Chocolate is delicious

Oh, the things I have to say are numerous tonight as a number of exciting things have happened recently. First of all, chocolate. Ryan recently got back from Japan and consequently, I have had to relocate my chocolate wall from just above my bed squeezed in the corner to a larger wall of its own. My feature wall.


So there it is :) Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And as you can see about half of the wall is dedicated to the genius that is kit kats.


So what might my wall consist of exactly, you may ask? Chocolate containers of many a flavour. Where shall I start? I'll group them in terms of their brand, rather than where they're located on the wall I think ^^ Cadbury: Black forest, mint bubbly, duo, dairy milk, dream, caramello. Hersheys: Hersheys kisses, cookies and cream. Whittakers: Milk chocolate cashew. Look (Japanese brand): Parfait (x2), New York Cheesecake, coffee, 'a la mode'. Miscellaneous: Strawberry Aero, Milkybar, oreo white chocolate, chocolate mochi (from Tokyo tower), and traditional Japanese chocolate.

Now, what you've all been waiting for, List of kitkat flavours:


Blueberry, banana, purin, kinako (soybean flour), soy sauce, orange, strawberry shortcake, chunky caramel, original, original (limited edition box :o), dark, bitter almond, semi-sweet, Framboise (a raspberry brandy apparently!), aloe yoghurt, miso, green tea, carrot and apple, royal milk tea, ginger ale, milk coffee, ohagi (a kind of rice ball), strawberry, passionfruit and raspberry.

Yes. Many, MANY kitkats ;D

23 flavours to be precise. I have yet to try them all (Ryan brought back ALOT) but so far my favourites include ginger ale (surprisingly delicious!), blueberry, carrot and apple, passionfruit and raspberry. And you can never beat the originals of course! :)

So, other than chocolate, but still on the topic of food: last night Ryan and I went to a kaiten sushi shop. Which we all know as conveyor belt sushi (:P). It was AMAZING. Expensive (compared with Japanese standards anyway) but great fun. My favourites included salmon and cream cheese and the seared tuna. But we also had some beef and even some tempura sushi! As well as that, there were a variety of fried goods to chose from such as fried chicken, dumplings and spring rolls.

On Monday night I signed up for a printmaking class. On Tuesday I went to said class and had the time of my life. It seems that the others do not have much printmaking ability and I'd say my teacher underestimates the amount of experience I've had, but that isn't a problem. It's really good to actually LEARN what I'm supposed to do from a professional rather than making things up as I had been doing before now. It's also good to do printmaking without the pressure of assignments. It's great to just have some fun with art. Over the 8 weeks, we get to do a whole range of different printmaking methods. The first we did was very simple: just inking up a plastic board (I think called perspex) and making a collage with ripped/cut out shapes of newsprint and then printing it. So much fun :)

The Monday

So Ryan's back and all is well in the world.

Except I have about a billion things to do and no time to do them in. Well, that's a lie- I have time to do them in I have just failed to utilize my time well so far. Whoops... ^^;

First of all: Tonight's cooking! I had some bean sprouts that needed to be used. So I used them ;D Ryan gave me two new cooking books. Well, one book called 'hot cake mix' (but in Japanese) and another which is more like a magazine really. In said magazine, I found a recipe for beansprout meat pattie things. So I made them. My verdict: They tasted good but could have been better. But that was through my own fault, not the recipe's. Basically they were a little dry (can you over cook mince?) and I needed to cut up the beansprouts smaller (the recipe told me to, but I was being lazy :P)

Recipe:
Ingredients:
250g bean sprouts
200g pork (I used beef, cos that's what I had) mince
1 Tbsp sake
1 tsp soy sauce
salt, pepper, ginger

sauce: soy sauce, sake, mirin 1 Tbsp each + 1tsp sugar

So first you wash and cut up the beansprouts (just in half I think). Then, in a bowl mix the mince with the sake, soy sauce, salt pepper and ginger. divide the mixture into four and shape into patties. Cook in a little oil for 2~3 minutes on one side with lid on. Then turn over and add the sauce (mixed all together first), put the lid back on and cook through.

That's about it. And it serves two :)

So does anyone have any tips for the mince? Like, if I added something would it make it more moist once cooked? Or is it overcooking (but this might just be a made-up idea...)? Any hints would be much appreciated :)

Umm, in other news, I have like a billion things to do, like I mentioned earlier. Tomorrow I have a Japanese culture quiz (worth like 1% or something), Wednesday I have a Japanese vocab quiz (2%), Friday I have a linguistics assignment due (20%) and the following Monday a IR assignment (10%). So I have lots to keep me occupied at the moment.

And I just signed up for one of those art classes mum you'll be glad to hear (if you're reading this). The printmaking one. Although I'm not sure if it'll happen cos it starts tomorrow.... I might have been too late xD But I'll see soon enough I guess! I'm excited, but also kind of nervous actually. It should be fun though!

