no soup tan tan men

Tried the no soup tan tan men from Family Mart

Take off this packet before zapping it in the micro

Mouth.on.fire.

Also, it was a good thing I looked at the directions, because that teeny blue packet can make things slightly spicy to krazy spicy (glad I only put a little)

Both of these (the no soup tan tan men & biang biang men) are made by Nissin

Loved the chewiness of the noodles

biang biang men

Was seeing this in my IG feed, biang biang men from Family Mart

This is in their frozen section

Just zap the contents in the microwave for 7 minutes on 500 watt

I had to zap it for an additional 20 seconds because it was still a little cold in the middle

Pour into a bowl and add the chinese pepper oil that comes with it

Mouth.on.fire.

This is quite filling and super spicy (for me)

Would get this again, but the only thing is that you need to keep this in the freezer until you are ready to eat (the space in my freezer is quite limited)

when I bought this, I also a saw a soupless tan tan men I want to try this too

kanno seimenjo

In our neighborhood, we have a noodle maker, Kanno Seimenjo.

In business since 1949, they supply over 3800 restaurants in Japan

Not only do they make ramen noodles to match different types of soups, but they also make some dim sum items like gyoza, shumai, spring rolls and nikuman (pork bao), oh and pasta too.

I had no idea they were very popular.

Over the years, the factory that makes the noodles was relocated from our neighborhood to other areas of Tokyo.

What’s left in our neighborhood is their office and distribution hub.

In the mornings, you can see their tiny trucks lined up in front picking up their orders of noodles to be distributed.

Will try to see what things they sell to the public so we can try.

goma tei

Met up with friend Greg

We had planned to check out the Makai Market food court in Ala Moana, but it had been many moons since I’d been here and wasn’t sure where to check out so we went to Goma Tei instead since that is where Greg usually goes.

I am a Goma Ichi fan but have gone to Goma Tei with Jalna & Mich in the past

It was too blazing for ramen, so I tried their cold chicken udon.

This was delicious BUT I wished they would cut the cucumber into bite sized pieces instead of thin long sticks.

It was nice catching up with Greg

Thanks for today Greg

ippudo nabe soup

Since Satoshi was sick I thought “sharing” nabe (hot pot) was risking me getting whatever he had, so I made each of us a bowl of tan tan men instead

I used half of the soup since the package says it is for 3 to 4 people.

First I cooked some minced pork, man! the oil that came out from the pork.

After sopping up the oil with many paper towels, I added a little taberu rayu (chili crisp), then drained the whole thing on another paper towel

I also chopped up nuts since Ippudo’s karaka men has nuts in it

The noodles we bought were a little too thick for my liking, but this was spicy and delicious.

We also had gyoza with this.

I stuck the other half of the soup in the freezer, so we'll definitely have this again, hopefully we'll be able to find thinner noodles 

daizumen

Kikkoman came out with these daizumen (soy noodles), I think awhile back, but I just heard about them recently

There are different flavors...and since there is a commercial running, they have been kind of hard to find.

The one I found at the market was tantanmen style.

The sauce has soy meat as well as pork in it.

And the noodles have regular flour mixed in with the soy flour.

One package is one serving and it is just right for me, but a little too small for Satoshi.

I also served this with salad.

The noodles had a slight "smell", I think from the soy, that I didn’t care for 

I hope to find the bolognese version, yakisoba version and yuzu oroshi version to try. 

Have a nice weekend.

omma foods

The humidity has been pretty evil.

Went to get Omma Foods' reimen for lunch today.

Only 618 yen (tax included).

They give you the soup packet so you can put it together just before eating.

Love the pull of the noodles.

Gonna try their bi bim kook soo next time. 

biang biang men

Have you eaten biang biang men?

I have been wanting to try it after seeing it on someone’s Instagram, so I was glad to find them the other day while browsing Kaldi.

The kanji (chinese character) for biang has 57 or 58 strokes?! like art yeah?! (picture from wikipedia)

I like saying "biang biang" 

I served this for our Sunday dinner.

The only p.i.t.a. thing is that you need a tall pot to boil these l-o-n-g wide noodles in.

AND you cannot throw everything in at once when the water boils, you gotta put them in one by one and make sure they don't stick to each other...

I did this in 2 frying pans...so I was kinda going krazy trying to unstick the noodles...

I added some steamed chinese cabbage, cabbage and sugar snap peas.

It comes with a szechuan pepper and oyster sauce packet but I also added some spicy pork that I had in the freezer.

This was delicious.

The noodles are thick, chewy and hard to slurp.

