Machi’s Mizukake Gohan from Kumamiko — Girl meets Bear

Mizukake gohan

You know it’s the new year in Australia when the skies are blue and the sun’s unforgiving. It’s summer here in Australia. While some parts of the world are buried under warm duvets, Australia’s baking me alive. It’s been obscenely hot where days can get as hot as 40 degrees centigrade and it’s not letting up. As a girl from tropics, I’m generally used to this heat, but the heat’s been killing me that I thought I needed something cool to eat. Thank god I remembered this cool dish from last year’s summer anime, Kumamiko — Girl meets Bear! Machi’s Mizukake Gohan is a welcome relief during this horrible summer. 

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Celebrating 10 years with Sushi Cake from Sweetness and Lightning

For all the glorious things that happened in my life, this blog, Punked Noodle, random as it is, has changed my life in both crazy and amazing ways. I remember buying this domain 13 years ago thinking that it’ll be a site to experiment with graphic design. It was the big thing back then, before everybody transformed their sites to blogs and portfolios. I realised that I enjoyed blogging about food a lot hence, ten years ago, this site changed and became my little online journal about my gourmand life. Since then, I’ve met friends, gone to places, cooked and ate the most amazing food I have ever imagined. I never expected to hold on to this for ten years. Slow and steady as it is, I’m happy that I still have this space to share my love for food and travelling to people!

Sushi Cake from Sweetness and Lightning

In celebration, I decided to share a cake! A sushi cake!

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Chika-chan’s Chikuwa Curry from Umimachi Diary

Umimachi Diary's Chikuwa Curry

Wai! I managed to have time to make another dish from a manga! This time, I’m in the mood for spice and some Kanagawa love! I made Chikuwa Curry from Umimachi Diary!

Late last year, I was hooked on Akimi Yoshida’s Umimachi Diary. It’s a lovely story about three sisters whose lives changed as they welcomed their youngest half-sister, Suzu, in their home. It’s set in the lovely seaside town of Kamakura and the manga has its ways of featuring Kamakura and Kanagawa specialties such as shirasu (dried whitebait) and processed fish, in this case, chikuwa. Continue reading

Noodle upgrade: Boiled eggs with runny yolks

eggs

Thanks to aji tamago, the old hardboiled eggs have been ruined. Goodbye to pasty bland eggs and hello to silky oozing yolks with whites that jiggle ever so slightly with the lightest touch. Suddenly, I find noodles absent of soft-boiled eggs incomplete. I want all the noodles I eat, even the ones I cook at home, to have eggs with runny yolks. Since then, it’s runny yolks or bust. Little did I know that bringing this egg home will lead me to a three-year journey of cracked shells, broken yolks, and disappointed noodles. I’ve learned a lot along the way and now I’m more than happy to share how I make my boiled eggs.
 

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Okra in ponzu sauce

okra in ponzu

Did you ever have that one vegetable you sincerely hated?

I hated okra with every slimy fibre of its being. This was one of my mom’s favorite veggies and on a night when we didn’t prepare much food, she always had some form of boiled okra on our table. As a kid, I did not enjoy its mushy slimy texture. Even when I was hooked on natto, I just could not seem to love okra. It was bland, mushy, and unnecessarily slimy. It wasn’t until I tasted the okra at my friend’s house that I realised that our family had misunderstood okra. My friend’s okra in ponzu was a fresh and simple dish that brightened even the slimiest lady finger.

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Dancing with Men: Sisen Ramen’s Charsiu Tantanmen in Osaka

Given all the ramen popping up in spaces all over the globe, it’s quite unfair to call one ramen or ramen shop as the best. Each ramen shop has their own specialty. You just can’t compare a tonkotsu ramen to a shoyu ramen. Nor can you demand an answer on who makes the best tonkotsu ramen — Ichiran or Ippudo? Each bowl has their own character and I think each bowl merits a bit of our love and attention. That said, there are few exceptional bowls that have taken my heart. If I can take a bowl to a dance, then it will be this bowl — my oshiawase (happiness) ramen — Sisen Ramen’s Charsiu Tantanmen in Umeda’s Gourmet Museum.

Sisen Ramen's Charsiu Tantanmen

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