Ohagi- Rice cake with sweet red beans

Have you been to Japan? If not, why not come and see interesting things here? Tokyo is called one of the most expensive cities in the world and it actually is if you come from other countries. That is mainly due to the current exchange rate of the Japanese Yen.

However, if you live in Japan, things are not so expensive because of the long-time deflation problem. And this fact surprises many tourists who come to Japan. Of course some things are expensive. Bar and night clubs are one of them so maybe you cannot go to bars so often. But liquor bottles at shops can be half the price of high-taxing countries like Australia for example.

Cheaper things include electronics, cameras and fashion products. There are also so many types of restaurants in Japan as even the Michelin Guide gave the most stars in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Kamakura. You can easily find good and cheap food casually everywhere.

Ingredients:

mochi-rice (2cups)

an (sweet red bean paste, 1cup)

salt (1/2tsp)

1- Cook the mochi-rice. Wash and drain properly and keep it in the appropriate water for three hours then cook.

2- Mix the salt with the an. If it's too loose, get rid of some water by heating and siring on a pan.

3- When 1 is cooked, push it with a wooden rolling pin roughly.

4- Make a small rice balls and cover the each ball with 2.

Please enjoy the ohagi with a cup of Japanese bitter green tea!

Itadakimasu.

Jeon- Korean style pan cake

Hello, I hope you have spent a nice new year season with your family and friends.

We had a cold weekend in Eastern Asia because of the high pressure system from Siberia. It was minus 17.8 degrees C in Seoul for the first time in 10 years and even in Busan was minus 12 degrees C!

It seems that natural disasters show up all over the world more often than before. As soon as Europe finished the horrible cold-wave disaster, the flood has come in Australia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. Everything happened just in a month!

All we can do now is always think about how to reduce the impact of our life-style on the earth's eco- system, otherwise I am afraid that the future could be more unexpected in a negative way...

Ingredients:

egg (1)

flour (1/2cup)

potato starch (1/4cup)

water or chicken soup (1/2cup±)

salt

sesame oil

soy sauce

vinegar

sesame

kimchi

green leek

*you can add another vegetables as well.

1- Mix the egg, flour, potato starch, half a tea spoon of salt and water together.

2- Cut the kimchi finely and green leek into 3cm pieces.

3- Put 2 into 1 and stir well.

4- Place some of 3 thinly on a heated pan with sesame oil and flip it over when one side is cooked.

5- Make the sauce with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame and sesame oil.

6- When 4 is cooked, please cut it into small pieces and eat it with the sauce.

Itadakimasu.

Pork Stew for a cold night

Today I will introduce some lunch photos in Tokyo.

Many restaurants in Japan have their 'lunch menu' which is usually a set of main, bread or rice, salad or soup and sometimes a dessert. It is also cheaper than a normal menu so business people can eat there casually every day. If you want to go to a luxurious restaurant but can not afford it, you can probably go there at lunch time and enjoy the high quality meal for 1,000 ~1,500yen!

Ingredients;

pork

potato

carrot

bay leaf

salt and pepper

tomato can (half)

garlic

soup stock (1/2 cup)

1- Cut the garlic, pork, potato and carrot.

2- Flour some salt and pepper on the pork.

3- Fry the garlic and 2 until the surface becomes brown.

4- Boil or microwave the potato and carrot until it becomes a little tender.

5- Add 4, soup stock, bay leaf and tomato can into 3. Boil until it's all cooked.

Itadakimasu

Fried prawn- Happy New Year!

How have you been spending the holiday? In Japan we usually have the new year holiday from the new year eve until the first weekend of January, which was the 3rd this year.

There are some traditional things to do in the holiday. We eat soba noodles on the new year eve and have a special brunch called 'osechi' and 'zoni' on the new year day. It usually takes a few days- weeks to cook the osechi so recently many people buy the cooked ones at supermarkets.

Some people go to a shrine for a new year wish. There are some new year entertainment and games such as kites, Japanese card games, calligraphy and top spinning.

Today I cooked small prawns. The prawns are called 'hokkai shima ebi' from Hokkaido.

Ingredients:

small prawns

flour (1-2 tbps)

oil

lemon (1/2)

1- Coat the prawns with flour.

2- Deep fry 1 and squeeze the lemon when it's cooked.

The whole prawns become crunchy so you don't need to peel.

Itadakimasu.

Sweet potato soup

Hello, how are you?

It is sad that the huge cold wave in Europe has influenced a lot of people who were supposed to spend a cozy Christmas in their preplanned place. I just hope that all the people stuck can sleep in a warm place with enough food and proper amenities.

Those airports are having the similar problems as the last spring when the Icelandic volcano exploded. That makes us reconsider about the worst case when we build a system, and also to maintain the system and learn up-to-date methods for maintenance.

Today I will make a nice and smooth soup with just sweet potato.

I won't use salt and spices, so that you can enjoy the true goodness of sweet potatoes.

Ingredients:

sweet potato (big 1 or small 2)

milk (2cups)

soup (1cup)

yogurt (1tbsps)

1- Boil the sweet potato or place it into the microwave until it is soft.

2- Place 1 into a blender with a cup of milk and mix until it becomes smooth.

