spicy pork

There is a spicy pork recipe that I currently am hooked on. I make a batch of it and freeze half of it.

I use it to top roasted eggplant, tofu, yakisoba noodles.

The other day I used with some goya (bittermelon).

It is similar to this recipe.

Spicy Pork from "Miyane-ya" : makes about 4 servings

160 grams minced pork
clove of garlic, grated
nub of ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon tobanjan (chili paste)
3 tablespoons tenmenjan (sweetened miso)
2 teaspoons miso (soy bean paste)
3 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
180 milliliters chicken soup
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
slurry
sesame oil

In a pan, saute the pork with the garlic and ginger.
Add the next 7 ingredients to the meat mixture and cook, but do not boil
Add the slurry, mix well.
Add a little sesame oil for flavor.

NOTES: Depending how you serve it will determine how many servings you will have.
Super easy to make and having some in the freezer sure helps me whenever I don't know what to make for dinner.

udon kichi

Two Sundays ago, after doing our o-soji (New Years cleaning), we had lunch at Udon Kichi.

I had their niku kasu udon while Satoshi had their curry udon with a side order of rice.

While we were waiting for their food, I noticed that they had a new item on their menu...mazemen (mah-zay-men).

"Maze" means to stir and "Men" is noodle.

I have seen mazemen around on the web, and most look quite spicy.

So, on Wednesday, which was a holiday, Satoshi and I went back for lunch.

I ordered the mazemen...800 yen and he ordered the curry udon with a side order of rice.

Atop the udon is the spicy meat topping, a dollop of what I think was kochujang, a raw egg yolk, some chives, green onion, strips of nori, as well as thin chili strips.

I don't think anyone has ever instructed me to "stir everything until the noodles turn red"...whoa?!

So I did...

And it did turn reddish...This was so good!

Sweet, salty and spicy...super addicting!

As I was eating, I realized that I would have leftover meat topping...so I asked for a "shime-gohan" this is a bowl of rice to end the meal, usually when you have soup or something like that...plus 50 yen.

On the piping hot rice was a little more meat topping and green onions.

And then I was instructed to "dump it in and mix it well"

So I mixed...

I was (super full) but so glad I ordered the extra rice.

It would've been a shame to waste all that good topping...

I think this is going to be my new fave here.

mar ten

Having been gone from Japan for about a month, many changes occurred, some food places shut down, while new ones opened. Some markets got renovated and houses got built.

On top of that, the weather has been weird, at first it was summery-ish and now, brr, wintry, rainy...dreary if you ask me.

On Saturday, we tried a new place for lunch before Satoshi's German language class called Mar Ten.

This shop specializes in Mabo Tofu and other spicy dishes.

Satoshi tried their mabo tofu set, which came with a cup of consomme, some tsa tsai (chinese pickles) and lots of rice.  He chose the least spicy of the three levels and said it was quite spicy for him. Luckily, they offer a free refill of rice.

The guy sitting at the table next to us ordered the most spicy version of the mabo tofu and it came out looking almost "black"...eep!

I tried their dan dan men (tan tan men). Most times you see this dish in a red soup, but this version was soup-less.

After it arrived at the table, the waitress told me to quickly mix it with the sauce below or risk the noodles getting hard.  It was spicy and the noodles chewy.  I really enjoyed this dish.

There was an icy mango dessert that we were also eyeing, so we'll definitely be back.

Mar Ten (UPDATE: 6/2015 this shop closed)
Yodobashi Camera Umeda 8F
Kita, Osaka
Phone: 06.6292.6523

spicy

The weather is still cold and I'm still craving spicy...I tried McD's chili chicken sandwich.

Their chili is good and spicy. The chicken was fried, nothing really spectacular but this really hit the spot.

And then I saw Kirk's post where he had a spicy hot dog...

So, I "needed" a chili dog for lunch the next day...

It was my first time trying MOS burger's chili dog. It looked a bit skimpy on the chili, but turned out to be just right. Not messy eating at all.

The weiner had a nice snap and the bun was so soft!

