Hakodate, Toyako and Sapporo Japan - 2 - 7 October

I have been planning for our Japan trip for so many months now - a couple of years actually. Have been telling Pat that I would like to show him round Japan and since our cruise to the Far East last year got cancelled, he agreed to go and see Japan! Yay!

Had to visit Hakodate - the city in Hakkaido that I lived in for 3 years when I first got married. I wanted to visit the place and get in touch with my ex colleagues but how? Had not been in contact with them since my last visit there when Liana was like 3 years old. Out of desperation, called the restaurant that I worked in and looked for 1 of them and lo and behold, after 30+ years, he is still working there!!!!! He had already retired but still goes back to work! I am elated. He has agreed to round up the people that I used to work with when I went. Happiness!

Left London on Monday 1 October at 1300 UK time (2100 Japan) and arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport on Tuesday, 2 October at 0900. Then took a limousine bus to Haneda airport for our flight to Hakodate. Arrived in Hakodate at around 1530 and then another half hour bus to train station where our hotel was. We stayed at Hakodate Kokusai Hotel for the 3 nights that we planned to be there.

Then at around 1900 we left the hotel to go to the restaurant for dinner. This is a family run restaurant/wedding venue that has been around for about 130 years. They are famous for their curries and even sell their curry pouches! Remember that I have not been there for about 23 years. I thought I knew the way, so we walked there. We walked around in circles but finally got there after around half and hour and after asking for directions about 3 times. Got there and my goodness, they were expecting us. I only thought they were expecting us the next day but good thing we went cos the present MD gave me a bouquet of roses. Ah, I was so touched! And we were treated to dinner as well. Sorry, no pictures of our curry dinner as I was a bit tired as we have been awake for 20+ hours. Yagi san (my friend) pointed us in the direction of our hotel and it only took us 10 mins to walk back. It was just 1 straight road and silly me, well.... hehe

When we arrived, we were a bit worried because when we were leaving UK, I read that airports in Hokkaido were closed because of typhoons but none of that when we arrived... it was nice and sunny! Only the next day was raining but we still went for a walk after breakfast. We went to the Asa Ichi or Morning market and went back to the hotel for a rest. Headed out the the Morning market again as there were restaurants there, so settled on lunch there.

That night, met up with a few of my close friends for dinner and I especially asked for an Izakaya and not a restaurant as I wanted Pat to have a feel of an Izakaya or Japanese pub. It was good, food was good, company was good and we talked and joked as if we had not parted. We had sashimi, grilled fish, battered squid, karaage and best of all, there was a show put on by the Izakaya's boss when you order Ikura don. He  heaps and heaps loads of ikura onto your bowl of rice and my only regret is that I did not video it! Yagi san was so sweet to take us up to Mount Hakodate to take a picture of the night view. Could not stay long as it was so cold and windy up there!

Spent our last day in Hakodate with Yagi san taking us round a few of the scenic places. Friday morning, went to collect our rental car and drove to Toya ko which is a lake which was formed by earthquake and the movements of the mountains. Stayed there a night at Pension Ohno - dinner and breakfast included and dinner was great! Caught some fireworks - they have fireworks at Lake Toya from April to October! Just wanted to say that the Sat Nav system in Japan is great as it allows for you to input a telephone number instead of an address and it's bilingual as well! haha

Next morning drove onwards to Sapporo. Stayed at Royton Hotel which was reserved for us by an ex-colleague from JTB. Thought of going to the Sapporo Shiroi Koibito factory but as it was quite far out, gave it a miss. Instead, we walked to the Botanical gardens which was a close walk to our hotel. Half way there, wondering to go or not as the skies looked dark, but we still walked on and whilst we were admiring the roses, the heavens opened and we had to take cover under the trees!

In the evening, had to take Pat to try Genghis Khan which is a mongolian bbq but using lamb. The place that we were going to originally was recommended by a waitress in the hotel coffee shop but she did not tell us to make a reservation and on hindsight (it was a Sat nite) should have, but we were not going to wait half an hour for a table, so went walking round Susukino which is the night life area of Sapporo. Just 3 mins walk away, we saw another Genghis Khan restaurant and walked in and took the last table! Yums..

Sunday morning returned the car and waited for our flight to Haneda.

