Fresh Lemon Cake

One of the people I had hinabe with was saying how he used to get home-made sweets from another guy's wife before she left for Japan (and her husband was also leaving a couple of days after the dinner night). He made me think of cake and that easily motivated me to bake again. I was certain I will make something with lemons that were already left in the fridge for a while. As usual, I googled a lemon cake recipe and picked one that looked easy to follow. This one required syrup to brush outside with. I am normally not a big fan of glazing or syrup because it feels like killing the original taste of the cake, but this time I loved it. I think the best part was mixing regular syrup made of sugar with lemon juice. The buttery rich flavor went well with lemon's refreshing flavor. Although the inside was not thoroughly baked at first and had to let it sit in the oven for longer than I expected, this cake is definitely one of my favorites now. My roommates liked it and people at work would take a bite and came back to ask if it was really home-made. One guy jokingly told me I should rather be a confectioner than a journalist. I am not going to be a pro but I will keep cooking more delicious stuff! Kris, let me know when you are ready to open up a cafe with me, hahaha.

Indonesian Bento

There is an Indonesian grocery store around my neighborhood. It is a tiny place that sell some dry and canned food and Indonesian bento boxes. Cocoya loves the place so much that he got dinner from there three days in a row at one point. Since the place doesn't take credit cards just like every other small shop in New York, I normally can't go there--I never carry cash. One day, Cocoya and I were walking home together and I borrowed him 6 or 7 bucks to get one bento box! It had beef curry, chicken with mixed veggies, lightly flavored versaille noodles, an boiled egg, a HOT sauce, and rice. I enjoyed it very much even if the hot sauce made my tongue numb, lol. I wanna explore Indonesian food more!! But, according to my Indonesian friend in New York, there isn't an Indonesian restaurants nearby.

Hinabe

Cocoya has been talking about this Chinese-style hot pot whose Japanese name is hinabe. This dish is one of the famous Sichuan HOT dishes. He would explain how amazing the combination of the super spicy soup and the regular one is whenever we talk about food. I wanted to try it but I never had a chance. Yesterday, I was working late to make a phone call to a Japanese person and was gonna leave right after. Luckily, this guy in the office asked if I wanted to come along with the economic journalists and have some Chinese. I was kinda hungry so I was super happy to be invited. Yeah, free food is always good. I was a bit nervous about talking with those supposedly experts over dinner at first though. Despite my concerns, it turned out to be a great night! I tell you this hinabe can be crazily spicy. We sorta let the waitor pick ingredients for us and without the proper knowledge of hinabe, we put literally tons of seafood and vegetables in the pot. Not surprisingly, the soups soon overflew and got mixed up. It was ok at first but as we kept adding too much of food in each soup, the regular soup turned RED like the other one... My favorite toppings were firm tofu, shrimps, thinly sliced beef and oysters! Mmm, as you can imagine I was stuffed at the end of the night. The good thing was we were also drinking Qingdao beer, a Chinese hard liquor with sugar and white wine! Man, those guys were awesome. One of them turned out to be a big food lover like me and I am definitely going to get his email address and talk about food with him! Other guys told me how some young people quit work too soon and other work-related stuff. But the whole time, I could tell how nice each person was to each other. The funny thing is that one of them told me they were not typical journalists. He said normal journalists at their company (I assume people in Japan) are really up-tight and somehow like yakuza, LOL. I am not exactly sure about what he meant by that but it seemed funny at that time.

New member in the kitchen

My roommates and I had longed for a toaster for a while. With it, we can toast bread or bake something little without having to move all the dishes and kitchenware we store in the oven, or feeling guilty about using a disproportionate amount of gas for a tiny dish. The only problem with the new toaster was that its code was too short to reach the only output in the kitchen. But, the Van Loon rangers aka Mameco, Cocoya and Akk taped an extension code all over the kitchen wall and fixed the problem a couple of days later:D. The toasted bagels in the picture were crispy and delicious!!!! But, even better was the baked mochi! Japanese people normally eat mochi to celebrate New Years but we decided to celebrate the new addition to our tiny kitchen with mochi!! Actually, mochi was the first food that came to my mind when I saw Akk setting up the toaster. I am totally in love with its chewy texture on the inside. Back in the day, we didn't have cheese in Japan but I bet the chewiness of mochi was good enough. I'm going to make pizza made of mochi with this toaster soon. Keep tuned, lol!

Surprisingly tasty looking.

Last night I decided on Chinese food, but I didn't want to drive very far. There is a place nearby to my work that I'd never tried before, because it seemed like it would be very Americanized Chinese food. I can't say for sure that I've ever had anything that would be considered 'authentic' but I try to avoid the places like this in general. So I ordered honey shrimp for my main meal, and after talking to a friend about chinese food and remembering how much I love the meats on a stick, I ordered an appetizer of the skewered chicken.

