Simple Japanese Meal

It’s my turn to cook yesterday and Japanese was on the menu - a three course meal to be precise. Very minimal preparation and easy to cook. I’ve included the recipe below.

Soup - Miso Soup

Entrée - Garlic Butter Fried Rice

Mains – Beef & Chicken Teppanyaki in Creamy Garlic Sauce

Recipes:

Garlic Butter Fried Rice

Ingredients
2 cups of rice.
5-6 cloves of garlic, sliced or chopped.
2 eggs.
Loads of butter.
Light Soy Sauce.
Spring Onion.
Salt & Pepper to taste.

Method

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Beat egg lightly and scramble. Set aside.
In the same pan, throw in butter and garlic. Stir.
Add rice, salt, pepper and egg. Keep stirring, breaking up the rice in the pan.
Serve hot, topped with crispy fried shallot.

Mixed Meat Teppanyaki

Ingredients (for marinate)
Chicken & Beef, cut thinly
2 tbps of Ginger
2/3 clove of Garlic
Light Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Salt, Pepper & Sugar, to taste

Put aside some of the marinade for the creamy garlic sauce. Mix the rest of the marinade together and split into 2 bowls (one for each meat). Leave for at least 1 hour before grilling.

Ingredients (Creamy Garlic Sauce)
Thicken Cream.
Mayonnaise.
Dijon Mustard.
Garlic - Crushed/Minced.
Salt & Pepper to taste.
Left over of the marinate.

Kanpai Japanese Restaurant, Chapel Street

Ramadan has reached its half way point. Felt like it was just recently that we start this holy month. We had our Iftar at Kanpai Japanese Rstaurant at Chapel St. with Nis and Luke yesterday. I’ve heard of this place before from friends but didn’t have the opportunity to try it before. As it was near my office, there was no rush getting there. The weather was not the best with the rain and wind doing its best to dampen the mood.

This small yet pleasant restaurant is located at the end of Chapel Street (close to Toorak Road). At first look, nothing special and the place is not as fancy as the other eateries located at this trendy area. The atmosphere was pretty good and service was adequate. To start, we’ve ordered the Miso Soup,  Unagi Maki (mini eel sushi roll) and the Entrée Tempura (prawn, fish & vege). The tempura was crispy and I was happy with the portion size. The same can’t be said about the sushi as what was on the plate was this tiny little roll which you can hardly taste the filling. Quite a disappointment.

On to the mains, it was the Meat Teppanyaki & Mixed Teppanyaki as this is what the restaurant is known for. The grilled meat, seafood and vegies are topped with creamy garlic sauce is quite yummy to say the least. The 4 of us shared this and it didn’t take us that long to finish this off. The mains were tasty and the portion was acceptable.

It was a decent dinner experience but I was hungry by the time we reached home. It was pricey for amount of food that was served and sadly it was not the best Japanese I had in Melbourne. Would not be rushing back there anytime soon but do try the Teppanyaki  if you’re there.


p/s: Sorry for the limited images posted. Was too hungry to bother with the camera :)

The Menu

Dina a.k.a. The Mrs

Japanese Salad

Very small Unagi Maki ($8.00)

Teppanyaki ($18.00); what's left of it :)

Teppanyaki - image courtesy of Kanpai Website.

Kanpai
South Yarra/Toorak
569 Chapel St
South Yarra, 3141
(03) 9827 4379
www.kanpai.com.au

Sizzling Noodle

It’s raining outside and feeling the chill inside the house.  Something warm is in order for lunch. As we had bought Hokkien noodle and dried shitake mushroom during our day trip to South Melbourne and the city yesterday, Sizzling Noodle sounds very appetizing.

The recipe (attached below) is simple and the ingredients are easily accessible from Coles (with the exception of 1 or 2 items that you might need to get from Asian grocer). As we don’t have the sizzling plate to make it fully authentic meal, we only use the base recipe and serve it on a bowl. To the kitchen we go; with my wife cooking with me hovering behind taking some pictures. Well, hope you guys will enjoy this.

