greenspot

My friend gave me a Japanese mizu-ame jelly called "Goro awase" (ŒÜ˜Z‚ ‚킹). The jelly comes with three different toppings - kurozato (brown sugar), maccha, or nanko ume (“ì‚”~). We forgot to chill the jelly in the fridge first, so we squeezed it out of a plastic tube into a bowl of ice-cubes. We then added some sugar syrup and maccha powder. It was delicious and very refreshing. Is goro awase a traditional summer wagashi?

The photos of everyone's mentaiko spaghetti look so delicious. I never tried using mushrooms or sake before and usually only add butter and shiso with a bit of dashi stock. I tried out an interesting recipe for mentaiko carbonara last night. It's from the LEE Creative Kitchen series. Spaghetti mixed with one egg, one egg yolk, 1/4 cup cream, couple of teaspoons of grated parmesan, and karashi mentaiko. I also added some fresh uni, shiso leaves and nori to the pasta for extra flavour.

Hi RAHiggins Here's a photo of the "Okinawa no Soba" - I hope it brings back good memories! :-) Soki soba ƒ\[ƒL‚»‚Î

Here's the osmanthus jelly recipe from my Aunt Mei: Crystal osmanthus jelly ®Ûªá¤ô´¹¿| Ingredients: Dried osmanthus flowers, 10g approx Dried chrysanthemum flowers, 10g approx Crystallised osmanthus sugar, 80g (about 1/3 of a 250g-jar) White sugar, 300g Osmanthus flower wine, 1 tsp Gelatine powder, 50g Wolfberries, small amount Cantaloupe melon or apple, small amount Water, 1 litre (4 rice bowls) (to boil the gelatine) Ice, 1 litre (to cool down the gelatine mixture) Extra ice Add the gelatine powder and the litre of water to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the dried osmanthus and chrysanthemum flowers. When the fragrance of the flowers is released, turn off the heat and drain. Return the drained water to the saucepan and add the white sugar, osmanthus sugar and osmanthus wine to the drained water. Bring to the boil and turn off the heat once the sugar is dissolved. Pour the hot mixture into a bowl or jelly mould and add the litre of ice. Place the bowl onto a larger bowl filled with ice to cool down the mixture quickly. Wait for the ice in the mixture to melt completely, add the wolfberries, fruit and the osmanthus and chrysanthemum flowers. Leave it in the fridge for at least 4 hours. (Ingredients in Chinese) §÷®Æ¡G ®Ûªá°® 3¥÷ 1¨â ®Ûªá¿} 3¥÷ 1(250g)¾ê µâªá 3¥÷ 1¨â ¥Õ¨F¿} 8¨â ³½½¦¯» 50§J ¬e§û ¤Ö¶q ª÷¥Ê¢AÄ«ªG ¤p¶q ®Ûªá°s 1¯ù°Í ¤ô 4¸J¡]µN³½½¦¯»¥Î¡^ ¦B 4¸J ¦B¶ô

My first Taco Rice mmm... I must try and make it at home sometime. What kind of taco seasoning is used for the minced beef? Is it similar to El Paso? I also tried a yummy Mexican omurice at the American Village. The rice inside the omelette was stir-fried with taco seasoning, minced beef and onion.

