, but at least he has the base then I believe he won’t forget it.

In oppose to his Japanese, my English is getting worse these days.  Because I spend everyday with my babies I don’t get lots of time talking English now.  I don’t want to be someone who stays in non-English community while in Australia, but I guess I need to stay like this until boys go to school and then I can start spending more time with English-speaking friends and working in English-speaking environment.  Until then…

I sometimes miss myself few years ago when I was speaking only English and forgot how to speak Japanese properly. It was a funny experience – I know all Japanese in my head but words didn’t come out from my mouth.  I was 23, and spent only 2 years in Australia (21 years in Japan) and already forgot how to speak my own language! So I know my kids will lose some Japanese while living in Australia… I’ll just have to keep up talking to them in Japanese as much as I can and it’ll keep our (both me and my kids’) Japanese skill, I hope..

Fresh whole tuna and All You Can Eat!

If you live in Perth you may know Jaws restaurant group in Perth.  This “Sushi/Japanese” restaurant group has 3 restaurants, 1 take-away shop and 1 catering shop across Perth.

Jaws Town Hall Restaurant, located in EQUUS ARCADE in the city, is celebrating its first anniversary on this Good Friday 18th of April by having an interesting event inside the store – cutting and filleting a whole fresh TUNA in front of customers, and making sushi & sashimi using them!  They also sell these freshly prepared tuna fillets at HALF price on the spot.

It’s quite rare to see a whole tuna getting prepared by a sushi chef.

And, usually you have pay $37.50 for All You Can Eat sushi at Jaws (only on Saturdays after 5:30PM), but on this day you just pay $30 (children under 17 pay $20 if seat is needed).  This includes All You Can Eat including the freshly prepared tuna, and drinks too.

You will need to obtain the ticket before 11th of April so HURRY!
Contact Jaws Office : ( 08 ) 9218 8973
[email protected]

1st Anniversary Event at Jaws Town Hall Restaurant
18th April (Good Frida)
1) 12:00 ~ 15:00
2) 17:00 ~ 20:00
580 Hay St, Perth

website
Jaws Town Hall Restaurant

* Be noted that extra order (rather than the food on the sushi lane) will be charged separately.  But usually they have many variety of food including takoyaki (octopus balls), teriyaki chicken, edamame and some desserts on the lane along with the choices of sushi and sashimi.

Dinosaur Themed Birthday Cake

As my son is currently crazy about dinosaurs, it was no surprise he requested a dinosaur birthday cake for his 3rd birthday.

I’m sure a dinosaur shaped cake covered with colourful sweet icing will excite him, but I still feel uncomfortable with these Western too-sweet-treat :{ I love Japanese cake and I’ve been baking Japanese style cake for his birthdays, so I decided to make one again for his 3rd birthday.

To make it more appealing to him, I put some dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs (Easter eggs, actually lol) on top of the cake.  The cake consists layers of sponge cake, whipped cream, and lots of fresh fruits as usual.

I started making dinosaurs few weeks ago.  It’s made of chocolate and it can be kept in the fridge for a long time once it’s made, so at least one thing is done in early stage it gives me lots of relief.

If you love drawing, you will love the process.  Of course you can create anything rather than dinosaurs!

It’s pretty easy and you’ll just need chocolate (dark and white) and some colouring.

Here is how I made these dinosaurs… ↓↓

Firstly, print out an image of what you want to draw.  An image with simple lines and not too many colours is a better choice.  You can draw the image from scratch if you’d like.  Remember, the image will be reversed once the chocolate is set – so if you are writing any letter it has to be reversed to a mirror image.

Once you have a clear image on nice clean paper, place a piece of baking sheet on top.  Staple the paper so it won’t move.

Secondly, melt dark (or milk) chocolate on a plate or small cup over hot water bath.  Using a skewer, just like a pen draw the line according to the image.

Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Thirdly, make coloured chocolate.  Melt white chocolate in a place or small cup.

If you decide to make green colour, I found Matcha green tea powder works the best when mixing with white chocolate.  For other colours like red or yellow, if you happen to have some colouring powder (e.g. jelly powder) I think it’s easier than mixing with liquid colouring as chocolate and liquid don’t really get mixed well.  Too much liquid colouring will curdle the chocolate.  So, if you are working with liquid colouring make sure you start with a super tiny bit of drop.  Mix with melted white chocolate, and add some more until it reaches desired colour.

Make few colours according to your image.  I made green, yellow and red (pink).

Carefully, spread the coloured chocolate over the image.  Be careful not to move the chocolate line you drew.  (I do sometimes…)

Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Lastly, melt white chocolate in another plate or small cup.  Spread to cover the thin area or all over the image.  Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Once the chocolate is set, carefully remove from the sheet and flip it over.  Now you have a cute image to decorate your cake 🙂

TA-DA!!!

