[Reviews] Interesting Japanese Sweets from HK

Although I’ve never been to Japan, I constantly look for Japanese food and snacks whenever I visit other countries. Since Hong Kong is closer to Japan, they have plenty of imported Japanese food items and there are also many Japanese franchises there. Here are just some of them that I was able to try:

Chelsea Peach Milk Candy – This was a really expensive candy, at HK$10 per box or around PHP70. Nevertheless, I was attracted by its super cute and pretty packaging. Of course, the candy tasted quite good too.

Banana Flavored Pocky - Pocky is probably the most famous Japanese snack in the world. After all, who can resist these delicious chocolate coated pretzel sticks? I’ve always wanted to try some of the more bizarre flavors but all we have here in the Philippines are chocolate and strawberry flavors. I finally saw this banana flavored Pocky at a 7-11 near our school. It was interesting and it also marked the start of my love of anything banana flavored.

Milk Top Ice Cream – Milk Top is actually a brand from Hokkaido, Japan, specializing in freshly-made ice cream, made of specially delivered fresh milk from Hokkaido (which produces the best milk in Japan). I tried two flavors of their ice cream: fresh milk and green tea. The fresh milk ice cream was super yummy and refreshing, while the green tea ice cream was sweet and fragrant, with hints of bitterness complementing the sweetness of the milk.

Mazazu Crepe - Mazazu is in fact, not some fancy Japanese word, but a romanization of the word “Mother’s”. Yep. They serve Hokkaido milk soft ice cream and crepes. I ordered this yummy strawberry and chocolate crepe. Although the strawberries were nice and sweet, and the crepe was soft and smooth, the real highlight of this is the ice cream. It’s also made from Hokkaido milk, and was very light and creamy.

Although it’s going to be some time until I can visit HK again, I guess I must be satisfied with the interesting food products here in Manila instead!

[Recipes] Tamagoyaki (Sweet egg roll)

As much as I love eating Japanese food, it’s inevitable that I would occasionally want to make these delicious treats by myself. Unfortunately, these attempts don’t always work out.

Take, for example, my recent attempt to make tamagoyaki. I have actually made tamagoyaki before, and it went quite well, and since I now have extra Japanese food knowledge, I decided that I was already enough of an expert and began cooking without really knowing what I was doing.

Here are the steps I took:

First, mix the beaten egg with soy sauce, sugar and dashi.

Next, pour the egg into a lightly oiled non-stick pan…

And roll it up! Keep pouring the egg mixture into the pan and roll up until it looks like this:

And afterwards, cut it up into slices and here we have~ tamagoyaki!

Unfortunately, while making it, I encountered several failure points:

• I didn’t have any dashi, so I replaced it with water. I just added a bit more soy sauce so that it won’t be too bland.
• I added too little soy sauce and sugar apparently, so it ended up tasting like regular fried egg.
• And lastly, while rolling up the egg, I kept accidentally breaking it, so the end result wasn’t pretty.
• I “overbeat” and overcooked the egg so it ended up a little too gummy.

Ah well. It was a good try, and it tasted okay anyway. I hope to do better next time!!! Now to go buy some hondashi from Little Tokyo!!!

 

[Review] Okonomiyaki at Little Tokyo’s Kagura

Our Japanese Food Culture class recently took a trip to Little Tokyo at Pasong Tamo. I’ve actually heard about the place, but I’ve never been there before. Little Tokyo was super pretty at night, with bright lights illuminating the surroundings that make you feel like you’re in a samurai movie.

Inside Little Tokyo was several stores serving their own house specialties such as sushi or ramen. I was especially excited about Kagura, a restaurant there that serves authentic Japanese okonomiyaki. I’ve seen plenty of Japanese anime and dramas like Ranma 1/2 and Hana Kimi, and one Japanese food featured in these shows that I had always wanted to try but had never seen in Manila was okonomiyaki.

