Udon to Takoyaki!

I found a rare specie to study: my roommate Stacy! Look at that hairdo (O.O)
Too bad Stacy doesn't wear it outside cuz if style it up a little bit, she would totally blend in with other Japanese don't you think?
(picture on right is from Cute Easy Hairstyles)
Anyways, I haven't been able to post any new blogs lately cuz I'm busy with school and blogging takes a lot of time. Thus, I'll try my best to update it whenever I have time.




For the first few weekends when school starts, Stacy and I got involved in making Udon and Takoyaki. I can't guarantee that I will be able to make the same dish when I return home.
All you need is love!...but here in Japan all you need is peace ;) The two girls on the right are the ones teaching us how to make udon.
There's Stacy strangling that dough!
And there's me trying to save it :p

















We have to let the dough ferment for 30 minutes (I think...it was a long time and everyone was starving cuz no one ate before they came here) and then roll it out into a thin layer.

Then we fold 'em together in layers so we can cut it into long strands of noodles! Our group's dough was soggy and sticky due to too much water...everyone in the group knew it was too much water except the person who measured the water and instruct us to put it in sooo.......

Our udon looks like this! It looks good in the photo right?! Wait til you see it in the water (ha!).
That's us cooking! The udon looks yummy right? Unfortunately that pot on the right isn't ours....it's somebody's else perfect noodles (>.<) Ready to see my group's noodles?Ta-da!!! I think my group broke the world's record for most hideous udon! Now...everyone knows that you should never judge a book by its cover and this is one of those cases. This noodle is yummylicious! especially to a pack of hungry hippos (^0^)/
I would show you the pictures of what it looks like in a bowl but was too hungry to take a picture of it lol...Stacy did but she's out partying... Ahem! Correction. I meant she's out enjoying the time of her life!

Next is Takoyaki!!So making takoyaki isn't as hard as I thought...I might say it is easier than making udon and taste so much better! If you have never eat takoyaki before, you must try it because only then will you know you like it or not. If you do, then you'll get addicted to it. But if you don't, then you got nothing to worry about right?


That's the batter being mixed at super speed!
There were only four international students and five Japanese students (^0^)



















There's Stacy help diluting the batter. We learned that the batter should be quite watery...These are fillings for the takoyaki: ham, chese, tako (octopus), corn, red ginger, scallion, tuna, and kim chi.








There's Stacy trying hard to pour the batter correctly into the takoyaki slots without making a mess...but the truth is, we're supposed to make a mess (-_-)Doesn't that looks yummy?!! This is the first batch with octopus fillings cuz everybody loves octopus (despite the fact that they can hard to digest if not chewed completely).

After outer layer of the batter is cooked, we use a long skewer to turn the top part toward the bottom so the batter gets cooked all around and also the takoyaki turns into a round ball.
This is part of the group taking a break while waiting for the takoyaki to be cooked...everyone was starving because no one eat breakfast again! (x_x)














This time Stacy and I attempted to make it extra messy like how the pros do it (^_~)/
It turns out...the batter was really hard to separate into individual balls. The pros make it looks so easy on youtube (T_T)
This is the 2nd batch and we put in tuna, corn, kim chi, ham, and cheese as the main fillings.














You can tell that Stacy is frustrated with the stubborn takoyaki refusing to turn upside down.
We (the whole big group) end up making about 6 batches total!

Hmmm...this picture should belong in a food magazine!

So does this one! I'm such an elite photographer )^0^(

This is a nice picture of Stacy finally gotten her food.



















As you noticed, there aren't a lot of photos of me because obviously who else can take beautiful pictures this but me? (just kiddin...sort of)
I just prefer to be the photographer and when participating, other people are too. Also I can't be natural if I know other people are taking pictures of me.
Anyways, after eating those lovely takoyaki, we attempt to make pancake using the same takoyaki mold....it didn't turn out so well....
This is our new creation! Kuroi pancake! (literally means "black pancake") Be forewarned, it has a burnt bitter taste but the chocolate syrup helps somewhat.

Here is the takoyaki gang! No need to look far, peace is all around us!

Stacy eventually emerges into the Japanese culture don'cha think?


Oh yes, if you want to learn how to make takoyaki, here's a video explanation on youtube from Cooking with dog:

Food Attack!!

Mayonnaise! Mayonnaise! This is where the mayonnaise's gone! Mayonnaise is a big thing here in Japan and pretty much almost every food (+pre-made food too) that include rice has mayonnaise or at least a small package on the side in case a customer would some on his dish. It's mayonnaise crazy here!
Thus, I'll be showing pictures of the food I've tasted for the past few weeks and you'll notice the mayonnaise (^_~)
Oh yea, since I was having great troubles with making the previous posts (things jump out of order), I'm just going to keep future posts simple: picture, info.

This beautiful piece of artwork (above) is strawberry mousse rolled in chocolate chip sponge cake with strawberry jam on the side. Price? $2. A huge piece of cake with high quality taste but so much cheaper than in the states.

I'm not really a fan of strawberries, even though I am a fan of berries, but being in Japan really makes me want to be a fan of strawberries. This is strawberries, blueberries, peach, and bananas (?) fused together with milk. It might sound like a fruit war but in reality it taste really lovely! (Caution: not for lacto people or people who don't like milk)












The thing about Japan is that everywhere you walk, you will see a vending machine with drinks less than 100 yen (~$1), which is quite nice and healthy but it's actually more expensive compared to buying a pint of it grocery stores for 150 yen-250 yen (~$1.50-$2.50). The downside? Grocery stores don't carry every flavor of juice you find in vending machines, so every now and then I feed the vending machine a dollar to make myself happy! This favorite vending machine of mine is located in my dorm, right next to the dinning room. Very convenient!