So that's two things off my list to do: Cooking salmon and art classes.

Woo-hoo! I'm on fireeee!

letters

First of all, thanks for the chocolate and postcard. The chocolate was a pleasant surprise and as you can see from this photo, it wasn't reduced to crumbs! I've eaten it already.... ;D I hope you guys had a good holiday and you have satisfied your need to look at trees (mum and dad anyway...) The campervan south island holiday will be known for looking at graveyards and this recent holiday will surely be known for looking at trees :P

Anyway, since Ryan is coming back tomorrow (:D) it is only natural that I bake him something. I made some blondies. The recipe is from http://www.cakespy.com/ I'll write it out here just in case anyone wants to know. And for my own personal reference to :)


Blondies
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup peanut butter (I didn't have any so I used 1/4 cup of pam's white chocolate spread and it worked just fine :) )

So you just sift together the first 3 ingredients in bowl. Then, in another bowl, beat the (softened) butter and sugar together. Then add the (beaten) egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour bit by bit, mixing well in between. Finally, add the peanut butter (or other thing) and mix. Bake in a tray for 30 minutes on 180 degrees.

This is actually only half of the original recipe! It would have made heeeeaps with the whole thing! I containered them for Ryan and subsequently ate what didn't fit in the container... ;D


On the food note, I recently found a blog that is amazing. So I thought I might share it. It's a blog made by a father. He regularly posts all the different kinds of pancakes he makes for his daughter. They aren't just ordinary pancakes either, scanning through the posts I found ones where he made characters like spongebob, pankcakes made to look like bacon and eggs or a hamburger, but the most impressive of all is the pancake which is a ferris wheel. Actually like a 3D ferris wheel. It's amazing. So if you're keen to be amazed: http://www.jimspancakes.com/

In other news, I've been asked a few times what I do in linguistics or what linguistics is about but I haven't really been able to give a substantial answer so far - mainly because the semester has only started so I don't exactly have a solid idea myself. So far, the lectures have been thoroughly interesting. Generally speaking, it's just all about language. More specifically, so far we have learned about theories on how language began as a human ability, about how and why language and languages are different and about how and why they change.

Today's lecture was on the changes that have happened specifically in English over the years. Accordingly, we looked at English translations of the bible over the last 1000 years. Our lecturer called the four different ages we looked at old English, middle English, early modern English and modern English. I was really surprised at just how much English has changed. The old English (which Ryan informs me is actually not really English, it's another language) is really different - it looks like something out of lord of the rings and when you hear it, it's like they're speaking German with a Scottish accent or something. Very cool.

That's it from me for now!

Tonkatsu

Japan is renown for it's healthy food. Rice, vegetables, lots and lots of fish and certainly not the huge (but essential :P) desserts we have in NZ and in other Western nations. But that doesn't mean that Japan doesn't like a bit of deep frying here and there. In fact quite a few popular Japanese dishes are deep fried. A few include: Tempura, kara age (deep fried chicken) and tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is a pretty simple creation: simply a deep fried piece of pork which is covered in Japanese bread crumbs (panko). And tonkatsu was my creation for tonight.

Whenever I've had tonkatsu in Japan or in Japanese restaurants, the pork is always fairly big and thin. Since I couldn't really find such a thing in the supermarket, I bought a butterfly steak and had a great time flattening it with a pot. Seriously, Vanessa and Bex were surprised at just how much fun I was having. So you get your pork, wham it a bit. Then cut some light slits in it (apparently so it doesn't shrink), salt and pepper each side. Then do your coatings: First flour, second egg and lastly Japanese breadcrumbs. Japanese breadcrumbs are supposed to be different than 'normal' breadcrumbs. I'm not really sure how although I've read that they're coarser? Anyway, then you deep fry it until delicious. I mean, what isn't delicious once it's been fried in a nice hot pot of oil? Because I didn't really have the right ingredients and I didn't want to use a whole bottle of oil for one measly piece of pork, I only shallow fried it. But yeah, then you put tonkatsu sauce on top. Lucky for me, I have some so I was all set! I have a recipe for the sauce if you really want it though, so just let me know :)

And this was my dinner:



But not just this, I also had a bowl of rice and some coleslaw which I made out of cabbage, mayonnaise and some toasted sesame seeds.

That's my creation for the day. I'm quite impressed at my diligence with these Japanese recipes actually. It's a lot of fun!

Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday and then it's finally Thursday. So as you can imagine, I am one giant ball of excitement at the moment!

Rice rice and more rice!

Ever wondered what to do with that pesky leftover rice? Well wonder no more! Thanks to Japanese cookbooks, by eyes have been opened to the many creations which I can try. So far I've had a go at two. Although one of them is pretty much just fried rice. So I'll give you the recipe for the other.

