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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A Japanese Home-Cooked Lunch

(Let's take a break from Penang. Come have lunch with me, and learn how to make sushi.)

Tina is the typical Japanese lady--graceful, polite, punctual, proper, well-mannered and hospitable. Only Tina really isn't Japanese by blood but by marriage. I had a request from a friend, Yong, to teach her make sushi so I turned to Tina for proper methods of sushi-making. I do make sushi but can never make the rice rolls compact and the fillings smack in the center.

Tina not only taught us how to make sushi, but also prepared a most exquisite and scrumptious Japanese lunch for us. The meal was delicious to our eyes and tongues and I picked up many tips on Japanese cooking. For example, Tina's miso soup was made with both black and brown miso. I neber knew black miso existed. Thought there are only white and the regular brown miso. The two misos combined made the best miso soup we have ever tasted. We all agreed that Tina's meal can beat those in all the Japanese restaurants in KK. Handsdown. Take a look at what she served us:

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Teriyaki Saba mackeral, miso soup, maki sushi, daikon with bonito flakes, cuke & wakame salad, potato salad, okra salad and carrot & daikon pickles.

Everything was delicious, and Tina has elevated our standard and expectation of Japanese food.

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I love Tina's chopsticks rest.

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Maki sushi.

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Cucumber and wakame (a seaweed) salad.

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Boiled daikon topped with bonito shavings and served with a miso sauce.

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Okra, konbu and wakame tossed with a konbu sauce. This was delicate yet flavorful.


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Coffee jelly with cream/milk.

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Japanese rice crackers with black beans. So yum.

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Japanese marshmallows.

Firmer and less sweet than regular marshmallows with a nice nectarine-like jam inside. These were finished mostly by Eric, Wendy's 10-year old boy who'll make a great husband one day--he loves to cook.

What a memorable meal!

13 comments:

  1. The Sushi looks GORGEOUS... I can't rolled up a proper sushi... :S

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  2. ha, very very nice! very authentic!
    and I belive Wey is going to be a great husband one day TOO! - he loves to cook too! right?

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  3. Wow, Wow, Wow and Wow! Speechless. Am sure Tina's hubby must be so proud of her.

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  4. Do you have the recipe for the coffee jelly with cream?

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  5. agnes: takes practice n u must learn proper methods first.

    denise: he does, but he loves to eat more than cook.n he's quite moody these days. lack of pork fat in his diet i think.

    pea: u shd meet them. he's the total gentleman--polite, humble, dependable, encouraging, gosh, very nice ppl!

    kate: ok, tina will email me & i have her permission to post it. u same kate frm oz?

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  6. wow, my type of a satisfying meal yummy.... I'm a dessert person. Oh re the pork bone soup, a fren who was shy to leave comment @ my blog just told me this morning that by crushing the bones we get white milky soup !

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  7. I really want to try that marshmallow, I think I'll try look for it when I'm in Singapore.

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  8. Tina must be part Southerner if she put potato salad on the table, too. HeeHee! And the rest of that meal looks fantastic.

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  9. ganache: but but how to crush the bones when they are so big n hard?? do u mean just have the butcher crack them?

    bryan: i found them a little too firm (like them soft) but their sweetness level is just nice.

    tealady: :)) the potato salad's different--it's mashed.i've always eaten it in Jap restaurants n now i know how to make it. will tell u if u beg :D

    wombok: me too..just got up. today's supposed to be 1st day of dieting...i don't think i can last.

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  10. guess what ? my friend said use a hammer, I don't think I'm adventurous enough to try it, haha

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  11. Hi Terri,
    I am Kate from KK that asked you about the Banh Trang before. Thanks. I have bought my Banh Trang from Merdeka Supermarket, thanks for your tip

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  12. Hi,
    you can also found some interesting and cheap collection of recipes
    http://make-sandwich.blogspot.com/

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