Ingredients:

·      200g Hokkien Noodle/egg noodles
·      200g boneless chicken pieces
·      Shitake Mushroom, soaked & cut into chunks
·      5/6 Dried Chillies
·      1 carrot, cut into medium pieces
·      Bok Choy
·      Seasoning:
        -   2 tbsp Ginger
        -   1 tbsp oyster sauce
        -   1 tbsp light soya sauce
        -   Salt to taste
        -   1/4 tsp sugar
        -   tsp pepper
        -   1/2 tsp chicken stock granules (optional flavouring)
·      2 tbsp  oil
·      1 tsp sesame oil
·      2 cups water or stock
·      Egg (optional)

Method

Scald the noodles in boiling water for few minutes. Remove once soft. Add 1/2 tsp sesame oil & mix thoroughly and leave aside.

Heat the pan with 2 tbsp oil, and sauté the ginger and the dried chilli until fragrance. Add the chicken to the pan and brown. Add the water and carrot. Cover to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Once the carrot is soften, add the mushrooms and Bak Choy; stir-fry well. Add seasoning, the rest of the sesame oil and stir. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5-10 minutes to thicken the sauce.

This is what you would normally do if serving with hot plate:
Heat a hot plate over the stove until it is really hot. Remove from heat and place on a wooden base. Serve the noodles on hot plate and pour sauce over immediately. Noodles and sauce will start sizzling. Break the egg if you wish to add the extra touch. Garnish with sliced cut chillies or cilipadi if you like some extra heat.

Our tweak:
We add the noodle to pan and mix the sauce to coat . Serve on the plate or bowl with cut chilli as garnish.

The Ingridients

 The cook at work

 The End Result...Yumm Yumm

Craving for Food

At the office and lunch time was creeping closer. Was talking to my wife on messenger and discussing on what to cook for dinner later on. Out of nowhere, Beryani came up and long and behold we started to crave for it. INDIAN FOOD it is but herm ... where should we go?

As a very fussy person when it comes to food, I tend to go for the same thing on the menu most of the time and get very disappointed when it falls below my expectation. A quick googling session was in order and we found NAMASTE Indian Restaurant. A peek at the menu and that was all it took for my mouth to start salivating. To make it worst, dinner is hours away so back to work for now.

Tick Tock Tick Tock and few hours later it’s quitting time. Off to the city to meet wifey and straight to Lygon Street as we were famished from all the waiting. Hehe. Nestled in between few other Asian restaurants, Namaste is quite small but cozy enough for the two of us and as we were quite early for dinner, it was no problem for us to get a table.

                           
As we knew what we wanted from the menu it did take us long to decide and we ordered the following:

Mushroom 65
Mushroom marinated in spices and deep fried. Yummy start to the night and it was very tasty. The raw onion compliments the slightly crispy mushroom and the lemon gives it a tangy kick. I don’t think it’s too spicy and advise anyone to try it (even if you are not a fan of spicy food). Loved it.

Mushroom 65

Biryani Meal
A combination of lamb biryani, chicken biryani & vegetable biryani served with saalan, raita, onion salad, and gulab jamun. A perfect dish to share between the two of us. It was nice and tasty but I would have to say that I had better.

Beriyani (Chicken, Lamb, Vege)

Garlic Naan and Roti Chanai with Butter Chicken
What can I say. You can't go wrong with these sumptuous selection and we really enjoy both of them. The roti was crispy and flaky and the Naan was perfect. We had it with the creamy Butter Chicken as the dipping curry which completes the meal. Reminds me of the Mamak stall back home which I really miss.

Butter Chicken

Garlic Naan & Roti Canai

Not to forget the Mango Lassi to clean the palette.

Mango Lassi

Overall it was a great experience and was inexpensive. The service was OK but I would definitely go back for the Mushroom and the rotis. To finish of the night, we had a lovely stroll down Lygon Street while enjoying the sights and oh so wonderful smell. We shall try to do this more often :)