Still, I enjoyed this and would get it again if I see it at Kaldi.

menya kokoro

Saturday, we tried Menya Kokoro, they are a popular shop that makes Taiwan mazesoba.

Their main shop is in the Oookayama area of Tokyo, but have franchises all over Japan and some overseas.

Luckily, we have a shop nearby.

This dish comes with a raw egg...only in Japan, yeah?!

Mix everything and eat!

Spicy and a little fishy from the fish powder/fish meal.

The noodles are thick like udon.

The portion was a little too much for me but we enjoyed this.

We'll be back to try other things on their menu.

Menya Kokoro

7-61-1 Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3734.8909

Open daily: 11:30-14:30 (lunch),  17:00-23:30 (dinner)

indian

We recently tried Indian.

They serve Shina soba, "shina" (she-nah) is the Japanese word for "China"/"Chinese".

The soup was not heavy and the noodles thin, it sort of reminded me of something I've had at Hawaii's Chinatown.

There were fried onions as well as fresh and the char siu was so tender.

I wouldn't mind trying the curry flavored version of this too.

Satoshi had his Shina soba with a half order of their European style curry, which he enjoyed.

They also have a mini curry rice, which is only a couple of bites, I want to try this too.

Not sure why the name of the shop is what it is, but we'll be back.

Indian
6-5-11 Ikegami
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5700.5237
Closed: Mondays
Hours: 11:30-21:00

kozou plus

It's Golden Week here in Japan.

There are several holidays lined up at the end of the week.

There was also one this past Saturday...I think Japan may be the only country to count Saturdays to observe holidays.

Keep in mind there are businesses that do work on Saturdays, so I guess a holiday is a holiday...

Anyway, we recently tried Kozou Plus.

They specialize in mazesoba where you maze (mah-zay...mix) everything up before eating.

I ordered their niku niku don (literally meat meat bowl)...filled with grilled char siu and a sweet-salty sauce.

The meat was super tender...and that egg!

(wasn't too sure when to use the grainy mustard though...)

Satoshi chose their mazesoba.

He usually chooses noodles with soup, but since this shop specializes in mazesoba, he tried and liked this.

We liked the laid back feel of this shop (at some of these type of shops, you just feel rushed to finish your food and go!)...we'll be back!

Kozou Plus
1-2-35 Fukushima
Fukushima, Osaka
Phone: 06.6346.6346
Lunch: 11:00-14:30 (last order), Dinner: 18:00-21:30 (last order)

oodles of noodles

Since it has been so hot here, I've been choosing lots of "cold foods", in particular, noodles.

You may be familiar with zaru soba, but I wanted to share with you other choices you'll find in Japan.

Like this rei-shabu pasta. Thinly sliced pork is cooked (shabu shabu style) in a broth then chilled. Then, chilled pasta is topped with the pork and lots of veggies.

The dressing was a creamy sesame...Delicious.

Rei-men, literally means "cold noodles".

This particular dish was similar to hiyashi chuka but this version was chilled green noodles topped with ham, cucumber, egg, some banbanji chicken & kim chee.

The dressing for this was also a creamy sesame dressing.

How are you staying cool this summer?

pho bo (beef pho)

I think I've told you that whenever I get a craving for something, most times I need to make it from scratch if we don't have access to it.

The other day, the temperature was kinda brisk and I was craving something for dinner that would use some of the cilantro on my lanai.

I decided to try my hand at...pho (fah)

I roughly followed this recipe.

I say roughly because our supermarkets don't sell the bones of beef. You can't even find a t-bone steak!

For my broth I used a fatty sune-niku (shank) and cooked it for an hour with the various spices and fish sauce.

Anyway, by itself, the soup was awesome and the beef really tender, but with the noodles, the flavor was a little lacking, but, it was perfect for Satoshi (who is supposed to watch his sodium intake).

I added thinly sliced yellow onion, bean sprouts, snow peas and the cilantro when I served it.

Talk about using all my pots, pans and burners! A little hectic because the noodles shouldn't be made in advance, just right before eating.

For dessert we had coconut milk with tapioca, which I bought and jazzed up with some nuts and fruits.

I think I have enough broth for us to have this one more time...mmm!

foodie sunday

Last week, the weather was a little "wintry" in Hawaii.

Lots of rain and dare I say a little "cool".

Even though the rain stopped and sun came out, BFF and I checked out Shiro's Saimin Haven for lunch on Sunday.

Dare I also say that it was my first time there...gasp!

See, after studying abroad in Japan, I used to be a "snob" thinking ramen was "better" than saimin.

