havent kept up with the obento blog lately heres todays!! mmm gyoza!!

最近お弁当ブログをやってなかった 今日はこんな感じ！！う～ん、餃子！！

and reading this and that of the SFI…

そしてＳＦＩ規格のなんやらかんやら読んで…

and found two cops outside. it did get me nervous. why? its not like i did anything wrong… lol arghh police. hate them.

そしてパトカーが二台外に居た。なんでだろう、緊張した。なぜ？悪い事したわけでもないのに…笑。どうでもいいけど嫌いだわ。

Okay, so they’re not evil as in blow up buildings and hurt people. They’re more like evil as in hide in a secret lab and make cool things. This site (Evil Mad Scientist Labs) has some really awesome projects. Of course here are some of my favorites:

Ice Cream Gyoza
Gyoza is like a Japanese meat-filled dumpling. Kind of like a Japanese version of empanadas. This version is filled with ice cream though. This would be great if we did the switch-aroo birthday party for my brother again (the cake was a sandwich, and the chicken was a cake – it was fun).

Dessert Sushi
Another classic it’s-usually-a-main-dish-but-now-it’s-dessert recipe. This is awesome if you don’t like fish (or are allergic to it). I’ve seen mock sushi before this is the biggest variety I’ve ever seen! This guy has a ton of time and imagination.

The Peggy
It’s like making your own display board (like those you see outside some stores). This can be a really fun project.

Crunchy Frogs
Yes, all you Monty Python fans, this is indeed an edible version of crunchy frogs. I sent this to a friend who eats, sleeps, and breaths Monty Python, and she absolutely loved it. Here’s a link to the video for reference >

SymmetriSketch
A fun little program for playing with symmetry. Great for making super awesome snowflakes.

A 12-Side Dice Handbag
Perfect for any gamer. I need to make one for a friend of mine who has an impressive collection of dice.

Jiaozi dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
up to 1 1/4 cups ice cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling:
1 cup ground pork or beef
1 TB soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 TB Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper, or to taste
3 TB sesame oil
1/2 green onion, finely minced
1 1/2 cups finely shredded Napa cabbage
4 tablespoons shredded bamboo shoots
2 slices fresh ginger, finely minced
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
PREPARATION:
Stir the salt into the flour. Slowly stir in the cold water, adding as much as is necessary to form a smooth dough. Don’t add more water than is ncessary. Knead the dough into a smooth ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, prepare the filling ingredients.

Add the soy sauce, salt, rice wine and white pepper to the meat, stirring in only one direction. Add the remaining ingredients, stirring in the same direction, and mix well.

To make the dumpling dough: knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball. Divide the dough into 60 pieces. Roll each piece out into a circle about 3-inches in diameter.

Place a small portion (about 1 level tablespoon) of the filling into the middle of each wrapper. Wet the edges of the dumpling with water. Fold the dough over the filling into a half moon shape and pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the remainder of the dumplings.

To cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add half the dumplings, giving them a gentle stir so they don’t stick together. Bring the water to a boil, and add 1/2 cup of cold water. Cover and repeat. When the dumplings come to a boil for a third time, they are ready. Drain and remove.

Using an iron skillet, or non-stick, using vegetable oil. Lightly cover the skillet just enough to were it is not dry. Fry dumplings on medium heat for 1 – 2 minutes on each side. Serve with soy sauce of your choice. I like tangy soy sauce myself…

Enjoy!
i normally serve with the beef noodle soup.

The Guts:
½ a head of napa cabbage
Ground pork (1 package?? I don’t know the weight)
Lots of ginger (1 decent sized root?)
1 medium sized carrot
1 bunch of green onions
Salt and pepper.

Chop everything up super fine, and mix it all together really well, in a big bowl.

Dipping sauce:
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
Chopped green onion floating in it…yup.

Kids like making gyoza with me. They were competing how fast they could. We can eat over 50 gyoza at one supper. Homemade gyoza is much healthier than ones in at restaurant because they have much vegetables and less fat! The ingredients of my gyoza are minced pork, chopped onion, cabbage, shiitake(mushroom), oba(shiso leaves), and any vegetable from my fridge!

I have a dear, small, Scandinavian friend who, like me, loves food. This friend has survived a life-altering, direction-changing year, culminating in a decision to leave London in favour of her Tokyo-based love, going via Denmark to enjoy some quality family time. Needless to say, she couldn’t possibly leave the country without first dining with me, not least because such a large part of our friendship exists thanks to passionate discussions about FOOD.