Tokyo and the rest will be in the next posting!

I am still Alive

My dear friends and readers

I am so sorry that I have not updated this blog in over 2 months! I have just come back from a 2 week holiday in Japan and before then, was trying to get all my work done so I could go away with no worries!

I have taken quite a few pictures and will post them shortly.

Thank you for visiting this blog even though I had nothing new for you guys to read.
Akan datang... please stay tuned!

Thank you!

Sunday lunch with friends

Alamak, I am so bad... I just realised that I have not posted pictures of the day Alicia, Colin and Alicia's mum came to lunch. It had to be Sunday lunch as her mum was only in London for a week and she was leaving the next day!

Reason I invited Alicia's mum along was that in this small, small world of ours, I actually knew Alicia's mum before getting to know Alicia. Her mum and I were colleagues in a travel agency in Singapore and then when I moved to the Ritz Carlton, that's where I met Alicia! Such a coincidence and now, she is in London!

These are pictures of the food I made for them! And I forgot to take pictures of dessert which was Summer Pudding!

Grilled Chicken

Otak

Chap Chye

Satay Babi

Assam Beef

Our guests: Alicia and Colin

Alicia's mum and Colin

Samosas

I said I have been busy, yes, I offered to make samosas for our church fete which was held on Saturday 30. But because I had to make about 200, I started already on Monday evening,  by cooking the filling and did that for the next 3 evenings. Then on Thursday, iced cupcakes as well as I was selling those as well! hmm... haha, all for a good cause!

Anyway, my this is my take on Samosas and I am so pleased that everyone who has tried them has said that they are better than store bought ones!

I used frozen paratha pastry rather than puff or filo pastry.

Ingredients:

400 gms Potatoes - boiled and roughly mashed
400 gms Sweet potatoes - boiled and roughly mashed
1/2 inch ginger - grated or finely chopped
1 Onion - chopped
100 gms Green peas
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
madras curry powder
chilli powder
amchoor (mango) powder
salt
paratha skins

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in fry pan till hot and drop in mustard and cumin seeds and fry for a few seconds till the seeds start popping. Add the grated/chopped ginger and fry for a few more seconds then add the chopped onions.
2. Fry till the onions turn translucent then add the both potatoes. Add the green peas, curry powder, chilli powder, amchoor powder and mix well.
3. Add salt and taste. Fry for a few more mins till mixture is well mixed and then leave to cool.
4. Once cooled, take the frozen paratha wrappers out from freezer and leave out for about 5 mins and they will then soften a little. Too much/too soft and they will be difficult to manage.
2. Cut the wrapper in half as shown in picture below and place filling on it.

3. Fold the wrapper in half  (picture below) and then close.

4. Place on baking tray and bake at 180 till golden brown. It is not necessary to egg wash them

James's 2nd Birthday

This is such a backdated post. I am so way behind in my posting as I have been so busy everyday, but then again, no excuse right?

James celebrated his 2nd birthday on 14 June and his parents held a party for him on 17. I offered to bake him a  Thomas the Tank Engine Cake and some cupcakes, so here they are!

Nonya Dumplings aka Nonya Bak Chang

Updated with pictures on how to wrap the dumplings.

Most years I miss the date for making the bak changs or dont manage to get the leaves but last year, after teaching a friend how to tie the bak changs and then because I had balance of the leaves, decided to make some for myself this year. But just enough for myself and Pat does not like glutinous rice.

This recipe is taken from Mrs Leong's book with with modifications.

In her book and my mum's recipe, they both ask to steam the rice and wrap the dumpling with the cooked rice. Tried that and found that the dumplings do not wrap nicely. So tried it again but this time with uncooked rice. Lo and behold, it is actually easier to wrap  uncooked rice!

Also for my friends who do not take pork, you can use chicken instead!

Makes 10 dumplings

Ingredients:

500 gms glutinous rice (soaked overnight)
salt and pepper
oil*
20 bamboo leaves, cooked in boiling water till soft (about 15 mins)
* Note: After soaking the rice and when ready to wrap, season the rice with salt and pepper and oil as this makes sure that the rice will not stick to the bamboo leaves upon unwrapping it.

