Yubari Melon

Yubari is a small town close to Sapporo, Hokkaido. It used to be a coal mining town but that's not what makes this town special. Yubari is famous for its orange-fleshed melon called Yubari melon, a melon priced from 6,000 to 15,000 Yen or could reach 20,000 for the good ones.

Yubari melon's price record at auction was established in 2008 at 2.5 million Yen for one set of two melons. This year's first auction of Yubari melons was held last Monday at the Sapporo City Central Wholesale Market, with two melons selling for 1.5 million Yen, triple last year's highest price.

(Source: Mainichi News)

(A pair of Yubari melons, picture courtesy of : msnbc)

On my visit to Hokkaido last year this luxury fruit wasn't in season but even if it were, I am not sure if I could afford to try this most expensive melon in the world.

Guilty-free Japanese food

I read this interesting article on Sydney Morning Herald couple days ago,

Sydney chef Yukako Ichikawa cooked up a radical solution to food waste after a favorable newspaper review brought too many of the wrong kinds of diners to her restaurant door. Six weeks ago, at Wafu, her 30-seat restaurant in Surry Hills, she began offering a 30 per cent discount to patrons who ate all the food they had ordered.

She and her staffs tell dinners that if they do not leave clean plates, they will not be welcome back. "Finishing your meal requires that everything is eaten except lemon slices, gari (sushi ginger) and wasabi." says the menu which is tagged "guilty-free Japanese food". "Please also note that vegetables and salad on the side are not decorations; they are part of the meal too," it says.

Launching a campaign this week, the NSW Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, deplored the 800,000 tonnes of food waste generated annually in the state's households, on top of 300,000 tonnes dumped by businesses

Those buying her takeaway food, which is organic and free of gluten, dairy, sugar and eggs, must bring their own containers.

Her toughness has inspired some bad reviews, but some of her regular customer simply say " She is laying out her philosophy and methodology."

I've never been to this Japanese eatery but surely I'd love to try their 'guilty-free' Japanese food, and I'll keep in mind not to order too much otherwise..

Eating is fun!

My love for Japanese food is not merely for their great taste, freshness and healthiness but also for their creativity in decorating and presenting the food which makes eating is more fun. I am always fascinated with any Japanese food, not only sushi and sashimi or bento box, but also the light meal such as Japanese-style sandwich or burger. One day we found a book about decorating bread meal including burger or sandwich style on the shelf in Kinokuniya, actually they call it 'mook', between magazine and book. This 'mook' is in Japanese with no english at all but it's very easy to understand and follow the steps in creating delightful light meals made from bread, sausage, ham etc. One thing is I don't know the title nor the author but I found this mook sold on rakuten for 980 yen and it's called 'Heart for sand painting and set pretty big pan', not sure whether it's a proper translation since I only use google translate :) After browsing around, found two cool foodie blogs that may belong to the authors, Momoka and Ichigo.

Here is the mook:

One of the funny birthday breads on the book

And here is one of our creations , well I should say my wife's creation, she did the best for this :)

I call it 'tanning crab', copied from the book

Silkworm Island at World Expo 2010

Yesterday I watched the broadcast of the opening ceremony of World Expo in Shanghai, and as predicted before it was a spectacular show with Jacky Chan and Andrea Bocelli among the performers and the expo itself considered as the biggest world fair ever.

Among hundreds of spectacular pavilions, Japan pavilion at World Expo in Shanghai is one of the most famous pavilions at the expo . The Japan pavilion is the largest overseas venue ever built by Japanese government. Nicknamed as 'purple silkworm island' with the symbol mark 'smile to smile, the Japan pavilion will have an estimated 3,000,000 visitors during expo. A robot violinist will make its debut in the second section in the pavilion. Other robots capable of taking care of the old will be on the show as well. After enjoying the exhibition, visitors also can enjoy top Japanese cuisine.

An artist impression of Japan pavilion at Shanghai World Expo.

(picture courtesy of Shanghai World Expo)

Source: Shanghai World Expo, Japan pavilion

Timbertown

I had been busy with a few stressful things needs to be sorted out yet I managed to escape to a small nice town of Port Macquarie in the mid north coast region of NSW last weekend. Nothing much to do apart beaches, tomato and strawberry farm, wineries, and Timbertown. What's that Timbertown? Well it's sort of large theme park, actually it's an entire village of an authentic heritage township located in Wauchope, about 20 minutes drive from Port Macquarie downtown. It's a unique village where you can experience life in the 1880's where the bullocks team still hauls its heavy load and steam powered sawing machine still working. You'll need $5 only for the admission fee, enjoy free wine tasting in the cellar and if you'd like to bring home a bottle or two it costs around $10-$15 per bottle.

The entrance to Timbertown

The steam train

Three-holer Dunny

The bullocks transporting heavy timbers

A bottle of local wine I brought home

Besides Timbertown, there is a Ricardoes tomatoes and strawberries farm located about 10 minutes drive from Port Macquarie downtown. Unfortunately we were not allowed to go inside the tomato farm but we still can go into the strawberry farm and pick the strawberry we'd like to buy.