But after coming back to work in Hawaii, then living abroad in Japan since 2001, I have come to my senses in recent years.

Reconnecting with foods from my past.

You can't beat the broth, it's neither oily nor heavy like ramen broth can be and has just the right amount of salt.

Paired with a teri beef stick (and the won bok from BFF's saimin) this was the perfect comfort food lunch.

Though the sauce on the beef stick was a bit too sweet and goopy for my liking, the meat was very tender.

I'd definitely go back.

After lunch, we checked out Zippy's.

They advertised "made to order" and "hot and fresh" malasadas...pffft!

Yeah, I also think there is fine print on that ad.

Because the Zippy's we were at had these malasadas in their display cases and I didn't see anything being "made to order".

I also didn't ask why they weren't being "made to order" probably because my mouth was wide open in shock as I watched the girl behind the counter putting it into a bag.

We also tried their banana andagi which was also advertised on that same ad.

3 words--hard.as.rock.

Probably because they are stored in that same display case.

Plus, the banana was flavoring not real (no flecks).

Utter disappointment...I knew I should've stuck to my favorite Champions.

Oh well, at least the company was good and weather beautiful.

Shiro's Saimin Haven
98-020 Kamehameha Highway
Waimalu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.488.8824

sato's okazuya

Do you like fried noodles? I do.

I prefer them dry, not "wet" like some places serve them. In Hawaii, most places use saimin for their fried noodles.

In Japan they are called yakisoba sometimes yakiudon depending on the type of noodles that are used. And there are "dry" & "wet" types of fried noodles here too.

To me, the "wet" types are on the mushy side.

One day, while I was surfing around, I came across a place in Waipahu that is supposed to serve "the best" fried saimin at Sato's Okazuya.

I had never heard of this place before, but wanted to check them out. So after an errand in Waipahu, we picked up the small size to divide amongst my mom, dad and I for lunch...US$4 + tax.

Their small was rather large because when they measure out the serving, they use a paper tray, no weighing, then just heap it on afterwards.

The noodles are dry, chewy, almost al dente, there is a lot of flavor from the spam, char siu and other veggies that are in there too.

While they do have other items on their menu (which we didn't order), I think this one is their star.

Even if you come before the lunch crowd, be prepared to wait, they are constantly making new batches of fried saimin to keep up with the orders.

Do I think they make the best? Maybe and I would definitely go back here to get some when the craving hits me.

Sato's Okazuya
94-235 Hanawai Circle (Y-H building across parking lot of Waipahu Festival Marketplace)
Waipahu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.677.5503

p.s. today is Umi no Hi (Ocean Day) in Japan, a national holiday, unfortunately, I hear there may be a typhoon approaching the Pacific coastlines of Okinawa & Japan, stay safe you guys!

amis du booksale de bibliothèque

*The following post is in French (with translation at the end), Rowena wanted to see a post like this, so this is for her, especially the food part (which she also requested).

Unfortunately, my French sucks, so I cheated (sorry!) and this is via Babel fish (which I hope is correct)...

Hier je suis allé aux amis du booksale de bibliothèque. C'était ma première fois à cette vente et également le dernier jour de la vente et de tout était $.50 pièce.

J'ai voulu obtenir quelques livres de cuisine, mais il n'y avait pas plus beaucoup de choix, il y avait un choix gentil des livres d'enfants en français, ainsi j'étais heureux d'obtenir ces derniers.

Le temps était bruineux, ainsi pour le déjeuner j'ai marché à Makiki Zippys et ai eu leur grand saimin.

Pour ces non familiarisés avec le saimin, le bouillon est plus léger que ramen, non huileux. Le char siu et la croquette de poisson légèrement découpés en tranches se sont vraiment ajoutés à la saveur et seulement US$3.61 avec l'impôt.

Les nouilles étaient tout à fait fermes que j'ai vraiment appréciées.

Il avait été pendant quelque temps depuis que j'avais eu le saimin et ce vraiment coup la tache.

J'espère que vous avez apprécié ce Rowena.

*Translation: Yesterday, I went to the Friends of the Library booksale. It was my first time and also the last day of the sale and everything was $.50 each.

I wanted to get some cookbooks, but there wasn't much selection left, there was a nice selection of childrens books in french, so I was happy to get these.

The weather was drizzly, so for lunch I walked to Makiki Zippys and had their large saimin.

For those not familiar with saimin, the broth is lighter than ramen, not oily. The noodles were quite firm which I really enjoyed. Thinly sliced char siu and fish cake really added to the flavor and only US$3.61 with tax.

