Equilibrium

Half of 2012 is almost over. For the past few months I’ve been desperately trying to get back to feeling like this again. I think I’m gradually getting there again, or at least, I’m making a better attempt at it.

Weekends are the best times for getting my act together. A stolen Saturday. A really good latte. Messy but healthy burgers at Grill’d.

Bento of the week is gyudon (beef bowl) with a half boiled egg and garlic long beans.

Something to look forward to? Masterchef is back on Australian tv (^__^).

Sushi Fuji Station is back!

I can’t remember whether I’ve ever blogged about the dearly departed Sushi Fuji Station. I have fond memories of this little gem in Victoria Park, always popular and buzzing with patrons,we used to snag seats by the sushi bar and watch the chef at work while sipping on a glass of wine, enjoying bowls of yummy udon and soba.

To our surprise, Sushi Fuji Station suddenly closed down for no obvious reason and we could never find such a good, conveniently located Japanese restaurant again.

But Sushi Fuji Station has returned! Only this time it’s named Buen 151 and has shifted to St James. Not too far away at all. The menu is still the same except for the new addition of ramen. Buen’s ramen is heavy on the pepper and tasty, I liked how they managed to get the half boiled egg right, lots of Perth ramen stalls seem to get that wrong.

Jo was happy that her favourite nabeyaki udon was still on the menu. This piping hot udon is a good dish to have on a cold winter night

This sushi was quite interesting in the sense that it had fish powder in it. Buen’s sushi may not the best sushi in Perth but it’s always consistent.

My favourite soba is still on the menu! This soba wasn’t cold enough but still as yummy as I remembered it last. I love soba (*__*).

We’ve already been to Buen a few times since we rediscovered it. I think it’s going to be a comfortable favourite again.

Buen 151
26B Chapman Rd Map
St James, WA 6102

Our visit to Buen inspired the homemade chirashi dinner that weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve made my tamagoyaki rolls and happily they still taste good! I feel like eating this again …

The Pressure Cooker weekend

Or should I say it the weekend where all the stress and pressure of the past two weeks melted away. And also the weekend I bought a pressure cooker! I love my pressure cooker, it is so handy, hours of braising on the stove are over, now everything can be smack bang and done in less than 30 minutes!

And the rock sugar and vinegar spareribs are still yummy!!

Braised pork belly, done in 25 minutes … we also managed to cook a whole pot of bak kut teh and make litres of chicken stock in an afternoon. I love my pressure cooker Y( *   V   *)Y

Teriyaki hambagu, stir fried long beans and rice. Not cooked in a pressure cooker but done traditional style. Don’t worry Jo, I will be making these for you when HC is away in Kuching.

Saturday brekkie with Jo and HC

Vietnamese dinner with Gerry and the cute couple on Saturday night. Teh tarik at the bad Makan2, teh tariks still good but service still very very bad.

Weekends should always be this good.

Getting over the hump day

We had an abundance of apples in the house.

So I baked an apple strudel with frozen puff pastry and apple slices. Yummy with vanilla icecream (^____^).

Wednesdays teriyaki beef bowls = comfort food. Finally we’re over the middle of the week, two more days to the weekend and 3 weeks of bliss away from work!! Getting excited ….

Herbs

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time at home and in front of the computer. But I’ve finished my assignments for the week so light is at the end of the tunnel!

Tried a new recipe,braised belly pork with yam. Took ages steaming the belly pork, next time I’m just going to chuck everything in the slow cooker, or invest in a pressure cooker

Kiam chye chicken soup. My mum’s version is much better but beggars can’t be choosers.

Another new dish, eggplant which I braised with miso, dashi stock, rice vinegar, sugar, soy and sesame oil.

My little herb patch is growing! Hopefully that’s a sign that the rest of May will be better ..

Good cooking day

I’ve been having lots of bad days lately, and that includes bad cooking days too. But I finally had an ok day in the kitchen today.

Stir fried Canton pineapple beef with rice bento. Going back to one of the first dishes that I learned to cook almost 8 years ago from a HK auntie.

Teriyaki hambagu with stir fried minced pork and long beans with rice. It’s been a while since I’ve cooked teriyaki hambagu, I remember the old days when I used to live with Jo and it was one of her favourite requests. Must cook it for her again some day.