The Tokyo Boy had recommended for us a little tavern-style Japanese place on Goodge Street. I googled it and the first review I read scared me. A Japanese person had written it, slating the staff and taking no prisoners about their surly attitude to white patrons. No no no, we couldn’t risk it, could we? Not on our last dinner together for some time. Scandi-La was resolute, however. Tokyo Boy liked it and so would we. In the wake of her culinary courage, I followed her lead and we went to Yoisho.

On entering this modest little restaurant, it’s obvious that this place is run by Japanese, for Japanese, with Japanese businessmen dotted around the place sipping on sake with loosened ties. We sat at the counter overlooking the grill chef’s work and immediately ordered bottles of Asahi dry and some warm sake. We had two waitresses, both of whom were perfectly professional towards us (no gaijin phobia there) and one of whom bore a fantastic short haircut of some style and geometric precision. Behind the counter the grill chef worked tirelessly, smiling at us and nodding shyly from time to time. Scandi-La and I felt not one hint of hostility towards us, although our enthusiasm for Japanese food and a few words of Japanese definitely did not go astray.

On the counter stood a lucky cat with waving paw and a figurine of a beer-hugging fisherman replete with fish and rod. The decor was hardly inspired, but felt refreshingly authentic in its tattiness, as if we’d walked off an Osaka street instead of a street in a wet and crowded pre-Christmas London. As usual, we struggled to decide on our food but eventually settled on gyoza (dumplings), a mixed sashimi platter, another of tempura followed by eggplant with miso – one of my all-time favourite Japanese recipes. Added to this was a selection of chicken skewers – some kebab-style; others mulched into grillable balls.

The gyoza were exactly as they should be: light, soft and tasty with that hint of Japanese chive, but it was the sashimi that stole the first part of the Yoi-show. In a more favourable review of this eatery, someone had written that the sashimi was so fresh that there must be an ocean in the basement. This praise was not an exaggeration of the quality of the fish we were served. Scandi-La and I hummed with a united appreciation of the yellow-fin tuna, salmon and some sort of delicate white fish – all absolutely fresh and almost creamy as each morsel dissolved altogether too quickly against my palate, with barely the need to chew, but the star of the sashimi platter had to be the prawns. Previously to dining at Yoisho, I’d never eaten sashimi prawns. These were served vaguely blue, ready to pop out of the pink prawn shell, and my word, how they tasted as they slipped around my mouth! Suddenly I wished myself a pelican so I could eat such things all day.

The mixed tempura, a heap of gilded king prawns and vegetable pieces, was almost fluffy, so perfect was the golden batter. And when we moved onto the eggplant with miso, I was ascending to eggplant heaven. The eggplant flesh was steaming and soft and slushy beneath the generous layer of miso – which both sweetens and salts the hot fruit beneath. We dug our chopsticks into the flesh, careful to load them with both eggplant and sauce, humming with yet more gastronomic delight.

At some point in proceedings I ventured down the modest staircase to the ladies’ room, tucked away down a corridor in the basement. En route I discovered another dining room, filled with more Japanese people enjoying some post-work down-time. The ladies’ facilities were scruffy, as I’d expected, and there, in the corridor, was the sashimi ocean we’d been discussing earlier. Well, not really an ocean, just more of a large puddle. There was no sign of pipework or a leak in the immediate vicinity, so I wondered how it got there. Could it be a magic, sashimi-producing ocean? Could it be that a sake-swilling patron had leaked on the way to the loo? Perhaps someone had left their brolly there and it the water was its legacy. Whatever it was, it made me smile. Perhaps there really are secret basement oceans capable of producing dream sashimi.

The verdict? Scandi-La and I were more than satisfied that our last London dinner together had been such a success. As we paid up, the grill chef looked sad to see us go. I think he must have enjoyed all our happy hmmm-ing and humming, yet I have to be honest and say that neither diner particularly enjoyed the chicken, leaving most of the skewers intact. In short, if you’re hungry for sashimi in London, give Yoisho a go. Here’s how Yoisho scored against the Epicurometer:

Gyoza – 8/10 (extremely good but not remarkable)

Sashimi – 10/10 (absolutely magical from that ocean in the basement)

Tempura – 8/10 (extremely good but nothing unusual)

Eggplant with miso – 7/10 (very tasty and I hate to admit it but I once had better in Sydney)

Mixed chicken skewers – 4/10 (had the texture of cheap chicken meat. It’s not like Scandi-La or me to leave food on our plates in a Japanese establishment so this was poor going.)