The green dinosaurs’s dots look like they’re bit melted when spreading green chocolate :p  But still look good aren’t they?

I made this Japanese anime character “Anpanman” for my son’s 2’nd birthday.

Another dinosaur for my friend.

A truck for a 3-year-old boy.

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Nijino-kai Sunday Market

“Niji No Kai” is a non-profit Japanese volunteer organization in Perth, and they are holding a stall at the Karrinyup Swapmart on Sunday 4th of May!

All the money raised at the market will be used to help providing assistance to Japanese people of all ages who live in Perth area.

If you have anything at home that are not in need or would like to give away, please donate them to “Niji No Kai”!

☎ 0403　530　928
E-mail : [email protected]

Or if you’d like to participate, please come and see what’s on sale at the market.

When: Sunday 4th May, from 7:30AM

Where: the undercover parking area in the north-east corner of the Karrinyup Shopping Centre

Monggo Indonesian Restaurant

My sister-in-law visited us from Jakarta over the last weekend and we took her to Indonesian restaurant Monggo on Beaufort St, Mt Lawley for dinner.

In Perth I’ve only been to Sparrow in Northbridge (more than 8 years ago!) and Bintang Cafe in Victoria Park for Indonesian food.  On Monggo’s website the menu looked pretty good and more “formal” type compared to other two. Their menu had almost all the basic Indonesian food I could think of (and something more), and the naming “Jimbaran Fish” and “Serabi Bandung” recalled the memory of my trips to Indonesia over the last decade.

Inside the restaurants I could tell all the staff are Indonesian.  They were very friendly.  The table setting and decor looked pretty.
We ordered Kepiting Soka (crisoy soft shell crab),  Tumis Sayur (stir-fried vegetables), Ayam Rica-rica (slow-cooked chicken dish), Jimbaran Fish (grilled Barramundi fillet), and Beef Randang Kapao (beef curry).

I thought the pricing was bit expensive considering the size of the dish.  My husband and I are big eaters so we were little disappointed when the dishes came to our table.

All the food were very delicious though.  Because we had 2 kids we ordered Chicken Rica-rica MILD (instead of HOT) but it tasted still great.  I loved Tumis Sayur – the texture of the vegetables were just right!  My husband wanted to order Bebek Betutu (Ubud’s famous duck dish) but sisters didn’t want duck 🙁  I miss Ubud!!  Thinking to going to Bali again this year.

For dessert, we ordered Coconut Ice Putar (homemade coconut ice cream in a young coconut shell) and Serabi Bandung (Pandan-coconut fluffy pancake served with syrup).

I just noticed, the Serabi Bandung was supposed to be 3 pieces of pancakes, but we got 4.  Maybe it was because all our party (except 2 including me) were Indonesian?  We also got this caramel popcorn for free as well. ↓

The Pandan-coconut pancakes were good, but I loved Coconut Ice Puter!  I was imagining it’d taste something like the coconut ice cream you get from any  shops here but it didn’t.  Rosy colour (aroma of rose … Pandan?) with the texture of half ice cream half shaved ice.  Open the lid of young coconut, and scoop the ice cream with fresh coconut meat…  Yum!!

My husband has a sweet tooth and he loved it.

Monggo website

You can browse their menu here. (download the PDF)

By the way my son turned 3 this week.  I put his photo with a message from us on the newspaper in japan. 🙂  I love you so much and hope you stay like this (a round boy with big smile) forever!!!  xxx

New Trend in Japan.. Wasabi Donburi?

When you hear the word “donburi” you’d imagine many kinds of donburi dishes… oyako-donburi, ten-don (tempura-donburi), una-don (unagi-donburi), katsu-don (katsu donburi), kaisen-donburi etc etc.  There are many types of donburi dishes in Japan and I can’t count how many…

Donburi is one of the quick and easy dish you can have at restaurants or home – and has been one of the most popular lunch menu for office workers to grab during the short lunch break.

My favourite is oyako-donburi!! …but I also like ten-don, una-don….  hmmm writing this makes me really really hungry!!

Now, in Japan, there is a new kind of donburi dish called “wasabi donburi”.   It sounds like something you’d have to eat as a penalty of the game :p  But it appears to  be delicious!

As the name indicates, the key item is wasabi.  Wasabi donburi actually is a very simple dish – just a bowl of steamed rice, katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes), wasabi and soy sauce.

Sounds weird??  If you love wasabi you must try this!!

You will need fresh block of wasabi for this dish.

Imagine this…

Freshly steamed rice in a bowl.

Sprinkle katsuo-bushi.

Freshly grate wasabi and place on top of rice.

