Food Food Food

May 12

YUZU in Sydney - How to use yuzu at maximum

I got organic veggie from Japanese farmer in NSW.

I am extra exited…because I got Yuzu, the Japanese citrus fruits for the first time in Sydney!  I have used preserved yuzu peel or yuzu juice in a bottle but never used fresh yuzu in Australia! 

YUZU!!! 

I love yuzu, it reminds me Japanese winter. It is not as sour as lemon and has beautiful aroma.  We enjoy both skin and juice. Also enjoy putting in hot bath 

I made yuzu ponzu.

Ponzu is widely used in Japan for hot pot, salad, stake and more. 

Ingredients are Yuzu juice, konbu ( kelp stock ) and soy sauce. Also little bit agave nectar that was left in bottle. 

There is NO WAY to waste any skin. Peel everything and julienne, Leave some in the fridge and rest, I am going to freeze! 

I can put these peels to osumashi (clear soup), Udon or soba noodle soup. put in ohitashi ( salad ) and make yuzu miso…nnnnn countless! 

I also have massive organic daikon 

( please see how big it is ) 

It was only $2.8. I saw one daikon that is 1/4 size of this and more expensive! 

Thanks to organic daikon, I cooked daikon skin with yuzu

” daikon skin salt and yuzu kinpira” 

Kinpira is name of Japanese dish. Normally use root veggie, fry with sesame oil and season with soy sauce and sugar or mirin. 

Instead of using soy sauce, I use simply salt and yuzu juice and peel after frying with sesame oil

YUUUMMMM

Also make lots of daikon asazuke ( light pickles ) 

Put sliced daikon, konbu( kelp ), chilli, salt and yuzu peel in a bag and shake well! 

Then all I got was naked yuzu, squeezed very hard…

I was going to take ” yuzu bath” to end my day then my assistant told me,

” the white part is not that bitter! we should keep it! “ 

Well, I was saying to her, how expensive the yuzu was ( $38 per kg, so it was about $4.5 per yuzu) , so she was really carefully treating the yuzu then couldn’t help tasting white part which she or I have never done in Japan.  ( Her parents even has yuzu trees in Japan ) 

then I ate it…” nnnn…not so bitter! “ 

My assistant goes, maybe make marmalade ??

I didn’t feel like cooking with lots of sugar ( I would use unrefined sugar, of course ) for long time, so just add honey to shredded white part of yuzu

Eating as it is is yummy. 

Also great to pour hot water to make ” yuzu tea” 

My assistant and I were so happy to just drink yuzu tea. 

Life is good….

Yuzu is cheap after all. 

No waste, use everything except the seeds and make Japanese girls in Sydney extremely happy :) 

Mar 30

Japan’s lastes diet? - enoki mushroom diet

My friend Yuko recently told about the latest diet in Japan, ” enoki” diet. 

She told me to eat enoki ice. I thought that is another one food diet got trendy for short time. I recalled my bad memory about grape fruits diet that I did when I was a teenager….

Then one day, I did little research about the enoki diet, then I found out, it looks really yummy. The naming of ice enoki sounds horrible but one I saw the recipe, it made me want to make it. It is quite useful and sounds tasty. 

Just in case you are not familiar with enoki…

Enoki is a type of mushroom that is very popular in Japan. e put is in miso soup, stir fry, hot pot…and more! 

I love using Korean brand here in Sydney. It is much cheaper. In Japan, enoki is cheap, but here, I have to pay three times or even more!

 This packet is something like $3.5. still expensive compare to Japanese price! 

we can’t eat bottom part of enoki. 

If you open the packet and cut the root, it makes mess so better cut over the packet. 

When I use enoki mushroom in cooking class, I was asked if this root can be used for stock….answer is NO!!!!! I love using mushroom stalks for stock, you know, stalks normally have more flavour but not enoki mushroom! 

not good looking bottom part. 

So back to Enoki diet

Basically this diet is focus on mushroom mushroom chitosan that is type of fibre that prevent the absorption of fat in your body. All mushroom contains mushroom chitosan but enoki contains the most. 

