Just let you know...

Haitai everybody! Sorry I've been quiet here on this blog. I've been extremely busy these days, but I'm happy to tell you the world that I'm going back to Okinawa for the summer!!!!!!! :):):)

Two more days until our holiday starts. We're flying via Tokyo and staying there for a week, then flying to Okinawa.

Hopefully I can update food I will have while in Tokyo/Okinawa.

Until then, see ya!

M x

Okinawa Day 2010 at Spitalfields Market!

It's Okinawa Day 2010 tomorrow!!! If you live around London, then do come and join us! It's going to be a fun event. I must be off to get some sleep. I'm getting up in 4 hours' time.

Click here for more details.

Hope to see you tomorrow!!!

Baked on 19/06/10

My husband and our daughter made flapjacks that day. He had never made them in his life, but he was inspired to make them after watching a cooking programme. My husband and our daughter both had fun making them together. When we visited my father-in-law on Father's Day, everybody there tried a piece and loved it!

Dinner on 13/06/10

Menu: Soki jiru, spinach ohitashi, and rice

That's the soup I didn't take to my friend's on the previous day. It still tastes lovely though. In the soup, I used spareribs, daikon (Japanese radish) and kelp. I made spinach ohitashi to go with it. I wanted something simple like this. I simply boiled some spinach for a couple of minutes, and squeezed out the water. Cut in 3 to 4cm length, and then soaked it in diluted hontsuyu. Hontsuyu is very useful and is commonly used in Japan.



Japanese Hontsuyu Soup Base for Noodle

Dinner on 12/06/10

Menu: Goya (bittermelon) champuru, somin (white noodle) champuru, jushi (rice with pork, shiitake, carrots), ninjin shirishiri (grated carrots and eggs), soki jiru (soup with spareribs, Japanese radish and kelp), chicken with marmalade and soy sauce

I treated my local friends to some Okinawan food at one of my friends'. Apart from the chicken dish, they are all typical Okinawan dishes. I don't know why we use the term "champuru" for the noodle dish (we use vegetables, tofu and meat in champuru dishes), but I believe there's an another name for it - somin tashiya (ソーミンタシヤー.) In traditional somin tashiya, white thin noodles, spring onions and salt are used. I would use sliced onions, tuna, and spring onions for the dish. My mum would use grated carrots as well. All the dishes are easy to make, but I will write about them another time.




This is the close-up version of the soup and rice dish. Actually, the soup wasn't a proper one. I used normal pork instead of spareribs. What happened was, I did make the proper soki jiru at home, but I wasn't confident enough to take it around. When I went to a supermarket on the way to my friend's, I couldn't find any spareribs. The soup still tasted nice though.

I was quite happy that my friends enjoyed the Okinawan food. :)





*My writing isn't good here, is it. Sorry, I'm getting tired. Time to go to bed now.

Dinner on 11/06/10

Menu: Spinach champuru, miso soup, rice, umeboshi puree

I wanted to have a simple dinner and made champuru with spinach. In champuru dishes, we use tofu, vegetables and some sort of meat (or tuna.) I've never used spinach in a champuru dish, but I thought "why not?" We had lots of spinach which I bought from the street market (three bunches for ￡1!!) I put in dashi stock, soy sauce and black pepper to taste.

Dinner on 07/06/10

Menu: Beef fried rice with lettuce

We had leftover roast beef which my husband had cooked, and I decided to make fried rice in order to use it all up. I was a bit lazy and didn't bother cutting onions. I only used spring onions (normally I use both of them.) Anyway, I made scrambled egg and put it aside. Then fried spring onions, green pepper, beef, leftover rice, the scrambled egg, and lettuce. Does it sound strange to you? I love putting lettuce in fried rice! I only used soy sauce and black pepper to taste.

Dinner on 01/06/10

Menu: Garlic prawns in tomato sauce with pasta

This is one of my favourite dishes. Not sure if I have put it up on this blog, so I will briefly explain how to make this dish.