At 220 yen (about US$2.20), I'd say it was a good deal. Plus, it satisfied my spicy cravings...for now.

mabo moyashi

I think the cold weather has got me craving spicy foods, but then again, when the weather is warm I crave spicy foods too, so...

Anyway, I saw this recipe in a booklet that came with a magazine, ESSE March 2011.

The recipe was really easy and spicy.

Mabo Moyashi adapted from ESSE March 2011 : Serves 4
150 grams minced pork
2 packages moyashi (about 400 grams)
1 tablespoon canola oil

sauce:
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon miso (soy bean paste)
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
1 teaspoon tobanjan (chili paste)
1 nub ginger (grated)
1/2 clove garlic (grated)

1 teaspoon sesame oil
sprinkle sesame seeds

Wash moyashi taking out the bean skins, drain well
In a frying pan, heat the canola oil and add the pork, brown while breaking it up.
Add the sauce and let liquid evaporate
When the liquid is almost gone, add the moyashi and toss around just to heat through, you want it to still be "crisp"
At the end, add the sesame oil
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with lots of rice

NOTES: The original recipe called for minced ginger and garlic but I didn't want to take any chance in biting to either one, so I grated them. I liked this because it didn't take many ingredients or time. Plus, it was really delicious.

I'm making this again.

spicy pork & veggies

I've been trying to re-create a dish that we enjoy at our favorite Chinese place, Chaina.

It is a little spicy, a little sweet and great with pork and veggies. My first try was close but too spicy.

This time around, Satoshi said it was good though he now says that Chaina's version is sweeter.

Kat's Spicy Pork & Veggies: serves 2
Here's the sauce I used:
1/2 onion, sliced thin
3 eringi, sliced
1/2 carrot, sliced thin
1/4 cabbage, cut into bite sized pieces
150 grams pork, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

Sauce: 3/4 teaspoon tobanjan (chili paste)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Japanese miso
1 tablespoon tenmenjan (Chinese miso)
2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoons water
several shakes of Chinese 5-spice

Heat pan on medium w/oil
add pork, onion, carrot, eringi & cabbage
coat well with oil
when meat is browned, add sauce
Turn heat up to high and let liquid evaporate.
Serve with rice.

NOTES: I'm happy with this version, it isn't as sweet as Chaina's but it has just the right amount of heat and flavor.

I'm making this again.

odds & ends

Some odds and ends (because it is the end of the month)...Lawson's roll cake, they say you should eat it with a spoon and you should because there is definitely more cream than cake.

We halved this chocolate one and a green tea one, I like the chocolate one better, the green tea version seemed really dry.

Pukka's Three Berry tea...love the combination of fruits in here. There are actually more than three berries to make this tea...rosehip, elderberry, hibiscus, licorice, blueberry, amla fruit (gooseberry fruit), blackberry, cranberry, black currant extract & blueberry extract.

A really huge slice of rolled cake (I think this was 2 and a half slices worth) at La Marina de Bourbon was perfect with a pot of their Umeda tea, a fruity blend of pears and other fragrant herbs. (UPDATE: 2011 this restaurant is now closed)

Kazokutei's Java-style curry udon. This curry starts off sweet then the spices kick in and then your mouth is on fire, but it keeps you going back for more.

The first time I tried this, it didn't have soup mixed in, but this time, (I think they made a mistake when they served us), it had quite a lot of soup. It was still delicious, but I would have liked it "drier".

Doutor's chai, way too sweet...blah!

Because Summer is here, many eateries have very spicy foods to make you perspire! (which is supposed to help cool you down) Habanero chicken nuggets from KFC. These are potent.

I tried one without the hot sauce (the sauce is to power up the spiciness) that comes with it and ended up coughing a whole lot. I then put some of the hot sauce on another nugget and it wasn't even spicy, weird, yeah?

Delirium Tremens, a Belgian beer with 8.5% alcohol content. My Flickr friend introduced me to this and I was able to find it in Osaka.

This beer had a lot of foam (which I particularly didn't like) but it was really fruity and light, perfect for hot summery nights and spicy foods. We had this with some gyoza that we bought from the department store.

