My “work” at home always must 等等

Thermomix has been washed, dried and pushed back to its original position even before lil’ one reached home. But when I do that it means lil’ one’s rice will be cold.  

@ 7.50pm : 

Another relaxing or in other words - tu xi gang (in dialect) before I can only finish washing all the dishes + clean kitchen after lil’ one finish her dinner. Reaching home only at 7.31pm this girl takes forever to eat her dinner. 

Really! If they all can do their fair share of washing, drying and putting their crockeries and cutleries, I would be able to finish everything faster and then 收工 and adjourn back to the room to relax. 

In the meantime, this music accompanied me while I’m editing my taking-forever-to-update blog

@ 9.09pm - this music kept me going when I was drying and keeping the crockeries / cutleries. As well as taking out the thermos flask and preparing other things for next day. 

Taking a short break …

It’s 5.13pm and taking a short break. The dinner dishes are in the convection oven to keep them hot for dinner. Will re-steam the rice to make it hot for 6mins later once che-che reaches home from work. 

I can only do this coz hubby packed the dishes for dinner from the economical stall 😂. I only ‘boiled’ the pre-pack teriyaki chicken as the girls don’t have much dishes they like for dinner. If it’s me doing the 3-4 dishes dinner cookout, I wouldn’t even have time to relax like this. 

Sitting with the tulips smacked right infront of me, music on Spotify and a book which I’ll flip and bookmark the recipes I want to use. When I’ll cook them is another story 🤣🤣 #懒惰的我# 

For the past dunno how many months I’ve bookmarked and subscribed to some Japanese content creators who do bulk cooking. Should I do that? Do a massive cookout for one week’s meals. But if the man only likes 3-4 dishes typical chinese meal, how the heck am I going to store the dishes in the freezer? My refrigerator is only 460L (Dimension: W700 x H1825 x D726 mm） the freezer is considered too small for bulk cooking storage! 

Ah Soh goes shopping

I don’t like to go shopping walking from boutiques to boutiques but I enjoy walking down the aisles. Typical ah-soh 😊. Decided to go to the Jap and German mart today.

Meidiya @ Millenia Walk

I saw German sausage at the entrance for Oktoberfest (earlier on in DonQ bakery in Taka they had rolled out some German bakes. I bought the currywurst bread). Although I didn’t like what’s in the sausage (stabilizers, sodium citrate, sodium acetates etc..) I took it coz I wanted German food. German Market sells another brand sausage which I believe will run out by the time I get there. So I think this is a good ‘no-choice 没办法’  choice until I get hold of my top choice of sausage which is 100% natural but more expensive which I have to go to another part of Singapore to get them. Better still, maybe I should make my own sausage. Hee!  

The reason why I wanted to go Meidiya was to see what koikuchi, usukuchi and amakuchi sauce they have. Hopefully I can do my research slowly back at home after that. I won’t be writing a boring post on the bottled soy sauce and their long stories as what I did for the soba (only to lose the draft after that. Pfft!)

Couldn’t find a small bottle of usukuchi so didn’t buy that, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise coz back at home I read that there’s usu-shio (low salt) similar to the low sodium LKK soy sauce we use at home. Perhaps buying shoyu is a waste of money? Coz I used our LKK soy sauce and the girls didn’t complain. 

Back at home I scrolled through the pictures. Saw a bottle of marudaizu shoyu. Aiyoh why are there so many kinds of shoyu? Pantry 不是堆到满满? 

Read up on a guide to soy sauces varieties, click HERE

Some jpop girls song playing on speaker, I don’t think it’s AKB48. Aunty slowly stroll, look left look right 

Saw these really small and cute cans of sweet corn but it’s so expensive and won’t be enough for what I need so bought the cheaper SW brand instead.  

