Birthday Party – Japan Themed!-

Posted August 31st, 2012 in Food, Perth WA | 2 Comments »

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

Posted August 30th, 2012 in Ume's Thought | No Comments »

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

Posted August 29th, 2012 in Ume's Interests | No Comments »

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

Posted August 21st, 2012 in Food | 1 Comment »

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.


Tako Su

Posted August 18th, 2012 in Food, Japan | No Comments »

Obon has finished….!  Obon is one of holiday season in Japan where people go back to their hometown and pray for ancestors.  During Obon you are not supposed to kill any living creature (including a fly) because it may be your ancestor visiting you in a form of the creature.  I feel so bad now because I forgot about Obon and killed a small spider 2 days ago.  It’s hard to remember these things while living in Perth.  😐

Above photo is marinated octopus, cucumber and wakame seaweed in vinegar sauce.  I call it tako-to-kyuri-to-wakame-no-sunomono, but I think you can just call it tako-su.  It’s typical summer salad (or should I say side dish) in Japan.

It is hard to find octopus legs in Perth, but in Japan we eat it very often.  If you go to kaiten sushi bar you’ll see octopus sushi, which is a nigiri sushi with a slice of cooked octopus leg.  Octopus leg is always available at supermarket too.   It is usually sold cooked though.  I don’t get to see raw octopus legs much over there unless I go to a fish market.

I think octopus legs are kind of gross food here?  That’s why I can’t buy it from any grocery shops?  Most Asian grocery shops don’t sell it too.  I usually buy it from seafood shops.

<Tako Su>

  • Octopus Leg (cooked) 100g
  • Cucumber 1
  • Wakame seaweed (dry) 1 tbs
  • White Wine Vinegar 2 tbs
  • Sugar 1 tbs
  • Soy Sauce 1 tsp
  • Ginger 1 slice

 

  1. Soak wakame in water until soften, and drain well.
  2. Slice cucumber thinly. (or thick if you prefer crunchy texture)  Slice cooked octopus leg.  Slice ginger into long matchsticks.
  3. Mix vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and ginger.
  4. Marinate octopus, cucumber and wakame in the dressing in the fridge for 1 hour or more before serving.

 


IKEA Food for FREE!

Posted August 16th, 2012 in Food, Jakarta, Perth WA | No Comments »

I’m quite surprised to know that not many people are aware of IKEA’s current promotion – “I could eat an armchair” where the amount you spend at IKEA restaurant will be taken off your store purchase. (term & condition)  This offer ends this Friday, so if you are interested then rush to IKEA!!

I actually didn’t have anything particularly that I wanted to buy, but since sister-in-law is here from Jakarta we took her to IKEA for lunch yesterday.  We ate around $33 worth food, and got $33 worth IKEA items for free!

It’s not only IKEA, but many shops in Perth are starting Sunday trading from next week.  Perth is changing.  I remember when I came here in 2003….  I had a huge culture shock when I found out shops are closed on Sunday.  For me, weekends are the time people go shopping!

Hmmm…. by the way, I’ve already started shopping from Japanese online shops….  I’m gonna ask my dad to bring them to Bali then I can take them home here in Perth.  (thank you, dad)  I wasn’t gonna buy many things, but it’s so hard….  There are so many things that I want to buy from Japan!!  On my last homecoming trip to Japan, we had total of 50kg allowance for check-in luggage, but we had to leave half of what we bought there because our luggage were already over 50kg.  So, imagine how many things we bought during our stay there….  It’s crazy.

It’s kinda shame that there is no Daiso in Bali.  Well, but we are not going to Bali for shopping.  We are going there to RELAX and EAT 🙂  I can’t wait!


Thank You Everyone!

Posted August 15th, 2012 in Food, Jakarta | No Comments »

First, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who messaged me through this blog and email.  I feel much better and strong knowing that I’m not alone and there are people who read my blog from many countries.  It’s kinda amazing feeling.

🙂

I’m gonna write about an amazing food I had last night.  This is banana-cheese-pastry thingy (I don’t know the proper name!) that my sister-in-law brought from Indonesia.  It’s so yummmmmyyyy.  It’s from Bandung city (in Indonesia), she said.  It’s got a whole banana and cheese inside, kind of melty, and doughy throughout with crispy pastry on outside.  I don’t know how to explain the taste, but it’s somewhere between sweet and savoury.  Very interesting.

There are many food in the world that I haven’t met.  I do want to go to many countries and try these things out someday.

Oh, I’m actually going to Bali in November this year.  Believe it or not, it will be my first trip to Bali!  Even though I have an Indonesian husband, I’ve never been outside Denpasar airport.  Actually, my husband has also never been to Bali before!  Haha.  So it will be our first Bali experience.

Going to Bali is kind of the thing that I can look up to.  It had been a rough idea of me and my dad who is in Japan, but  now we are booking air tickets and accommodation in Bali.  My husband, Hiro, and I are meeting my dad in Bali who will fly from Japan by himself.  It will be great holiday for all of us.

What I want to do in Bali – I’m not pretty sure about it yet, as I have no idea what Bali is like, but I think we’ll get massage and eat lots of local food.  Near the beach, probably.  I can’t wait to take my dad to eat Indonesian food.  I’m sure he will love it!

 

 

 

 


Little Depressed Here…

Posted August 14th, 2012 in Ume's Thought | 4 Comments »

I’m gonna write about me now.

I’ve been down recently.  It happens to me sometimes – I don’t know if it is because of my blood type AB, or my star sign Pisces, or the weather, or the flu I’m starting to catch – but I just can’t feel right and have to cry until my tear stops.

Crying has been my method of getting rid of stress since I was a child.  I feel good after crying everything out.

I really have a doubt that I may have depression.  Actually I’ve thought about it when I was little too.  Sometimes I feel that everything around me is so miserable, but I can’t talk about it to anyone else.  I thought no one would understand.

I think hormone is playing the majority, but it could be my blood type AB? Most of the time I’m ok, thinking positively and easy-going.  But suddenly I feel that no one really cares about me and I’m alone.

I think I need to be bit more busy.  If I have really nothing to do, I start thinking about many things in my head.

If I was alone, I’d probably go to another place and do things, like volunteering in Africa.  I could go to a temple in Kyoto and do meditation for weeks.  There are many things I could do…

Hang on.   Now I think that I can still do these things.  It’s my life, and is not over yet.  When I was a teenager I was enjoying everyday because I had a big dream of coming to Australia.  Now I’m here in Australia, and have husband & beautiful Hiro.  My situation here should be a pretty good one.  I feel something is missing, it’s because I have nothing I can look up to future.

Writing about it here made me feel much better.  Thanks Umeboss blog.  Now I’m gonna list up in my diary what I can do in coming years.