3- Put 2 into a pot with yogurt and soup. Heat it during siring. If it's too thick, then add more milk.

4- Finish when it's warm enough.

It is also good for babies as it has no salt.

Macaroni Gratin with a pan

 Hello!
Suddenly it has become cold in Japan. It snowed on Mt. Fuji and many other mountains all over Japan.

Last weekend, I went for bike riding for the first time in a few months. It had been too hot to do anything outside so I was quite happy to feel the fresh air.

Whenever I ride along the river, I see many junior baseball clubs playing baseball at the bank with a lot of strict audiences and seniors who criticize them for improvement. I am so impressed by those serious kids and their parents who support them with water, food and other things. However, I wonder if the kids are really 'enjoying'?

Ingredients:

macaroni

chicken

onion

mushroom (shimeji)

dried herbs

salt

flour (2tbsps)

cheese

butter

pepper

milk (2cups)

consome soup (2cups)

1- Cut the chicken, mushroom and onion finely.

2- Stir fry 1 with butter, salt and pepper. When it's cooked, put the flour in and stir well.

3- Add milk. When it's boiled, add the soup and boil again.

4- Put the macaroni in and stir well until it becomes soft.

5- Adjust the taste with salt, pepper and dried herbs. Put the cheese on top and steam with a lid for a minute.

Itadakimasu.

Korean style-pickled and fried beef

Hello!
It has been raining for the last few days and a little cold here. I heard that in Hokkaido people already started using their heaters. It seems like the autumn came by so quickly and is hurrying into the next season.

I think some people have already become excited at Christmas. I don't really understand the feeling of waiting for Christmas as I don't have the cultural background. But it seems fun.

Actually I was really excited and happy when I was in Germany and saw the happy people in the Christmas markets. That made the cold and dark winter so much cozier.

Ingredients:

sliced beef

garlic

onion

(eggplant)

sesame oil

sesame

soy sauce (3tbsps)

sugar (1tsp)

sake (2tbsps)

gochujang (korean chilli paste) (1~2tbsps)

1- Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, grazed garlic, grazed sesame, sugar, sake and gochujang in a bowl.

2- Cut the onion and eggplant.

3- Put the beef and 2 into 1. Mix all together well and wait for a little.

4- Stir fry 3 on a pan.

You can also cook other vegetables like capsicum instead of eggplant.
Itadakimasu!

Fried burdock

Last weekend, I checked through all the cupboards to replace my summer clothes to autumn ones. Also I expected to find some clothes that I didn't wear anymore, so that I could give them to people who need clothes.

However, I couldn't find anything! Actually I don't have many things! I realized that I thoroughly check and get rid of some clothes every season as I'm a person who can't keep unnecessary things for years.

This habit probably came from my experience. Because I moved so many times in my life, I always think about moving out with less things next time. So I only keep and buy the minimum... I find it comfortable. Others may not, so, how about you?

Ingredients:

burdock

potato starch

soup (1tbsp)

soy sauce (1tbsp)

sugar (1tsp)

mayonnaise (1tbsp)

sesame

1- Slice the burdock and powder the starch around.

2- Heat some oil on a pan and place 1 on it. Flip the burdock one or two times until it's cooked.

3- Make the sauce. Mix the soup, sugar, soy sauce, mayonnaise and sesame.

4- When 2 is cooked, put 2 into 3 and mix together.

Itadakimasu

Stir fried eggplant

Hello!

Finally it cooled down in Tokyo after many months of tropical weather. It feels so nice to walk outside in the day without getting sweaty. It was unusually hot this year in Japan. In the last few weeks, the temperature in Tokyo was hotter than any other main cities in the world!

Due to this heat, our gas use bill in the summer was nearly half of the usual time. I realised that I tried hard to minimize the cooking time in order to avoid the extra heat on my body... That means a lot of cold dishes were often on our dining table.

Ingredients:

egg plant
capsicum

soy sauce (2tbsps)

sesame oil

chili powder

1- Cut the vegetables.

2- Heat the sesame oil and stir fly 1. Powder the chili powder when you eat.


Please enjoy the taste of the egg plant with this simple recipe as egg plants go very well with oil.

Itadakimasu.

Yakisoba- Fried noodle with chili paste

Have you ever been to Sapporo(map)? Sapporo is the biggest city in Hokkaido placed in western Hokkaido. Its population is around 1.9 million in the land area of 1,121.12km² which is nearly the same land-scale of Hong-kong. This means it's less crowded than other big Asian cities.

If you have only been in Honshu, you will be surprised by how different the atmosphere, environment and the nature are.

This big city with wide and grid-patterned streets also has large shopping districts and cafes. You can then see mountains from middle of the city which change in white in winter. There are many ski resorts around as well.

Please try to see the different side of Japan! For bike riding, eating fresh seafood, skiing, just relaxing or whatever.

Ingredients:

egg noodle

bean sprout

Chinese cabbage

ginger

garlic

age

gochujang (Korean chili paste)

soy sauce

pepper 

salt

1- Cut the vegetables and age.

2- Stir fry the finely cut ginger and garlic with some oil. Put 1 into it.

3- Add the noodle with 1-2 table spoons of water (to make the noodle softer). Adjust the taste with salt, pepper, soy sauce and gochujang.

Itadakimasu.