This one is my Stacy's favorite just because it has Pepsi...I guess any machine that has Pespi is her fountain of youth lol. Oh yea, Stacy, like many other students here, discovered a vending machine selling alcohol and tobacco.















Japan has very creative food and this is one of them. This was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for awhile here they are yummy! (and cheap and delicious, etc...but most important of all they're from Japan!!!) If you haven't figure out what this is yet, they are sandwiches. Japanese sandwiches. Inside this particular set of sandwiches for 105 yen (I think...school was having a discount of food) were lettuce, eggs, and ham, but there are others filled with pasta, lettuce and tomatoes, peanut butter, tuna, curry, fried pork with cheese, etc. (too many to name...)

That's my finger hold my dinner! As Stacy put it, "This is Delicious!"








Here is Stacy microwaving her food while giving me a "why are you pointing that camera at me" look. I can't find any other uses for a camera except for taking pictures.








Here's my food! I think it cost around $3. Stacy said the yellow things are "couscous--a food so nice the name it twice" and it mix very well with rice, while on the side is teriyaki chicken and half of a hard-boiled egg. And of course, who can forget the mayonnaise! It may look like a few streaks of mayonnaise but there's a ton beneath that egg. You can see parts of it behind the egg. I don't really like mayonnaise but I must say, "mayonnaise rocks in Japan!"




This is a brilliant piece of cake! The bottom layer is a pie crust with the brownie sponge cake on top. The frosting is lightly whipped with cream and coffee and dusted with unsweetened cocoa powder to top it off. The cake was sooo good that I describe it so bad lol. If brownies, chocolate, and coffee makes your knees weak, then this is the cake for you! I got this cake on sale for $2.50 and it comes in pair ;) I ate its mate yesterday.
Yay! More mayonnaise! This scrumptious meal is only like $3.80 and I couldn't even finish all the rice...I feel guilty throwing it away since 2.5kg bag of rice cost $10 in stores (that's cheap quality rice). No need to explain, the green flakes in the middle is dried seaweed, supposedly for your greens, some fried chicken for your fat intake, and egg for proteins. As nutritionists say, 50% carbs, 35% fat, and 15% protein...talking about this meal makes me want to have some but I seriously need to lay off the mayo cuz I think I'm putting on some poundage *cries*

The school cafeteria has AMAZING food! This is a healthy meal for my friend Stacy. According to her it was "some meat and stuff." I think at that time she likes the meal except for the egg cuz she only want her egg 100% cooked. Judging from the look, I think it might be beef and some sort of sauce with chopped of radish preserved in red vinegar? I don't know. I'm only guessing.







Here is my lovely meal! I really should start remembering the names of these food. The dish is called Bukka udon (?). Price? $3.50. This is udon noodles (there's soba too if one desires) in some sort of soy sauce soup base with scallion, egg, tempura fish sticks, and a thin slice of something I don't know. I have this meal often on cold, windy, rainy day like I did today because it really warms up your body and you feel less tired a like all good noodles should do on horrid weather.



Stacy is taking a picture of me! For while she's been dying to go to a restaurant so we finally head out, got lost, and found some small, homey traditional looking Okonomiyaki restaurant. "Okonomi" means "whatever you want" and "yaki" means "grilled" or "cooked" (wiki) and the mean is like a pancake/pizza except the taste is exploding!



This is what it looks like. I ordered mine with squid and Stacy's has pork but both are stuffed with lettuce. Here's what wikipedia has to say:
Osaka-style okonomiyaki is the predominant version of the dish, found throughout most of Japan. The batter is made of flour, grated yam, water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally pork or bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese. Okonomiyaki is sometimes compared to an omelette or a pancake and may be referred to as "a Japanese pancake" or even "Osaka soul food."

Doesn't wiki describe everything better than me? lol

Look at that hand go! You sure can tell how hungry she is! She's hungry enough to eat a horse (I would've say hippo cuz that's how hungry she was but that's her favorite animal...and I have to live with her for the next few months lol). The meal was very fulfilling and I think I will come back for more. They do sell it in stores too but this is freshly made!! Can't beat that for any price.








This is my squid okonomiyaki! In case anybody is wondering, I did not take a huge bite out of that okonomiyaki despite how the picture display at that angle. I used chopsticks like all well-mannered Nihon jin (Japanese) people do. Oh yea, I don't think wiki mention this, but on top of the okonomiyaki is dry shredded squid or octopus skins. "This is Delicious!" said Stacy as she munched her pork-filled Japanese pancake and sipped a little bit of her Asahi beer.




Well that's pretty much it for what we ate the last few weeks. You're probably saying "No way! They probably ate more stuffs than that!" and you are precisely correct. We did eat a lot more but I don't always have the camera with me and Stacy thinks I'm weird cuz I always try to take pictures of food. But honestly, for awhile Stacy ate ramen and onigiri (rice balls with some sort of fillings like tuna inside) and I feast up melon pan (melon bread) and those sandwiches. And of course, who can forget bread and butter. That's our usual breakfast and midnight snack unless we got something better to eat.

But let's end on something aside food.
This is what Stacy and I do after a full week of classes and crappy weather. We love our laptops but hate the net connection. I bet your net connection is better than ours....care to share?



NOTE:
Stacy is often the target of my pictures cuz I'm not skillful enough to take a full view picture of myself.