Going back to Japan

I'm leaving Philippines and going back to Japan for 2 weeks.
Sorry, our delivery service will be temporarily closed from Feb. 28 to Mar. 10 since I'm not here.

One of the main reasons that I'm going back is to prepare for our cafe's opening!!
I'm going to bring a lot of Japanese things like cup, dishes and other accessories for our cafe. It's going to be an amazing cafe with lots of Japanese stuff!!

We still have a long way to go for the opening, but we are so determined to make our cafe something special, real Japanese and of course, interesting.

The picture above is "Yasai itame (Japanese-style fried vegetables)".
I get a lot of order for it from our Japanese customers.
Some people might think that we just have to simply fry it, but it has more to it.
Type of oil, timing to put each vegetables, amount of salt and pepper, etc.
I just love the moment that I've done everything perfect!!


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Our New Cafe & Casual Restaurant

Meeting, meeting and meeting everyday.
Our new restaurant site is located in global city!!

It's a small space, so we have to limit our menu :(
Anyway, We're doing our best to make it better and better!
Our interior designer is going to send us the 2nd draft of the layout plan tomorrow.
Still long way to go for the opening.

It's going to be a Japanese cafe and casual restaurant.
We're thinking about offering home-style pure Japanese food.
I'm now working on developing cafe menus right now. Hope you like them!

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Opening a Casual Restaurant & Cafe!!

I'm opening a Casual Restaurant & Cafe in Global City, Philippines!

So far, I can't tell you the details, but we're opening it in April.
Our store is going to be a Japanese-style casual cafe :)
Now we only offer delivery service, but since I can't talk with our customers face to face, we decided to open our cafe.

It's a samll cafe, but I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody there!

速攻オクラ料理(Easy and fast okra cooking)

Easy cooking!
This is a popular and easy dish in Japan.

Ingredients for 1 person:

5 pieces of Okras
3g of かつおぶし(Katsuobushi : finely sliced dried bonito)
1 big spoon of soy sauce
1 big spoon of ground sesame

1. Put little bit of salt in a water and boil okra.

2. Mince okra, put it in a bowl along with katsuobushi, soy sauce and ground sesame, and mix them.
3. Eat with rice!

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柴葉漬け(Shibazuke)

(Picture borrowed from http://www.akaoya.jp/)

Shibazuke is a traditional 漬物(Tsukemono) in Kyoto. It's made by pickling eggplant and red perilla with salt. It's one of the famous Tsukemono in Kyoto along with すぐき(Suguki) and 千枚漬け(Senmaizuke).

Although, it's a traditional Tsukemono in Kyoto, it's so popular in Japan, so you can find it easily in a supermarket in almost all over Japan.

It takes about 1 year until it's properly aged. However, nowadays people don't usually make Shibazuke in an original way. People put cucumber or myoga aside from eggplant, and pickle with vinegar. Originally, it was lactic acid fermentation from lactic acid bacteria, but now the popular way is to use vinegar.
Of course, you can still find Shibazuke made by traditional way, but it's hard to get one and much more expensive.


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カレー : Japanese-style curry (2)

In my last entry, I promised that I would write how to make Japanese Curry.
So, here it is;

Ingredients for 4 people:

Half pack(4 blocks) of Japanese curry block(I took picture after I used the blocks, sorry)↓

2 potatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
400g of chicken thigh
(about) 700ml of water
2 big spoons of oil


1. Cut vegetables and chicken into one-bite size.
2. Put oil in a pan and cook vegetable.
3. Put chicken in a pan and cook for a while. When the chicken starts to turn white, pour water just enough to cover the surface. Skim the scum.

4. Break Japanese curry block and put 4 of them in a pan. Mix the block until it melts and cook for 15 minutes and it's done!



I forgot to take a picture when I placed it on a plate...
We usually eat with rice, sometimes we eat with pasta or bread.
I'll upload a photo when I make Japanese curry next time.


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カレー : Japanese-style Curry (1)

Have you ever seen these??



These are the condiments to make Japanese-style curry.