When I actually got to the restaurant I was surprised! I'm not sure I've ever seen a place like that so packed on a Sunday night. When I left there was still a line halfway from the counter to the door. A work friend told me that it is because they have some sort of student special, although I don't know what it is. It's not really in a place easily accessible from campus either unless you have a car. Once I had my food and was in the parking lot, I decided to sneak a piece of chicken for the ride home. When I ordered, I assumed it would be the standard chicken on a stick, put in the type of bags that usually egg rolls end up in. Instead I see what is in the picture! Not only is there the chicken, but an entire salad under them! For an appetizer, it is almost bigger than my meal!

I couldn't eat any then. I had to wait to come back and take a photo! Needless to say they tasted as good as they looked. While not the star of this post, the honey shrimp was also delicious! Maybe next time Mameco comes to visit, I will drag her to this place.

French cuisine, crepe

In Japan, crepe is a popular dessert. You can find a lot of crepe vendors on streets of Harajuku and many other cities. It is originally from France but Japanese people like to adjust anything to our taste. The other day, I was lucky enough to taste a French crepe.

The name of the restaurant was Creep Tree or something... hmmm somehow it doesn't sound right. Anyhow, my friends and I found this place when we were walking around St. Marks. Since many of us had a late lunch, we were looking for a place that served small dishes. The restaurant had cool dark brown wooden furniture with dim lights. In the small space, many small tables and chairs were piled. Somehow it was kinda cool. In the long mirror placed by the wall and ceiling, I could observe the kitchen space where they cooked crepes on top of the round crepe hot plate.

My crepe that had goat cheese and avogado... I think, lol. It was filling. The cheese was very rich so I liked it but some people might find it too cheesy. The white sangaria was DELICIOUS. It was sweet and refreshing. I like a red wine version of it too but the white sangaria sure went well with my cheese. I want to go back there and try their sweet crepes next time.

I just want soup and rice!

I love soup and rice but I'm too tired or lazy to cook something new and creative. That's when I cook vegetables in a soup and add rice to it. It's simple and delicious. The soup flavor can vary but normally I got with soy sauce, rice wine, and dashi.

Cafe Habana

Cocoya took me and Muffin to Cafe Habana. It is a small Cuban restaurant whose interial design only makes us feel like we are in a carribbean island. According to Cocoya, people love its grilled corn. It was around 4 dollars and came with two cubs of corn. The sauce was I guess Cuban and was sour cream, paprica sprincled on top. As an option, you can squeeze a slice of lime to add a flavor. It was satisfying. I actually forgot what my main dish was exactly, lol. I remember I had some meat, fried red beans with corn tortilla and rice?. It was good at first but I got tired of eating it... I think the flavor was rather plain. Although the wait was crazy like an hour, it was an interesting adventure.

Reunion @ Applebee's

Some buckeye friends including Kris and I went to Applebee's for lunch while I was back in Ohio. I don't know why but Applebee's always has some special deals. I picked this "2 for 20" deal and ordered two entrees and one appetizer for $20 to share. As usual, I got mozzarella sticks. Cheese in a deep-fried bread crumbs... what can you ask more? The steak was so-so... It was too firm overall. According to Kris, Applebee's steaks are normally like that, lol. Oh, I also got raspberry iced tea. Raspberry is my life.

Thanksgiving Hot Pot

About a month before thanksgiving, Dr. J and I talked about cooking together for thanksgiving on the phone. This year, I wasn't planning to tag along with anyone's thanksgiving so if I wanted to eat turkey with gravy I knew I had to get it somewhere... I knew how big the turkey was and how nasty it can get to clean the turkey... Dr. J told me she was going to hang out with Hiroko for thanksgiving so I couldn't really plan for thanksgiving with her any more. There was no way for me to prepare everything by myself (even with Ian's assistance, lol). On the day of thanksgiving, I was still not sure if I wanted to cook turkey or not. That was when Ian told me that his parents had bought all the ingredients for Chinese hot pot. I had no objections, hehe. I don't have to cook! What is better, I get to enjoy delicious Chinese food and warm up with the soup, mmm. They had tons of shitake as you can see as brown spots in the pot. I also enjoyed king oyster mushroom, cleaned intestines, shrimps, radish, Chinese cabbage, fish and beef balls, beef as far as I can remember. Cantonese soup is normally very light. It was perfect for a hot pot. I loved how the mushrooms were making mushroomy juice as I took a bite. The radish sucked all the goodness from the soup. Beef balls were very flavorful but not greasy at all. They had tendons with the meat. Cooked shrimps were mildly sweet. I did not need any sauce for them.