A wheatberry and pearl barley dish, I threw together with some zucchini and onion I roasted in the oven. Some fresh and very sweet cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of ras el hanout.

There was a little fire in my oven because the cooking paper touched the oven element, I froze and stared at it for a bit, luckily it stopped burning when the flame touched the veggies, but there were bits of ash here and there.

Still, the salad came out delicious and no ash taste.

A new item at the convenience store...Starbucks Andalucia Orange Chocolate Mocha, again orange and chocolate...enough said!

Our June was great, hope yours was too!

on fire

A couple of months back, I tried Mascot's curry paste. That particular time the spice level was medium.

This time, I tried "very spicy".

I sauteed some onion, added the water and mixed in the paste.

In another pan, I sauteed carrots, zucchini, red bell pepper, eringi. After the zucchini was cooked through, I added a rinsed can of corn and cooked just to heat through.

The spiciness of this curry is HOT! The heat starts at the back of your throat, working its way to your lips, making your nose run.

Even Satoshi noticed the difference in the spice level.

While this made for a great dinner on the nippy evenings we've been having, I think this level is too hot, and will probably go back to "medium" (though Satoshi says he likes the very spicy over the medium).

maruichi shokudo

I've passed this place many times when I've walked from the Ikeda station back to my home.

On weekdays, I've seen many office people going into this place. Though I have never seen a line out the door, for this place to attract office people it must be good. Why? Because this place is quite a distance away from the station, kind of out of the way.

The shop is tiny only 17 seats. Their sign says that they are Cantonese but they serve Szechuan mabo tofu...hmmm

In fact, their specialty is the mabo tofu.

You could order anything from their menu but you should order the mabo tofu as a donburi (bowl).

Choose your heat. Amakuchi (mild), chu-kara (semi-hot), karai (hot). Satoshi and I chose semi-hot. It comes in a heated stone bowl, bubbling and sizzling. (can you see the steam shooting out?)

The rice is on the bottom, getting koge (burnt), a nice kind of burnt though...the grains of rice get hard and chewy, definitely a good kind of stick to your teeth.

Semi-hot is actually perspiry hot...you don't feel it until after you swallow and it is an addicting kind of heat. I wonder if the lady sitting behind of Satoshi finished her order, she ordered hot...

No matter how long you blow on your food though, I can almost guarantee you will burn your tongue...I did.

For 750 yen (about US$7.50) the mabo tofu comes with a salad and egg drop soup...definitely worth it.

We'll be back.

Maruichi Shokudo
3-11-6 Jonan
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.750.2212
Lunch: 12:00-14:00, Dinner: 18:00-24:00
Days closed unknown (call ahead)

unagi dokoro kishi

Monday night we had some of Satoshi's friends and their families over for dinner. (We always get together with these families for Christmas.)

Usually when we have parties, we like to start them around lunch time, so that the children have time to run around outside while the adults chatter away, but this time, the party started late because everyone had things during the day, on top of that, Satoshi had to work until 18:30. By the time we started eating it was 19:30.

I made bulgogi, szechuan salt & pepper shrimp, spicy poke and apple crisp.

The other wives brought cake, and pork wrapped around bainiku (ume paste) and shiso (perilla leaves)--The recipe is easy so I'll be making this soon and share it with you!

It was a loud gathering (6 adults and 5 children) filled with lots of chatting, laughing, drinking and eating. I hope we didn't bother the neighbors too much.

Yesterday was the last day of the Golden Week. For lunch, we went to Hibarigaoka Hanayashiki, this is 3 stops from where we live. In Japan, there are many guide books for finding eating places, dessert places, just about all topics not just food--if you can be featured in one of these guide books you are almost guaranteed a boost in business. We have a book that is filled with all kinds of eating places around our area. As Satoshi was flipping through it to get an idea of where to go for lunch, he came across an unagi (eel) restaurant. This restaurant has a 230 year history dating back to the Edo period (actually we realized that the owner's family's restaurant in Wakayama, has the history).

The restaurant is very tiny, only 10 seats at the counter and 6 in back in a little room. The place was almost to capacity when we got there, but we were able to get seats at the counter, we looked over the menu and the owner explained the size differences of the unagi don (eel bowl).

