Delicious Japanese Foods!

Posted November 30th, 2011 in Food, Japan | 4 Comments »

I’ve been eating lots n lots of foods here….   Most of them are Japanese food 🙂

I cook just simple dishes at home (such as grilled fish, simmered vegetables etc), but my dad sometimes buys us sushi, sashimi and grilled unagi (eel).

This sushi platter was from sushi bar which my dad often goes to.  It’s near my house, and we’ve been their customers since I was very little.

I visited my grand parents’ house (Hiro’s great grandparents), and they bought us sushi too.  Individually packed per person.

I told my mum that I wanted to eat buta-jiru (miso soup with pork), then she made to accompany the sushi.

Plus some small dishes including karaage and grilled chicken.

Tamago-toji Udon is one of my favorite.

Ama-ebi (sweet shrimp) sashimi.  Raw, of course.

Our usual breakfast on weekend at cafe.  I love Japanese bread!


Koala-no-March Hotel Room

Posted November 28th, 2011 in Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »

Lotte Koala-no-March, chocolate snack in Japan, is one of my favorite.  I’ve seen Chinese and Korean version of this snack in Perth, so I don’t know if it’s originally Japanese though.  Inside, each chocolate-filled snack has different face of koala – one is smiling, one is crying, and one is angry.  Some of them are wearing sunglasses, and some of them wear kimono.

If you like this snack like me, you’ll probably want to stay in a hotel room filled with this cute koala character.  Yes, there are in Japan!  Koala-no-March theme hotel rooms.

This Koala-no-March themed hotel room has koalas everywhere – on the wall, bed cover, curtain, pajamas, and amenities.  Not only children but also adults will be exited to stay in this room, I think 😀

This Lotte City Hotel Kinshi-cho (Sumida-ku, Tokyo) has beautiful views of Tokyo Tower, Sky Tree, and also JR trains from some rooms.  And, there is a chocolate factory cafe on the ground floor where customers can enjoy chocolate making.  Curry, pizza and hamburgers contain chocolate at this cafe.

There is a chance of winning a night at this Koala-no-March hotel room.  Simply go to campaign site and answer the question, and submit the answer to the address shown on the website.


Parenting Room in Shopping Mall Japan

Posted November 26th, 2011 in Japan | 4 Comments »

I never paid attention on parenting rooms and babies/children play area in Japan until I had my own baby.  Since Hiro was born I appreciated the existence of parenting rooms in shopping centres in Perth.  They are clean, convenient, and roomy (most of them).

As I planned a homecoming trip to Japan, I was worried that there may be no such area in shopping malls in Japan.  I just didn’t remember seeing one.  So I was relieved to see such a clean, big parenting room in a small shopping mall near my house!  If a shopping centre in Shiga has like this, I’m sure there’s one as big as this or even bigger one in other prefectures.

Cushiony changing tables.

There is a scale for weight and height!

Sink to wash hand….

Inside breastfeeding area.

And, there’re many strollers for babies in shopping centres as well.  Few different kinds – the one attached to a shopping cart, the one with just a baby seat, and the one looks like a ride-on toy.


Getting Very Cold Here…

Posted November 25th, 2011 in Japan | No Comments »

It’s been still our morning routine to go for a walk.  Here, the difference is that the temperature is much much colder than it is in Perth.  I hear it’s very hot over there…  over 37 degrees?  Here in Shiga, Japan, it’s about 10 degrees.  Plus it’s raining and pretty windy today, so I feel very cold.

I need to wrap Hiro up with extra layers.  Hanten, winter indoor jacket, is our must item.

As everyone probably knows, we eat lots of things everyday here.  Sweets, rice, noodle, okonomiyaki, etc etc.  When we go shopping, we can’t help ourselves to not buy the food at the stall or food court.  They all look so yummy, and cheap.

D loves stall-type (yatai) food such as yakisoba, takoyaki and okonomiyaki.  We ate them 2 days in a row.  It may be because Shiga is Kansai, but there’re are many shops/stalls selling these items everywhere here.

And my favorite Sugakiya ramen noodle.  D had yakitori-donburi and takoyaki.