Chocolate chip cookie art

Before I went back to Ohio for thanksgiving, I baked chocolate chip cookies. Since we don't have baking sheets, I needed the shelves wrapped with alminum foil for my cookies. I accidentally heated the oven with the shelves left inside. So, instead, I used cake and muffin pans. It was a bad move, considering that cookies DO get bigger by baking powder, lol. What amused me was that the shapes varied depending on where I put the cookie dough. The muffin hole ones were perfectly round but the bottom was more brown than the top surface and interesting. Two placed on top of the pan looked like Dali's clocks, very artistic in a way, lol. The cake pan ones made a shape of a bow tie and flower. The glass pan one became a big piece of cookie. I used a toothpick to articulate the lines of each cookie. Despite the unique looks, the cookies were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, mmmmmmmm. I left one bag at the apartment, gave another bag of it to my drunk friends and shared the other bag with Ian. I wanna bake more cookies!!!!!

Chubby baguette

Cocoya baked bread again! This time he tried to bake two baguettes.
The attempt produced delicious bread for all the roommates but the shape was a bit different from what we expected. It was like Luigi turned into Mario.
I haven't made bread from scratch but it seems baguette is relatively simple to make. Making the dough takes a bit of an effort but it didn't involve that many ingredients. The dough leavened did not get bigger but it looked very smooth:). Naoya said it was very moist. He folded one half and didn't the other half. We thought the un-folded one would be longer than the other but the result was opposite. It may be because the dough got too dry or we didn't use any mold to keep the bread long in the oven. Ohya and Cocoya both found some tips to fix it for the next time. There is nothing you can't find on the Internet it seems. I can't wait for Naoya's next bread!

Well, just so you know, he made this bread a while ago... I just never had time to post a story.

phooooooooooooo

I went to a pho place called Pho 32 in Koreantown today. People at work talked about the place and I had to check it out. Plus, Akiko seemed interested in going there too. We have been planning on going there but last time, I totally forgot that we were gonna go there so I went back home straight from work and missed the opportunity... Anyhow, today was my first day at the new place. I didn't really know the area around my office but I just wanted to do something before I go home. Getting out of work a lit later than the last place, I was sooo ready to eat dinner. In this kind of cold weather, noodle soup seemed like the best choice. Luckily I got a hold of Akiko after work and we planned to meet up in front of the restaurant. When I was about to walk into the restaurant, Akiko came out of the door. I guess she had been waiting in line for us and unexpectedly they called her twice in a row before I got there. She thought of calling me again but that was when I just got there. Since I saw her right away, I didn't pay attention to how the store looked from the outside. It was crowded and I knew the reason when I sat down. The tables were so narrow that the chair would hit the table legs when moved towards the table. The set-up is very interesting. Each person has this hole on the table for individual hot pot or shabu shabu, which is covered by a lid if not needed. I considered doing my own mini hot pot like the girls at the next table but I was in the mood for pho. Pho's semi-transparent rice noodle was occupying my mind, lol. Mmm... The beef brisket pho was nothing special but the cold vermicelli noodles with chicken was kinda different. You pick your own sauce from the counter in addition to fish sauce (of course, you can get rid of the fish sauce if you like). Your choices are peanut sauce, hot pepper sauce, and sweet brown sauce... I didn't try them all but Akiko really liked the peanut one out of all they had. She offered me a piece of the grilled chicken. It was tender and tasty with its subtle charcoal flavor. There was a couple who ordred steak with rice. I felt my stomach reacting to it even if I was full from the pho. It seems like there is more to explore at this restaurant and I like it! There is more than pho at Pho 32...mmm..... Sorry for not having any pictures... but I promise to take a picture of something goooood at this restauarnt.

do you believe in ketchap magic?

Ketchap magic happened again in my kitchen. I don't know why but whenever I use ketchep, any ingredients seem to taste more delicious than I expect! I have had this fatty pork in the freezer. I just had no idea of how to cook it right... And I found this pork chop recipe, which was basically to cook pork, mushrooms, and onions with ketchap, wuster sauce, and chicken broth. I had all the ingredients so it was a piece of cake! The only problem is that the bones make it hard to separate the meat part. I'm gonna make it again with different parts of pork.

Lotus root

Lotus root is crispy even if it's cooked. Some people like the texture. Others hate it. I like it sometimes. Landlord has been saying she wants to eat lotus root. She is good at cooking Japanese dishes so she decided to share this dish with us. I'm sure you are curious how it is cooked. Lotus root was boiled and seasoned, whose cooking style is, so-to-speak, nimono in Japan. She spiced it up with some hot peppers--you can see red spots in the picture. It was so good that I wanna have it everyday;P. I'm thinking of making nimono with chicken, taro, snow peas and shitake mushrooms.

Cocoya's Croissant

Cocoya is in his new baking challenge given by Landlord aka my roommate. For two weekends in a row, he has been baking croissants. As people say about croissants, it seems to be pretty hard to create multiple layers and realize the perfect crunchiness in his home-made bread. His first attempt turned out good I say. The shape of each croissant was made evenly with Cocoya's skills. But the texture was a bit too chewy being croissants and unfortunately some parts were burnt. Cocoya worked on the crunchy texture at the second attempt and the layers seemed to be more visible. It was a great idea to brush maple syrup on top as an extra flavor. It added pleasant sweetness in the croissants. The inside is still a bit chewy but we enjoyed croissants more than last time. We requested chocolate croissants as a next challenge. My apartment never gets boring with three of us cooking different things.