Asahi dry – 10/10 (great to have the choice of dry and comes in large bottles so it keeps you going for a while)

Sake – tut tut, wicked girls! We chose a sake for serving cold and asked the waitress if it was possible to serve it warm. Yes it was and there was no fuss about it or trying to upgrade us to a superior sake for serving warm. I don’t know enough about sake to score it but safe to say that it was perfectly drinkable with that lovely warm rush that’s so precious when you’ve just been drenched by a London downpour, as I had.

Decor – don’t go here if you’re passionate about interiors, unless you want to see a well-seasoned Japanese tavern-style eatery. Upstairs is definitely better than down, and that’s saying something.

Eating at the counter – 10/10 for entertainment value, relative comfort and the fisherman figurine. I think he’d be happy to come home with me and live with Blue Monkey.

Staff – The waitresses get a score of 7/10 and the grill chef earns himself a 9/10 for being so friendly.

Likeliness to return to Yoisho? 10/10 as in extremely likely. If I weren’t watching my pennies before Christmas, I’d teleport myself there right now. Those sashimi prawns are what dreams are made of.

Yoisho – 33 Goodge Street London, W1T 2PS - 020 7323 0477

We grumbled that time flies and it's 4th day already. We don't want to go back to Singapore that soon. We went back to Platinum Mall again. Haha!

We went back for the crepes cos it's irresistable! Furthermore, it's our last day in BKK!

Close-up of the delicious crepe!

We went back to hotel to unload our loots again. We always have bagfuls of loots after shopping at Platinum Mall. Look at the mess and Jane's loots!

We were sort of bored and decided to display our loots nicely on the bed and take a photo of it. It's my loots for myself and family!

Jane's loots!I didn't even manage to get a pair of shoes. See how many pairs she has!

Our loots!

While packing, I realised that some clothes Jane bought was nice! So we went back to the mall again! Hahaha! After which, we went to Central World for our lunch. Bought cup corn on our way. Their cupcorn is mixed with sugar and evaporated milk instead butter. It's nice!

Our lunch @ Fuji Restuarant

Green tea is served with thermo flask to keep the tea warm.

We had Chawamushi!

...fried Gyoza

She is a big fan of Japanese food!

A salmon teriyaki set for her...

I ordered a pork teriyaki set.

Total damage @ Fuji: THB 600. Less than SGD 30.00...

I love bears!

Boots! Their 'Watsons'! I love shopping there cos the products are cheap! Loreal, Nivea, Patene, Maybelline etc...

Taken on the bridge between Central World & Big C.

The 'dog poo' & durian cakes from MBK & Nivea,Loreal products from Boots! I forgot to include the Lays' exotic flavours potato chips I bought from Big C supermarket. They have Nori Seawood, Spicy Seafood, Chilli Hot Squid. My family loves them! And I like that Classic, it's less salty than Singapore's Lays'.

Chinatown! Jane said that the people there can speak Chinese so better not talk bad about them there. Haha...

I felt at home seeing all these Chinese signboards. At least no more Thai words that I don't understand.

T & K Seafood. It's packed. I didn't eat the seafood cos I want to keep my stomach for sharks' fin & bird's nest.

Cooking sharks' fin.

She loves birds' nest!

Fish maw & Sharks' fins!

Chunks of fins! There's even crab meat inside the soup. Not crabstick hor...it's real shredded crab meat!

Want some desserts?

Dim sum & roast duck stall

I didn't have the opportunity to try Thai durians. Cos I can't finish one whole durian. I will try the next time.

Jane's friend said that Thais prefer hard durians so remember to tell them you want 'nim nim'. It means soft ones. Haha but this word 'nim nim' can only use for fruits. I remember telling the massage lady 'nim nim' and Jane's friend said it cannot be used that way. Haha! But I forgot the right word.

Woman in power! She even knelt on the rows of durians to pick from the highest row. Kudos!

I decided to try their tang yuan...

Did you notice it? The signboard wrote '甜饼' instead of '甜品'

The menu are printed in 3 languages - Thai, English & Chinese. They even served us tea with no extra charge. It's just a roadside stall, you know... I am impressed.

