Konichiwa Niseko!

Its been 12 years since my family and I went on a vacation together. Its been far too long and we should definitely not wait another 12 years before the next one! We always have so much fun as we have a common interest ie. food! I think our love for food came from my late father. He definitely loved to eat and when he was alive, he would always drag us out to obscure places for specific dishes he had discovered. Sotong bakar here, drunken prawns there,... Anyway, he would have loved this trip as we had some seriously amazing food. I haven't been back to Japan since I was 8 years old. We were in Tokyo then and funnily enough, most of my memories involve the food I had eaten back then. Chocolate ice cream cubes, beautifully laid out steam boat dinner, hot steaming roasted sweet chestnuts eaten on the bullet train, being carried by my brother so I could reach the bowl of ramen we had at a street stall. Hmmm, so I guess I've always loved food!

Top left: Lovely simple breakfast of rice, veg, seaweed and pickles at Kansai Washington Hotel. Superb! Creamiest tamago I've ever had but not sweet at all. Top right: Just your average regular beef. Look at that marbling! Bottom: Pigging out at ramen shop in Kuchan. 

Fast forward to 2012. We flew into Osaka for one night. Upon arrival, it was quite late in the evening already and we grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds! I know, sacrilegious having McD's in Japan! But you know what. Its the best ever McD's I have ever had! The patty, cheese and bun taste very different. Who knows, maybe we were just really hungry. We continued our journey the following day to Chitose on Japan's new domestic airline called Peach. Its fairly cheap but they are pretty disorganised as they only started operations a couple of months ago. Kinda like Air Asia back then. Gasp! The horror! Yes, even the Japanese can be disorganised. But in a very calm manner. Oh but the food on board is way better of course. Once we got to Chitose, we had to take a coach to Niseko resort. It was a long and tiring 2.5 hour bus ride as I was feeling quite ill and Her Madesty was just full of beans! Despite being nauseous and looking after bouncy HM, I could still enjoy the landscape. It was really quite beautiful. Its a small place so the roads are extremely quiet and everything was covered in a blanket of snow. We stayed at Yutaka townhouse via SkiJapan which was just enough to house the entire family. Lovely townhouse with fully equipped kitchen, laundry, etc... All the things you would need for a longish vacation. The food in Niseko is delicious and being on the island of Hokkaido, all things dairy are to die for! I'm not kidding you when I say that you can get really decent food at their version of 7Eleven called Lawson. Lovely yogurt, milk and Hokkaido butter. Nyum! And this is not even the gourmet stuff. Wow, who can blame the Japanese for having such high standards? Their idea of junk is like gourmet for us. Guffaw. Prepackaged katsu sandwiches, onigiri, ice cream, they all taste amazing. HM was a great traveller and ate all that was presented to her, from shabu-shabu to onigiri to grilled tofu. Such a good little girl.

We had a lovely meal in a ramen shop in Kutchan (town near Niseko). We ordered gyozas and minced pork mayo sushi to the two bowls of ramen and fried rice. Yes, there were only three people eating. Well, four if you count HM. Loved the shoyu based soup. Didn't much care for the salt based soup as they put so much raw bean sprouts in there that it was just overpowering. We took away 3 portions of katsu rice for the kids dinner and the entire bill came up to less than RM140. Surely it would've cost more in KL? At Niseko we had a fabulous meal at Izakaya. Loved the raw squid marinated in uni, aromatic chargrilled squid and scallop sashimi. I have never tasted scallop sashimi like this. It actually has texture to it. Firm and sweet. Delicious! We had some nice dishes at A-Bu-Chan 2 the following night. Melt-in-the-mouth beef and scallops cooked in butter. Its a little bit pretentious and I much preferred the food at Izakaya.

Top: View from the gondola. So serene, all that powdery snow! Bottom left: raw squid with uni as a marinade, waaah! Bottom right: the biggest mother ebi sashimi we've ever had. Deliciously sweet & springy in texture.