Pour the best quality soy sauce..

And eat as you mix the wasabi into rice…

Hmmmm it does sound yummy to me!!

🙂

Hot Japan Festival in Forrest Chase

Were you there??  There was a Japan Festival held in Forrest Chase in Perth from 2pm until 7pm yesterday.  It was a HOT day, especially that I’m 24weeks pregnant and also had a huge headache from the cold I’d caught few days ago I honestly didn’t want to get out of air-conditioned room in my house.  But I pushed myself to head to the city just because I wanted to eat okonomiyaki (saucy savoury pancake) and kaki-gori (snow cone).

As I expected, there were so many people at the event.  When we arrived there was a cosplay competition going on on the stage.

There’re huge queues around the stalls.  Because the water fountain was on, people had to queue around the water area and I couldn’t see where the okonomiyaki stall was at first.  We walked around, and first my son played super-ball tsuri ($2).   You scoop floating super balls from water using a catcher made with thin paper.  Once the paper is broken you are out.  You could get maximum 5 balls and when my son caught 5 balls he broke the paper using his fingers :p  Anyway he got 5 balls!

We decided to queue to get some food.  It was so hot so we wanted to get kaki-gori first.  Huge queue…  The stall was also selling snack bags for kids and cold drinks.  We got kids snack pack, ramune (Japanese carbonated drink for kids typically seen in summer festival in Japan) and kaki-gori.  My husband didn’t want to queue so he went to grab hot dog which had no queue in front of the stall.  Okonomiyaki and takoyaki stalls had the longest queues :p

We noticed that Japanese consulate was giving away plates of yakisoba for free, so I queued there.  In the end I didn’t get to eat okonomiyaki 🙁

Around 5pm it started to cool down a little.  Kids were crazy playing in the water area.  I wanted to listen to live music but decided to head home around 5:30pm.

It was a fun event and I was amazed to see how many Japanese people (and people who like Japanese culture) are in Perth.  I thank all the volunteers who helped this event, and the people who contributed towards the Fukushima charity.

Japan Festival in Perth 2014

A cultural festival to present a variety of Japanese culture, including foods, craftworks, martial arts, pop culture, anime characters cosplay, summer Kimono, games and origami for children, live music, dance, etc. We hope this event will strengthen the bonds of friendship between Western Australia and Japan, as well as the sense of community among the Japanese people living here!

Place: Forrest Place, Murray St Perth

When: Saturday 22 Feb 2014 2PM ~ 7PM

website

Imagine the delicious smell of okonomiyaki (savoury pancake with thick sauce), takoyaki (octopus balls), yakisoba (stir-fried noodle), Japanese curry etc etc.  Buying these food and Kakigori (shaved ice with syrup) from the stalls sure remind the memory of Japanese summer to people who’s been to Japan and experienced these fireworks and summer festivals.  We have last year and can’t wait to experience that in Perth 🙂

I’m sure kids can enjoy this event as well with these traditional Japanese festival games including fishing the water balloons, superball catching, yukata (summer kimono) dress-ups etc etc.  If you don’t have yukata here is the chance of getting one!

It happens to be my birthday as well (22nd Feb) so I’ll be taking my kid there and enjoy the matsuri!!

(photos from http://www.japanfestivalperth.com)

2014!!!

It’s been quite a while since I updated Umeboss…  I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Day 🙂

I used to write something down and share things with blog visitors few times a week (sometimes almost everyday!) before but now I’m finding it difficult sit in front of computer and write something with a soon-to-be-3-year-old-boy being around me.

I feel like I’m saying this all the time, but time flies…. it is already 2014!! And, February!!  This year Australia Day in Perth wasn’t that hot compared to the past years, and I really regret not going to South Perth to join the Australia Day event and watch fire works.

It is Chinese New Year at the moment (Chinese NY was 31 Jan 2014, but apparently they celebrate for 15 days) – In Japan we don’t have Chinese NY but here I do celebrate as my in-laws are half Chinese and also I have Chine friends 🙂  I had a traditional Chinese NY dinner with in-laws, and my son wore red Chinese dress.

