Okinawa Festival at Cafe Oto

Here's the video of the event. Enjoy it!

London Okinawa Sanshin Group Presents Okinawa Memorial Day at Cafe Oto

I'm happy to inform you that there will be an Okinawan event in London this coming Saturday. There will be Okinawan performances and cuisine to try.
I'll be cooking some dishes for this occasion.

If you are interested, then come to this event!


For more details, click here.

Lunch on 07/06/09

Menu: Tuna, Avocado and Pickles on Rice

Does it look strange to you? I make tuna, avocado and cucumber on rice often, but we didn't have any cucumber in the fridge.
I was looking through the kitchen cupboard thinking

"What can we have with it?? Let's see...",

and the jars of pickles caught my eye.

"Yeah, beetroot and pickled onions might be nice. Why not."

The rice is sushi rice, by the way. To make sushi rice, just mix hot cooked rice with rice wine vinegar and sugar. I will give you the recipe for sushi rice soon.

We love beetroot. Even my three-year-old daughter likes it. I wouldn't let her touch it though - she will make a right mess with it! I always feed her when it comes to beetroot. We've come to eat beetroot more often since I found out that beetroot is very good for your health. Apparently, it's well-known as a blood cleanser. It's always good to know the benefits of food. It helps me a lot when it comes to choosing what food to buy.

Pasta with Fried Vegetables

I love simple dish like this.

I just stir-fried onions, cougettes, yellow peppers, baby sweet corns, tomatoes, and served with some dressing.

You can use any vegetables and dressing of your choice for this dish.

I prefer using home-made dressing though.

Lunch & Dinner on 05/06/09

Menu: coconut curry with rice

My husband was feeling chilly and needed some warm food, so I made coconut curry with Thai curry spices. Even my daughter loved it.

We had leftover curry and rice for dinner. It's completely vegan dish. I even used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

As I've mentioned before, I was a vegetarian for years. I only started eating beef when I was pregnant with my daughter. I can go without meat easily (well I never stopped eating seafood though). It's nice to have meat-free dishes every now and then.



It was really nice.

Lunch&Dinner on 06/06/09

A couple of days ago, we bought two packs of beef (they were on offer - buy one, get one free). We had the first pack of beef with fried vegetables and wraps.












Yesterday, we had meat-free meals.








Today we made steak sandwiches using the other pack of beef
(well I only used a slice for lunch and the other three slices for dinner).


I love the combination of horseradish and beef!!





















This was our dinner. Pasta with fried beef and vegetables.


It was quite nice.




But I think I had enough beef and won't be eating for a while.

It's been a while...

There are so many food photos I've been wanting to upload here on this blog, but haven't quite managed to find the time to do so.

Thank you for being patient with me. I will try to update this blog whenever I can.

Love,

Melina x

Dinner on 21/01/09

Menu: Chicken Curry with Rice, Daikon Salad

I treated my family with my curry. It's really easy to make.
I browned some onions and chicken, and then added tinned tomatoes, curry powder, soup stock and bay leaf in the pot.

My family seemed to enjoy it.

Breakfast on 14/01/09

Menu: Rice with Egg & Soy Sauce

This is something commonly eaten for breakfast in Japan. It traditionally comes with miso soup, fish, Japanese pickles, Natto etc.. but I just had that rice and had something else.

I know it doesn't look appetising, but it tastes really good. This was something I was craving for years (I'm too scared to have raw eggs in England), and I finally had it. Yummy!

Dinner on 14/01/09

Menu: Beef and vegetables with tofu, miso soup and rice

This is the first time to update my blog from Okinawa!
Sorry it took soooo long.

My daughter and I have been enjoying our time here. It's hot for me though - too hot for winter.

Anyway, this is the dinner my mother made on my second day here in Okinawa. The green vegetables you can see in the photo is not well-known, and I had never had them before. They taste fairy bitter, and my mother thought they would go well with meat and cook them with sukiyaki sauce. We dipped the dish in a beaten egg - it was really tasty!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, everybody!!!

I wanted to upload all the photos from 2008, but I had been quite busy and couldn't find time for that. Unfortunately, I was ill for over a week as well. I must've had the flu of some sort. I literally spent my time sleeping either in bed or the settee for those days until I lost a track of dates. I thought I did something the day before, but actually it was a couple of days ago.

Poor my little girl and husband got it as well. So we were all ill for days and days.

Anyway, I'm still trying to recover. I still have nasty coughs and stuff, but hopefully I get better by the next weekend.

Yes, I am going back to Okinawa in a week's time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm soooooo happy and can't wait.

I must get better before then. You know, it gets really dry on the plane, and especially I'll be on it for more than 10 hours. This time round, I'm taking my daughter by myself, which will be a challenge for me. I'll have to make sure to take enough toys with us. I've already bought loads of stickers, which seem to be great for kids on the plane.

I'll be updating my blog from Okinawa for over a couple of months.
Hope you have some time to stop by every now and then.
I know I've been quite bad not updating often, but I'll make an effort this year. (I seem to remember I said the same thing last year.....) OK, I can't promise, but I'll make an effort.

Unfortunatelly I was too ill to make New Year's food, but we did have noodle with hot soup on New Year's Eve.

How was your Christmas? Hope you had a good one.

Hope 2009 brings you all the health and happiness!!!

みなさま、今年もよろしくお願い致します。