Cooking for New Year’s Day

It’s been sooo hot (+ humid) here and I don’t feel that tomorrow is next year already!!  I really miss white Christmas and snowy New Year’s Day.

I decided to make some sushi and zenzai (mochi in red bean porridge) just to make myself feel like it’s a special day.  We eat zenzai on New Year’s Day in Japan 🙂

In Japan, New Year’s Days (usually 1st ~ 3rd of January) is supposed to be doing nothing but relaxing with families, so people make lots of food before New Year’s Eve that can be kept for at least few days – idea is that no cooking in the first few days of January.  But here in Perth it goes up to 40℃ and I can’t cook food and keep them for a long time.
I just made inari-sushi, zenzai, kinako-mochi (mochi dusted with sweet soy powder), and soup for Hiro.

I couldn’t find Japanese kinako (soy powder) so I used Korean one instead.  No sugar, just plain kinako.  For dusting mochi, I added sugar to the powder to make it sweet.

I haven’t used this mochi-pounding machine for a long time! I got it from Japan – it’s actually a kid’s toy, but it works in a small amount of mochi rice.

We are gonna eat zenzai in the morning on New Year’s Day. Hopefully we can eat noodle  (toshikoshi-soba) at midnight of  New Year’s Eve!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Simple Rolled-Cake

Soft and fluffy, simple cake − rolled up with whipped cream and strawberry jam, topped with cocoa cream and chocolate.

As the sponge is baked in thin, flat square, it cooks & cools down quickly.    It only takes 1 hour to make!

You can add fresh fruits inside the roll, but today I just made it simple.

I didn’t add too much sugar to whipped cream as I added strawberry jam.  The sweetness is just right to my taste 🙂

<Simple Roll-Cake>

Sponge  30cm x 30cm

• Egg (L) 4  – at room temperature
• Granulated Sugar 60g
• Plain Flour 40g

Cream

• Whipping Cream 100ml
• Sugar 1 tbs

Others

• Strawberry Jam
• Whipped Cream with Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate to dust

1. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature.
2. Line 30cm x 30cm shallow oven tray with baking paper.   Set oven at 180 ℃
3. Separate egg yolks and whites.  Add 1/2 of sugar to the yolks, and whisk until creamy and pale colour.
4. Shift in flour, and mix until just combined.
5. Add a pinch of sugar to egg whites, and whisk until fluffy.  Add remaining sugar gradually to form a stiff peak meringue.
6. Add 1/3 meringue to the yolk mixture.  Mix well.  Repeat with remaining.
7. Spread the mixture onto lined tray.  Tap lightly to release any air bubble inside the mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.
8. Whip cream with sugar.
9. Peel off the baking sheet, and place the sponge on a piece of clean baking paper.  Spread 1 tbs of strawberry jam & whipped cream, then roll up using the baking paper.  Chill in the refrigerator before slicing.
10. For topping; mix whipped cream with cocoa powder.  Spread on top of rolled-cake.

Sugar Donut Balls

(Christmas) tree made of sugar donuts 😀

This super-easy-to-make donuts needs just a plastic bag from mixing the dough till dropping into hot oil.

<Sugar Donut Balls> makes about 10

• Plain flour 100g
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Egg 1
• Raw sugar 1 tbs *
• Unsalted butter 1 tbs
• Milk 1 tbs
• oil to deep-fry / sugar to dust

1. Place all dry ingredients in a plastic bag.  Close the bag with hands and shake to mix the ingredients.
2. Melt butter.  Once it’s cool enough (but not cold) add milk and egg.  Mix well.
3. Pour the butter mixture into the plastic bag.  Mix the dough well inside the bag.
4. Heat oil in a pan to 160℃.
5. Cut one end of plastic bag to make a small hole.  Squeeze out the dough into oil. Deep-fry until golden.
6. While the donuts are hot dust with sugar. **

* You can use white sugar or dark sugar – different sugar gives different flavour to the donuts
** You can use cocoa powder, cinnamon, green tea powder or kinako (soybean powder)

1st Birthday Cake for 13 Babies

This is a birthday cake for 13 babies who is turning 1-year-old this month.

Haha, I was bit nervous about writing 13 names on top of the cake – what if the 13th name can’t fit in the space?  What if I make a mistake on the spell? …. I only had one chance to do it, and I’m so glad that all the names fit perfectly!

2 different colours on right and left for boys and girls as requested.

The cake with filled with fresh fruits and whipped cream.

13 babies…. the party must had been gorgeous 🙂

Sleeping Baby Art

My mum told me this is what Japanese people are into these days – Sleeping Baby Art.

