Katsudon

I can't believe I have never made katsudon until last week. The in laws looooooved it! The sauce, similar to the one for donburi, was perfect with the pork. Mami said it tasted even better than the Ryoshi version though my dish still isn't as good as the one from Hana. Next time I should get some Japanese or Chinese short grain rice instead of the local rice we normally eat. I'm not sure why the pork was tougher than usual, but at least the flavor was still good. I also want to add a bit of shredded nori and the red pickled ginger for extra taste and color.

Fresh - Review

We checked out yet another Japanese (well, Japanese-fusion) restaurant a week back. This time it's Fresh in Kerobokan. According to some site, the restaurant is owned by the manager of the now defunct Wasabi. Most of the menu items were rolls so we ordered a bunch of rolls. Sadly, I have to say the Fresh isn't so fresh because the fish in the sushi tasted a bit fishy and mushy. Our friend, who is a big fan of sushi, was not too impressed with the craftmanship either because grains of rice were exposed at the edges where the nori comes together. Wid was not too impressed with the sushi rice. Wid did like the sauce they used to make the spicy tuna. The only roll that I really liked and thought was very interesting was the mushroom and eggplant one. Maybe the reason is it did not contain fish. Price was a bit pricey but not too horribly over priced like certain places in that area.

Of all the Japanese restaurants we've tried so far in Bali, here is a list of our favorites. Right now the best fusion style sushi is found at Lanai's fairly new sushi bar. Supposedly the chef who used to be at Wasabi is currently working there. Best traditional sushi with excellent sushi rice and fresh fish is still Hana. Our Japanese friend approved of this place, and he said it is the best place for sushi. Last but not least, place with best value sushi (good combination of taste and price) is still Ryoshi.

The ambiance was quite nice and the waiters were quite helpful and friendly. The parking lot, which can only accommodate two cars if they pulled out the flag poles, is too small.

New Japanese Restaurant

Wid just found out that a sushi conveyor belt place has just opened in Bali. We actually past by it tonight when we were heading to Galleria to watch The Simpsons Movies. It's on the same road as Carrefore, by the Sunset Road Food Court. The place looked huge from the outside. We'll have to check out it soon and I'll post my review here.

Speaking of conveyor belt sushi, so far the best place we've been to in Indonesia is actually in Jakarta. It's Kaiten Sushi in Mal Kelapa Gading. Funny thing we noticed was in Jakarta salmon is cheaper than tuna, which is the opposite of Bali. Tuna here is quite reasonably priced but salmon is so expensive.

Gonta (restaurant review)

Last night Wid and I checked out a new restaurant that we heard from one of Wid's distant relations. We actually wanted to try it out last week but we were in the mood for something lighter, like sushi. Gonta is located right next to Hardy's Sanur. It was about a five minute walk from Ryoshi, but unlike Ryoshi, Gonta served mostly noodle dishes. The main selling point of the restaurant was, according to the glossy brouschure, “Real Japanese cuisine, by real Japanese.”

The place was tiny but tastefully decorated and uncluttered. The place reminded me of being at someone’s house except there’s a tiny counter/bar. All the cooking was done behind the counter and since we were sitting at the counter, it was really interesting to see the cook at work. I was amazed by the big pots of broth, and I liked the idea of having a faucet right where the pot for cooking noodles was located. The man cooking was an old Japanese guy, and he was very efficient and seemed friendly enough. We couldn’t communicate with him since he only knew Japanese and maybe a tiny bit of Indonesian. The head waitress did most of the translation for him and chatted with us. She asked me where I was from and stuff. Hehe.

We ordered shoyu ramen, shio ramen, and gyoza because they looked like the shop’s signature dishes. Wid asked for agadashi tofu, but they didn’t have that dish. Instead the cook recommended cold tofu salad (hiyayakko?) which consisted of a block of tofu with grated ginger, scallion, and soy sauce. The tofu salad was similar to the version that I learned to make from my mom, and even though this dish had fewer ingredients, it was surprisingly tasty. Wid really liked the slightly bouncy and porous texture of the tofu, which is different from most of the tofu found here. The taste of the tofu with the toppings was quite good.