Firstly, you make tomato sauce and put it aside. Then you fry garlic in a frying pan, add prawns and fry for a minute or so. Put in the tomato sauce, sprinkle some black pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over cooked pasta. You could mix the sauce with the pasta instead. I think that's how Italian would do.

Baked on 01/06/10

Whenever we have enough bread crusts, we make bread pudding!

Okinawa Day 2010

I'm happy to let you know that there will be an Okinawan event called "Okinawa Day 2010" on the 26th of June. It will take place at Spitalfields, London. I will be making two dishes for the occasion. If you live around London, then come and join us!

Click here for more details of the event!

Dinner on 29/05/10

Menu: Fish and chips

We spent our time cleaning around the house in the afternoon, and my husband treated us to fish and chips for dinner :) As you might not know, if you don't live here in the UK, we put malt vinegar on fish and chips. I found it unusual to start with, but now, I'm used to having it - actually, I love the combination!

Dinner on 27/05/10

Menu: Gyoza (pork dumplings), salad, miso soup, rice

I made gyoza today! Shame about the quality of this photo, but we all enjoyed our dinner. My daughter had 5 dumplings! Home-made pork dumplings taste so much nicer than the ones you get at restaurants here in England in my opinion. It's so easy to make as well.

Dinner on 24/05/10

Menu: Prawns with sweet chili sauce, rice

I made this dish again! I love this.

Lunch on 24/05/10

Menu: Goya champuru, hiya somen

It was a hot day, so I cooked goya champuru again!! I used up tofu, so I didn't use it. I had leftover somen with it. I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch!

Dinner on 23/05/10

Menu: Hiya somen (cold noodle with dipping sauce), moyashi salad with Chinese-style dressing, hiyayakko (cold tofu with soy sauce)



It was really hot throughout the day, and spent our afternoon in our local parks. When we came back, I wanted something light. So, I made summery dishes. Hiya somen is a perfect dish for summer. You dip somen (white thin noodle) in dipping sauce which is in a red bowl. You add grated ginger/wasabi, spring onions and nori as toppings. The tofu dish is easy to make. You just cut tofu, and put grated ginger, spring onions and a dash of soy sauce on top! We normally use katsuobushi (dried bonito) as well, but I don't buy it here because of the price. For salad, I used leftover moyashi from two days back, thinly sliced celery, carrots, ham, and I made a quick dressing using Ajipon dressing and a dot of sesame oil. I sprinkled sesame seeds as well.

Lunch on 23/05/10

Menu: Chicken rogan josh, basmati rice, salad, vegetable sticks & cheese dip, shloer

What a beautiful day we had that day! We had lunch in our garden. It was an easy lunch as the curry was leftover dinner from the day before. Not sure if that's just our thing, but Friday or Saturday is the curry night for us. I love Indian curries!

Dinner on 21/05/10

Menu: Sweet & sour pork, stir-fry moyashi, rice, soup

I was going to cook pork in a different way, but I changed my mind and made sweet & sour pork instead. This is one of my husband's favourites, by the way :) I experimented a bit, and used malt vinegar instead of rice vinegar. The outcome was......I think I would stick to rice vinegar. My husband didn't complain though. I just wanted to see if malt vinegar would be a good substitute. Oh well - never mind. I made the soup using pork bones, ginger, spring onions, dashi stock and a dash of soy sauce. I put in a dot of sesame oil to taste as well. It was alright.


This is the close-up version of the sweet & sour dish. I used too much carrot - oops. If my mum sees this, she would definitely make a comment on the carrot.

Lunch on 21/05/10

Menu: Goya champuru, rice

I meant to update my blog sooner, but it's not easy to find enough time to sit down and do so when an active 4-year-old is around.

Anyway, I made goya champuru for the first time this year. It was a hot day, and I picked up a couple of goya while in town the previous day. I used to eat goya champuru all the time while living in Okinawa. We have long hot summers over there, so it's a perfect dish for it. Goya (bitter melon) is a summer vegetable, by the way. It tastes bitter, so it's not so popular amongst kids. I've always loved it though. I still make goya champuru here in England, especially when we have hot days.