Oystered beef!

It feels like I haven't posted in a while, actually I just haven't eaten anything worth talking about. I tried something new again today though! I ordered randomly from a menu today and ended up eating beef with oyster sauce.
I don't think I've ever had oyster sauce before so I thought it would be quite a new taste, but really it didn't taste very different to me than the other sauces that are used at most American Chinese restaraunts, it just seemed a little salty, like soy sauce. All in all the food was ok, but nothing amazing, probably because I went to a not very good place to get it (Not much is open late at night by my work. I'll try and eat something worthy of a longer story and better review soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMECO!!! (A bit late on the blog, but I already told you on the right day =)

Cantonese ginger sauce

I have had different kinds of Chinese dishes. Except for the volume, I never liked Chinese food around campus. After going to some good Chinese restaurants and tasting home-made Chinese food, I know why. It was the difference between real Chinese and American Chinese, lol. One of my favorite style is Cantonese! I still haven't researched enough to say much about it but I know several Cantonese dishes I love. One of them is the Cantonese ginger sauce. You don't really need an exact recipe. Just mix up some oil with chopped ginger and scallions, and sprincle some salt. It is one of the BEST dipping sauces for chicken. You can dip anything other than chicken if you like.

Suggestions of others

I am not very good at expanding my food horizons. I am somewhat of a picky eater, so it's hard for me to walk into a restaurant and pick something random on the menu to try something new. In the cases where I really want something new, I depend on recommendations of others. Saturday was that sort of day. I went to a Chinese restaurant near my work that is decent (it's hard to beat Yau's and Joy's.) But I didn't want the same old stuff I usually get. The menu at this place is actually very small, but there are many things I hadn't had yet. Nothing really stood out to me as something to try though, so I asked the person who worked there to pick something for me.

I have discovered that this is actually an interesting thing to do, because obviously people working there won't expect it. I was kind of worried about asking because I don't want to put people on the spot with that sort of thing, but I had had conversations with this particular worker before and felt a little more comfortable asking her. In the end, she suggested Chinese-style kung pao chicken. It was great, and distinctively different from the American-style. This actually opened a whole new idea to me, I had never thought of asking for Chinese-style versions of dishes at restaurants before. I think I will do it more often! Of course I need to find out which dishes actually have a Chinese-style first.

hot cocoa

When it getts colder, it's time for hot cocoa. I don't like drinks to be too sweet so I made myself hot cocoa with less sugar and more milk. I like customizing recipes.

The cup probably looks only half-full but that's because I was already drinking when I remembered to take a picture of it... I know what I want for a drink now. Apple Cider! I'm not sure if I would make one myself... hmm....

Baking Person

I went back to Columbus a couple of weeks ago. It was great to spend time with my boyfriend and buckeye friends:D. Before the trip, I wanted to bake something for my boyfriend's birthday. He wanted fruit tart but there was no way for me to take it to my 8-hour-long roadtrip. So, instead, making most of my ripe banana and apple bags, I baked apple banana cake! As usual, I found a recipe online and modified it to do with what I have in the kitchen, lol. I put one extra apple to make up for having less bananas. The apple chucks were taking up probably half the volume of the batter. It turned out moist and a bit fragile. Some pieces were breaking apart when cutting it into individual pieces. It is the top golden cake in the picture. Yes, I ate the little corner of the piece on the far right. It was applicious though! I would recommend this cake to all the apple lovers. I always thought I am more of a banana person but the combination of two was not so bad:D. I still have some apples and banana left. What should I bake this time???

I also felt like baking muffins. I just bought raspberry jam so I filled up a mini muffin pan. There was still a little bit of batter left so I poured it into the cake pan. The muffins were very tiny. I guess it was either I didn't add enough baking powder or the jam was too heavy. The one in the cake pan turned out flat and smooth as you can see from the picture. At first, I thought of writing a message on it but the chocolate syrop tube was too thick for that. Easy fix, draw a smiley on it. It looks like a person now. It is just a first step to bake a character cake. I will welcome any requests. I need some inspirations for this project;P.

寿司は美味しい！ (sushi is delicious!)

Really, can there be too many posts about sushi? I think not! Usually grocery store sushi is to be avoided at all costs. My first experience eating sushi was actually from a Meijer near where I used to work. It's surprising I still like sushi after such an affair! Now I know much better, I only get sushi from restaurants, with one exception: Tensuke Market. This weekend, Tensuke was having a big sale, so I had to go see how the sushi price had been affected. I am not sure on how often Tensuke has sales, but from as busy as it was you'd think a sale was a rare occasion that everyone has to attend. The parking lot was completely full, of both cars parked and cars looking for a place to park. Inside the store, there was a line from the front registers to the back wall, all the front lanes were open, and luckily they had an express lane open for people like me, who only wanted one thing. Another thing I learned is that I seem to know every single one of the non-Japanese employees at Tensuke. Maybe I should look into working there as well!