The dishes were prepared and served very quickly. The ramen dishes were surprisingly light yet full of flavor. Compared to the Ippin Nyukkon ramen, the flavor was different and lighter, but from the taste and the consistency of the soup, you could still tell the broth isn’t just dashi stock plus soy sauce. Both dishes had half a soft boiled egg, a sheet of nori, scallion, wakame, bamboo slices, and a piece of boiled pork. The noodles themselves were very fresh and flavorful. One interesting thing to note was they seasoned the dish with generous amount of cracked black pepper, something not seen at Ippin Nyukkon. The ramen was very filling, and it was very nice to wash down the rich broth with some hot green tea. We also had the gyoza which was full of vegetable and pork.

The service was excellent. Everyone working in the restaurant was very friendly and attentive. Food was prepared and served really fast and we didn’t wait long to get our check either. With the two of us, the bill came to around 120,000 Rp. I guess not a bad price considering we had two bowls of ramen, a plate of gyoza, green tea, and tofu salad. Unfortunately, they didn’t have dessert (maybe I should sell them my Japanese cheesecake, hahah) but they had a nice variety of booze, which we didn't partake.

The ramen dishes we tried are on par with the Ippin Nyukkon ramen, and both these restaurants are clearly superior to the Ida Bagus ramen place. The price is decent and I wouldn’t mind going back there again.

Tale of Three Sponge Cakes

Last Thursday I wanted to make the orange sponge cake for my language teacher's birthday. I was fairly successful in my previous attempt. Wid's dad loved it and so did Bonnie the dog who hates oranges. I thought it would be easy to make the cake, and I did everything perfectly until the very end when I took the cake out of the oven. When I inverted the cake to cool, it plopped onto the counter. I guess the 1 hour cooking time as suggested by the cookbook wasn't long to cook the cake completely. I immediately figured out possible sources of problems: oven temperature wasn't high enough, I'm just not quite used to new oven yet, and the pan was too small (it was around 9.5" instead of 10" tube pan).

Since it was so heart breaking to see my cake failed so spectacularly like that, I was determined to try again as soon as possible. My chance came pretty quickly because Wid's mom wanted me to bake a cake for Wid's brother's birthday. She wanted a Japanese cheesecake, which I made, but I decided to make the sponge cake also. This time I used the same pan and recipe except at the end, I took out enough batter to make six cupcakes. The cupcakes were done in about 40 minutes. The cake was in the oven for one hour and 20 minutes. I think the cake might have been done around one hour and 10 minutes, but in the end the cake passed the upside down test and was cooled over night at room temperature.

The cupcakes cooked quickly so I put it in the living room. Wid's dad asked for one, scarfed it down really quickly, and asked for another one immediately. It's pretty cute because of he was so enthusiastic and happy about eating the cake. He said it tasted like a traditional cake (I guess it's similar in taste and texture of a madeline-like cake that's available here) and he liked the cake because it doesn't have a tough/hard crust. This makes the third cake to met his seal of approval. Wid and I ate two of the cupcakes for snack later in the night and in the morning Wid's dad ate another cupcake.

When we brought the two cakes to the birthday lunch, the orange cake was gone the first, followed by my cheesecake (a crowd pleaser usually), and then Wid's sis's (failed) cheese and carrot cake. The orange sponge cake was light and fluffy like before. It wasn't as wet as before but the level of the moisture in this cake was perfect. The crust stayed mostly intact as well, unlike the first cake, because it was taken out of the pan after it was cooled completely. Plus this time no complaints about the cake being under done. For some reason Indonesians think cakes should be oily or bone dry. Overall, I'm very happy my cakes turned out well. Now I'm tempted to try the cheese carrot cake challenge that Wid's mom proposed.

Hana Revisited

We and our friends went to Hana in Seminyak a few days ago. Once again this restaurant didn't disappoint us. It seems like a safe bet that their tuna dishes are excellent. Wid and Lexo ordered the sushi plate. Sulis and I both ordered the miso ramen (it looked a bit like the Ippin Nyukkon one). Lexo also ordered a bowl of tuna on rice and Wid got the tuna carpaccio. Wid and I had the sushi plate during our last visit, and it still pretty much tasted the same. The miso ramen was actually a bit disappointing because the noodle, while plenty, was the cheap, instant variety. The broth was delicious, garlicky and full body, but they really skimped on the toppings--one pice of sliced pork, one sheet of nori, and half an egg. Ippin Nyukkon still has the best ramen in town, hands down.