Somebody found out that if you freeze the enoki, benefits of enoki increases by 13 times.  

enoki’s benefits are 

• highest in mushroom chitosan - lose weight 
• lower bad cholesterol
• high in fibre - better bowel movement that leads to beautiful skin 

here is the photo of ice enoki! I saw amazon Japan, it sells around A$42! I will make it by myself….

Here is a recipe  

* this recipe comes from Japanese popular TV program ” tameshite gatten “

http://kotorism.com/ためしてガッテン-氷えのき-ダイエット

Enoki ice 

ingredients 

300g enoki mushroom 

400ml water 

method 

1. Pace enoki mushroom and water in a blender and blend well
2. Place the mixture into a pot and simmer for 30 mins ( other site says 1 hour ) 
3. Cool down and freeze. you can keep for 2 month 

the website suggest

you can put the ice 

• hot pot
• curry
• dressing
• omelette  
• miso soup  ( you don’t need to use dashi, the stock for soup cos enoki has lots of flavour ) 

above are sounds perfect!  I would love to put in my cooking! 

but suggestions below are not so sure 

• put in syocyu ( Japanese liquor)  
• sauce for yogurt 

Anyway, I can use as a frozen stock. 

If you want to lose weight 

Have enoki mushroom 100g a day ! 

Mar 27

Vegetarian at Thainatown, the very reasonable restaurant!

I was recommended to this restaurant by a few people. One is very fussy Thai eater so must be good. Also everyone says really good price!

As entree, I choose vegetarian spring roll, why? because that is the only choice

Carrot, cabbage and glass noodle inside

Papaya salad, $9

It is fantastic that have vegetarian papaya salad. I love this salad. The portion is big!

well lots of cabbage underneath to lift but I love cabbage anyway so I am happy

see the cabbage underneath

Green curry $11

Well, this wasn’t my choice. It was too sweet for me. I had jungle curry here and it was fantastic. Nice and spicy!

Tom yum fried rice $9 

nn….I think somebody didn’t tell the order right. I didn’t taste any tom yum..but it was nice anyway…

Funny thing is the non of dish contains tofu. very unusual. 

 I just must say that it was soooo cheap. I was really surprise to see the bill. No wonder everybody loves this restaurant

Thainatown 

Shop 48, 91 Goulburn St 
Haymarket NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9211 0090

Mar 22

Herb to substitute garlic and onion

I got herb that is substitute for garlic and onion.  Yes, this herb actually taste like garlic and onion. Funny, isn’t it?

I had this many times but I have never used for my cooking so it would be interesting! 

Big bunch of the herb 

Take a closer look 

My friend also gave me the plant 

I was advise to make a pest so it last longer and easy to use.  I can put in omelette, stir fry….

Mar 20

Vegetarian at Una’s - continental cafe restaurant

We were out in the city for a meeting after having not so big breakfast. It went longer than we thought, so we were absolutely starved and  didn’t know what to do. 

Then saw Una’s…it’s a continental restaurant mainly German-Austrian-Swiss cuisine. I have been to this restaurant for big portion of pork knuckle or schnitzel with yummy rosti but not sure about vegetarian. 

European look (?) bathroom 

We were too desperate for food so we went inside anyway, 

After looking menu, thinking just eating soup or salad, we found vegetarian! Phew…

Vegetable Strudel $18.5
with Portuguese sauce and Rösti

Inside of Strudel, there were spinach, carrot, onion, mushroom, capsicum and naughty cheese :) 

Portuguese sauce was touch spicy. 

Vegetarian Breakfast! 

Mushrooms, Eggs, Rösti,
Toast, Tomatoes

I was delighted to see Rosti even in breakfast! Also the rosti wasn’t drawn with tomato sauce so I can taste, wonderful naughty rich butter taste … 

After having big portion meal, we decided to share the desert…

Apple Strudel $7.5
with Ice Cream

Mar 18

kava disastor

I can’t finish writing about Vanuatu without mentioning Kava.

Kava is popular in Pacific Ocean and people in Vanuatu are proud that their kava drink is the strongest.