I wrote about goya a while ago, click here to see what I have written, if you are interested.

I'm off to pick up my daughter from school now.

Dinner on 17/05/10

Menu: Gyoza filling & vegetables on rice, miso soup

I was looking through the freezer and found a bag of leftover pork dumpling filling which I made a few months back. It already had some flavour, so I only added a dash of soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil to taste. For vegetable stir-fry, I used onions, carrots, cabbage and aubergine. It was very simple, but really nice.

Dinner on 13/05/10

Menu: Thai-style stir fry on rice

While looking through the freezer, a pack of prawns caught my eyes. I love prawns, and fancied some that evening. Originally, I was thinking of making prawn fried rice along with vegetable stir-fry, but I changed my mind when I saw a bottle of sweet chili sauce in the fridge.

"Might be interesting to use sweet chili sauce in a stir-fry," I though.

I'm not that familiar with Thai dishes, to be honest. I know the basic ones like Thai curry, Pat Thai (my favourite Thai dish!), tom yum soup, but that's about it, I think. I'd had sweet chili sauce for dipping, but not for stir-fry dishes, and thought it would be interesting to experiment.

I fried garlic in a frying pan, added prawns, and then put in celery, lettuce, peas, and the sauce. Mixed all in together and Bob's your uncle! It was really easy, but extremely tasty. I sprinkled spring onions on top (not on my bowl though. I'm not too keen on fresh onions.) You could use coriander instead of spring onions (I'm not too keen on coriander either.)

Dinner on 10/05/10

Menu: Penne pasta with Bolognaise sauce

I bought aubergine and courgettes in our last shopping thinking I would be making ratatouille soon, but it didn't happen. We had a pack of mince beef in the freezer, which had to get used to make some space. I used a fair amount of vegetables, so it doesn't look like a proper bolognaise sauce - oh well, never mind. It tasted nice though.

Dinner on 9/05/10

Menu: Bread with balsamic vinegar & olive oil and Hazelnut vinaigrette, garlic bread, salad, pasta pesto

We were invited to my brother-in-law's for dinner. As a starter, we had really nice bread dipped in vinaigrette. I like dipping bread in olive oil, but never had hazelnut vinaigrette before. It was amazingly delicious!! I'm sure he said that he bought it from an oil shop in (or near) Bluewater. If it was the one in Bluewater, then it must be this one.

We couldn't stop eating the bread and hazelnut vinaigrette. I like simple food like this.

Lunch on 9/05/10

Menu: Welsh rarebit

My husband made Welsh rarebit for lunch that day. He put on cheese, chopped onions and tomatoes on toast and grilled it. WE sprinkled some Worcester sauce to taste. It was really nice.

By the way, how come it's called Welsh rarebit? What does rarebit mean anyway? Any ideas? Rarebit sounds like rabbit, but is it something to do with rabbit at all? It hasn't got rabbit meat on though.

Dinner on 8/05/10

Menu: Teriyaki chicken on rice, fried aubergine and onions with grated ginger, miso soup

We got home quite late after helping my brother-in-law that night. I had no idea what to have for dinner. While looking through the fridge, I found enough ingredients to make a lovely meal. The dish with aubergine is really easy to make. You just pan fry aubergine, and sprinkle some grated ginger & soy sauce on top. Onions are optional. My husband was really impressed with this dinner, and enjoyed it very much. Well, so did I.

Dinner on 4/05/10

Menu:Yakisoba

I wanted us to have lots of vegetables that day, and made yakisoba. Yakisoba means fried noodles. For the sauce, I used tonkatsu sauce and Wocester sauce. The green stuff on top is called aonori, green seaweed. It's a very popular dish in Japan, and we all enjoyed it.

