Food Idea for Babies

Posted September 29th, 2012 in Food, Ume and Baby | No Comments »

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

Posted September 23rd, 2012 in Japan | No Comments »

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

Posted September 21st, 2012 in Food | 2 Comments »

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

Posted September 19th, 2012 in Eat Out in Perth - Japanese Food - | No Comments »

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

Victoria Park
26B Chapman Rd
St James, WA 6102
(menu sample)

Happy Birthday Cake

Posted September 18th, 2012 in Food | 2 Comments »

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

Posted September 16th, 2012 in Food | No Comments »

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)
  • Soy Sauce 2 tbs
  • Mirin 2 tbs
  1. Chop onion finely.  Place chicken mince, onion, egg and spinach in a bowl, and mix well using fingers.
  2. Shape into balls.
  3. Heat a frying pan.  Spray oil, and place chicken balls.  Grill until the bottom of tsukune is nicely brown colour.  Flip over.  Grill few minutes.
  4. Pour soy sauce and mirin over.  Turn down the heat, and cook until the sauce is caramelised and thicken.  Turn off the heat.
  5. Serve with steamed rice.

 


Pork Gyoza

Posted September 13th, 2012 in Food | No Comments »

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.
I eat with “soy sauce + dash of sesame oil” dipping sauce, but you can eat with anything such as Japanese mayonnaise, chilli oil, or ponzu 🙂

Obento for Picnic

Posted September 10th, 2012 in Food, Japan, Perth WA | No Comments »

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

Posted September 8th, 2012 in Perth WA | No Comments »

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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!

Posted September 6th, 2012 in Food | 4 Comments »

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

Posted September 4th, 2012 in Food | 4 Comments »

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

Posted September 3rd, 2012 in Ume and Baby, Ume's Thought | 2 Comments »

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

Posted September 2nd, 2012 in Ume's Thought | No Comments »

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.