Nippon Food Subiaco April Special

Sale items for April (01 – 30) 2012 at Nippin Food in Subiaco!

• Dashi powder 60g $6.80 → $5.40
• Inari skin 12P $6.80 → $5.40
• Frozen Japanese sweets Azuki 8P $8.00 → $6.00
• Frozen Japanese sweets Matcha Green Tea 8P $8.20 → $6.20
• Frozen Japanese sweets Mochi Azuki 8P $8.60 → $6.60
• Katsu Sauce 500ml $7.90 → $6.30
• Shiratama-ko Powder (dango powder) 200g $6.20 → $4.90
• Sticky Mochi Rice 2.27kg $12.50 → $10.00
• Goma-dare (sesame dressing/sauce) 500ml $5.90 → $4.50
• Ponzu with Konbu Dashi 600ml $8.70 → $6.90
• Chewing Gum (black/ume) 9P $2.80 → $1.50

New Items:

• Japanese Rice (made in USA) – New Crop
• Frozen Tuna for Sashimi $34/kg
• Mix & Serve Pasta Sauce

etc…

Nippon Food Subiaco

Shop 26, 180 Rokeby Rd
Subiaco WA 6008

(08) 9380 6783

Open:
Mon – Fri 10AM – 6PM
Sat 9AM – 5PM
Sun 11AM – 5PM
Closed on Public Holidays

Nippon Food Subiaco December 2011

Check out what’s on sale at Nippon Food this month!

Monthly Special 01 ~ 30 November 2011

• Ra-yu Goma-Dare (chili oil sesame sauce) 210G (brand: S&B)  $8.20 → $6.00

• Ra-yu Ponzu (chili oil ponzu) 210G (brand: S&B)  $8.20 → $6.00

• Seasoning for Flavored Rice 210G  $6.20 → $5.00

• Organic Udon Noodle Dry 270G (brand: Hakubaku)  $3.50 → $2.60

• Fujicco 44G $7.90 → $6.30

• Chocolate (Milk, Black, White) 45G/58G (brand: Meiji)  $2.80 → $2.20

• Ume-Shiso Ponzu 360G (brand: Yamasa)  $6.80 → $4.50

• Pie Snack pie-no-mi 73G (brand: Lotte)  $3.80 → $3.00

New Products

• Breadcrumb with Honey 300G (brand: Shirakiku)  $3.60
…  taste same as other Japanese breadcrumb.  Honey makes it easy to get coloured.

• Mochi-mochi Hot Cake Mix 300G (brand: Showa)  $6.70
…  You only need eggs, milk, and vegetable oil.  Makes chewy (mochi-mochi) pancakes.

• DARS Chocolate 45G (brand: Morinaga)  $2.60
… Black, Milk, White

• Manna Wafer Snack 52G (brand: Morinaga)  $4.60
… Contain no egg.  Nutritious snack for people from 7 months old to adult.

• Wheat Free Soy Sauce 500ML (brand: Ichibiki)  $7.40
… Great for people with wheat allergy.  Made with 100% non-genetically-modified soy beans.

Sunny Morning

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…

Nippon Food Subiaco November 2011

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

Monthly Special 01 ~ 30 November 2011

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

a

Nippon Food Subiaco October2011

It seems like Nippon Food Supplies in Subiaco is the major grocery shop in Perth which carries mainly Japanese foods and drinks (post) now.  There are few more (I will write about these places later), but I think Nippon Food is the only one who does monthly sale on their products.  I’ve decided to write down their monthly specials here in Umeboss from now on.  October is almost over, but they haven’t created November catalogue yet, so the below is this month’s sale items at Nippon Food in Subiaco.

Monthly Special 01 ~ 31 October 2011

• Mirin 1L (brand: Takara)  $12.80 → $10.20

• Snack (salty) 30 pieces (product name: umain-bou) $9.00 → $7.20

• Green tea soba noodles dry 200g (brand: itoen) $3.20 → $2.60

• Barley tea packs 10 pieces (brand: hakubaku) $4.80 → $3.80

• Snack (sweet) 8 pieces (brand: Bourbon) $3.70 → $3.00

• Instant miso soup, red miso, 4 pieces (brand: nagatanien) $2.80 → $2.20

Featured Dish October : Sukiyaki

< Recipe >  serves 2

• 200g thinly sliced beef
• 200g firm tofu
• 500g spring onion
• 1 pack kuzukiri
• mushrooms
• 150ml Sukiyaki seasoning sauce

1. Cut spring onion into lengths of about 5cm.  Cut tofu into 4cm cubes.
2. Pour sukiyaki sauce into a deep pan, and bring to simmer.  Add beef, then tofu.  Once beef is nearly cooked, add all the remaining ingredients.

