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Tamagoyaki Love

Tamagoyaki is the Japanese version of omelette. Today (and yesterday,) I was able to whip up something good despite the lack of the rectangular omelette pan, or even a flat pan.

tamagoyaki 001

For yesterday's version, I made it for K-kun's bento. I've been making bento for him for the past days but it's my first time making a tamagoyaki. Something that just popped up in my head since he's done with corned beef and anything that could be fried in the fridge. Something fried is essential to him because he doesn't want to bring an extra lunch box just for the soup or saucy dishes. Anyway, tamagoyaki 001 came with finely chopped hotdogs.

tamagoyaki 002

While tamagoyaki 002 came with finely chopped ham. This time it's for our lunch. K-kun's bento for the day are burger patties plus three slices of tamagoyaki 002.

To make tamagoyaki 002, you'll need:

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 slices of ham, finely chopped and pre-cooked
• salt and white pepper to taste
• your choice of butter and/or cooking oil for cooking (because I don't use a non-stick pan, little oil will do.)

How-to:

1. Pour egg mixture into the well-heated pan, enough to cover the face of the pan thinly. Cook the egg gently until you see the top almost set.
2. Roll the egg to one side of the pan using a slotted turner while supporting the eggs to keep in place using chopsticks or tongs. Place the rolled egg to the other side of the pan where the unrolled edge of the egg is set toward the face of pan (this makes the first layer.)
3. Pour another batch of the mixture into the pan making sure it flowed into the unrolled edge of the first layer (to make it looked like its the continuation of the first layer.)
4. Cook until the second layer is almost set then continue rolling the first layer joined with the second layer.
5. Allow it to cool for a while into a paper towel and at the same time to remove excess oil. Get a sharp knife, and I mean a sharp wicked knife to slice up the rolled up egg while your clean fingers are acting as support to the egg roll.
6. Serve as is or drizzled with your choice of ketchup!

I like my eggs well done so it looks a bit burnt but essentially it should be yellowish, like how a normal scrambled egg would look like. But just so you know the authentic tamagoyaki are mixed with light soy sauce, mirin (rice wine with lower alcohol content) and some with... gasp... sugar!

Sorry, no step by step photos because the kitchen is too hot I want to get out of it fast. If you're a bit confused with my explanation, watch this great video I found. Darn, I do wish I have that pan!

Papers

Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to cut things. I remember my mom buying me old issues of comics for me to cut. And how I marvel and dreamed of cutting an intricately made pastillas wrapper (click on "wrapper" to see how it is made) that I've seen in Batibot (Wikipedia) many years ago.

pastillas wrapper

Just recently, I've been craving for some locally made Pretzels so I asked K-kun to buy a big box for me. And the thought of Pretzels made me miss my hometown. You see, there's always a store open there and Pretzels are always within reach, together with Chocolate Mallows. Anyway, I was waiting for the video of Attention Please to load when I realized that I already finished up a box of Pretzels. What a shame! So I just threw it away in the trash bin when I noticed some illustrations on the back of the box. They've got some figures that you can cut-out! Yay! So I grabbed my scissors and jumped into the cutting frenzy. I already have 2 out of 29 collectibles so that means adding sugar to my system. But no worries, I only have to drink lots of water and it's perfect for summer.

Another thing that makes me busy in this super hot weather is making origami. Remember the Chiyogami set that I bought before? I started making use of it just recently. Seriously, following Japanese instructions are crazy, despite the diagrams and all. The paper crane (?) I made was not from the chiyogami instructions but based on what I have remembered. I know it's not a real paper crane but let's just say that it's my version of it, LOL!

So what makes you busy these days?

Japanese Magazines

Since late last year, I've been collecting Japanese magazines like crazy. I currently have 19 mooks in total and wishing to add more in the coming months.


The magazines I have here in the photo are mostly sewing magazines. I especially love those bag making magazines. I just want to have them all. The patterns are so amazing and I won't be surprised if I find myself suddenly hand-stitching one. But just thinking about it makes it so troublesome, right.

Anyway, the first batch of my collection were given to me by K-kun while the latest addition were bought in a local bookstore. Would you believe that we have these wonderful magazines sold locally. I would spend a day's worth of salary just for these mooks, it's crazy! If only I could save enough money for a decent sewing machine. It's my dream to at least make clothes and bags based on these mooks.

What makes you crazy these days?

Tabemashou!

Let's eat!

