What I had for lunch - Rolled-up Japanese goodness

Sometimes people ask me, "So what do you have for lunch?" While I'd love to put on my healthy-eater mask and tell them "Oh, I graze on greens" or "Oh, I nibble on nuts and fruits", I couldn't do it with a straight face. Truth is what I eat varies from day to day depending on where my busy day takes me.

Recently I met up with DDs for lunch at a food court and this is what we had:

Sushi. A visually attractive lunch option that I kinda enjoy now and then though I'm not exactly a big fan of the rice portion or the idea of stuffing the whole portion into my mouth which, I'm told, is the correct way to eat it. The rebel in me breaks the sushi in two with chopsticks and load ups on the wasabi (Japanese green mustard) and that's the way I do it!

Takoyaki. Octopus Takoyaki is our favorite but we recently tried Shrimp Takoyaki which is less chewy but pretty good too.Takoyaki is a dough ball made with a batter of eggs, soy sauce, flour and dashi (a Japanese-flavored broth) and crammed to bursting point with chopped green onions, pickled red ginger and the octopus or shrimp, then garnished with green dried seaweed, dried bonito flakes, takoyaki sauce and mayo.

Yums! Soft outside, crunchy and I don't even have to tell you when you get to the octopus inside, so good! What's amazing is how it's even possible to cram so much deliciousness into such a little ball. (Read my earlier post to see the pan they use.)

Though this was such a simple lunch, it was so good over a steaming hot cup of coffee. Now you know why I always look forward to lunch lol. I'll be updating you guys on what I have for lunch from time to time, so stay tuned!

Sweet and sour two ways

If you know me, you know I'm always talking about food. Never mind the fact that it's thundering and pouring outside (again!) and I've just snacked on a big bowl of bean soup, I'm about to start talking about a Korean-Chinese dinner we had in a busy expat suburb one weekend.

As is usual with Korean meals, first to arrive at the table are the side dishes meant to accompany the main meal. Here we got only 3 (instead of the usual 6-8) side dishes - kimchi (square bowl on upper right) - or fermented napa cabbage, a staple of Korean cuisine; yellow pickled daikon (blue flower plate) and pink radish kimchi - a fermented radish side dish. Kimchi and yellow pickled radish are common side dishes but not the radish kimchi.

We ordered sweet and sour chicken which is essentially boneless deep-fried chicken that came on a bed of lettuce topped with onions, peppers, sweet and sour sauce and sesame seeds.

I'm not sure why we ordered two sweet and sour dishes which are very similar in taste but yeah! So here's the other plate piled high with crispy deep-fried pork topped with bokchoy, onions, carrots and sweet and sour sauce, and (surprise!) a side of finely shredded cabbage with thousand island dressing.

These are huge servings meant to be shared and eaten with rice or as an accompaniment to alcoholic drinks, a common Korean practice. We, however, chose to savor them on their own sans rice or alcohol. Of the two sweet and sour dishes, I prefer the crispier pork and the shredded cabbage which was reminiscent of how it's often served with tonkatsu, or deep-fried breaded pork cutlet, at Japanese restaurants.

To round off the meal, we ordered jjampong, a seafood noodle soup featuring large shrimps, squid and mussels. There might've been fish slices in it as well, I'm not sure. As portions go, this is big and meant to be a serving for one person. But we asked for small bowls to portion this out. I like that the soup is spicy but I would've preferred it to have tasted (and smelled), um, a little less fishy.

It's interesting to see the similarities and overlaps in these orders of ours. First off, you have the Korean adaptation of the sweet and sour meat which is a big part of Chinese cuisine. And then you have the sweet and sour pork adapted from the Japanese tonkatsu complete with shredded cabbage. And then you have the seafood noodle soup inspired once again by the countless varieties and flavors of Chinese noodle soups. Well, I love Korean food and Japanese food. So this does it for me lol!

The bakery that never stops

Whenever we hit the mall, there's one place that we must absolutely, definitely, totally stop at and that's the bakery. Of the 6-8 bakeries that typically dot a single mall, LB is the chosen one, the one I've been frequenting for years. It's operated as part of a popular Japanese grocery chain but over the years, it's matured into an identity of its own.

What I really like about this bakery is that first off, they have an insane variety of pastries, and second, they're constantly coming up with exciting new, mouth-watering stuff. So it's not like when you walk in, you find the same old stuff that was popular when your grandma was a kid although sure, you may have some well-loved items you hope they'll never stop selling. Here you walk in and you have the perennial favorites, and then you have the trendy fare that they introduce every so often and it's that element of surprise that elicits the oohs and aahs.

The pastry selection we saw recently had us piling our takeout tray faster than you can say wow! On the topmost shelf are the walnut raisin loaves, a well-loved favorite that we've seen going through a 'size down, price up' over the years but that still tastes so good. That said, their prices are reasonable and quality comparable with the other bakeries in the mall, so which would you choose?

And look, we found some new additions in the covered bins along the perpendicular side. This is the fruit cream danish with a cream filling topped with kiwi and strawberry slices and finished off with a drizzle of chocolate and powdered sugar. Looks yummy, will have to try it some time!

