Christmas Cookies

What I like about holidays in Japan is that it normally involves food!

My mom has been baking cookies for her friend's kindergarten's Christmas party for about three years. The event gets bigger and bigger. This year they ordered over 300 cookies. Kids take three cookies off of the cookies piled up on a table at the party.

To make the cookies interesting, we add new types of cookie cutters or come up with new decorations. This year's newbie is the red & green sprinkles. I bought them when I went to Boston last month. Those colorful decorations are common in the U.S. but still special in Japan.

We have tons of left-over cookies so I'll keep giving some to whomever I meet in the next couple of weeks! Well, I mean to do it but I tend to forget to take them when I leave home...

Recent Experimentation

I recently tried out three recipes I found online. The first was a recipe for from-scratch english muffins which I found here. I have never made any sort of bread from scratch so it was a new experience for me, and actually a lot easier than I thought. I think kneading the bread is very fun, and the recipe was so simple I could make modifications very easily. In fact, the muffins shown in the picture are actually onion english muffins. I added the onions very late in the process and they created a bit of extra moisture, which is why the muffins puffed up instead of being flat like they normally would.

The second recipe was for a mushroom veggie burger. This recipe can be watched here. This recipe also was very simple, and I learned a new trick! To add salt when you cook mushrooms will drain them of moisture making them much easier to use in other dishes such as this. The picture here does these burgers no justice. They were quite amazing. I made four of them and ate one just before work, and I couldn't help it... I came home on my lunch break and ate the remaining three!!

I had a surplus of almonds that weren't getting eaten very fast, so I decided to try my hand at making almond mlik (recipe). I didn't do a very good job at this one, since I don't actually have a blender. I tried mixing the almonds and water in a food processor but because I had no good way to measure, I used way too much water, and not enough almonds. So while this mixture does look very similar to almond milk, the taste is unfortunately closer to water. I will try again soon though, maybe with a borrowed blender!

I ate Mt. Fuji!

My parents, Ian and I went to see Mt. Fuji during his trip to Japan. We were gonna look at the mountain by the lake near by but the thick fog was covering the mountain. We decided to drive up til the 5th step (go goume) and see it up close. We bought some souveniors and were about to head back and I found this bakery in the food court. They are selling Mt. Fuji melon pan or pinapple bun! As a big melon pan fan, I could not miss it. The bread is freshly baked in front of us and they sprinkled some cocoa powder on top, which made a good sweet-bitter contrast. Although the cashier chose crappy shaped ones, they were pretty tasty! When I get a chance to climb up Mt. Fuji, I will definitely try Mt. Fuji melon pan again:).

My melon pan journey continues...

Peanuts Party!

We had a Peanuts party to celebrate my Dad's birthday and my brother's new job. My dad likes Peanuts from when he was little so we decided to make Snoopy and his red dog house. To be more unique, since my dad wouldn't eat cake that much, my mom and I decided to make a dish that look like a desert. With all the preparation, my mom didn't have time to decorate the Snoopy sushi. I thought I could handle it but all the rice fell apart after a min or so, lol. Woodstock made of mashed potato was very realistic tho. My mom is good at making characters out of edible stuff. The "chocolate cake" on the right is Japanese style meatloaf. She made the letters by squeezing mashed potato out of a tube. Chocolate flakes sitting around the base is fried gobo. The brown stuff in the back is fake jelly made of soy sause based jelly with chopped raddish and squid in it. The cold jelly part was best in the hot humid weather (we had the AC on so it wasn't hot in the room tho:P). To conclude the party, we had three kinds of cake: plum wine cake, peach yogurt cake, and orange tart. Everything was yummy and fun.

If we are having a birthday party together, we will do something creative like this, Kris! lol...

Wanna eat it cuz...

People want to try new food because they heard a good reputation about it or saw yummy ads or found names of their favorite ingredients in the menu. Since I am normally indecisive, I follow what people say is good or order stuff with ingredients that catch my attention.


On a Saturday afternoon, I was already in a good mood for winning the special discounted tickets for a famous broadway show, Wicked. Since the theatre was close to Times Square, JD and I decided to go to Olive Garden before the show. Her friend once told her that tiramisu at this particular Olive Garden is, even if it's a chain restaurant, beyond your expectation. It was pretty good I say. The top part was creamy but not that thick. The sponge absorbed expresso at the bottom and yet it was still fluffy. I haven't yet compared this with tiramisu at other Olive Garden's but I liked it;). I might like it even more if the cream part tasted more like mascarpone.

The show was specutacular! The characters were funny and the plot entertained us the whole time! I loved how the wicked witch ended up creating familiar characters from the Wizzard of Oz. Satisfied with the show, we explored the city a bit and chilled out at Starbucks. I always like to try new stuff. JD ordered London Fog, which was basically a tea latte based on citrusy and lavendery black tea. As a big tea fan, I am glad Starbucks started to work on their tea menu. Probably due to the lavender flavor, London Fog realized a complicated taste.

