Washism

Our ice shaving machine has taken a long year break...

and before summer makes an exit, we have to just make our kakigori (shaved ice dessert) with the EXTRA HUGE serving of red bean paste. ^^

Anyway, i saw this recipe from a book full of breakfast ideas the other day, and i felt my craving for toast with melted cheese creeping in, so i just had to try this recipe out...
In all Japanese fashion, rice balls (onigiri) for breakfast, BUT toasted with a slice of cheese atop in the oven at 250deg for 5 min. ~ my toast with cheese craving satisfied!

Yesterday, a very sweet friend dropped by just to pass us the souveniors she got from her recent Okinawa holiday. Apart from my favourite sweet treats, there was...TOFU!!!

We share this common liking for tofu and i was so so sooooooooooooo delighted to find a pack of it in my bag of goodies!!!

Okinawan cuisine has a lot of stir frys, so i think that is why they have this harder version of tofu to suit their cooking style.

Tofu basically has a lot of water content, so stir frying it means you have to put a heavy weight over it to drain off some water before the frying. But this Okinawan tofu has a higher soybean percentage & lesser water content, and the package says, good for stir frys! So i tried niku maki tofu (pork wrapped tofu) and to my amaze, it really didnt exude the water expected from the usual.

With a mild salt taste on its own, i didnt season the tofu at all, just wrapped with some ginger soy seasoned pork slices, and pan fried with a little sake and shoyu, it was simply delicious, and i really mean, SIMPLE and OISHII!!!

ARIGATO MIHO SAN!!!

and with my new black sesame paste that i bought, i happily mixed a whole lot of it with some quickly blanched carrot strips...

Black sesame carrot salad

The flavour & smell of the paste reminded us of black sesame gelato, which i really love, so the next time we have kakigori again, this would come in handy!

Unlike the sweet black sesame paste dessert that i used to crave once in a while, this paste was pure black sesame really finely ground, and just like tahini, which is white sesame paste, this is unsweetened and really strong on its own. silly me took a teaspoon of it and it tasted no where like dessert. >.<

but i like it =)