Sleeping Baby Art is something you do to make it look like a sleeping baby doing something /0r being something.

I’ve seen photos like that at some Facebook pages here too, but some mums in Japan are crazy about this thing.  But, since my mum told me about it, I kind of wanted to do it too.

Here is my first work 🙂

HOHOHO!!!

Does it look like a Santa Claus carrying a bag-full of toys near a chimney?  ^^

And then….

Have a wonderful holiday season to everyone!!

xxx

Hair Rebonding

I’d been wanting to do something with my hair …. again!  It really started to annoy me 🙁  My hair was curly (but not in cute ways), dry, and so difficult to set every morning.  Besides, I don’t have time to do it every day, so I just lived looking like this ↓↓↓

But I couldn’t stand it anymore – I see my friends’ photos from Japan and they look so pretty and well-maintained.  I wanted to colour my hair back to black as it’s much easier to maintain.  So I decided to go back to Nao’s place to have my hair a make-over.  (previous post)

I wanted to do rebonding (a process which permanently (and checmically) straightens your hair) – I started to rebond my hair when I was at high school, and have been doing it many times since then.  It makes my hair so easy to maintain.  I asked Nao if she can do rebonding, and she said yes!

You can’t do rebonding and color at the same time as it will damage your hair, so you’d better leave it about 1 week between each treatment.  Having your hair coloured first then do rebonding is recommended as the chemical used for rebonding may fade the colour  – although Nao said it shouldn’t be a problem if you leave enough time (1 week ~) between the treatments.

Here I come….!  On the way to Nao’s place.

Hair rebonding takes several hours to get done.  First chemical brakes your hair structure, then hot iron to straighten your hair, and the final chemical to seal the hair structure.  It sounds bad to the hair, but no, it is not harmful at all.  It even repairs hair issues like split ends and dandruff, and you only have to have re-touched your hair after new growth.
Hair rebonding straightens your hair and makes it sleek, shiny and fabulously straight. 🙂

Done!

I will colour my hair 1 week later. Now arranging my hair is so much easier!  I don’t mind strong wind blowing to me anymore as my hair will always stay calm and straight 🙂

I didn’t know about this but Nao told me that you can have hair rebonding in salons in Perth too – I thought it’s available in Japan only :p  But here it costs around $400!!!!  Wowwww so expensive.  I usually pay around $100 ~ $200 for hair rebonding + hair cut in Japan.
At Nao, it costs just $150 for short hair.  I think it’s very reasonable compared to other places.

As you can see on the photo, Nao will close her shop from 26th Dec till 16th Jan 2013. She is going back to Japan to spend New Year with her family 🙂  So envy her!

I’m loving it!

Nao in Canning Vale : 0430 927 880

naomizuno0502<at>yahoo.co.jp

Chocolate Cake with Fruits and Ganache

A special order from my friend for her son’s birthday.  Chocolate cake with lots of fresh fruits!

I used chocolate sponge and whipped cocoa cream, topped with handmade ganache 🙂

The side of the cake is covered with white chocolate.

… I think I over-whipped the cream a little :I

It was a birthday party for 2 boys (similar birthdays so they combined the party together) and boys love Thomas, so I made a small Thomas the Tank using chocolate.  Does it look like Thomas the Tank??

Boys were happy, and it all matters 😉

Bali Trip 2012 – Places

We only stayed 4 nights in Bali, so we didn’t really go around places (besides we had 1 year old boy).  But I wanted to go to Ubud from before, so we headed there on the 3rd day.

We went to Goa Gajah – one of tourist attraction place in Bali.  It was soooo hot!!!  We didn’t stay there for long.

Many small shops inside selling souvenir stuff.  People were quite annoying as they kept coming to us trying to sell things, even  after we got inside our car…

We went to see Barong Dance in the morning of 4th day.  It’s one of traditional Balinese dancing.  1 hour show – I’m glad I could see this 🙂

There was fire dance in a restaurant we had dinner on the 2nd day.  It wasn’t Balinese dancing but it was very exciting!  I could feel the flame!

We only stayed around Seminyak, so next time I want to stay in a different place to explore more of Bali!! 🙂

Bali Trip 2012 – Indonesian Food

We ate a lot while we were in Bali.  I love eating and Hiro loves eating too, so we were around the food almost all the time from the morning till the night… :p

It was actually my first time drinking coconut water.  I just never tried it.  But since I was in Indonesia I thought I’d try a sip.  …. I didn’t like it much 😛

Hiro seemed to like it.