From the right,
辛口: Extra spicy
中辛: Spicy
甘口: Not spicy

Even though it says spicy, I don't think that it's spicy enough. So, if you like spicy dishes, I recommend that you buy extra spicy one or put chili pepper in it.

I'll tell you how to make Japanese-style curry in my next entry.
Little busy for my yoga classes, hehe.

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梅干しドレッシング(Ueboshi dressing)

Since I wrote about Umeboshi in my last entry, I made Umeboshi dressing.
Here's the recipe for you.

Ingredients;

4 pieces of Umeboshi or Umezuke
30cc of soy sauce
30cc of Japanese rice vinegar
60cc of olive oil
1 small spoon of lemon juice
1/4 piece of onion


1. Remove the seeds from Umeboshi/Umezuke and cut it into pieces. Mince onion.
2. Put all ingredients into a mixer and mix them.


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梅干し(Umeboshi: Japanese salted prune)

I found Umebohsi in a Japanese grocery store here in Manila!!
My grandmother used to make Umeboshi in June. I miss her salty Umeboshi...

Umebishi is a traditional Japanese food. It's made of Japanese plum, pickled and a little bit dried. It tastes really sour and salty. It is easily found in a supermarket in Japan.

Since it's salted and dried, it can be preserved very long. According to Wikipedia, the oldest Umeboshi they have in Japan now was made in 1576!! and it's still preserved in a very good condition. It's proved that if you make Umeboshi in a very traditional way, it can be preserved very long, really long time.

Usually, Umeboshi is pickled with salt and dried, but now we have pickled but not dried Umeboshi. Those are called "Umezuke". In Japan, we have so many varieties of Umeboshi and Umezuke.
They are pickled with reduced salt, 赤紫蘇(Akajiso: perilla), 昆布(Konbu: kelp), 鰹節(Katsuobushi: finely sliced dried bonito), 蜂蜜(Hachimitsu: honey), and so on.
Those Umeboshi or Umezuke won't last long since they don't have enough salt for long preservation.
(Traditional Umeboshi has about 22% of salt, while nowadays we usually have about 7% of salt.)

Good Umeboshi is really expensive! The famous brand 南高梅(Nankoubai) cost 10,000yen for 720g while you can find one about 1,200yen in a supermarket.

Umeboshi and Umezuke have lots of citric acid and are said good to your health.
However, it has a lot of salt. So, if you don't want to consume a lot of salt, don't eat too much of them.

Usually, we eat Umeboshi with rice, but sometimes we use it like a condiment. Paste them and put them in a sauce or dressing.



Picture of Umezuke and the special paste that I made using Umezuke:)

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ごまの炒り方・すり方(How to roast and grind sesame seeds)

In my previous entry on May 21, I wrote the Okra recipe using sesame seeds.
Some of my friends didn't know how to roast and mill sesame seeds, so I put the procedure below:)

1. Prepare a pan without oil(Sesame seeds contains oil, so we do not need to put oil in a pan). Heat the pan at low heat.
2. Put sesame seeds in the pan(arrange sesame in one layer). Cook at medium or low heat, shaking the pan, move it to or from the fire.
*careful! Sesame seeds are easy to get burned!
3. When 2 or 3 sesame seeds splatter, turn off the fire. Keep shaking the pan since there still be remaining feat.

See the pic below on how they look like after they're roasted.
The image is small, so click it and see with a bigger picture:)



4. Grind sesame with すり鉢(suribachi:mortar)&すりこ木(surikogi:pestle). If you don't have them, you can use mill. When you use mill, only 1 second process is enough to grind sesame.




Roughly grind sesame seeds like this.




After roasting sesame seeds, we usually grind them. If you don't grind them, it's too hard to chew up into pieces since they are so small, therefore they will be excreted without fully digested. So, to absorb enough nutrients from them, it' better to grind them. In addition to that, grinded sesame seeds taste much better than those of not.
It is best to grind them rough and leave some whole sesame seeds.

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オクラのゴマ和え (Okra dressed in sesame sauce)

It's too hot to go out in the day time now in Philippines...
At times like this, eat okra and recover!
It's said eating okra helps to releive summer lethargy.