We were sad to leave Niseko but Kyoto was calling. OMG! Chitose airport! The mecca of good food! You can get all kinds of Hokkaido goodies here. If you are flying out of Chitose airport, go very, very early to enjoy all the samples and eat till your hearts content! I am embarassed to admit that we did not see much of Kyoto. Apart from visiting Kyomizu Temple on our first day, we spend most of the time just wandering around the market (food) and looking for more food! So much to eat, so little time. Sigh. The Japanese diet must agree with me because I managed to lose weight despite eating so much. Speaking of weight, there really isn't any overweight people in Japan. Seriously, theres no one even vaguely chubby here. It was so obvious we were tourists. Big-sized, loud tourists from Mainland China. Choi!

We had some amazing meals in Kyoto. Akaneya Junshinken was some superb izakaya dining. I particularly enjoyed the marinated baby squid sashimi and stuffed and deep fried lotus "patty". Oh and the amazing stuffed yam dish which tasted like dim sum woo kok but so much more delicate in texture but full on in taste. Looking back, some of the meals have merged into one. Thats the problem when snack carries onto lunch and spills over to tea and melds with dinner! Sigh, blogging about all this food has made me miss the food again. I don't know how the Japanese do it because if I lived there, I'd be as fat as f%$@.

Top left: marinated raw baby squid. Bit squeamish at first but glad I ate it. Yum! Top right: one of the many things we ate going up to Kyomizu Temple and all the way down too! Bottom: HM's" tapow". I thought it was tamago but its actually sushi wrapped in swiss roll?!?! Very strange...

Love you Niseko-Kyoto, hopefully will see you again soon!

Over It - Atkins Phase 2,3,4, I'm Out The Door!

I regret to announce that I'm over this whole Atkins diet. I have not lost a single pound for over 3 weeks despite following the program religiously and upping my exercise. Patience is not my forte! BUT, its not like I've completely given up and having buffets everyday. I've just decided that being on such a strict regime with no results for three weeks was just too stressful. So now that I have relaxed and started introducing a bit more fruit and veg portions, I've lost 1lb. I know I'm too focused on the lbs but I'm still inches away from fitting back into my old jeans. I don't know how else to monitor the weight loss. Sigh... Meanwhile, i've outgrown my recent pair of fat jeans. Woohoo! They are too loose to wear now! Yay! 

My friend P was inspired by my Atkins regime and she recently dropped 5kg in 3 weeks. She didn't even follow it religiously. She ate lots of meat and way much more than recommended limit for cheese. And zero exercise. So there you go, everyone is different and what works for me might not work for you. The important thing is, we try. I have tried and yes it does give results super fast and that is great for boosting morale. The other thing is, my skin texture improved. Amazing. Sugar really is bad for the skin. The drawbacks of this diet for me is that it has screwed up my menstrual cycle and I have trouble going to the toilet. Seriously I really need to eat LOTS of veg to keep myself regular. Perhaps that was over-sharing a little but you need to know that so take some psyllium husk every morning. It kinda helps but nothing beats fresh vegetables. 

Pan-fried fish with avocado & tomato salsa and salad - super satisfying!

So my last two weeks of Atkins, and then blood test to find out if/how Atkins has affected my insides.  Fingers crossed!

Atkins; Phase Two minus One, Week 4

I'm not sure what happened but the weight loss stalled. Perhaps I moved too quickly onto O.W.L. My weight just wasn't shifting despite following the diet exactly. I still exercised 3-4 times a week and ate my 20g of carbs + 5g of new foods from O.W.L. I decided maybe it was the melon? So I've stopped eating that and I cut back on the strawberries too. Instead of having it everyday as a snack, I'm having it every other day. In the last 3 days, I'm finally back on track with a 2lb weight loss. Weight loss to date is 14lbs. I guess I need to stick on Induction a bit longer as this weight loss is more stubborn than my mother. 