In Ubud, we went to a famous duck restaurant Bebek Bengil (dirty duck).  The place was beautiful – very big place, and you can overlook rice terrace from your table.  There’re many ducks (probably they are for the restaurant….) around too.

I had lots of Nasi Goreng while in Bali, but I loved this restaurant the best.

Although it’s a restaurant specializing duck, I ordered crispy chicken :p

Food was so delicious!!  And I loved the view too.

This is at Kolega Warung in Seminyak.  The review was good, so we went there to try.
You can pick food you want for your plate from the counter.  My plate was around AUD$2

The food was great but this place didn’t have air-con…  Hiro was asleep but sweating.

We also went to Kudeta in Seminyak.  Actually we weren’t planning going there because I knew the price would be expensive.

It was expensive!!!!  But I have to admit, the food and location were wonderful.  We ordered soft-shell crab and papaya salad, crumbed snapper with Japanese coleslaw and wedges, and some pasta to share.  One bottle of Bintang beer costed around AUD$6 here!!!

Coconut & Palm Sugar Pancake at Made’s Warung in Seminyak.  As the name indicates, it was super sweet!!  The dough was chewy and nice 🙂

This Tempeh (fermented soy bean) chips are at Made’s Warung as well.  Very nice and crispy.

One night we went to Papaya – a Japanese supermarket near our villa to get some Japanese food to eat at villa.  They sell fresh bread, sashimi, sushi, fried stuff, bento boxes, onigiri, etc etc along with other foods, drinks and non-food items.

I think the prices were bit expensive considering we were in Bali, but still reasonable.  We bought few bento boxes, sushi, katsu and salads.

Bali Trip 2012

Firstly…..   I really really enjoyed Bali!!  I love Bali and I’m sure I will be going back there again soon 🙂

Secondly….  It was soooooo hot and humid.  I should have known that the climate is same as the one in Jakarta, but I forgot how hot it gets in Indonesia.  I didn’t wear make-up at all.  There’s no point doing it as it will get washed off by sweats.

We flew with AirAsia.  It was first time to fly with AirAsia and we were little worried about delay etc, but everything went smooth.  Flight attendants were friendly and helpful.  We ordered meal online beforehand so we got 20%off.  We ordered assorted sandwiches and pancakes.  They’re reasonably fresh and tasted ok.

If you want to eat meal on the plane with AirAsia you should order online beforehand as it’s cheaper and sometimes you can’t get what you want due to limited stock. 🙂

We stayed at Jas Villa in Seminyak.  The place is not far from the beach, but didn’t go there.  Instead we swam in the pool inside our villa.  We swam a lot, and took shower/bath approximately 10 times a day to wash off the sweats!

The villa was so nice – it’s got 2 bedrooms and each room has bathrooms.  Living area/kitchen was comfy, and the swimming pool was great.  It’s very deep and I had to stand with my toes.

Villa serves breakfast daily and they bring to us.  We order a day before and ask them what time we want breakfast. Food was freshly cooked and still hot, with drinks and fruits.  All inclusive to the room fee.

Bathroom is half outside – shower area has no ceiling.   I loved taking shower there.

The air-con in our room wasn’t working properly so it was so hot…..  Luckily my dad’s room was ok, so we escaped there every night just to chill out….

Off to Bali!!

Time flies….!!  I haven’t updated Umeboss blog much lately.  And now I’m off to Bali!

It’s our first Bali trip, and my dad is joining us from Osaka, so I’m very excited.  We are staying in a villa in Seminyak for 4 nights. We’ll be basically relaxing, getting massage and walking on the beach!  I can’t wait to try local foods and drinks 🙂  We also go to Tegalalang, Goa Gajah, (typical tourist attractions, aren’t they?) and do little shopping in Ubud!  I still haven’t decided whether we go to monkey forrest or not – bit scared, if monkeys try to kidnap Hiro? :p

Anyway we are flying tomorrow and I think I will go to bed soon.  Hope to update my Bali trip on Umeboss soon xxx

The Thing I Love About Perth

Nature – this is one of the things I love about Perth!!

Although going to the park is one of our daily routine, we had quite a time in the park we went to this morning.  It’s just normal park, nothing special, but with what we did we felt so close to nature.  We played with trees, leaves, sticks, stones, and bugs 🙂

I was amazed how much both of us enjoyed doing these simple things – watching lady bugs moving, collecting pinecones, and making letters with sticks – without toys and bouncing balls.

