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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Thursday 30 July 2009

Our Cooking Project #2: Ddeokbokki & Bulgogi

I guess we didn't have to wait long after our first cooking project before I posted up the recipe of our second project. On our recent visit to K-town, we bought a packet of garaeddeok (cylinder-shaped rice cake) to make ddeokbokki. At first we were going to buy a 1-serving pack of ready-made ddeokbokki sauce to make the dish, but I also intended to buy a jar of gochujang (spicy paste) and I figured the sauce must surely use this condiment. I thought that it couldn't be difficult to make the sauce from scratch, and besides, the sauce packet was completely in Korean and I had no idea what other junk (e.g. artificial flavouring/preservatives/colours etc) was in it.

After a quick search on the internet for ddeokbokki recipes, it became clear that gochujang is indeed an essential ingredient, and that like most stirfry dishes, there are no hard and fast rules for making this dish. So armed with the essential spicy paste, I made up my own recipe using the vegetables I had in the fridge, and had the help of my wonderful husband with the prep. Incidentally, I had some sirloin steak in the fridge, so we also made some bulgogi to go with the ddeokbokki. I've made bulgogi before when we had bibimbap at home so I had a rough idea of what goes in it, but funnily enough, it didn't occur to me to refer to my recipe.

We ate the bulgogi with the ddeokbokki wrapped in crisp lettuce leaves, and it was so good - who says healthy can't be yummy? I love using my hands to eat - there's something fundamentally wonderful about it, plus it means less things to wash!




Bulgolgi

Ingredients
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon mirin
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic, chopped
300g sirloin steak, thinly sliced

Method
Marinate beef for at least 30minutes, then panfry over high heat for 1 minute. Turn off heat, drain and reserve the liquid for the tokboggi. Remove the beef from the frypan.


Ddeokbokki

Ingredients
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cm ginger, chopped
1/4 cabbage, chopped
200g daikon, cut into thin sticks
100g broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets
200g garaeddeok (cylinder-shaped rice cake)
3 teaspoons gochujang (spicy Korean paste)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
A couple tablespoons of water

Method
1. Prepare the rice cake according to the packet instructions - which was all in Korean, but the picture seems to suggest that I put them in boiling water, so I boiled it for only a minute or two until the rice cake softened.
2. Heat the oil in the frypan and cook the chopped onion over medium heat for a few minutes.
3. Add the garlic and ginger to the frypan and stirfry for a minute until fragrant.
4. Add the daikon and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the broccoli and cabbage.
5. Stirfry the lot for a few minutes until the cabbage has softened slightly. Meanwhile, mix together the gochujang, sugar, chilli powder and water.
6. Add the prepared rice cake cylinders into the frypan with the gochujang mixture and continue to stirfry until vegetables are cooked.

Friday 24 July 2009

Rotisserie Chicken Vendor, Tokyo

When we were still living in Australia, if we wanted to quickly satisfy a craving for rotisserie or roast chicken (i.e. without the effort and time of cooking one ourselves) it was just a matter of heading to the nearest Woolies or Coles supermarket and grabbing a hot packet of roast chicken, or to Red Rooster or Chicken Treat and ordering one. Here in Tokyo, it's not so easy - raw whole chickens aren't even readily available from the standard supermarket (I source them instead from a meat wholesaler grocery store), and the likes of Red Rooster and Chicken Treat are nowhere to be found. We are often in Hiroo for some reason or another (most recently for Gymboree), and one weekend a while ago, our noses led us to a van/cart with a built-in rotisserie station selling freshly cooked-on-the-spit small chicken, located next to the National Azabu Supermarket.

Vendor cutting up the chicken (these photos were taken using Rob's iPhone):


It seems to operate only on weekends because I am often in the area on weekdays when this van is nowhere in sight. Prices are quite steep for such small chicken (2300yen for a whole chook, 1300yen for half), but we decided to give it a try anyway. Half a chicken was barely enough for the both of us, but perhaps we just have big appetites. I thought it was seasoned rather heavily with salt, but I guess it needs to penetrate to the flesh underneath the skin, especially if you're like me and discard the chicken skin (to Rob who happily ate it). I also thought it was dry and somewhat overcooked, but I did have the white meat which tend to dry out if even slightly overcooked. Overall, it was nice, but not too sure if we'll be having it again.