I love Japanese food! And it's just recently that I have the courage to try making one. I cooked kare raisu (curry rice) for K-kun on our 5th Anniversary. This is the first time his family tried Japanese food (would you believe?) and my first time cooking Japanese curry. The dish is so easy I wondered why I only tried it now.

And just this week, his mom asked me to cook my dish. I told them it's beef curry but they would still refer it as your dish. It's quite understandable because here in the Philippines, we have a known dish called Chicken Curry wherein we use Indian curry (which is yellow in color) instead of the Japanese curry which is brown in color. This time, I made sure to take a photo of it.


I'm just so proud of it! The beef is tender, same with the potatoes and carrots. and I love the sweetness of the carrots. I'm still perfecting the consistency of the sauce but the taste is so awesome K-kun couldn't help but hug me non-stop. I'll have to try beef curry in other restaurants to compare what still need to be done to perfect the taste of this dish.

Next kitchen experiment will be korokke!

Itadakimasu!

Panda + Neko Meeting

I briefly mentioned my meeting with my bestfriend in my previous post and here's the photoblog of that meeting.

Photos courtesy of Kathy-chan.

Bubble Juice, SM Megamall

Neko and I met in SM Megamall so I can treat her in Bubble Juice. It's my turn to treat her and I wanted to try Bubble Juice, as usual mine is coffee flavored. We also had Beef Curry Korokke and Tamago Maki.

Dream Yarns, Glorietta

Visited their shop to check if they still have the dyelot for the yarn I am currently using for my C3 project, no such luck. But Neko and I were so fascinated with the knitted scarf they had on display. That's me with my new hair and modeling the scarf for Neko. The piece of paper I'm holding in the photo was their flyer for the tutorials they're offering. I am going to enroll for a knitting class next payday, woohoo!

Yamazaki, Little Tokyo

Our last stop will be Yamazaki for dinner. We're actually planning of eating Okinomiyaki for dinner but the restaurant is closed for the night so we tried the Onigiri in Yamazaki. The rice balls we're so delicious and it has Salmon inside. Neko had Squid Tempura and I had Korokke for the second time. I just loved Korokke, blame me hahaha! I'll definitely go back for their Onigiri, it's just amazing.

Magazines + Fabric

Yesterday was so fun! I met Kathy-chan, a friend from my previous employment and we ate from one Japanese restaurant to another. But before that, I received my gift to myself, a Moleskine (mol-a-skeen-a) Red Limited Edition Twin Set of Weekly Diary + Notebook! I am loving my new planner plus the red color of the set matches my favorite Nike bag.

And again I was blessed with a couple of Japanese craft books from my Santa and was lucky enough to get a hold of Adorn Summer and Spring 2007 and Crochet Today! July/August 2007 in Booksale. I was so glad because I love the patterns I've seen in Ravelry in that particular Crochet Today! release. Really looking forward in making those projects as soon as I received the lovely yarns I ordered online.

I must say that my lady luck is working overtime because finally this girl has found a local store selling Japanese fabrics! Woohoo! I only bought a yard because really, I felt foolish enough for buying fabric for a future project when I still haven't found the perfect sewing machine yet.

Short term goal: To find the perfect yet compact sewing machine before January 2008 ends.

A Special Treat

I feel blessed for having a partner like KC. I have always been a brat and lazy when it comes to finishing his scarf but he loved me nevertheless and asked someone a huge favor just so he can make me happy and for me to stop annoying him. I felt so ecstatic when he gave me a plastic bag filled with magazines. Not just magazines but Japanese craft magazines! Whoa!


You can't imagine my delight when I look into the bag. I jumped, laughed like crazy and hang on his neck and my grin is so wide I think I was lucky that my jaws didn't lock.

And look at that! I have Cotton Friend Summer Edition 2007! This is too much! Too much! Too many wonderful things going on and I so wanted to have a sewing machine right at this very moment so I can start working on the projects!

Oh my gosh, I can't sleep. I think I'll sleep with my magazines tonight.

Eating Japanese

I'm into Japanese these days. Can't help it, Japanese food are so good. I have two favorite restaurant that I go to. One is in Makati beside my favorite Japanese grocery. That's one thing I missed in my previous job, it's so near these Japanese stores.

