Dinner on 02/01/11

Menu: Ozoni(ish), rice with sweet potatoes, Enoki mushroom wrapped in bacon, boiled spinach with soy sauce

Unfortunately, I was unwell and didn't make proper osechi dishes this year. Well, actually, I attempted to make one of the osechi dishes on new year's day, but I burnt it by mistake :( My husband and our daughter were out that day anyway, and I thought to myself "I can't do it all over again. I'm going to sit down and relax now!" and ate all the unburnt and slightly burnt food from the pot. Can't remember what I made that evening, but I think it was something very simple. The food I cooked on the 2nd wasn't proper osechi ryori, but my family seemed to have enjoyed it, so I was happy :)

Dinner on 31/12/10

Menu: Toshikoshi Udon (年越しうどん)、Spring Rolls (春巻き)

We had those dishes on new year's eve. It's not our tradition to have spring rolls though. The yellow bits you can see on top of udon are sliced orange peels. They gave a lovely flavour to the soup!

Click here if you would like to know what toshikoshi udon is.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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 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.

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!!!

Dinner on 25/06/08

Menu: pork with ginger & soy sauce on rice

I simply made pork with ginger & soy sace, fried some vegetables and put them on rice. It was nice and easy. Click here for the recipe.

Dinner on 01/06/08

Menu: kakiage-don (kakiage on rice) and miso soup

I made kakiage-don using the leftover kakiage from the previous night. I simply cooked it in a pan with tentsuyu for a few minutes, and put it on rice. It was nice and easy, and yummy!

Donburi is very popular in Japan, and there are quite a few kinds of it. For more information, click here.

Dinner on 30/05/08

Menu: kakiage tempura with dipping sauce, rice and miso soup

I only took a photo of tempura and sauce, but we had it with rice and miso soup. Kakiage tempura means mixed tempura and we would use shredded vegetables for it. On the day, I used carrots, onions, hijiki (a type of seaweed) and burdock. I made tempura batter, and put in shredded vegetables, and scooped some out with a spoon and deep-fried it. In Japan, we have tempura sauce called tentsuyu, and you could make it from scratch, but most of us use already made one. Can you see the sort of bottle in the photo? That's my favourite one. The sauce is very useful, and you can use it in all sorts of dishes.