As I said in the previous paragraph, tuna dishes are a safe bet. Again the tuna was the best thing in the restaurant. The meat is tender yet firm and not a bit fishy. The tuna carpaccio had a very strong, tangy sauce that went well with the thinly sliced fish, and the tuna itself wasn't fishy at all, unlike the one at Ryoshi, which we liked also. The tuna in bowl was basically a big bowl of sushi, which consisted of sushi rice with minced raw tuna and chopped scallions. I still think their sushi rice is fantastic. It's flavorful yet not overwhelming.

Good to see that the restaurant has lovely food.

Candies

Inspired by a conversation I had with Koyar a while back and we were running out of our favorite gummy candy, we popped over to Papya the local Japanese grocery store to get some candies. They didn't have the gummy in strawberry so we ended up just getting something else instead. What we found was this candy. It has the texture of gum so at first we thought that we bought gum, but it's a fruit-flavored chewy candy. The flavor is not bad. It certainly tasted like fruit (apple, lemon, strawberry, and grape). I think I like the apple and grape the most.



I should track down some of my favorite Asian candies and make another note about it later.

Donburi and Miso Soup

I cooked lunch two days in a roll!! Pretty shocking. Haha. Yesterday I made donburi with miso soup for Wid and his parents. The donburi was a better batch than the previous version. The taste was stronger (less diluted than the previous one), and I think the reason is the ratio of meat/onion/shiitaki mushroom to sauce was balanced. Wid's mom said that she likes my donburi so much that she refuses to buy the dish at local Japanese restaurant because mine is tastier and cheaper. Hehe. I think another reason why the dish tasted better is that instead of water, I used the water from mushroom soaking as the base for the sauce. Too bad Wid's bro wouldn't have liked it because he developed a dislike for shiitaki mushroom, but he wasn't there for the lunch so it didn't matter too mucj.

I also made miso soup to go with the donburi. Instead of the usual wakame with tofu and scallions, I replaced the tofu with eggs. Nothing super exciting about the soup. It was salty enough for everyone. Hehe.


Natural light is certainly better but my pictures always come out blurry.

Tonkatsu Sandwich Part 2

It's been months since the last time I made tonkatsu sandwich. Since I was a bit bored with Indonesian/Balinese food, I decided to make the sandwich for lunch yesterday. Normally our cook would cut, bread, and fry the tonkatsu, but since she was busy I went ahead and made the cutlets myself. This time I made the tonkatsu extra thin by cutting thinner slices of meat (about 5-10 mm) and then really pound it super flat. Then, I dipped the slices of meat in flour, egg, and panko. To assemble the sandwich, I toasted two slices of bread, added lettuce, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced onion, tonkatsu coated with the special sauce. Wid wasn't around to make the sauce this time so I did that too and added a bit of lime juice for extra zest. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough sandwich bread so I had to use the "milk" bread (softer and sweeter than normal bread) as substitute for some of the sandwiches. In the end it tasted all right and the smaller size of the bread was actually better suited for the size of the tonkatsu.

No pictures this time, but it pretty much looked like the previous attempt.

Sushi

For future reference
1-3-12 Shibata
Kita-ku Osaka
(at Hanku-umeda train stop)
06-6372-5747

Japanese Curry, Again

I tried to make Japanese pork curry again. The flavor is good as always, but it still wasn't as awesome as my last batch. The meat is too hard this time. Once again I coated the meat with soy sauce and corn starch, but I think the problem was with the cooking. The fire was around medium instead of high. There was a lot of oil at the bottom of the pot. The meat didn't stick onto the pot like last time even though I didn't move it around too much. The end result was the meat not seared and browned properly. Oh well, I'll try again next time.

The last batch is quickly becoming the "dream" curry if I don't figure out how I cooked it that time.

Noooooo

Wid and I found out a few days ago from our friends that the manager/cook of Ippin Nyukon is leaving by May. We then asked the waitress what's going on when we went there for dinner that night. Apparently, the cook is going to either Jakarta or Bangkok to look for a new place to start another restaurant. Don't know if the new place is going to be called Ippin Nyukon. The person replacing the cook is also from Japan so hopefully he knows what he's doing. I just hope the food won't change too much when the new guy takes over.

