Nippon Kitchen in Glasgow

Last November, we went to Nippon Kitchen (91 West George Street, Glasgow G2 1PB), fairly new Japanese restaurant in Glasgow, for Emily's birthday lunch. It's a bit pricey but there are good selections in menu. In fact there are so many to choose and we wanted to try from the menu that we took ages to decide what to order!

Emily, my husband and I ordered Bento box sets, which came with miso soup and rolled up sushi.

Seafood maki (roll-up) sushi as part of seafood Bento Box set.
Accompanied with pickled (pink) ginger and wasabi (green).

My Ebi-katsu (fried king prawns) Bento Box.
With grilled teriyaki salmon, vegetable gyoza, rice and radish pickles.

This is Emily's Vegetable Tempura Bento Box.
With edamame beans, vegetable gyoza and rice.

Maria ordered Chicken-katsu Japanese-style Curry with Rice that smelt really yummy.

Oh, for starters we also ordered potato croquettes, agedashi-dofu (Fried Tofu with sauce) and Inari sushi (sushi rice wrapped with tasty fried tofu bags), which are all our favourite.

Potato croquettes and agedashi-dofu

From top to clock-wise: Inari-sushi (brown sushi) in the back,
miso soup and maki sushi.

Miso soup had tofu, spring onion and lots of wakame seaweeds.

I know, I know, I should be able to make all these at home (because of my background) but I just don't as they are time consuming to make and also we don't deep fry foods at home so I can't make agedashi-dofu (fried tofu in tasty Japanese soy based sauce).

Anyway, although they are not cheap, overall we really enjoyed our meals. We went there over the weekend so there was no set lunch deal available, in fact I don't know if they do any lunch deals during the week. I hope they do and we would definitely go back there again.
Oh, I did the toilet check and it was a nice modern toilet facility with Dyson hand-dryer and was in pristine condition so they passed!

I have been watching some Japanese TV cooking programmes on NHK World and am now contemplating to make more Japanese dishes at home as they are heathy but also all chefs are so slim!  I am also thinking of doing Nabemono - cooking lots of vegetables and whatever meat or fish/seafood you wish in a big pot with boiling dashi stock, then dip cooked ingredients into a soy sauce and eat them. Think fondue but Japanese style without cheese to get a picture!

I have noticed that there are now quite a few Japanese restaurants in Glasgow. Well that's a great progress! What I need now is a proper Japanese supermarket so that I can buy everything I need to make Japanese food more often. Till then, I just need to make some regular trips to Chinese supermarkets to stock up some Japanese stuff or order on-line from London, or we just nip into Nippon Kitchen for another doze of Japanese!

Gochiso-sama!

That's all forks!

Japanese Ramen in Japan

I love all kinds of noodles but most of all I love a Japanese noodle dish, called Ramen. According to Wikipedia, "Ramen consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or (occasionally) fish-based broth, often flavoured with soy sauce or miso (a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and /or soybeans), and uses toppings such as sliced pork (called chashu), dried seaweed (nori), kamaboko (Japanese processed seafood product) , green onions and occasionally corn".  There are mainly four flavour categories of Ramen soup; Shio (salt), Tonkotsu (pork bone), Shoyu (soy sauce) and Miso.

I don't usually eat meat but when it comes to Ramen, I ignore that the soup is often meat based and just enjoy the taste (but putting chashu aside!).

In Osaka, Japan you can visit The Instant Ramen Museum (http://www.instantramen-museum.jp/), which is near Ikeda Station on Hankyu-Takarazuka Line.  This was founded by Momofuku Ando who invented the world's first cup-type instant noodle product known as Cup Noodles!  Obviously we had to go there for curiosity.

Inside of the museum, you see history of instant noodles. Apparently as many as about 100 billion servings are consumed annually around the world!!!

You can also create your own Cup Noodles at My Cup Noodle Factory.

First, you decorate your own cup....

You then take it to the noodle factory station to fill the cup with noodles, choose the soup flavour and the ingredients. You have selections of standard soup flavour, seafood flavour, curry flavour and tomato & chilli flavour.

Afterwards, they seal the cups and shrink-wrap them so that you can take home. It was quite fun!

After the museum, we walked back to the train station but on the way we found a Ramen restaurant, so we naturally had to have lunch there.

I think this one was Shoyu ramen with slices of chashu,  boiled egg, spinach, spring onions, etc.

This one was Tonkotsu ramen which has rather rich taste.