Hiro is eating yummy Japanese food everyday, and he smiles a lot these days 🙂


Sunny Morning

Posted November 24th, 2011 in Japan, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

It was a sunny morning so Hiro and I went outside for a short stroll.

It’s nice to go out!  It wasn’t too cold.  If it’s raining or snowing, we can’t probably go walking like this in the morning.  In Perth, going for a walk around 8AM had been our routine because while walking he always fell asleep and take nap for 1hour or so.  If he doesn’t take this morning nap around 8am (before his 10AM solid feed) he gets cranky.  So, walking using a baby carrier was a great help.  He loves the bouncy feeling, I think.

We walked pass the neighbourhood temple.  People were already working.

I can’t believe I used to swim in this river when I was a kid!  It’s all covered with grass now.

After this walk, he fell asleep as usual.  Already looks sleepy in this photo…


First Kitchen

Posted November 23rd, 2011 in Eat out in Japan, Japan | No Comments »

First Kitchen, known as City Convenience Restaurant, is fast food chain serving variety of foods including burgers, soup, and pasta.  It’s not a place I go often, but D and I had lunch inside food court in a shopping mall.  The price for burgers is bit more expensive than McDonald’s and other chains, but we both liked the food.

D ordered teriyaki burger meal, and I ordered kid’s chicken nuggets meal.  Teriyaki burger meal came with fries and drink, like other chains, but you could chose the flavour of the fries – called “flavour potato”.  It’s like shaker fries of McDonald’s.  The flavours are unique: corn potage, flame-grilled mentaiko (marinated roe of pollock), soy BBQ, sizzling butter and soy sauce, butter, consomme, and French fries.  D chose soy BBQ.  It was good 🙂

There is sauce bar at the counter where you can get any sauces as much as you want.  The sauces are BBQ sauce, mentaiko mayonnaise, cheese sauce, and garlic mayonnaise.

I love Japanese fast food because their drink menu has more varieties.  I always chose tea (usually oolong tea).  You can also get hot/iced lemon/milk tea and cocoa with meals with no additional cost.

It may be just because it was weekday and there’re not so many people around, but they made all the food on order including fries and nugget.  Crispy and super hot.  With kid’s meal I got to chose a toy from a basket, and I got Stitches stationery kit.

We were thinking of getting some sweets there as well, but didn’t.  Their tapioca coconut milk float and shiratama cream zenzai (chewy dango with stewed sweet azuki bean and soft serve) looked yummy!


Change of Things – Perth and Japan

Posted November 22nd, 2011 in Japan | No Comments »

It started to be cold and windy since the second day. It’s raining, and the wind outside sounds like it will be snowing anytime soon. The air is cold – but the thing is that inside the shops, restaurants, or trains is quite warm and I don’t know what to wear. I only brought just few clothes because I wasn’t gonna go out much during the stay and also I thought I could always buy nice clothes here if I want to.

We did a bit of shopping yesterday coz we needed something urgently for Hiro. Things here are pretty much different from those in Perth. We had to change some of our rutine. First, we brought our microwave sterilizer to sterilize the bottles and pump, but the microwave in my house is too small to fit the sterilizer! I can’t even put a microwave sterilizing bag. It ‘s very short too. I don’t know why my dad bought such small microwave… I guess they don’t have anything big to warm up? Hmmm… so we can’t use microwave sterilizer, we decided to do the basic method – sterilizing in boiling water. We needed a tray, drying rack, sponge etc to wash Hiro’s bottles so we headed to Daiso nearby and bought several stuff. Men, things at 100 yen shop always remind me how cheap I could get things around the house. 🙂

As I mentioned earlier, I brought my electric pump to express milk here in Japan.  Hiro is almost 9 months old, and I think I did a good job feeding him EBM (expressed breast milk) since he was born (considering the trouble of extra cleaning and time consuming).  And I’m still thinking to continue this until my milk dries out.  But, on the day I arrived my home in Shiga, I found that the electric pump is weird.  It kept stopping while pumping. I thought it’s broken due to the air pressure on the plane or something, but it turned out that the batteries needed to be replaced.  I guess it uses lots of power.  I was using this pump connected to power while in Perth, so I didn’t know how quickly I had to replace the batteries.  When I thought the pump was broken, I was actually thinking of stoping giving breast milk to Hiro.  Somewhere in my head I want to stop because it’s troublesome to express milk.  But I also think that I want to breastfeed him as long as I have milk.  So, the broken pump could be the opportunity for me to stop, but I guess I will keep continue doing what I do now until the time comes.

