Mala Doufu

"Delishas!" as my friend blurted out. Yep I make a mean, mouth-numbing Mabo Tofu. Actually I've read that Mabo Tofu without meat is called Mala Doufu, but nobody cares about that.

I've been lazy these few days and have been eating microwaved pre-made stuff from the grocer. So I finally kicked myself out of this unhealthiness and decided to cook something wondrous, natural, and spicy. And tadaa! Mabo Tofu! Actually I have to confess that I did cheat and that I just bought the sauce, but at least I compromised by doing a no-meat thing and served it only with mushrooms, onions, and various veggies. And of course, tons of hot peppers.

Mabo Tofu is traditionally made with a special spice, Sichuan pepper. It's not really hot like a regular pepper should be, rather it gives a numbing effect. So since I don't have any, I settled to recreating the said effect with peppers, crushed chilis, and a large dollop of jalapeno hot sauce.

It was so hot and spicy it melted my bowl and turned it into a plate. Okay that was a joke, but it was OH-GOSH-ARRGGHH. I loved it. And I also loved how the tofu squares managed to retain their perfect symmetrical shape even after all those boiling around with the other non-symmetrical veggies. They were so soft, bouncy, and totally tasteless, balancing out the powerful sauce.

"Delishas!" and very cheap to make too. I made gallons of the stuff, enough to feed me through the week. Thankfully, spiciness acts as a preservative and a great substitute for numbing peppers.

I now have something to make for Christmas. Something to make my friends appreciate my choco custard more.

Hitsumabushi~! Cheaper and more Fowl!

That is not an actual pic of what I ate today at lunch, I wasn't able to take a pic at all of what I ate actually. Anyway, it looks somewhat like that minus the miso soup. It was delicious and very fulfilling! And replace that eel in the pic with chicken.

I would like to explain how to properly eat hitsumabushi first. So I'm going to introduce another kind of Japanese food: okazuke. This may seem confusing at first, and may keep on becoming so, but I assure you, it's fun and delicious, and did I mention fulfilling?

Okay, where were we...? Right, "How to Eat Okazuke". Basically, okazuke is rice in a bowl, then you add some savory toppings (seaweed, pickles, meat, sesame seeds, seafood, etc) and then you pour either green tea or soup stock over it. I prefer the soup stock though, I mean, green tea plus seaweeds and sesame seeds???

Anyway, it's kinda like eating breakfast cereals with milk, only with rice and soup. I wasn't aware of this Jap dish until recently, it sounds so outrageously Japanese though. My coworkers surprised me when we went to a restaurant and they said that the dish is green tea over rice. I was like WHAT??? and they were HAHAHA but the waitress was like BEEF OR FISH STOCK? and I was OOOH!! BEEF!

So now that you know how to eat an okazuke, be rest assured that hitsumabushi is eaten just like that too. Actually, it IS exactly like that. I'm not sure why they made a whole new name for it, and I'm not sure of the difference, now that I think about it. I even asked what the name means and they said it was just a name, so didn't fuss over it too much. The name is actually 日妻武士 which reads hitsumabushi. 日= Sun, 妻 = Wife, 武士 = Warrior.

Soo... yeah. Sun Wife Warrior. Delicious.

Hmm, hitsumabushi is supposed to be okazuke with eel, but what I had was grilled chicken... maybe it wasn't hitsumabushi that I ate. But it said so in the menu...

If you haven't have one yet, you could try the fish stock. My coworker was spouting Jap slangs all over it. Oh and he was smiling, so I assume it was that good.

Necktie Birthday Party

As it is the first day of my 3-Day Vacation and also my birthday, let's start with Saturday.

Nothing really happened much during the day. In fact, everyone was out and I was left alone at home doing chores. The friend who promised to come didn't, so the plan to go to Omiya was out. I just went out to buy the foodstuff for the dinner later that night and made the preparations for the chocolate pudding.

After a few hours later when the sun went down...

My friends began to come trickling back from whence they came, and the place started to get lively as people wailed that they're hungry and have no energy to help. Well I can't cook a feast by myself, so I told them they could either help me or go to sleep.

I guess they weren't sleepy.

In fact, rolls of chicken sushi began to mound up on plates. There were also roasted and fried chicken, candied fruits, and other bountiful dishes that filled the tables. Someone even went into the trouble of buying a cake. All while I was in the kitchen cooking the carbonara. Actually, they were rushing me with the pasta so much, that I forgot to add cornstarch and made some kind of "carbonara soup" instead. Still quite a fun dish overall.

With the cooking done, we turned up the music, turned down the lights, grabbed some plates, and went into some photo-shooting frenzy. Donning on neckties I wear for work, we dubbed it the Necktie Birthday Party while posing in front of the cam and doing some wacky shots. Good thing someone owned an SLR, I don't think regular cameras would work with such dark lighting and fast movements.