Conclusion...the riceballs tastes the same. Haha! But their skin is thinner and softer.

Jane wasn’t feeling very well after the dinner so we went back to the hotel and packed our stuff.
We were grumbling how time flies and we haven’t shopped enough. Urgh!

We woke up very early that day, afraid that we will miss our flight due to traffic jam. Cos Jane ever experienced it before and she had to pay another $200 to buy another ticket back Singapore.

The hotel staffs helped us to call the cab and load our luggages onto the cab. They even gave the sobbing expression. Haha…they are so cute lar!

See it? I went with one small luggage and returned with two additional 大陆 bags! I really hate to leave Bangkok! The people are so friendly and nice; the food there are delicious & I miss shopping at Platinum Mall.

Jane 's not any better off too. Haha...she still said that she haven't shopped enough!

Call us kaisu. We reached airport one and half hour in advance. Well, better than missing our flight. And we went to eat Cream n Fudge again! Lol!

Step 1 of 3: Choose your favourite ice cream!

Step 2 of 3: Pick your desired toppings

Step 3 of 3: Choose your waffle bowl/cone

Followed by folding the ice cream with the toppings on the cold pan...

Ta-da! I didn't make my own creation, instead I picked one of the creation from the menu. I think this is Cookie Expresso.

Final step! Enjoy the ice cream! Hehe...

Jane did her own creation. *drools*

Leaving Bangkok... *sobs* I will back again next year! See you, Bangkok!

I love BANGKOK!

Grocery runs to San Jose are not an easy matter.  It takes planning and deliberation of what Asian ingredients may be necessary in the cooking that I will want to do in the foreseeable future.  On our last trip we did a pretty good job, producing a bill that went well into the triple digits.  But alas, there was one thing I had forgotten: gyoza wrappers.  

They were not to be found in our local American grocery store, so I decided to do what has become my favorite answer to such culinary conundrums: make it myself.

One cup rice flour, one cup all-purpose flour, half cup water, a pinch of salt, knead, and wrap!    

Onigiri (Rice ball)

comes with radish pickles

-Ume Onigiri (Sour plum) $1.75
-Okaka Onigiri (Dried fish) $1.75
-Kashiwa Onigiri (Checken pilaf) $2.00
Kahiwa does not come with Nori (dried seaweed)

.
Gyoza (Pan fried dumpling) $4.00

-Pork
-Shrimp
-Beef Intestines
-Extra Crispy

Extra crispy dumpling is at half price on Saturday and Sunday.

Weekend Special

These Asian dumplings may seem like a big fuss but they’re really very easy to make. Fresh potsticker wrappers can be found in almost any large supermarket these days. Sometimes called gyoza or wonton wrappers they can be square or round. A package of these wrappers usually has 50-60 sheets, depending on the thickness. I usually make a double batch and then freeze the uncooked dumplings I’m not using individually on a cookie sheet for use in other recipes. When frozen solid they can just be dropped into a large freezer bag and used whenever needed. I’ve made thousands of these over the years (no exaggeration) and find that working in an assembly line fashion of 6-8 wrappers at a time means I can form 50 dumplings in less than 15 minutes.

Once assembled, you have the basic ingredient for any number of appetizer, soup or main dishes. Deep fried till crispy they become fried wontons. Dropped into hot broth they are wonton soup. Once fried and steamed as in this recipe, they can be served with a soy sauce/vinegar dip and are called potstickers or served with stir fried vegetables on top of them which makes them “subgum wonton”, one of my all time favorite take out dishes from our Chinese take-out place on the corner.

These can be filled with any combination of meat, shrimp and vegetables; this filling is a combination of chicken, cabbage and Chinese mushrooms and fills about 50 potstickers.

Potstickers

½ pound coarsely chopped boneless/skinless chicken thighs (about 3 medium)

4  large dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked

½ cup shredded and chopped cabbage

½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger

2 large cloves garlic, finely minced

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon granulated sugar

dash of Asian sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup peanut or vegetable oil

Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for about an hour. Shred and then chop the cabbage. Sauté the cabbage in 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil along with the grated ginger, garlic, pepper, sugar and salt until translucent. Set aside to cool completely.

Cut the hard stem portion from the soaked mushrooms and mince very finely. Place in a bowl along with the cooled cabbage mixture. Coarsely chop the chicken meat either by hand or by pulsing in a food processor a few times. Add to the bowl along with the sesame oil and mix well.