By the way, Hiro loves crawling on tatami!  The house is cold, and he escapes from blanket while sleeping, so he wears pretty warm (not too warm though) clothes on this futon.  Lucky I bought this baby circle crib thing from Amazon… otherwise he would be somewhere else (not on his futon) in the morning.  All the rooms are connected in my house (just separated with paper sliding doors (sho-ji), so he could be anywhere.  He seems to enjoy sleeping on futon, and has been pretty happy since we arrived here 🙂

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First Flight with 8 Month Old Baby

Posted November 20th, 2011 in Japan | 2 Comments »

It’s 2AM, and dark and raining outside.  I should be tired and sleepy, but I’m writing this with a bottle of warm milk next to me in case Hiro wakes up for his feed anytime soon.  Everyone in this house is sleeping, except me and my bro.  I hear tv sound from his room.  It’s Saturday night (Sunday morning?) and I guess it’s the only time he can enjoy staying late during a week.

I arrived Kansai airport yesterday afternoon.  I must say I’m very happy and relieved that we are here finally.  Japan is not as cold as I thought – it’s raining, and it gets dark around 6:00 PM, but the temperature is not cold and I was kinda sweating when I arrived airport.  I’m not even wearing a jacket or pair of socks right now. (even at 2AM!)

The flight …..   was AWEFUL.  It wasn’t the worst because Hiro did sleep pretty well on the plane, but D and I (and maybe Hiro too) were exhausted.  We left Perth home around 9PM – Hiro was sleeping in his cot, but woke up in the car and stayed awake in the airport.  He seemed to be calm and quiet, and we thought he’d fell asleep with warm milk as soon as we get on the plane.  But, it didn’t happen.  He was obviously tired and sleepy, but couldn’t go to sleep and that made him very uncomfortable and irritated.  He wasn’t crying though – just wiggly and rubbing his eyes many many times.  I was trying to pad him to sleep, but you know the airplane seat is very narrow and I couldn’t really move around like I do at home.  I was moving him up to down, left to right….. and then, he started to gag and threw up everything he ate since 5PM, including pumpkin and all the milk.

It was a LOT of vomit.  He kept throwing up every 2 seconds for about 10 seconds, and I thought he was choking.  All the food came out through his mouth and nose, and my seat and clothes were completely soaked with his vomit.  I could hear everyone around me was saying “OH MY GOD…!”  I was in panic, and tried to settle him down quickly.  When I saw his smile, I was very relieved.

Luckily I brought a change clothes for him so I could change him, but I didn’t have my own.  I had to take my tops off and wear a cardigan on top of a camisole I was wearing.  Smelly….!  After changing his clothes he was still active, but in the end I managed to put him to sleep around 2AM – 2 hours after departure.  The flight was midnight so everyone was sleeping by then.  Then D and I could sleep a bit.  We book a basinet seat in advance – the seat is at the front so there’s lots of leg room, but we couldn’t put any baggage underneath or front of our seat.  We had to put everything in compartment above us.  That was bit troublesome when we wanted to get something from our bags.  This is what basinet looks like (Cathay Pacific) ↓

The another thing which was difficult during the flight was preparing milk for him.  As I don’t do breastfeed (express milk in a bottle) I had to bring formula in case I can’t express on the plane.  As soon as he sees a bottle he wanted to drink and started crying.  He didn’t stop crying so I had to feed him before the plane took off/landed.  He had to suck on something while taking-off/landing for preventing earache and he doesn’t take dummies all the time (only when he is sleepy and tired), so I was bit worried that he might finish the milk before the air pressure changed.  He cried a little, but it was ok on both flight.

From these 2 flights I learnt some lessons and now I know what I should and shouldn’t bring to an airplane when flying with a baby.  I actually had lots of baggages – 4 big bags + a baby carrier –  and some of the things I brought weren’t necessary at all. Everything was in different bags and it was so messy and stressful when I needed something and couldn’t find where it was and in which bag.  So from now on, I will prepare the followings for carry-on luggage.  Especially when using bassinet seat you’ll only get a net on the all to store your things.