We ate, laughed, danced, and posed some more. Much so that we went past midnight and drained all our calories. It was like our own private disco club, minus the awkward strangers. We were on our own fun little world and it was the best.

The gifts came later and I got some chocolate rice balls, a Tokyo Dome mechanical eraser thingy, a mousepad, and of course the cake. By that time, everyone was already half-asleep, and I was left to clean out the room and put away the dishes.

Tired, content, and overflowing with happiness, I ushered the people back to their homes, closed the door, rolled out my futon, and went into a dreamless sleep. I didn't have to blow a candle to have my wish come true.

Thank you guys, that night was awesome. Happy birthday to meee~!

Lunch Meetings

Me and my office mates go out for lunch every week. It's a ritual thing for them, conducted every Thursday. And when I joined the team, they asked me if I want to join. Of course, not wanting to turn down an offer from a Japanese (it's really rude to do that), I said yes.

"Yoshi! Don't bring any packed lunch this Thursday okay?" And thus started my weekly culinary adventures.

Ever since starting work last month, I've been to a whole lot of restaurants here and around Tokyo. Mostly Roppongi and Akasaka. And every time we finished eating, they'll offer to pay my bill. Why not? I said. But lunch after lunch, I've began to worry about their extreme hospitality. I tried to force my way to the cashier to pay, but they strongly insisted on letting them. Now I can't imagine myself paying for my meals on these lunches anymore.

Lunches I had (no particular order... maybe):

• Shabushabu - a smorgasbord of meat slices, mushrooms, vegetables, noodles and other stuff that can be thrown into a boiling pot. Each person is given a huge box filled with raw food, and you throw bits and pieces into the hot water. Wait for it to cook, choose from the variety of sauces, and gulp them down while hot. Absolutely delicious.
  
• Soba - cold noodles on a bamboo plate with a cup of hot beef soup stock. You pick up the noodles and dip them in the beef soup and slurp it. There were lots of beef slices and veggies. Very yummy and refreshing on a hot, summer noon.
• Okonomiyaki - LOTS and LOTS of veggies that were stir-fried with bacon, octupus, and bean sprouts then mixed with batter. Looks like pancake. Placed on top of stir-fried noodles and garnished with a fried egg. It had tons of sliced leeks, but surprisingly, the leeks were sweet.
• Curry - although it was summer, we went to an Indian curry house for an all-you-can-eat-curry buffet. Good thing the curries had descriptions and levels of spiciness. Lots of foodstuff to dip into the curry; mini-donut thingies, flat and chewy bread, rice, bread sticks, etc.
• Mabo Tofu - extremely spicy and hot. We went to an authentic (and very classy) Chinese restaurant where we were given a huge platter filled with red, super-spicy, tofu dish that was served with soup, rice, and an assortment of side-dishes. Everyone began perspiring immediately and runny noses were rampant.
• Sushi - I've probably had each and every type of sushi available on the menu. Sushi after sushi, the chef kept on dropping on my wooden plate different types of cold and raw delicacies. I loved them all! Even the salmon roe (fish eggs) that was extremely slimy and quite... *shudder*
  

And there you have it. The current list of the Jap foods I've been fortunate to gobble down for FREE. Not sure if I've listed them all or forgot some. Nevertheless, I am very grateful for the opportunity and the fortune of being able to sample these wonderful cuisines. Quite sure that I would never (nor could I) buy these dishes on my own without much reluctance, and that each lunchout is an experience I definitely can never forget.

Thanks guys!

Omiyage~

Of course, no trip will not include a bag or two of locally-made treats for people back home to enjoy. And thus, we bought lots of goodies that's sure to make those cavities strong and proud!

I was not able to take a pic of most of the stuff because we already ate them. Except this: Turones de Casoy. Cashew nougat wrapped in thick edible paper.

Very addicting and so yumful! My absolute favorite of them all! I sort of remember the taste, maybe a memory from my childhood days... It felt familiar on my tongue, but I can't seem to recall eating this before.

Aside from those sticks of deliciousness, we also bought popped rice crispies stuck together by caramelized sugar to form an appetizing bar that'll keep you munching for hours~ I forgot what it's called, but it says, "EDNA'S" on the label (I assume that's the manufacturer's name).

There were a lot more, but the last thing I remember are those small squares of peanut bars that's sticky and dry at the same time. It's difficult to eat it without making everything crumble, but it was so addicting as well.

*sigh* I do not know when I'll be able to eat these again, I really do hope it'd be soon... *hint hint* Can someone send them to me in Japan?

Mushroom Burgers

Who would've thought that you could grow and harvest burgers?