I didn’t know they were having a Nagano Fair 

Saw this, couldn’t take pictures coz there’s a staff replenishing stock. In the mart I notice now there are lots of signages on ‘No photos’. Haha! Must be talking to me. This looks interesting tho. This popular raichō (rock ptarmigan) biscuit from Nagano is a souvenir from the greater Japanese alps region. When I was doing the alpine route (was in the alps) I didn’t see if they sold this in the souvenir shop, I skipped the shop coz I wanted to see the sights.   

I spotted a few during my hike aka slow walk coz it’s snow on most of the grounds. This is the third one I saw which I’m able to take photo. 

I spotted this on the way back after I managed to retrace my steps. Two Japanese ah-peks were quietly taking photos, their DSLR were making more noise 🤣. We observed them in silence and then one of them whispered softly to me “utsukushii” I agreed with him. Tho shouldn’t he be saying handsome? 

I needed potatoes to make curry and my potato salad. The last time I bought Japanese potatoes was in July. Then, there was only one choice of potatoes. Now I have to tikam tikam MCQ 4 choices choose 1. All these potatoes are from Hokkaido

About danshaku and mayqueen potato, click HERE

Comparison between danshaku & mayqueen

I didn’t have the time to google search for best potato to buy given that I have two contrasting use for them. Thus chose danshaku based on their recommendation chart. Let’s see how the potatoes turn out when I use them for curry next time, if they’ll mashed up until I can’t see anything 😂. Maybe this danshaku can be used for the cartoon moulded potatoes? 

A note to self on substitute angmoh potatoes. 

Danshaku = russet potatoes

Mayqueen = Yukon gold

I was trying to recall what potatoes I last bought and traced back to my Sep 1st post on ‘Japanese cooking’ 

For the million $ question that you might wonder if one is better than the other

Enjoyed the time there that I forgot the time. Unknowingly I had spent almost a hour in there. German Market closes at 6pm! While driving I realised I forgot to buy the precut veggies. I love that! 

German Market

After my blog post in September, I FINALLY found the time found the energy to drop by German Market. Arrived with only less than 20mins to closing time. It’s a small mart, can finish walking in less than 10mins but I’m happy. I’m the only Chinese customer there, there were 3 other customers at that time but I think they really blend in with us - slippers, shorts, obiang tote bags 🤣 - so I no feel like I’m in Germany or Netherlands 

Got what I wanted + more things that I didn’t go there for 🤣 and left the place in less than 15mins. Happy to know that parking is free after 5pm 👍.

Notice I have lesser things to write about German Market

The purchases

Haul from Meidiya. 

Going to make bread soon, maybe this weekend. Not sure if the recipe can substitute the flour to wholewheat but will try. I saw this cookie mix, wanted to buy but it was so expensive at $9.89. After that I noticed in the clearance section this box is sold for $3.50 with expiry date in end November. I wonder why they tend to clear things out so fast, not the first time I picked things from the clearance bin. 

Only Meidiya I can find this small tetrapak of milk 

Haul from German Market. I went there solely just to get the powder and ketchup but came home with more rubbish. 

Oh! I do pick up stroopwafels most times I’m there. Haven’t had this peppermint sweet for quite some time so pampered me must buy/splurge on this instead of the cheaper Made in M’sia mentos 😉

Oh yah all the snacks

And this hazelnuss chocolaty puddings which is yummy. Haven’t had the Zott Monte since the last time I was in Frankfurt when still jetting around. Yah I have vague memory of picking this up in REWE.

🎶 aux champs élysées 🎵

Love this upbeat melody, heard it quite some time back and totally forgot about it until I heard it again today. Makes me miss macarons, eclairs, profiteroles, french onion soup and my top of the list - gâteau opéra.

“Ladies….”

Was feeling so hot so checked the weather. I giggled under my breath coz on Thu I was silenced 🤫 in class by D 😂 as I was talking to T about this.

I like to check the weather this way. The time when I was talking T while D gave instructions, we thought we were whispering but no ….in our excitement our voices was louder than what we thought 😂. 第一次被老师骂咯！

The funny silly girl said —>

第一集

“ I want to eat the Japanese egg mayo sandwich.” 