Satoshi ordered the unagi teishoku (2940 yen about US$29.40) this comes with an unagi don (eel bowl), unagi cream croquette, kimo sui (broth with the liver of the eel), tsukemono, unagi jelly (terrine of unagi, yuzu (citron) and other herbs).

I don't really like unagi, but will eat it, so I ordered the small order of unagi don (1470 yen about $14.70).

After Satoshi ate his terrine and some broiled eel liver (both quite teeny), our orders of donburi came.

The eel was very tender and the sauce was light tasting. I love sauce on my rice, but to tell you the truth, my chopsticks skills suck and for me to eat rice that has sauce on it is hard because the rice doesn't stick together, so I "balance" rice onto the chopsticks and scoop it into my mouth...disgrace being of Japanese ancestry, but true. I think when I was staying with my host-family, my host-mom felt sorry for my chopstick skills because she would almost immediately bring out a fork or spoon for me during meals.

Still, the una don (short for unagi donburi) was delicious!

By the time I had "balanced" all my rice onto my chopsticks, Satoshi was finished.

Then I asked him, "aren't you supposed to get a croquette too?" He said, "it must be coming soon." Then he asked the owner, "doesn't the teishoku come with a croquette?" She replied, "I thought I mentioned that we aren't serving croquette today." So then Satoshi said, "uh, so what about the liver broth and tsukemono?" The owner's face turned white as a ghost and she began apologizing profusely.

She/her staff had forgotten to give us the tsukemono and broth to eat with our meal.

We ate our tsukemono and drank the broth. I didn't care for the broth, it was quite fishy and bitter too.

I thought they would comp our meal or at least discount it, but they didn't. Satoshi was upset that they didn't explain the menu clearer and do more to change the bad feelings. Still, the price he paid was too expensive for the amount that was served.

We both decided that even though it was delicious, we won't be going back.

mabo tofu

The weather has been kind of weird, it starts off sunny, which gets me to do a load of laundry, and then turns all cloudy and rainy....sigh.

For tonight's dinner, I decided to try a new mabo tofu recipe. I've used a recipe which I received from a friend every time I make this dish, which I've posted about here and here, but this recipe was in a cookbook that I have from a Szechuan restaurant which I posted about here.

I like it, but it doesn't taste quite as I envisioned it would. So, before I pass on this recipe, I think I'll tweak it here and there.

Hope your week is going well.

hot weather = spicy foods

For the past couple of days, the temperature has been in the 90's (about 35C). That wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't humidity to deal too. Today, the thermometer hit 100F (38C).

What is it about spicy food and hot weather? For some reason, this summer I am really into spicy foods. From spicy curries to chili sauces. I wonder if it is to perspire more in order to cool off? Some people actually experience loss of appetite during the summertime here, that, has never been my problem (thank goodness!)

Well, the price of a lot of veggies have recently skyrocketed here in Osaka. Why? Last month's rain and flooding took its toll on a lot of the farming areas. For example, green leaf lettuce went up from about $2 a head to about $4--that is, when you can find it in the supermarket.

This past weekend, my student, Tomomi, gave us some nasubi or nasu (eggplant) and piman (green bell pepper). (Thank you!) (When we first came to Japan, I was surprised that green bell peppers were so "cute" in size.)

To use part of the veggies, I decided to make some curry. Usually, I throw everything into a pot and add a pre-made roux. This time, I sweat the onions until soft and caramelized, added the meat and then added some garam masala and other spices. Then I cooked the veggies separately in a non-stick pan and cooked them until they had a nice brownish-color. It came out spicier than I usually make it, but it was good!

With the rest of the veggies, I decided to make mabo tofu, which is actually a spicy Chinese dish using tofu (soy bean curd) and minced pork. Instead of tofu though, I used the eggplant, bell peppers and added okra. The stickiness from the okra is supposed to help fight natsubate (dealing with the heat of summer). I guess you could call this version mabo veg. It was really good with some rice.

Hope you are keeping cool where you are!