There are so many parks across Perth and it’s amazing.  I really think Australia is a very nice place for families with kids.
Today’s experience recalled my childhood memory.  I used to climb up trees to catch cicadas and beetles, soaked my body in the small river to catch crayfish, and watched killifish swimming around in the water.  Now I can’t do these things around my house anymore.  Things have changed a lot, and I barely see wild creatures over there.  Lots of buildings, trucks and noises.

Today I felt that we belong to nature and are part of it.  I wish kids benefit from these amazing things out there in Australia.

Buffet Dinner in Zushi Bento Ascot

The other day I had dinner at Zushi Bento in Ascot.  I sometimes go there because my sister-in-law lives around there and we get invited to have dinner together in this area.

Zushi Bento in Ascot is doing dinner buffet on Friday and Saturday nights.  I was excited because I hadn’t gone out for dinner for awhile, and was craving for something Japanese.  I was also delighted about the buffet because Hiro eats like a horse and it’d be free as he is under 2 yr old 😉

We arrived just before 6pm, and there’re not many customers yet.  As soon as we were taken to our table I went to the buffet counter to see what they have.

All the Japanese food were set in front, and Chinese dishes were at the back.  I saw sushi (roll sush, nigiri sushi & molded sushi), miso soup, porridge (this is Chinese dish, not Japanese), tempura, then some Chinese dishes such as fried-rice and chicken in black bean sauce.  Sashimi, salad and desserts looked nice.  I was hoping they’d have karaage, but they didn’t.

This is D’s plate –  I didn’t take any Chinese dishes on my plate.  I took loooots of sushi, tempura, miso soup and salad.  I don’t know how many times I traveled between buffet counter and our table. :p  Sushi is actually not my favourite food, but I ate so much this time as I hadn’t had it for awhile.

I had a bite of Chinese dish from D’s plate, and it wasn’t really nice…  I didn’t like dim sum dishes either.  It’s my opinion but you should stick with Japanese food there.

Desserts looked pretty.  I enjoyed panna cotta 🙂  I was so full to try cheese cake, muffins and cookies though.
I really wished they had included coffee to the buffet menu, haha.

The price is like other buffet places.  If you crave for sushi and sashimi then I recommend this dinner buffet.  Unlimited sashimi, sushi and tempura buffet 🙂

Look at Zushi Bento’s website for more details!

Food Idea for Babies

Finally….  Yes, finally I’ve done it.  I wrote about it earlier that it’d take some time, and it did :p

Food idea for babies from 5 months to 18 months of age – My Baby Ate What?

There’re not many dish items yet, but I will add bit by bit in future!

Categorised according to the stage.

The link is on the side bar – just scroll down and you will find it 🙂

Hope someone enjoys it!

Tokyo Disney Risort

These photos make me want to fly to Tokyo Disneyland!!!

Disney Risort Halloween 2012

little Green Men Sweet Dango

Wedding Bouquet

Cake

Mickey Minnie Rings

Halloween Black Gyoza

Dry Curry Soboro – OmuRice Style

The title might have confused you….   the dish looks like this  ↑↑↑

Juicy dry pork curry over steamed rice with fluffy thin omelet.

Serve it on a large plate then people can dig in….   Great for kids party too.

Make omelet fluffy – not over-cook it.  Soft and runny egg goes well with curry 🙂

I used zucchini, but you can use broccoli, capsicum, peas, or eggplant instead.

<Dry Curry Soboro> serves 3~4 people

• Pork Mince 500g
• Onion 1/2
• Carrot 1
• Zucchini 1/4
• Ginger & Garlic, minced, 1 tsp each
• Soy Sauce 1 tsp
• Mild Indian Curry Powder 1/2 tsp  (adjust to  your liking)
• Oyster Sauce 1 tbs
• Tomato Sauce 1 tbs
• Salt & Pepper (optional)
• 3 Eggs
• Milk 1 tbs
• Steamed Rice (to serve)

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1. Chop onion, carrot and zucchini.
2. Heat a frying pan and add oil.  Saute onion, carrot, ginger and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Add pork and zucchini.  Pour soy sauce over the meat, and cook until the colour of the meat starts to change.
3. Add curry powder, oyster sauce, tomato sauce and 1 tablespoon of water.  Simmer until the liquid is almost gone and all the juice is absorbed.  Set aside.
4. Heat a wide frying pan with oil.  Beat egg lightly with milk, and pour into the pan to make soft omelet.
5. To serve :  Scoop some steamed rice (hot) on a large serving plate.  Place the omelet on top of the rice, and scatter the dry curry over.  Serve immediately while hot.