Place a scant teaspoon filling off center on each wrapper, fold in half and seal one edge with a fingertip dipped in a beaten egg, gently crimping the edge as you go. Place on a cookie sheet till all the filling or wrappers have been used (leftover wrappers can be tightly wrapped up and frozen for future use-leftover chicken mixture can be formed into small balls and dropped into broth).

In a large non-stick skillet heat the peanut oil on medium high heat. Place the desired number of dumplings in the oil and fry without turning till golden brown on the bottom. Carefully pour enough water in the pan to come up to almost halfway up the dumplings and cover the pan with a lid. Lower the heat to medium and steam until all of the water has evaporated. Remove pan from heat and place the dumplings on a serving dish.

Serve right away with your choice of dips. A dip of soy sauce, vinegar and minced green onion is a common choice but plain soy sauce with a few drops of sesame oil, spicy chile sauce or hot Chinese mustard are also very good.

Our extra crispy meat dumpling, also known as Hane tsuki Gyoza in Japanese, is $4 on weekdays, but only Saturday and Sunday it costs $2! It is great for an appetizer and most of our customers starts their meal with this! 

That’s it? 

No! Also two famous Japanese beers, Sapporo draft & Kirin draft, are at half price($3) on Sat & Sun!  Beer goes very well with Gyoza! 

We hope to see you this weekend!!

Since I last wrote in my blog, many things have happened.

I got over my swine flu, but ended up missing the last week of lessons and the week of exams. I was so tired due to my upside-down sleeping patterns. Not to say I slept upside down, but rather if I went to bed it was at 5am-6am in the morning and I would get up at 3pm-4pm. Occasionally I didn’t sleep at all for periods of over 24 hours.
So I met with my teacher, Kanayama-sensei,  on the Friday at 4pm which was the last day of the exams. She tried to convince me to just resit the semester rather than take the exams, since I wasn’t doing very well in class anyway. Considering I was homesick, injured, depressed and tired for pretty much the entire semester ensured I couldn’t do better than scrape a pass.
Anyways, just after the meeting she mentioned that there was a party to celebrate the end of the semester, so I went along since my headache wasn’t too bad and I figured it would make me sleepy enough to sleep early.
It was a really fun party and I got to see my friends again. It was pretty cheap considering it was all you can drink and they gave us some nice-ish food. Best thing was socialising with the teachers (Song-sensei and Kanayama-sensei both sat at our table in the izakaya) and seeing Chanelle mix drinks while trying not to get caught by the izakaya staff, having brought her own selection in with the intention of mixing mojitos and pina coladas for the teachers. For some reason they had never tried them before.

I went home afterwards, having to wait half an hour for the bus (bought some cakes from the Little Mermaid bakery before it closed. They make really nice apple pies. Though maybe not as good as my nana Margaret or my little brother. Their apple pies are amazing.

I revised my butt off for the exams. Was in the library as much as I had been before I had the internet, though it was crowded a lot and I couldn’t get a good desk. I spent 6 hours there drumming causative and passive verbs into my head and writing out kanji after kanji. I even practiced speed reading, which came in so useful in my final exam, since I mistimed it and ended up having 10 minutes to finish the reading section.

I think, despite my mountains of revision, that I failed. Mostly due to my abismal performance in the speaking test. I’d just finished the 2 hour final exam and due to mistiming it I had been forced to miss out some grammar questions I would have otherwise been ablw to answer, and then had 10 minutes to read a 2 page spread of text and answer 2 pages of questions on it. I answered all the questions though, with the exception on the extended writing answer. It shook me up though, realising I had probably failed despite the fact I actually thought I did ok on the kanji and grammar until that point. I ended up with no break and went straight in to the speaking exam. My mind blanked, and the kanji readings in the text that I memorised that morning left me struggling. I made so many mistakes that I knew it was going to be a failure. I ended up getting upset and could hardly continue. I got to the interview part and got through that ok, except half way through I realised I was supposed to be using polite and humble forms and I wasn’t. So I failed again. Then I got to the roleplay. I had written out and practiced 2 of the 3 roleplays. I was better at the one on my experiences in Japan though, and knew I would do well if I got that one. But I was given the letter of reccommendation role play which I wasn’t as good at, and ended up forgetting how to speak any Japanese at all. So I gave up and didn’t finish it.