Close-up of the chicken:


Rotisseries & Roasters on Foodista

Thursday 23 July 2009

Our Cooking Project #1: Chicken, Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

Rob and I recently decided to start doing cooking projects together on a regular basis on weekends as a couple thing, and our first project was this unbelievably delicious Chicken, Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni. I'm not being biased here just because we cooked it - this was the best stuffed pasta I have ever eaten, better even than the ones I've eaten at restaurants. Getting the ingredients was not as easy (or as cheap) in Tokyo as it would have been if we were in Australia or New York, but it wasn't impossible. It was well worth the effort and the discomfort from the extra heat generated by the oven. Of course, when I say we cooked this "together", I meant that we had to take turns in the kitchen and looking after Zak: Rob did the prep while I breastfed the baby, then I cooked the filling, sauce and lasagna sheets ready for assembling while Rob watched Zak during his playtime. We did get in the (tiny) kitchen together for the final step of assembling the cannelloni while Zak watched the hustle and bustle from the safety of his playpen in the adjacent living room. It was all about great teamwork! This wasn't just about making a delicious dish - it really felt good to do something as a couple, something that has become somewhat of a rare occurrence since Zak was born. (By the way, the last thing we cooked together was almost a year ago.)

How we enjoyed eating lunch that day - but don't just take our word for it - do give this recipe a try and see for yourself how delicious it is! The recipe was adapted from several recipes on Taste.com.au, because, as always, I cannot simply follow just one recipe - where would the creativity in cooking be if I didn't add my touch to the recipe?

I just could not get a good photogenic shot of the cannelloni after plating, so it may not look very appetising but we relished every bite of it:


Chicken, Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

Serves 2 (with big appetites), 3200kJ/762cal per serve

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large brown onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
200g minced chicken
250g spinach, chopped
250g ricotta
1/2teaspoon nutmeg
Italian herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, sage)
690g bottle of passata (tomato puree)
salt and pepper
Grated mozzarella (as much as you desire, we used about 50g)
~100g dried lasagna sheets (7 sheets of the Barilla brand), boiled briefly to soften enough to be pliable without breaking but not soft enough to tear - a step before the edible al dente stage

Method

Prepare the filling and sauce

1. Heat oil in frypan over medium heat and cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes until the onion is soft and slightly caramelised. Set aside half of the cooked onion and garlic mix.
2. Add the chicken mince to the remaining half onion and garlic mix in the frypan, and cook for a couple of minutes until the meat changes colour, breaking up lumps as you cook.
3. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and allow to cool. Briefly blanch the chopped spinach in boiling water, then drain it and allow to cool. Add the spinach, ricotta and nutmeg to the chicken in the mixing bowl, and season with salt, pepper and herbs to taste. Mix well.
4. To make the sauce, return the reserved onion and garlic mix to the frypan and add the passata. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for a few minutes over low heat. Season with salt, pepper and herbs to taste.

The oh-so-photogenic shot of the filling mix in the bowl; and the sauce in the pan:


Assembling

5. Preheat the oven to 180degC.
6. Place one of the lasagna sheets on a flat surface, and spoon some of the filling along one short edge of the pasta. Roll it up, and repeat for all the lasagna sheets or until filling is used up.



7. Spread half the tomato sauce over the base of a 20cmx30cm baking dish, and arrange the cannelloni in the dish.



8. Spread the remaining sauce over the cannelloni and top with grated cheese.
9. Bake for 20 minutes, and serve with salad.

