Tampopo style :)

Such a simple recipe and yet it makes me want to eat it.

The other day, I found a very interesting article called, for the lack of a better name, The Miracle Fruit. What this fruit does is that it rewires the taste buds completely that sour foods taste sweet. Lemons, for example would taste like candy with a citrusy flavor but without the sour bite to it.

Some guy in New York is having a Miracle Fruit party and had most of his guests rampaging through his personal fridge and downing condiments to experience the incredible sensation on their tongues, after foods offered were trialed and tested. The down part to this is that each fruit costs $3 and while that may not be so bad the company that sells it only sells it on a minimum order of 30 fruits, which would amount to $90 bucks + $30 for shipping. Pretty steep for 30minutes of taste rewiring.

But here’s the great thing, someone at ThinkGeek found the Miracle Fruit in pill form and are selling them at $19.99 for a box with two tabs. It is a sensation everyone should try and YOU must get some!

Read more about it in Wikipedia: Miracle Fruit

This is an easy stir-fried pasta dish that is made from a fusion of Chinese-Japanese ingredients. With the weather significantly cooler these days, I have been craving hot and spicy food to warm my soul :) Sure, chicken soup might work too but this is better…this is quick, delicious and is easily adaptable.

I used angel hair pasta for this dish but feel free to use soba noodles or egg noodles as substitute. This is a vegetarian dish but can easily be non-vegetarian with the addition of meat and bonito flakes.

Asian-style Spicy Pasta:
150grams angel hair pasta, cooked until al-dente
1 green pepper, sliced
1 large carrots, sliced
1/4 cup edamame beans
1 square of tofu, cut into rectangular pieces
1/2 cup sliced green and wax beans
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1tbsp+1tbsp oil

Seasoning (combine together before cooking):
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
3tbsp soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of mirin
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoon of water
1 teaspoon of chili flakes
1 teaspoon of black sesame seeds

Optional: Garlic oil, bonito flakes for garnish

Method:
1. Heat your wok/pan with 1tablespoon of oil and saute your carrots for 1 minute before adding the rest of the other vegetables in. Cook the vegetables quickly on high heat and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Set them on a plate for later.
2. In the same pan, heat remaining 1 tbsp of oil and add tofu in. Saute for 4-5 minutes until your tofu shows a slight browning on the corners. Add your onions and garlic and stir fry the three together until the onions wilt.
3. Add your pasta in for a quick stir fry and also toss in the veggies you sauteed earlier. Do a quick toss with all the ingredients before adding the seasoning in.
4. Cook the pasta for 3-4 minutes and remember to keep it moving inside the pan.
5. Serve hot and with some spicy chili oil condiment and with some garlic oil, if desired.

I personally love adding these condiments because it gives a whole new level of flavor and depth.

Kaiseki (懐石, Kaiseki?) or kaiseki ryōri (懐石料理, kaiseki ryōri?) is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner analogous to Western haute cuisine. There are two types of Japanese meal styles, Kaiseki or Kaiseki Ryori where the latter is use mostly in banquets.

In the present day, kaiseki is a type of art form that balances the taste, texture, appearance, and colors of food. To this end, only fresh seasonal ingredients are used and are prepared in ways that aim to enhance their flavor. Local ingredients are often included as well. Finished dishes are carefully presented on colorful plates that are chosen to enhance both the appearance and the seasonal theme of the meal. Dishes are beautifully arranged and garnished, often with real leaves and flowers, as well as edible garnishes designed to resemble natural plants and animals.

Originally, kaiseki comprised a bowl of miso soup and three side dishes. It has since evolved to include an appetizer, sashimi, a simmered dish, a grilled dish, and a steamed course, in addition to other dishes at the discretion of the chef.

* Sakizuke: an appetizer similar to the French amuse-gueule.
* Hassun: the second course, which sets the seasonal theme. Typically one kind of sushi and several smaller side dishes.
* Mukozuke: a sliced dish of seasonal sashimi.
* Takiawase: vegetables served with meat, fish or tofu; the ingredients are simmered separately.
* Futamono: a “lidded dish”; typically a soup.
* Yakimono: Broiled seasonal fish.
* Su-zakana: a small dish used to clean the palate, such as vegetables in vinegar.
* Hiyashi-bachi: served only in summer; chilled, lightly-cooked vegetables.
* Naka-choko: another palate-cleanser; may be a light, acidic soup.
* Shiizakana: a substantial dish, such as a hot pot.
* Gohan: a rice dish made with seasonal ingredients.
* Ko no mono: seasonal pickled vegetables.
* Tome-wan: a miso-based or vegetable soup served with rice.
* Mizumono: a seasonal dessert; may be fruit, confection, ice cream, or cake.

