My Blue Heaven

Bonito, miso, udon.. japanese food = yum!

Kwai took me on my first shopping trip to Oriental City in Colindale, London on the weekend. First stop was the asian (oriental for the locals) food court… man I was in food heaven! Every kind of asian food outlet imaginable… chinese, thai, malay, singaporean, japanese, korean, vietnamese. Mmmmmm…. *drools* We decided to tackle the huge array of choice buffet style. Some dim sum from here… some satay sticks from there.. and some roast pork/duck from another. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach.. but luckily we didn’t buy everything at once. I was suprised how quickly I got full. Will have to take another trip back to try some of the dumplings and other stuff!

Anyways we next stopped at the asian (oriental for UK’ers) supermarket. Heaven for buying asian groceries. They had sections for different cuisines – again – japnese, korean, chinese, thai etc. We hit the Japanese section first.. and never made it any further. I’ve discovered japanese cooking! And it isn’t as hard as I thought! I’m gonna learn how to make a wicked udon noodle soup, miso soup, teriyaki or yakidori chicken.. even miso yaki beef… or karaage chicken… mmm! I discovered on this very cool weblog a few basics in japanese cooking. Such as the basic jap soup stock consists of two main ingrediants – bonito flakes and kelp. Thats how they make that yummy udon soup.. and miso soup.

So now I have added to my kitchen white miso paste, bonito stock powder (which contains kelp already), some udon noodles, kikkoman slightly-sweet shoyu (soy) sauce, a tube of wasabi, and yakitori sauce. Last night I cooked udon noodle soup and vegetables with a bit of miso paste added to taste. And some yakitori chicken pieces. Mmm.. it was delish! Still need to fine-tune a few things.. but very excited am I at the prospect of learning how to cook all those delicious japanese dishes. Gonna try getting some bulk sashimi too to slice up. Mmmm. Tonight I’m gonna make some real home-made miso soup. With miso paste, bonito stock, wakame seaweed and tofu. Yummy AND really healthy. Only problem is that japanese ingrediants (particularly good quality, non-msg ones) tend to be rather expensive. Esp over here.. being imported so far.

And finally I’ve discovered the nicest japanese green tea ever. Its by the company Ujinotsuyu – who make the really nice genmai cha (green tea with roasted rice). They also do sen cha… and we found this High Grade stuff.. loose tea leaves in a sealed foil bag.. 100g for 10 quid! But its GOOD stuff. Looks like real fresh leaves when you pour water in, not like the usual dried stuff. And it tastes soooo good. Quite different from your typical cheaper stuff. Really soft clear taste.. even the strong dregs aren’t bitter. I think I’m becoming a bit of a green tea connosiour. Hehe. Mmm.

Ooh check out my new Yahoo! avatar. (Thanks Viv for the reminder).

Current listening :: “These are the special times” – Christina Aguilera

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