On Wednesday I had severe sugar cravings. I haven't felt this way at all throughout the pass 3 weeks. I very nearly caved. I even contemplated diabetic chocolate! I must've stood at the aisle staring and reading all the labels for a good 10 minutes. Finally, Hunky came to the rescue and reminded me that 1) diabetic chocolate sucks and 2) I'd only be cheating myself. Such a supportive husband! The next morning, the feeling was gone. Wow, I came so close to giving up. Sigh, I really, really do miss my sugar. Last night, I did have one chocolate covered almond. It came all the way from Spain! I felt incredibly guilty but Hunky (again) reminded me that this is a long term thing and I shouldn't be so hard on myself for eating one miserable chocolate almond. So instead of feeling bad, I went for a jog this morning. 

Lunch - grilled chicken salad with avocado, ham & balsamic dressing

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. Its a constant battle with my inner sugar demon. Its only been 4 weeks but it feels more like 4 months. 4 more weeks to go! I think I'm going to have to up my exercise too. Will keep you posted!

Atkins: Phase Two - O.W.L

I made it! Its been 17 days since I started Atkins and I'm still alive! I thought I'd just dieeeh from sugar and carb deprivation. Drama much? So now I am in the second phase of Atkins which is Ongoing Weight Loss or OWL for short. Like Harry Potter but not quite as magical. Sigh. So this week, I can up my carb intake by a whole 5g! Woohoo. You know I am being sarcastic right? Whats 5g? Basically 1/2 cup of strawberries. I know, sounds really lame huh? But I've been so deprived that I am ever so grateful for that sweet, sweet taste of strawberries! I can also eat raspberries and blueberries but who can bloody afford those here? My other fruit choices are rockmelon and honeydew which fantastic! It has a great sugary hit and I thought I wouldn't be able to stop myself from eating more but surprisingly, I managed to stay satisfied with that tiny portion (half cup) of rockmelon.

On the scales, it has been impressive. 11lbs to date but I don't really feel it. My clothes feel more or less the same. Okay, maybe I can breathe a little better in them but more importantly, I can breathe a little better when I'm exercising! Scary, my poor heart must've been working so hard. Breakfast remains a challenge. I've been having omelettes. Cheese and tomato, plain cheese, cheese and mushroom, mushroom and chicken, etc... Sigh. I've had soft boiled eggs several times just for a change. This morning I had scrambled eggs and sauteed mushrooms. Super rich as I used 1/4 cup of cream for the eggs. Very satisfying. I think I might go buy some bacon for breakfast this weekend. Yum. 

My afternoon snack! Grilled chicken with homemade mayo, hard boiled egg (white) and alfalfa sprouts

So my challenge now is slowly adding different foods from the carb ladder. I'm suppose to go slowly, adding 5g of carbs each week while monitoring my weight loss. If I continue to lose weight, then I can keep adding til I find my limit. This is going to be a battle for me because I am so impatient. I guess it would help once I'm able to have a bigger variety of foods to select from. Until then, lovely glorious pieces of fruit!

Atkins; Phase One - Induction

I have been on a diet for the past two weeks. It came to a point where I was just feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. And I can’t even say its baby weight because I put it on after I gave birth. I made the mistake of eating like I was still breastfeeding except I wasn’t. So all those naughty calories just stuck and BAM! Suddenly I had put on 7kgs! I was 3kgs from my baby weight when Her Madesty was 3 months old. How could I have let this happen? Instead of losing 3kgs, now I have to lose 10kgs! Sob! So, it was time for drastic measures. No, I couldn’t “just cut down on the food'. If I could just control my eating habits, I wouldn’t have found myself in this predicament in the first place.

