Ikasumijiru Teishoku （イカ墨汁定食）

This was my lunch when we went to Ohjima. You must be thinking,
"What's that in the big bowl?"
Have a guess. Yes, it's Squid ink soup.
It is one of the Okinawan dishes and is very good for your health.

If you would like to know more about the soup, click here for information.

Actually, I rarely eat this soup. It was the second time for me to try it. The taste was very nice, and my husband tried it :-) He wasn't too keen on it though.

As I was eating the soup, I found that my husband was giggling. I looked at myself in the mirror and burst into laughter. I had black teeth and lips!!! I looked scary. It's not recommended to try it on a first date.


By the way, this is southern mainland Okinawa. It's very close to Ohjima (Oh island). Isn't it beautiful? It was taken towards the end of October. As Okinawa is subtropical, the climate is very mild all year round. It gets cold around February, but rarely does it fall as low as 12 degrees centigrade or so. If you are used to living there, you feel really cold in that temperature. Everybody in Okinawa wears coats and scarfs saying "It's cold!" It's not a joke.

Sashimi Teishoku （刺身定食）

This photo was taken more than a year ago when we went back to Okinawa. I went to one of the small Okinawan islands called Ohjima with my husband and daughter. When I was living with my parents in Okinawa, my mother and I would go there to buy fresh sashimi which was caught on the island. You can buy good quality sashimi cheaply there, and we were often lucky enough to be given something extra for free, which was very nice of them. Nothing expensive, but something like fish meat close to the bone which makes really good soup etc.

Anyway, we went to one of the restaurants on Ohjima, and my husband ordered "sashimi teshoku (sashimi set-menu)" as you see on the photo. Isn't it gorgeous? (well, not for the people who are not sashimi eaters, I suppose.) It's very common to have sashimi with shredded daikon and Perilla (or shiso as we call it.) I love shiso! I like eating sashimi with shredded daikon and wrap them up with shiso. It's REALLY nice! You should try it when you have a chance.

The black stuff in a white bowl on top is mozuku (a type of seaweed.) As I might mention before, we Okinawans eat lots of seaweed. I have no idea how many types of seaweed is out there, but we eat it a lot. We are well-known for that.

If you ever have a chance to go to Okinawa, you should visit the island which is located close to Southern mainland Okinawa. (There is a bridge across to the island, so you can drive there.)

Sweet and Sour Chicken Skewers

I was watching a cooking programme by Ching-He Huang about eight months ago, and the dish she was cooking looked gorgeous, but easy to cook. So, I decided to try it. I bought all the ingredients for this dish and was getting excited thinking about my husband's reaction. He was very impressed with it :-)

Click here for the recipe.

*I changed the recipe a bit and used more vegetables.

If you would like to know more about Ching-He Huang, visit her website.

Spaghetti with Mushroom

Serves 4

350g dried spaghetti, boiled following the instruction

2 good handfulls of mushrooms (fresh Shiitake, maitake, enoki etc. can be used as well), sliced thinly

1 whole spring onion, chopped finely

1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

1-2 tbsp of butter (or margarine)

A few drops of soy sauce

a pinch of black pepper

1. Heat the butter in a frying pan and cook garlic and mushroom until soften.
2. Add cooked spaghetti in the pan and mix well. (If it's too dry, more butter can be added.)
3. Add soy sauce (no more than 1/2 tsp) and cook over a high heat for about 10 seconds. Season with black pepper.
4. Transfer to serving bowl and sprinkle spring onion on top.

Zenzai （ぜんざい）

I cooked black beans the other day, and I thought the taste was very similar to red kidney beans. (I'm not sure if everybody agrees with me though.) So, I decided to have them as hot Zenzai adding glutinous rice flour dumplings.

In Japan, azuki beans are used for Zenzai while red kidney beans are commonly used in Okinawa. Okinawan zenzai is topped with crushed ice, and if it's without ice and served hot, we simply call it "hot zenzai."

Dinner on 02/11/07

Menu: Chicken coconut curry

I wanted to cook something easy today, so I made coconut curry. I had never made coconut curry before coming to England as I was unfamiliar with it. While watching a cooking programme a few years ago, a chef was showing how to make it. Surprisingly, it looked very easy to make, so I decided to give it a go that evening. Since then, I make it every couple of months or so. I think the coconut curry I make is a very easy version, and depending on what we have in the fridge, I change the ingredients accordingly.

Today, I used potatoes, carrots, onions, courgettes, green & yellow peppers along with a few chicken thighs. My daughter tried it for the first time, but she wasn't too keen on it (I didn't use much curry powder, and it was very mild though.)

By the way, I used an old photo taken about ten months ago. We had deep fried onions and garlic with the curry then. They go together very well.