Kanayama-sensei said I only had around 50% before these exams and I need 60% to pass, so I doubt I will pass.
But she says I will be better off resitting JLP3, but it ruins my plans. I wanted to do JLP3 this semester, JLP4 next semester and intensive JLP5 and 6 in my final semester. If I have to resit, then JLP4 is the highest I can get, and it isn’t good enough to get fluent for my final year in Japanese at Newcastle University.
Also if I fail this semester, I may get my scholarship taken off me, and have to repay the 100,000yen I have already recieved. Though I can’t exactly help the fact I had influenza…

I have been pretty lonely whilst in Japan, but I am starting to get out more and make more friends. I went to Tokyo Disney Sea with the Soul Run people. I could only afford to go after 6pm (which is 3,100yen as opposed to 6,500yen for the whole day) but it was still amazing. I got to ride some fun rides and see a 3D Aladdin live show, and I bought some Minnie Mouse ears (they were 1,050yen though :S ) The fireworks were amazing. Everything was so Christmassy even though it is onlt November!
On December 2nd we are all going to Disney Land for the day. I hope I can afford it, since I am running low on money. I’m going to transfer more over this evening when the UK is up and running. I think it will be faster than last time, mostly because I actually know I need to go convert it from pounds to yen myself rather than waiting for it to happen itself. Maybe I will get a good exchange rate this time?

I went out with Gary and the guys from Canada House the other day. We went to a festival at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies not too far from ICU’s campus. We rode our bikes there, which was good because I needed the exercise. I hadn’t eaten all day but I didn’t like how small the food portion sizes were for the money they were charging. I gave in and bought some ゆず茶(Yuzu Tea) from the Korean food stall. Yuzu are a sweet citrus fruit that is very popular in Japan. It reminded me of how Lemsip would taste if it was actually yummy. Very sweet and tangy.
After the festival, some of us went off to Higashi-Koganei station’s side streets and got some Gyoza from this really nice restaurant. It only cost 500yen for 2 rows of gyoza (10 gyoza in totally I think. either 10 or 12) plus a bowl of rice, some pickles and some soup. There was free water on the table too. I had a really fun time and made new friends – some American, some Japanese.

I am hoping that I will spend the holidays going places with friends, but everyone seems busy going outside Tokyo. I can’t afford that yet. Maybe I can’t afford it until after Christmas, or perhaps not at all.

I am looking forward to Soul Run Video Night #2 (I was unaware #1 had even happened) and I really hope I have the money for Disney Land on the 2nd.

Ok, so it is time for another home made delicacy. Guotie, or Chinese pot stickers, is something that I make now and then. It is basically a fried Gyoza (Yaki Gyoza) with a filling made out of minced pork, spring onions, ginger and sesame oil.

Start of with mixing the pork with about 1/2 cup of  water so that you get a sticky dough. Add chopped spring onions, ginger, sesame oil and some additional seasoning (soy sauce, salt, garlic or whatever you prefer). Take a wrapper, add about 1 tsp of filling and fold using a technique where one side stays flat (youtube: “folding gyoza” or “pot stickers”).  Heat a non-stick pan with peanut oil, add the dumplings, fry for about 1 minute. Add water so that  about 1/3 of the dumpling is covered, steam under lid for about 6 minutes. Remove lid and fry for another 1 minute. The fry-steam-fry procedure makes one side crisp and the other side soft.

Serve with a dip sauce of your choice, I use sweet black vinegar. Enjoy bitches!

So here I am, back on the shinkansen, on my way back to Tokyo. Today is day 15 – the first day of the last week of my trip. It hit me pretty suddenly last night, but this time a week from now I will be home, probably in bed what with the jet lag and everything. I’m on a kodama shinkansen right now, the equivalent of a local train – it makes every stop. It’ll take 3 hours to do the Nagoya-Tokyo trip instead of 2, but whatever, I’m not in a rush.

So yeah, Nagoya. Wednesday, I went to the Toyota Museum of Industry and Technology. I would have been there sooner but I got lost on the way! I must have missed some signs, and I didn’t have a map, so I went way off course until I realized I was walking too far form what the information I read had suggested. On the plus side, I discovered just how awesome Calpis soda is, and I eventually got to the museum.