Before and after baking:

Saturday 18 July 2009

Delicious Korean @ Kanton no Omoide, Tokyo

Eager to rid the taste of disappointment from dinner at a certain Singaporean restaurant, we headed to Tokyo's Koreatown in Shin-Okubo the next day in the hopes of having a much better dining experience. We enjoyed the sweet taste of success at a restaurant called Kanton no Omoide - kanton is Korean for an empty can, and omoide is Japanese for memories, so the restaurant's name means "memories that fill an empty can" (or something like that). The restaurant plays on the nostalgia theme, and the interior of the restaurant was filled with images from the 60s and 70s. I'm certain the same theme runs in the restaurant's branches in Shinjuku and one less than 200m down the road from the one we entered. We both adore Korean food, and I can't believe it's taken us this long to go to Koreatown and try the food there. Zak got a lot of attention while we were in K-town, more than usual, rivalled perhaps only by the attention he got during our trip to Okinawa. I suppose babies are not frequently seen in and around Shinjuku which is known for its 'colourful' nightlife (to put it nicely).

It's a popular restaurant and it was packed when we arrived at lunch time. As far as I could tell, the waitstaff were Korean, which was a promising sign that at least the food would be the real deal. We were put in the corner table of the room, which was a good thing because we had a baby with us, but we had a lot of trouble getting the waitstaff's attention. It was only at the end of our meal that we realised there was a little buzzer button on the menu holder on every table - it was so easily missed because it was so small and we mistook it to be part of the decoration. The menu was completely in Korean and Japanese, which was rather overwhelming because of the huge variety of dishes available combined with our relative unfamiliarity with Korean dishes other than the standard Korean dishes of bibimbap and bulgolgi. We wanted to try something different, but had no idea what was good, and in the end I just relied on the photos (Rob was busy with feeding Zak his lunch and left it up to me to make the order).

As soon as we were seated, the banchan (complimentary side dishes) were placed on the table. We were starving so it was good to munch on something while pondering over the menu. Four types of banchan: gobo (burdock root), kongnamul (seasoned beansprouts), cold tofu and kimchi daikon. I've always liked Chapchae (stir-fried cellophane noodles) so I got the half-sized order (850yen) to enjoy as a side dish (normal size is 1260yen). It was delicious with the fragrance of garlic and sesame oil, chewy black fungus and crisp vegetables.

The four banchan; and Chapchae:


I also ordered the half-size serving of Chijimi (seafood pancakes aka pajeon and buchimgae) because that was the only dish Rob expressly requested (700yen for half size, 1575yen for normal size). It was really good - crispy, crunchy and plenty of seafood yet surprisingly not overly greasy. Rob declared it to be the best version of seafood chijimi/haemul pajeon he's ever had (and we've had a few in different countries).

For the main dish, the photo for Possam looked good, and the method of eating it seemed interesting enough. There are two sizes available depending on the number of people sharing the dish - medium size for 1869yen (1-2 people), and large size for 3129yen (3-4 people). To eat, you wrap the meat in a Chinese cabbage leaf with ssamjang (delicious spicy paste) and/or sweet kimchi. Cut green chili and raw garlic are also provided for those who likes them. This dish was simply gorgeous - plenty of umami flavour, wonderful textures, and you eat it however you like it. We had about half the sweet kimchi leftover after we'd finished the meat and cabbage leaf, and we kept picking at it - there were slices of crunchy sweet pear, nira (garlic chives) and pinenuts. Simply yummy.

Glorious seafood Chijimi; and simply delicious Possam:


We were pretty full at this stage, but we just could not resist ordering the Patbingsu (600yen), an ice dessert. We were surprised at how big it was when it arrived at our table, but thankfully (or not?) the dessert consisted mostly of ice shavings underneath all the colourful toppings of fruit, sweet mochi pieces, sweetened azuki beans (which makes up the 'pat' of 'patbingsu'), cornflakes, sprinkles and chocolate syrup. It wasn't too rich or heavy, and was just perfect for the hot summer weather. We amused ourselves by giving Zak a tiny chunk of ice and watching his reaction, which was so funny that I asked Rob to do it again so that I could capture his reaction on camera. Yes, we can be cruel parents sometimes ;)

Patbingsu:


We really enjoyed our meal, and would love to come back here again to try other dishes on the menu.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Disappointing Singaporean @ Cafe Singapura, Tokyo

We're not usually so readily dismissive of a restaurant on the first visit, but you know it's bad when even their o-susume (recommended) dishes sucked. I considered not reviewing this restaurant as we had a rather disappointing experience, but I thought that perhaps I could save another person (perhaps a Singaporean food lover) from making the mistake of dining there. Singaporean cuisine is not very well represented in Tokyo, but there are a smattering of Singaporean restaurants around Tokyo, and Cafe Singapura is one located in Roppongi. Service was good (I've yet to be disappointed with the always courteous Japanese service), and it seems to be quite a popular restaurant with the Japanese people. I guess most of the patrons wouldn't have any inkling of what good Singaporean food is.