“ I got eat in Japan.” 

Contradictions said before : - I don’t like mayonnaise 

I’m very puzzled so asked her “isn’t egg mayo, mayo? 你在讲什么？”

第二集

“ You know I don’t like to eat beef. Che-che is the one who likes beef. I like chicken.”

Contradictory actions and words done/said before : -

(a) “Gordon Ramsay’s beef Wellington is so nice. I love that!” “Can we eat that again? I miss it.”

(b) “I love beef steak. I love the steak at Paul Restaurant in Jewel.”

Yup! I rolled my eyes until both dropped and rolled all the way to Tuas

Moving kois

Saw this in my feed. This is so interesting. But I think it’s really dependent on the place, so far in one place we went they didn’t remove the koi during winter. 

There’s is something so calming looking at kois in the floodwaters. 

Les Miserables

I saw the ads in June that Les Mis is coming next year. Had been 想来想去 if I should go again. After much consideration I finally caved in and decided to go for this again, my 3rd? 4th? 

The last time they came was 10 years ago as shown in my FB post. Then I bought a Cat 3 or 4 tickets where I had to squint my eyes looking down. 

This time I won’t be bringing lil’ one, she don’t appreciate musicals. Just che-che and I. Speaking of which we haven’t been attending any SSO concerts after she returned from the US. I go for my preferred must-eat-instant-noodles Cat 1 tickets. 

Hope I remember this when the time comes in May next year. I totally forgot I had something to redeem for Miss Saigon or was it Hamilton with the premium ticket I bought 

$258 ticket but I paid $196.40. By the time I add up the booking fee it’s $400.80 in total. Olay lah considering this is still not the most expensive ticket I bought so far. My uncle Joe ticket is ex. People willing to pay for fine dining, I’m willing to pay for class. Haha! 

Lost for words 😂

Wanted to cook che-chef’s Osaka fav food item for dinner but am so so sleepy n tired. I just want to laze on the sofa, I’ll probably cook tomorrow. Walked up to her room (she’s WFH today) and told her “I wanted to cook kushu kita katsu kitsu kishi katsu kutushi (lots of pauses and my eyes rolling.🤣) ..” Only my daughter understands her dumbstricken mother. When I finally got the word correct, she mouthed it at the same time as me - “kushikatsu” 🍢 

Laughed at myself for thinking ‘kutushi’ though the rest of the words are equally senseless as well. Just what is kutushi? 

It’s kutushita nyanko 靴下にゃんこ , one of the Sanrio characters which I think was lil’ one’s fav

I wanted to cook but I don’t even know what ingredients to source for her. Meanwhile I’m just so lazy and want to DO NOTHING

Dinner & abt jap soy sauce

Blogging tonight’s dinner coz I needed to record the recipe somewhere. 

DISH #1

I’ve never cooked okra for hubby before, same goes for bittergourd. He likes these two which I don’t eat that’s why I hardly cook them. Okra dish cooked with oyster and garlic chilli. Have no idea how it tasted coz not much mushroom left so I let him finished everything. 

 I bought the 4 packs of pork + 1 pack of beef during the promotional period. Usual price is $10/box

DISH #2

Tiring to cook this as I had to individually fried each slice. Hmm….I realised that this meat has the chao-chor-bi smell. Strange, I thought usually japanese make their exported piggies eunuch. 

My third time cooking for them BUT my first time eating this just coz I was on vegetarian the days I cooked for them previously. It’s delicious! I was lazy so threw the dishes in my bowl. I have fried egg white too from che-che’s pasteurised eggs. 

DISH #3

Teriyaki tofu. Again another tedious process. This time using this tofu coz che-che prefers it soft not the momen tofu.