Sadly I went at 5 o'clock so there wasn't a very large selection. Not that what was left was bad, but for the discounted price, I would have gotten a much larger box if I could have. So now, without further adieu, a picture of sushi!!

spontaneous cooking

I normally buy some stuff and then look up a recipe with those items I already have. My cooking can be spontaneous. I rarely follow recipes. It's more fun that way. The other day I cooked two different things for dinner. It may not look fancy but yummy dinner appreciates diversity.

I talked about my curry spice mix in a curry soup story. I still have a bunch left so I decided to cook some potatoes with it:). I adjusted the amount of spice mix for my taste this time. I probably added less than a teaspoonful of it into 2 cups of water. To prove the mildness, the color of soup turned out brown instead of red. I just let the onions and potatoes absorb all the good flavors. I say it was a success! I need to get more potatoes and some rice for next time.

I have wanted to eat macaroni and cheese since kris mentioned it. I saw instant boxes in columbus so got two of them;D. It really was a piece of cake to make it. Just boil macaronis and mix everything in a pan! I haven't had this much of chedder cheese in a while<3 Actually over the weekend, Carolyn told me that the only difference between white chedder and yellow chedder is the food coloring! I assumed two kinds of chedder cheese existed. According to her, people don't make a big deal out of it because the coloring is natural or something.

OSU Chinese Restaurant

I decided to go back to Ohio for the weekend. My friends were asking me to pick a restaurant for lunch--of course, we were already talking about food. I thought of Sushi Ting, which serves decent Japanese food near campus. But, I couldn't do without Yau's. Hiroko and Naoya used to go there often. At that time, I thought it was just too far away from M-Castle. Once I tried the food there tho, I got addicted to it. With the construction of Ohio Union, Yau's was one of the few decent Chinese places close to campus. Since we went there more than once a week, Yau's was like our home towards the end of my last year at OSU. Like Kris mentioned, I have some favorites there. One is Chao Gui Dew. The ingredients are a mytery to me too. I like different kinds of meat and the wide rice noodles in it<3 Although it is spicy, I can never get enough of it. Another one is Mushroom Ginger Pork! If I haven't mentioned, I am a BIG mushroom lover. If I am looking upset, please offer me some mushroom. That can make everything better. Anyways, I did a bad job of taking a pic of mushroom ginger pork. I got more rice than mushroom, lol. This is a kind of dish you want with plain steamed rice. I thought it was a lot but I ate the whole thing without trouble;P. I have mushrooms and pork. I can try to experiment and find out the recipe for the light sauce. I think it has soy sauce, salt, rice wine and oyster sauce but I could be wrong. Chinese food seems so easy but yet hard to make it right!

If I had more time, I would have gone to a lot of places tho. I shall write down a list of places I remember off the top of my head:
Sushi Ting
NorthMarket
Pat Thai
Happy Greek
Akaihana
Japanese Steak House
Minga
Japanese Oriental Restaurant
Cazouela's?
Taj Mahal
Sunflower
Waffle House:)
Hoggies
Mamma's?
Yum Yum Tea?
Rally's
Buckeye Donuts!!
Lee Garden
Northstar Cafe
Some other Chinese places I don't remember the names of

Lunch with Mameco!!!

Mameco came all the way from New York just to have lunch with me! Ok, she didn't come just for me, but I can pretend. We went to one of the best Chinese restaurants on campus, Yau's Chinese Bistro. Usually at Chinese resturants I have no idea what to order, so until I am more comfortable at a restaruant I usually go to my regular standbys: moo goo gai pan, and General Tso's chicken. Moo Goo is actually one of my favorites, but it seems hard to find resturants that actually have it, so General Tso's is a "safe" dish that at least I know what I'll bet getting. However, in the case of Yau's, a month or so ago Mameco told me her favorite dish: chao gui dew. I tried it and it was very good! So on this magical meeting of the food friends I had this very meal!

The exact contents of chao gui dew are a mystery to me. I know there are bean sprouts, pork, noodles, shrimp, duck and onion. but I'm not sure if there is anything else thrown in there that I missed. I am wondering if it is maybe the type of dish that is personal to the chef, because the first time I had it, there was pork sausage instead of pork, and also this time there was egg, which I don't remember being there before. Either way it is a delicious and spicy dish that was designed to be eaten by me!

Mameco! I just realized, we took pictures of the food, but not US together with food. I demand a do-over! You have to come back so we can do it right!

Temaki Sushi

Today was a lucky day. I have been thinking of going to a sushi restaurant for my birthday since I heard about some good all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants. I was gonna wait until November but I got some free sushi today!

