Happy Valentine's Day!

☆Valentine's day dinner menu☆

 

*Bibimpab

*Chijimi

*fried beancurd & lettuce ohitashi

*Tofu steak

*Corn soup

 

 



Bibimpab

*Ginger pork

*Sweet sour carrots

*Okura marinated with yuzu pepper, taraco mayonaise & summer orange soya sauce.

 

(Bibimpab is a Korean dish but this is a Japanese version...)

 

 



 

Tofu Steak

 

 



 

It was my first time making Ohitashi.

I liked it very much!

I will make it more often from now on!

 

 

 

Chijimi

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cooked dinner for my boyfriend today.

I haven't cooked him a complete set of dinner for a very long time because he is usually overseas.

It is always good to cook for someone who appreciates your cooking :)

 

 

 

 

 



Happy 2013

 

 

It is a bit late to wish everyone a happy new year.. January is almost ending.

Well, but in Singapore, Chinese new year is coming up in few weeks time.

 

So it is not so late after all?  :)

It is exciting to be able to celebrate a new year twice!

 

 

I spent my Japanese new year in Japan with my family.

Even though I'm usually away from home,

I feel so greateful to be able to celebrate the begining of a new year back home

with my family and friends, the people I love the most.

 

Thanks lots and lots to my company, my boss and colleagues!

I was very fortunate to be able to back to Japan for 3 weeks this time.

I spent Chiristmas, New year and my birthday in Japan.

 

 

I couldn't meet my sister this time,

but I talked to her over the phone many times.

 

She sent us 2 huge yummy crabs for the new year!!!!

 

 

 



 

On my birthday, my mum gave me a notebook with a story of my life.

All the stories and memories since the time I was born.

Earlier stories of my life was something so special, yet something I don't remember.

 

There were messages from the people I care the most.

Some of them longer exist in this world.

But I hope they can still see me reading the messages from the other side of the world.

I love you and miss you a lot.

 

 

As everyone expected, I cried on my birthday again.

 



 

 

 

I always thought that my birthday was one very special day for me.

 

I used to think and think.. what should I do on my birthday?

I want to do this, I want to eat this, I want to wear this, I want this that this that...

 

My mind was occupied with full of "me! me!" thoughts,

untill my ex-colleague taught me something very important last year.

 

She said,

 

"I don't celebrate my birthday.

For me, it is a day to thank my parents for raising me and taking care of me."

 

 

I was so shocked and upset and greateful at the same time when I heard this from her.

I spent all those years only thinking about myself on my birthday.

How selfish is that!

I am so sorry.

And thank you for telling me something so important!

 

 

 

 

After some thoughts...

Well, my birthday is still one special day for me.

I still want to celebrate it.

 

But from this year, I also decided to make my birthday a day to thank all the people

who have been making my birthdays very special.

 

My precious parents, grandparents, great grand parents and above, 

my precious sister & brother, my dear friends, 

my very kind and patient boyfriend, my boyfriend's very warm family,

and all the people who had cared for me and whom I care the most.

  

 

 Thank you so much to every one of you 

and hope your 2013 will be a fantastic year with full of happiness and smiles!

:) :) :)

 

Lots and Lots of Love!!!



The Worst Japanese Restaurant Ever : Nijyu Maru at Cuppage Plaza, Singapore

The restaurant was empty, or rather, “not crowded” as this word, “empty” made the shop owner mad.

There were lots of vacant tables there, so I picked a 4 seater table.
Then LadyA came and said, “This is for 4 person. Sit there.”
She pointed at this small table at the very corner of the restaurant.

I said, “Well, the shop is empty, why can’t we sit at the bigger table?”
The lady said” We are doing business here! Can not sit here, sit there!”

Ok, firstly I must clearly state here that she was not Japanese, of course. Japanese will never speak to customers like this. This is very rude.

I found it upsetting, but we (2 of us) seated at the small table at the corner.
Then, a couple came into the restaurant. They also tried to sit at 4 seater table, but LadyB came out and told them that they can’t.
“This is for 4, so please sit there.”
The lady pointed at even smaller table at the other corner of the shop.

Everything was ok, until another couple came in.