  • a pouch with 1 diaper, wet wipe, 1 disposable changing mat to put in a net in front of you … when you need to rush to toilet to change his diaper, you can just garb it and go.
  • a pouch with a pair of socks, dummies, moisturizer and 1 or 2 toys

I will also prepare 1 bag containing baby bottles with 180ml of sterilized water and measured formula.  I brought few empty baby bottles and an empty thermo bottle, and got hot water from a cafe inside airport to make formula, but it was hard to cool down the boiling water when Hiro wanted milk.  It just took too long.  I found that I could ask flight attendant to warm up the water on the plane, so I thought I should have divided the sterilized water in bottles in advance and ask them to warm up to desired temperature.  It is much easier and stressless.

I brought too many diapers to the airplane.  I just used 3 diapers during 2 flights, but there’re more than 10 diapers in my carry-on luggage!  I brought an electric pump (which can be used with batteries) so I could pump at airport and on the plane, but I just didn’t have time for it.  I did it once on the plane from Perth to Hong Kong, but it was bit messy and I had to worry about washing the pumps.  I brought microwave sterilizing bags, but didn’t use it on the plane and at airport either.

We arrived Kansai airport around 3:30m PM, and reached home around 6PM.  My dad, mum and bro came to airpot to pick us up in a big car (to fit extra parson).  Hiro was awake after 6PM feed, but slept from 9PM until 6AM next morning!  He must have been so tired.   But thanks to that, D and I could get a good sleep 🙂


Birthday Cake for 2nd Birthday Boy

Posted November 17th, 2011 in Food | 2 Comments »

When I was asked to make a birthday cake for my friend’s toddler, I wasn’t sure if I could do it at first.  It’s just less than 1 week away till I head to Japan, and I still had lots of things to do.  Packing, cleaning the room, laundry…  But I said “sure” because it’s his 2nd birthday party and I’d already bought a birthday present for him.

My friend wanted something simple – sponge, cream, and fresh fruits.  Just like Japanese cake.  I was little worried though, because the location of the party was at the park (BBQ party) and the forecast said it’d be raining!  If outside, there might be many flies too.  Because I use fresh cream, I thought it might be ruined if it’s windy and raining.

I finished making the cake anyway,

Now it’s the most scary part – delivering the cake!  It was a quite big one, so I had to put it in a big box.

When we arrived there, the sky was all white and grey.  I quickly showed the cake to my friend, and covered it to protect from the wind and flies.

There’re so many yummy foods – hotdog, grilled veggies, and some food made by Thai chef (our old friend)!  I especially loved a spicy prawn salad she made.  I must get the recipe!

She even brought a deep-frier for spring rolls.  She said that if she cooked it at home and brought there it won’t be crispy.  It’s true…

They all seemed to love my cake too.  I was relieved.  Although it started to be drizzly while enjoying BBQ, it was a lovely day. 🙂

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Theobroma Chocolate Lounge

Posted November 15th, 2011 in Eat out in Perth | No Comments »

As I wrote about it here, I went to Theobroma Chocolate Lounge in Waterford on the weekend to try out their sweets. 🙂

The place is well-decorated and I love the colour tone of chairs, walls, and lights.  Yap, all chocolate-like colours.  It was Saturday afternoon but there wasn’t too many people inside.

I actually had a cup of hot chocolate before going there (I didn’t know we’re going to a chocolate cafe!), so I didn’t feel like chocolate drink at the cafe (which was a shame).  I ordered a mug of latte, and D ordered white chocolate milk shake.

I must admit –  I didn’t expect them to serve such perfect coffee!  White chocolate milk shake was also delicious – I could taste real white chocolate, but not too heavy.

We shared a piece of cookie’ n cream cheese cake as well, and it was another hit.  Quite sweet, and creamy.  The cookies are soft and rather chewy.

As well as other sweet drinks and cakes, they also serve savory foods such as Turkish roll, bacon and egg roll, and quiche.

