Have you heard of Konnyaku?   Konnyaku (蒟蒻) is also known as “konjac, konjaku, devil’s tongue, voodoo lily, snake palm, or elephant yam”. (Can anyone tell why so many eerie nicknames? ). It is a natural food made from a type of mountain potato mixed with calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide extracted from eggshells.   It is a traditional Japanese health food and has been consumed for...

  My son doesn’t like rice so much. What upsets me is that he always quick to finish eating his dishes but takes his time to labour over his rice even though I only gave him six to seven spoonfuls.  His usual excuse is he is already full. To circumvent such an unhealthy habit, I only allow him to have two third of his allocated dishes to be finished with the rice. If he finishes, he gets the rest. He...

  You probably heard a lot about Omega-3, the polyunsaturated fat that is essential in life. It protects against heart disease, promotes healthy skin and joints and is essential for proper neurological development in unborn babies and young children. The American Heart Association’s (AHA) dietary guidelines recommend that adults eat at least two servings of fish high in Omega-3 per week.  If you want...

  I have a few must-have ingredients in my weekly grocery shopping list. They are mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and tofu. Given that they are highly versatile and can be cooked in a variety of ways, I regard them as my “last minute savers” when circumstances called for whipping up a 30-minutes meal.   For mushrooms, I prefer to use the fresh ones in my cooking. Unlike the dried ones, they...

  My first experience in tasting stir-fry udon was at a Chinese restaurant many years ago. After trying it out, I got hooked on udon, especially this stir-fry version even until now. But I never expect my son to also enjoy eating this fat and chewy noodle as much as I do. In fact, udon is his first choice among all Japanese noodles (such as somen, soba and ramen) on the menu at a Japanese restaurant when...

Colours don’t just make our food look more appealing but also play a vital role in a healthy diet. Thus, the more colours in our diet, the healthier we will be. Eating fruits and vegetables of different colours provide important vitamins, minerals, fibre and natural plant compounds known as, phytochemicals, that may help protect us from major diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Dr. David Heber,...

  When I started introducing fish to my son, I steamed fish fillet. It is less risk for him to get choke with fish bone. Even now, I still prefer to steam fish for the family because it is easy, healthy, no-messy and will bring out its original flavour. Usually, I select fish fillet instead of whole fish which can be easily fitted into my electrical steamer. (This steamer can be used to cook rice and reheat...

  I always love to admire those beautiful sushi rolls posted by other food bloggers but have never attempt to make it myself. Until recently, when my son started to crave for Japanese food especially sushi, I decided to give it a try. It took me quite a while to learn the “theory” before proceeding to the “practical”. As compared to baking, the risk of “disaster” is definitely lesser. No matter...

This teriyaki chicken skew (Yakitori) is a very simple and easy dish. You can even marinate the chicken the night before and grill it the next day. It is our family latest hit. I hope my special visitor who had requested for this recipe (when I put a picture of this dish at my previous posting) will enjoy making it for her children from a Japanese cookbook shared by my cousin in Japan. Servings: 2-3 Ingredients: 2...

Sometimes, I really don’t favour the idea to dine out. If I go to Ikea, under normal circumstances, I need to spend around 20 minutes for traveling and another 20-30 minutes to find a place and order my food (during peak hours). The total time spent is actually equivalent (or maybe more) to cooking a simple one-dish meal at home. This is why I love one-dish meal so much. Among the entire one-dish meals I...