When they came in, they were told to sit at the counter seats because there were no more small tables. Then, the couple asked LadyC if they can sit at the 4 seater table.
LadyC said, "Ok."

Instantly, I asked the ladyC, “How come they can sit there, but we can't?”
She said, “For this seat, you can sit but must leave within 1 hour because there are booked by other customers. “
I said, “The other lady didn’t tell me that. We can finish our meal within 1 hour, so can we move there too now?”

The ladyC went to check with other ladies and came back to me and said,
“Sorry, customers are coming soon, so can not.”

We were not satisfied with this answer, but decided to continue with our meals on the small table.

Then, ladyA came back and asked, “You don’t wanna eat in this table?”
I answered, “Well, because it’s small.”
“Small?! What?! Small?!”

I said, “Yes? It is small right?”

Then, she shouted, “You don’t have to eat anymore! Just go! Leave now!”

and suddenly, she started clearing our dishes.

Me: “What?!”

LadyA: “Go now! I am doing business here! We are lending this table! Go! Leave!”

Me: “What kind of attitude is this? This is a Japanese shop, you can’t treat customers like this?”

Lady A “Leave now!”

Me: “Don’t point at me! You are so rude and crazy! You leave”!

Lady A: “I am the owner ! This is my shop! You leave leave leave leave!”
Then she spilt soya sauce on my dress.

I shouted, “You spilt sauce on my dress! You! Pay for the cleaning!”

Lady A: “Ok! Send me the bill! Then I will pay! I will not run away! Nijyumaru is here! You give me your address and bills! then I will pay!”

Me: “What? Give you my address? You pay now!”

Lady A: “Then take off your clothes now!”

Me: “What?! In public? In the shop?!”

Lady A: “Yes!”

Me: “You are crazy!!!”

Lady A: “You told me to pay now, then take off now!”

Oh my god. I had never experienced something like this before.
I asked her to write me a paper to promise that she will pay for my cleaning.
But she refused. She doesn’t want to promise anything or leave any evidence.
She is CRAZY and such a liar. And it is disgraceful that she is running a Japanese restaurant.

I hope the shop closes down!!! I really do, from the bottom of my heart.

Few weeks back: Lagnaa Cooking Class

 

Few weeks ago, in early November,

I went to an Indian restaurant called Lagnaa for the first time.

 

It is located somewhat 10 mins walk from Little India MRT (train) station.

 

 

 

 

Once you see foot prints on the ground, you know that Lagnaa is nearby.

 

As you follow the foot prints...

You will see a huge Indian guy standing in front of the shop.

 

 



 

Here we are!

 

Lagnaa!

 



 

There should be 8 of us but I was the first to arrive.

So I ordered mango lassi while waiting for others to arrive.

A friendly master chef started off his cooking lesson by introducing various India spices.

 

I was facinated by the varieties of spices which I had never seen before

and so I forgot to take pictures.

 

There were a French couple,

an Australian & American Japanese couple & her mother,

an Australian man who had lived in Japan for 15 years,

a Japanese lady who had lived in Singapore for years,

and Me.

 

They all knew so well about Indian spices!

They guessed the spices by smelling and tasting them.

It was amazing! I had no idea what they were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for my favourite butter chicken

 

 

 

Cooking is in progress....

 

 

 

 

Half way through, the chef asked us,

"What do you think are the common mistakes people tend to do while cooking butter chicken?"

 

Someone said

"Putting too much salt?"

 

They the chef said

"Ok, then pelase put it"

 

We were like,

"What?! NO!"

 

 

Well, but he insisted.

 

I thought people usually go for cooking lessons

to prevent those "common mistakes".

 

 

But the chef wanted us to perform common mistakes!

 

He promised us that he would fix it no matter how badly we turn our butter chicken into...

 

(Well, at the end, he couldn't save one of our butter chicken and the person who trusted the chef had to eat this super salty butter chicken...)

 

 

My butter chicken was safe beause I didn't trust the chef haha

I added extra water in stead of salt.

I knew how to save my butter chicken from too much water.

 Just boil it longer.

 

 

Anyway, this was a rather unusual cooking class...

Isn't this more like an experiment...

 

 

 

 



My butter chicken!