Curry Rice
Ingredients:
200g (1 cup I think) cooked rice
1Tbsp butter
1/4 onion
frozen veges
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 can (40g) tuna

Melt the butter, cook the onion. Add the veges until they're defrosted. Then add the curry powder til it coats everything. Then add the rice and tuna and mix well. It's very nice and spicy. But the stuff I had was probably made more spicy by the fact that I didn't have any plain tuna so I used half a can of thai chili flavoured salmon intstead. My mouth was on fire. But in a pleasant way :)

Thanks for the email dad! The photos were really awesome. My favourite was the one of Claire and mum. Claire looks like she's being blown away by the awesomeness of the giant tree thing they're looking at. It's good to know you guys are all having a good time!

Into my second week back at uni now. Things are starting to get back into a flow. My Monday is by far the most intense day with 9-1 lectures and then a tutorial at 2. After that it's nicely distributed over the week. I've got looooots of assignments to do over the semester though. My first is due on the 30th July and then I have another due on the 3rd of August I think. Luckily the first is just a bibliography writing assignment pretty much and the second is an essay plan rather than an actual essay. So I'm not too worried at this stage.

And yes dad, I'm totally looking forward to Thursday! It's getting closer and closer! And then I'll see all you guys (minus alice) again this weekend probably. Although I Think I'll be staying with Ryan, him just back and all.

Not much more to say, but I hope everyone is doing well!

Love Erin

Gazing at the moon

Today has been fine and dandy.

The weather here has been sunny all week but that good weather finally gave up on Wellington and it's been raining all of today. Well, drizzling. But that's fine with me. Saturday means sleeping in late, not doing much and talking to Ryan lots on skype. That is, when skype doesn't randomly cut out on me. The internet connection is really annoying here - I don't know when it's going to work and when it isn't!

I'm glad you're keen to try some of my recipes dad, I'm having a really fun time trying them all out actually. And I think the curry one has probably been my favourite one so far actually! I bought curry powder especially because I've seen it a bit in recipes.

Today I went simple and made myself some soba. Soba are Japanese buckwheat noodles. In Japan the three main noodles are ramen, soba and udon. Although there are some others such as somen, which is eaten cold in the summer. Anyway, my favourite is definitely soba in its simplest form - cold (hot too) with a simple dipping sauce. Normally when I've had it it came with some spring onion and grated daikon to mix in with the sauce. I didn't have daikon, but I did have spring onion, which made a nice addition.

Here's the recipe for the dipping sauce for four people:

200ml dashi stock
3Tbsb dark soy sauce
3Tbsp mirin

Then you just heat it until it comes to a boil and you can either cool it and have it with cold noodles, or leave it hot, it's up to you! This sauce wasn't quite the one I remember having in Japan, but I thought it was really tasty :) Oh, and just to clarify - you don't really put the noodles in a bowl and then the sauce over top. Usually they'd be served drained of the water they were cooked in on a bamboo mat (like the ones you use to roll sushi I guess) and then the sauce in a bowl on the side. As you eat, you dip the noodles in the sauce.

Yummy!

Curry!

Today has been an interesting day.

It was deliciously fine, so I decided to take my textbooks (notice I say take, not lug; they are perfectly sized and hardly heavy, so I do not need to lug them up hills) to the Botanic Gardens and read them in the sunlight. I chose a nice seat in the sun...


Well, it looks much nicer when you sit on it anyway.

And I spent about two hours textbook reading in the sunlight. As well as watching people walk past and listening to the birds. It was a very productive hour in the end. I'd like to always do this to do my readings, but being in Wellington, I can't always trust the weather to permit me to do so. I'll just enjoy it while it lasts!


Then, this evening I attended a public lecture done by Ann Tickner. From the sounds of her introduction, she is a very esteemed scholar in the US. She talked to us about International Relations from a feminist perspective and about how feminist influences have been good in the IR realm. It was thoroughly interesting, I thought ^^

Aaaand, then I came home to cook another lovely Japanese recipe. A tofu curry.

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients (serves two)
300g tofu
150g beef
1 onion
1 carrot
4 mushrooms
a handful of beansprouts
1tsp curry powder
2 Tbsp sugar (mixed with 2 Tbsp water)
3 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp dashi stock (in water)
1 Tbsp tomato sauce

Basically, just cut everything up how you like it. Cook the onion in some oil, add beef. Cook. Add all the other veges and curry powder. Mix it all together so the curry powder coats everything. Add sugar (with water), sake, soy sauce, dashi and tomato stock. Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes. And eat!

It was reeeeeally good.

Tofu is amazing.

The cooking adventures continue here on the Terrace.

And they are lots and lots of fun too :)

Today I made two new things. First: Onigiri. In English: Rice balls.