Dinner on 14/05/10

I went to my husband's parents' with my daughter for dinner. She wanted to visit them the previous day, but they had another plan, so we visited them yesterday. I thought I would make something quick and easy for everybody, and made chicken curry using a jar of Rogan Josh sauce. I just fried some chopped onions, chicken and the sauce along with tins of tomatoes and cooked for more than half an hour. I made a quick salad with carrots and celery. As a starter, we had papadoms with mango chutney, and then we had curry with basmati rice, naan bread and salad. We all enjoyed our dinner :)

Time to go to bed

I wanted to update my blog more today, but I fell asleep in front of my laptop and thought I should go to bed now. I'll find time to come back tomorrow, so until then, bye!

Dinner on 1/05/10

Menu: Vegetable miso soup, oven cooked rainbow trout, rice, umeboshi puree




I didn't take a photo of all the food I cooked that evening, but here's the photo of miso soup. As you can see, I put in aubergine, carrots, onions, cabbage and konbu (kelp). I love miso soup with lots of vegetables!

Lunch on 01/05/10

It's been more than a month since I last updated this blog, and I was glad/surprised to know that I now have a follower!!! Thank you so much, Antonio! You are the first one! It's getting harder and harder for me to find time to update my three blogs regularly, but there are always things I want to write about. It's really nice to know somebody does stop by here and read my articles. I always appreciate it when I get comments :) Anyway, when I do update my blogs these days, it's always late at night, so excuse my mistakes. When I'm tired and sleepy, I tend to make mistakes, especially when writing in English, which is my second language.

Back to the subject, on the 1st of May, I went out for walk with my husband and our daughter. The weather was lovely, and we enjoyed our walk. On the way back home, I was telling my husband about my obsession to have a fry-up at a local cafe. I wasn't thinking about a fancy cafe - more like a down-to-earth sort of cafe. Normally, I can go anywhere by myself, but there are a few places I don't have the guts to go by myself. This sort of cafe is one of them. It might be because these cafes are too British. You don't normally see Asian people there from my experience. I feel that I stand out in an awkward way in that kind of environment. Anyway, my husband said,

"Let's have something to eat at our local cafe of your choice then."

So, I picked one and we went inside.

My husband was queuing and came back to the table. I thought "Oh, I was going to choose which fry-up I'm going to have," but he said "you have to be quick in this kind of place." Not sure if it's Japanese/Okinawan thing or just me, but it always takes me a while to decide what to have at restaurants. Knowing what I'm like, my husband ordered one of the fry-ups for me.

When my food turned up, I was disappointed.

"Where are my mushrooms? Hash browns?"

On the plate, there were two eggs, one sausage, salty bacon and beans. Of course, it came with a cuppa and toast.

I was struggling to finish towards the end and ended up leaving some.
I liked the atmosphere though. These kind of cafes remind me of Shokudo (食堂) back home. I will tell you what shokudo is when I get time.

I like having fry-ups every now and then, but I thought home-made was the best.

I don't have an obsession with fry-ups anymore - well, for a while.


*Again, sorry for any mistakes I might've made here. I'm getting sleepy.

Hot Cross Buns

It's Good Friday today! Yesterday, I made Hot Cross Buns for the first time. Actually they are egg & diary free. I made them for my daughter who has food allergies. They don't look too bad, do they? I know they are not perfect, but my husband was very impressed with them! We all enjoyed home-made Hot Cross Buns :)

Happy Easter!!!

Lunch on 05/01/05

I'm putting up old photos here. They were taken back in 2005 on the mainland Okinawa. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was in the northern part of the island. That place looks like a house, doesn't it? I'll ask my mum to see if she still remembers the name of the place and I'll post it here.

Doesn't the food look nice? They are onigiri (rice balls) and yakitori. They were really nice.

Impressive!!

My 4-year-old daughter had a temperature after coming back from school the day before yesterday. We thought she was well enough to go to school yesterday, but her head was quite warm, so she didn't go to school. Her body temperature went up in the afternoon, but she seemed to have appetite, which was good. I asked her what she would like for dinner, and she said "I would like miso soup and rice. I would like carrots, onions, parsnips, wakame in the soup. Also I want nori and shiso with rice please." Wow, she impressed me. She's like a typical Japanese/Okinawan! We love miso soup, and it's very comforting for us. I also put Chinese cabbage in miso soup along with all the ingredients my daughter wanted. Hope she recovers from her cold very soon because Easter holiday is starting tomorrow!

