This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about delicious Hainanese Chicken Rice!
Sometimes I cheat, and it’s ok. 🙂 I cheated with this Hainanese Chicken Rice and had so much fun with it!
#1, I used a ready made spice mix from Asian Home Gourmet: Spice Paste for Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice.
#2, I cooked the entire meal in a rice cooker! 🙂
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This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about a fantastic Korean side dish called Bellflower Root Side Dish!
Hands up if you are excited by BANCHAN! I have 2 hands up way up and I hope hands are going up everywhere! 😊
Banchan are the side dishes served at Korean meals. One of the most popular Korean banchan is the Bellflower Root Side Dish aka Doraji Muchim.
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This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about Tilapia seasoned with delicious Hot Yuzu Sauce!
Are you ready for your taste buds to go zing?! Then try this absolutely delicious Tilapia with Hot Yuzu Sauce!
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This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about super delicious Samgyupsal. 🙂
Samgyupsal aka Grilled Pork Belly.
What could be easier?
1. Grill pork belly.
2. Place on top of a soft lettuce leaf
3. Top with ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste for meat), green chili, and garlic cloves
4. EAT!
You can use mild or spicy ssamjang, whatever works best for you. There is an assortment of ssamjang available on Amazon. If you’d like to purchase on Amazon please click here. Otherwise, you should be able to find it at your local Korean or Asian markets.
When I told my mom I was making grilled pork belly, she laughed and said she likes to watch videos of Korean people eating samgyupsal. She says they load up their lettuce leaves big time with the toppings and their mouths open so BIG to enjoy these! She made me laugh.
I think I’ll make some more and try to emulate these Koreans. 🙂
Please try this delicious meal you will absolutely love this taste of Korea!
Korean Soft Tofu Broth With Shrimp
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Cheers!
Grace
This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about how to make Ram-Don from the film Parasite!
Have you seen the Oscar Best Picture Winner of 2020, the Korean film Parasite?
I didn’t know what this film was about before watching…however I knew that we weren’t in for something “normal” because we have seen two films recently by the director Bong Joon-Ho which were NOT what we expected.
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This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post raves about Vermont Curry With Chicken!
Tonight I made Vermont Curry for the first time. I have read that Vermont Curry is Japan’s most popular curry. I have tried this before at my church. Every so often the church serves this curry for lunch and I’ve always really enjoyed it but never made it myself. So I already knew I would like it (love it!) but the big question for me is why is Japan’s most popular curry called Vermont Curry?
The packaging states “Curry With a Touch of Apple and Honey.” I will try to summarize but it seems this comes from a book called “Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide to Good Health”. From the sevendaysvt.com website: “In the book, the author Doctor Jarvis asserted that “honegar,” a mixture of honey and apple cider vinegar, was a miracle cure-all that could combat everything from arthritis to diabetes to heart disease. Later the health fad sparked by Jarvis’ book eventually made its way to Japan, where, according to the House Foods rep (manufacturer), it became known as the “Vermont Health System.” And so, in 1963, Vermont Curry was born as an effort to capitalize on that craze.”
The ingredients you will need to make Vermont Curry With Chicken include chicken, potato, carrot, and onion. After sautéing the chicken and softening the vegetables, you simply will add water and the curry blocks. After simmering for a few minutes you have a delicious Japanese curry and a fantastic taste of Japan!
Look for the Vermont Curry in your local Asian Market, or you can order it here on Amazon. There are varying levels of spiciness including mild, med hot, and hot. I used the hot version, which really isn’t all that hot in my opinion but still delicious! Check out the list of ingredients on the back of the package (see below), and if you are happy after seeing that give it a go! It’s truly delicious!
I garnished my Vermont Curry With Chicken with some green onions and my new favorite Japanese spice Nanami Togarashi. Best served with rice or even pasta!
Nanami Togarashi is a Japanese 7-spice blend includes red chile pepper, roasted orange peel, yellow and black sesame seeds, Japanese pepper, seaweed, and ginger. You can use this to spice up ANYTHING, but it is particularly great on Yurinchi Chicken, rice, and ramen…YUM! You can get it here on Amazon.
I hope you will give Vermont Curry With Chicken a try! You can also substitute other proteins such as beef or pork if you wish. Enjoy this delicious taste of Japan!