 



 

 

They served our own butter chicken together with naan, rice,

and one more dish we chose from the restaurant menu.



 

 

I still think that my butter chicken was the best

among all the other dishes we ordered from the menu.

 

Others also agreed

 

(that their butter chicken was the best among all the other dishes,

except for the salty one in which the chef failed to save!)

 

 

I shared my thoughts with the chef. :p

 

He just laughed.

 

 

 

It was really fun meeting new people,

talk and chill out over my delicious butter chicken (and the rest of the food).

 

 

 

BUT I must say that I was quit disapointed with the cooking class.

 

Not just because he broke his promise and failed to save one of our butter chicken,

but all he taught us was to use a butter chicken paste to cook our delicious butter chicken.

 

The paste is made in the restaurant and they sell it for $30 plus? for a small jar.

I didn't buy it but many of them did.

 

 

 

I don't think we should call it a cooking class.

 

 

 

 

If I don't make something from scratch,

I don't call it cooking.

 

 

Since the cooking class itself already costed $70 plus,

they should have taught me propper cooking.

 

 

 

 

So, I had a good time but with quite A LOT of disapointment.

 

 

 

Maybe I should do some more experiment

and find my own butter chicken recipe, hey?

 

 



Friend's visit in Singapore and Japanese souveniers

 

Last week, I caught up with my Japanese friend after 3 years of not seeing each other.

 

We first met in Melbourne through some Japanese students gatherings,

and soon became friends as we found out that her homestay family was the same as my ex-homestay family!

She moved in after I had left my homestay house, so we have never lived together,

but it was really amazing to meet someone who had the same homestay experience with the same awesome homestay family.

 

At that time, I lost contact with my ex-homestay mum and was wondering how she was.

Through my friend, I found out that she moved house and that was why I lost her contact.

 My friend helped me talk to the homestay mother and found out that she still remebered me.

After that, I visited my friend and homestay mother few times during my stay in Melbourne.  

 

It was  my room back then

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, it was quite funny that I caught up with my friend in Singapore.

We used to hang out in Melbourne all the time, but after she had left Melbourne, we hardly had opportunities to meet up.

It was because my hometown was different from hers.

In fact, we only caught up once in Japan.

 

 

So this was the second time meeting her outside of Australia.

 

It's been a while, but I didn't fee like it at all.

Straight after I met her, I felt like we were back in Melbourne.

 

 

We both remember that our life in Melbourne was not always fun.

We used to complain the strange weather, feel sad about staying far away from home,

struggle through cultural differences, find it hard to catch up with local students in uni etc etc...

But there were a lot of good times as well as bad times and

somehow, when we talk about our life back then, we only remember all the good stuff.

We talked till late at night then she went back to Japan on the next day.

It was a short time, but was really nice catching up with her.

 

 

 

She left me with lots of delicious Japanese souveniers.

 

Sushi mix, miso soup, tarako pasta sauce, chicken kama meshi paste,
Taiyaki (fish-shaped cakes with red bean paste) and some sore throat candies.

 

 So, on the next day, I made chicken kama meshi using the paste she gave me.

 

It was delicious :)

 



*Chicken Kama meshi

*Veggie and chicken meat ball milk stew

*Tofu

*Carrots and Enoki cooked in sweet sauce

 



I hope to see her again soon

and hopefully both of us can visit our awesome homestay mum again in Melbourne!

 

Happy Birtday Cookie!

My dog's 15th birthday today.

 

I always love you!

Ginger Tuna Steak Dinner

 

 

Saturday Dinner

 

 

*Ginger Tuna Steak

*Salad

*Eggplant cooked in Sweet Ginger Sauce

*Rolled Egg Stuffed with Tofu Curry

*Rice

 

 



Tofu is coming out of the egg ;p

 

 

 



Ta-da-! A very cute hand made bowl from my mum!

It's from Turkey! Thank you so much, mum!

 

 

 

 

Ginger Tuna Steak Recipe

 



Marinate a piece of tuna with

*2 table spoons of soya sauce,

*1 table spoon of Mirin

*1 table spoon of shaved ginger

 

Then put flour around the steak and fry it with 2 to 3 table spoons of oil.

The outside of the steak will be crunchy and the inside will be soft :)