I have tried kava in Hawaii before, but Kava is one of the biggest culture in Vanuatu, so I had serious experience (?) there ( maybe excuse..)

I must say Vanuatu kava is stronger, even colour of kava drink is much darker than Hawaii!

So…what’s kava?

Kava is roots of pepper plant. Sounds healthy, doesn’t it?

Kava

That is what I was told in Hawaii  but I didn’t pay much attention that it makes me happy

what happy means??  Well, do you know that people in Vanuatu are the happiest  in the world….

Kava actually has anethetic properities. You know, make you relaxed.

one bowl of kava is like 50cent at local kava bar. very cheap to be happy, isn’t it?

Also bar is actually outside so you can enjoy sitting outside in beautiful clean air and looking up sky with lots of stars. Such a wonderful way to relax and catch up with friends.

I saw family washing kava and selling

\

250 vatu / per kg

The local kava bar is called ” Nakamal “

Bamboo nakamal

Ronnie’s nakamal

These two nakamals are very close to our apartment. These photos were taken during day time but night time, it was seriously dark and lots of local people, so we were bit intimidated to go inside…

but we decided to go. Everyone says local people are nice, nakamal is nothing dangerous. 

Before we went to local nakamal, we had kava at the vanuatu food tour and also kava colada at the cafe for tourists ( all restaurants in Vanuatu for tourist not for local people )

kava at the food tour 

kava colada ( right ) - kava + carrot, orange, passion fruits, ginger and pineapple juice 

so I was kind of getting used to have kava…but…

First time I had kava at Nakamal, I had just one small one. Next day, I feel funny, I thought I am getting flu or something so I took it easy, just lying down on the beach not too much snorkelling 

then that night, it was the last day, we went to local nakamal to have kava with local guy, John, we met on plane one the way to Vanuatu. 

John says ” Kava is good for flu, very good for you “ 

Well, kava is root, you know, sounds very healthy. Also I got brave that it will be the last night, so I had FOUR! 

My partner got 6 BIG one and even mix with beer 

What happened? 

We both could not sleep, feel like vomiting all night!

What we didn’t know is kava is like alcohol, you get hung over. Also We had tap water for the first time….

Even before the flight next day, I had to rush to bathroom to vomit.

oh dear….I don’t need to have kava again…. 

Vegetarian at Nepalese kitchen Surry Hills

I went to Nepalese kitchen in Surry hills

It was already packed!  when we arrived 

I went to this restaurant with two non- vegetarian girls, but they are very kind to order almost all vegetarian! 

Aloo chop , crispy Potato patties with various Nepalese herbs and spices, covered with chickpea flour 

Momo, the Nepalese dumpling - choose spinach and cheese filling 

Asian veggie stir fry 

Nepalese cuisine is great, still I feel indian like spice but at the same time taste soy sauce.  Indian + Chinese flavour! 

Salad

Nine bean curry cooked with chilli, parsley seeds and traditional spices. I LOVE this! 

I must say the portion isn’t so big. especially salad and stir fry veggie. A big eater like me likes bigger portion. 

but I forgot to order potato and mushroom curry which is suppose to be good so I will go back! 

Nepalese kitchen 

481 Crown Street  Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02)9319 4264

***Highly recommend to make a booking! 

Mar 16

melanesian feast - Vanuatu local food tour

Having local cuisine is my most favourite part when I travel. 

As newly vegetarian, it has a lots of conflict during travel. I quite often jump to non vegetarian food when I travel…

Anyway, I didn’t when I joined the Melanesian feast tour 

Start from national drink Kava- the mad like horrible taste but make you ” happy “ 

Many kinds of food! 

Mar 06

Best vegetarian choices in Vanuatu

I must say being vegetarian in Vanuatu is very challenging.

You know what I had to eat quite often?

Salad & chips!

quiche and chips 

salad! ( actually we had chips with this salad, too but it was gone by the time salad arrived ) 

chips!!! 

