Washism

This years summer is really really hot.....................

To help us beat the summer heat

your smaller than average watermelon, but

just as sweet and refreshing

and, when you just dont feel like having anything for lunch...

Chilled somen with lots of vegetables goes down really well

Todays somen was basically mixed with my summer vegetable mix ( blanched long beans, carrots, shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced red peppers), topped with chicken and omelette strips, lots of sesame and some yuzu.

J got us some hand made yuzu flavoured somen and i didnt realise it was sooooooooooooooooooooo

looooooooooong

And it took J a long long time to find an end to dip his noodles into the sauce.

We poured the sauce over the noodles in the end to slurp everything smoothly and quickly. =)

And more eggplant dishes for dinner...

Eggplant with tomato, beef and mushroom sauce

Agian, i made the tomato sauce from scratch when i had some time last week.

With fresh tomatoes sauteed in some onions and mushrooms in the pan, with some dried provencal herbs & freshly chopped basil thrown in, and simmered till reduced to a pulpy tomato paste, then blended to a fine smooth tomato sauce.

This is definitely something that should be made at home if you have some time on hand.

Homemade tomato sauce means you can control how much oil, onions, mushrooms, herbs, salt etc, and best of all, without any preservative, you can enjoy the combination that you fancies you most! Keeps for about 5 days in the fridge.

Salad was

kuushinsai (kangkong in Malay) blanched and tossed in crushed moutain yam and chopped takana (a kind of salted vegetable)

Mountain yam, or yamaimo, is a nebaneba (sticky) kind of vegetable, and just like okra, the stickiness helps take away tiredness from the body.

I try to incorporate some nebaneba vegetables for our meals in summer. Even if there is no time to prepare these vegetables, a simple serving of natto helps too.

I wonder why, when it is summer, we complain of the heat and crave cool air conditioned places, while in winter, we wished some summer heat will warm us up.