It had been awhile since I had had saimin and this really hit the spot.

I hope you enjoyed this Rowena.

hiyashi chuka

Ever since summer started I've been wanted to eat this--hiyashi chuka. Apparently, when you plate it you are supposed to mound it up and it is supposed to look like Mount Fuji. Also, all the ingredients you use are supposed to represent the different seasons, like pink ham for spring, green cucumber for summer, brown menma (seasoned bamboo shoots) for autumn and white itokanten (stringy agar-agar) for winter.

I couldn't find a recipe that replicated this, so I used the one that I found on the internet.

I need to doctor up the sauce because it wasn't quite what I had in mind. Plus, I want to find thinner noodles. Still, it was a really refreshing dinner.

Hiyashi chuka translated from the internet
Serves 2
2 bundles of chinese noodles
sliced ham or yakibuta (roast pork)
diced tomato
julienned cucumber
egg made thin like a crepe

Sauce:
1/2 cup chinese soup
2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1-1/3 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Cook your noodles according to the package and chill in an ice bath.
Top with all the toppings.
Pour some of the sauce over your noodles.
Enjoy with a dab of japanese mustard.

NOTES: I think you could substitute somen for the noodles and top with your favorite veggies.

spicy and cool dinner

Summers in Japan are HOT, hotter than the summers that I am used to in Hawaii. In Hawaii, we have tradewinds, this makes the heat of summer bearable, in fact most homes in Hawaii do not have air conditioning, or at least where I've lived in Hawaii, we didn't. Japan's summers have this awful, wet humidity that makes every piece of clothing stick to you. (If you've been reading this blog, you know that I do not like summers here.)

One dish that I really like during summer is tan tan men. Most times when I eat this dish at Chinese restaurants I usually can't finish it and give it to Satoshi, it is so spicy that just a taste will do. I found out while watching a program that Japan added soup to this dish, apparently when you eat this in China, it is just the noodles and no soup.

I've been anxious to try making tan tan men after I found a recipe for it in a cookbook I have called "Tenyu".

First off, you need to make ja jan, this is the minced pork which I used to make ja ja men. I posted about that here.

Tan tan men for 1 translated from "Tenyu"
50g ja jan
30g spinach
1 bundle of chinese noodles

Sauce:
1 teaspoon tsuonyu*
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1/3 teaspoon minced tsa tsai (pickled mustard tuber)
2 tablespoons chimajan**
1.5 tablespoon ra-yu (chili oil)
1 tablespoon minced scallion

Soup: 320cc chinese soup

*tsuonyu is an oil that is made with leeks, ginger and lard
you can make your own with the following recipe:
300cc melted lard
50g green part of leek
30g thinly sliced ginger

Rip the leek with your hands and put into a pot with ginger. Put 50cc of melted lard into the pot of leek and ginger, cook until fragrant then add rest of lard. Do not mix too much and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Then turn up the heat to high and fry the leek and ginger. Strain the liquid. Keep up to 1 month in an airtight container, makes 300cc.

**chimajan is a sesame oil with more of a paste consistency like tahini. To make your own, follow this recipe:
500g sesame seeds
500cc canola oil

Roast sesame seeds in a pan until golden and fragrant, put out onto a pan to cool. The seeds roast pretty quickly so work fast, if burnt it will taste bitter. When cool, put into a food processor or meat mincer to create a paste, run through the processor/mincer twice. Bring the oil to 140-150C (I wasn't too sure what the Fahrenheit temperatures would be) and mix in with a wire whisk. Mix well. Keeps in an airtight container for up to 1 month, makes 850g.

Now back to making tan tan men....

Boil spinach and drain.
Prepare your noodles according to the package.
Put the ingredients for the sauce together.
In a bowl add the sauce, then add the soup. Place your noodles into the soup and top with the ja jan and spinach....enjoy!

NOTES: If you don't like it really soupy, the sauce and soup can actually be used for 2 people. I didn't use or make the leek oil, also I didn't have tsa tsai or spinach so I left that out. It still tasted great. I had somen (Japanese vermicelli) instead of chinese noodles. Oh, most important, I only put 1/2 tablespoon of chili oil. It was just enough heat to leave a little sting on your lips, without setting your whole mouth on fire.

So that was the spicy part of my dinner last night, the cool part was this 3-bean salad. When I was living in Hawaii, my mom would make this every so often and I like it because it is tart and makes your mouth pucker, plus I love beans! She uses 1 can each of green beans, kidney beans and garbanzo beans and adds diced onion and bell pepper. I couldn't find canned green beans and refused to pay the ridiculous price for canned kidney beans, so I steamed green beans and soy beans instead.