Easy and Delicious Gyudon Japanese Beef Bowl
Arigatōgozaimashita!
Grace
This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post raves about Instant Asian Noodles Soup With Hoisin Pork!
We recently returned from a trip to Japan. The people, the places, and the food were incredible.
I had joked with my husband that when we returned from Japan we would be eating instant ramen noodles. Instant ramen noodles are known as a staple of broke college kids. So I was joking about this because we were spending quite a bit of money during our trip and I thought instant ramen would be all we could afford when we returned…but I would be happy because I love them!
It’s awesome to have packets of instant Asian noodles to fall back on when feeling a bit lazy to cook or when broke LOL. I did manage to roast some pork butt though to add to the noodles…low and slow for around 4 hrs simply basting with Hoisin sauce every 30 minutes until it fell apart. I brought some to my mom today and she gave me thumbs up so I was happy.
You won’t believe how EASY it is to make the most DELICIOUS MELT IN YOUR MOUTH HOISIN PORK! All you need is pork butt and Hoisin Sauce…can you believe that!?
I roasted a 2 lb pork butt slathered all over with Hoisin sauce for around 4 hrs on 250-275F. I turned it over every 30 minutes and basted with more Hoisin Sauce until it came out with this beautiful color and was totally FALL APART TENDER. The sauce I recommend is Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce which is a wonderful option click here to purchase on Amazon.
Sliced hoisin flavored melt in your mouth pork, eggs, enoki mushrooms, and green onions were added to Samyang Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup for last night’s dinner and it really hit the spot.
Instant Asian Noodles make a great base for a fantastic meal! Yes they are high in sodium and contain some other ingredients that may not be the best for us, however, time to time I love to indulge as a special treat because really they are so very very tasty and being half Korean I really can’t help myself!
Are you ready to try this? I used Samyang Hot Chicken Ramen Flavor Noodle Soup for this dish, but you can feel free to use your own favorite flavor. It’s all good! If you’d like to try the HOT Samyang Hot Chicken Ramen Flavor you can click here to buy it off Amazon.
Be advised the Samyang Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen is HOT HOT! I adore spicy foods so that is why I used this instant noodle pack. It’s super flavorful and if you like spicy foods I highly recommend you try these noodles!
If you use the Samyang noodles, you will need to prepare them slightly differently to package directions. Rather than dispose of most of the water that you boil the noodles in, you will instead keep the water and not drain. You’ll add the sauce packet to the water for a “soup” rather than stir fry as the packet instructions state.
Easy and Delicious Gyudon Japanese Beef Bowl
Cheers!
Grace
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We recently returned from a trip to Japan. Our memories are full of this amazing country and its people, places, and of course food.
The very first meal we enjoyed was at an Okinawan restaurant in Narita, Japan. We had no idea when we walked in that it was an Okinawan restaurant. LOL The very first dish we tried was Okinawan Carrots, aka Ninjin Shirishiri.
We stumbled into the restaurant, realized they only took cash so had to go get money from an ATM. Once we returned, we were given a menu only in Japanese. Then when the waiter realized we had no clue what we were looking at, he presented us a menu in 4 languages (including English) with delicacies such as “3 Kinds of Fish Guts Pickled in Salt.” LOL
I have no idea how the Okinawan carrots ended up on our table. Maybe we ordered it? But I think the waiter just brought it over for us to enjoy while we were trying to figure out the menu! Whatever, it was delicious!!
My husband Steve ordered a delicious Pork stir fry with Vegetables after perusing the menu. I then tried to explain to the waiter what I wanted to order and we continued snacking on the delicious carrots. In the end, only the pork stir fry showed up, and unfortunately we couldn’t communicate with our waiter so my order never arrived! Never mind, I was just happy to be in Japan so all was good!
I was still dreaming about the Okinawan Carrots when I returned home. So I couldn’t wait to make this recipe and share it with others it’s THAT GOOD!
Just a very few simple ingredients are all you need for this most delicious of dishes! Carrots, egg, canned tuna, soy sauce, sesame oil, pinch of salt and pepper, and water! Can you believe that’s it?!
The only fiddly part is peeling and julienning the carrots. Click here for a tutorial on how to julienne carrots. 🙂
The method to cook these is simply stir fry to soften the carrots, then add tuna, the seasonings, and finally stir in a whisked egg. Oh, and garnish with green onions on top!