I’m actually pregnant with my second, so no trip to Japan this year…  Instead, my dad (and maybe my mum if she can overcome the fear of getting on a plane) is coming to Perth around November to see his grand sons.  My son and I went to Japan for 2 months last year and now we are already missing it.  It was summer in Japan and we enjoyed all the summer festivals, including fire works and bon fire, and of course FOOD!!!  I miss sushi~~~ sashimi~~~

It makes me feel little down when thinking about no being able to go to Japan, stay in ryokan and enjoy delicious food and onsen (hot spring) and relax for at least another 2 years, but I’m sure it’ll come faster than I think.  Babies and toddlers are cute but 2~3 years old can start enjoying same things as you do so I will wait to have a nice relaxing trip to Japan until my second one turns 2..  Ahhh…. feels such a long time <3

I think this year, until I give birth to a baby, will be fairly a relaxing one because I actually stopped baking and am focussing on time with my son at the moment.  Doing Bagelier at home was great but I don’t think I can do things as I used to do if I have 2 kids… at least for the first few months.  So I decided to take a break.  Long break.  I don’t even know when I’m gonna reopen Bagelier :p  I am really thankful for all the customers and friends who have been supporting me doing this business and hope to get back on foot someday 🙂

At the moment I’m planning my son’s 3rd birthday party.  I wasn’t even thinking of doing it until my son started asking me about birthday cake etc… (I’m surprised how he knows it’ll be his birthday soon) so I thought I’ll throw a small party – just a morning tea at the park with friends and family.  Last year his birthday cake had Anpanman (Japanese cartoon charactor) but this year he requested a dinosaur.  The cake will be as usual – sponge cake, whipped cream, lots of fruits…. like Japanese cake.  Then I’m gonna put 3 dinosaurs on top (because he’ll be 3).

I’ve already made dinosaurs to put on top of cake 🙂  I hope he will like it!!!

(for how to make these chocolate dinosaurs, see my post here)

A Japanese Designer at Perth Upmarket

A Japanese girl Mai Rikiishi is a fashion designer who designs and creates beautiful clothes for women from her home.  She studied at Tokyo and worked in USA in fashion industry before moving to Perth in 2010.

All design are hand-painted by her and then digital printed into high quality natural fabric.  She has a 2 year old girl at home so she is doing all the work when her little girl is asleep.

She is having a stall at Perth Upmarket tomorrow the 24th November selling her beautiful dresses.  Check out her website to see her creations!

Details of all the sellers can be found here.

Udon Noodle Soup

I don’t know if anyone likes Japanese udon noodle, but it’s one of my favorite food.  Udon noodle can be eaten hot or cold ; served in hot broth, with cold dipping sauce, stir-fried or simmered in hotpot. (other ideas to eat udon is welcome :))

For typical way to eat udon is in hot broth or with cold dipping sauce.  They both are made with dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin – but if you are in hurry then the dipping sauce (called tsuyu つゆ) can be purchased in Japanese food section at most Asian grocery shops.  Be careful as they look just like soy sauce – same dark colour!  Some can be used straightaway, and some need to be diluted with water.  Serve chilled with cooked udon (cold or room temperature) and some condiments such as chopped spring onions, grated ginger 0r wasabi, wakame seaweed etc.

For hot broth, as I said above you can make that with dashi, soy sauce, sake and mirin.  But if you are hurry then you can buy the soup powder from Asian grocery shops.

Near furikake, dashi stock powder and Japanese pasta sauces, there is udon soup powder.  Some Asian grocery shop may not sell this.

This is Higashimaru brand, but there’re many different brands for udon soup powder.  The grocery shop near my house only had Higashimaru.

Ok, now, all you need is udon noodle (I like frozen udon noodle as they are much closer to the real udon noodle – thick and chewy) and 1 sachet of this udon noodle soup powder.  (this box contains 8 sachets)  If you are really really in hurry, just pour boiling water to the powder then the soup is ready.  Serve with cooked udon noodle.

If you have some time or want to add some ingredients to the soup, heat the soup powder in water with chicken, sliced carrot and abura-age (fried bean curd), and cook till the ingredients are tender.  Turn the heat up on the soup and pour beaten egg.  Stir, and turn off the heat.  Serve with wakame seaweed and chopped spring onions!

I cooked that for my son (the photo looks bit messy! <3) for dinner tonight.

This udon noodle soup with egg is called tamago-toji-udon (my favorite).  You can also place inari skin (seasoned fried bean curd), wakame seaweed and chopped spring onion on a bed of cooked udon noodle, then pour udon broth.  This is called “kitsune-udon“.  Or “tanuki-udon” which is udon noodle soup with vegetable tempura on top.

There sure are many ways to enjoy udon noodle!! If you happen to go to Japan find your favorite way to eat udon noodle 🙂

Look who is in Scoop magazine…

Wow… I can’t believe my small home business Bagelier was on the SCOOP magazine spring edition 2013!!

I started this bagel business in 2009, and since then I’ve had “break” period so many times due to having my son and also going oversea holidays, so my income from this business has been very irregular.  My husband doesn’t even call it a business – it is rather a hobby.  But I’d like to have something for my own and I’m glad that I’m doing this business at home.