It was cool seeing how the company got started with machines for textiles and then became the auto giant it is today. There were lots of robots on display, between the Toyota Partner Robot, a small humanoid that can play musical instruments, and all the robots used in auto manufacturing. Also cool were the replicas of the materials testing lab and the prototype plant used for R&D on the first Toyota cars.

After that I went to Noritake park, which is pretty small and not all that special. It seems it was converted from the site of some kilns, so I guess pottery used to be produced on the grounds. I saw a really fancy looking restaurant, with an even fancier-sounding menu. Nothing really appealed to me, and I didn’t agree with the prices (they seemed low for what they were) so I continued on my way. Continuing to wander, I came across what appeared to be a photo shoot, in that there was a photographer with expensive-looking equipment and a pretty girl striking poses. I suppose the red brick buildings would be an interesting backdrop. I stopped at a Lawson convenience store for food and retreated to the ryokan to eat and veg.

Yesterday I went to Nagoya Castle, which is going some pretty significant and blatant renovations. I say blatant, even though it’s probably not the right word, because there’s a huge concrete structure that looks like it could become a warehouse on the approach from the castle gate to the castle itself that you are forced to go around. All in all the castle wasn’t nearly as good as Osaka or Himeji Castles. There was little English signage, probably around half of the exhibits. On the top floor observation deck/souvenir shop, you had to look out windows instead of being able to go outside, like you could at Osaka, and the grounds just weren’t that impressive. I’m mostly comparing to Osaka Castle here, since both have been converted into museums. Himeji Castle is on its own and scores huge points for authenticity. If you are reading this and considering going to Japan, skip Nagoya Castle and go straight to Osaka and Himeji.

On the plus side, the kishimen place on the grounds was great! Kishimen is a Nagoya specialty, handmade flat noodles.

After that I went to the city center and wandered a bit, and sat down by a fountain to people-watch and rest my feet. When two people came by and lit up cigarettes right next to me, it was time to move on. I started heading to the Nagoya Science Museum, since that was my backup if I found myself with too much free time. Enroute I stopped at an arcade and played a few games. At a couple arcades I’ve seen these large pods, the inside set up like a mecha cockpit, and it appears to be a networked Gundam team deathmatch game. I wanted to try it but the coin-op didn’t take my coins. It looks like you need to buy some sort of card first. I didn’t bother due to lack of English instructions. I figured I could sort out the game’s controls once I was playing.

The science museum was pretty lame. The content is geared towards grade school kids and there is no English signage worth mentioning. So around 3:15 I found myself wandering back to the ryokan. I discovered I had walked by robot ramen Tuesday night without knowing it, which was kinda cool. I wonder what is around Jimbocho that I want to check out but don’t realize is so close. Robot ramen itself was pretty cool. I took a video of my ramen being prepared, but Angelica took a better one when she was there. I also had robot gyoza, which was good but I think Kobe Chinatown’s was better.

As for the ryokan itself? The traditional room was interesting but sleeping was uncomfortable. Both the mat and pillow were hard, and my sides are sore as a result. It was difficult to get comfortable to say the least. I’m looking forward to my hotel in Tokyo, where I will have a bed again, and for the first time on my trip, a chair with a back in my room.

Photos

I could wax lyrical about this, but as they say “a picture is worth a thousands words” (not that there is any danger of me writing that much”, but perhaps this is one of the dishes to just look at without my incoherent ramblings…

Oh, go on then…just a few apt sentences then.

Homemade soup stock using very good quality dashi sent from Japan, ramen noodles, some chicken, a bunch of dumplings from our local Chinese supermarket and then topped with homemade pickled spring onions…

…delicious – wonderful on a cold day like today!

Tonight I pushed onward with the Harumi project, but instead of our usual little tête-à-tête we had a lovely group of close friends over for dinner, which was great because it gave me a chance to do take on some of the more group-oriented recipes in Harumi’s book.

Here’s what was on the menu:

Japanese Somen Noodle Salad

Gyoza (Chinese style dumplings)

Ginger Mashed Potatoes

Pot Roast Pork

We all loved the wonderful salad, which apparently out of all of Harumi’s recipes is her husband’s favorite. It is so good, in fact, that I will do a separate post on it after this so you can have the recipe.

The gyoza was very good too, but it certainly required a formidable amount of preparation.