I did a little shopping around on the net for diets. There are so many out there but the two that shows consistent results have got to be Atkins and Dukan. My friend is on the Dukan diet and she swears by it. Its quite similar to the Atkins philosophy but I think it is less severe in terms of its variety but its also less tasty as it doesn’t allow for any oil or fats. So with that in mind, I embarked on the first phase of Atkins; Phase One - Induction. A grueling 2 weeks of protein and total net carbs of 20g. I soon discovered how little 20g of carbs are! Anything vaguely fun and tasty naturally has more carbs. I can eat cups and cups of lettuce and that would be fine. But ¼ cup of pumpkin and I’ve already used up ¼ my daily net carb. Do you know how little ¼ cup of pumpkin is? Its tear-jerkingly little! I also look back and think that I must've had 1000g of carbs a day previously. 

I needed to do this diet because I really had to break my bad habit of snacking. Its pretty bad as I'm so use to eating a little here and a little there. I can't blame it all on work either. So since I can’t have sugar and carbs anymore so why bother snacking right? The first three days I really missed my sugary snacks and resorted to snacking on beetroot. Beetroot! Is this what you skinny ass people do? Snack on beetroot? Its so sad.

Atkins definitely gives you results but its not without controversy. After all, eating so much meat and practically zero carbs can’t be good for you. I read about Atkins being bad for your kidneys and cholesterol. So I decided to test it for myself. I did a blood test 4 days into my diet. My cholesterol, as expected, was over the healthy limit. I was relieved to find that it was only my LDL (bad cholesterol) that was elevated. My HDL (good cholesterol) was well within the norm as was my Triglyceride levels. My kidney and liver function were good. And the only thing that showed the symptoms of Atkins was found in my urine sample. Ketones. (Lifted from Wiki - Ketones are metabolic end-products of fatty acid metabolism. In healthy individuals, ketones are formed in the liver and are completely metabolized so that only negligible amounts appear in the urine. However, when carbohydrates are unavailable or unable to be used as an energy source, fat becomes the predominant body fuel instead of carbohydrates and excessive amounts of ketones are formed as a metabolic byproduct. Higher levels of ketones in the urine indicate that the body is using fat as the major source of energy.) So the good news was, my body was beginning to burn fat but the bad news was, I was dehydrated. I swear I drink close to 4 litres of water a day but I’m constantly parched.

Homemade fishballs with chicken broth, choy sum and spicy chili sauce.

There is a misconception that you can have as much fat and protein as you like. They encourage a sensible amount of good fats and only about 170-220g of protein each meal. So while technically I can eat a whole turkey for lunch, its probably not a good idea. I am conscious of what all this protein might be doing to my body so I try to eat mainly fish followed by chicken and hardly any beef and pork. Do I feel hungry? Honestly, no because protein really fills me up. The only thing is, I still really miss my sugar. I dream about having chocolate cake. Sigh. And the only sugar substitute allowed is Splenda. I bought a packet and it sucks!! I’ve never bothered with artificial sweeteners so maybe that’s why I think its gross. It sucks so bad that I don’t bother putting it in my coffee anymore. The taste is not even close to sugar and the taste stays in my mouth for hours. Gross. It’s amazing how everything taste so amazing once you start appreciating the simple things again. I had grilled salmon with fennel salad and it just tasted soooo good. The salmon tasted so sweet and the fennel really packed a punch in terms of flavour. I was totally satisfied because everything was just so tasty. 

That’s the thing about Atkins. You really have to spend time planning your menu and buying good quality produce. And that’s why Atkins is a very expensive diet! I’ve more than doubled my weekly grocery budget. For me, if I was going to do this, I would do it right. I've followed the diet exactly. Which makes life a little harder but its so worth it. I can still go out to eat but at selected restaurants where I know I can have lean proteins. Japanese is always good. I just have sashimi and some teppanyaki. I know it would be easy to reach for the quick options like sausages and canned meats but I just don't want to go down that road. That would be like replacing one bad habit with another. Having said that, I did have a couple of sausages and chicken wings at a friend's barbecue over the weekend. See, its still a pretty sociable diet. Oh, but I guess it would be a big turn-off for drinkers as you can't have any alcohol at all during these two weeks. 