Couple months ago, an editor contacted me if they could have some sample of my bagels and have an brief interview about my business.  Of course I said YES!!!!
I baked few different kinds of bagels and brought to their office in Subiaco.  An editor asked me few questions and then that was it.  I was even unsure if they’re really gonna write about me on the magazine.  Scoop magazine is very big and can be found any hotels and restaurants across Perth.  And my small bagel business was gonna be written on their magazine??  Hmmm really?

After coming back from Japan holiday in September, still no information from the editor.

Then, suddenly, few days ago I received an email from the editor saying that the magazine is out!

I know it’s such a small article about my business “Bagelier”, but I’m still happy!  Too bad they didn’t leave any link for my website or Facebook page.

Now, although I stopped wholesale business, I enjoy baking to my customers and hearing their compliments everyday.  I’m glad I kept doing this business and am thankful to all the customers who have supported me!

American Dog

American Dog – …. I’m not talking about a dog here, it’s actually a name of delicious snack.  I think why people call it “Dog” is because it is quite similar to the style of “hotdog”.  It’s got sausage, it’s got bread (kind of), and is a handy snack to fill up empty stomach between the meal.

Here is the American Dog ↓↓↓

Yummmmm

It’s a children’s favourite!  You can find them at the counter in convenience stores in Japan along with niku-man (steamed pork buns) , karaage (fried chicken), and chips.  It often comes with tomato sauce and/or mustard, just like hotdog.

American Dog is a savoury donut , and there is sausage inside!  Sausages are coated in batter then get deep-fried in oil.  Usually American Dog is big (containing 1 whole Frankfurt sausage) and a chopstick or wooden stick is used as a handle, but I use dry pasta for edible handle and I make them smaller so kids can easily munch on.

<Recipe>  makes about 8 mini American Dog

• 2 long Frankfurt sausages
• some Plain Flour to dust the sausages
• 100g Plain Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 30g Caster Sugar
• 1 Egg (at room temperature)
• 20g Unsalted Butter
• 50cc Milk
• 1 or 2 Dried spaghetti

1. Melt butter in microwave.  Leave to cool.
2. Cut the sausage into 4 pieces each, so there’re 8 pieces.  Dust the sausages with plain flour in a plastic bag or a bowl.  Shake off excess flour.
3. In a mixing bowl, place melted butter, sugar, egg and milk, and mix well. Shift in the flour + baking powder, and mix with spatula.  
4. Break the spaghetti and stick to the sausages.  
5. Heat oil in a deep sauce pan to 160℃.  Using 2 spoons, coat the sausages with batter then drop into oil.  Turn the donut around until it becomes golden colour.  Remove from oil to the rack. Repeat with remaining.
6. Enjoy with tomato sauce, or any sauce you like 🙂

Kinpira Udon

“Kinpira” … braised burdock roots & carrots

I love udon noodle.  I love it in hot broth, with cold dipping sauce, or stir-fried.  I love the chewiness that other noodles don’t have. Udon is a great item to finish steamboat dish as well ; after enjoying the steamboat, add some udon noodle to the broth and enjoy it as end of the meal.

Today I combined “kinpira” and udon noodle.  It’s kind of a not-so-soupy version of nikomi-udon. First, I cooked burdock roots and carrot as I normally make “kinpira”.  Combined with broth, then udon noodle.  Easy.  This nice, hearty dish is great to have in this time of the year.  The key point is to soak the udon noodle in the broth so it absorbs the flavour.

I use frozen udon noodle as they are much chewier than dried udon noodle.

<Recipe>  makes 2 serves

• 1 cup frozen shredded Burdock Roots (available from Asian grocery shop)
• 1 Carrot
• 50g Chicken Thigh
• 1 tbs Sesame Oil
• 1 ~ 2 tbs Soy Sauce
• 2 tbs Mirin
• 1 tbs sake
• 1 tsp Dashi stock powder + 3 cups hot water
• 2 portion Udon Noodle
• 1 tbs dried Wakame seaweed
• 1 Egg
• 2 tbs chopped spring onions

1. Cut carrot into stick shape.  Cut chicken into small pieces.
2. Heat sesame oil in a deep sauce pan.  Stir-fry chicken, carrot and burdock roots for few minutes.
3. Add mirin & soy sauce.  Cook for another few minutes while stirring.
4. Turn up the heat.  Add sake, then pour the dashi stock.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Taste the soup, and add more soy sauce/sake if needed.  Remember, the wakame will add more flavour to the soup later.
5. Add frozen udon noodle into the soup.  If you are using dried noodle, cook the noodle first then drain well before adding to the soup.  Simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Beat egg in a small bowl.  Turn up the heat, and pour the egg to the soup while stirring.  Turn off the heat.  Add wakame to the soup, and place a lid on the sauce pan.  Leave it for 5mins or more.
7. When serving, arrange the udon on a dish then top with chopped spring onion (sesame seeds if preferred).

