Food galore in Kyoto n Osaka

I had intended to make a second post of the food I ate in Kyoto much earlier but was not feeling too well after my trip back. Guess too much food and cold air make me sick.......haha.....guess I have only myself to blame for eating so much. And then I am back home, I was caught up with the unpacking and cleaning up and before I know I am busy with Christmas shopping and eating again.....so this late post. Anyway, here are the food pics.

Most of the time, I try to take pic of the food I ate but on some occasions, it's actually quite difficult with the crowd in the restaurant and frankly speaking I am quite embarrassed to whip out my camera and snap away. So I actually took the pics with my camera phone instead (more discrete compared to camera), so that might explain why the resolution for some pics are not fantastic. In any case, if the pics can talk, they will tell you how wonderful they taste......haha.....hope my pics do the food justice.

This is what I had in an italian restaurant which we found "underground". It's a shop located in the basement away from the busy street. If not for the advertisement, we would not have found this place. They are also the very few restaurants that has an English menu which we could use to order our food. We were really happy to finally be able to order food without just pointing at pics and when the food arrived, we were not disappointed either. The spaghetti was wonderful, salad was crisp and dessert was not too sweet. Overall, it was a very enjoyable dinner.


I also managed to have okonomiyaki on 2 separate occasions and it was althogether an interesting and fun encounter cooking your own food right in front of you. Needless to say, I enjoyed the cooking as much as the food itself. :p Here are some of the okonomiyaki pictures.




And of course not forgetting the japanese food........udon and ramen.



Well....think that's all the food I can stomach for now. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Day 1 in Osaka

Wow! Finally touch down in Osaka Kansai airport after a six hour flight. Really cold the moment I stepped off from the plane. It's close to 11 degrees although the temperatures are expected to drop to 6 degrees in the night and in the early morning. As it is only 835am in the morning, there is hardly a very long queue at the customs and it took us less than half an hour to clear through the customs and get our luggage.

We locked up our luggage in a coin operated locker and then we are off to Rinku Town (a shopping mall with all the branded goods at factory outlet prices) which is a 15 mins train ride from Kansai airport. We took the JR train which is very fast and clean. The rail cuts across a wide expanse of sea and its just amazing fast and comfortable. We notice that before we board the train, the seats inside the train will be automatically "reversed" so that every passenger will be facing the front of the train and this will be done again once the train reaches the terminal station at the end of the journey.




This is Rinku Town. Very nice place and the best thing is it's not crowded being so early in the morning.


I was more of window shopping then doing any serious shopping here though and after wondering around the mall for about 2 hours, I decided to call it a day and make my way back to Kansai airport for my lunch. I was really hungry when I sat down and ordered my lunch and I really can't wait to eat them. Me and my colleague ordered a set each. I had sashimi set which is really very fresh and yummy.


My colleague had the sushi udon set.


Really enjoyed the lunch and I am really looking forward to the next few days ahead....:P

Marble Cake

A easy-to-bake cake for tea break during weekend.....:p

Ingredients
150g plain flour
150g butter
150g sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 -2 tblsp cocoa powder (dissolved in hot water to form a smooth solution)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
Diluted condensed milk

Method
1. Sieve plain flour and baking powder together.
2. Cream butter and sugar till creamy.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla essence gradually one at a time. Continue creaming.
4. Fold in flour and add milk when necessary.
5. Divide mixture into half. Add half to cocoa mixture and mix well.
6. Pour mixture alternately into a baking tin.
7. Run a fork through the baking tin to make the marble design.
8. Bake at 150 degree for half an hour.

Tempura Crab cakes

Saw this recipe from a food magazine some time ago and have not gotten down to cooking it. The crab meat I bought has also been sitting on my shelf for a while already. So finally decided to cook it today.

I have to say the picture looks better than it tastes. Maybe I have only myself to blame cos I actually make some changes to the ingredients. Instead of cornflour, I used tapioca flour since that's what my mum have on her pantry shelf. Not only that, recipe calls for beating the egg whites till white peaks appear (which I take it to mean stiff like in cake making). But I was lazy to take out my mixer as I reckon using my hands to beat the whites should be alright.

By the time I started whisking the egg whites, I realized manual hand whisking does not really get the job done. But damage is already done and so I have no choice but to add it to the other ingredients hoping it will still turn out fine.

I guess if I had beaten the egg whites stiff, the crabcakes will probably be puffy instead of being round flat cakes......well.....anyway, luckily folks at home like it pretty much although I think I will try this recipe with other ingredients like prawns, imitation crabsticks, onions instead of crab meat. Basically, I can't really "taste" or "feel" the crab meat inside....

Still I think its a good recipe except it calls for some hard work.......don't be lazy to use your mixer.... *lol*

Tempura Crab Cakes
Ingredients
makes about 10 -12
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour
170g can crab meat, drained and set aside
3/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup chopped coriander
Spring onions, chopped
2 red chilli, seeded and chopped
2 egg whites
oil for deep frying

Chilli Lemon Mayonnaise
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tblsp chopped coriander
1 chilli, seeded and chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
lemon rind

Method
1. Sift flour into a mixing bowl. Add in water to a smooth blend.
2. Lightly mix in crab meat, coriander, chilli and spring onions.
3. Beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Fold into crab meat mixture.
4. Heat oil in a large wok/saucepan/deepfryer.
5. Add 1 tablespoon of crab mixture to the oil. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes until golden and cooked through. Drain on kitchen towels. Continue with remaining mixture.
6. Combine all the ingredients for the chilli mayonnaise in a small bowl. Serve as dipping sauce with tempura crab cakes garnished with lemon slice and coriander.