This is very popular dish in Japan.
People uaually eat this in summer:)



[Recipe]

Ingredients for 2 people:

6 pieces of okra
3 big spoons of white sesame
1 big spoon of めんつゆ(Mentsuyu: noodle sauce)
1/2 small spoon of sugar

1. Boil okra until cooked through. Drain off hot water and cool them down.
2. Roast sesame in a pan and bray them in a mortar (If you don't have a mortar, you can use mill. If you use mill, only 1 second is enough to mill sesame).
You want to bray sesame like the picture below.



3. Remove caps from okra and cut them into one-bite size and mix them with sesame, Mentsuyu and sugar. Then it's ready to eat!



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お漬物 (Otsukemono) -soy sauce based version-

Living abroad, I miss Japanese food so much!
Fortunately, I can find some ingredients for Japanese food where I live.
So, I cooked easy but traditional Otsukemono today.

If there is Kimuchi for Korean, Otsukemono is for Japanese!
You eat Otsukemono with rice. It's a good side dish:)

Cucumber in Philippines is too big compared to Japan.
I prefer cucumber in Japan.





Ingredients for 4 people:
2 pieces of cucumber
(If it's not like Japanese cucumber, but big one, 1/2 of cucumber)
2 big spoon of soy sauce
1 big spoon of Mirin
1/2 piece of garlic


1. Grate the garlic. Cut cucumber into one-bite size
2. In a bag, put all the ingredients and put it in a fridge
3. Wait half day and it's done.

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芝桜(Shibazakura : Phlox subulata)

I visited Mt. Cyausu where we can see beautiful Phlox subulata gardens.
Now is the best time to see their flowers!


Many Japanese people like to see Phlox subulata since it looks like Japanese cherry.
So, there are many Phlox subulata gardens in Japan.


There are some stands which sell something to eat.


We ate char-grilled fish!
It's the best!


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お寿司(Osushi)

In Japanese supermarket, they usually have packed Sushi like this.



This was 680 yen. Enough for woman, but for man, need bigger one.
The above price includes 醤油(syouyu:soy sauce) and 箸(hashi:chopsticks).

Do you see the green plastic thing?
That is called バラン(baran), which is a partition.
Originally it was orchid leave　葉蘭(haran:leave of orchid), the pronunciation is "Haran", but now we use plastic which pronunciation changed to "Baran".
It is said people in the past used Haran not only parting Sushi, but also for Haran's artistic apparance.


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イカ大根

It's been cold, so I made something warming.
This is a Japanese food that uses squid and Japanese radish.
It's a nostalgic taste for Japanese people.

[Recipe]

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 squid
1/2 of Japanese radish
10cm of dried seaweed
400cc of water
200cc of soy sauce
2 big spoons of Japanese sake

1. Remove inner parts and gristle of a squid, and cut into proper size. Peel Japanese radish and cut about 2.5cm thickness.

2. Boil water and put squid for 20 seconds and quickly take out from the pot. Put Japanese radish, water, Japanese sake and dried seaweed in another pot, and boil them.

3. Skim the scum and put soy sauce. Turn off the heat and leave the pot for 30 minutes.

4. Put squid and stew for 20 minutes.


You can use pressure cooker instead of a normal pod. It makes Japanese radish and squid much softer.


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ホッケの開き(Hokke fillet)

My work finally slows down, so I finally have some free time!

I grilled dried Hokke the other day.
Hokke has proper fat, unique texture and rich taste.
However, its freshness easily declines.

We can have Hokke at all times of the year, but the most delicious time is only for 2 weeks in spring and autumn.
羅臼(Rausu) in 北海道(Hokkaido) is famous for Hokke.
Hokke in Rausu is really big and delicious, so Hokke from Rausu is very expensive.
Rausu dried Hokke is about 1800 yen for 500g.
Compare to the cheap one in supermarket is about 200yen...

Anyway, if you like fish, you should definitely try one!