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Buen 151 Japanese Restaurant

Have you been to Fuji Sushi Station in Victoria Park before?  Unfortunately they’ve been closed for business for a while, but if you are craving for their authentic Japanese food then head to Buen 151 in Victoria Park.

Owned by Fuji Sushi Station people, Buen 151 has already became popular among local and Japanese people who live around Perth.  Many of their customers are repeaters from Fuji Sushi Station.

Gyu-tataki (cold beef carpaccio) for entree.  It comes with side salad and dipping ponzu sauce.

Bento box.  Quite typical items – tempura prawn, katsu, teriyaki and sashimi.  If you are after bit of everything then this could be the one.

Chirashi-zushi.  My friend LOVED it!!  The price is about same as bento box (or less) – I would definitely chose this instead of bento box.

Su-udon (simple udon noodle in broth).

Overall I like this place.  Staff are friendly, the atmosphere is ok (very simple looking from outside – but they’ve got lots of eating space inside), and the prices are reasonable.  I read someone’s review saying that futomaki (rolled sushi) was too sweet, but it’s just what it is in Japan.  We season egg omelet and kanpyo for sushi quite sweet.

Above are photos of dinner.  For lunch time they may have different menu.

Open Wednesday – Sunday for lunch & dinner

Buen 151
08 9458 1512

Happy Birthday Cake

Another birthday cake I made last week 🙂

Lots of fruits – especially strawberries.  They are in season now and super sweet!

I should have asked beforehand if I should use peanuts…. It was my big big mistake 🙁  I should be more careful of what I use on my cake.  (I’m sorry…  :(((  )  I hope everything was fine….!!

Decoration.  This is my favourite part of cake making.

Tada!!

Teriyaki Chicken Tsukune

Tsukune is a Japanese chicken meatball most often cooked yakitori style (but can be fried or baked) and sometimes covered in a sweet soy sauce.  I often make them grilled in a frying pan as it’s the easiest method.  From grilling till covering the sauce can be done in one pan, so not many washing afterwards :p

I love the smell of caramelised sauce.  You must have steamed rice with it!  You can alter the 1/3 of chicken with mashed tofu for a healthier option.

I added chopped spinach, but spinach is not a common ingredient to tsukune. I just did it to boost my iron intake :p  Chopped water chestnuts or bamboo shoots give crunchy texture.  Adding finely chopped carrot, spring onion, or/and shiitake makes tsukune more nutritious.

<Chicken Tsukune>  serves 4

• Chicken Mince 400g
• Onion 1, medium
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp chopped Spinach (optional)

Pork Gyoza

Gyoza – although it originally came from China, I believe gyoza has became one of the most eaten food in Japan.  It’s became part of “Japanese food” now.  You’ll find it on menu at most Japanese restaurants in Perth as well.  In Japan you’ll find it everywhere, even in convenience stores.

Packs of frozen gyoza are available at Asian grocery shops in Perth, but they are mostly from China.  I don’t see much difference, but I personally prefer making them by myself as it’s much cheaper and more safe – you know what’s inside. 🙂

I usually use store-bought gyoza skin, but this time I made everything from scratch.  Making gyoza skin is quite easy, though I found it hard if you have a child/children around you in the kitchen nagging to go outside to play.

<Gyoza Skin>  makes around 30 ~ 35

• plain flour 150g
• baker’s flour 50g
• boiling water 150cc
• corn flour to dust when kneading/shaping

1. Place flour in a bowl, and pour boiling water.  Stir with chopsticks until it’s cool enough to tough.  Knead for 5 minutes till smooth.  Shape into a ball, and cover with plastic wrap.  Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Roll into a thin dough.  Cut into around 8g pieces, and roll into flat round wraps using a rolling pin.  Dust with corn flour whenever you feel the dough is sticky.

<Gyoza>

• Pork Mince 2oog
• Cabbage 6 leaves
• Onion 1/2
• Minced Ginger 1 tsp
• Minced Garlic 1 tsp
• Oyster Sauce 2 tbs
• Sake (cooking wine) 2 tbs
• Soy Sauce 2 tbs
• Sesame Oil 2 tbs
• Salt & Pepper

1. Chop up cabbage leaves and onion.  Place with other ingredients in a bowl, and mix well using fingers.
2. Take 1 wrapper in the palm of your hand.  Use a spoon to take a small amount of filling and put it in the center of the wrapper.  Dip a finger in the bowl of water and draw a circle around the outer 1/4” of the wrapper so it’s wet all around.  Fold the wrapper in half like a taco.  From the left edge, start sealing the wrapper by placing a pleat about once every ¼”.  Make sure the two sides are sealed by pressing folded pleat tightly against the flat edge.  (how to wrap a gyoza)
3. Heat up a frying pan.  Pour 1 tbs of oil, and place gyoza.  Add 100ml of hot water then place a lid.  Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Obento for Picnic

We are definitely in middle of spring now.  It’s been pretty warm for the last few days – though forecast says it’ll rain again soon.  Time for lots of insects…  (yay…)

Spring makes me feel happy, sleepy, and want to do laundry everyday.  It also makes me want to go out for picnic with Hiro who always wants to get out of the house and play outdoor.