I had the usual bowl of special ramen, but Wid decided to try something else. We shared a salmon and tomato salad which was surprisingly light yet favorful. Wid really liked the skinned tomato; he thought it was very fresh. The salmon (raw, sashimi quality), tomatoes, and friend wonton skins rested on a bed of chopped lettuce and covered with a tangy sauce and Japanese mayo. For entree, Wid got the eggplant in meat sauce. The taste reminded him of a lighter version of their mapo tofu.

Since it's close to the Lantern Festival (元宵節), I ordered the gluttinous rice balls in tea for dessert. This time I got the sesame version instead of the usual peanut, and I think I like the sesame version more. We also got a raw tuna salad for Wid's parents.

It was a bit scary heading to the restaurant because the electricity was all out so the traffic lights weren't working. A few shops had lights on but that's because they had their own generators. We noticed that even with the outage, Bali Nikmat was packed. Luckily, the outage didn't affect the Kuta area (where IN is).

ramen

Watching Kamen Rider 555 and eating a nice hot bowl of special ramen from Ippin Nyukkon. What a lazy yet relaxing way of recovering from a cold. I don't know what they put in their ramen, but I'm addicted to that stuff.

You are what you eat

Now if you are what you eat, then right now I'm a pig. Yesterday for lunch we went to our favorite Chinese-food done Japanese style restaurant Ippin Nyukon after we found out that they are NOT closed permanently. Let's hope the rumor that the owner/chef wants to go back to Jakarta is false because this is the only place with good ramen. Apparently, when Wid's mom called last time, it was a Wednesday and the restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. Besides the usual (favorite) ramen, we tried a few other dishes. One was stir fried noodle with vegetables and wood ear mushrooms. The dish tastes fairly normal, but when mix in a bit of the wasabi mustard, it becomes something totally different but very tasty. We also tried the fried shrimp coated with seasame and Japanese mayo, but my favorite was the babi kecap (pork with soy sauce). It tasted almost exactly like the one dish we had at this restaurant by the river front (Ming Guan or something) in Singapore, except no steamed buns. The pork tasted even better with the previously mentioned wasabi mustard.

Last night we went to a Balinese wedding in Ubud. One of the employees in the company got married, and apparently he's a Balinese noblity so we got to see a very fancy reception (with real ceremonial dancing by real professional Balinese dancers). The reception was nice and I enjoyed the little cakes, but we skipped the dinner so we could get BBQ ribs at Nuri's. All the white people were staring at us, apparently they think staring it's not rude to stare in Indo or they've never seen people dressed up in fancy traditional clothes before. :P Anyway, because we were all still pretty full from the lunch, we only had two racks of pork ribs, two plates of kentang goreng (fried potato wedges), one plate of salad, one bacon cheese burger, and drinks. Good stuff, and bones left overs for the doggies at home. No bones for Bonnie though. She gets dog food and fruits/vegetables (she LOVES mango).

We tried out a new restaurant on Saturday, but maybe I'll make a review of that place later.

Tonkatsu Sandwich

Yesterday for lunch Widhy and I decided to make tonkatsu sandwich. We tried this dish a few months ago after we saw this really informative Japanese food show Fit for a King. Wid's bro saw the same episode around the same time as us and also had the idea of trying the dish out, but we beat him to it and made the sandwiches right after we saw that particular episode. It was pretty good last night, but based on our experience from the last attempt, we made little changes to make the dish even better. The sandwich basically consisted of a piece or two thin tonkatsu, sauce made by Widhy, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced onions, thickly cut white bread, and lettuce. The secret of the nice presentation (and keeping the sandwich from falling apart) is pressing the sandwich with a cutting board for 30 seconds. Our cook was very impressed by the sandwich for its taste and look. Wid's parents like the sandwich too. Wid's dad even requested a sandwich made for dinner.

Next time we'll try a croquette sandwich. We don't care that Wid's mom complained that it's too much carb. Haha.