I am sure many of you have had a Japanese kaiseki before, maybe not as elaborately but the simple Japanese bento is a form of casual kaiseki. If you have had the pleasure of staying in a ryokan, you would also have had the pleasure of being served kaiseki style - the picture above is an example of a breakfast kaiseki in a ryokan.

I am sure many of your have eaten Castella as snacks during tea time in Japan. Or maybe if you haven’t been to Japan, I am sure many of you have eaten a sponge cake. It is essentially the same thing, a castella and a sponge cake. So, I am going to share with you a recipe on how to make sponge cake or, as the Japanese calls it, Castella, a beloved cake that came to the shores of Japan via the Portuguese. You will need to read up on the history of how castella became a favorite in Japan because I only know how to make it :P

Castella is a very light and fluffy cake, that is really delightful to eat. A true castella, do not use ANY baking powder or baking soda because it depends on the eggs as a leavening agent. You can use any flavoring to make your cake but I rather like the simple taste of vanilla and a nice strawberry filling in the middle.

Vanilla Sponge Cake:
8 eggs, separate the yolks and whites into two bowls
190gram/6.7 oz of sugar
95 grams/3.3 oz flour
55 grams/ 2 oz cornflour
45 grams/ 1.6 oz butter, melted
1 vanilla pod, beans scraped out

Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

1. Beat your yolks with an electric beater for 1 minute and add 1/3 of the sugar and the vanilla beans in. Beat for another 4-5 minutes until the yolks double in size and looks a pale yellow. Set aside.

2. Wash your electric beater’s whisk properly. A drop of the yolk is all it takes to sabotage the whole cake because your egg whites would not be able to rise to stiff peaks, which is essential for your sponge cake. Once your whisks are washed, re-attach and start beating your egg whites for 30 seconds first to get them “warmed”up.

3. Add the remaining of the sugar bit by bit as you beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. It must be stiff peaks, as shown in the picture.

4. Now you can combine the yolks and the whites together. Pour the yolks into the egg whites and with a spatula, gently fold the mixture until well incorporated. Do not over mix, as soon as you see that both yolks and whites are combined, move on to the next step.

5. Add your corn flour and flour through a sift into the batter. Fold the mixture to combine again, very gently. Once that is done, add your melted butter in and combine again.

Pour the mixture into a 11 inch baking pan (I used a 9-inch spring form pan, so I filled it up 3/4 of the pan and pour the rest of the batter into little ramekins) and bake for 30 minutes. Test with skewers to check if the cake is done, if not, bake for another 5 minutes and check again.

Let the sponge cake cool before trying to get it out of the pan.

Meanwhile, make your strawberry jelly, which essentially strawberry jam. All you need is 250grams of fresh strawberries and 25 gram sugar. Put the two ingredients together in a pot and mash it up with your hands or with a potato masher. Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat until it becomes a thick red, gloopy jam. Wait for it to cool before using it to fill the cake.

To fill the cake, use a very sharp knife and cut the cake into halves horizontally. Spread the strawberry jelly on the bottom layer of the cake and place the top layer after. Chill for 30-45 minutes before serving with a sprinkle of icing sugar.

via A Series of Kitchen Experiments

Takoyaki is not really hard to do, you just need the special moulds and you’ll be ready to make your own version of takoyakis (or any -yakis, for that matter). The key ingredient in making a good flavorful takoyaki is of course the batter. The batter is the matter in this case as even in the largest takoyakis, the takos/ filling only make up for 40% of the ball.

As most of you living in Japan would know, takoyaki is very much Japanese not only for it’s name but also its taste. A distinctly Japanese taste that you can only get from dashi stock. So the key in making a good batter is to make good dashi stock - feel free to get pre-made packet stocks. Understandably, they are more convenient but personally, stocks are easy to prepare and are multi-purpose. I would suggest making your own and season it to your liking. A good dashi stock recipe comes from Just Hungry, the Japanese-International food site that I have raved about. I like the website very much because the author, a Japanese herself, explains each recipe’s background in a very detailed manner. You can be sure that the Japanese recipes you get from her blog are tried-and-true. I have personally made use of her dashi stock recipe - which is simple and flavorful and would recommend that you use this stock in your takoyaki :)

To make takoyaki batter, you will need:

# 1 2/3 cup flour
# 2 1/2 cup dashi stock
# 2 eggs
# 1 teaspoon baking powder

Mix the above ingredients together well.