Lunch I made for Hiro the other day….  It’s not only for Hiro, by the way.  He is a big eater but I don’t think his stomach can hold this much food. :p  I made them to share with my friends.

This is one of the things I like about Perth.  In Japan…  well, in my hometown, you can hardly find park or nice place to sit down with kids and have lunch together.  There’re always cars, buildings, and people passing by.  There is park near my kindergarden, but it’s not big and the ground is covered with seaweed for some reason!!  How come?  Is it not seaweed?  Or the area used to be under water or something?  Very weird….  So I don’t want to take my kid there to play. He might try to eat it  🙁

My parents used to take me and my brother to many places for picnic when I was a child.  Near Biwako Lake, some themed parks, and some public park.  You have to drive there and is not really close to my house.  So I definitely think Perth is very family-friendly and great environment for kids.

Mixed sandwiches and omu-rice.  It’s so easy to prepare if you have the ingredients.

For Omu-rice you’ll needs:

• 2 cups of steamed rice (preferably left-over from last night)
•  2 tbs of frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 tbs tuna, canned, drained
• 1 tbs unsalted tomato sauce
• bit of oyster sauce and soy sauce

Stir-fry everything!

Then, make large thin omelet.  Place on the tomato fried-rice.  Draw smily face with tomato sauce!

Hinata Cafe 2012

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…  First, this is not a photo of Hinata Cafe market which was held in Bibra Lake. Today a new Apple store opened in Garden City so I went there to have a look in the morning. It wasn’t my plain, it was D’s.  I was actually gonna go to Hinata Cafe from 10AM, but D insisted that he wanted to get free T-shirt. :-p

There were many people queuing and the staff in blue Tshirts were cheering to all customers.

After receiving freebie, we headed to Hinata Cafe market.

It was a beautiful sunny day!  Perfect day for outdoor market like this.  It was my first time going there, and the place was cosy and filled with people.  Parking area was very limited.

There’re chairs and tables where people can eat and drink the food/beverage they buy from Hinata cafe.  Above photo – nature craft was my favourite.

There are handmade arts and craft sold inside the small building.  They’re so cute and well-made.  Very lovely.

From 10:30 and 12:30 there was “under the tree kindergarden” which some people did reading and singing to kids.

Demonstration of Japanese tea ceremony was available.

I met many friends over there.  It was a great catch-up.  My friend had this “miso soup & 2 onigiri” lunch served on a bed of a bamboo leaf.  There was a big queue to the cafe.  I wanted to eat green tea tiramisu, but I couldn’t 🙁  Hopefully I can try lots of food next year.

Molded Onigiri!

I’m so hungry!!

I need rice!!

With onigiri molds, it’s so easy….

I often make onigiri with easy-to-prepare fillings.  They are:

• umeboshi (pickled plum) bought from Asian grocery shops
• tuna mayo
• katsuo
• left-over teriyaki chicken (if I have)

In Japan I use shake (seasoned salmon flake) and konbu (seasoned konbu seaweed).  They are my favourite 🙂

Umeboshi is getting difficult to obtain now.  It’s because, I think, Umeboshi often contains seed.  You can make them if you have fresh ume plums, I think.  You can also make ume-shu (ume liquor) with fresh ume!

Tuna Mayo is easy to make.  You just mix canned tuna with Japanese mayonnaise and a dash of soy sauce.

Katsuo means “bonito”.  Katsuo is a typical filling for onigiri.  When you are busy, just mix bonito flake and soy sauce.  Then you have instant “katsuko” filling!

Oh, if you love cooking Japanese food and have a chance going to Japan, you should get this square frying-pan to make tamago-yaki (Japanese omelet).  There are many variety over there, from cheap ones to expensive ones.  Tamago-yaki is great item for obento.

Ayam Goreng

When I feel like my body is needing “meat”, I often go with chicken rather than beef.  Red meat should contains more iron than white meat, but I don’t really crave for red ones.  Since I came to Australia I became little naughty….  I love occasional KFC now.  I didn’t like it before coming here and I was saying that how people can eat just KFC chicken for dinner.  Now I’ve became one of them.

Trying to save some money, I usually make fried chicken by myself.  They are not exactly KFC, but they are at least meat.  There are cheap mixed chicken pieces available from IGA near my house, though they need to be trimmed and washed before cooking.   Sometimes I make karaage or oven-roasted chicken with these meat, but tonight I made Ayam Goreng – Indonesian style fried chicken.

Although I wish I can, I don’t cook Ayam Goreng from scratch.  I use store-bought seasoning.  Different from karaage, Ayam Goreng is cooked in marinade before being deep-fried.  So you are basically frying cooked chicken.  Because the meat has been cooked through, you’ll just need a short time to deep-fry.   The oil should be very hot to give the crunchiness and golden colour.

How do you eat it?  I’m not an Indonesian who knows Ayam Goreng very well, but I know how I like to eat it.  I usually eat with steamed rice, some vegetables, boiled egg and sambal (chilli sauce).  I love sambal terasi with Ayam Goreng :-q

It’s got prawn or something?  I’m addicted to this distinct smell!

It’s Only Now

When D told me that he doesn’t want any more child, I started to imagine my life of being with just D and Hiro.  Eventually Hiro will grow up to an adult, and have his own family.  So it will be just me and D in future then.  What will we be doing?  Two of us, at home.  We’ll probably be working, but for what purpose?  For a holiday we may be planning, or for a car we may be thinking to buy.  Most of the money we yarn will be used for everyday expenses, and then the rest will be for something…  something what?

We’ll all grow old.  What will we be doing when we are grandpa and grandma?  Hopefully we enjoy occasional visit of our grandchildren, and other than that we’ll probably spend our time doing gardening or some hobbies.  I bet time will go slow around us…

So it’s only now that we can enjoy being busy looking after this boy 🙂

I think his age is the cutest age for children.  We started to be able to communicate (he doesn’t speak properly yet though), and I actually feel so happy to have him around me everyday.

So I enjoy this life now.  Soon it will change, and it will be different.  I will have plenty of time on my own later.  I don’t mind to have one more child, to be honest, but I’m also happy with just him.

It’s only now that I can enjoy being with this Hiro. 🙂

That Time of the Year

My friends were saying that they got invitation for their husbands’ companies’ Christmas party, and I thought “Christmas? Already?!”  To think about it, it’s already September.  3/4 of 2012 has been gone and only 1/4 remains.  Wow, how quickly can time pass around us?

Soon there will be “Christmas tree section” in department stores and shopping centres, and people will be talking about what to buy for Christmas presents (although many might already have done lay-buy).  Sigh, I wanted to move out from this house by the end of this year, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen.

Oh, today is Father’s Day.  Father’s Day in Japan was in June, so I feel like “again?”.

I baked cookies for D.  And making nachos tonight.  It’ll be enough…

Today, because it’s Father’s Day, entrance to Perth Zoo is FREE for fathers.  I have 1 year pass, so three of us can go there for free (basically).  🙂  I’m waiting for them coming back from Sunday mass.

Birthday Party – Japan Themed!-

We visited my friend’s house for her elder son’s 3rd birthday party!

I’m surprised that not many people (even Indonesian people!) don’t know this Japanese cartoon character “Anpan-man”.  Anpan-man is super popular in Japan now.  Everywhere you go, you’ll see this face.  All my friends here who have children have at least one Anpan-man good at home.  So do I.  On my last homecoming trip I felt like I had to buy Anpan-man goods as they’re everywhere.

Above foods are chirashi-zushi (scattered sushi) with Anpan-man face, omu-rice with Anpan-man face, potato salads, and gyoza.

Here is another Anpan-man.  They are actual anpan (buns filled with sweet red bean paste).  The faces are so cute!  Everything was handmade.

Hiro got one too.

Birthday cake was tiramisu.  With Anpan-man face on it.

After blowing the candles, the birthday boy did this “traditional Japanese ceremony” thingy – breaking the lid of sake container.  I thought there’d be toys or lollies inside as this was a child’s birthday party, but the inside was filled with real sake.  It was for adults.

Food was amazing.  Mum did a great job!

Problem on UMEBOSS website

I have been contacted by few UMEBOSS viewers that they can’t leave comments on my website.  I apologize for the problem.

I don’t know what is wrong with my blog.  I checked it with WordPress but not certain answer.  I found this though:

” Folks trying to comment now with an email address attached to a WordPress.com or Gravatar account will have to log in first.”

So if you encounter any problems then please try to log in first.  Or email me directly @ me(at)umeboss.com.