Pizza and salad 

Seriously, it is almost no choice :( 

Well, dear vegan and vegetarian friends would say ” that is plenty! ” but for me, booooriiiinnnnnngggggg :((((((((

Oh I must say all salads are very nice and fresh. 

We also tried very hard to get proterin rich food like beans or tofu

What we found are

Very very thin layer of mushed beans in nachos…sour cream is the main ingredients..I am serious!

Even I went to a few Aisan restaurants,

No tofu in the dish!

Vietnamese restaurant that is not really Vietnamese….it was tasty though 

It is ok not to have tofu in fried rice but…

no tofu in stir fry 

no tofu again…

I also had  ” Thai noodle” that doesn’t taste like anything like Thai food without tofu in another restaurant …nnn….

Then joined the tour comes with lunch, which is BBQ

We end up eating fruits, salad and bread only…nnnnn :(

Fruits

salad

I was seriously frustrated!

Of course, we really enjoyed fresh organic veggies at the market and cook but can’t cook everyday.

Also enjoyed some tropical deserts

mango, coconuts and strawberry gelato with fruits 

coconuts cake 

but still I was bit frustrated. Well, well, it is my vegetarian journey…..

Then I found a light….a cafe with lots of vegetarian choices and taste good

The cafe name is nambawan cafe! that is right, Number 1! 

PLUS

With the beautiful view of Iririki Island

We could enjoy fresh coconuts juice and Kava colada while feel the warm sea breeze…

( I will write about kava with much more details later )

Vegetarian pizza

Really great quality pizza. Very happy

Bean salad after eating many Greek salad which is quite often the only choice

Corn and leek quiche

There were at least four types of salad, some vegetarian pies that were already sold out and more. 

Highly recommend this cafe xx

http://www.nambawan.com/

Mar 04

healthy snack at the market

Feb 29

Fruits and nuts learning at le le pa island

OMG, it has been so long to write blog. I am so sorry if you come and visit my blog and nothing was written so long :( 

I have been crazy busy with every aspects of my life. Nothing bad, many good things have been happening so I am super happy but at the same time, I’ve got so many things that I want to share but I can’t! I have been so frustrated! 

Anyway…

I still have lots of things I want to share about Vanuatu! 

When we went to le le pa island, that has no electricity or supermarket. People there just grow everything. 

Even though, they don’t have what we have, they have abundant food

Look the mangos! I saw so many mango on the ground! 

The mango is much smaller in Vanuatu I guess these are the original mango supposed to look like… No steroid or too much fertiliser. 

But I was kind of sad after peeling skin with knife and get so small fresh 

then I saw  men just peel the skin with mouth. Wow, so easy. Since I am lady, I peel with finger and bite. no bother using knife to cut into pieces. 

another great learning about treating fruits is pineapple

It is again very small so they just slice with core then eat around the core. 

So much easier! just when I eat, I don’t  look elegant. 

I saw lots of these. I was wondering what they are. unripe fruits? ? 

Actually they are nuts!  when you open, you can find nut inside

found out that the nuts I bought at the market! 

I skewer is like $1. 

It’s a lots of work to get 1 skewer of nuts but so cheap. Unfortunately, I didn’t like these nuts… I liked the brown nuts much more. They are both raw and very soft. 

then I found these banana. plantain -  the cooking banana 

I saw these at the market a lot but never bought. They are much thicker than usual bananas 

The village people gave me ripen planine. 

You can actually eat raw ripe planine 

Yes, taste like banana but more starchy. 

I met a couple from Newzealand  who come to Vanuatu 5 to 6 times a year, told me how to eat them 

They said that simply fly and eat with toast 

So I cooked in a frying pan! 

Once cooked, it become yellow!

see the difference! and cooked banana become like potato but bit sour. 

I ate banana lap lap at the market but it is so much fun when I can actually cook! 

Vanuatu breakfast! 

Very lucky that we found brown bread at local shop. In super market or market, no brown breads are sold :( 

miraculously found (?) brown bread! 

Also New zealand couple introduced me a wonderful gadget.

coconuts opener! 

Instead of using machete, you can just insert into the coconuts.  They are available in New zealand if you are interested in. 