Hi Domestic Goddess, I ate the moyashi champuru in an izakaya in Okinawa. It contained moyashi beansprouts, nira (chives), corned beef, onions and lots of garlic. I picked up an Orange Pages cookbook on Okinawa when I was in Japan and there's a similar recipe for the dish. (I hope it's OK to post a picture and translation from the book.) Here's a rough translation of the recipe: Tofu, Corned Beef and Vegetable Champuru Ingredients (serves 4) Coarse-texture "cotton" tofu - 1 block (300g (before water extraction)) Corned beef - 1 can (100g) Moyashi beansprouts (small size) - 1 packet (200g) Cabbage leaves - 2-3 pieces (100g) Nira (chives) - 1/2 bunch (50g) Oil, salt, black pepper Preparation of tofu First, extract the water from the tofu. Place the tofu on a heat-resistant dish, gently rub salt all over it. Use 1/3 tsp of salt for one block (300g) of tofu. Cover the dish with clingfilm, and heat in the microwave for 2 minutes. Leave for about 20 minutes and add to the frying pan while it is still warm. After the water is extracted, the block of tofu will weigh around 250g. Preparation of champuru 1. Break up the tofu into big chunks with your hand. Cut the corned beef into 2cm pieces. Wash the moyashi and drain. Cut the cabbage into 4-5cm squares and the nira into 4cm-long pieces. 2. Put the moyashi and cabbage in a heat-resistant dish, cover with clingfilm and heat in the microwave for 2 minutes. 3. Add 2 tbs of oil to a frying pan. On medium heat, stir-fry the tofu and corned beef until they are coated in the oil. Add the moyashi and cabbage and stir-fry. Add 1/2 tsp salt and a little black pepper, and then mix in the nira. From "Uchi de tanoshimu Okinawa no genki ryori" (Healthy Okinawan home-cooking), Orange Page Books

Besides goya champuru (my favourite), I also tried a version with chikina (leaf mustard) Mamina champuru (beansprouts with corned beef)

Ume-budou (sea grapes) - another kind of seaweed. I like their crunchy texture.

Mozuku and Aosa (Okinawan: asa) seaweed Fresh mozuku - it is slightly salty from the seawater and tastes much better than the salted version in the packet When I got back to Tokyo, I made a mozuku salad with the katsuo-flavoured sauce and fresh shikwasa juice. I wish I'd bought more mozuku, it was delicious.

Ube and durian are some of my favourite flavours of Hong Kong ice-cream. Local ice-cream in Okinawa - the goya flavour was quite tasty, not bitter at all.

Blue Seal Ice-cream - beni-imo, passionfruit, goya (yummy but tastes nothing like it) and shikwasa Autumn and spring ukon (turmeric, known locally as ucchin). Ukon is said to improve liver function and you can buy ukon hangover pills in the market. Coffee and ukon awamori

Goya tea - I drank this in the hotel to ward off the awamori hangover... The sign at the bottom recommends ukon (turmeric) tea for hangovers - I also drank that too. Both of them tasted pretty rough. Goya curry And Goya Man! Has anyone tried Miki (drink on the right-hand side)? I read that it's a rice drink derived from the fermentation process of sake. Ingredients include white rice, sugar, glutinous mochi rice, wheat and lactic acid. Does it taste good?

I had a great time in Okinawa and really liked the local food. Thanks again for the recommendations. I managed to try them all except sata andagi and left the island heavily laden with all kinds of ingredients - kurozato, Kurozato Pretz, shima-togarashi (chillies in awamori), aosa and mozuku seaweed, awamori, fresh shikwasa, shikwasa Hi-Chews (the best flavour ever!)... I took loads of photos and will try to post them in the next week or two. Let's start with goya... People in Hong Kong eat bitter gourd (fu gua) in the summer to cool down the body, but I've never been a big fan of it. But in Okinawa I ended up trying all kinds of goya concoctions - champuru, kara-age, ice-cream, tea, juice, candies... My first taste of Okinawan goya was champuru. I was expecting it to be really bitter but was pleasantly surprised at how mild it tasted. I wonder whether it's something to do with the use of mirin and sugar to balance the bitter taste. The only goya I had with a slightly stronger bitter taste was at Kiraku, a Taiwanese-run restaurant in the Makishi market in Naha - the goya was stir-fried with black beans and garlic. Goya kara-age

I like muscovado sugar and dark cane sugar and enjoyed the taste of block kurozato during my holiday in Okinawa last week. It was like eating Scottish fudge. I bought the Kurozato Pretz there too.

Kristen, Hiroyuki, thanks for your tips and the Wiki links. Yes, I meant mozoku seaweed. I didn't try any kurozato when I was last in Japan so I'll definitely look out for it in Okinawa, along with soba and sata andagi. I'll post some photos when I get back. ‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤I