Since I came to Perth there is one thing that I noticed about myself… My memory is getting short!! 🙁
I can’t even remember what I ate for dinner last night. It’s getting serious… I’m too young to be dementia☆
In Japan I used to eat fish (and fish egg) a lot. Sometimes twice a day. There are lots of kind of fish and most of them (eg Tuna, Bonito, Yellowtail, Sardine, etc) contain DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) which is good for brain and health. So I was consuming good source of food in Japan without any effort.
Now, however, I don’t eat fish here so often and I’m doubting maybe this is the reason for my short memory :p Well, I guess fish is not only the reason, but it could be one of them.
I really had to do something about it. I don’t really like taking medicine or supplements. Then, I found this wonderful herb in a gardening store near my house. It’s called “BRAHMI”.
This Brahmi has been used in traditional Indian medicine for over 3000 years, and there are incredible stories about this plant. (You can find out more from this website) It says that eating this herb actually helps concentration and memory recall. …. I have to try then!
The shape of this herb is actually cute and I can just put it in the kitchen:) Now I’m taking about 3g of it everyday, as a tea infusion, as a garnish to cakes and as an ingredients for my sandwiches / pizza toppings 🙂
Recently I bought this retro-looking popcorn machine for my home. Popcorn is not really my favorite snack, but it’s just for fun 🙂 No oil needed, so it’s kinda healthy.
Searching about the popcorn machine online reminded me of a popcorn vending machine in Japan. The machines were usually in shopping centers, and I used to get popcorn often from the machine when I was little.
The body of the machine is gray-haired guy, and you could choose 5 flavors: butter, salt, caramel, BBQ and mayonnaise. It costed 100 yen a cup of popcorn so I could buy with my pocket money 🙂
Once you get in the floor in the shopping center where the machine is located, you wouldn’t miss the smell of popcorn… Smells so nice!! (>0<) The smell always made me buy a cup of popcorn :p
Apparently there are other models of popcorn machines in Japan, like Hello Kitty.
Tonight I had Green Tea Soba Noodle (cha-soba) for dinner.
This green tea soba noodle contains Uji Maccha Tea (Uji = name of an area in Kyoto) and I could smell and taste Maccha Tea really! Yum 🙂
Usually, when people use tea for cooking, they use Sen-cha (another Japanese tea) to avoid its strong flavor overwhelming other food. However, Green Tea Noodle consists Maccha because people want this distinct flavor and color to be appeared.
This product is quite expensive but can be purchased at Asian supermarket. To enjoy its flavor, I’d just eat it with seaweeds and simple dipping sauce.
With Rose wine 🙂
One thing I noticed about Japan since I came to Perth is that Japan has lots of products, food and… everything! I was amazed when I read the article about Kit Kat chocolate in Japan. There are so many flavor of Kit Kat in Japan which you cannot find in other countries! :p
Here are some examples…
Which flavor tempts you?? Personally I really wanna try this “Soy Sauce Kit Kat”!! 🙂
And there are actually regional Kit Kat too! Like Tokyo Kit Kat, Kansai Kit Kat… The Kansai and Kyushyu Kit Kat flavor sounds really interesting 🙂
Last weekend I gathered up my friends to my house for lunch. It’s just because I wanted to cook what I wanted to eat :p
People in this house (my partner’s family) does NOT eat any veges, they don’t even eat chopped spring onions in a soup noodle. (not good for their health!) On the other hand, I LOVE veges and I prefer it to meat. Well, I eat meat and seafood and everything but I can’t eat just meat, have to be with some veges: otherwise I don’t feel good:p
I made 2 kinds of salad, one is Asian Salad and another is Cajun Chicken Citrus Salad. I mixed grilled beef in the Asian Salad for my friend’s husband. (Guys always love meat)
Also some canapes and meatballs.
Asian Salad with Grilled Beef
Beef Balls with Tomato Dip
canapes
I realized that I didn’t take any photos of Chicken Salad!! (>0<) I thought I did… It was really nice one☆
<Asian Salad>
<Meat Balls with Tomato Dip>
<Dip>
Saute chopped onion, garlic and carrots on a low heat. Add tined chopped tomato and simmer until it becomes dip-like consistency. Season. Mix through chopped herbs.
<Cajun Chicken Citrus Salad>
Mix green leaves with sliced red onion, cucumber etc… Add orange segments and sliced avocado. Grill chicken breast with cajun spice, and mix through to the salad. Season with orange juice, olive oil and salt & pepper.
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The other day I went to my friend’s house after work. She had a yoga DVD which was sent by her dad from Japan, so we did bit of yoga (my first time!). It was pretty hard! I was sweating and it was really a good exercise!:)
Then I started to cook steak for us. When I told her “I’m cooking steak with ponz sauce” she dug her rice cooker out from the kitchen cabinet. Yes, we sometimes eat steak with rice in Japan! 🙂
We thought “umm we should make miso soup too”. So here is our dinner:)
Diced steak teishoku 🙂 We diced the meat so that we can eat with chopsticks. The meat was nicely cooked to “medium” and the ponz sauce was delish. We grated daikon radish and place on top of the steak, then pour the ponz sauce over. Goes very well with rice, really.
Oh, by the way the rice was very very delicious!(>v<) Thanks to her (my friend) I enjoyed juicy, sweet Japanese rice. I can’t believe this cooker was just 990 yen. It’s on my shopping list now:)
In Perth Dim Sam (Yam Cha) is quite cheap if you compared with Japan. You can get full with just $10.00 ~ $15.00 (when you share with friends)! And the varieties are great. (maybe not so much if you compare with Hong Kong or China, of course):p
This Fried Squid is the item I ALWAYS eat at Dim Sam. I think this is everybody’s favorite:)
From top right to clockwise: Steamed Prawn Dumpling, Fried Squid, Ginger tripes (I love them too!), Steamed Sweet Corn and Prawn Dumpling.
I love steamed prawn dumplings:) So juicy … ☆☆☆
Ginger Tripes. As I wrote on my earlier post I love weird parts of meat and this is my favorite Dim Sum food along with Spear Ribs and Chcken Feet.
Finish the meal with Sesame Ball:)
Hey there is Japanese word “おいしい” (=delicious) on the plate 🙂
My friend sent me a photo of very cute Bento box:) These characters are from Japanese cartoon called An-Pan-Man, and it’s very famous in Japan. The An-Pan-Man is not known here in Perth and Indonesia, I wonder why… I like the cartoon and the characters are very cute! I used to watch the cartoon on tv when I was little:)
This bento box was made by my friend. So cute (>v<)///
Just wanted to show the picture to you… 🙂
Last night I had a superb night! Dinner with my best friend in Perth at Oliver’s on James Street:)
We had garlic prawn as an entree to share.
In some restaurant garlic prawn is served in creamy sauce, but I prefer this simple grilled prawn with herb vinaigrette with drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
For main, I had Today’s special Snapper. It came with creamy mash and mango salsa. My friend had Today’s special Steak, with sweet potato mash and stuffed mushroom.
The volume was big, but we ate up all! Fine food, fresh ingredients and all delish:) We arrived this restaurant at 5:50pm, and left at 8:20pm. Stayed for more than 2hours! So nice, comfortable and relaxing atmosphere:) I will definitely come back.
Oxtail soup!! 🙂 I know some people hate oxtails, or other weird parts of meat like feet and tongues, but I LOVE THEM. In Japan you can find many kinds of offal in Yakiniku restaurants and they are my favorite:p
Actually I’d never had chance to eat oxtail soup till I went to Jakarta last year. When I found “oxtail soup” on the menu board at a food court, I decided to try it without hesitation. and it was really good!
When I make oxtail soup at home I use pressure cooker, it’s just because that it makes the cooking time much shorter and the meat much tenderer. You don’t even need to use your teeth to bite the meat, it melts (>v<)
And this fried prawn. It looks like Tempura but it tastes totally different. The coating flour is seasoned and and kinda salty. Goes very well with seafood:)
Ayam Goreng! This is a famous Indonesian food:) I like them with wings, eaten with sambal chili (terasi)
Bak Mee:) This is a egg noodle soup with wantons, chicken, mushroom and spinach. I always eat with fresh cut chili.
These are the photos I took in Hokkaido in 2005. That was a family trip with my parents and brother:) We had never been to Hokkaido before and it was amazing! The food (especially seafood) was so great, I just regret that I didn’t take any photos of food there:p
This is Nakajima Koen (park). I think it looks like these photos now, filled with beautiful red leaves 🙂
As I mentioned before (Chicken Poridge) I like eating soupy/watery food 🙂 Even fruits, I prefer watermelon to banana. I like it because it makes me feel full quickly and it’s actually easy to get digested. Soup is a nice meal for midnight snack 🙂
In summer I sometimes eat cereal (mostly muesli) with milk for dinner :p When it’s hot I don’t feel like eating solid food…
Here are some variations of soupy food 🙂
<Japanese>
Chazke is a soupy Japanese dish: originally it supposed to be just cooked rice and hot green tea (pour the tea over hot/cold rice) , but you can put any toppings there. eg: grilled salmon, wasabi, nori (seaweed), ume-boshi (pickled plum) etc…
or you can just purchase this “chzke pack” ↓↓↓
Nagatanien Brand Chazke Pack
They have many flavors like salmon, nori, wasabi, tarako, ume… The chazke photo above is made with this Nagatanien tarako chazke pack. With these pacs you just need to add hot water, no need to make green tea. (already green tea flavored)
miso soup
You can’t forget miso soup in Japanese cuisine. It’s a nice healthy soupy meal!
Soba Noodle with seasoned bean-curd, spinach and wakame(seaweed)
It can be with udon noodle, of course. I like soba noodle in summer because it’s thiner than udon and easy to eat. It might be difficult to see in this photo but the soba is immersed in soup. With wakame seaweed and lots of chopped spring onion, very cool and healthy summer dish 🙂
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