I ordered Vanilla Rooibose tea latte. I hadn't had Rooibose for a while. According to Starbucks, Rooibose is a caffine free red tea. The vanilla syrup and cinammon gave it a kick. If you don't like flavorful tea, don't order this one. I loved it. The unique taste never got my taste bud bored.

Normally I would stop there but since we were there for so long, I tried another new menu, Berry Chai Infusion. Berry is my weakness. Whatever product it is, if it contains a word berry, I have to try it. To be honest, I didn't like it too much at first. I felt like the berry flavor was disturbing the harmony of regular chai spices... but the funny thing is as I had more, it grew on me. This tingling taste became somehow addicting.

Starbucks makes each drink sound so complicated and interesting with the menu descriptions. It's kinda pricy so I don't go there that often but it's nice to try different types of drinks every once in a while. It doesn't change the taste of drinks but I kinda liked the green marble pattern cup sleeves.

how would you cook drum sticks?

Mameco will introduce two ways to cook drum sticks!
Just so you know, I am not saying these are the only or best ways. I just made two delicious drum stick dishes and wanted to share them with you!

1. Another Indian Curry experiment. This time, I cooked garlic, onions and added spices. When the sauce was almost done, I added chicken and vegetables. It is very important to stew chicken long enough so that it will absorb all the good flavors in the sauce. I poured in a cup of water. When boiled, I added the paneer masala. I think it was very successful. The soup was not too spicy and the chicken was tender. I made onsen tamago on the side. The yolk was a bit too raw but oh well. Onsen tamago is one of the easiest egg dishes to cook. Put an egg in a heat-proof bowl and pour hot water in it. Wait about 15 minutes and it's done. I found an article about onsen tamago on the New York Times. It said onsen tamago can be used in varieties of dishes and I agree! Well, I think the curry would have tasted fine without the egg but it added a nice soft texture and made the curry milder.

2. Cook with Soy Sauce and Balsamico Vinegar
It was simply done. Put all the ingredients (chicken, soy sauce, balsamico vinegar, water, sugar, hot pepper, and garlic) into a pot and cook it until the chichen is cooked. I added carrots cuz I had to waste 5 lbs of organic carrots I impulsely bought without thinking if it was too much for me. I make silly decisions at grocery stores every now and then. The marketing people really kill me. Going back to the chicken dish, yes, it was delicious and filling. The microwaved cabbages tasted great with the left-over sause. This dish reminded me of the soy sauce chicken Kris made. Wait.. I think it was called Mom's chicken or something. Anyhow, I miss having food nights with Kris and other food buddies...

Euro-Asian Food in San Francisco

My dad took me to this Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. He said the crabs cooked in their special sauce is something different. I was ready to make a mess eating that dish:P. Thin spring rolls as an appetizer. The sweet and sour dipping sauce was one of a kind. I think they mixed oyster sauce, lemon juice and something else, lol. We ordered two kinds of entrees: the crabs and stir-fried seafood & vegetables. I def loved the crabs. The sauce seemed like a thick version of the dipping sauce. I think they probably steamed the crabs and cooked them in the sauce until it got thick. The sauce added a kick to the original crab meat taste. It looked oily but somehow I ate more than half of the plate. It is really nice to find out a new way to enjoy crabs without destroying its own flavor. I'm so gonna find out the recipe for this sauce. The stir-fried dish was delicious too. The tender calamari and Chinese cabbage were nicely cooked with salt and potato starch sauce. MMm....

My dad was full but he got lemon sherbet. It was made inside the real hollowed lemon. It reminded me of sherbet I used to get at the Japanese BBQ places in my hometown. For some reason, they had varieties of sherbet in the real hollowed fruits. I got strawberry mango cheesecake. I was slightly disappointed by the regular cheesecake with the mango sauce but I still enjoyed it. All their food had good presentations. I am surely going back there if I ever go back to San Francisco in the future;).

Chill Out @ Ruby Tuesday

My first Ruby Tuesday experience was extravagant. My Scottish friend, Sophie took me there during my trip to London. Sophie would go to Ruby Tuesday for birthday parties. The place was like a cosy home restaurant with cute decorations. I think we ordered pasta... I just remembered we couldn't resist the desserts, which contributed to a huge bill. I can't remember it but I think I ordered cheesecake or something. I would go back to my journals or photo albums but I am too lazy. Let me talk about the desserts I had with Jade the other day at Ruby Tuesday in Times Square.

The plate in the back is double-chocolate cake. It was like a chocolate volcano. You get a scoop of chocolate cake with melting chocolate in the hole. I am going to make it one day.
The plate in the front is blonde brownie. It was tasty as well but I kinda got sick of it after a half of it... The cake tasted good with ice cream and the caramel sauce.