Edelweiss Chocolate

It's not a Japan or Japanese food-related post, just about an irresistible liquor-filling chocolate I found recently. I was browsing around Melbourne airport to kill the time before boarding my flight back to Sydney and came across this 'World of Chocolate' shop around international departure terminal. I love chocolate! So can't help buying one for myself, the Edelweiss liquor filling chocolate is the most interesting one for me. It's a smooth milky chocolate with crunchy filling and smooth liquor, an Edelweiss liquor. This product of Swiss costs $17 for a small pack of 12 pieces.

Edelweiss liquor chocolate

If you are not familiar with Edelweiss, you can find it in Wikipedia

Shoya

I just came back from Melbourne, it was a short weekend getaway visiting relatives yet I managed to go to two Japanese restaurant in the city. One of them is really an outstanding authentic Japanese restaurant right in the heart of Chinatown, located at 25 Market lane, between Bourke street and Little Bourke street.

Sho (rising) - Ya (house), Shoya is one of the top list Japanese restaurants in Melbourne with 6 split levels including smokeless Japanese style BBQ, traditional Horigotatsu style seating and fine dining tables. We ordered Ume set and Matsu set for $32 and $38, yes it's not an average restaurant but if you love Japanese food and wouldn't mind to pay the price, this special lunch set is worth the price.

Here are my big lunch at Shoya Melbourne..

appetizer: Savory egg custard

appetizer: Spinach salad

Sashimi

Sushi set

Steam rice

Signature deep fried comprises shitake and egg

Wagyu steak

Wagyu teriyaki

Tempura

The desert: green tea ice cream

Shoya Japanese restaurant

And here is a picture taken from level 88 of Eureka Skydeck 88 Melbourne.

Sparadise

Blue Mountains Sparadise is a Japanese bath house nestled in a hill top of South Bowenfels, in the area of the famous Blue Mountains in Sydney. I've heard about this 'onsen' more then a year ago but hadn't got a chance to visit until last weekend.

We're using public transport so we took train to Lithgow station on the Blue Mountain line for about 3 hours from Central Station then continued our trip by taxi for about 10 minutes from Lithgow station.

Upon our arrival, the staff gave us a short tour (only for the first timer) and a brief explanation about the bath house. The bath house was originally a private bath house and used as a retreat house for Zen followers, then they open the house for public on weekends (Friday to Sunday). This bath house is perfect for you who want to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. You can pamper yourself with the therapeutic massage, soaking yourself in the 40 degrees 'rotenburo' (open air hot spring bath) and a walk on the reflexology path in the Japanese Zen garden. Almost forgot, there is also a herbal steam bath that claimed to be very good for skin rejuvenation. There are indoor spa and outdoor spa facilities and both of them are mixed gender and swimwear is a must, if you've ever visited a Japanese onsen in Japan then you know why I mentioned this.

Sparadise, the only one Japanese bath house in NSW

The outer gate

The main building

The entrance

If you plan to visit this Japanese bath house, don't forget to bring cash since no electronic payment received and booking is essential.

Tea room

There is a tea room from where you can order tea or Japanese bento box for your lunch, and strictly no camera allowed beyond this point for privacy reason.

A vegetarian box priced at $20

A complimentary towel

Hokkaido Corn

This morning I went to Padys market and found interesting juicy looking corns, what so special about this corn? While the normal corn sold as 'sweet corn', but this un-normal corn labelled as 'super sweet corn', the corn looks a bit different with a few white kernels among the yellow ones, that's way in some country they call it 'pearl corn' as the white kernel looks like a pearl.

Pearl corns

The above corns I found this morning reminds me of corns I tried in Otaru last year-end.

Hokkaido corn, that's what it's called in Japan since it's a special and premium produce from Hokkaido. The Hokkaido corn is famous for its sweetness and even local people say that we can eat the corn raw and tastes so sweet. Steamed or roasted? Try the slightly roasted corn smothered with butter and soy sauce, a really tasty combination, heard that's the favorite way to eat the corns in Hokkaido. I proved myself that this favorite food in Hokkaido has an outstanding sweetness

Hokkaido corns sold on the streets of Otaru

Ready to eat Hokkaido corns in Otaru

Goshu Ramen Tei

Goshu Ramen Tei, considering the name I thought it's a kind of ramen shop but then I found out that ramen is the only option on the menu. This restaurant located at 5 York street in the CBD, not far from Wynyard station, first time I came across this restaurant about 3 years ago and I've been one of their loyal customer, but in most of my visits, if not all, I always ordered teriyaki. Yes! I considered their teriyaki is one of the best in town, fish teriyaki, beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki just any teriyaki and I've never experienced disappointment from them. So frankly speaking I couldn't give any review or comment on their ramen or other dishes apart from their teriyaki. The tenderness, the tantalizing aroma and the sweetness of the teriyaki sauce are just perfect for me.

Fish teriyaki set

Beef teriyaki set

Agedashi tofu

It's a small restaurant with outdoor seating so don't expect for ambience and view but the service is good.