A Japanese Fare

Let me introduce the menu for tonight. Starting from the left; Chawanmushi with Shimeiji mushrooms, chicken and kamaboko (Japanese fishcake). Saba Shio-yaki (grilled with salt). Daikon (radish) Nimono with Shirataki (konnyaku). Takuan pickles with Kyuri (Japanese cucumber). Miso soup with Wakame seaweed and Tofu. And of course, rice.

How much would you pay for the above? With some planning, one can easily cook up a Japanese fare (一汁三菜）at home; with a fraction of the restaurant's price. This is how a Japanese meal is being laid out on the table. The methods of food preparation are not repeated. Rice on your left, soup on your right. Pickles in the middle, grilled dish on the top left corner and a simmered dish on the top right corner. Erm.. okay, the chawamushi was something extra. And if the grilled fish has its head intact, it should be pointing to the left. Except for flounder, its head will be placed towards the right. Fish fillets with the belly-side placed towards your right hand.

I haven't been cooking of late, partly due to my work. If I do cook, it's usually for my lunch bento or easy 1 dish meal. Glad to say that some of the dreadful deadlines are finally over. Tonight, I found my groove back. IH had suggested Fish and Chips but I would rather have Japanese food instead. I'm not a big fan of deep fried food and I dislike the oily stench in the kitchen, on my clothes and hair after deep fat frying. Not forgetting the cleaning and mopping afterwards. I am quite glad that Ah Girl has accustomed to simple foodfare that are steamed, simmered, pan fried and soups. She almost never asked for deep fried food except when she wanted a KFC or McDonald's toy. Even so, her main target is the toy, you can forget about her finishing up the food.

When I laid out the food for her, she asked if what I cooked was Japanese cuisine. Yes dear, I will teach you how to cook it when you grow up. She particularly liked the Chawanmushi and the simmered Shirataki. I cooked Salmon Teriyaki specially for her.



She polished up everything on her plate and decided to become a Japanese if her salmon always taste this good. Ahahaha~ I think she really liked the Teriyaki sauce. Need to find some time to teach Grace, my helper how to cook this. I will post the recipes up later. Now that the children are asleep, I want to spend some time to catch up some Japanese Dorama. Need to get some tissues ready while I drool over Japanese hunks.

じゃね～