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お雑煮(Ozouni)

It's really good to be back to this blog.
I've been very busy these days, so I might not be able to update so often this month.
But I'll do my best;)

I was meaning to write a recipe of "Ozouni" since January...
"Ozouni" is a traditional Japanese food which is eaten in お正月(Osyougatsu)



What you put in "Ozouni" pretty differs in each area and family.
My family does not put many things in it, but in other families, people put carrot, potatoes, chicken, spinach and so on.

[Recipe]

Ingredients for 2 people:

400cc of katsuo(bonito) soup stock
50cc of soy sauce
4 pieces of rice cake
3 leaves of Chinese cabbage
1 piece of 油揚げ(Abura-age:deep fried tofu)
Proper amount of かつおぶし(Katsuobushi)

1. Put katsuo soup stock and soy sauce in a pan, and heat it.
Cut Chinese cabbage and "Abura-age" in rectangles.

2. When the soup boils, put rice cake, Chinese cabbage and cook them til rice cake gets soft. Put "Abra-age" in a pan and cook for 2 minutes.

3.Serve in a cup and spread "Katsuobushi".


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Japanese Green Tea (Part 2-抹茶:Maccya-)

I woke up and found out that it was 12:00!
Well, sometimes this happens:)
It's weekend! We gotta relax!

Still, the topic is about Japanese green tea.
I'm gonna focus on Maccya today.

Maccya is used for many things like chocolate, cookie, ice cream, cake and so on.
Maccya taste is my all-time favorite!

Speaking of Maccya, "宇治(Uji)" comes to my mind.
Uji is a city in Kyoto prefecture. Its soil and weather was good for producing Maccya, and it was pretty close to Kyoto city where the center of tea ceremony. So, Uji has a long history producing Maccya. "Uji-Maccya" is known as a brand of good Maccya in Japan.
In schools in Uji, as part of the region education, flow from a faucet is tea!
It's amazing.

Then, how Maccya is produced?
It is grown up away from sunlight. Pick shoots, steam them and dry them. Remove the vein, and ground to powder by millstone.

I think this tea talk continues a little more.



When I was looking through my old pictures, I came across this one.
This was 2005, when I visited NY library.
Amazing place!
I'm going to visit here again someday!


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Japanese Green Tea (Part 1)

Today, I chatted about Japanese green tea while at work.
One of my co-workers is from Shizuoka prefecture which is a major production area of Japanese green tea.

A good Japanese green tea is really delicious, and I love it!
In our conversation, he told me that he could not drink other tea like we buy at a convenience store. Since his grandfather has a tea farm, he was grown up drinking delicious tea.

I sort of understand what he says. It obviously tastes different when you drink bottled tea. Once people get used to good stuff, it's really hard to degrade.

Anyway, our conversation reminded me that there are so many kinds of Japanese green tea that we have here.

Japanese green tea is classified into many kinds by cultivation method, plucking timing and production process.
Here are some popular teas:
抹茶(Maccya)
煎茶(Sencya)
玉露(Gyokuro)
ほうじ茶(Houjicya)
玄米茶(Genmaicya)


I'll talk about more next time.



Japanese green tea farm!

お好み焼き(Okonomiyaki-sour cream sanded-)

Requested by "ProgramMax", I made Okonomiyaki with sour cream sanded.

[Recipe]
For 2 people:
*150g of flour
*1/2 small spoon of salt
*2 big spoon of sugar
1/6 of cabbage
100g of sliced pork back ribs
150cc of bonito and seaweed broth
Proper amount of dried bonito (shavings) and green laver
Proper amount of smoked cheese and sour cream


Sauce;
Worcester sauce:Ketchup=3:2


1. Mince cabbage. Cut sliced pork back ribs and smoked cheese into proper size. Mix *marked ingredients.

2. Put mixed *ingredients and broth in a bowl, and mix them. Add cabbage and pork in a bowl and mix them. In a small bowl, put smoked cheese and sour cream, and mix them. In the other small bowl, put worcester sauce and ketchup, and mix them.

3. Heat a pan, and put oil. Pour the dough in a pan and cook until brown. Flip over, put a lid and cook the other side until brown. (make 4 piece)

4. Sand mixed cheese and put sauce on the top. Spread dried bonito (shavings) and green laver.


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