One of my co-workers brought some squid, mentaiko, rice and seaweed for everyone. I had two of them and I was happy for the rest of the day, lol. The squid was half-transparent and chewy and fresh. Mentaiko was spicy and addicting. I HEART SUSHI.

Temaki is a kind of sushi roll. Seaweed is normally longer for this type of sushi because you have to wrap it in corn shape. I used to have temaki sushi parties at home. I don't know why but Japanese people like to cook for ourselves at the table. You can pick your own toppings and eat as much as you want! That's the way to do it.

The person who brought sushi sometimes brings food for people and it is always delicious--I love our lunch break for that. I think last time I had some pumpkin tempura and grilled pork from her...mmm. I wish she were my neighbor. I would go visit her everyday then, lol. Today, another co-worker was saying that she was also appreciating free food. Really, food can bring people together.

Blackened chicken

It's always a treat to find a great deal on food. The other night at Kroger, I found these huge boneless chicken breasts for under two dollars! I wish I had bought the other two, because when I came back the next day the price had tripled. I'm guessing they were marked wrong, but their mistake is my tasty meat! I don't have anything fancy to cook with, or lots of spices, so I decided to grab some blackening powder and have blackened chicken. Cooking with blackening powder is always an adventure in my new apartment because it makes a lot of smoke and I have very sensitive smoke alarms. I'm glad I am friends with my neighbor or else she might get angry at my 2am smoke alarm cooking. Usually turning on the stove fan, and the furnace fan is enough to keep the detector at bay.

The chicken turned out amazing, and was eaten too fast to even take a full picture of it completed! I made potatoes and corn to go with it. The corn was nothing special, but the potatoes were great and I have a whole post planned to honor them. I dare you to look at the pictures and not be hungry!

Curry, Rather Bland

The first and only time I ever had curry was at the JSO Welcome party last year. That was over a year ago now, but I still remember how much I enjoyed the curry. Ever since I had thought about trying to make it, but never braved it until a few weeks ago. I'm didn't really use a recipe because I have yet to find one that I like. The first attempt was ok, but a little watery.

I had my second attempt at making Japanese curry a few days ago. Unfortunately I still don't think I've got it right yet. When I think of curry I think of the spice, all the smells and flavors. I imagine successful curry will make your house and clothes smell like curry for the rest of the day. I think I should invest in a fan to blow smells from the pan to the living room. My curry has not yet lived to its potential. It was good enough for me to eat way more than I should have, but still not up to what I think of when I think curry. I will definitely be trying this again soon. I have actually found a recipe to make the curry spice blend from scratch, perhaps that is what I need to reach my goal of awesome curry.

jaga jaga

On the way back to my place, I was thinking of nikujaga. We normally use beef for the dish but I only had chicken. Meat is meat, after all, so I decided to make it today. But the chicken went bad in the fridge! Hmmm... it really ruined my plan and excitement. No meat, no life. Well, that's too extreme, lol. I still wanted nikujaga so I call it "jagajaga" cuz niku means meat and jaga means potato in Japanese. It sounds cute and kinda implies that there are lots of potatoes in this dish. The recipe I found online listed 2 cups of water... I thought it was a lot of water but just followed it. I guess it was ok to have that much of water but it took too long to cook. I had to cook some other things like instant ramen for dinner. I just couldn't wait for jagajaga. At least, jagajaga turned out to be as good as nikujaga so I was happy. The potatoes did absorbed all the flavors of the sauce (soy sauce, sugar, mirin, chicken broth and rice wine). I think I like anything with potatoes in it. Mmm... I wanna make that potato gnocchi I made for Kayo. She told me it was great but I wonder if she was just being nice or not, lol. I am supposed to be cooking with my roommate on Saturday so maybe we will make potato gnocchi together;D. I need to buy some ingredients tho like cream and walnuts... Jagajaga will be my lunch tomorrow<3 I love left-overs.

Stew with rice

My schedule is very busy recently and I don't have a lot of time to make complex food. Usually I get home from work and just want to go to sleep. So I make things that are quick and easy. And nothing says easy like canned food! Nothing really fancy here, what you see is what you get. Normally I'd prefer stew over egg noodles, but I already had rice, so this was much easier. Although it is so simple and from a can of all places, it is still delicious! I enjoy the canned stew much better than any home made I've ever had.

Frozen Yogurt<3

There is a rumor that bubble tea is considered old in NY. That should mean there is something else that is as delicious as bubble tea. People say it's frozen yogurt. When I heard about it from Ian, I thought of my cousin who used to leave his yogurt containers in my grandma's freezer. She would not let me have it because she promised him to keep it for him. I was slightly jealous but was not that curious. One day I got to take some bites but at that time, I didn't like ice cream that much either. When I was little, anything stimulating (too sweet, cold, or spicy) or filling was not good, lol. I had a small appetite as a little kid. It's not like I did not like to eat though. I did enjoy whatever I can eat in small portions. I loved vegetables and soup instead of snacks. Anyhow, I knew I could make frozen yogurt at home if I wanted. I never did it though.