Had to fry each tofu individually with potato starch. The whole time for cooking I was using the tamagoyaki frying pan 😂. Tricky with fried tofu is that it should be done just before serving so tofu remains hot and crispy but you know it’s really impossible as I need to get dinner served at different timing BUT I need to clean my kitchen asap. I can’t have any delay; any of my family members walking through the kitchen and smearing the floor grease to other parts of the house. 

Took Sudachi’s recipe for the teriyaki sauce. I doubled it coz thought maybe lil’ one will like the teriyaki sauce.  Turns out it’s teriyaki soup with tofu 😂, so I really shouldn’t double portion the sauce the next time I cook this. Just like the pork, after frying, I did extra step and soaked the tofu/pork back in the pan with the sauce. 

(Sudachi’s recipe for one portion : 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp sake, 2 tsp sugar and ½ tbsp garlic paste

Recipe calls for koikuchi shoyu but I used our LKK low sodium soy sauce 

******** SOY SAUCE ********

talking about soy sauce … I have a blog entry on it in my draft folder. Drafted since July but as usual it takes me forever to type it down (then I’ll backdate and publish in July 🤭). I’ll combine into this blog.

Difference between koikuchi shoyu and usukuchi soy sauce

, 

A video on how to use these sauces. Click HERE

Types of shoyu. Click HERE

Everything about shoyu. Click HERE

We drove past a soy sauce brewery before. Can’t remember whether it’s when we’re on our way to Kagoshima or Miyazaki, 反正 it was on an ulu stretch of road, I saw the decorative barrels by the roadside. I must have cleared those days photos from my phone so I can’t track back the route now. Other than that, don’t think we came close to any other shoyu brewery. Tamari, a gluten-free and keto friendly version, I saw one well known local miso+tamari shop in GH but I didn’t buy coz they were closed when I walked past 😭. Mie is also famous for tamari. 

******************************

Maybe I should go Meidiya one day and take pics of all the soy sauce and slowly research which is the best. I’m not even sure if their shoyu and our Chinese chio-cheng tastes the same.

Long long long time ago I ever bought soy sauce from Meidiya when I asked a staff for recommendation, it was so saltish!!! I can’t remember what I bought then as I threw it away after using it twice. Not to my taste, and I wouldn’t want my family to eat high sodium soy sauce. 

Che-che’s main carbs

After the failed attempt on 30/8, 不甘愿 must try again.  I froze the eggs this time and look so hopeful I can get it done. Yolk looks good here. The moment I gently cup the rounded with a space in between rice on my hand to this rice, it remain intact and I was so happy. But ……. After that I noticed yolk oozing out from the side. I can’t do this. 

Trips to the supermarkets

Singapore is just never short of Japanese supermarkets, there’s Meidiya, Donki, JMart coz of the huge Japanese expatriate community (I thought there’s also a huge European expat community?) 

Wanted to cook japanese so headed to Meidiya with the intention to only get one item. I think JMart may have what I need.  I miss japan so pretend to be in Japan by jalan jalan in a bigger mart 🤣. 

18th Sep (Thu) @ Meidiya Millenia Walk

Saw Okayama peaches selling for 2 for $32.80. So expensive! Sadly it wasn’t the peach season when we were in Okayama last year, we couldn’t buy any to try.

I would prefer if Meidiya only carry solely japanese produces and products, they won’t make a loss as I’m sure the japanese community would love to see more familiar items. 

These made me happy for the time being

26th Sep (Fri) @ JMart

Made a trip to JMart. Bringing lil’ one to eat at Uncle Wanton during her ‘lunch time’ was just an excuse for me to go I12 😉

I love this kani croquette. I don’t like ladyfingers but buy so the poor hubby have a variety of vegetables and not subjected to only what his wife eats. 

Cooked for him three days later

My flour arrived the same day today! I realised the seller is in Osaka. Aiyoh! Should have asked che-che to help me buy when she was there. Can’t be helped coz I wasn’t thinking to make pancake. 

So now I must find a day to make this when lil’ one is at home.