Katsudon and Miso Soup

These are my favorite rice toppings-soup combo. Katsudon got it's name from Tonkatsu which means pork cutlet and donburi for rice toppings. I don't know why but it seems that I'm the only person who likes Miso soup. I love miso soup mainly because of the tofu in it. As you may know, I love anything made of soy bean so that's already given plus it was said that miso soup is best to prevent certain cancer. Though Katsudon seemed easy to make, I still need to find some of the ingredients needed for miso soup (such as nori and dashi) but I read that there's miso soup in an instant pack so better look for it in my next visit. If you want to try other donburi, bento and ramen better visit Komoro Soba. Who knows, you might be lucky enough to see one of their Japanese chef cooking in the kitchen.

I have another favorite Japanese restaurant, Sango! It's a perfect place to hang out with Japanese and local friends. Main menu offers burger and fries with a twist. You gotta love their Master fries, I'm addicted to it! Why, you say so? It's made of thick fries topped with a special sauce and cheese with ketchup and onions on the side. Yummy! They also have some Japanese desserts and this is the perfect place to try Mochi and if you don't want to spend too much in any manga kissaten, visit this place for their manga, Japanese magazines and J-pop playing in the LCD screen.

Lastly, for this post are Meiji stuff. Meiji is pretty popular when it comes to chocolates.

You've seen my post regarding Apollo. Now here are my favorites.

Coffee Beat and Choco Baby

Obviously, Coffee Beat tastes like coffee and I'm just so addicted to them. And if you happen to see what's inside, it looks like coffee beans so it feels like you're eating raw coffee beans!

Choco Baby is just so awesome. I mean, who doesn't love chocolates? It looks hard in the photo but sure it's soft and you can try small doses of chocolates if you are on a diet (but not me!)

Though I fell in love in Macadamia and Almonds before but when I had my hands with these babies, I totally lost it.

Would you believe that I have tasted these two first before Pocky?

Visit to Japan

Just my imagination though.

Went to Makati today to process my clearance from my previous employment and the result is not appealing as I was pissed walking out of the building and waited for Neko's (cat in Nihongo) shift end.

But as a self-imposed simple rule to be happy, I have to think of the positive side of things, so I'm going to embark on happy thoughts.

I had been craving for Pocky for the past days, blame it on PMS so Neko and I went to our favorite Japanese store and found no luck. Even my favorite ice cream is not available. Guess, this store became popular these days. So moved to the other store, heck, they have empty shelves! Delivery must be running late. So we rode a jeep to the last but not the least Japanese store and I found Apollo! No, it's not my previous officemate's ex boyfriend but one heck of a tasty box of sweet sensation, a classic mix of strawberry and chocolate can never go wrong.

So what happened to Pocky?

Apparently, the only flavor left is Pocky Men, and I am in no mood to have a dose of bitter chocolate because I want to be happy, right, so sweets are the best regimen (and being with friends and love ones.) Though I would have preferred eating this straw-colate duo with unsweetened coffee, I decided not to and just savor the aroma of roasting coffee in a factory (What's the proper term for that? Brewery?) nearby and it feels like heaven.

A visit to a Japanese store won't be complete if we won't be checking out every item they have and trying to familiarize ourselves with it, I have found something that would definitely make my hands busy.

Chiyogami Bag!

The bag consists of 8 15cm squares and 50 origami instructions! Well, they should have included 42 more chiyogami so I can try it all out. But I have the other origami set on my list in the next visit (and the Shiseido shampoo!)

I was a bit disappointed though that there are only few letter sets left and the design is not appealing to me but the sticky paste tubes are so cute that must be the reason every one is so crazy about Japanese stuffs!

I hate going to this store with no enough money, there are a lot of things that I want to buy there and I miss croquettes already, the cup noodles and pudding! I really need to go there with a huge fat purse and try every ready to cook meals they have there. LOL!

And sorry to disappoint you crafty friends, they don't have Japanese craft books. :(

Crochet Hooks

How can I be so ignorant!?

I just learned today that the size 9 hook that I'm using is 0.85 mm! What?!

That must be the reason why my motifs are super small!

Yesterday, I bought a size 4 steel hook that says 1.00 mm but it looks smaller than my size 9 hook. Geez!

And the Tulip hook that I have is 5/0 - 6/0 double ended which is 3.00 mm and 3.50 mm. Good thing I ordered 4.00mm from Mimi and a 1.5 mm and another 3.00 mm (all from Inox) just to make it sure that I have the right sizes.

I still have to update my tools but that's it for now.

Does anyone know where I can buy huge hooks, like 10mm hooks?

For hook conversions: Tulip Japan [via Crochetville]