This week one of my friend gave birth to her second son.  She didn’t know if it’s boy or girl until she gave birth to him.  She kept it a surprise. I’ve been visiting them at the hospital – newborn baby is so tiny!  I have totally forgotten about that.

New to Bali

As I wrote about it before, I’m flying to Bali this year for the first time!   Although I’ve been to Jakarta several times I never got out of Denpasar airpot.

My dad has bought his ticket from Japan, and so did 2 of us here (+ Hiro).  Then I was looking for a place to stay.  My husband wanted to stay at a 2bedroom villa with private swimming pool which is also close to the beach.  Men, there are soooo many accommodation in Bali!!  My friends and sister-in-law recommended us to stay in Nusa Dua, but I went with husband’s friend’s recommendation – Seminyak area.  He travels to Bali often and is very familiar with this island.

Ok, so a 2bedroom villa with swimming pool and walking distance from the beach….  There are still quite many villas like that in Seminyak.  Another issue was the price.  There are quite expensive ones to fairly good priced ones. Of course I’d want to go with the cheap one but how about their reviews??   I was searching, searching….  and sent query to several villas.  Price-wise they are about the same, but I found one villa who gave me pretty cheap deal.

In my head I was kind of thinking to decide on the villa.  ….until I received their 2nd email.  On the first email they were very polite and sounded professional, but from the second email they started to use casual language “yeah”, and  smily faces “:)” !!!
I know they’re trying to be friendly, but I thought it wasn’t professional at all!   It was kinda annoying 🙁    They used “…..” at the end of each sentence (e.g. Ume…..   I’ll be waiting for you….) and I felt it was rather creepy.

Then my friend showed me couples of other villas, and I found even cheaper one with great reviews.  Close to beach, restaurants and shops.  I bought it straightaway.  Meanwhile I kept receiving emails from the “friendly” villa.

Aaaaa, now I can’t wait to lay on the beach like this photo 🙂  Staying at a villa close to restaurants and shops makes it easy for us as my dad loves coffee and always drink one or two several times a day!  I also can’t wait to visit Ubud where I hear there’re beautiful rice fields.  My dad wants to see Indonesian style rice fields.

photos from bali.world-guides.com / flightsaustralia.com.au

Oden with Ginger

Here is the real winter warmer – Oden with dipping sauce of ginger.

Oden, a Japanese dish of winter casserole, is usually eaten with karashi (Japanese mustard).  It is the very common and typical condiment for Oden.  Everywhere you go, an izakaya or a convenience store, Oden is served with a dash of karashi on the side.

But one of my friend from Himeji (a city in Hyogo prefecture) introduced me a new condiment – gingered soy sauce!

I’d never tried the combination before, but I immediately knew ginger would go great with oden.  Oden and ginger….  how clever!  It’s the best dish to warm up your body in cold days.

For for Oden, common ingredients are :  Egg, Konnyaku, Daikon, Gyu-suji (beef tendon), Nerimono (basically fishcakes, but many varieties : e.g. chikuwa, hanpen, gobo-maki etc), Atsuage (thick deep-fried tofu), and Potato.  Some people add other things too.

This time I used egg, daikon, konnyaku, tofu, and gobo-maki.  I can’t get good nerimono here in Perth.  Some Asian grocery shops sell “oden set” (mixed nerimono) in freezer section, but I find it quite expensive.

<Oden>

• Water 6 cups
• Sake (cooking wine) 1/4 cup
• Soy Sauce 4 tbs
• Mirin (sweet cooking wine) 2 tbs
• Dashi Konbu seaweed 15cm
• Ingredients (I used 4 Eggs, 4 Potatos, 1 Konnyaku sheet, 4 Gobo-maki, 500g Tofu, & 1 Daikon radish.)
• Ginger 1 knob + Soy Sauce

1. Place Dashi Konbu in 6 cups of water in a large pot, and leave for around 2 hours.
2. Prepare ingredients : boil eggs, peel and cut daikon etc.  I don’t cut potato but you can if you prefer so.
3. Place daikon & potato in the water with konbu, and turn on the heat.  Bring to gentle simmer – do not boil.  Remove konbu.
4. Add sake, soy sauce, and mirin.  Add eggs, konnyaku, tofu & gobo-maki.  Simmer for 30minutes +.  ( I simmered few hours)

Once you turn off the heat, leave the oden for around 2 hours (or more), then warm up again before serving.  Ingredients in oden soak up the flavour when they cool down.  Let everything soak up all the flavor.

Serve with grated ginger + soy sauce.