Kagura is small and quaint, with 2 or 3 tables available for groups. The highlight however, is sitting at the counter, where you can see the Japanese “master” (as the servers called him) as well as his two Filipino assistants making okonomiyaki and udon on the teppan (iron plate) right in front of you!

One of the unique things about the store was its abundance of baseball-themed decor. Walls and shelves were filled with jerseys and baseball figurines, while a television showed Japanese news and baseball games (all in Japanese though). I was particularly disturbed by this decapitated bobble head that watched me as I enjoyed my food.

And what fantastic food it was! My friend and I ordered two dishes: udon with pork and topped with scrambled egg (that was a little too salty but was good nevertheless)…

…and of course, this beauty. Buta tama okonomiyaki! (Containing pork and veggies) It was so good. The sauce on top with the seaweed and mayo was a perfect complement to the soft batter and vegetables and crispy pork. There were also other variants that contained noodles but I wasn’t able to try those.

The okonomiyaki is also huge, about 10 inches in diameter. One is just enough for a person with a huge appetite, but would probably be too big for someone who eats very little.

We also ordered yakitori (grilled meat) from another restaurant. I got these two: chicken gizzard (left) and pork rib (right). They were grilled perfectly and were crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.

After dinner, we dropped by Chotto Stop, a nearby Japanese grocery where everything is sold for 85 pesos. Most of the things are quite pricy, but we decided to have some Japanese ice cream to end the meal. I got this Hokkaido milk ice cream, and it was so good. It was creamy and milky, and I felt like I was eating butter. Mmmmm…

Little Tokyo was a wonderful experience for me because I got to have a taste of authentic Japan, rather than the commercialized, localized fare that we often get to eat at Japanese restaurants in Manila. I can’t wait to go back and try all the other restaurants as well!

[Review] Genki Sushi, Hong Kong

Hong Kong consists of a myriad of different cultures, and with these cultures come all sorts of wonderful cuisines. They have streets lined up with Thai food, Korean food, Indian food, and whatever other cuisine you can think of. So it’s no wonder that one of the most popular food chains there is Genki Sushi, a conveyor belt sushi shop that serves fresh, tasty and affordable sushi to the locals.

During my time in Hong Kong as an exchange student, I often craved for sushi–specifically, Genki Sushi. The conveyor belts were filled with all sorts of unique and fascinating sushi and I wanted to try them all.

Here are just some of them:

Cheese and Seafood Roll

 

Salmon Roll

 

Beancurd Roll (Sweet tofu skin with sushi rice)

 

Yakult cheesecake (oops, not sushi, but it was part of the menu. And it was quite good!)

 

Maki (I forgot what it was... -_-")

 

Spicy Tuna Roll

 

Tamago~

 

Genki Roll (Salmon, cucumber, and crabstick (?))

 

Just writing about it, I’m already craving for some. Unfortunately, unless I return to Hong Kong, or Genki opens a branch here, I’ll just have to settle for sushi here in Manila.

Actually, the really big problem I have when eating at Genki Sushi is that I tend to get too much! And since the servings are small, with only one to two pieces per HKD10-16 dish (around PHP60-96), I end up with a really expensive bill. I think the best strategy for eating at places like this is to go with a friend, so that every item you get from the conveyor belt, you can share between the two of you. Thus, you get to taste more sushi, and spend less! Hurray!

[Review] Japanese Fusion at Omakase

There’s a Japanese restaurant in Manila that practically everyone is familiar with and is easily my favorite among the Japanese food offerings here. I’m talking about Omakase, a trendy Japanese restaurant with good food that gives a modern twist to old classics.

According to my trusty source, Wikipedia, Omakase is actually a Japanese term meaning “It’s up to you”, and is a style of serving food in sushi restaurants, where it’s “up to” the chef to serve you a complementary (by which I mean they complement each other, not free) series of dishes meant to be eaten one at a time. While this Omakase does not exactly offer this type of service, it’s interesting to note because their name suggests that they put utmost importance in the quality, presentation and service that they offer to their customers.