Japanese Curry

While Wid's parents are away, I usually can get in a bit of cooking done on my own without worrying about pleasing people or about food being sent away to the other families. Last night I made Japanese-style curry, which is one of my favorite dishes, but because most people here don't like Japanese curry (not hot enough for them), I haven't made this dish since I came to Bali. Instead of following the recipe from my favorite cookbook, I went with the set of instructions my mom gave me years ago when I first started to learn cooking. The funny thing is the "recipes" my mom gave me were more like guideline than actual recipes. Things were a bit crazy at first because I couldn't find the vegetables or the meat in the kitchen, and then I discovered that my vegetable peeler disappeared so I ended up peeling the vegetables with a knife. Another annoying thing I discovered was that one of the carrots became rather wooden (a tough, fiberous ring in the middle was present, which made cutting very difficult). At least later we found out that the carrots were very sweet and tasty.

After chopping all the ingredients, I was ready to cook. Instead of using oil, I used butter for this batch. Garlic, pork (tenderized with soy sauce and corn starch), and onions were cooked first, and then carrots and potatoes were added later. Instead of water only, I used mostly milk with a bit of hot water to cover all the vegetables and meat. Once the carrots and potatoes became soft, I added the curry cubes. Curry cubes are awesome and so convinient, but one of these days I'm planning to make Japanese curry from scratch.

Wid really liked the curry. I think it's one of my best batches so far, thanks to the tips from my mom.

More Chinese-Japanese Food

Wid's parents and their chums were so intrigued by our comments of Mozaic, that they decided to go try out the restauant. While the parents were away (and us being forced on a diet because Wid's parents wanted to save room for the big dinner at Mozaic), Widhy and I decided to go to Ippin Nyukon for dinner again because we couldn't get our mind off of last week's mapo tofu. Wid was interested in trying the chili and garlic shrimp because he figured that, like mapo tofu, it's a favorite of the Japanese.

This time instead of getting ramen, we got mapo tofu and chili garlic shrimp dinner sets and for appetizer we ordered chilled chicken with sesame sauce. The appetizer was more of a chicken salad with cucumbers, fried noodles/friend shredded wonton noodles, tomatoes, and lettuce. There were two kinds of sauces on this dish, and in some ways it reminded me of the salad I had at this restaurant during my second visit. The portion of the appetizer was extraordinary, and after eating all the food and being too stuffed, we decided that next time we'll get people to come with us so we can share the food.

The mapo tofu was still as good as the last time. Wid really loved the chili shrimp dish though he wished that there were more shrimps. The shrimps were deep fried and then drenched or cooked in the red chili sauce. After he ate all the shrimps, he felt bad that all the sauce was going to waste because it was so good. In the end the hostess gave us two small cups of a strange smelling tea. I couldn't figure out the tea variety, but it was ok.

Next time we'll try more of the Chinese-sounding dishes. :)

Ippin Nyukon

Yesterday, while everyone else went fishing, for lunch Wid and I went to Ippin Nyukon in Kuta because I've been craving ramen (been watching too many Japanese shows on Asian Food Channel). The funny thing about Ippin Nyukon is the sign says "Chinese restaurant" but it's more like a Japanese's take on Chinese food so it doesn't taste like the Chinese food that I grew up with. Our fellow food lover friends brought us here for the first time months ago, and they were introduced to the place by their Japanese expat friend. When we entered the restaurant, we were greeted by the waitresses and the person we assumed to be the chef/owner, who reminds me of Inoue Takehiko because of the bandana and the beard.

Instead of sticking to our plan of sharing a bowl of ramen and some appetizer (the pan fried gyoza with red vinegar is really, really good), Wid was intrigued by the mapo tofu so we ended up getting the mapo tofu lunch set and a bowl of noodles with slices of roasted pork (叉燒麵). It ended up being a very delicious yet very filling decision since the meals are unusually generous in portion.

The noodle soup was excellent as usual with its very thick, flavorful broth, juicy chunks of roasted pork, seaweed, seasame, chopped scallions, and an soft boiled egg. What was surprising was the mapo tofu. The taste is very different from the mapo tofu that Wid makes, yet it was very delicious. The hint of sweetness is one of the distinctive features. The dish consisted of rice (which soaked up the sauce nicely), tofu, minced meat, white pepper, and chopped scallions. I wondered if it's only sugar that made the dish sweet or it's something else, like tian mian jian, because the sweetness is pretty complex.