Onigiri are a kind of snack food in Japan. In New Zealand one could buy a savory or sausage roll. Perhaps a muffin for a snack. In Japanese convenience stores, you can purchase a wide variety of onigiri. They can come with a range of different fillings, often with seaweed somewhere. Or they can just constitute another way to eat plain white rice, except on the go. There's something very satisfying about making and eating your own onigiri, which I discovered today.

The process is simple: Cook some rice (I used sushi rice - it's stickier - I doubt long grain rice would mold the way sushi/short grain(?) rice does) cool it down a little, not so it's been chilled in the fridge just room temperature or warm. Then you put a clump of rice onto a sheet of glad wrap and using your hands mold it to shape. You can add a filling in the middle or you can mix furikake (like different kinds of seasoning) to the rice and mix it together.

The ones I made (pictured above) include: Two with a tuna and mayonnaise mixture in the middle and two which have been mixed in with furikake. They were delicious :)

And tonight for dinner I made a tofu vege soup stir fry thing.
Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
Tofu
1 carrot
1/2 an onion
2 mushrooms
clove of garlic
1/2 a capsicum
1 chili
tofu
(for the sauce)
1 cup dashi
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sake
1/2 Tbsp sugar

aaaand, salt and pepper to season.

Method:
1. Cut up garlic and cook in a pan with some oil. When the garlic-y smell rises, add onions. When onions are cooked, add other veges and stir fry until carrots are slightly softened.
2. Add the sauce/broth mixture and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add tofu. Just scoop it in with a spoon. Then simmer for another 2 or so minutes.

The original recipe didn't have the chili but I had one, so I just used it. Phew. Did that chili work. It was slightly painful to drink the broth part, so to those of you with faint hearts, DO NOT ADD. I though it was delicious though. Definitely something for you to try dad! The original recipe also had beef in it but I didn't have anything suitable so I omitted it.

Salmon success?

Today was my first day of semester two. Or rather trimester. But I'll stick with semester cos I'm only doing two.

I woke up nice and early because my first class was at 9am. Which means I have to leave Stafford at 8.30am. Actually, most of my days start at nine this semester, which is perfect for early birds like myself. Anyway, today I had Linguistics, Japanese and International Relations. Mostly it was all admin stuff in all of the classes but we got into the content a little and they all (although, of course Japanese will be) seem really interesting. IR is a gigantic class, like expected. The lecture theater is crammed full to the brim. There's not really much else I can say about my classes yet. Apart from that they sound like they'll be immensely interesting.

Dad: Today I bought some salmon. I did it. At the supermarket. There were two piles: salmon steaks and fresh salmon. I got a steak. Although I swear that it said boneless steaks and the other pile had bones. But perhaps I read it wrong because when I went to cook it to my horror it had bones in it :( So I was like OMG WHAT DO I DO?!?! And I kind of just got the bones out the best I could. There were still some left in but I just had to deal because it was getting to the point where I was massacring it, not merely pulling the bones out xD

After that disaster, I cooked the salmon in the same teriyaki sauce we used for the chicken in the weekend. It was good. I was a little concerned about cooking the salmon and ruining it, but it came out OK in the end.

Salmon = conquered
...
kind of anyway.

XD

Long time, no post

Back to Wellington and into the blogging spirit already!

First I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone that made my holidays awesome :) I had a great three weeks. Although it probably doesn't seem to anyone like I did much, I had a really enjoyable time. It was good to just hang with and talk with everyone again for such a long period of time. I'm missing the serenity of Palmerston North already!

As you all know, I got rather obsessed with my Japanese translating over my holiday and now that I am well equipped to cook with a whole lot of recipes up my sleeve, I am utterly determined to try my hand at Japanese cooking. As well as the three Japanese cookbooks I have from Japan, I have also built up a collection of cookbooks that are in English. From all of this, I should be able to come up with some things to cook for quite some time.

I started tonight actually. I was going to have something simple like soup and toast for dinner because I was unpacking this afternoon and unprepared to go all the way to the supermarket to get some things. So I had to look for a simple recipe that I could cook with what I had. I cooked a side dish for my dinner. The recipe was from a mini Japanese cookbook I have by Keiko Ishida. It was a recipe for pumpkin but I thought it looked good and decided to try it with kumara instead. So this is my version of the recipe. I adjusted the ingredients a little accordingly.

Simmered kumara
Ingredients:
1 kumara
150ml water
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp mirin
1 tsp soy sauce
toasted white sesame seeds (to taste)
salt and pepper

Method:
1. Cut up kumara into pieces about 2 x 3 cm.
2. Put kumara, water and sugar in a pot, cover and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add mirin, soy sauce and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until kumara is cooked and most of liquid has reduced.
4. Serve and garnish with sesame seeds.

This tasted good. And it required me to toast sesame seeds too which was a little scary. But they are much more tasty now.

And I had this with a gigantic bowl of rice and egg :)