Prices at Nippon Food Subiaco

Sukiyaki seasoning sauce 500ml $8.00

Firm tofu 600g $2.70

Assorted mushrooms (fresh) $5.00

Thinly sliced beef (frozen) 500g $9.80 / 1kg $17.20

Kuzukiri 90g $3.50

***  For direction to use kuzukiri, please read instruction on the packaging, or ask staff at the shop ***

Free Baby Session Night at MotherCare

Yesterday night, sister-in-law and I went down to MotherCare in Melville to attend a free demonstration and information session for mothers and mothers-to-be. Sister-in-law is due on November 🙂

It’s a 2-hour session and we had to register our names in advance. There’re information talk for breastfeeding by a midwife, and also demonstrations and information guide for car seats and strollers by a representative from Britax and MotherCare staff.

The session started at 6pm, so I asked D to feed Hiro as we normally bathe and feed him at 6pm. There’re about 20 people attending the session. First, a midwife talked about breastfeeding, how to use breast pumps, and what to bring to the hospital. It was luckily that sister-in-law attended this because she didn’t know she’ll need maternity pads after having a baby!

Next, a guy from Britax talked about different type of car seats and their pros/cons. I thought the information was very useful. He pointed at the good thing on having a capsule (which I wrote about mine here), as well as its bad side which is that babies may get too hot in the capsule if stayed inside for too long. When he said that there’ll be no second chance if an accident happen and the car seat is not properly fitted, I started to worry if mine is properly fitted as we didn’t ask any specialist to install it. When it comes to a baby’s life, I think it’s worth going down to a store I bought the car seat from and ask them if it’s been installed properly. Good to know that Australian standard for car seats is the best in the world.

Then a midwife talked about safety including SIDS and using a baby monitor. She also did a quick demonstration of CPR. It was good to know that there’s actually a change in CPR guideline for babies.

After the talk, staff at MotherCare picked a couple of strollers and showed us how to use them. We could get 15% off any items purchased on the day (yesterday), and the strollers they showed us were pretty good, I thought. There was also some prizes gave away (which was kind of our main purpose of going there) but we didn’t win. 🙁   Two lucky ladies won Medela pumps and a $600 worth stroller!  We all got a free bounty bag which includes baby wipe, disposable changing mats and maternity pads, so it was nice.

It was a great session overall, and I really liked that MotherCare doing this kind of free information session for expectant mothers. I love their products anyway, reasonable prices and wide range of clothes and toys.  Plus they do sales and promotions quite often, and give away discount vouchers through few websites (e.g.http://parenting.thetest.com.au/thetest)

When I got home, D told me that it had been a disaster after I left… Hiro started crying during the feed, and didn’t even finish drinking 40ml of milk. He continued crying, didn’t take a dummy, and fell asleep after D tried settling him down for 45 minutes. It was a first time that I left him at night, so it might be the reason? But how did he know that I left? I gave him lots of cuddle and kisses when he woke up for feed at 11pm. :))

a

Bagelier is Closed

First, I’d like to say sorry to people who left messages on Bagelier website!  I put the message “close of business” on the website quite long time ago, and didn’t check the message box since then.  Recently, I just opened the website casually to check the admin page and I found so many people had left messages and placed orders since November! (><)

Bagelier is currently closed, and I’m not sure when I will re-open the business, as I’m still working full-time and do something else at home…  It’s bit too much now with my big tummy.   I can arrange some orders depending on the size and my conditions etc though, so if anyone has a question you can directly write to me at [email protected]

Thank you very much for your support and also reading Umeboss 😀

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe New Years … from UME xoxo

a

Ceedee Soaps

There’re many web companies providing the service where you can create your own websites, and when I was browsing yola I came across this handmade soap bar website Ceedee Soaps.

 The story is, the owner of this natural, non chemical handmade soap business is a 11-year-old girl, Clair.  This industrious girl was interested in online-selling business and built this website with the help of her father.  Together, they have became a team of hand making natural soaps at home.

Clair didn’t want to use any chemical and artificial things in the soaps from the beginning, and their soaps are made by all natural ingredients.  The soaps are avaliable in a variety of scents, and I love the natural looking website and packaging.  Each soap is very reasonably priced ($4.00 each free shipping in US).

