Dinner on 26/01/08

I'm uploading some old photos now.






On that day, we went to a local butcher and bought some stew beef... and made......

Beef and ale pie!

It was really nice!

Dinner on 27/11/08

Menu: Okinawan-style noodle in hot soup with rafute

We had a chunk of pork in the freezer, and I decided to use it for dinner. As I mentioned before, we Okinawan boil pork to remove fat before using in cooking. We normally cook it for about an hour, wash it off with water, and use it in cooking. I decided to make rafute (the pork dish). I cooked the pre-cooked pork with dashi stock, cooking sake, sugar, soy sauce for a couple of hours, and added oyster sauce in the last few minutes. As I was boiling the pork, I felt like I might be able to make soup for Okinawa soba, and went for it. It was a spontaneous decision, and I had to use the ingredients in the house. Instead of using Okinawan-style noodle, I used rice noodles. For the soup, I used pork stock, dashi stock, a bit of cooking sake, a pinch of salt and a dash of soy sauce. As my first attempt, it wasn't too bad apart from the noodles. I didn't think rice noodles go well with this soup as the taste of the soup was subtle. The taste of the noodles seemed to be too strong for this soup. Oh well. I won't use rice noodles for this dish again. Next time I will try with Korean-style noodles or I might make noodle from scratch.

Lunch on 30/09/08

Menu: Egg on rice

What would you put on fried eggs? I assume you would put on ketchup, but my favourite is soy sauce! Oh yes, it does go really well with fried eggs and it tastes really really nice. Try that with rice, and you'll see what I mean.

I think we commonly use soy sauce for fried eggs in Japan. We use ketchup for scramble eggs and other egg dishes, but if it's fried, then we would use soy sauce.

If you try it, let me know what you think :)

Lunch on 17/09/08

We were shopping in town, and getting hungry, so decided to go to a new all you can eat place on Surrey Street. We had been interested in eating there for a while, so we finally gave it a go.

The food tasted really good, the waiters seemed to be nice and friendly, and I was quite happy and enjoying my lunch.

As I was eating, I noticed a tiny green spot on the Naan bread which I had put on my plate. I didn't want to believe that it was moldy, and I tried a bit - yes, my guess was right. It had gone off. Well, I felt bad about telling them as it was only a cheap restaurant.
When I finished my first plate, I helped myself to a second helping using a new plate. I then noticed the sign saying "Use only one plate" on the wall, but I thought my case was an exception. There was no way I would use a plate that had moldy food on it. A waiter approached and said "Use only one plate, please," so I explained the situation. My husband helped me explain to the waiter, but he gave me a small plate to put the naan on and told me to keep the first plate. I kept explaining to him, but he wouldn't understand. After a while, he took the plate, and I carried on serving the second helping. Then the head waiter of the restaurant came and told me that I should use only one plate. I explained again and again until he understood, but he could not understand my point, and said something which made me mad.

"100% of our customers eat these, and they are fine."

That comment got on my nerves. It sounded like it was all my fault.
I can understand and respect their policy and rules - I would have not changed my plate if it wasn't for the moldy food - but they didn't apologise to me for serving gone-off food. Instead, they told me off! What kind of attitude is that? I know we have a very high standard when it comes to customer services in Japan, but I think anybody would feel the same as I do.

Rotten service, and rotten food...

It's a shame. I thought the food was really good for the price (except for the moldy naan of course), and I was going to recommend the place to my friends.

The whole thing really put me off, and I didn't touch my second plate.

Never again.

Dinner on 14/09/08

Menu: Pork chop; saute potatoes; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; fried tomatoes.

I wasn't sure what to cook for dinner, and looking through my fridge and freezer. I found pork chops in the back of the freezer, and came up with the idea of making roast dinner type dish. I put sliced garlic and sprinkled a pinch of black pepper, rosemary and olive oil on the meat and cooked it in the oven for 20 minutes or so. It was really nice! I'm not good at cooking roast dinner, but it's quite easy for me to cook cheat version of roast dinner :)

This was our last Sunday dinner at our flat as we are moving out in a couple of days.

Dinner on 12/09/08

Menu: Chicken curry

It was a easy curry. I just used a jar of curry sauce, and cooked chicken and onions in the sauce. The chicken was really tender and really nice.

Dinner on 11/09/08

Menu: Fried rice with ham and lettuce

I love this combination! Stir-fry lettuce might sound odd, but it actually tastes lovely.