Okay yes, I have recently abandoned my blog for... a very very long time. Sorry! Actually quite a lot of things have been happening around me. I just never had the appropriate mood to blog. And when you don't have the mood, you should just not blog. Since the post would only sound forced anyway. But here I am!
Ohmyy a lot of things have happened, I don't know where to start! Here are some of the main events:
- I've been learning to cook!
- Also been learning up the Japanese diet
- Dad's birthday
- Bro gets the ever-so-common-dengue fever
...Okaaay that doesn't sound like a lot, but... it felt like a lot, okay?
So a few nights ago, I was online as usual. And I suddenly had the urge to eat Tamago! It's Japanese sweet eggs. I googled pages and pages of Tamago pictures, and my craving was pretty wild that night. I decided to check out the tamago recipe and watch videos on youtube on How To Cook Tamago.
Recipes differ, and I managed to get my hands on one that didn't require any special Japanese ingredients like mirin which I do not possess.
Here I'll share it with you just in case you're interested:
Tamago Easy Recipe!
3~4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
And that's it!
All you need to do is mix the ingredients in one bowl (but I use a measuring cup so it's easier to pour to my frying pan). To make proper Tamago, you actually need to use the rectangular shaped pan. But since I don't have it and won't bother buying it, the normal circular frying pan works just fine too!
After you put butter on the frying pan, pour a thin mixture just enough to thinly (I stress on the word "thin") cover the whole surface. You should have a lot of the mixture left in your bowl/measuring cup. Then you fold this thin surface after it has slightly hardened (don't let it burn! Tamago doesn't go well burnt!) to create a sort of "roll"... but flat. A flat roll. Get it?
Anyway it's hard to explain this using words. I suggest you just youtube a lot if you plan on making this very simple dish. It's fun to make too!
Notice there are many many thin layers of sweet eggs inside the roll.
Oh and I need to mention this for those who plan on making tamago by following the recipe in my blog: you probably might want to cut down on the amount of soy sauce and sugar. Well, the first time I made mine, it was a tad bit too sweet. The sugar was fine, but soy sauce was too much for my liking. Just add to your own taste!
That night when I was online, I had another craving.
....SUSHI!!!
It's so weird how I get food cravings late at night when I'm online. And I always end up googling photographs of the food I long for and drool and swear to eat it the very next day.
So I did.
I had this wonderful lunch at Kiyadon, Taman Anggrek Mall with Susan and Chu. We went to TA just to eat some Japanese, then went home again after eating.
Two nights after that, I had another major food crave.
....
....
Horrible, I know. This time, I was desperate to try out Japanese food I have never tried before. It all happened when I was youtube surfing. I somehow landed on videos of chefs making the ever famous Sashimi, which is raw fish dish.
Then I glided away from youtube and to wikipedia, and to other websites specialising on Japanese cuisines. I learnt A LOT.
I learnt about sashimi, soba, ume, natto, onigiri, ocha, miso, and other Japanese ingredients/dishes. Don't ask me about the sudden craze.
I also watched videos about the Japanese diet. DID YOU KNOW that Japanese have the highest lifespan and out of their whole population, only 3% are obese???? On the other hand, 1/3 of America's population are obese, a.k.a approximately 10 times more than Japanese obesity rate.
Many have tried to discover the truth behind WHY Japanese are so damn healthy. I watched some videos, and here are the things that I... remember:
- Their diet consists
Ah nevermind I have just opened the video again. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51L0TlXxZ9U
If you are lazy to, I have very kindly summarised the (more interesting) points for you! Yay!
- Japanese noodles are made of buckwheat and whole wheat. They hardly ever use white flour! Buckwheat is very very nutritious, high in protein and fibre.
- Japanese favourite dinner: mixed vegetables simmered in simmered broth.
Remember, vegetables = good good.
- Japanese consume 2x the amount of fish than meat. Americans consume 47x
more meat than fish.
- Japanese only consume 48 pounds of sugar every year. Americans: 156 pounds. Sugar is more unhealthy for the heart than actual fat!
- Americans eat 30 different types of food per week. Japanese = over 100 per
week. The variety of nutrients in that!