As you can see from the photos, the place is decorated in a contemporary style that reflects their fusion cuisine, blending old Japanese with modern Western tastes.

First of all we have this seaweed salad. Unfortunately I don’t know the exact name, but I’m pretty sure the waiter will know if you ask for it when you order. Anyway, this salad is light and refreshing while crunchy at the same time. It’s seasoned with toasted sesame seeds, giving it a nice nutty flavor as well.

The next dish is Spicy Tuna Salad, containing large chunks of fresh raw tuna dressed in spicy Japanese mayo, with bits of fried tempura batter which I can’t help but think are those bits of batter left in the fryer when they’re making tempura, but it doesn’t matter because this dish is just amazing. Don’t worry about the spiciness, because it’s only mildly spicy, just enough to give a kick to the dish.

A long time ago, I actually refused to eat raw fish, because the first time I tried it (in another Japanese restuarant) it was too slimy and fishy for my tastes. But once I encountered this Spicy Tuna Salad at Omakase, I was forever converted, true story.

Spicy Tuna Salad

Next is Salmon Sashimi, probably the most popular Japanese dish next to California Maki. It’s an acquired taste, to be sure, but Omakase’s version, while seemingly identical to that of other Japanese restaurants, is of perfect quality and taste. The fish was sliced perfectly, just thick enough for you to taste its freshness. A quick dip in soy sauce and/or wasabi, and it’s heaven.

While Baked Oysters are not exactly common Japanese fare, Omakase does it so well that I can’t even be bothered to protest. The problem with baked oysters at other restaurants is that it’s such a small serving, with each person getting barely one whole oyster. However, this one puts several oysters in each shell, so everyone is happy! I know I sound petty, but seriously, how frustrating is it to get a large plateful of oysters only to get barely one spoonful of anything edible out of it?

Omakase offers a huge assortment of maki, and we ordered this SAR platter, consisting of the American Dream, and two other rolls starting with the letters S and R, which I don’t remember.

The American Dream was delicious, with salmon and cream cheese, covered with batter and deep fried. It’s perfect for customers who don’t like raw fish. It’s to be dipped in the sweet soy sauce/Japanese mayo combo dip served together with the platter.

One other roll was a spicy tuna roll (a little too spicy for me, but pretty good, nevertheless), while the other was filled with crispy salmon skin. They were all excellent, but I wish I could remember what they were called.

Miso has always played a special role in Japanese food culture, and it’s most commonly made into soup as it’s quick and hassle free. However, miso soup is also easy to mess up, but Omakase doesn’t fail. With plenty of seafood, tofu and seaweed, their miso soup is warm and comforting with a true authentic taste.

The fried rice at Omakase has meat, scrambled eggs, fluffy rice and sweet soy sauce, plus fresh veggies like carrots and green onions. You can order it in individual portions or in a large bowl, good for 4, like the one pictured below.

Tofu steak is just what its name suggests: it’s tofu wrapped in steak. The thinly sliced beef is flavorful, although it could be more tender. The silky soft tofu more than makes up for it though, and the buttery sauce is perfect to go with rice.

Tempura is another bestseller for Japanese restaurants in the Philippines, and again, Omakase does it well. An order of ebi (prawn) tempura even comes with extra vegetable tempuras like sweet potato and okra.

This last dish is like a different version of Cordon Bleu. I don’t remember what it’s called, but it’s a fried chicken roll stuffed with bacon, with a mayo dip on the side. I actually didn’t like it because I don’t enjoy fried foods, and the bacon made it a little too greasy, so just a little bit is enough to satisfy me.

Aaaaand… that’s it for today! I know that it seems like I’m eating so much at Omakase, but I was actually there with around fifteen other people, so trust me, this is not a lot. Plus, there are sooooo many wonderful dishes at Omakase that trying out a few dishes is not enough. Practically everything they serve is good, so this post has just barely scratched the surface.

(Double posted from thelunchbuddies.blogspot.com, another food blog that I co-run.)