on to the food station

On a different note... I realize I start making more things at home or at least trying to make more things at home.




I cooked breakfast at home (oatmeal pretty much daily).  Recently (today!) I started making scrambled eggs for breakfast with chive (almost like what you ordered at the restaurant for breakfast but it's just way cheaper).  At this rate, it will be rare for me to go out to eat dinner/lunch/breakfast.  I've cut down the amount of times I go out for dinner... pretty much because it's so much faster to cook it at home and I tend to not overeat when I do it at home.

I guess I do cook simple meal.  I recently started making soy sauce soup.  I've become more Japanese these days.  When I told people I made soy sauce soup for dinner, they were like what? But I learned this when I went to Japan last December.  It was super easy to do.

You just boil some water, add a bit of soy sauce (to your liking but not too much otherwise it might be too salty, I use the Japanese soy sauce), and I also add a bit of ume plum vinegar (without this, the soup just doesn't taste right but don't add to much otherwise it will become quite sour...but ume plum sauce is my favorite... almost like a different version of red vinegar, white rice vinegar).  I also add in mushroom (I can't live without mushroom... I eat them everyday).  Then you have an option to add whether tofu or certain kind of meat or both.  I used the grass-fed beef (tiny bit) to make the soup taste a bit sweeter. I also use tofu by itself and the broth taste is amazingly clear (very lovely as well).  For vegetables, I've tried chive and spinach (the fresh one in the bunch not the loose leaves).  Sometimes I put in some dry seaweeds.  If you like spicy food, you can add a bit of the chili pepper in there.  Some people might want to put soba if you want some carbohydrate.  the meal really takes less than 10 minutes to make.  As you become more efficient, it probably only takes about 5-7 minutes.  This is what gets me started in cooking.  Why? because I don't have time to go to restaurant.  In contrast to what people think, I find going to restaurant taking more time.  why? it takes me forever to decide what I want.  I like to know what goes in my food (being weight conscious, i tend to not finish restaurant food and if I do, I feel so guilty later on...).  I tend to not know where to go and it takes me forever to figure out where to go... and the list of reasons goes on... so when I don't have time, I just cook at home.

anyway, if you do try the soup, let me know how it goes.  I love it to bits!  It's refreshing but at the same time I do need to watch the sodium.  Just don't drink the soup completely...maybe it's not as bad.

When I first bought the ume plum vinegar, I had no idea what to do with it.  I just know I love the ume plum a lot in one of the sushi rolls that I often called for at a frequent sushi restaurant.  Now I know what I can use it for.  Interestingly enough, I realized... food from different countries needs to be matched with their own ingredients.

Enjoy! I think my next post is about something that I've been growing... doesn't require a lot of time.. I really want to try pickle something recently... maybe I should start doing that after researching some recipe...

writing this makes me miss Japan... and wanting to go back there