We ordered Coconut Milk drink (500yen), which was actually coconut cream mixed with coconut juice and some coconut flesh. I've never had coconut cream in a drink before, and it was pretty good in this combination.

Coconut Milk:


The beef in the Beef Rendang (1200yen) was fall-apart tender, like it should be, but the gravy was disappointing - I couldn't taste much coconut in it, and it wasn't spicy at all. And the serving size was disappointingly small, especially for a 1200yen dish - only three and a half chunks of meat in the dish. This was one of the restaurant's recommended dishes. We also got Pepper Prawns (1100yen), which was perhaps the only dish that was decent. I enjoyed the fresh and juicy prawns, but the plate could do with more prawns and a lot more pepper.

Beef Rendang; and Pepper Prawns:


The biggest disappointment was reserved for last - the Charkueyteow (1050yen), which was another of the restaurant's recommended dishes. CKT is Rob's standard dish for comparison between restaurants serving Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine, but what we had was not even fit to be called charkueyteow. This dish failed on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin. For one thing, most of the noodles on the plate weren't even the flat rice ones, but the usual yellow wheat variety. Secondly, the pieces of what we thought were lap cheong (aka Chinese sausage) tasted like hotdog sausage - definitely not the flavourful, fatty, sweet-salty ones. Thirdly, it was seriously lacking in any wok hei (wok "flavour") - in fact, it was lacking in any flavour other than soy sauce. It was very salty and not very enjoyable to eat. I have never been so disappointed with a charkueyteow dish before this one.

Disappointing Charkueyteow:


To add insult to the injury, we were charged a table charge simply for dining at the restaurant. There are far too many crosses marked against this restaurant for us to consider a revisit. The food at Hainan Chifan, whilst not the best Singaporean we've had, is more reliable and nearby (see my previous reviews on Hainan Chifan).

Thursday 9 July 2009

Improbable Quiche

I don't know why this quiche is called impossible, because it really is possibly the easiest quiche one could make! Perhaps it's referring to the relative improbability that mixing all the ingredients would produce a great pie dish? I was rather pleased with how well it resembled a normal quiche (albeit a pastry-less one) especially since it took considerably less effort than it does to execute a normal quiche recipe. It certainly was nice to receive compliments and praises on it too! My recipe is adapted from the Impossible Quiche recipe on Taste.com.au. This recipe leaves plenty of room for tweaking, and I imagine you can probably use any combination of vegetables and/or meat, but I wouldn't use overly wet ingredients (e.g. tomatoes, unsqueezed blanched spinach, etc) which would make for a soggy texture especially if you have leftovers to store. I also didn't have a quiche dish and used a greased springform tin instead because I wanted easy removal - this, in hindsight, was not a very wise thing to do for a crustless pie. A little leakage occurred, which I'd anticipated, but cleaning the springform tin afterwards was a real pain because of all the crevices. It was easy to remove the pie though!

I've also decided to include the calorie consumption in my recipes from now on to help make it easy for those watching what they eat. The numbers will be as accurate as my kitchen scales and the info on the internet would allow me to be.



Improbable Quiche

Serves 4, 1600kJ/381cal per serve

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
1 small brown onion, chopped
3 rashers of bacon (~75g), roughly chopped
4 slices of ham (~40g), roughly chopped
1 small red capsicum, diced
5 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups of milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup (80g) grated cheese
1/2 cup frozen corn
1-2 tablespoons herbs (I used basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, thyme and sage)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180degC and grease a 24cm diameter ovenproof dish
2. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, and cook the onion, bacon, ham and capsicum for a few minutes, stirring often, until the bacon is lightly crisp, the onion is slightly caramelised and the capsicum is cooked. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes
3. Whisk the eggs, milk, flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl until well combined.
4. Stir in the bacon mixture, grated cheese, frozen corn and herbs into the mixing bowl. Season with pepper (and salt, if desired, but keep in mind that bacon and ham are salty already).
5. Pour mixture into your greased dish, and bake for 45 minutes or until set in the centre.
6. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.