Dinner on 3/3/10

Menu: Chirashizushi(ちらし寿司), Karaage (チキンから揚げ) and Miso Soup

It was Hina matsuri（ひな祭り）today, and I made a special dinner for my 4-year-old daughter.

I don't think Hina matsuri is a big thing in Okinawa compared to the rest of Japan, but for my daughter, I made it a bit special. We don't have fancy Hina dolls here in this house - we only have Hello kitty vision of them :) They were given to my daughter from my old friend, when we were back in Okinawa last year.

My daughter loved her dinner, especially Karaage, and we stuffed ourselves.



Here's the link to a youtube video of Hina matsuri song called Ureshii Hina matsuri.

I also found another youtube video of Hina matsuri in Kyoto. Click here if you are interested. I've never known/heard about this tradition.

My daughter and I made hina dolls out of origami paper together!! Her hand-writing is very good for a 4-year-old, I think. She took it to school today and showed it to everybody in class.

Lunch on 27/02/10

Menu: Pan fried Salmon, Sauteed Vegetables, French Beans with Sesame seeds, Miso Soup, Rice, and Umeboshi puree

Have you heard about the earthquake in Okinawa? My best friend back home emailed me saying that it was one of the most terrifying experiences in her life. I phoned my family and they were all fine, but my mum said she was really scared. We have small ones occasionally, but not big ones like that. We hadn't had a big one since 1911, so Okinawans aren't used to it. I phoned them just before lunch time thinking it would be just a brief call to ask them how they were, but it ended up a really long one. By the time I sat down and had lunch, it was already 4.30pm.

I really enjoyed my lunch.

Dinner on 2/02/10

Menu: Natto & Avocado on Sushi Rice, Miso Soup

I had way too much beef this week, and I didn't want to have any meat. So, I made a simple dish and enjoyed it very much. I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top. No photo of the soup - sorry.

Lunch on 26/02/10

Menu: Taco Rice with a couple of glasses of Sangria

I had my friends over for lunch and made Taco Rice for them. Have I written about it here on this blog? That's an Okinawan-born dish and very popular with many. Some of you might be familiar with it, especially if you used to live there. It was created near Camp Hansen, one of the United States Marine Corps bases in Okinawa. Okinawa has been influenced by other countries over the years, and this is one of the Okinawan dishes which describe our culture well. Our culture is mixed with Chinese, Japanese, America and so on.

I've just found a good article on this topic. Click here if you are interested.

Personally, I'm not proud of Spam being one of the popular ingredients over there, but it is commonly used in stir-fries and so on.

Dinner on 24/02/10

Menu: spaghetti bolognaise and French beans

Looking into the fridge, I found loads of mushrooms to be used, so I made bolognaise sauce. I could've enjoyed it a bit more if I hadn't had much meat for the last few days. It was nice though. I thought I didn't want to have beef for a while.

Dinner on 23/02/10

Menu: wholegrain penne & roast dinner with gravy sauce

Does it look strange to you? Well, actually it tasted nice. I just mixed pasta with leftover roast dinner, along with steamed broccoli, carrots, fried onions and fresh mushrooms!

Dinner on 22/02/10

Menu: natto, avocado, cucumber and tuna on sushi rice, miso soup

We had a huge dinner the previous day, and I wanted to have something light. I know many people here don't like natto unlike me and my daughter, who love it, but it's really good for your health.

The soup was lovely as well! I put in sliced onions, carrots, parsnips, lettuce and wakame.