The staff was friendly too.  I will definitely come back there again 🙂


Royal Life Saving

Posted November 14th, 2011 in Perth WA, Ume and Baby, Ume's Interests | No Comments »

Last week I could finally manage myself to undertake this one-day royal life saving training course.  This course was conducted by The Royal Life Saving Society – a non-profit, community service organisation that conducts training programs in First Aid, Resuscitation (CPR), AUSTSWIM, Bronze Medallion, Lifesaving and Water Safety. They run several kinds of courses, and I attended Heart Beat Club which teaches you the lifesaving skills of CPR, first aid for common child injuries including burns and scolds, choking, drowning and provides information on how to perform child resuscitation or CPR.

The re are child’s first aid courses run by other organisations in WA such as Australian Red Cross and St John of God, but I chose Heart Beat Club because the location was close to my house, they gave us Participation Certificate after the course, and it was just $20.00 per person for a 3-hour-course.

I actually should have taken child’s first air course before Hiro arrived so that I would have known what to do in case of emergency.  After the baby was born I didn’t really have time to do it (although it may be hard to practice CPR etc with a big tummy).  Last week, I left Hiro to D and his parents.

There’re 10 people at the class, and some of them were couples.  One couple brought their new born to the class, I think they didn’t have anyone to ask for looking after their baby for 3 hours.  Being apart from new born baby for 3 hours is quite scary.

The class was conducted by a retired nurse, and she was wonderful.  I must say I am very very happy that I attended this course.  There’re so many useful information about what to do when a child is burnt, choke, and injured.  As well as hearing her experiences and stories, I loved the practical part.  Each one of us got a manekin of baby to practice CPR.  Doing is so different from just reading about CPR on books.  And I learned so many new things, such as DRS ABCD (Danger, Response, Send help, Air way, Breathing, Cpr), and not tilting the head when doing CPR for babies under 12 months old.

Few days before I attended this course I had a terrifying moment while feeding Hiro.  He was coughing, and suddenly stopped coughing and seemed to be choking.  I was in panic, and I took him out from high chair, placed him on my lap facing down, and hit his back few times (as this was how to help choking baby in a book I read).  Then he vomited everything out. I don’t know if he was really choking but it was scary.   I told the nurse (course conductor) about it, and she said that coughing is a natural reflex and nothing to worry about.  If he was choking, his face should have turned blue or looked really tense.  So when he cough, it means he is coping with the lumpy food and is a good thing.

There was 15minutes break, and I just saw this vending machine which makes fresh squeezed orange juice.  I thought it’s cool 🙂

At the end of the course we all received Participation Certificate as promised.  I thought 3 hours was gonna be very long, but after the course was done I felt that it wasn’t enough.  I wanted to know more.  $20.00 for this was a really great deal, I think.  If someone is interested in taking the course:

website … location varies. You can check on their website.

Western Australia Only


Food Allergy Test

Posted November 11th, 2011 in Ume and Baby, Ume's Interests | 1 Comment »

As I continue to introduce new food to my 8-month-old Hiro, I’ve been careful with acidic food (e.g. strawberries, tomatoes and citrus fruits) and some food that are more likely to be allergen (e.g. egg, cow’smilk) because of his rush on his face and body, but I feel that I’ve been feeding him the same food over and over again and need to explore more variety of food for him to try.  I don’t think his rash is because of food, but it may be and his skin/body may be very sensitive against some particular things.

My friend told me that I could check if he is allergic to food, and in that case, to what food, by sending his hair to a labo in QLD.  Hair test sounds much much safer than blood test – little amount of hair wouldn’t harm at all. (although he doesn’t have much hair :p )  I phoned the labo and found out some information about what I need to do in order to get him tested for food allergy.

Basically you just need to cut little amount of hair from your baby, and place it in a piece of tissue paper or plastic bag (it doesn’t matter) and send to the labo. Along with hair, you will need the followings:

  • Baby’s name
  • Baby’s birthday
  • Your name & address (to send the result)
  • $95.00 (by cheque, money order, or details of credit card)

Because I’m in WA, it may take around 2 weeks to get the result (considering the time to send the stuff).  The staff told me that as soon as they receive the hair they’ll put it to the next available labo and test it with 200’s of different foods.