We were so full that we couldn't eat dinner though it was well worth it. The noodles and the mapo tofu were soooo good.

Sukiyaki

Last night Wid's parents requested sukiyaki for dinner so we could use up the chunk of imported beef that we bought from Makro before Wid's bro takes it. I did the preparation (cutting the vegetables and making the cooking sauce) while Wid did the actual cooking. This batch we had large green onion, shiitake mushroom, another kind of mushroom whose name escapes me right now, bok choy, shirataki threads, and tofu. I parboiled the shirataki threads and soaked the shiitake mushroom. What made the sukiyaki turned out so well this time is Wid figured out how to cook the dish properly. He used medium heat during most of the cooking process. Once the meat and vegetables were added to the pan, he covered the food with some of the cooking sauce. After the cooking sauce boiled down a bit, he added the remaining sauce (and the tofu and the shirataki thread) and let the dish boil again. We might need to get a smaller pan because we didn't have enough sauce to cover the ingredients. It would be nice if we can find a real sukiyaki pan so we can cook this on the table instead of in the kitchen.

Besides the main dish, we also made nasu miso (trial number 3) and a new dish which consisted of shiitake mushroom and cabbage cooked in the mushroom soaking juice. I think the nasu miso turned out better this time because I didn't boil the eggplant until it was mushy. We were surprised how much Wid's dad liked the nasu miso because in the previous attempts, he didn't make any comments. This time he scarfed down most of the dish. The mushroom and cabbage dish was pretty good, not too salty and full of mushroom flavor, but I think the cabbage wasn't cooked long enough. At least it's pretty tasty and very healthy.

The Return of Croquettes

Last night I made croquettes again. Instead of using the same recipe as last time, I tried the recipe posted on the official website of the Japanese drama/comedy show Kuitan. Overall the recipes were quite similar (about the same amount of potato, onion, and meat), but the details are a bit different. I also made some modifications of my own to, hopefully, improve the taste. Instead of boiling potatoes, they were steamed with their skin on to make the potatoes less soggy. I stir-fried the onion in oil and butter before adding the beef. Salt and pepper were added to the meat and onion for flavoring. The potatoes were mashed, seasoned with salt, and combined with the meat mixture before milk and finely chopped parsley were added. Then, patties were formed and coated with flour, egg, and panko before deep frying. We had to get one of the eggs from the offering stand because we ran out of eggs in the fridge. Hahaha. I had a couple of potatoes left so I mashed those and added chopped parsley, salt, and milk. I then added a piece of cheese in each patty to make cheese croquettes.

Widhy and I both thought the croquettes were much better than my last batch, but we wondered why his parents didn't make any comments. I guess the Chinese food we had overpowered the taste of the croquettes. Oh well. We'll have more croquettes today~

Next time we should have some finely shredded cabbage too.

Japanese Dinner (udons and more)

Wid's mom requested that we make udon and sushi. Initially, I planned to make croquettes, but I forgot to get onions. Instead I made "fluffy boiled potatoes" (Jagaimo no Tosa-fumi) that consisted of potato, soy sauce, sake, salt, and bonito flakes. This dish tasted better than my last attempt. I think it's because I used a lot more bonito flakes. I also sprinkled a bit of parsley on top to give it an extra flavor. It would be nice to get light-colored soy sauce so it doesn't make everything brown looking, but I can't find it anywhere here, even at my favorite Japanese grocery store.

Nothing too exciting with the udon and the broth that went with the noodles. One thing I did change this time was I didn't use bonito flakes as part of the soup stock (only used dashi powder), but Wid's mom noticed. She liked the broth with the bonito flakes better. Other than that, the soup consisted of soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and salt. I cooked the shitaki mushroom in the broth. Wakame seaweed was added right at the end when I reheated the broth. I poached eggs in the water that I cooked the udon. I just realized that I forgot to add the chopped scallions to the bowl because I had so many thing going on at once. Oh well.

Once again, I made inari for Wid's dad and Wid made his now famous spicy tuna roll. His latest batch was tastier than his previous attempts because of the nice balance of tuna and spicy sauce flavors. Also, the tuna mix was just more flavorful than before. Wid's mom loved it so much that she kept saying how tasty it was.