- Americans consume lots of soft drinks. Japanese stick to Ocha, which is green tea. Ocha is known for its antioxidants. (The following information I extracted from http://www.o-cha.com/) Ocha also slightly boosts your metabolism and aids in weight loss. On the contrary, Soda contains a lot of sugar. Go figure.
If you are wondering why there are so many comparisons on the two countries, well, the one who made that video is American, so...
Yes, so you now know a little bit more about the Japanese diet. Let's go back to my Japanese food frenzy.
The next day, I had lunch with my Dad at Rakuzen, Pacific Place. I remember blogging about that restaurant before =) Here is my first dish:
Salmon sashimi!
Youtube videos made me really want this... I have never bothered trying it before, since it didn't interest me. But really, raw fish looks just crazy delicious. It is so soft, and it shines and the colour is just beautiful. So my very first taste of sashimi... and I loved it!
My brother's lunch, Unajyu. Basically it's eel on rice.
Also, another dish I've always wanted to try... Soba!
Soba is the noodle made of buckwheat flour. The one I mentioned just now, the healthy type. It can be served cold or hot. In Summer, Japanese eat them cold and in winter, the opposite. I prefer mine served cold.
Well, that is actually Cha-Soba, which is Soba with green tea flavouring or something like that. I LOVE IT. It was so fresh!!! Oh and just in case you don't know how to eat this dish and want to try it because it's so damn good like that, you should at least know HOW to eat it properly.
You can watch this very useful video on Soba-eating Etiquette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IAZVOlUMmQ
Or, again, you can just read my incomplete explanation. So there will be a separate plate with seasonings such as onion, seaweed and wasabi. You can put this into the other bowl with the brown coloured sauce if you like. Then, you take a small amount of soba noodles, dip it into the bowl of sauce, stir your noodles, and eat it up! You should hold up the bowl of sauce as you eat. Also, you can drink up the remaining brown sauce (which is called soba-yu, by the way) because it has health benefits. I suggest you watch the video. It's not too long anyway.
Next dish, is Chicken Katsu Jyu. It's chicken cutlets with eggs topped on steamed rice. Yum. I had the urge to eat this one night when I was reading some manga which had a drawing of Donburi.
Next, I had my long-awaited Onigiri! Yaaay I love Onigiri. I don't even know why I love it, I just do!!! Usually, I order my Onigiri containing salmon. I know Japanese often eat it with Umeboshi, but I never dared try it since it's known for being extremely sour.
Nevertheless! I picked up the courage to try it. Since it was my first time trying sashimi and soba too. That day, I had many 'firsts'.
The red thing is umeboshi. It is also inside the onigiri. Oh and I forgot to explain what umeboshi is. It is basically pickled plum in Japan.
My first bite... was salty. But bearable. It's not that hard to eat umeboshi after all! Quite an interesting taste. I might want to have it again. Like many say, once you get the taste of umeboshi, you will crave for more.
So yes, I ate a lot. I chugged them all down with my very healthy and delicious hot Ocha. Yum. What a great lunch.
That night, I went youtube surfing AGAIN. I skipped the food part, and instead saw more of Japanese fashion (which I am already quite familiar with from a past obsession), crossdressing gameshows, and visits to host clubs!!! Ah yes host club in Japan. So common. We read about it all the time in mangas. Now here I present to you an actual top ranked host club organisation in Japan,
AIR GROUP!!!
Ah yes if you could just clickie the link there. I have put on a direct link to the host rankings. So you can see who are the best hosts around. Did you know that in Japan they actually have host competitions? O___o
Maybe I will visit a host club one day. teehee. Oh and for those who don't know, hosts do not offer sex. Okay? Just in case you don't know and misunderstood my innocent statement just now.
The next day, I went out to Hypermart to buy some Japanese ingredients! Here is one:
Yessir, it is tofu. I love Japanese tofu. It's like the taste of life. Another fact for you: soft tofu is lower in calories than firm tofu. The tofu I bought over there is soft tofu. I assume you know which is which so there is no need for me to elaborate. In Japan, tofu is a summer snack. You just simply top it off with soy sauce, green onions, and others to your liking. Oh and served cold. Don't even need to cook it.
That was my plan for the night's dinner, so I set out cooking. Wow me! I'm starting to cook a lot! The path of a woman!!!