Japanese chicken curry with mixed vegetables and rice bento. Recognise the donkey? It’s the Donkey from Shrek. I hope the rest of the week is better, at least I know there will be nice lunch bentos to look forward to .

Autumn

It’s finally starting to feel like autumn! The temperature has dropped below 30 degrees, the air is definitely cooler and I even dug out a light coat to wear during the weekend. While I’m glad that the super hot weather is gone *fingers crossed* there’s something a little gloomy about the darker sky, the quietness and the slight chill. Everything suddenly feels a lot more serious.

Now that the weather has grown cooler, I’ve started craving hot sweet desserts such as this hong dao sa (red bean soup) with sago and tang yuan, glutinous rice balls. I’m also wanting to make hot tau fufa with ginger but somehow I’ve never been very successful at it. I will try again this winter.

There was lots of leftover rice which I made into Thai pineapple fried rice the next day. What I like about this dish is the myriad of flavours and textures, there’s the slight sour sweetness from the pineapples, the crunch of cashew nuts, the mild curry flavours and the pungent saltiness of fish sauce.

I had a bad tonkatsu over the weekend. I knew my luck with good Japanese restaurants was bound to run out sometime soon (-___-).  The bad tonkatsu however inspired tonight’s dinner of crumbed chicken fillets with generous lashings of japanese mayo and tonkatsu sauce, japanese potato salad and tofu miso soup.

At least Bad Monday is over (^__^).

Bento days

Sometimes after a long working day, cooking in the kitchen can be a bit of a chore. I love  cooking days when I have the whole day to myself, the kitchen to myself  and all the time in the world to prepare my lunch bentos.

I also love cute bento boxes. When I was in Japan, they had so many pretty bento boxes of different shapes and sizes. I wanted to bring them all home.

Lunch bento with ossobuco and belachan kangkung with rice.

Stir fried chicken with basil, cashew nuts and button mushrooms.

Added with kailan and steamed rice, tomorrow’s simple lunch bento.

It’s been a while since I last made tamagoyaki so they look a bit wonky (^__^).

Teriyaki beef and tamagoyaki rolls with rice lunch bento.

Hooray for bento days!

Orange and blueberry friands

On Monday I cooked the most unauthentic spaghetti and meatballs in the world.

Doesn’t look remotely like Italian pasta right? Actually I was cooking a Japanese style pasta, as in my meatball was really teriyaki braised mini hambagus and my tomato based pasta sauce was mixed with beef stock and and my teriyaki sauce. It was surprisingly pretty good, very light and tasty. I will cook this again.

My lunch bento tomorrow is another Japanese-y dish, miso and mirin marinated pan fried basa fillets with kailan and steamed rice. Healthy or not?

When I told my mother that I was baking friands, she originally thought that I had spelled ‘friends’ incorrectly. Then she realised that I was talking about friands, a popular Australian pastry which is based on the French financier. These little cakes are very cutely shaped, made with almond meal, butter, icing sugar, egg whites and flour.

I only decided to bake them because I sampled a delectable friand over the weekend and discovered that they’re really easy to make and can be baked without using any machines! Yeah, no cleaning! I didn’t have a friand mould so made do with my muffin tray, the friands still came out looking very cute. I mixed orange zest, orange juice and blueberries in my friand mixture, the mini cakes were moist, buttery and yums. Haha, so happy that I found an easy baking recipe.

Nowadays I love being in the kitchen because it means I’m away from work (-___-). Two more days to the weekend …

Baking

Baking in the kitchen, also baking in the hot sun. It is 39 degrees today and I am dying from heat!! Why?!! Why is summer here so soon? Sigh…

The idea of curries, hot food has been off putting, so last night we indulged in a piece of raw salmon and had it sashimi style. Oishii!! It was so nice and best of all, cold …

Anyway, when it wasn’t so hot a couple of days ago, I actually did some baking. This time it was a Japanese Cheesecake. After getting tips from my mum, she said that I was making her ‘itchy’ (I thought people only use that term when playing mahjong!) and she baked one the next day too! Hehe, before you know it, Jan will be baking from her kitchen in London. The cake actually turned out quite good but I was looking for an even softer texture.

After a couple of days in the fridge, the texture is now rather dense and creamy, not so Japanese cheesecake but more Western cheesecake. But never mind, because it’s also cold!

Ok, back to melting and waiting for the thunderstorm to break for the weekend …. (T___T)