Saturday 27 August 2011

Easy & Tasty Korean Style Stir fried Chicken Recipe





I made the pork version of this few months ago.
This time, we had some chicken thigh in the fridge, so I made the chicken version.
I also put egg plants, cabbage and onions this time.

Personally, I found chicken softer and tastier!


Pork recipe is here


Ingredients

*Chicken thigh 350g
*Cabbage 1/4 or 1/6 (depending on the size of the cabbage you are using)
*Eggplant 1/2 or 1 (again, depending on the size of the eggplant)
*Onion1
*Minced garlic 2 tea spoons
*Korean BBQ sauce 5 table spoons
*Mirin 2 table spoons



Instructions


1. Cut the chicken into eatable sizes, onion & eggplant into thin slices, cabbage into small pieces.

2. Heat up a pan with some oil, stir fry the ingredients starting off from garlic, then chicken, rest of the veggies at the end.

3. Add the BBQ sauce and mirin. Stir well.



Long time no fish!


Last weekend's dinner


Menu
*Saba with sweet miso sauce
*Eggplant and Tomato with sweet onion sauce
*Cabbage and egg soup
*Rice






We went to a Japanese supermarket in South Yarra and bought Saba fish!


I love Saba!
I don't get to eat fish much in Melbourne because they are expensive.
I was very happy to eat Saba today.


*Eggplant and tomato with sweet onion sauce




*Cabbage and egg soup








Thursday 11 August 2011

Chicken and Radish Nimono



Today's breakfast

Menu

*Chicken and Radish Nimono
*Cabbage miso soup
*White rice
*Blue berry jam yoghurt
*Mandrin Orange juice!




Chicken and Radish Nimono Recipe






Ingredients

*Radish 5cm
*Chicken thigh 200g
*Water (with 1 tea spoon of rice or, water you used to wash rice)
*Water 3 cups
*Japanese soup stock 2 tea spoons
*Soya sauce 3 table spoons
*Mirin 3 table spoons



Instructions

1. Cut the radish into eatable sizes (1cm thick is good). Then, make small incisions around the edges of the radish so that the radish soaks up the sauce when we cook it.

2. Boil the radish with the rice water till the radish becomes soft.

3. Meanwhile, cut the chicken into eatable sizes. Put the chicken and the rest of the ingredients into a pot, cook the for 10 mins (mid fire)with a lid on. Take out scum.

4. Once the radish is cooked, Get rid of the rice water. Add the radish to the pot with the chicken. Cook for another 5 mins or so.



Japanese Style Hamburger Steak Recipe 2


Yesterday's dinner


Menu
*Japanese style Hamburger steak in soup
*Cabbage miso soup
*White rice








Japanese Style Hamburger Steak in Soup recipe


Ingredients

*Minced pork 250g
*Minced beef 250g
*Salts&Pepper some
*bread crumb 3 table spoons
*Egg 1
*Milk 1 table spoon


Soup

*Water 2 cups
*Japanese soup stock 2 tea spoons
*Soya sauce 4 table spoons
*Mirin 3 table spoons
*Pea some (Tear the edge off)
*Radish 3 cm (Shave it)

Instructions
1. Mix all the ingredients for hamburger steaks well. Form round shapes.
2. Heat up a pan with some oil, cook the hamburger steaks.
3. Meanwhile, put all the soup ingredients in a pot except for the radish. Cook it for few minutes. Pour the soup into the pan with hamburger steaks. Place a lid and cook them for about 3 mins.



Serving instructions

*Place hamburger steaks on a plate, put shaved radish on top, pour the soup.*


Tuesday 9 August 2011

Easy & Tasty Marmalade Chicken Recipe


Today's dinner

Menu
*Marmalade Chicken
*Eggplant miso soup
*Tofu & Watercress salad
*White rice







Marmalade Chicken Recipe serves 2








Ingredients
*Chicken Thigh 200g
*Soya sauce 2 table spoons
*Marmalade jam 2 table spoons


Instructions
1. Cut the chicken into eatable sizes, marinate it with soya sauce and marmalade jam. Leave them for 5 to 10 mins.

2. Cook them in a pan/pot.



You might find it weird to marinate chicken with marmalade jam and soya sauce.
But trust me, marmalade jam goes very well with soya sauce!

Monday 8 August 2011

Tofu & Radish Salad


Today's dinner



With Teriyaki chicken, we also had Tofu & Radish salad.

This salad is easy to make, tastes delicious and looks very pretty.





Ingredients

*Mini cherry tomatoes 4
*Silken tofu 1/2
*Watercress (Just to put some on top)
*Radish 3cm
*Your favourite salad dressings (I mixed pickled plum dressing with mayonnaise. I loved it!)




Instructions


1. Shave off the Radish skin. Cut it into thin/long bits. Leave them in some water + 1 table spoon of salts for a while.
2. Cut the tofu into small squares, tomatoes into half.
3. Take out the radish out off the salted water, wash the salts off. Put all the veggies on a plate/bowl. Place watercress on top. Eat with your favouriate salad dressings.