The in laws requested that we cook Japanese food again this Saturday, which I'm fine with as long as Wid's mom doesn't invite more uninvited guests at the last minute.

Bon Odori

On Saturday (10/7) Widhy, his family, and I went to Bon Odori that was sponsored by the Japan Club Bali. I'm assuming it's the Japanese version of Mid Autumn Festival. Normally, they have the festival outside by the beach, but because of the second Bali bombing (one of the targets was Jimbaran which is the beach), the organizers decided to have the festival at the Westin in Nusa Dua. The place was super packed with people. Lots of Japanese and surprisingly many locals. Many, many people wore kimono or yukata. I even saw two or three Muslim women wearing their head covering and yukata. Interesting thing was that most of the Japanese who married local were woman, unlike the rest of the island where the white guys are the ones who married local women. The place was packed with people, and I think the convention hall was too small to fit all these people. In the center of the hall was a dance stage where people were dancing traditional dances. Along the walls were game stations and food/drink stalls.

Many of the local Japanese restaurants were selling foods. We did get a bunch of stuff, like pannacotta (custard-like dessert that has a hint of almond and cheese flavor with a bit of strawberry sauce as topping), croquettes with some sort of stirred fried vegetables with lots of ginger taste (it was already cold), Korean style pancakes (it was cold but still tasted good), zaru soba, takoyaki, and okonomiyaki (??). Widhy wanted sushi, but because the lines were too long, he gave up. Eventually we did eat some sushi, which were bought by Wid's parents. The sushi from Take were quite good, but Hana still makes the better sushi (tuna~). When we had about 4 coupons left, Wid gave them to me to find something to use up the remaining coupons. I was going to get ice cream from the Papaya stall, but the lines were too long. I then looked down at the table, and I found "American dogs" (corn dogs) each costing 2 coupons. I snatched up two sticks and headed back. It was surprisingly good and warm. The sweetness of the fried batter complimented the salty hot dog. The best foods we tried were the zaru soba from Yakiniku Sama-sama(?) and okonomiyaki from Kai/Hai(?). I wanted candy apples but we didn't get the chance to try that. Overall we ended up a lot more stuffed that we thought we were.

The dancing was amusing to watch, but eventually they repeated the dancing and the songs that accompanied the dances. I think there were about three songs/dances. The drumming part was quite fun to watch too. We met one of Wid's parents' friend whose wife is a Japanese who makes and exports kimonos for 30,000 to 50,000 USD.

Overall, the event was pretty fun even if it was a bit clausterphobic. It was a lot like the cultural festival that Wid, Yanwen, and I went to back at University of Michigan a few years ago. What's good is that it got Wid's parents to think about going to Japan next year. We convinced them to see the cherry blossoms. :D

喰いタンSP 香港

In the department of no one cares except me and Widhy, the food detective show (喰いタン)that we watched back in August has a brand new, special episode that was aired a few days ago on NTV. I hope they'll have more episodes in the future. Nine original plus the new one make too short of a series.

The live action series in some ways is better than the comics that the series is based on because of all the awesome views of foods in all their full-color glory (pics from the official site):



Makes me hungry just looking at those pictures.

Is it a game or a cookbook?

Wid and I got two brand new Nintendo DS about a week ago. I decided to check out what sort of games are available, and I stumbled onto the Nintendo Japan site. What I found was this. Since I don't know Japanese, I can't figure out exactly what kind of program is this. Is it a game (like Cooking Mama) or is it actually a cookbook? Looking at other pages on this mini site, I found this page. By listing the calorie count and preparation time for each sample recipe, I believe that this "game" is actually a cookbook. If so, that would be a pretty cool idea. The photos looked so delicious. :9

Cooking Mama, which just got released in US, is an actual game. You play a chef who has to prepare dishes ordered by the customers. It sounds like a quirky game. I wouldn't mind checking it out. From reviews, it seems to get repetitive eventually, but the game seems to take full advantage of the stylus so that would be interesting.

Japanese Cheesecake

I finally had time to make the Japanese cheesecake. Unlike American style cheesecake, the Japanese variety is fluffy and light in taste and texture. The lightness is achieved by beating the egg white until still peaks are formed and folded into the cheese/egg yolk/flour mixture. It has been a few months since the last time I baked the cake so I have forgotten some of the details. This time my cake shrunk quite a bit after it was taken out of the oven, but I suspect it's because of the eggs (not warmed up to room temp or too old). At least the cake didn't collapse and the taste was still good.