Roasted Sesame Dressing

This may be too thick to be called “dressing”, but you can adjust the consistency by adding more mayonnaise.  I love roasted sesame dressing because it contains all the goodness of sesame seeds, and most of all, is very tasty!

You should use plain white sesame seeds and roast by yourself rather than using store-bought roasted sesame seeds.  It gives you more good “sesame oil” when using freshly roasted seeds.

This recipe makes a small amount and is perfect for making for a small family.

<Roasted Sesame Dressing>

• white sesame 3 tablespoon
• white vinegar 1 teaspoon
• soy sauce 1 teaspoon
• tomato sauce 1 teaspoon
• Japanese mayonnaise 4 tablespoon (or more/less)
• sugar to taste

1. Roast the sesame seeds well in a frying pan.
2. Place the seeds in a mortar, and grind using a pestle until the seeds break and some oil come out.
3.  Add other ingredients, and mix through.  Add sugar to taste if needed.

I made a big batch, and keeping it in the fridge.  I made some green bean salad with this dressing the other day – yum!!  And also, I made gobo salad using frozen burdock roots. (It’s really hard to find fresh one here in Perth)  It turned out great too.  Here is the recipe;

<Gobo salad with sesame dressing>

• frozen gobo, shredded 150g
• 1/2 carrot
• soy sauce 1.5 tablespoon
• mirin 2 tablespoon
• sake 2 table spoon
• sugar 1 tablespoon
• sesame oil 1 tablespoon
• Roasted Sesame Dressing 1 ~ 2 tablespoon

It really goes well with steamed rice and miso soup 🙂

I think it will go well as a condiment for yakiniku too.  I should try that next time!

Custard Dorayaki

My oven had broken down…!!  I can’t bake until Tuesday as this is long weekend and no-one could come down and have a look at it.

Since I can’t use the oven, I’ve made something using the stove – this custard dorayaki.  … They look like pancake sandwiches :p

Dorayaki is one of Japanese sweets which usually contains azuki bean paste inside.  My husband doesn’t like azuki bean paste, and custard is much easier to make, so I went with custard dorayaki.

I don’t like it too sweet, so if you like sweet custard add more sugar to the recipe.

<Custard>

• Milk 100ml
• Granulated Sugar 20g
• Egg Yolk 1 (L size)
• Plain Flour 10g
• Condensed Milk 5g
• Vanilla essence few drops

1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Shift in the flour.
2. In a sauce pan, warm up the milk.  (not too hot, around 36℃)  Pour the warm milk into the egg mixture through a sieve.  Stir.  Pour the mixture back into the pan, and heat over low heat.  Stir constantly.  Heat until the custard thickens.  Off the heat, and add condensed milk & vanilla essence when the custard is slightly cool.  Mix well, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Keep refrigerated.

<Dorayaki>  makes 16 mini pancake = 8 dorayaki

• Plain Flour 100g
• Baking Powder 1 tsp
• Honey 2 tbs
• Sugar 2 tbs
• Milk 4 tbs
• Egg 2

1. Mix everything in a bowl.  Heat a small frying pan, spray with oil, and pour a small ladle of mixture to make a small pancake.  Repeat until you use up all the mixture.
2. Once the pancakes are cooled down, spread custard cream between 2 pancakes.  Serve immediately.

My Home Business

I’ve been doing this online bagel shop called “Bagelier” (Facebook page / website) since 2009, and now I supply to 6 cafes + individual customers across Perth.  I don’t know how I got here.  I didn’t put an ad or promote my home business elsewhere except writing about it here in Umeboss, but somehow I got offers from cafes and now I deliver my bagels to them regularly.

It’s been so great doing wholesale service – it’s kind of like my dream had came true.  I work at home and also take care of my son.  What else can I ask for?

But now, with appreciation for all the supports I’ve received, I’m thinking to downsize this bagel business.  There are quite few reasons for this, but one of them is that I realised baking bagels is something I wanted to do as a side, not as a main job.  Also that I had much less time to be with my son to play together and do what he wants to do since I started the wholesale service.

So from June 2013 I will stop wholesale and would like to concentrate on individual customers only.

I’ve also decided that I will only open the “bagel shop” few times a month.  This “open day” will be updated regularly on Bagelier’s Facebook page.  Since Bagelier doesn’t have a physical shop, I will set up a “pick-up place” for customers to pick up their orders on the open day.  Everything including taking orders and answering the questions will be done online (via email and through the website) as before.  The difference is that customers can now pick-up their bagels without minimum order & any delivery fee.