First you peel the prawns, mince half of it and cut the other half, then mix it all with the minced pork, sake, salt, sugar and grated ginger. (I forgot to add in the chicken stock and flour but I don’t think it really mattered since the mixture held it’s shape.) Then you add the chives and sesame oil, and fashioned small portions of the mixture into little sausage-like clumps, like so:

After that you put each clump into a dumpling skin and close it up. Then it’s cooking time. First you fry, then you steam, then you fry again. I never made the dipping sauce because I got all confused with the number of things I had to do! But it worked out ok. The gyoza had lots of flavour on its own.

The ginger mashed potatoes were nice – the ginger-soy-mirin sauce made it special and different than the usual.

As for the pot roast pork – well now the entire process of making this dish right from procuring the meat was truly an experience. Harumi’s recipe asked for a 2kg joint of pork – preferably shoulder – so while I was at West Coast Plaza last night I stopped by Mmmm (Meats, Marinades and Much More =), thinking they would surely have the meat I desired. They did have a very wide selection of meat, but their staff – who are always very nice – informed me that to get a whole joint I would have to pre-order. No matter, I thought. I will get my meat tomorrow.

This morning I eagerly got out of bed, washed up and made my way to Fairprice Finest, in the hopes that their meat section, run by Culina, would surely have what I was looking for. When I got there I made a beeline for the meat, and saw to my horror that there was no joint of pork waiting for me in the display case (is that what you call it). So I wandered about the supermarket picking up everything else I needed, while wondering which meat shop to try next. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to go back to the meat department and ask if they happened to have a 2kg or so pork shoulder somewhere in back, and whaddya know – they did! I was so overcome I almost did cartwheels. And the nice fellow at the meat section also gave me a good long length of cooking twine for free – to tie up the meat with. Joy =)

So here is the awesome package – the biggest chunk of meat I have ever bought in my life:

And I finally found a worthy first use for my new Le Creuset French oven – bought at a massive discount at the Takashimaya sale. Here, my meat getting ready to roast, though it already looks cooked on the outside because I had to seal it in a pan first (sealing = frying meat briefly in hot fat to prevent it from losing too much of its moisture during subsequent cooking):

I wish I could tell you that was that, the hour’s cooking time went by without a cinch, and the roast was perfect. The first part was true, or at least I thought it was because the dish looked lovely, but when we served up the pork, we found the insides were still uncooked! I’m pretty sure the problem here is that I was too diligent in following the instructions to cook the meat “on a very low heat” – very low heat for an induction stove is very very very low heat indeed.

So I had to bring the pork back to the kitchen, cut it up and cook it some more on much higher heat. The good news though, is that the meat still turned out wonderfully moist, and was really quite tasty with the Japanese Style Wasabi Sauce (made from the meat juices, some stock soy sauce, and wasabi). And whatever – I cooked a 2kg hunk of pork! Whoopee!

I have become more adventurous recently and I have began exploring the world of cooking blogs.  I’m not going to abandon my cookbooks, but I only have a total of like 4 cookbooks, so I was in desperate need of some new inspiration.  And did I ever find it! There is a whole world of cooking blogs out there. Last night for dinner I made lettuce cups using a recipe that I found on Steamy Kitchen. It is a delicious recipe that includes half of a minced up green apple!  I was very proud of my ability to replicate her recipe so closely.  The most exciting part was frying up the Mung Bean Noodles.  They make for such an impressive topping!  I am not a fan of PF Changs, so I was glad to find out that these tasted way better than any lettuce cups you can get there.  Tasting this recipe made me add her new cookbook that came out in October to my wishlist.

I ended up with a lot of leftover filling from my lettuce cups last night. Today for lunch I decided to turn it into gyoza.  These were definitely the most exciting leftovers I have ever had.  I also found these instructions how to make the gyoza on Steamy Kitchen.  Instead of using the filling that is listed on that recipe, I just used the leftover lettuce cup filling I had from dinner last night.  I used dumpling wrappers that I purchased at the store.  Maybe one day I will become brave enough to make my own.  My pleating on these dumplings are definitely not up to professional status yet, but I was proud that they did not fall apart while I was cooking them.

This is a small restaurant near Liberty department store. They focus on ramen and have a nice menu to choose from. It is quite inexpensive as well, considering that it is central London near Regent Street with the constant tourist flow.

Ramen, glorious ramen! Please do have some at the restaurant. I can recommend any of the ones pictured below.

Wonton Ramen and Char Siu Ramen

Gyoza

Deep-fried Tofu with Bonito Sauce