For more information, here is their contact details:

Health Management Therapies
36 Marbella Drive
Benowa
GoldCoast
QLD 4217

ph(07)55970528

FOOD SENSITIVITY TEST


Waterford Plaza

Posted November 10th, 2011 in Eat out in Perth, Perth WA | No Comments »

If you haven’t been to Waterford Plaza for quite some time, you will be surprised to see the change of this small shopping mall in Karawara.  I used to go there when I was a student at TAFE in Bentley few years ago, and now it doesn’t look the same.

They’ve got more cafes and restaurants at the site, and the area looks more modern.  I find that the parking area is still the same though – bit small –  and the drive way is bit narrow, and it causes jam around the exit to Kent street.  Once you enter from Kent street you can find Pasta Cups, Burger Edge, and Theobroma Chocolate Lounge etc along the drive way.

There are Chinese-Malaysian food (Chilliz & O’Mama Kopitiam), Thai food (Sara Thai), Japanese food (Mikasa Café) and more available in this place, and many students from Curtin and TAFE go there to grab lunch and dinner, just like old time.  And there will be a new tavern featuring the popular ‘Hippo Creek’ restaurant chain, and Singaporean food chain ‘Old Chang Kee’ in early 2012.

WaterPlaza had been under construction for few months and aimed to complete the transformation before the Queen arrived last month, as the Manning Road was the way she would go pass to visit Aboriginal College.  The construction operated 24 hours just before the Queen’s arrival, my friend told me.

I wanted to go to the chocolate cafe Theobroma Chocolate Lounge when I passed this shopping mall last time, but didn’t have time for it.  Apparently there is another shop in Fremantle (http://www.theobromachocolatelounge.com.au/) so maybe I go there instead.  I am so addicted to chocolate now.  I know I shouldn’t be eating chocolate too much because it contains caffein and too much sugar, but I can’t help it.  Hmmm, I guess little amount wouldn’t harm… :p


The Bus driver in diffenet country

Posted November 8th, 2011 in Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »

I personally love Japan’s bus driver!


Hand Works

Posted November 4th, 2011 in Perth WA, Ume and Baby | No Comments »

I wrote about me holding Hiro for 2 hours when I visited Play Group few months ago and strained my right wrist, and now the pain is still there and I went to see doctor again.  As I’m leaving Perth in few weeks and I want to fix my wrist as soon as possible so that I can travel with a 8-month-old baby, I decided to make a customized splint.

The nearest place that makes hand castings is Hand Works in Leeming, and I phoned them to make an appointment right after visiting doctor.  I was expecting that I would have to wait for few days to get and appointment, but I could see an occupational therapist on the afternoon.

Hand Works Occupational Therapy does services including rehabilitation, splinting, neoprene braces, and pain management of elbow, wrist and hand.  There are 5 locations in WA, which include Leeming, Rockingham, Duncraig, West Perth, and Mandurah, and a doctor’s referral is recommended.

Before I visited Hand Works, I was wearing this Thermoskin that I got from a Chemist.  This is supposed to restrict the movement of my thumb, but I didn’t feel any improvement.  I guess it’s because I kept taking it off very often when I had to change diaper etc.

The splint I got from Hand Works is this soft material one.  Therapist told me that hard plastic splint works the best, but it’s hard and not practical for a mother who cares a baby.  I was wondering how she was going to cast my hand using this.  This is how it works:

There is a thin plastic liner inside, and she poured hot water inside so that the plastic melts.  Then, she tied this splint around my right hand and held it for few minutes until the plastic harden.

It fits perfectly on my right wrist, and restrict movement of thumb.   I was told to wear it as much as possible (even when I sleep) for maximum result.

The therapist was really friendly, and told me that it’s very common for mothers having this problem.  She even had handouts for mothers, and that proves it.  Her explanation of my condition, including how it happened and the process of cure was really clear and I could understand completely.  She normally let patients wear the splint for 2 weeks then follow up with gentle exercises, but, as I need to leave Perth on 18th I will have to come back to see her next week.  She was really flexible and supportive.  She is going to teach me how to exercise my thumb and wrist while in Japan.

Now, it’s been just 2 days since I started wearing this, and I feel much better.  I try not to use my right hand (it’s impossible to not use it when you have a bub though), and wearing it as much as I can.  I hope it cures very soon!