Are you ready to try these? I promise you won’t be able to stop eating these they are so delicious! It’s also a very healthy and nutritious snack!
Easy and Delicious Gyudon Japanese Beef Bowl
Delicious Japanese Pork Katsudon and Rice Bowl
If you’d like to come along on this food journey with me, please sign up to get the latest recipes and inspiration for you to expand your food comfort zone! It’s an incredible journey, please join me by signing up here. 🙂
Cheers!
Grace
This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post raves about Chinese 5 Spice Roast Chicken!
Roast chicken is one of my favorite foods, and I’m sure many people will agree. It’s delicious, easy to make, versatile and super budget friendly to boot.
My husband picked up this 5 lb bird at Trader Joe’s the other day, and I tried out a new seasoning (Asian style) for the chicken which turned out absolutely fantastic.
The seasoning consists simply of soy sauce, Chinese 5 spice, and honey. You can click through to purchase these on Amazon. After slathering olive oil on the chicken I simply basted it with that seasoning mixture and got it started. It is a bit hands on because I turned it quite frequently and continued basting with the dripping as well as more of the soy/honey/5 spice mixture.
The result? Succulent, beautifully colored and delicious roast chicken. Garnished with green onions and some sriracha sauce and served with rice, it was a very comforting and awesome meal.
By the way, do you know what makes up Chinese 5 spice? If not, it’s star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and black pepper. The intoxicating aroma is still around in my house today, as is leftover chicken, which won’t last long. Toby my St. Bernard will make sure of that. LOL
I hope you will give this recipe a try! Chinese 5 Spice Roast Chicken just may become your next favorite roast chicken. 🙂
Classic Filipino Chicken Adobo
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Sundays are movie nights at our home. Typically I cook a dinner inspired by the film we watch…very often the food is from the country in which the film is set. The star of the meal was this Korean Spinach Side Dish, or Sigeumchi Namul.
This week I chose a film called Okja, which is a Netflix Original film. My little bit of research told me that it it was mostly set in South Korea (yay! I get to make Korean food for dinner!), and the summary of the film was: A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend -- a fascinating beast named Okja.
Little did I know that I was in for a roller coaster ride of emotions with this film. It addresses the special bond between humans and animals, corporate greed, animal cruelty, environmentalism, and animal activism. Touching and hard to watch at times, this film is amazing and thought provoking and although a tough watch at times I feel better for having seen it and have much to ponder this week. It is a powerful film, not for everyone. And may I say the young Korean actress, Ahn Seo-hyun was SUPERB in the lead role as a young farm girl who loved her Okja enough to do anything and everything she could to bring her best friend back home. The film competed for the Palme d’Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
On to the food. We had chicken bulgogi..easily cooked up with Bibigo Korean BBQ sauce. The star of the meal for me was the Sigeumchi Namul, or Korean Spinach side dish which I made. This side dish is so very easy and so very tasty. You add blanched spinach to a mixture of garlic, Korean red pepper flakes, green onion, toasted sesame seeds, sesame oil, and soy sauce to taste. Click on the highlighted text which will take you to Amazon where you can find some of the ingredients needed for this dish.
We were all gulping it down…even Toby loved it!
This Korean Spinach side dish is a very popular banchan in Korean cuisine. Banchan, or side dishes, are an essential part of Korean meals. They are brought out in small portions, meant to be shared, and served with rice.
The method to make this couldn’t be easier! After blanching baby spinach in hot boiling water, squeeze out all the water. You will then combine all the ingredients (except for the spinach), and then gently mix in the spinach by hand.
I tend to favor spicy foods, so I’ve included quite a bit of Korean red pepper powder (gochugaru) in this recipe. If you prefer a non spicy version, simply leave out the gochugaru or reduce the amount to your taste.
Also please feel free to adjust the amount of soy sauce that you use in this recipe. I used around 1 tbsp of soy sauce, but by all means reduce this amount if too salty or add a bit more for more salty seasoning.
I really enjoyed this Korean Spinach Side Dish! Please view the video below and remember to eat this with chopsticks! 🙂
Serve with rice, and as an accompaniment to your next fabulous Korean meal!
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