An Inside Look At A Spanish Supermarket

So different to both Japan and New Zealand. When travelling, I love to visit the local supermarket. It always becomes a highlight because it’s always so interesting.

Two entire rows + four row fronts (each side) just for cheese! Oh my!



This is a monkey fish. You choose your fish and the ladies (or gentlemen) prepare them for you. Of course, preprepared fish is also available.

Jose doing his thang.

Apart from this brand (which is refrigerated) the remaining milk here look like cleaning products because of the way they’re stored and packaged.


Meat, meat and more meat.

Look at the top right yellow label. 339 Euro for one leg! Now that’s some special meat.

Jose says these pigs eat acorns so even though they’re fat, they’re good fat. “Like me,” I said (hehe).
All of the tomatoes an Italian chef could wish for (also on other side).

In Japan, carrots are heavily sprayed making them big and perfect. Then, they’re individually wrapped in excess plastic. This is how fruit and vegetables should be! Ugly but delicious. 

I love these peaches! 0.98 Euro for a KG! Good or good?!


All of the legumes! Plus, olives, anchovies, pates and dried nuts and fruit (not pictured).

Look Japanese friends! “Japanese” food!

Introducing Jose to almond milk and other trendy health foods (hehe).

A Beautiful Saturday With My Japanese Parents

During my time here, Yuko and Papa have done SO much for me and my family. Over and over again, they have shown us, once strangers, now family, unconditional love. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending the day with them and my oh my was it a day. Finally today, on this very rainy morning (as it is now rainy season – ahhhh) I have the chance to sit down and tell you about it.

So, first up, Japanese soba (super healthy buckwheat noodles) at THIS PLACE. Next, fresh mochi (Japanese rice cake) with kinako (roasted soy bean flour) at the highway rest area made by the world’s second cutest chef (the first cutest is my sushi chef friend of Yoshinoya). Last, Hiruzen HerBill Garden. This place was SO beautiful. Like, I can’t say enough. Embarrassingly, all I could think about while there was how nice it would be to get married there! So pretty. So many flowers! I love flowers (if you can’t tell). After exploring the garden, we drank herb tea in their cafe. Apricot and peach something. Delicious. For more info click HERE.

 

Day 10: Kyoto Travel

So far, day ten has been my favourite! Scroll through the pictures and you won’t have to ask why. From top to bottom: some serious squat and snap action at Fushimi Inari-taisha (that famous place in Japan with all them red gates), soba lunch, Nijo-jo Castle and last but never ever ever least, sushi at the best ever sushi restaurant where yours truly had a go at making sushi, too!

Memoirs Of Wannabe Geishas

My tour-guiding is much like my cooking; repetitive LOL I took my parents to the same Kyoto spots that I took my sister and brother-in-law. Alas, it was a different season and still as beautiful if not, more. Golden Pavilion, Kiyomizu Temple and Nishiki Market.

From top to bottom: a basket of treats for the road: healthy raspberry and oat muffins, raw almonds and tangerine, Golden Pavilion, Kyoto parfait consisting of matcha soft-serve, mini matcha donuts (green), chestnut (yellow), mochi (rice flour dumplings – white), corn flakes and red bean paste (anko), Kiyomizu Temple, soba (buckwheat noodle) lunch, gorgeous Japanese crockery and lastly, Nishiki Market with A 100% natural freshly squeezed (as in right there and then) grapefruit, and my dad eating a mini octopus tehe.

The Last Samurai

So I haven’t actually seen this movie.. but now I have a reason to! Yesterday I visited one of the apparently iconic sites of The Last Samurai at Mount Shosha in Himeji city. And it was really something! Here are the pictorials… for reference, the first dish is Japanese soba with wild vegetables and the second, prawn pizza and third, the love of my life, tirafreakinmisu.

Italian Pasta in Japan

Basically, the Japanese LOVE noodles. Like, more than NZers love alcohol or bacon or Iranians love kebabs or rice. Though probably even more. Cause they have noodle festivals! Entire festivals dedicated to noodles! Noodles of several kinds but mostly there are 4; ramen (the thin and yellow fast-food Chinese noodle), soba (the healthy brown one made of buckwheat flour), udon (round and thick like moi) and somen (supermodel thin like moi in the future). Which are eaten hot, cold, on their own with dipping sauce, in a soup, in a stir fry and even as a patty in a burger bun! So you’d think after a life-time of living and breathing mamas home cooked Japanese noodles, they’d venture out when it came to dining at Bona Petito… No. What do they order? What SOLE pasta CAN they order? You got it, SPAGHETTI.