We also ordered Onigiri (rise balls with seaweed wrapped around them)

There are so many Ramen restaurants in Japan and they get very busy during lunch time as they are like Japanese equivalent of fast food. Good restaurant always has people cueing patiently to get their seats at the counter.

Inside, people hovering over customers, waiting for their turn. 

This Ramen restaurant in down town Osaka serves 30 different kinds of flavours.
This one is basic Ramen.

Another Ramen restaurant in downtown Osaka. This one is Miso ramen.

And this one is Shoyu ramen.

One day in December 2011 we all went to Kyoto for sightseeing. We did not have time for lunch so by late afternoon we were starving. We found a ramen restaurant off the main street on the way to train station going back to Osaka and went inside for a quick snack.

You get all sorts of toppings - this one with potato croquettes, chashu and egg.

This one with Memma (simmered bamboo shoots).

Basic ramen.

This is Emily, eating her ramen. In Japan you are allowed to make slurping noises when eating noodles.

This is Craig, Emily's boyfriend, eating Curry flavoured ramen.

Many ramen restaurant also serves Gyoza (Japanese pan-fried dumpling, originated from China) and people order this with ramen. Main ingredients are ground pork, cabbage and green leek.

I had a bowl of basic ramen at Kansai International Airport (Osaka, Japan) before flying back to UK!

Well, talking about Ramen really make me feel like eating one so I have just made one for myself! Here is a quick recipe for lazy cook.
I quickly marinated salmon fillet with soy sauce with ginger, wrapped it with foil and oven roasted for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut little bit of green and red peppers and onions into strips and fried them for garnish along with spring onion and red chilli while the ramen noodles are prepared.  Unfortunately this is a frozen ramen bought from local Chinese supermarket as you can't get fresh one where I live, however it is still delicious.

What's for Breakfast?

During the week, I don't have time to eat proper breakfast but if I am on holiday, I like to get up early enough to make sure I eat breakfast. I like to find out what locals eat for breakfast.

When I went to Rome, which was my very first trip to Europe, the hotel we stayed had a roof top terrace where you could relax and enjoy breakfast under the lovely morning sunshine, far away from bustle and hustles happening on the streets in Rome.  I was really thrilled to find that a hot chocolate was available for breakfast as till then I never thought such thing was allowed and thought how great to be an Italian being able to enjoy delicious hot chocolate with breakfast croissant every morning.

Then about 6 - 7 years ago we went to Madrid where my husband introduced me to the delight of Spanish breakfast,  Pan con tomato (bread with tomato), which is simply rubbing a garlic clove across the surface of toasted bread and mashing a tomato until the juice and seeds coat it. You then drizzle some olive oil and salt over top.

In Barcelona it is called Pa amb tomaquet (in Catalan language) and it looks and tastes delicious!

We went to "La Boqueria" last October (2011), Barcelona's famous food market on La Rambla, for breakfast. We sat at a counter and ordered Pa amb tomaquet with strong coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Some of airline flight meals are quite good. These are Emirates's breakfast between Glasgow and Osaka flights via Dubai (December 2011 - January 2012).

English breakfast (vegetarian option)

Japanese breakfast - grilled salmon,  egg roll, vegetable, rice and pickles.

We also had some breakfast at Frankie & Benny's, Glasgow Airport before boarding (December 2011).
 I like sitting at window booth, watching flights coming in and out, looking forward to our on-ward journey abroad.

For meat eaters...

And for non meat eaters!

In Japan, you can go to Starbucks if you want, or can go to local Japanese coffee shop to order a "morning set" that usually comes with thick toast, small salad, boiled egg and a cup of coffee.

Or you can eat a typical Japanese breakfast. Grilled salmon, rice, variety of pickles including Umeboshi (pickled plums - shown below in the middle) which is very very sour, and sometime, if you are in Osaka, Korean Kimuchi (spicy cabbage pickles - shown below, orange vegetables in the back, colour comes from chill so you can imagine this is spicy!).   Typical Japanese breakfast can also include "natto" (shown below, behind rice, brown beans with chopped spring onions and soy sauce), which is fermented soybeans, rich source of protein.  This can be however rather an acquired taste because of its strong smell and slippery texture with sticky and gooey strings.

When we went to Las Vegas in year 2006, we had poached eggs with smoked salmon on top of hush brown for breakfast at Luxor Hotel.

However, my favourite breakfast is the one that my husband has made for a Sunday breakfast. He said this is Gordon Ramsey's recipe with toasted soda bread and scrambled egg with little bit of from age frais.  I am hoping that he will make this again for this Sunday after reading my blog! (hint, hint!!!)