on a walk

The fall colors this year are a bit muted if you ask me.

I think it has to do with summer overstaying its welcome.

Hope to get out and about in the coming weeks.

I hope the color of the leaves will be a little more vibrant.

demi-cheese-gra-cro

Every year, McD's comes out with a gra-cro burger, this is short for gratin croquette burger.

Yesterday, I had this....a demi-cheese-gra-cro...demiglace sauce, cheese, gratin, croquette burger.

A fried croquette filled with macaroni gratin (think mac & cheese) topped with some cheddar cheese, some shredded cabbage and then some demiglace & tartar sauces.

Lots going on in that burger but overall I thought it was pretty good.

rioja

The other day, one of my Instagram friends mentioned something about Rioja wines that was really interesting.

She said, "you need to check the back of the bottle to make sure there is "the hologram"".

So, I checked the back of this 2007 Campo Viejo Rioja Crianza, and sure enough...there's the hologram.

I also found a great article which explains it all here.

Love the internet.

p.s. The past week's weather has been quite weird, sudden thunder and lightning storm on Tuesday, then a major drop in temperature...it's Friday here, hope you have a great weekend!

tomato onion miso soup

These tomatoes were super ripe, not mushy and only 300 yen for the 3!

I used most of these for a miso soup.

Make your dashi (stock).

Dashi (stock) from "Tanita Shokudo" makes about 900 mililiters
1000 mililiters of water
10 grams of dried konbu
10 grams of katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

Bring the water and konbu up to just before boiling.
Remove konbu, turn off heat and add the katsuobushi.
Strain liquid through a paper towel.

NOTES: this stock will last for about a week. Super easy and delicious.

For miso soup: adapted from "Tanita Shokudo": serves 2
300 mililiters of dashi
2 teaspoons miso (soy bean paste)
1/4 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tomato, diced

In a pot on medium heat, cook your onions in the dashi.
Add the miso.

In a bowl add your diced tomato, then pour over the soup, a little different from the usual Japanese miso soup, but really tasty.

By the way, this was the soup I served with the nasu kabayaki donburi.

NOTES: most people throw out the used katsuobushi and konbu after making dashi, though I have read that some make furikake out of it, I haven't tried this myself, but want to soon.

using up some canned goods

Been trying to use up some canned goods before the expiration date comes around.

This can of "baked beans" from Italy, tasted more like what we have in the US called "pork and beans" except without the "pork".

It sure made for a great dinner and I'm glad Satoshi ate this, I'm pretty sure he didn't grow up eating "pork and beans"...

I had this can of smoked salmon, but it didn't have an expiration date on it, so I figured I should use it as soon as possible.

I finally realized that it is super easy to make salmon patties in a food processor, just throw everything in and whizz!

I whizzed some onion, flat leaf parsley and the salmon, then I put everything into a bowl and added an egg.

What have you been cooking up lately?

kyo chabana

Kyo Chabana is a chain of okonomiyaki and teppanyaki restaurants in the Kyoto and Osaka areas.

I've wanted to try them since I saw a segment on a television show. Their most popular item is an okonomiyaki topped with fresh tomato.

We got a chance to try them at the Hankyu Department restaurant floor. This department store just went through a major renovation and after 3 years, is finally open.

Needless to say, there are tons of people all wanting to check the store out.

In front of most of the restaurants on this floor, there are "fast pass" machines which you can load onto your phone and I think they e-mail you when your table is ready.

We got there before the dinner rush, so were seated quite quickly.

The okonomiyaki comes to your table, then an okonomiyaki sauce topped with mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and chiffonade shiso (perilla) is poured over. The heat from the grill pan, melts the cheese and it is oozy gooey goodness.

The flavor kinda reminded me of western barbecue sauce.

Another item we tried was their avocado yakisoba.

Instead of yakisoba noodles, which I think are egg based, they use soba noodles (buckwheat). The sauce is a combination of yamaimo (chinese yam), shoyu and some wasabi. Then it is topped with avocado & shrimp.

Both items were different and really delicious.

Our only gripe was the serving size, really small. The okonomiyaki was only about a 4-inch round, which isn't very much.

For those 2 items, a glass of wine and a beer, we paid 3560 yen.

We tried it and liked it but dunno that we would go back.

Kyo Chabana
Hankyu Department Store 12F
Phone: 06.6313.1505

thank you!

Want to thank Katherine at "Making Cakes & Bakes" magazine for mentioning us in their "Live Love Bake Blog" column. Check out the other blogs on their list too.

Thanks again!

(UPDATE: this site has been deleted)