Past Food Travel - Japan 2010

Summer 2010 - Japan

So in 2010, I went on a cultural exchange (NPO) called World Campus International (WCI). It was a great experience. I spent 2 month traveling to various cities in Japan, living with LOVELY host families and meeting dear friends from around the world. While I was there I stayed with multiple host families who were quite frankly some of the best people I've met in my entire life. They were all willing to help and share with me. I really loved the experience of living with host families and would highly, highly recommend it. I got along great with all my host families and I love all of them dearly.  Didn't hurt that they cooked for me and took me to amazing places either. :P All the food was oishii! I miss the experience so much. 

It was an amazing experience to meet so many different people. This is a picture of my first host family who farmed their own land and had an organic bakery/ restaurant and taught Japanese and English classes to children in Omura, Japan. 

 This is in Ueda, Nagano with my host sister Raruka-chan making me pancakes. She was so sweet. Of couse I was taking advantage of child labor but she was an amazing and insistant cook.

 These are my Beautiful host sister from Ueda. Let's see if I can still remember names, there was Ayana, Lilica and Raruka, and there was also Haruna that isn't pictured. They were so sweet and lived in a rural area that you could imagine Totoro living in. Lot of fun, lots of giggles, lots of plants. By the way, I used to share a twin bed with all 3 of the girls! Baby feet in the face, always fun.

Lots of beautiful wild life and vegetation there too. 

I didn't always force my families to cook for me. I also cooked for them. This is my host family in Tama. Ahh, they were so sweet to me and I miss them a bunch. Tama is the city that Hello Kitty comes from. I made my host family some fried rice and Szechuan beef. It was fun. First time I watched Avatar was with my Host brother and I got to meet some interesting birds and go to Mount Fuji with these lovely people even through 4 hours of traffic! I miss them too!

 

We also experienced food together as an exchange group. This is our WCI meeting were me and these lovely girls made soba noodles on our own. It was fun! We also were a part of wonderful events the entire time. Including being dressed as ninjas and climbing Castle walls. 

We enjoyed many outings, that included the largest, most famous fish market in the world. Tsukiji. I enjoyed the best fish here. Was so much fun, there are so many out door markets and food vendors outside and freshest fish around.

 A lot of eating and drinking was done that summer.

Although I met new friends in Japan, I also met one of my oldest friends there too! We had a lot of Korean and Japanese BBQs while we were there (because my buddy is allergic to fish!). It was so tasty and loads of fun! Restaurants weren't expensive, around $10 USD at the time per meal and sometimes we even had our own personal room with a TV!!! 

Although my friend wasn't impressed all the time. I think it was because the people next to us were smoking and flirting annoyingly with the waiter.

But she also took my first McD in Japan. They have shrimp burgers and stuff. However, if you're in Japan and want fast food you ought to try:

• Moss Burger
• First Kitchen (shortened by the Japanese to Fah-King *giggle*)
• curry places (Curry House CoCo)
• beef bowl places
• ramen places
• bento boxes from connivence stores (surprisingly delicious)
• The bottom floor of department stores have restaurants and grocery stores that sell everything on the cheap after 8pm 
• vending machine restaurants! Those are fun. 

Desserts were also plentiful and decadent with mochi ice cream, chocolate cakes round every corner, and crepes with cheese cake, ice cream, fruit and whip cream all in one go and a chocolate sauce on top....Man I miss Japan a lot.

Ramen is exceptionally good in Japan. Try areas like Kyoto for some spectacular ramen. I also was able to meet another amazing person from Simplysyn in Japan. We had some ramen and karaoke through the night. Oooh and had dinner at Jonathan's an American style restaurant in Japan that has a bitch come button. I love those.

I also had my fair share of odd Japanese food. For instance, bread in a can. There was boobie pudding, natto (fermented slimy bean thing), raw squid...I can't seem to think of anything else but I'm sure there was!

Sashimi horse meat. My first experience with horse meat. It wasn't the best, I would've preferred tuna. It really just tasted like raw beef.

We also enjoyed some fruit. Although fruit in Japan is SUPER expensive. Super dooper expensive. Water melons can go for close to 100 bucks sometimes and it's common to see a vine of grapes for 5000 yen (50 USD) at the department store. It really is a bit insane but the fruit is quite delicious. I can still remember the peach (momo) my host family bought for me. Tasty, tasty. 

Of couse I was (am) known for foraging for food and plucking fruit when I see it. Japan was not an exception. I saw persimmons growing! First time ever so I had to pluck it even if it wasn't ripe. I also got raspberries from walks, blueberries and a huge pummeloes.

There were some interesting drinks as well including loads of sake and a milky soda called calpis, a lot of sake and green tea.

I even had the luxury of learning how to make green tea thanks to my beautiful host family in Toyota city.


BTW, you ought to also go to a maid cafe, a strange and niche thing in Japan where you a served by cute girls that act as maids. They also have little sister cafes were the girls act like your little sister. It's strange and fantasy filling.