There's this old burger joint (on a mountain ridge along the way to our resthouse) that we've frequented over the years. It has grown quite a bit from its humble beginnings, and you could see where the new parts have been built over the old building; a new dining room, a toy train chugging around the walls, a new patio/veranda, etc.

As kids, my brother and I would play on the small playground/park behind the building, and I would stay away from the parts where the grass has grown too thick because I'm scared some snake would bite my exposed ankle. Even when I was already in highschool, and my bro a college student, we would still play at the swings, climb the stone slide, and scare the chickens.

Memories played a big part for our regular visits there, but of course we came for the food.

Burgers made entirely of mushrooms stacked on top of Hongkong rice, a side dish of assorted mushrooms with a whole hard-boiled egg, lots of gravy, and a mushroom egg-drop soup.

A delicacy to die for; meals fit for a king! (or president). We had an experience of meeting a former president dining here before. Haha~

And since it's Holy Week, there's a custom of abstinence; of staying away from eating meat until Easter Sunday. Fortunately, there are burgers that aren't made from meat. Tastes a whole lot better too~

Guess what the place is called? Yep, Mushroom Burger. That's what they're famous for~!

Food, Togas, and Free Stuff!

There were three dishes laid out, and we only have to choose two:

• Clubhouse Sandwich - Stacks of ham, lettuce, egg, tomatoes, cheese and other yummy stuff.
• Lasagna - A big heap of ground beef between layers of baked pasta topped with thick melted cheese
• Carbonara - A full serving of spaghetti with creamy white sauce, mushrooms, bacon bits, grated cheese and parsley.

Oh the horrors of indecision! But it ended up with me taking the huge sandwich and the plate of carbonara... I heard the lasagna tasted a bit too meaty~

I also got a Free Movie Pass from work today along with the delectable foodies. It was from some sort of company meeting held inside a theatre; they've decided to use a Graduation Theme while every speaker reported project updates wearing togas (it's hard work to keep employees interested in such meetings, so a bribe and/or something outragous is necessary for an absolute attendance). It was fun in a weird and nonsense kind of way~

Now, I wonder which movie I should watch and when....?

Japan-o-philiac's Food

Around May or June of last year, while we were in the middle of our application to the Monbukagakusho (Japanese Government-sponsored Scholarships), Rose and I came up with these simple recipes to energize that Japan-o-philiac within you~! Giddyness guaranteed!

Fingers of Japan

Soft tortillas
Tomatoes, sliced
Lettuce
Cheese, sliced to sticks
Strips of meat (chicken chunks recommended)
Ceasar dressing
Healthy Fruttanesca (1 bowl)

5 spoons of oats (Quaker Oats)
Hot water
Fresh milk, or powdered
Sliced fruits
Sugar to taste (optional)
Japanese Power Sandwich

Slices of bread
Anything edible, left over food
Cheese/spread
Margarine/butter
Spices to taste



Supreme Flower Bonanza

Iced milk w/o sugar
Bread slices
Strawberry jam



It's not much, nor is it anything fancy. They're just simple Japanese-inspired snacks made by a couple of ultra-hyper people who were optimistically hungry. And even though there's not a hint of Japanese-ness in them except their name, they're quite delicious! Healthy too~

Try it, you'll love eat!

** Drawn in ink, colored in Photoshop

Healthy Options

I've been going on a bingefest (as mentioned by Kai) so much this week, and so I gave myself a challange of avoiding unhealthy food today, which I somehow pulled through. Almost.

Well I drank that coconut juice my coworker suggested to me, for those extra electrolytes and to ensure that my urinalysis comes out clean. I stayed away from my office's pantry and its unlimited fountains of lemon iced tea, mango juice, hot cocoa, cappuccino, and the sugar that comes along with it. I had the sterilized milk my mom/dad stored in the fridge. Ate bananas, drank tea, did a lot of exercise dance routines, and slept a healthy 8 hours.

Although I sort of gave in and used some liquid seasoning (barbecue-flavored soy sauce) during lunch today. *sigh*

I don't think I can live this way everyday. If it's so good for my body, why do I feel bad? I get hungry so often, I crave all through-out the day, I pee twice as much, and my wallet's already filing for a vacation leave.

Maybe once I get to Japan and I have no choice but to eat their veggie-filled boiled food pots, steamed thingies, fresh seafood, with lots of rice and green tea, my body would gradually get used to being healthy for a change and forget that it ever had other delicious yet oh so vicious stuff. I actually look forward to that~ (I heard that there's no gravy in Japan, is it true?! NooooooooOOOOOOHHHH!!!!)

My medical exam's scheduled for 8:00 AM tomorrow. We're told not to eat nor drink anything starting midnight so as to not taint the blood tests, so we will not. I really wish to get this over with soon, we need delicious fatty food to survive! Rawr.