Jade is a big fan of hot chocolate. Making hot chocolate is the first thing she does at work. She had two cups of it that night. She gave me the whipped cream for my coffee.

Happy Brunch

Good day starts with good brunch. My roommates and I prepared another brunch together. The menu is sunny-side up eggs, bacon, French toasts, broccolis, and earl grey. Having relaxed brunch is one of my favorite things in life. You just start a day talking about stuff with nice people. The French toasts made of Cocoya's home-made bread were incredible. I just learned how to fully cook the york for sunny-side up eggs. You just need to add in some water on the side when the white is cooked. What else would be good for brunch? Hmm... this is making me hungry.

Kihachi!!

Tonight a friend and I went to a Japanese restaurant that another friend recommended to me. It was awesome! I am very excited to finally have had food worth talking about! This place was in a strip mall, but once you're inside it feels like a regular restarant. There were the regular tables, the bar, and tatami rooms. Because there were two of us, and I think the tatami rooms were reserved anyway, we opted for the counter. The menu was all in Japanese with english translations, except for the teeshouku menu which was entirely in Japanese. Instead of full meals, we decided to stick to the small single dishes and got a few to share.

We started with sauteed lotus root. I have never had lotus root before, but Mameco talking about it in an earlier post made me want to try it! It was very good! Then we had BBQ eel. I was almost avoiding this one because while I love eel, it is definitely something I've had before. But Jun also told me that she loves eel, so two eel lovers together means we had to have eel! The eel was made to perfection!


Second courses, we had octopus in vinegar sauce. There were so many things in this that I couldn't identify lol. Yet I tried it all! I am not a big octopus fan, the only time I've had octopus before was on sushi. Really for sushi I like the meats to be more tender, both octopus and squid I think are too tough for sushi. However this made me like octopus, it still had some toughness to it, but since it wasn't on sushi I think it was fine. For the second dish we had fried pork tenderloin. These came on a stick and had a mixture of sea salt and grilled sesame seeds to dip it in. These were great and reminded me of when my mom makes fried pork chops at home.



Then we had dessert! I chose to try the sake-soaked persimmon, it had been soaked in sake for a week, and then cooked to remove the alcohol. My friend loves mochi and picked the colored mochi in red bean paste.





All in all it was a great food night. And the price came to much less than I had originally worried about. Mameco! We should go. Like now. Get your butt over here :P.

Good bread

So many things with food are so basic that they are overlooked very easily, but replacing them can make a huge difference! At my parents' house, they got a pepper mill last year. Ever since I had fresh ground pepper, I think pre-ground is very bland. And being able to adjust the coarseness makes it even better! Now I am looking for another basic. I want bread.

Recently I have been trying to discover good bread. I mean REALLY good bread. I bought a loaf of sandwich bread from the bakery at Kroger, just because it seemed fancy. I didn't expect it to be amazing or anything, just better than usual. Really the bakery bread was worse than the normal brand name breads. I kind of expected since it was baked fresh in the store or that it was from a bakery instead of a factory that it would be better. I was wrong. So now I am on a quest. A quest to find delicious bread!

Who knows! Maybe I will end up making it myself.

Tea House in NY

Cha-an is a Japanese tea house located in the lower east side of Manhattan. If you know Zen-cha, just think of it as a more traditional version of Zen-cha. I went there with my roommates and friend for lunch. It was small and packed but the interior design made the cafe look like Kyoto, like Akk said. They have a little section of tatami for people to have a real tea ceremony I suppose. I didn't get to see anything going on in there but I saw a guy in kimono, normally considered appropriate for a tea ceremony. A few seats were set up underneath this bamboo made roof. It looked very photogenic. Too bad we didn't sit there. If you are going there for tea, go for it!
Cha-an has a thick menu mostly concentrated on tea. I am not sure how it is like at night but when we were there, they only had about 5 full-meal dishes and other appertisers and desserts to eat.
I decided to order "chagayu" or a A-set meal. It is consisted of one bowl of 5-grains-added rice porridge, 5 toppings, grilled fish, tea of your choice and a dessert. I picked this Uji Fukamushi green tea. It looked fresh green and smelled very good. The taste is light and easy to drink. The rice porridge was quite plain so I ate it with the toppings. One of the topping was seaweed paste. It was less salty and sweet than what I normally eat and I liked it. Fish was good though I still don't know what kind of fish it was, lol. I also tried Takashi's unagi egg bowl, which was quite appertising. It is kinda tricky but they have a rule that says you can refill rice but not rice porridge. I strongly recommend them to let us refill the porridge too, lol. 3 kinds of desserts came to our table. Akk took the green tea ice cream, Naoya took the creme brulee with black sesami ice cream and I got the chocolate roll cake. Green tea ice cream and creme brulee came with fashionably curled sweet black sesami seed crackers. I enjoyed the food but I don't think their food or sweets are that good...