Thursday 1 November 2012

Sushi or Kimbap(Gimbap)?

Most people enjoy Japanese and Korean food a lot. One of the similarities of these two is their delicious seaweed rolls. 

 In Korean Culture, seaweed rolls are called Kimbap(Gimbap), normally with more vegetables and meat, making this dish a starter of sorts. The Kimbap is also visibly larger than normal sushi and resembles more of the Japanese Uramaki, but of course with the rice inside and the seaweed as wrapping.
 
 On the other hand, the Japanese culture has sushi with only a single type of vegetable or meat in it, thus making it more of a side dish. Sushi usually comes with salmon, cucumber or tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette). 
 

Sushi and Onigiri

Here you can see I have tried to make sushi and onigiri at home:


Just by looking at it, you can see that my sushi and onigiri would fail in terms of aesthetics. 

 Overall, the onigiri looks like a triangle, but the sushi does not look like one made in a restaurant. The seaweed looks uneven because the warm rice had melted it. 
 
Also, the amount of rice was enough for a sushi but the filling was like a Gimbap, thus the title. I couldn't decide whether I made sushi or gimbap?

 And a nice tip, you really need to slice the carrots and cucumber nicely, if not when you put one into your mouth it's going to be a bit tough to chew :)


If you want to try it out yourself, try this D-I-Y onigiri kit (Man Jun Onigiri Nori Rice Ball Triangle Sushi Seaweed Wrappers, 40 Sheets) that I used to shape the onigiri. I found that plastic triangle very handy:

Note: Due to the risk of BPA (bisphenol-A) leaching from plastic into food, I did not use the plastic wrap. 

Stay safe and enjoy travelling to Japan or Korea :) in your own kitchen!

Sunday 20 May 2012

Week 1: Real Food Challenge: Two fruits and vegetables per meal

The Real Food Challenge (Week 1): Eat a minimum of two different fruits or vegetables (preferably organic) with every breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal.

Breakfast

Since we usually eat a hot breakfast like Chinese porridge, there's always a green veg or pickled veggies as accompaniment.

For the kids, I'd include diced tomato/bell peppers into our scrambled eggs, which the boy will eat as he hates tomatoes.

The girl loves tomatoes though with her bacon/ham and eggs :)


Lunch

The toddler will have no problem since she's always having a soft porridge like this colourful potato, carrot and celery porridge:

For lunch, I fixed this salad for myself during the first week of the "Real Food Challenge" , which is a protein + vegetable salad or 香肠 (sèlā).

Ingredients:
 Lettuce leaves (生菜, shēngcài)
 Cherry tomatoes (西红柿, xīhóngshì)
 Cheese sausages (香肠, xiāngcháng)
 Balsamic vinegar dressing (色拉调味料, sèlā tiáowèiliào?)

Method:
1. Tear up lettuce leaves into squares or strips.
2. Wash and half cherry tomatoes. You can also leave them whole.
3. Cut slits in the cheese sausages and grill them in the oven for 4-5 minutes.
3. Drizzle balsamic vinegar dressing all over the salad and dig in!

P/S I later realized that the cheese sausages are processed food but what choice does a working Mom have for now?

Dinner?

I had no problem having 2 vegetables for dinner when my ayi was around because she'd always cook a BIG plate of leafy greens...

Plus, we'd always have a type of fruit for dessert.

Hmm...looks like this Mom will have to do a bit more meal planning to achieve this goal.

Sunday 6 May 2012

The Real Food Challenge

This year, I turned 38 and my sweet babies presented me with this lovely heart-shaped ice-cream cake:


Celebrating my birthday with my two little ones got me thinking seriously about our food and health. Why?

More and more people are dying young from cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

I don't want to be part of the statistics - I want to be alive to watch my kids grow up.