This is the open-faced danish topped with almond cream and orange slices.

The blueberry almond cream danish looks good too. Omgosh, what are we going to do? Everything looks so good lol.

In the front of the store are more rolls, muffins and baguettes. Daughter2 has tried their macha cream pastry and likes them. The macha (Japanese green tea) trend has been around for quite a while and is still very popular. Here you see someone with tongs in hand (circled) heading straight for those two-tiered baskets... only to find them EMPTY! OH NOoooo they're all gone!!!

Disappointed, she turns away with a sad face, only to return to the same spot a while later to find the baskets had been refilled with a brand new batch of macha pastries fresh from the oven (OH JOY!)...

 ... at which point, she quickly snags a couple before they're all gone again!! One thing to remember with this bakery is that their pastries go really, really fa-a-ast so if you don't grab' em quick, you'll have to wait for them to bake a new batch.

Food adventure - Mayo takoyaki

Okay guys, I'll be honest, there's a newly-opened Japanese square at our local mall and we could not just walk by without checking it out. No way, not us! And somewhere in that crazy square of brimming heads and tiny tables, this little fast food joint was calling out to us.

Behind the glass display, they were creating these little tako balls by hand. I gotta admit, I love open kitchens. I could stand there all day and watch them pour in the flour mixture and layer on baby octopus, fish flakes, tempura scraps, finely chopped pickled ginger and green onion. They use 2 metal skewers to keep turning and rolling till everything comes together into a ball. Fascinating.

We'd just had lunch but after that round of grocery shopping, we were ready for a little snack of Mayo Takoyaki. Behind the kiosk are these teeny tiny tables where we could park ourselves to savor our newfound snack.

Seriously guys, the space between the tables are so-oo superduper narrow I literally had to hold my breath as me and my J.Lo butt squeezed, actually scraped the table on my way in. Embarrassing! If I'm going to be eating here more often, Imma have to lose some weight, haha!

Okay, so here we go. I made it, whew! I'm finally balancing myself on that tiny little chair possibly with my butt cheeks overflowing on both sides, I don't know. Not a pretty sight. I couldn't bear to look and I sure hope no one noticed! Man, who knew eating a takoyaki could be such a barrel of laughs!

The Macha Honey Lemon is quite a tasty variation to plain green tea (macha). If the taste had been stronger, I would've liked it better though. But I appreciated that it was cold.

The tako comes heavily drizzled with Japanese mayo and topped with chopped green onions. You also get 2 severely malnourished wooden skewers to eat with. Man, look at those skewers, they're the skinniest I've ever seen.

But who cares, they do the job. You use one skewer to cut the tako ball in half, then use both to lift it to your mouth and pray you don't splatter it on your shirt. My first thought was to use the skewers as chopsticks but I didn't think they could take the weight.

Okay, here you see the pink bit of baby octopus in the one I've cut in half on the lower right. I think they also have the shrimp, and unagi (eel) versions. The tako ball itself is light and fluffy with all these chewy bits inside and the mayo gives it a bit of a sweetish tang. Quite the yums.

So tell me, dear friends. would you try this? What have you tried recently that you've not tasted before? Or what food have you've heard about and would love to try?

Homemade salmon sashimi salad

Hey there guys, let's talk about me and my sashimi for a minute. My love for sashimi goes back quite a ways. It took a while though for me to get to liking it. As you can imagine, chewing on a piece of raw fish wasn't the most natural thing in the world for me LOL. Anyhoo I got past that and now I love it! but I will only eat salmon sashimi, not tuna, not white fish. Don't ask me why :)

My teens are big fans too which means we could rack up the bill pretty fast for the amount of sashimi we would need to order for a meal. So it's not like we can have this every day. The cheaper alternative is simply to make my own copycat version.

So let's get on with my take on the salmon sashimi salad that we enjoy so much.

• A heap of iceberg lettuce (as much as you like)
• A heap of cherry tomatoes, halved
• Half a carrot, finely shredded (not in the picture because I ran out)
• A box of salmon sashimi, about 8-10 slices
• One lemon
• Roasted sesame dressing

I get the salmon sashimi from my local Japanese grocery store. They come in a box, sliced and ready to eat. You should refrigerate it until you're ready to eat. I usually eat mine on the same day. I mean, it's raw and I just want to play it safe.

My local Japanese grocery store also sells roasted sesame dressing in bottles. They must go pretty fast because I can't always find them when I need them. So I tend to buy an extra bottle to keep as a spare when I see it.

Anyhoo all that's left to do is to toss the lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrot in a big salad bowl. Top with salmon and a big old squeeze of lemon juice. Shake a generous amount of roasted sesame dressing over top. Toss everything together and you're ready to eat.

This exotic twist to a regular salad makes a really nice change for an exotic potluck when you have guests over. The slightly sweet, nutty tang of the dressing goes so well with the veggies and salmon. Best of all, we get to enjoy this at a fraction of the price we would pay at the restaurant.

Share your sashimi story. What do you think - love it, hate it, would like to try it?