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Nippon Food Subiaco November 2011

Posted November 3rd, 2011 in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Here is Nippon Food Subiaco’s this month sale items…. :

Monthly Special 01 ~ 30 November 2011

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• Sake 1L (brand: Morita)  $12.30 → $9.80

• Okonomiyaki Flour 600G (brand: Nisshin)  $8.20 → $6.60

• Hotcake Mix 350G (brand: Showa)  $4.90 → $3.90

• Noritama Furikake (Rice Seasoning Powder) 20P (brand: Marumiya) $7.20 → $5.80

• Shittori Chocolate/Shittori Kinako (sweet snack) 80G $2.90 → $2.30

• Azuki Ice Candy 70ML (brand: Imuraya) $1.00 → $0.80

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New Products

• Mochi-mochi Bread/Cake Mix 200G (brand: Showa) $6.70

… Create mochi-mochi bread in just 20 minutes!  What you need is just egg, milk, and vegetable oil.

• Karaage Flour for Microwave Cooking 80G (brand: Showa) $5.10

… Make karaage in microwave!  Save time and calorie.  Just dust chicken or any ingredients with this flour, and cook in microwave.  It stays delicious even when it’s cool.

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• Manna Boro Snack for and Kids 52G (brand: Morinaga) $4.40

… Small enough to hold with little fingers.

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• Manna Biscuit for Kids 86G (bbrand: Morinaga) $3.10

… Contained no egg.  With added calcium, iron, and vitamins, great nutritious snack for kids.

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• Pokky Coconut Flavour / Mint Flavour 40G (Griko) $3.30


Featured Dish November : Okonomiyaki

< Recipe >

  • Pancake batter : flour, egg, cabbage, water
  • Topping : sauce, bonito flake, ao-nori, mayonnaise
  1. Mix the pancake batter with ingredients (e.g. seafood, thinly sliced pork).
  2. Heat little oil in a frying pan over medium heat, and spoon the okonimiyaki mixture into the pan.  Cook both side.
  3. Garnish with sauce, bonito flake, ao-nori and Japanese mayonnaise.

Okonomiyaki Flour (several kinds) $5.50 ~ $9.60

Ao-nori 20G $3.00

Dried shrimp 25G $2.80

Bonito Flake 15G $3.00

Otafuku Okonomi Sauce 500G $7.80 / 300G $5.60

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Beef & Tofu Donburi

Posted November 2nd, 2011 in Food | No Comments »

This is one of my favorite donburi dish – beef and tofu.  It is just like beef donburi (gyu-don), with tofu.  Normally, firm tofu is used in cooking as it’s more likely to hold its shape than soft silken tofu, but I love the silky smooth texture of silken tofu and I used it in this recipe.

Donburi is like Japanese version of fast food.  Make it in one pot, and eat it all together with rice.

Mix them up and eat it like a man!

<Recipe> serves 2

  • 200g beef, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 brown onion, small
  • 100g silken tofu (Japanese)
  • 1/4 tsp dashi stock powder
  • 1 cup water
  • 1.5 tbs sake (cooking wine)
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1.5 tbs soy sauce
  • red ginger, chopped spring onion, steamed rice to serve

a

  1. Slice onion.  Place beef, onion, water and dashi stock in a sauce pan, and bring to gentle simmer.
  2. Place tofu on your left palm, and drop into the pan as you slice.  Add sake, sugar and soy sauce.  Turn the heat to low, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
  3. Pour the beef mixture over steamed rice.  Garnish with red ginger and spring onion.

a


Character Kamaboko

Posted November 1st, 2011 in Food, Japan | No Comments »

Over the long weekend we had sister-in-law’s baby shower, and it was such fun.  I ended up staying there for 5 hours. I enjoyed the games and talking with other guests. The cake was so cute – a shape of pregnant belly. It was actually a velvet cake, and everyone seemed to be shocked when they saw the very red sponge inside :p Looked like bleeding… too realistic.

Sister prepared a small baby bottle filled with roc candies as “thank you” present for the guests, and the roc candies reminded me of kamaboko (fish cake) I used to eat while I was a kid.

There are many kinds, including Hello Kitty, Pokemon, Disney characters etc.  They are great item to decorate bento box!