I wish this young business much continued success, and can’t wait to see what Clair’s next adventure would be 🙂

Cream Bath and Furikake

It was just like heaven…  I mean, my husband gave me cream bath last night. 😀

I had cream bath while in Jakarta few times. It’s a head treatment session with some kind of white hair treatment cream.  At the salon they spread the cream on the hair, and they massage it into the skin and hair.  The massage continues to the shoulders, arms and hand too.  It’s really relaxing…

We bought a tub of “cream bath cream” from Jakarta on our last visit, and he gave me the head bath last night…  It was really good.  It was another chilling night, but I was wrapped in blanket and surrounded by heaters.  It was warm, and he gave me massage for about 45 minutes.  It was so good that I fell asleep after washing the hair –  like, I passed out completely.  I couldn’t keep my eyes open!  I think, my head and body were so tired and stiff, then the massage did something to push out the bad stuff from my body.  I had a good sleep, then this morning I noticed there are some red spots on my face. (not pimples)  They banished after I showed.  I think it was also some bad stuff coming out from my deep skin..

(image photos)

Anyway,

As you know, Japanese people eat rice a lot.  Even though many young people consume bread, pasta and potato nowadays, rice is still the most important food in Japan.  And, a bowl of rice, miso soup and some side dish (or even pickles) can be a great meal for me.

When I have such simple meal, I often add some kinds of condiments to the rice.  The easy option for it is “furikake”.  Furikake is a dry Japanese condiment meant to be sprinkled on top of rice.  There are many different kinds and flavours in furikake; some of them consists of dried fish, seaweed, egg, vegetables etc.

I like shiso furikake, which is a dried shiso leaves and normally red/dark pink colour.  It has a sour, salty flavours, and it may tastes very new to foreign people. But, I love it!  I can eat many bowls of rice with just shiso furikake…

If you find furikake, and you think “well, it’s only to be eaten with steamed rice”, you are wrong!  You can also use furikake as a topping on okonomiyaki, yakisoba, (depends on the flavour of furikake) and also seasoning of pasta dish.  Shiso furikake, for example, can be used to season cooked pasta and served as “shiso pasta”.  Or, if you have bonito, salmon, egg furikake (or any flavours you like), you can add to croquette or meat patty to give a hidden flavour.  You can mix furikake and make rice balls for kids lunch too.

It’s shame that some kinds of furikake can’t be imported from Japan because of the custom regulation, but you can still find few flavours of furikake at Asian grocery shops.  😉

a

(image photos from http://www.balivillas.com/spa/cream_bath.html)

Grapefruit Semifreddo

My neighbor left grapefruits outside their house with a memo saying “free grapefruits from the garden!”

I love grapefruits!  I thought it was a spring fruit :p  It’s refreshing, and great item to eat in the morning – healthy, and rich in vitamin.

I took 3 home, and ate 2 of them as they are.  The rest, I made semifreddo with it 🙂

Semifreddo is an Italian, meaning “half cold” “half frozen”.  As the name indicates, it is eaten as semi-frozen.

<Grapefruit Semifreddo>

for 1 x pound-cake tin

• 1 grapefruit
• 100ml cream
• 2 eggs
• 60g sugar

What Happened in Perth ?!

Some may know what happened in Perth, Western Australia few days ago.  There was blackout across the city, flood, and big ice balls were hailing.  BBC NEWS ”Power cables collapsed, hospitals were flooded. Some schools remained closed on Tuesday.”

Message from my husband:

“Lucky you’re not in Perth right now cos there seems to be a mild emergency.  There was a big storm that popped up out of the sudden, hours before I was sweaty outdoors then suddenly big rain + knocking sounds on the rooftop.”

” I was on computer when it happened and power went out.  When I checked the meter I found that it was raining ice block (hail storm) and you couldn’t see 10 meters on account of the violent rain and hail (mostly rain).

I freaked out because I couldn’t contact him for 2 days.  He said he couldn’t use computer, and now is at his sister’s house.  What a relief…

There seems that lightning struck something at WesternPower.  My friend also told me that the front grass of her car was hit by the ice cubes and is broken.  Many people was taking cold shower in the dark.  I assume all my food in the fridge is all gone by now…. but I’m happy to hear no one I know is hurt.

I hope everything goes better soon.

From Jakarta

Again… my house is filled with food from Indonesia. :p  They are all delicious and I sure like them.  But, if there’s a lot of food in the house, I just can’t stop eating!

Yesterday parents-in-law arrived Perth airport and we were having dinner all together.  The first thing they said to me was ” … did you put on weight?”

Yes I think I’ve been eating a lot lately, and was going to do some exercise, but I haven’t.  I was sick : I thought sick people usually lose weight instead of gaining.. (-_-)  

I know my body, and I always put on weight if I’m under stress.  Maybe I eat a lot when I feel stressed out?  When I was studying in Osaka few years ago I was living by myself in an apartment.  I was lonely, plus new school and new people, and I guess those things all became stress to me.  I wasn’t eating big amount of food, but I still gained weight.  :p

Ummm but I can’t resist this delicious layer cake!  It’s little too buttery, but rich and sweet.  Oh no, I hope someone else eat those food in this house before I do.