I was reluctant to make this cake because of our totally unreliable and overly large oven. Temperature control totally depended on the gas fire, and only one person in the house actually has the skills to keep the temperature steady. In the past the temperature would decrease or increase significantly (as much as 50 degrees celcius in about 30 minutes) which caused many baking failures. Miraculously enough, the Japanese cheesecake is my only cake that has not suffered any failure. I believe the reason is that this is the only baking recipe I have that uses a hot water bath (helps maintain a more uniform/steady temperature).

A Typical Japanese Dinner (for us)

Last night I cooked Japanese food for the family. We were supposed to go to an arisan at the Hong Kong Garden, but we weren't in the mood. Besides, earlier in the day Wid's mom requested us to make a Japanese dinner for them. She "ordered" donburi, goma-ai, and miso soup. Wid and I went out to look for gifts for my family, and on our way back we stopped by at our favorite Japanese grocery store Papaya to buy, among other things, tofu skin and fresh tuna. We decided to make spicy tuna and inari for Wid's parents even though Wid's mom was worried that it might be too much work for us.

First, I made sushi rice using the freshly cooked Japanese rice. While waiting for the rice to cook down a bit and for the sugar and salt to dissolve in the rice vinegar, I chopped veggies and stuff for the other dishes. Once the rice was ready, I showed our awesome cook how to fill the inari. Wid made the dressing for the goma-ai and the spicy tuna mix. Wid's spicy tuna is a huge hit with the family, but he's still constantly trying to perfect it. I think he's trying to recreate his favorite spicy tuna sushi at our favorite Michigan restaurant Yamato. His goma-ai (spinach and green bean topped with sesame dressing) is a crowd pleaser too.

Since I didn't have to keep an eye on the sushi rolling, I started on the hot dishes. While boiling the hot water for the miso soup, I started cooking the donburi. Oyako donburi (chicken and egg) was one of the very first Japanese dish I learned to cook, and to this day it's still one of my favorite dishes. The dish is chicken, shiitake mushroom, and onions cooked in a soy sauce/mirin mixture. To finish the dish, beaten eggs are added to the top and cooked slowly. Miso soup is the usual stuff (bonito flakes, a tad of dashi, shiro miso, tofu, wakame seaweed, and scallions).

Once I finished cooking the dishes, Wid was done with his stuff and the cook finished rolling the spicy tuna. She and her assistant were inspired by the picture on the nori pack and made a couple of hand rolls using the last bit of the spicy tuna mix. They also places one of those plastic grass sheet on the plate. I have no idea where they found the plastic grass. Hehe. For the final touch, the cook placed a tomato flower on the platter.

Everyone enjoyed the dinner. We went got out the brand new ceramic soy sauce dishes that we bought earlier that day (hurray for the anniversary sale at Jenggala). Wid's mom said that now she's less tempted to go to Japanese restaurants because I can make all these dishes at home. I think her favorite is still Wid's spicy tuna, followed by my donburi. Wid's dad always wants goma-ai and inari. All the dishes turned out ok, but that's because I had plenty of practice already. Haha.

Fun with Croquettes

Last night I tried to make Japanese style croquettes for the very first time. The recipe is from my favorite Japanese cook book, and I've been eyeing that recipe ever since I got the book a few years back. I was hoping that Hana would have some croquettes, but because they didn't have any to satisfy our craving, I decided to try to make it myself. The croquette consisted of mashed potato (made from steamed potato so there's less water), ground beef, frozen mixed veggies, chopped onion, and a bit of salt and pepper for flavor. When I was cooking the ground beef and onions, I was soooo tempted to add soy sauce, but luckily I stopped that impulse or else it was going to turn into some sort of Chinese stir fry. While I was making the paddies, the smell of the beef combined with the potato was so good. After the suckers were deep fried, Wid and I immediately attack one of them. Burning hotness.

Here are some pics. Click on the image to see larger version.


I noticed that our current favorite food show (Kuitan/喰いタン) has a recipe for croquettes too. I should try that one too.