The quiche is also delicious when eaten fridge cold.

Saturday 4 July 2009

Revisit: Indian @ Nawab, Tokyo

We've been to Nawab many times before, and even had a take-away meal from this little gem after we moved further away from it. There's a reason why it's one of our favourite Indian eats, and I've yet to be disappointed with the food they serve. Last weekend, we felt like having some good Indian food for lunch, so we decided to get on our bikes, with the baby strapped onto Rob's back, and ride the short 10-minute trip to Nawab. (We weren't counting on the weather forecast to be that unreliable, and we were caught in the rain on the way back from lunch. I felt like such a bad mum for letting Zak get wet.)

Lunch time service in our experience has always included a small bowl of salad for each diner, which had a delicious dressing to make eating vegetables enjoyable. We shared a glass of Mango Lassi (500yen), which was lusciously mangoey. For carbs, we got our favourite bread - the Mughlai Naan (700yen), which came pipingly fresh out of the oven. The sweet nutty combination of raisins and cashews in the naan never fails to please our tastebuds.

The glass of Mango Lassi and my complimentary bowl of salad; and naan with raisins and cashews:


For our mains, we ordered the Chicken Spinach (1150yen), which was mildly spiced and delicious, and would go really well with rice. We also shared a plate of Prawn Chili (1000yen) - the prawns were lightly spiced and fried crispy, served with onions and green capsicum in a spicy sauce. This dish is probably not Indian, but Nawab does a very nice version of it. The prawns I ate were juicy and fresh, but Rob said he ate one that wasn't as fresh as he'd like it to be.

The Chicken Spinach; and Prawn Chili:


To end the meal on something sweet, we ate Kulfi (400yen), a coconut-flavoured frozen dessert. It wasn't smooth and creamy like ice cream; rather, the kulfi had a dense and icey texture, kinda like sorbet. It had a lovely coconut flavour, not too rich or too sweet, which is always a nice way to round off a good meal.

Coconut Kulfi:

Thursday 2 July 2009

Banana Yoghurt Muffin

Whenever I bake, I like to try and make the recipe as healthy as possible without compromising too much on taste, and this muffin recipe is no exception. I used less sugar, less butter and wholemeal flour, and the ladies at the young mothers' Lifegroup I attend every week gave this muffin their thumbs up on taste and they said they were happy it was healthy enough to give their toddlers to eat. Using wholemeal flour makes the muffins denser than normal muffins, which I don't think is a bad thing. In fact, I actually prefer the texture and taste of wholemeal baked products to the usual white stuff. I've also tried this recipe with 1 cup dessicated coconut which gave the muffins an added dimension of flavour, and the Lifegroup girls liked it too! I really hope they weren't just being polite, but maybe you can try this easy recipe and judge for yourself. I'll probably try making a chocolate version next time I'm left with too many ripe bananas.

Banana Yoghurt Muffin

(pictured are the muffins with the dessicated coconut)


Ingredients

2 cups (250g) flour (I used 50-50 wholemeal and plain)
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (50g) caster sugar
1 cup bananas (about 2 large or 3 medium sized bananas), mashed
1/2 cup (120g) yoghurt
2 eggs
50g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180degC.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the sugar to the flour mix, and stir to combine.
4. Mix the wet ingredients (mashed bananas, yoghurt, eggs, butter and vanilla extract) together.
5. Combine wet and dry mixtures until just blended (avoid over-mixing otherwise you'll have tough-textured muffins).
6. Pour the mixture into a 12-muffin tray, filling each muffin cup only 2/3 full.
7. Place the muffin tray in preheated oven, and bake for 15-20mins or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into a muffin.

Best enjoyed fresh out of the oven, tastes fine the next day, and is okay for freezing too.