Filling Ingredients:
500 gms belly pork or chicken thighs
6 pcs dried mushrooms (soaked)
60 gms sugared winter melon
4 cloves garlic ) ground
2 big onions    ) together
sugar to taste*
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 - 2 tbsp coriander seeds - toasted and ground

Note: Please be heavy handed with your seasoning as it is going to be covered with rice, so even if you think it is too sweet, rest assured it is not as the rice will balance out the sweetness!

Method:

1. Place belly pork in saucepan with enough water to cover and bring to boil. Boil over moderate heat for about 20 mins. Cool and set aside and cut into cubes. Continue boiling stock till it is reduced by half.

2. Cut soaked chinese mushrooms and sugared winter melon into tiny cubes.

3. Heat oil and fry pounded garlic and onions. Add pork, salt sugar, pepper and dark soya sauce. Fry for a few minutes. Add stock, mushrooms and sugared melon. Continue cooking over medium heat for about 1/2 an hour.

4. Add coriander powder and stir well. Reduce heat and simmer till almost dry. Remove and cool.

5. After wrapping the dumplings, put them in water and boil for about 30 - 45 mins, making sure that the water covers the dumplings.

Note: Since I did not have the cowpea flower, I used blue colouring instead.

Indian rojak

Have been wanting to make this for the longest time ever but everytime I think of the lecehness and the time taken and only me to eat it....

But this time, after seeing so many pictures of it being posted by my friend S, I had to do something about it. So...I have and here it is. I halved the recipe as I only wanted to see what it was like. Actually, it turned out ok. Do give it a try if you are craving for this.

The recipe is a mixture of recipes that I picked up from the internet. The dough recipe is from my friend Zu of Zu's Kitchen..

The recipe below is the full recipe. I only made the dough ingredients and the coconut cake.


Dough

Ingredients
500g all purpose flour
5g instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
500-600ml water
1/2 tbsp tumeric powder

Method
1. Sift flour with yeast, tumeric powder and salt into a bowl
2. Pour water a little at a time till the batter becomes like a fritter's batter.
3. Cover bowl with cling wrap and leave it to proof for about 2.5hr - 3hr or till double in size
[This dough will be used for some of the rojak ingredients ]

Rojak ingredients without dough - deep fried and drain oil well
2 firm tofu, cut into 4
4 tempe, coat with a bit of tumeric and salt
4 fish cake
4 hard boiled egg
2 boiled potatoes

Rojak ingredients with dough
2 hard boiled eggs
2 boiled potatoes
2 tbsp sesame seed
2 firm tofu
some prawns
a bit of orange colouring (optional)

Method to fry dough ingredients
1. Heat oil in a wok/pot
2. Divide dough into 4 parts

1st part of dough
----------------------
- Fry it into balls

2nd part of dough
-----------------------
- Coat the hardboiled eggs and sprinkle some sesame and fry till crispy

3rd part of dough
----------------------
- Coat tofu with dough and put one prawn and fry till crispy-


4th part of dough
----------------------
Coat the potatoes with the dough and sprinkle with sesame and fry till crispy

Ingredients - Coconut Cake
150g fresh grated coconut
100g rice flour
1 egg
1 tsp chicken stock granule
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp salt
2-3 tbsp water

Method - Coconut Cake
1. Combine the ingredients, press some mixture with palm, put into hot oil carefully. Deep-fry over medium heat until golden browned and crispy. Remove and drain well. Leave to cool and cut into pieces. Keep aside.

Ingredients - Rojak Sauce
300g sweet potatoes
200g peanuts, toasted and grounded - I omitted
12 shallots, pounded
4 garlic cloves, pounded
4 tbsp chilli paste / chilli boh
1 tsp shrimp paste powder
100g palm sugar / gula melaka, crushed
50g sugar
4 tbsp cooking oil
800ml water

Method - Rojak Sauce
1. Steam sweet potatoes over high heat until cooked and soften. Remove, leave to cool and peel. Mash or pounded until finely paste. Keep aside.

2. Heat up cooking oil in the preheated wok to fragrant pounded shallots and garlic. Add in chilli paste and shrimp paste powder, stir-fry briskly until aromatic. Pour in water and bring to a boil.

3. Add in sweet potato paste, palm sugar and sugar. Cook until sugar is completely dissolves then blend in grounded peanuts, stir well and continue to cook for awhile. Remove from heat, ready to serve.