Actually, frozen yogurt is soft served. So, it was different from what my cousin used to enjoy. There are two major frozen yogurt places, red mango and pinkberry. I went to both places. There are three flavors of frozen yogurt: plain, green tea, and coffee. I have never tried coffee but the idea of mixing yogurt and coffee does not sound right. I might eventually try it but I was never in the mood I guess. At least, I can tell you that the frozen yogurt they have is really thick overall. I prefer plain to green tea because the yogurty flavor is interfering with the green tea flavor. Although it is pricy (almost 4 bucks for a small cup)What I love most about frozen yogurt is that I can choose fruit toppings. As a matter of fact, if you try to order frozen yogurt with only two toppings, I hear it costs more than with three toppings... I guess they really want us to add toppings. When I was choosing toppings, I was naturally attracted to different kinds of berries. Raspberry always comes first but there were only a few left at that time. Also, I noticed blueberries did not look good for some reason. So, I looked at the label and ordered blackberries. My friend and I were a little surprised to see how big blackberries are. I didn't mind the size but she seemed uninterested in them. Frozen yogurt takes better with berries I believe. I wonder if Columbus will have any frozen yogurt places in a couple of years...

Tea break

I finally used my new hand mixer! I found out it is too strong to mix some powdery stuff even if I set it as 1, which is the lowest. It blew away some sugar and butter at the beginning. Except for that part, I am liking my new cooking device;). It is definitely saving some preparation time for me. Wait for me to come up with my own baking recipes!

Well, I started off with earl grey cake. My mom gave me her recipe through her blog. I imagine we will be good competitors in the food blog world. Anyhow, I mixed sugar and butter, added flour and tea leaves, and shoved it in the oven! I think it took longer for me to measure ingredients than mix everything. Actually, I could not whip the butter and egg until it turned whitish because the hand mixer was just so strong that I was afraid to lose too much of the mixture all over the kitchen counter. I learned something from it so I stirred the mixture before I turn on the hand mixer in the later steps.

The best thing about it is the cake was delicious! It was sweet and addicting. What was even better is to share good food with people. I shared it with my roommates like how my old roommate used to do--I miss her baking, lol. Everyone liked the cake and we took some ramdon pictures. Two of them brought their sweets to share and it turned into a late night food party. I'm so glad I didn't live by myself. The other roommate suggested me to have a baking basket in the kitchen. She said I could wrap individual pieces and leave price tags on them. For a second, I thought of it but then I remembered how my roommates used to share their bread, cakes and cookies at M-Castle. If there is any left, I will probably just leave it on a kitchen counter and let people take it. If I really need to fundraise for something, I might temporarily open a little bakery. For instance, I really want a certain cooking tool or something. I believe sharing what I bake with people is part of the joy. My next challenge is cake with soy milk or soya drink according to the label. I will welcome any crazy ideas for it:D. I am thinking of soy milk cheesecake but I haven't decided on the details yet.

Here is a picture of my tea cake on top and some delicious brown rice balls wrapped in shiso leaves. Shiso is apparently called beefsteak leaf in English but I have never seen beefsteak in a regular grocery store so I will call it shiso here. It has a strong herbish flavor in it. We use it when we wanna make things take kinda refreshing. My roommate is really good at decorating things. He made those little rice balls into wonderful artworks. I was full but still had to try one of them:). It's a food critic's destiny. Taste it or leave it... Just so you know my cake does not go well with those rice balls. They were two separate things.

Soy sauce egg on toast

Kris' egg sandwich story reminded me of one simple egg recipe I learned from my friend in elementary school. My siblings and I started cooking eggs for the family as kids. I guess that is the only cooking that was easy enough for us to handle. I tried to be creative but kids only know so much. I made an omlet, boiled, scrambled eggs, and stirfried eggs with vegetables. I didn't know anything fancy but I had fun cooking.

To make soy sauce egg on toast, crack an egg into a pan and take it out when white is cooked but before york gets too hard. Put the egg on top of a toast and pop the york and pour some soy sauce on top. I think it was the first time I wanted to cook from a recipe but not from something my mom cooked. I love the mushy texture of the egg. And the soy sauce flavor! Mmm... I wanted to eat it everyday.

Egg Sammich

My dad almost burnt the house down every time he cooked at my house, so he was banned from the kitchen. Even before he got banned I don't remember him cooking very much. As a matter of fact egg sandwiches are the only thing I ever remember him cooking, ever. They are so easy to make and so cheap. I'd probably eat them all the time if I wasn't worried about cholesterol from so many eggs. Just fry two eggs as you would if you were making them sunny side up, then when the bottom is firm, pop the yolks with a fork and flip the eggs over to cook on the other side. That's it! With eggs I always add salt and pepper very close to the end, if you add them early you can't taste them as much.