So this is the positive side.  And, you won’t need to buy bagels in set of 5 – you can purchase 1 of each flavour if you wish.

There will be some extra bagels sold on the “open day” so customers can purchase some extra in addition to their ordered bagels as well.

It sounds little selfish, but I hope some customers are happy with my decision.  Some orders can be arranged for delivery, and please remember that I’m flexible 😉

Everything will remain as it is until the end of May – so if you would like to place some order and get delivered to your door, simply visit my website www.bagelier.com and start choosing your bagel selection!

And, if you have Facebook account, don’t forget to LIKE me and connect with Bagelier  @ my Facebook page 🙂

Stay tuned ♪

Thanks everyone 🙂

We are at the verge of Autumn

I haven’t written on Umeboss regularly for a long time and I feed bad 🙁  I used to write a post almost every day before, but now I don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit back and write what I want to write about.  I don’t want to say it’s something/someone’s fault, it’s just that I’ve been busy doing other stuff.  But I feel bad.

Here in Perth the Autumn has arrived and I’m enjoying the beautiful sky and temperature.  …. It rains a lot, and I see lots of snails (gross!), but let’s think that all this is part of nature.  🙂

In my hometown, Japan, we get lots of delicious food in Autumn.  Some fruits, fish, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, etc etc are the best to be eaten in Autumn.  But here, I don’t see much Autumn fruits sold cheap at the shops.  Grapes, pears, mandarines, persimmon – to name a few – are the Autumn fruits, but grapes are not really cheap!  Maybe it’s still too early?  I hope the price will drop in few weeks when we start to feel winter is just around the corner.

I baked walnut nougat slices last night.  It’s a perfect sweet to munch on with a cup of hot tea.  I found that roasted almond would have gone much better on the nougat rather than walnuts, so I will try making it with almond next time.

Here is the recipe:

* butter and egg should be at room temperature

* I used 20cm x 20cm oven pan, but you can use a bigger sized pan

<Walnut Nougat Slices>

~ the base ~

• Unsalted Butter 150g
• Granulated Sugar 100g
• Egg 1
• Plain Flour 300g

~ the topping ~

• Unsalted Butter 30g
• Granulated Sugar 80g
• Cream (I used Whipping) 100ml
• Honey 30g
• Whole or chopped walnuts 150g

1. Roast walnuts in the oven or in the pan over stove.  Leave to cool down.
2. Base – Add sugar to butter, and mix using a whisk.  Beat egg, and gradually add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.
3. Shift in flour, and mix using a spatula. (DO NOT over-mix)  Once the dough comes together, wrap in plastic and rest it in the fridge for 3 hours +
4. Set oven at 180 ℃.  Line baking sheet in an oven pan, and spread the dough over.  Poke few times with fork.  Bake in the oven for 15~20 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and leave to cool.
5. Topping – Place all the ingredients except walnuts in a sauce pan.  Over low heat, simmer to caramelize.  To check it’s ready to take off the heat, simply drop the caramel into a cup of water – if the caramel forms small balls inside the water, then it is ready.  Take it off the heat, and mix with walnuts.
6. Spread the nougat over the base.  Level the surface.  Bake in the oven at 180℃ for 20~30 minutes.
7. Slice into pieces before it’s completely cool.

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WAICC Indonesian Food Fair

Today there was an Indonesian Food Fair in Bateman.  I heard there’ll be many authentic Indonesian foods including savory and sweet, so I headed down there to have a try.

This WAICC Indonesian fair is annual event, and is carried out at Bateman Catholic primary school building.
When I arrived there – …WOW, lots of smoke coming out from satay section.  There were people grilling satay in front of the building, and it was very smoky!! Smelled good at the same time too – variety of meat with Indonesian peanut sauce… yum!

There were lots of Indonesian signature foods such as Nasi Lemak, Mee Goreng, Martabak.  I got this sweet sesame ball-thingy (labelled “ONDE” but I’m not sure if this is the name of the food??) and it’s good 🙂  It’s like the sesame balls you get at Yum Cha, but this one has different filling inside.

There were many great foods to buy.  I’ll definitely come back next year! 😀

Wagamama Subiaco WA

For my son’s birthday we had a family lunch at Wagamama Subiaco.  I’ve been to Fremantle shop few years ago (which had been now closed for business) so I knew this restaurant is not a proper Japanese restaurant ; their menu is definitely a fusion of Asian cuisine.  But we went there anyway!

They do “kids eat free!” –  a child eats for free when an adult purchases a main meal.  This offer is available everyday!

Hiro chose “mini yakisoba” (stir-fried noodle), and his baby cousin chose “mini cha-han” (stir-fried rice).  These say “mini” but the dish was pretty big.  They both couldn’t finish their meal.  I thought they taste bit too salty, but I guess that’s how local people like it.