Very Easy & Tasty Teriyaki Chicken Recipe



Today's dinner






Menu

*Teriyaki chicken
*Egg plants miso soup
*Tofu & Radish salad
*Devil's tongue (Konnyaku) nimono
*White rice







Recipe for Teriyaki chicken

Serves 2





Ingredients

*Chicken thigh 200g
*Soya sauce 4 table spoons
*Mirin 3 table spoons
*Minced garlic 1 tea spoon


Instructions

1. Cut the chicken into small pieces, put all the ingredients into a bowl. Marinate the chicken for 5 to 10 mins.
(Alternatively, you can marinate the chicken in the morning and cook it for lunch or dinner)

2. Heat up a pan, cook the chicken together with the sauce.







Sunday 7 August 2011

Hayashi rice

Today's lunch

Hayashi rice


Hayashi rice is a very tasty dish.
It looks similar to Japanese curry, but it tastes completely different.
It tastes like... butter chicken without spices,
Japanese cream stew without cream.
It's sweet.
Once you have a sip, you won't be able to stop yourself.
It is a dangerous dish, indeed.

It's worth trying!






It is not really a recipe...

Ingredients
*Box of Hayashi rice blocks
*Minced/thin sliced pork 300g
*Onion 1


Hayashi rice blocks are similar to Japanese curry blocks.
You can get it from Asian groceries.


Instructions

1. Cut the onion into thin slices.
2. Heat up a pot with some oil. Cook the pork and onion.
3. Add 500ml of water. Bring it to boil.
4. Take out scums.
5. Once onions become soft, add half of the Hayashi rice blocks. Cook for another 10 mins.

Ready to serve!







I love Hayashi rice.
I had it with some pickled cabbage!
Yum.

Saturday 6 August 2011

Miss Marples @ Mt. Dandenong




Few months back in April,
I went to Mt. Dandenong with my housemates.








There was a place where we could see a lot of parrots
and feed them from our hands.


We went there on weekends (I don't remember if that was sat or sun)
so there were really a lot of people.



By the time we got there, many people had already fed the parrots.
So not many parrots were interested in my food...



As you can see from the picture above, I managed to feed one!
It took us so long to get this picture!



There were so many other people standing still,
just like trees with birds' food on their hands...
they looked so desperate for parrots to eat their food!

It was quite funny.








Afterwards,
we went to Miss Marples's Tea House for lunch
(It's a famous cafe in Mt. Dandenong).




This cafe is so popular that
you have to queue up for a very long time
(2-3 hours!!) just to get a seat.

Plus, it closes very early,
so you must get there early in the morning
if you want to have lunch there.




Why is this cafe so popular?

One of the reasons is that
the cafe's name "Miss Marple" is taken from
a fictional character in Agatha Christie's novels.

They have related pictures on the cafe's walls.
Its interior is pretty.




We ordered...

Garlic bread



Today's Soup





Sandwiches (This was very yummy)





Meat pie
(I don't usually like meat pies but this was not bad)




Scones





I think, scones are the best in this cafe.
They are very soft just like freshly baked bread.




Well, the cafe is pretty, the food is quite good.
But better be careful.
Their service is bad.
Well, at least I found it very rude and unpleasant.



They don't smile at all.
We ordered quite a lot
but they were not happy.
They wanted us to order more!
They gave us wrong change.
(I guess this was by an accident)

Anyway,

If interested, this is their website:
Good Food VS Bad Service. It might be worth trying.

Back in Melbourne. Luxurious breakie?


Few days after I came back to Melbourne,
our fridge stopped working properly.


A small fan inside of the freezer stopped running.

Everything in the freezer started to melt...
so, we had to cook everything.
Chicken, fish, pork...
all the meat we kept in our freezer.

So our breakfast became rather luxurious!



*Rafutei (Okinawan pork belly dish)
*Grilled Hokke fish
*Mushroom soup
*Boiled cabbage with shaved bonitos
*White rice



Rafutei recipe is here




We went to see a new fridge,
but it turned out that
the fan in the freezer was just frozen and could not move.

After breaking out all the ice,
the freezer started working again!


Thank you Damien for all the hard work!

Thank you Saori for coming to our house
to help us finish our food.



The below picture is a souvenir from my mom.
A set of the Little Prince dishes.
Thank you mom



Wednesday 3 August 2011

The Lovemarks company


I completed my 3 month-internship at Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo.

I really enjoyed my time there. Saatchi is a really good company.
It is the lovemarks company.

Saatchi gives its clients' brands "lovemarks" and
people will love their brands beyond reasons!

Saatchi can do such things because Saatchi is the Lovemarks company.


I love Saatchi beyond reasons.
It must be the power of lovemarks...

People at Saatchi were (and still are) very nice as well.
They are kind, helpful, friendly and caring.

I think when the company is good, it attracts such nice people.

I hope I can work with them again in near future.


Thank you very very much for having me for 3 months.
Thank you for all the good time and lovely gifts.
I will treasure them.
I love you all