This is one in Nagoya. It was nice, they girl even decorated our drinks with cute pictures!

All in all Japan was one of the best experiences of my life. I would highly recommend going for anyone BUT especially if you love food like I do. It was great fun, it was an amazing learning experience and I still miss it. The people, the place, everything but the heat! Do try everything that occurs though, Kabuki theaters, ninja shows, and go to an Onsens, one of the most relaxing things ever even if you are naked.

Past Travel - Food

I've been VERY nostalgic today. It could be that it's because I'm avoiding the trials and tribulations of my thesis or I am sick and I want to comfort myself with nicer, healthier and easier times. Or a mixture of the two. But I went looking back at old food photos I've taken over the last four or five years now. I want to share my food experiences from my travels with you. My 2 blog visitors. I hope you enjoy them as I have.

I guess I should start with the oldest first and move my way closer to the present?

Spring 2009 - Ireland and UK 

In 2009, I experienced my first real trip away from home. I went to Ireland and the UK with my brother. Mainly focused in Dublin and London. We stayed in the rather ghetto part of Dublin on the cheap and then took the ferry into Liverpool and a train to London. Was a good experience and my first real taste of being abroad (China with my mom doesn't count).

Of course we tried the obligatory fish and chips. Well, I tried chicken and chips. My brother had the fish and chips. It was at the "best" fish and chips shop in Dublin...somehow I doubt it but you never know.

We had even more fried food there, a nice Uncle Ben's chicken sandwich - I mean Uncle Ben's Cabin, why not? Sadly it tasted exactly how it looked. Fried, greasy and not what I expected from Uncle Ben.

 After finding out that Irish food was pretty bland and getting tired of fried foods we tried the Wagamama in Ireland, a chain Japanese restaurant. Which, was OK. We were quite honestly too poor to afford to dine out in Ireland.

But there were some saving graces about Irish food. For instance Irish stew really does rock. The Guinness made it all the better.

 Once we arrived in London we knew that Chinese restaurants and Asian restaurants in general were the cheapest way to dine without dying on fastfood. So we had some awesome Ramen in Chinatown. Ramen eventually became a theme for me as I travelled.

We aslo discovered that they have BBQ cuttle fish along with Peking duck. Who knew?

For the trip in total I learned a few things. For example, Lays potato chips are called Walkers in the UK and Ireland and the Irish drink a lot more beer than I first thought.

Oh! and never order lasagna in Ireland, it's too much cheese. I never knew that was a thing, but it is. There can be too much cheese.

Winter 2009 - UK and Canada

After my first trip to Ireland and the UK I caught the traveling bug. During the winter of that year I went back to London to see all the extra things and dragged along my beautiful friend. 

 We tried English Tea. It was nice, we also shared a full English breakfast, which was enormous.

 We had awesome desserts. I remember a very awesome profiteroles in chocolate sauce. We even had a tiramisu made for us by an Italian man, who was living at the B&B we stayed at. Actually, I think it was already made but he served it to us.  We also had lots of pub food and lots of beer too.

 We tried digestive cookies

 And saw humorous signs and handome men

Once again, we knew the importance of ramen and beer. 

Forgot to mention we also enjoyed our fair share of Kinder Eggs and candies.

The Dark Times 2009 - Canada

 So on our flight home we were ment to fly home with a layover in Calgary Canada. There was a massive snow storm though. So the airline suggested we go to Regina, which landed us in Regina for roughly 4 days and up until Christmas day. It really was a Christmas miracle that we made it home, considering there was talk about flights being grounded till New Years. 

 During that time we ate donuts and drank coffee from Tim Hortons and became chummy with the flight staff, especially Dale. We also found out that Canadians are the nicest people on Earth, learned some Canadianisms, eh and got offered cookies from strangers, places to stay and booze. Sadly it was a very hectic time and there was a hockey championships in the city!!! And of course there was 3 plus feet of snow and -26 C degrees out which made it impossible to leave.

 So we ate pizza and watched movies a lot of the time. Though I do remember a Canadian waitress who was quite nice...

Eventually we made it home! YAY! I believe it was at 7 pm and we were over joyed! It's a bit sad that we lost all our Canadianisms though.

Here's a picture of our predicament and all the boarding passes we accumulated due to the booking and rebooking process!

2010 Spring - San Francisco Bay Area

The horrible experience of being locked down in Canada didn't scare me away from traveling though! In the spring of 2010 I went to San Francisco for 4 days before moving along south towards LA to see my sister. While I was there I was able to meet one of my favorite people in the world Carlos!

I saw bread baked as animals!

Had some Thai food, enjoyed some awesome drinks and saw the wonderful sights. 

Dun...dun...duuuuun...I'm going to leave the rest of 2010 and 2011 for another post. Do let me know if this is boring or if you want to see more. Not sure why that would matter much though. I'll probably do it anyhow. 