To make takoyaki filling, you’ll need:

# 1/2lb octopus, cut into 1cmx1cm cubes, roughly
# 1/4 cup chopped green onion
# 1/4 cup chopped pickled red ginger
# Other filling options: shrimp, crab and eel (you can use meat but to me, takoyaki is all about seafood)

For the topping:
# fried bonito flakes
# shredded nori
# Worcestershire sauce or takoyaki sauce
# mayonnaise

To make takoyaki balls you will need a takoyaki griddle/pan that looks like this:

Takoyaki Pan

But here’s the thing, if you don’t have one and don’t want to invest in one, you can transform your takoyakis into mini okonomiyakis on your non-stick pan. They are as delicious :)

Here’s a video on how to make your own takoyaki like a street vendor, homestyle :)

There is a recipe in this video, you can also use that version. But I have tried that batter above and I give it my thumbs up. :)

A Chinese rice dish in Japanese style:

Pocky has got to be my favorite junk food. Who doesn’t like biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate? It’s a very simple concept that is delicious and addictive. Pocky is a Japanese snack food that I could find in Malaysia. Funny thing is because Pocky sounds like a swear word in Malay, they changed the named to Rocky. The word Pocky sounds like “cunt” in Malay. Hahaha…

Anyway, I have eaten both Rocky and Pocky and for some reason, Rocky tastes like cheap chocolates tainted with too much butter fat while Pocky is chocolate-er…hmm. There are many Pocky flavors but the most common ones I’ve had are chocolate and strawberry. Not a big fan of strawberry flavored snacks because they always tastes like liquid antibiotics. I am not a fan of any berry flavored products, actually. I prefer the fresh flavors of real strawberries and berries to the processed food.

So what if you favorite Japanese snacks of all time?

Check out this pocky ad.

All that melodrama for chocolate sticks. ROFL

After watching the movie Tampopo, I was inspired to make my very own ramen. I didn’t want any instant stuff, I wanted REAL ramen with rich, real broth made from slow simmering chicken bones (or pork bones if you like). The result was an excellent ramen that is both healthy, low in MSG and fulfilling.

You can use ANY toppings on you ramen but I julienne some meat and vegetables to make a medley that rounds off an otherwise plain bowl of noodles.

For my noodles, I used 1 cup of all purpose flour,1 teaspoon salt, 1 egg and 2 tbsp of water. Knead until the dough becomes tough and satiny smooth. This is perhap the most labourious of all throughout the recipe but you will be rewarded with bouncy noodles at the end if you do this. I kneaded my dough for 10-15 mins nonstop. Important: Let the dough rest for 30 minutes before rolling it out thinly. I just ran it through my pasta machine and then cut them with my finest pasta roller on the same machine. Douse a lot of flour on the freshly cut pasta so they don’t clump up together.

For my broth, I laboriously boiled four chicken carcasses with a head of garlic, 1 cup of bonito flakes and a knob of ginger for close to 3 hours. But first, parboil your chicken carcass for 5 minutes first - this is key to getting a very clear broth with no grayish froth while you are boiling your broth. After 3 hours, sieve the carcass garlic and bonito flakes out. This will be your broth base.

To cook and assemble, I heat up a large pot of water, salted, and wait until it boils. While waiting for the water to boil, I took 2 tbsp of miso paste and added it into the broth pot - I stir to dissolve the miso and then season with some soy sauce. The broth is now ready to be used.

To cook and assemble, I heat up a large pot of water, salted, and wait until it boils. While waiting for the water to boil, I took 2 tbsp of miso paste and added it into the broth pot - I stir to dissolve the miso and then season with some soy sauce. The broth is now ready to be used.

Now that the water is boiling I tossed in my fresh noodles. It takes only 2 minutes to cook, once they start floating on the surface you can take them out into a serving bowl. Ladle the hot broth onto your soup and garnish with your favorite ingredients. I made some julienne red peppers, green beans, green onions/scallions and vegetarian mock meat as my topping but feel free to use beef, pork, chicken or seafood.

But anyway, I had to ask - What’s your favorite instant ramen?

Mine’s this:

Japanese food is one of my favorites for a reason. Just check out the video and you’ll know why. If i were to list my favorite food, it would be like this:

1. Japanese
2. Italian
3. Indian

Keep in mind that I am Chinese and while I love Chinese food, I only like the ones that comes from my family :)