For the sandwich itself, I enjoy them plain, my dad used to put a slice of onion and tomato on it. Another tasty alternative is to put it on buttered toast instead of bread, then it's like a mini breakfast. I keep trying to think of things to flavor the egg with. When I have a better spice / ingredient collection in my apartment I think I will experiment with the type of things that get added to tamago sushi and see how that works out.

Yakitori more like yummytori

Last night was our JSO welcome BBQ, and obviously with a name like that there's food involved. This is my favorite thing about JSO, no matter where we go, or what we do, we must eat! I didn't actually make these, Rika did them all the night before, but I did get to cook them! They were even more tasty than they looked.

Must-Have Baking Tool

There are five people sharing the kitchen in my apartmenet. We share most of the kitchen utensils and ingredients. The other day, I found some baking pans and sheets in the oven, which was thought to be broken and used as a storage space. If someone bought baking tools, it should work I thought. So, I having been thinking about baking some muffins and cakes. I did bake some muffins but then I thought this apartment does not have any whisks, let alone a hand mixer. I looked for some cheap whisks but at the back of my mind, I knew I needed a hand mixer to mix and sometimes formulate things easily and efficiently. I decided to be strict on my daily spending so I was still debating. But, I could only think of delicious baked goods like muffins, cakes, pies, etc.. I went to Macy's but I had a second thought then. Some days later, my mom called up when I was again at a shopping mall. She said to me "As my daughter and a baking lover, a hand mixer is a must, Mameco." So I made up my mind and went to a Target's cooking utensil section. One guy was actually looking at the hand mixer shelf in front of me. He took the last one that was on sale. I was like awww but soon I happened to find one that was even more affordable, yay. I am not certain if this hand mixer will work fine but I took a risk:). Now one of my roommates and I are happy to aquire another kitchen utensil. We are secretly planning to bake some cake for another roommate whose birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks;). He better not check this blog, lol.

Curry Udon

Curry udon is one of millions of Japanese dishes that I love and crave often. I think it hasn't been long since curry udon first came out at restaurants in Japan. I would say maybe 10 years? Anyhow, my mom is a kind of cook who takes the challenges of new dishes at restaurants and who finds the recipes for them on her own. One day, I was telling her how I had a crave for curry udon. At first, she was thinking. About 30 minutes later, she came out of the kitchen with a bowl of brown stuff which was making me hungry even more than ever. It was just right. Udon was absorbing all the good flavors in the soup. She told me it was exactly how it tasted at a restaurant. I asked her how she did it our of curiosity. At that time, I was a bit interested in cooking but not as much as eating. She told me that she used Japanese curry base, milk and some Japanese broth called dashi to make it taste mild and Japanese/fishy and seaweedy:).

Now I have this Indian curry that has been added too much spice in there... I can barely take a few bites. At first, I just mix it with chicken broth but I have some udon noodles in the cabinet.... I know what I have to do;D! Using my instinct, I start heating up the curry and add some water and dashi. When it starts boiling, I add the noodles. Nothing complicated. just keep it on for about 10 more minutes and it is done. By cooking the noodles in the curry soup, more flavors are added to them. Of course, it is still spicy but I think it adds a good kick to it. I think I succeed in the Indian curry make over!

Spicy shrimp ramen

When I got home last night I decided to use some shrimp I still had left in the freezer. This is a recipe I've been making for a while, and the actual formula changes every time.

To start with the ramen, I pretty much ignore the directions on the package. I cook the noodles in water that has had chicken bullion dissolved in it, and then drain the water completely, and add a half spoonful of butter and about a quarter of the ramen flavoring packet.

I cook the shrimp in butter, with black and red pepper, draining the melted water every so often, the more water it seems the more likely the shrimp will become rubbery. Once it's all the way cooked through I add teriyaki sauce and cook it in the sauce for the last two or three minutes of cooking.

Sushi ♥

Of all the Japanese foods out there, sushi is still my favorite. Who would have thought that one of the best ways to cook fish is not to cook it at all! I have nothing but good memories of going to sushi restaurants with my friends and trying out some new variety that I have never tried before. Today the urge to eat sushi came over me again, and I bought a box from Tensuke. It was a variety with Yellowtail, Tuna, Eel (still my favorite!), Squid, Octopus and shrimp. I've never eaten sushi from Tensuke before but it was very good and at a great price! I should have taken a picture, but I didn't have time. I had to eat it. Instead here is a picture of my first love from Sushi Ting.

Bond between pork and black pepper

I have been stir-frying pork a lot lately. It is not only because that's the only meat I have in the fridge but also because I love how it tastes when I marinate it with black pepper and cook it with oyster sauce and soy sauce. It is simple yet delicious. I still have some pork left. Unless I find a new recipe, I will probably stick with this Chinese style.