I ordered “chicken katsu curry bento”.

My party ordered “pork belly ramen noodle”, “yakisoba”, “teriyaki salmon with rice”, and “teriyaki beef bento”.

“Chicken katsu curry bento” – the curry is not Japanese curry – it contains coconut cream.  I didn’t like the rice too – too mushy 🙁  They probably don’t bother using expensive Japanese rice (short grain).    And, I was surprised the difference of meal size between “teriyaki salmon” and “bento”.  “Bento” contained just small amount of rice, but “teriyaki salmon” contained big mountain of rice on its plate.

Well. atmosphere is nice and the staff were friendly.  We had fun over all.

We ordered desserts as well.

We ordered “banana katsu”, “coconut creme brûlée”.

“Banana katsu” came with coconut ice cream on side, and  “creme brûlée” came with chocolate brownie spring roll on side.  Creme brûlée and brownie spring roll weren’t very sweet.  They were all ok, but next time I’d probably just order ice cream if I want some dessert.  Ice cream flavours include vanilla | coconut | lychee | green tea | black sesame seed |, and I think they are much better choice.

Wagamama Subiaco 

Hiro’s 2nd Birthday

Today is my son’s 2nd birthday ~~!!!!

Yesterday he had so much fun with his friends 🙂  I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I held him for the first time at the hospital.  He grow up too fast :_(

Last year on his first birthday, I made him only pancake so he could eat it.  But this year, I made a huge birthday cake with lots of fruits + his favourite Japanese character “Anpanman”!!

He loved it!!  All other kids were gathering around the cake too.

He could blow the candle pretty good!  Well done, Hiro.

Happy 2nd birthday xxx

Today we had birthday lunch with family.  We went to Wagamama Subiaco ; I will write about it on next post 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Grilled Miso-Marinated Pork

It’s been beautiful days in Perth.  I only remember Perth’s summer as hot and dry, but this year is very different (last year too, maybe) – humid, rain, and sometime very cool.

Today  I visited my friend’s new house and enjoyed swimming in their yard.  It’s a sunny day with nice breaze – so perfect to just sit on the poolside and chat.

When I got home I felt like something grilled meat.  In Australia we happen to have bbq quite often, and I’m used to this type of food.  I love it.  Australia Day is approaching and I definitely think we are gonna have some bbq with family on the long weekend.

Today I made grilled pork.  The pork is marinated in miso-mixture so it’s got some Asian flavour.

This miso-marinated pork is great to have with steamed rice, and is best to make with pork belly.  The fat makes the meat juicy, soft and tasty.

But this time I had this with somen noodle.  Somen noodle is like a king of summer food in Japan.  Simply boil the noodle, cool down in cold water, then eat with soy sauce-based dipping sauce with some condiments.  Love it.

<Grilled Miso-Marinated Pork>

• Pork Belly 2 fillets (around 500g)
• Miso paste 3 tbs
• sake (cooking wine) 1 tbs
• Mirin 1 tbs
• Honey 1 tbs
• Soy Sauce 1 tsp
• Sesame Oil 1 tsp
• garlic 1 clove – minced
• ginger 1 small knob – minced

1. Mix everything except pork belly in a shallow plate or in a plastic bag.  Marinate pork belly in the mixture overnight.
2. Take out the pork, and slice in 1cm width.
3. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a skillet pan over high heat, and grill the pork.  The meat is easy to get burnt because of the miso marinade, so be careful.  Turn around the meat with tong often so it won’t go black.
4. When the meat is fully cooked, golden and crispy, take out from the pan.  Serve immediately with salad and rice/noodle.

Very Hot & Humid New Year

Time passes so fast….  I was talking about Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and now it’s already January 14!
How did everyone spend New Year’s Day and the holiday season?  We did pretty much nothing – just relaxing in the pool in the yard and visiting friend’s house.

Hiro made New Year’s mochi (kagami-mochi) using Play-Doh.  A little mandarine on top 🙂

And he ate mochi we made.  It was first time he had mochi – I was little worried that he might get choked on mochi (that’s a major reason for people being admitted to the hospital in Japan during New Year’s holiday season :p)

And we were treated with Spanish chicken dish by our friends 🙂  It was delish!

I brought some sushi and dessert.

I wasn’t in Perth this time last year so I’m not sure if it’s only this year or it’s been like this since last year, but Perth’s summer is getting humid….!!!  Since I came to Perth in 2003 Perth’s summer has been always HOT and DRY.  Now I don’t know if I’m in Japan or Bali or Australia :p  I hate hot and humid climate….  it makes me go crazy (*_*)

Australia Day has been always sunny and hot (and dry), so hopefully it’ll be like that next week…