...ick sounds so wrong. Okay back to the tofu.
First, you just cut the whole package. There is a dotted line in the middle of the tofu, which is your guide.
It was harder than it looks... I don't know why I had to use that stupid big blunt chopper thing but oh well I might listen to my mom who is more experienced than me.
And squeeze it out.
Put it on a dish/bowl!
The ugly...messed up parts... since I'm a n00b.
I only wanted to eat it like that (well, plus soy sauce and green onions), but my Mom insisted that I cook the sauce.
So here she gave me the Kikkoman.
Pretty easy, just add oil, diced garlic, and add kikkoman sauce. It's very fragrant.
And pour to the tofu.
Finally, I put it in the fridge to chill since I do plan to eat it cold and yes, it is better cold. Cold food is good okay? The taste? Pretty okay! Though it was a bit too salty from too much Kikkoman...
That night Gucci slept like this:
The next day, was my father's birthday-eve. I just remembered about it at 8:00pm when I was having dinner with my family. So after eating, I immediately got to work...
Tadaa! Pretty nice eh? The idea is not mine. I was googling for Father's Day Cards to get inspired and found that this is one very common way of making a card for your Dad so you can try it too. The tie was made my origami methods though. There should be a video if you just google for one for I've lost the link.
The other day, I made a card for my dear friend Jo-c who just turned 16! ^_^
I know I used the same materials for both cards xP ... I don't have anymore materials...
Oh and before I forget to mention, in the afternoon I ate cold soba and udon with egg soup. Two dishes, shared them with Listy since we both couldn't decide for our own. Japanese food craze?!
So the plan was for me to make the card in the few hours left before the clock strikes 12. When it does, me and my brother enter my father's room and wakes him up with a surprise. Brother will play him a birthday song with his guitar, and I give the card. Just a simple celebration...
Until...
My brother slept first. He wasn't feeling too well. He told me to wake him up a few minutes before 12. So I did. And when he woke up, he was having a fever.... O____o Speak of timing!!! Nonetheless, we executed the birthday surprise.
Happy Birthday Daddy!!!
*Kiss*
Reading my wonderfully written card.
Alas, the surprise didn't turn out as joyful as we expected it to be... Since my father spent the night stressing about my brother. His symptoms pointed out that he might have dengue fever. What timing what timing.
And that night, the electricity in my house died.
What timing what timing.
The next day, my brother was admitted to the hospital. Well, I wasn't too worried about him since dengue fever is such a common case here in Jakarta. I've had it, my Dad's had it (twice), and now my brother. No big deal right? Anyway he's as healthy as a horse hahha. Good boy! Get well soon bro!
That night for dinner, I set out to cook! This time, the menu is Grilled Salmon!
The ingredients I bought at Hypermart the day before:
I thought it would be difficult but not at all. Very simple!
All I had to do was make the sauce which consisted of garlic, Kikkoman sauce (again), and a bit of oil. Basically it's the same as the sauce for my chilled tofu. Note that we only mix the ingredients here, we don't fry it. Then we put the salmon with the gravy mixture in a plate so the sauce can seep into the fish. Left it in the fridge for around 15 minutes.
Then, we took it out. We didn't use a frying pan, but used this other thing which I cannot describe and don't know what it's called but it's got two flat sides to it so we can put the salmon on the bottom side, close the top lid, and just turn the thing around when needed to cook both sides of the salmon. Of course, don't forget to place butter before placing the salmon.
And that's it! How easy it is! I served it on three big white plates, and sprinkled a pinch of sesame seeds. And as a finishing touch, I used teriyaki sauce to decorate the dish. Voila! Ah if only I had other garnishes.
I hope you're not hungry while seeing this...
Because I salivate each time I see these pictures...
Yeah anyway. Super long post.
Finally it gets to today. And for lunch today I had (again) soba and onigiri with salmon fillings at Kyoka. Spent around Rp 90,000. I'm a bad girl =x
Yeah so. Sorry for the utterly long absence. I hope this made up for it lol. And thanks for checking in for updates you guys. It makes me feel happy that people actually read what I write. =D Keep the tags rolling, and happy Japanese dieting.
