how to find a takoyaki pan たこ焼き器 in your local store

There’s nothing hard with making takoyaki at home, after a couple of goes, we’re experts at it. What might throw a spanner in the works is in the trying to find the equipment essential for homemade takoyaki: a takoyaki grill pan.

guuing may be addictive.

I have a big issue with small bites: overeating. Ordering almost everything in the menu because their small portions inherently means you can eat more will lead you to a state where euphoria borders on pain. Eating at an izakaya certainly did this to me.

a japanese hotdog

As our world becomes more and more integrated culturally, we would at times find ourselves disjointed. On one side, we embrace the new, we adopt foreign cuisine and make it our own with our own little twist. But in other cases we become more extreme in an attempt to preserve our heritage.

nao miso ramen

Ramen, one of my favourite things to eat of all time. A decent bowl of ramen is also one of the hardest things to find in Perth.

nikujaga 肉じゃが

I bet when I say "meat and potatoes", it's probably fair to say that the image conjured up in your mind would be something like juicy, thinly sliced roast beef with mashed potatoes and loads of gravy. But, if you're a Japanese, then the image would be this beef & potatoes stew, the only seasoning required: soy sauce and honey.

okonomiyaki お好み焼き

I'm currently in the middle of my vacation, but I had to tear myself away to let you know that the blog will be quiet for at least another month and to make this super quick post about my sister's okonomiyaki.

My sister made okonomiyaki because of an okonomiyaki recipe from a local japanese magazine. Her husband then kept asking her to make some. It's moderately healthy with loads of cabbage and spring onions, but not so healthy with the carbs from the flour.

I thought about substituting the okonomiyaki flour with self-raising flour, but it probably won't taste the same.

arigataya chicken katsu ramen

The first time I heard about Arigataya was from my sister. She told me that she went there with her husband and had a great meal. She also told me that her husband cockily ordered the free extra noodle but couldn't finished it, but let's keep this just between you and me. My initial thought when she told me about this place was, "Yay! Finally a decent ramen place". So naturally, I was quite curious, but I couldn't seem to find the opportunity to go.

The second time I heard about it was when I finally went there to eat with Maru. It was almost lunch time and she told me that we should try this new ramen place that's been generating a lot of buzz. I was so hungry at that point that we quickly ordered as soon as we got there. I ordered the chicken katsu ramen and Maru ordered the kitsune udon.

maki maki all-you-can-eat

My previous experience with all-you-can-eat sushi is minimal. The best I've had was in Western Australia at a restaurant called Shimizu. Although I found that Shimizu was not as good as Maki Maki.

There are a few reasons why I liked Maki Maki more than Shimizu. Maki Maki had a lot more variety in their dishes. The dishes were also prepared fresh when we order. When we were there for lunch, there were probably four other tables with customers, but it was not bustling busy. Service was efficient and courteous.

drunken black pepper prawns

As you might have guessed, I am lazy when I can help it. In those lazy moments, I would try and cook something that doesn't take me more than 5-10 minutes in cooking and preparation time. This recipe is one of those really easy but tasty recipe.

I usually have some frozen prawns in the freezer and I would cook them like this when I couldn't be bothered going to the shops.

The prawns should taste salty but peppery. The chinese rice wine really pulls this dish together, so do not ommit it or substitute it with anything else.

japanese daikon chicken curry

I would usually cooked japanese chicken curry with carrots as the vegetable. But, a few days before I cooked the curry, I cooked my daikon chicken soup where I overestimated by buying two daikon roots, and used only one. So, I googled and found this site that recommended to use it in a curry.

I won't tell you how to cook japanese curry, because all I do is buy the instant curry roux and follow the instruction on the box. And when they tell you to add the vegetables, add the daikon, simmer until the daikon is soft. I normally use the House brand curry sauce (medium hot), but obviously you can use any curry sauce that you love.

new naoko yakitori

We had a reasonably nice meal in New Naoko in Montmartre. It's not authentic Japanese, the chefs and servers were speaking in mandarin, but the food was top notch in quality. Before the meals arrived, came a side of edamame, crunchy and salty. The sushi was fresh, though I didn't much care for the ugly parsley garnish, if it doesn't improve the taste of the food don't put it in there.

Menu D (4-piece sushi & 5 skewers) - €16.90

I ordered Menu B, it had the skewers of beef ribs, prawns, mushrooms, chicken and duck. They were all yummy. The salad that came with menu had this great tangy wasabi salad dressing. The menu came with the standard rice and miso soup.

Menu B (8 skewers) - €14.10

New Naoko
3 Rue Abbesses
18e arrondissement, Île-de-France
Open Tuesday-Sunday 12pm-2.30pm & 7pm-10.45pm

kunitoraya ténpura-udon

Ténpura-udon - €13

What could be better than a bowl of udon with hearty soup to warm you up when it's bloody freezing outside that you couldn't feel your toes, all your joints ached, your ears felt like ice blocks and your nose could pass off as Rudolph's nose? That's exactly the question I asked myself while we were freezing our butts off outside the louvre. So, we went and searched for, apparently, one of the best udon in Paris.

edo shiki sushi

In Perth, we only have two places (that I know of) where we can find the novelty of having sushi served on a conveyor belt, Jaws and Edo Shiki. Unfortunately both places serve pretty average sushi with Edo Shiki slightly inferior from Jaws.

Dishes - $3.00 to $4.50 per plate

There's not really a lot of variety with the kinds of sushi they serve in Edo Shiki (Jaws have more). The quality of the food was also quite average, the taste was forgettable. They tried to serve both dim sum and sushi in the same place, but I think they may have bitten more than they can chew because both are quite terrible.