It’s funny, even their supermarkets, only sell spaghetti in their Italian/pasta isle. To be fair, on the odd chance, I might see shells or bow-ties, though I’m sure it’s not the Japanese buying those. As for all of the other good pastas; fettuccine, ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi etc they are only usually found in international import stores. Oh and when it comes to lasagne sheets, only the tiny square sized ones are sold because Japanese don’t have full-sized ovens in their homes.

So you go to an Italian restaurant and the only sort of pasta you can order is spaghetti.Which is fine… only a firstworldproblem and all but like, they’ll have packets of tagliatelle displayed around the restaurant for fun or as decoration to tempt you but they don’t actually serve that, no. Or any other pasta for that matter. Just spag. Just more fu&king noodles. #myjapanlife

5 Minute 5 Ingredient Vegan Mushroom Soba Pasta

If you, like me, like pasta, you should be eating soba! What is soba? Soba are Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour. What’s the big deal about them? They’re low cal! Basically, half the calories of white pasta. A cup of cooked soba contains 113 calories whereas white spaghetti contains 220 per cup and wholewheat spaghetti 174.

113 < 220
113 < 174

You get it right?

For all you non-Japan dwellers, you should be able to find soba in the health or Asian section of your local supermarket. For Cantabrians, Piko, Liberty Market and New World.

Tonight I made this and WOW it was good. If I can say so myself.. which I can because this is my blog mwahaha. Anyways… I know a lot of people don’t like shiitake mushrooms so if you’re one of them you can use regular mushrooms or another vegetable all together (corn, broccoli or chickpeas are my recommendations).

1/2 packet of soba (or more or less whatever)
1/2 onion, diced small
1 punnet of shiitake mushrooms, chopped medium
1/2 can of whole peeled Italian tomatoes
spices (I’m cheating, I combined all the spices to make the recipe “5 ingredients” hehe but in my defense, it’s just a pinch of salt, red chilli and black pepper.)

Cook soba as per packet instructions, usually about a mere TWO minutes in boiling water – another reason why it’s so much better than pasta! It’s fasta! Get it? lol

Fry onion on medium heat with a little oil in a pan (1 minute)

Add mushrooms, stir (another min)

Add everything else, tomatoes, spices and cooked soba, stir.

Serve when all hot and steamy.

Oh mama mia! Oishi desu yo!

Sister visit, day 7.

On day seven we ate our way through Japan: my favourite pancakes, this time apple flavour, Japanese soba, sushi-train restaurant and last but not least, MOS BURGER; the only fast food chain where your burger actually looks like the picture (and tastes as good as you hope).

Yaki Japanese food

I think yaki in Japanese means grilled but I can’t be sure. Definitely doesn’t mean yucky cos everything yaki is too good – have I given you a headache yet? The following is a vague (but simple) recipe for making yaki noodles.

The reason why it’s easy is that Japanese supermarkets stock pre-cooked noodles (soba, ramen, udon, you name it they’ve got it).  Also, pre-cut vegetables but I think everywhere has that. Anyways, I wasn’t quite THAT lazy, I bought my veggies whole.

cooking oil
pre-cooked noodles (or, if your country doesn’t offer that luxury, make plain noodles, drain, cool)
cut veggies: I used cabbage, yellow onion, carrot, green capsicum and sprouts
meat (optional): we used bacon and salmon (separately, on different occasions)
yaki soba sauce (probably available at most Asian food stores)
salt and pepper

Heat two frying pans on medium heat.

Place veggies and meat with a little cooking oil in one and the noodles in the other.

Once the veggies are half cooked, add them to the noodle pan.

Mix well.

Add salt and pepper then a big squirt of sauce.

Cook for a further minute or two.

DAS it people. So easy, so yummy (or should I say yaki?)

spicy green tea soba salad

Constantly inspired by Japanese ingredients/slightly soba obsessed. I tried matcha soba (green tea soba) for the first time tonight and I loved it. This spicy salad is a great option for a healthy lunch or dinner.


1 eggplant, diced medium
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp olive oil

1 red capsicum, diced small
1 cucumber, diced small
4 spring onions, diced small
10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 cup of edamame beans
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/4 cup of raw peanuts
salt and pepper to taste
Japanese seven spice to taste (or red chilli)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
strong squeeze of lime or lemon

1 packet of green tea soba

Cover the diced eggplant in 1tsp of olive oil and 1tsp garlic powder and bake in a toaster oven or sauté in a frying pan until cooked – sorry that was vague, you’ll be fine no one ever died of raw eggplant.

Chop all the raw veggies and mix with cooked eggplant and every other ingredient (minus soba)

Cook soba as per packet instructions, usually only 2-3 minutes in boiling water then drain and rinse

Mix soba through veggie mixture until all ingredients are combined well. Enjoy straightaway or refrigerate for later. YUM ’tis the best! #shamelessselfpromotion