Kimchi Dumplings

I made kimchi dumplings today with the kimchi I made earlier this month! This was concocted the way I always make things...I threw everything I had on hand and thought would be nice together. It yielded 25 dumplings.

 For this recipe I used:

• 1/2 cup of kimchi (my home made kimchi was very salty so I didn't add any salt to mine.)
• Roughly 450 grams of ground pork
• Dumpling skins
• 1 carrot
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Minced onion 
• sprinkling of white pepper
• About a table spoon of sesame oil

Once all the ingredients were assembled I mixed it all together...

Put about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture into the dumpling wrappers and used my mom's ancient Chinese crumpling technique. A super nifty friend helped me make a few of them, they turned out beautifully too.  

Steamed them for 15-20 minutes, and pan fried them

This is the end result and I also made a semi-sweet dipping sauce with soy sauce, vinegar (I'm partial to using balsamic now, but at home in CO I use rice vinegar), sesame oil, garlic, ginger, chili oil and a teaspoon of sugar.

This isn't how I normally make my dumplings but this is how I made kimchi dumplings today. Normally I use a mixture of nappa cabbage and kimchi but I didn't go to the store today...But they turned out rather good. I wish there was more veg in it though. Often times I omit the onion and put in about a teaspoon of ginger and green onions.

Farmer's Markets

I love farmer's markets! The Netherlands has a load of out door markets and bazaars and I absolutely love them. Being poor and a student means I don't have much time or money to put into things like food or travel...so having a farmer's market near me is probably the best thing in the world. I go every other Saturday to Noordermarkt which is a flea market near where I live now but every Saturday they sell organic produce.

I was so lucky and got all of this for 3.70 euros.
5 kiwis - one of them exploded on my way home
5 clementines or as they like to call it here mandrins
3 Avocados
Chili peppers
and a Thai cooking package with lemon grass, baby corn, thai chilis, and galangal root - which I've never used before. Turns out it's bitter. Who knew?

I ended up making this with the curry mix package

It had one can of coconut milk, a can of bamboo shoots, a red bell pepper, 2 red chili peppers, 3 thai chili peppers, a table spoon or so of lemon juice, chicken, thai red curry paste and the Thai mix. I wish I had thai basil leaves for this though. It was good but not as good as it could've been. It also ended up being too spicy and not complex in flavor.

This is what I ended up using for the curry.

 Of course I made some kick ass guacamole. Easy to make and delicious.

Lo Bak Go

So I made Lo Bak Go with the left over daikon radish from making kimchi. Lo Bak Go for those of you who don't know is sort of savory turnip cake. It often has dried seafood and bits of Chinese sausage mixed in with shredded turnip. It's very popular dish for Dim Sum. It is often sliced into 3" x 2" rectangles, pan fried and served with hoisin sauce and sometimes sambal. I followed my recipe very closely to this. The lady that demonstrates the cooking is a very serious looking Taiwanese woman. She really reminds me of one of my mother's friends. I think she would beat me if she found out that mine didn't set properly. Anyways, wikipedia might help you more with understanding what Lo Bak Go is. 

So, these are some of the main ingredients you need for Lo Bak Go. Daikon radish, and rice flour are the backbone of Lo Bak Go and a necessity; everything else is basically a filling. Most of the time Lo Bak Go filling consists of Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, dried scallops, Chinese mushrooms and green onions. I used Chinese sausage (which is a really fatty dry sausage. It has a slightly sweet and salty taste.), dried shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and green onions.

For this recipe I used:
1 daikon radish. It was probably around 5lbs
4 Chinese sausage links, diced
4 stalks of green onion, white and green bits
8 shiitake mushrooms
200 grams of rice flour
50 grams of corn starch
250 ml of warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1 cube of chicken bouillon
1/2 pepper

You should soak the dried shrimp at least an hour before use so that it can soften up. You should also rehydrate the mushrooms if you use them dry. I minced them up into small bits and also shredded the daikon. I also like some big chunks of daikon too so I saved 1/5 of the daikon in rough match sticks.

Next, I stir fried all the minced ingredients. Usually you start with the meat and then add the veg. After about 3-4 minutes when things start to get a caramelized I add in the daikon. It maybe more beneficial to do the daikon separately and then add the filling back in. I don't know.

Next, I mixed the rice flour, corn starch and water together. Then I added it to the filling. It ended up looking like papier-mâché.

After it was all mixed I poured it into a cake mold and steamed it for about 2 hours. You're meant to steam it until you can poke it with a toothpick or a skew and it comes out clean. That however didn't happen for me...I think I had my mixture a bit off. I always fail with rice flour.

So after it steams, you're meant to cool it down until it becomes firm. You then cut it into 3" x 2" rectangles and then pan fry the pieces. Serve with hoisin sauce and sambal and you have Chinese turnip cakes.

-Next time I think I'll just leave it for my mom to make. It tasted really nice, but a bit too gooey. Anyways, cheers guys. You successfully coerced me into writing a second post.