Edo Shiki
Shop 17, 200 Murray St
Perth WA
Open Saturday-Thursday 10.30am-5pm, Friday 10.30am-8pm

seizan wafu steak

I have visited Seizan only once before and it was not a pleasant experience. It was not so much the food, but the situation. If I'm not mistaken, it was the very first time that my parents had a meal with my future brother-in-law. I swear to you, the atmosphere was so thick that you can cut it with a knife. After that one time, we never came back, bad memories I suppose.

Now, five years later, everyone (but me) has forgotten about it. So, we went back with my brother in law in tow. The place was as I remembered it, clean and quite airy. The waitresses wore cute pink kimonos. The service was prompt, water was served without us asking. The only drawback with the service was the waitress serving us had a nasty disposition, but the other waitresses seemed to be friendlier.

ume seafood ramen

My last day in Melbourne, still couldn't find good Japanese food, what a predicament! Last ditch effort was this place, and it was abysmal.

This was one of those Chinese-operated Japanese restaurant, it was not authentic by far. Ajisen Ramen would seem like the most authentic place compared to this place. The place was well lit, but not very well kept. The seat cushions used to be white, but were now smudged all over. The wall graced the mandatory geisha paintings, to give it the illusion that it was a Japanese restaurant.

When I was there, at about 5pm, the customers were all non-Japanese, which confirmed my initial suspicion. The waitress/cashier managed to knock my drink over as she came to serve my food, but promptly cleaned it up and served me a new one.

Seafood ramen - $9.50

The place served sushi rolls and several kinds of ramen dishes. I had the seafood ramen. The broth lacked substance and this was covered up by putting in way too much salt. The seafood was not unfresh. The noodle was probably the moderately good thing about it. Give it a pass.


Ume Sushi House
385 Little Bourke St
Melbourne VIC
Open Monday-Friday 9am-6pm, Saturday 11am-5pm

ajisen tonkatsu ramen

In the middle of my getting lost in Melbourne (partly because I was looking for this restaurant called Yamato, which I finally found but was still closed, partly because I was navigationally-challenged), I stumbled upon an Ajisen Ramen restaurant. The restaurant was quite clean with a dim-lighted, modern type of ambiance, which to me didn't match with them being a fast-food chain and all.

Tonkatsu ramen - $12.50
Side of paiku (1 slice) - $1.50
Hot green tea - $1.50

I ordered the tonkatsu ramen with a side of paiku, but found it to be an inferior version of what it could be. The crumbed pork were these dry thin slices of pork, which neither satisfy nor appetising. The dish was over-run by cabbage, there was probably more cabbage in there than any of the other ingredients. The noodle was also not what I expected ramen to be, opaque, not translucent. The only saving grace was the side of paiku, which eventhough it was dry and weird looking, it was quite tasty. One last blow to me was that hot tea was not free, but I guess that was me asking for too much (I am used to having free hot tea in most Japanese restaurants I go to). Ajisen Ramen proved to me to be a second class impersonation of Japanese food. My search continued.


Ajisen Ramen
130 Bourke St
Melbourne VIC
Open 7 days 12pm-9.30pm

ryoshi una ju nami

I went to Bali this month, stayed in the Kuta area for the most part. We met up with a friend of a friend who has been living in Bali for a while, so I got the insider's tip. She suggested dinner in Ryoshi, a Japanese restaurant near my hotel in Kuta Paradiso. She said the restaurant was better than most in the area and it was.

The restaurant was a bit hard to find if you're not looking for it. The place was quite clean, which sometimes can be hard to find in Indonesia for a good value restaurant such as this. The décor needs a bit of an update though. We came in early for dinner and beat the crowd, by the time we were finished the place was busy.

Una ju nami - Rp. 55,000 (~$6)

I ordered the una ju nami, grilled eel served on rice, it came standard with miso soup. It was quite decent. It wasn't mind blowingly good or anything. The eel wasn't too sweet and it was melt-in-my-mouth soft, the rice was also fluffy and done well. My dinner buddies also enjoyed their meals. All in all, it was a pleasant dinner.

Ryoshi
Jalan Kartika Plaza
Kuta BALI
Open 7 days 11am-12am

genmaicha

My morning ritual consisted of drinking a cup of steamy genmaicha and a hearty meal. I went to this naturopathy session (paid by the company), where the naturopath took a prick of my blood and showed me the conditions of my blood cells. Apparently, my blood cells are a tad small and a bit wonky. She recommended I increase my iron and anti-oxidant intake, especially when I'm at work. So begins my diet of green tea, walnuts and macadamia nuts.

I have tried and vehemently disgusted by the green tea that is sold in the supermarket. In other words, the western interpretation of green tea. Japanese green tea, on the other hand, I love. It's mellow and light. There are so many different kinds of Japanese green tea, bancha, mugicha, sencha just to name a few.

Genmaicha - approx. $5.00

The one I have been drinking lately is genmaicha. It is a blend of green tea leaves with roasted brown rice, which gives it a yummy earthy rice taste. I sometimes find a popcorn-copycat inside my tea blend. This popcorn is actually "popped rice" that has been popped during the roasting process. I'm not going to go into it too much, google is a beautiful thing.

Ow, one other thing, wait until the brown rice becomes soft before drinking the tea, that way you get to eat the rice as well as drink the tea.

tanpopo ramen

Today, my sister and I went to this Japanese tea house called TanPoPo. When we want Japanese food that is quick, convenient and close-by, we usually go there. I remember the time when I used to go there almost for every lunch time, it was the cheapest food we could find that was reachable within a 10-minute walking distance of my school.

The place itself used to be quite well-maintained and clean. But over the years it had lost a bit of its shine. There was a leak on the roof pooled into a tin bucket and boxes stacked in front of the counter waiting to be put away. The place brings me back to my school days every time I visit and it would be such a shame for it to crumble and close down.