Heart and Star Onigiri

I am always fascinated about Japanese food, not to mention about their 'kawaii' food, and since we read that 'Hana Sushi' book (see my previous post about Sushi dolls), we've been learning the art of creating that 'kawaii' food especially sushi and onigiri. Here are another onigiri from my kitchen, heart and star shaped onigiri.

(The star shaped onigiri topped with ham and a slice of boiled egg)

I am not an expert onigiri maker so I got this handy onigiri makers with heart and star shaped mold. It's an easy-to-use kitchen stuff to make your own onigiri, you can see the product's review on this Jbox link.

Once again, I give the credit to my wife for her patience creating these 'kawaii' onigiri!

Sushi Dolls

Here are another creations from our kitchen: Sushi dolls!

Inspired by lovely miniature Sushi dolls on Hana Sushi book, we tried to make our own Emperor and Empress Sushi dolls using sushi rice for the bodies, quail eggs for the heads, wrapped in elegant kimonos made of ham and omelet for the empress. We used mustard green for the Emperor but actually I'd recommend using lettuce since it's more edible, we just couldn't find any lettuce in the kitchen so we grabbed mustard green instead. Some pieces of carrot and mushroom for the accessories, a bit of red chili and using black sesame seed for the eyes.

I give the credits for my wife for her patience creating these Emperor and Empress Sushi Dolls.

Hana Sushi book, a wonderful Sushi book full of colorful and fun creations of Sushi by chefs Akiko Namiki and Eriko Teranishi.

Refreshing deserts

Summer is just around the corner with the temperature soared above 33 degrees Celsius last week. I am a kind of person who prefer the chilling winter than scorching summer, so in hot day like last week, all I want is having some refreshing deserts.

Here are some beautiful refreshing deserts made by my wife, fruit salad and chocolate pudding.

(fruit salad)

It's a light, smooth yet firm pudding with strong chocolate scent and topped with a piece of tortilla chip, mixed berries and kiwi fruit to give a beautiful finishing touch!

Almost forget, it's not a Japanese food nor related to Japan but it does have a bit of Japanese touch, can you find it? yes, the Pocky! a famous Japanese stick coated with chocolate

Chicken Karage with mayo

(chicken karage don with mayo)

Here is my chicken karage don with mayo from Kimama Kitchen. After my first visit couple weeks ago to this Japanese kitchen right at the heart of Chinatown I came back for their popular Chicken karage with teriyaki mayo. They offer two dipping sauces for the karage, mayo or sweet chili sauce, and without thinking twice I chose Japanese mayo! my favorite sauce for dipping, just name any dish you want to dip, seafood, chicken, beef, tempura, this Japanese mayo goes well with any kind of food. The karage don comes with miso soup which you can refill as many times as you like, a generous offer you rarely find from a food shop in a food court. With special price of 9$, this big portion of Karage don more than enough to satisfy my craving for Japanese food!

Maid Cafe

I have been discussing about Maid Cafe with some blogger friends over the past few days. It started when I asked advise from an Osaka-jin blogger friend about restaurant and cafe in Osaka, then the thread goes on discussing about Maid Cafe and Butler Cafe in Japan. I don't consider myself as an Otaku but I do love anime and things so I love to visit one of the most unique cafes in Japan:Maid Cafe!

This kind of unique theme cafes originated in Akihabara, Tokyo around the year 1999. The service staffs of these restaurants (or bars) dress as elegant maids or as butlers. In a standard maid cafe the female employees dress up as French maids and refer to the customers as either Master (Goshujin-sama) or Mistress (Ojo-sama) and if for those who are happy to pay extra will be allowed to take picture with the maids. In other stores, the outfit and even the setting itself change. In school-themed cafes, customers are referred to as Senpai instead of Master or Mistress. Other themes include, little sister (imoto) and shrine girl (miko). Recently, with the booming of Maid Cafe, additional related service have become popular. These include ear cleaning, a foot or hand massage, photography session or even 'dates'with maids, but don't get it wrong, it's definitely not a brothel or that sort of things.

The popularity of Cosplay restaurants and maid cafes has spread to other regions in Japan, such as Osaka as well as other countries, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Mexico and Canada.

I found a link for you who like to search for Maid Cafes in Japan, this Maid Cafe link makes it easy for you to search by region/city, theme and even some extra infos such as their menu and coupon. The link is in Japanese but you can easily translate it by using Google Translate.

By the way, the Este ears service from Atelier Mimi sounds really interesting :)

Only in Japan..

(Some 'Maids' promoting their Maid Cafe in Akihabara)

Gumshara Ramen

Last week when I 'found' Kimama Kitchen inside the Eating World in Chinatown, I had to admit that I was wrong assuming that 'I wouldn't find a nice Japanese cuisine in this most-unlikely place'. While I was enjoying my King Curry and saw the folks lining up behind my table, I was wondering what these people queuing for? Oh.. they're queuing for another Japanese kitchen right on the corner. I couldn't hold myself to try this another-gem in a place I had ignored for years!

In less than a week I made my way to this ramen shop inside the Eating World food court in Chinatown. I couldn't even read their shop's name properly in the first place since the name written in a calligraphy style, first I read it as Cumshara and eventually I found out the right name, it's 'Gumshara'. It just looks like an ordinary Japanese ramen shop in a typical food court with black and red noren and the menu written in big cardboard with its picture. What's so special with their ramen then?

Here is their signboard written in English and Japanese: (I just 'copy-paste' their signboard since I didn't manage to take a picture)

Traditional Japanese Ramen

"Our soup is made by traditional Japanese way to cook which only uses only fresh pork bone and water, NO MSG is used. The richness of the soup comes from the marrow of the bone and the soft bone. It contains a lot of collagen, which is essential to maintain soft skin."

(My Tonkotsu ramen)

I tried their special menu Tonkotsu Ramen, when they served my ramen the staff said, 'if you find the soup too thick please let us know and we'd make it less thick. The soup indeed was thick and rich but I wouldn't make a fuss about that, and it's just so tasty! If you don't really like the thick soup, they also have hakata ramen which comes in light soup.

I overhead when some people asked the staff about their ramen and they said that the owner chef mastered the ramen cooking from the famous Muttepou ramen in Kyoto, no wonder!

(Gumshara Ramen inside Eating World in Chinatown)

Kimama Kitchen

It's been a while since my last post about Japanese eateries in town, not that I gave up my weekend hobby but hadn't found a good one worth a post. Last weekend eventually I found a good Japanese kitchen in the city, inside the Eating World Harbour Plaza in Chinatown just right at the end of Dixon street strip. If you enter the Harbour Plaza from Campbell street side, this Japanese kitchen is the first one on your right hand side. There was no name sign when we came to the counter and scrolling down the menu. Don't expect for ambience or good service since it's a food court but once you tried their crispy cutlet and yummy curry I believe you'd comeback to try another menu.

(King curry rice)

The king curry rice served on a 'king-size' white plate in generous portion, there were two choices for the rice, steam rice or fried rice, and I chose normal steam rice. The rice covered with yellow fried egg and topped with crispy chicken katsu. The curry sauce itself was not too strong which is good for me since I don't really like the strong curry flavor. Most of their dishes come with miso soup and the price is very affordable. I'd be very happy to recommend this Japanese kitchen for those who looking for an affordable Japanese casual dining in the city. I'd be back for sure to try their popular Karage don with teriyaki mayo!

(Beef teriyaki don)