The recipe for the dressing is as follows:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup oil

NOTES: Try to make this a day ahead so that all the ingredients will be nicely marinated. I made this salad at lunchtime and it was pretty marinated by dinner time.

So, summer is finally here, the rainy season officially ended in the Kansai area yesterday. The cicadas are out and creating a ruckus. The news said that Osaka has the noisiest cicadas (um, okay...). They also said that today will be humid (I guess I jinxed myself...ugh.)

ja ja men

Satoshi and I have been watching a program in the mornings and they often eat this dish...ja ja men or ja jan men.

When the people on this show eat this dish, it looks really delicious, so Satoshi has been saying how he wants to eat ja ja men. (I really think there are more foodies in Japan, they have so many shows which have lots of "food porn"!) Anyway, I looked in my cookbooks and found a recipe in the Szechuan cookbook, "Tenyu", which I've posted about recently.

The recipe is kind of complicated and takes some time to make, but I think if you prep everything ahead of time, you could easily throw the components together for a weeknight dinner.

Ja jan makes about 350g
300g minced pork
30cc laoshu (chinese rice wine)
30cc shoyu (soy sauce)
20g tenmenjan (sweetened miso (bean curd paste))*
Keeps in an airtight container for about 4 or 5 days

*if you cannot find tenmenjan, use the following recipe to make your own.
Tenmenjan (sweetened miso) makes about 500g
300g hacchomiso (dark miso (soy bean paste) that is fermented for 3 years found mostly in Nagoya)
150g sugar
500cc warm water
In a bowl, mix the miso with water a little at a time with a wire wisk, when the mixture gets a bit creamy, mix in the sugar and add more of the water.
Heat mixture over medium heat, when it begins to boil it will look like bubbling lava, turn heat to low and cook for 1 hour. Be careful as the liquid may fly out while simmering and burn you.
When the mixture turns to a consistency of ketchup, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.
Keeps in an airtight container for about 1 month.

Ja ja men Serves 1
100g ja jan
3 shiitake mushrooms
20g mizuna (spider mustard)
1 packet Chinese noodles
1 tablespoon cornstarch/water (to thicken)

Sauce A: 1 tablespoon tobanjan (chili paste)
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
200cc soup stock or warm water

Sauce B: 1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon laoshu (chinese rice wine)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 grinds of pepper
2 tablespoons of minced scallions

Sauce C:pinch of salt
1 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons of soup stock or warm water

Slice shiitake thinly, and mizuna to 5 cm in length, rinse and set aside.
In a pan, put 1 tablespoon of oil and add ja jan, tobanjan, ginger and garlic. When you can smell the ginger and garlic, add the soup/water. Next add the shiitake and Sauce B ingredients. Then thicken the mixture with the cornstarch/water.

Cook your chinese noodles according to the directions on the package.

Put the ingredients for Sauce C into your bowl/plate and add the noodles. Top with the shiitake mixture and mizuna.

Enjoy!

NOTES: I didn't know the romanized way to spell some of the Chinese ingredients so I am posting it phonetically (sorry!). I made half the recipe for the ja jan, and boiled double the amount of noodles. For the shiitake mixture, I used the measurements above and the amount of mixture and spiciness was just right for two people. The shiitake mixture is quite spicy, so if you do not like it too spicy, cut back on the tobanjan (chili paste). If you cannot find mizuna where you are, any type of green leafy veggie would work. Although this dish took some time to prepare, it was definitely worth it!

umi no hi

Today is Umi no hi (Ocean Day). It is a national holiday and Satoshi has the day off. It has been raining with lightning and VERY LOUD thunder--off and on for the past couple of days.

Since we didn't have a chance to get to the ocean today, I thought I'd share with you a photo of a mambow (sunfish), on a recent trip with my family to the Osaka Aquarium.

And a photo of Manzamo in Okinawa, which was taken a couple of years ago. It is a beautiful area but, this cliff was actually a site where many Okinawans plunged to their deaths for fear of being captured by America during the War.

Lastly, I wanted to share a way to keep cool. Have a bowl of cold soba (buckwheat noodles). This version is called oroshisoba. Oroshi is the term for grated. You can put whatever toppings you wish--I served our soba with wakame (kelp), chirimen jakko also called shirasuboshi (dried young anchovy), thinly sliced nori (dried seaweed), oroshi daikon (grated turnip) and an umeboshi (pickled plum). The sauce called tsuyu--in the cup, is diluted a bit with water for dipping.

Have a good week!