I had so much fun and learned a lot about food in Le le pa island :) 

Jan 11

Vanuatu national food- lap lap

Vanuatu’s national dish is a root vegetable cake called ‘laplap’. It is made from manioc (cassava) grated or shaved into a banana leaf with wild local cabbage that I was talking about before and coconut, wrapped into a flat parcel and cooked underground. 

Vanuatu staple root veggie ” manioc” 

plantain - cooking banana 

I found ” lap lap” in the market 

Manioc lap lap with chicken - 200 vatu 

I bought it but gave the chicken back. 

banana  lap lap -50 vatu

No plastic bag to take away, banana leaf ! 

Banana and manioc lap lap 

Jan 08

Easy, healthy and cheap desert with unknown berries

Rasberries are not cheap in Sydney. 

Look at these organic fresh raspberries!  only $2 !  

One punnet of raspberries is like $6 in Sydney. This is like three times bigger than one punnet. 

so you can imagine how exited I was…

 Then I ate them…nnn? Sour! very similar taste to raspberries but definitely more sour! These are not raspberries! 

Anyway, I could not eat berries alone so my creative boy friend gave me an idea. 

Mix with banana!  you see, whole bunch is $1.  

simply mushed together….

Put on my brown rice flake with goji berries…nnnn high in antioxidant :) 

Do I look younger now?? 

Jan 06

Vegetables that I had for the first time

I had a few vegetable I have never seen or eaten in Vanuatu. 

This is called “ local cabbage” in Vanuatu

It doesn’t look cabbage, does it? Well, it is dark leafy green veggie, must be really nutritious! 

A lady making a bunch of local cabbage at the market 

It is huge but only A$1 to 2 ( 100 to 150 Vatu )

* Me and local cabbage in front of our room. get idea how huge it is? 

When I cut the leaf or stalk, slimy juice comes out. Well, luckily we have similar slimy veggie in Japan so I get exited not scared.

Why? Moroheiya, the Japanese slimy vegetable is my favourite veggie so I am hoping that this local cabbage tastes similar.

By the way, slimy veggie is normally very nutritious!! 

In Japan, we simply boil it and eat with soy sauce.

So I did it the same.  Taste? It is quite similar! Yay!

 Also put in miso soup

  I was told eat only leaves. I was eating stalk as well…..

Another my new found veggie is ” snake bean” 

not this snake beans, guys

This one!  Huge, again. I can use only half for one big dish. 

When you cut..

then peel 

* I had the worst peeler in the kitchen so I couldn’t peel properly 

cut in half 

get rid of seeds 

and cut into small pieces 

* I am using blunt and very small knife and glass chopping board ( why do they exist? ) 

Local people stir fry them. 

I put in miso soup or congee.  

Taste? nnnnn, hard to describe. I’ve had nothing like this before. Not strong taste, maybe similar to zucchini?  not taste like snake beans that I know for sure or beans. but texture is totally different. bit like …..nothing! 

Do I like it? Yes, if I can buy them in Sydney, I will buy them. 

I love travelling to discover new food xxxxx 

Jan 05

Vegetarian meal at the market

There are some area you can actually dine at the market

I must say this in THE ONLY PLACE that you pay meal as a local price.  All meal like chicken curry with rice or grilled fish with rice are 400 vatu ( A$1 = 107 vatu ) , quite cheap, isn’t it? 

Places are quite clean. I got scared many times at market or market dining area in South East Asia but here looks quite clean and peaceful, isn’t it? 

In Vanuatu, restaurants are purely only for tourist or foreigner who lives there.  Prices are definitely Australian price! Lots of people Australian and New Zealand actually come and live there as a second house or own business. 

We were checking all places..keep checking if we could have vegetarian meal…

then a kind lady took us to meet Esta, who can actually prepare vegetarian meals. 

Meet the only chef who cook vegetarian meal at market

Esta!!!!!! 

We had chance to have vegetarian meal at her place twice. 

Being vegetarian is not common at all in Vanuatu so, she cooked our meal to order. 

Fresh veggies cooked in fresh tomato.