Today is the last day of my two week induction on Atkins. I’ve lost 9lbs. That’s a little over 4kgs. (I switched my digital scale to lbs because its more fun seeing the pounds come off!). I’m almost halfway to my goal. I think it probably helps that I’m fitting in some form of exercise at least 3 times a week. I’m ready to move on to Phase 2 of Atkins: Ongoing Weight Loss. I get to introduce some fruit! Yay! 

The Quest for the perfect Victoria Sponge

Its often said the best things in life are a slice of victoria sponge with a cup of earl grey. Or something like that. I love a good sponge. Its the perfect balance of cake. Light, fun but with some depth unlike its airy fair-weather friend the chiffon. Mind you, I love a good pandan chiffon too. Sigh, what can I say? I just love cakes! So anyway, my sister requested for a Victoria Sponge cake for her birthday and being the good sister that I am, I made her one! When it comes to all things English, there can only one guru to turn to and thats Delia of course. She even has illustrations of 4 different sponges that have slight variations in the recipe. Studying her all-in-one recipe, I had serious doubts it would work. Gasp! Yes, I doubted Delia! Forgive me D! I'll never question you again. It just sounded too simple. So of course I went for the harder one even though she specifically said the all-in-one "is the best sponge of all". Me stupid yes. I tried the classic and honestly not worth the effort. Not that its so complicated but the all-in-one is amazingly idiot-proof. Trust me, I'm an idiot.

Don't expect a sponge like the ones in local bakeries here. This is a full-bodied PG13 version. 

Delia Smith's All-in-One Sponge

110g self raising flour + 1 tsp baking powder

110g butter (or margarine) at room temperature

110g caster sugar

2 large eggs

2-3 drops vanilla essence

To finish: icing sugar, jam, lemon curd or fresh cream

Pre-heat oven to 170C and line 2 x 7" round tins with greaseproof paper

1) Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Sift from good height to give the flour a good airing

2) Simply add all the other ingredient into the flour mixture and mix thoroughly. If the mixture doesn't drop off a wooden spoon easily, add 1-2 tbls hot water to loosen.

3) Divide between the 2 tins and bake for 30 mins ( I found I only needed 20 mins in my oven)

4) Pop it out of the tins and cool on a wire rack the moment they come out of the oven. (Yes, its freaking hot to handle but don't question Delia!). Peel of the paper carefully.

5) Once cooled, spread generously with jam and freshly whipped cream. Y-U-M-M-Y!

6) If you want more depth to the cake, increase mixture to 175g of flour, sugar (I only use 110g) and butter and use 3 eggs. Allow extra 5-10mins cooking time.

Lazy, Hazy Sunday

Just when I thought the worst of the haze was over, I wake up to a thick blanket of smog hovering the usually beautiful KL skyline. Sigh... Its been a long time since my last post. Who has time to blog these days? Besides, its not like I've had much opportunity to dine out these days. So I guess I'm writing because Her Madesty has gone out to Gran's and I did manage to eat at a few new places recently. But, I'm not going to write about that today. Instead, I'll just say "Hello" with breakfast this morning.

Jamie Oliver's pancakes with bacon & maple syrup. This picture was actually taken a while back. This morning we had it with back bacon which just didn't taste quite as nice. Its a great pancake recipe and soooo easy. Love it!

3 eggs, separated

115g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

pinch salt

140ml milk

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks and set aside. Combine all the other ingredients together. Fold in 1/4 of egg whites into mixture to loosen in. Then fold in remainder of egg whites. Heat non-stick pan on medium heat and pour 1 ladle full of pancake mixture in. Wait until bubbles start to appear on surface before flipping over. Voila! Makes 5 x 5" (diameter) pancakes.

Happy Sunday everybody!