Dinner on 21/02/10

Menu: Sunday roast!! (roast beef, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, sage & onion stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, steamed vegetables)

Traditionally, here in England, they have Sunday roast. I quite like the idea of having simple dinners during the week, and have something special on Sundays. I do love roast dinner!!! Actually it's my favourite British food :) I enjoy any type of roast meat except for lamb - sorry, baby sheep. I'm not too keen on your taste. My friends and family back home would ask me what British food is like, and the first thing I mention is roast dinner. Unfortunately, British food has a bad reputation over there. I think it's because British food tastes the best when cooked at home, in my opinion. Most tourists don't have a chance to try out British home cooking unless they have a friend to cook for them. I always love down-to-earth type of food rather than fancy food. Of course, it's nice to have fancy food every now and then, but I would get bored if I have it too often, and it wouldn't be so special. My favourite food has always been my mum's cooking.

I didn't cook this dinner, by the way - my husband did. I enjoy cooking, but I'm not good at cooking roast dinner... I'm not good at cooking under pressure, to be honest. With roast, everything has to be perfect, it seems. It doesn't matter so much if the meat is ready before anything else, as it can be wrapped up in foil. However, other things such as roast potatoes & parsnips and Yorkshire pudding have to be ready right before the dinner being served. Beforehand, meat has to be carved nicely, and vegetables have to be cooked. Not to forget, gravy sauce as well! To me, it's absolutely madness. My husband doesn't seem to mind cooking roast, so I always leave it to him. Maybe I will learn to cook roast one day.

Dinner on 20/02/10

Menu: Sweet & Sour flavoured chicken, sauteed vegetables, fried asparagus on rice, and miso soup (I didn't take a photo of it though. It was still in the pot when this was taken).

My husband wanted something Oriental, but didn't know what to have, so I showed him photos of dinners here on this blog. He pointed at this saying "I might want something like this". Well we didn't have pork, so I used chicken instead. Originally I was going to make chicken teriyaki, but I changed my mind. What did you think I used for the sauce? I used rice vinegar, honey and soy sauce. I browned the chicken with a little bit of vegetable oil, and added some vinegar, honey, some water and cooked for 10 min or so. I put in some soy sauce and cooked for another 15min or so. When the sauce was reduced, I added some more soy sauce and cooked until the sauce became fairy thick.

I lightly cooked onions, carrots, red peppers and cabbage, and cooked asparagus separately. I would've steamed them, but didn't bother today. We all enjoyed our dinner!

Toshikoshi Soba '09

I always like having Okinawa soba on the new year's eve, but can't get hold of proper one here in England. Alternatively, I used Korean style noodle.


Click here if you would like to know what Toshikoshi soba is.

It was maasan!

*maasan means delicious in our language.

Dinner on 15/02/10

Menu: Grilled trout, fried vegetables, miso soup, rice and umeboshi


We had a heavy meal last night, so I wanted us to have something simple tonight.
I didn't take a photo of our dinner as it looked really simple.

It looked like this.

We didn't have a whole trout each. Three of us shared one. It was more than enough for me and left some for tomorrow. For fried vegetables, I used onions, carrots and cabbage. Oh we did have some boiled green beans as well. We always like our vegetables to be crunchy, and I don't cook them too long.

Happy Belated New Year!!

It's been more than 6 months since I last updated this blog. Sorry about that. There are so many things I want to write about, but haven't got round to it. My 4-year-old daughter has kept me busy.

Anyway, I will try to update more often this year. Also I'm thinking of introducing more about Okinawa and Japan here. I know this blog is supposed to be about cooking, but I would like to introduce our culture through music, videos and photos etc. - that should be fun! When I'm busy, I might write in Japanese, which is easier for me.

I still have many food photos which I haven't uploaded here, and I will share them with you every now and then.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!!



Today, I'm introducing one of the well-known Ryukyuan classical dances to you.
It's called "Kajadi Fu/Kagiyade Fu(かじゃでぃ風／かぎやで風)".

Click here for the video.

We see this performance on special occasions such as wedding receptions, celebrations and so on as an opening act (Not sure if that's the correct way of describing it though). If you've been to Okinawa, you might've seen it.

I remember dancing "Kajadi Fu" on sports day when I was in high school. All the girls at school danced! It was a long time ago, and I can't dance anymore unfortunately. We didn't wear nice costumes like in the video, by the way.