nihon.curry.rice

a crazy friday. not an optimal working from home day. it starts with a breaking news at work that our practice lead is leaving the company. then another unreasonable request that sent in yesterday evening and expecting thing to be done today while the person who is in charge is on vacation and his back-ups too! then another escalation because of something happened between a frenchie and an indian, i was caught right in between...
anyway, thanked God is friday! i did quite a lot of things in the kitchen despite of not a real good working day for me. i made tamago yaki and baked some carrot cupcakes for tomorrow sailing trip... i have a date with mr sunshine, i just hope that he is showing up tomorrow...
and i cooked japanese style curry rice for the first time!

it's quite easy to cook though, the recipe requires a lot of onion and then potatoes and carrot, the curry paste is like a block of chocolate, all i need to do is to make sure it get melted and thickened after the constant stirring.

and when johannes is home, he grilled some tonkatsu, instead of pan fried, he opt for grilling - a healthier option!

it's a simple and delicious meal but now that i am done with my dinner, i feel extremely thirsty... i think the cube of curry paste has too much msg in it, but it's okay as i am drinking green tea now to quench the thirst...

need to rest early tonight, tomorrow will be an early start!

have a nice weekend, everyone!

summer.vacations.booked

finally i have sorted out my summer vacations (i am taking three weeks off starting mid august). it's going to be a tale of three cities of which the first two i will be venturing alone... yes, ALONE! but travelling alone doesn't mean that i will be alone all the way, it's always a good way to meet up people along the way...

my first city tale will be... well, i am not going to be specific (you can guess from the picture if you can) but i managed to get a bargain westbound air ticket from my love and hate airline klm... so will be spending a lovely 5 days in that city.

next, i will be heading east to a city which technically made up of two cities (hint), again a lone ranger trip and am really looking forward to soak in the bath and experience a different culture and nation for the first time.

finally a trip that consists of both of us, a driving trip south bound. i just booked a week fully furnished apartment by a very nice sandy beach, it is kind of short stay holiday resort with indoor swimming pool, sauna and self catering... it will be a week of relaxation, sea and sand, hopefully the weather will do us justice and mr. sunshine will show up every day..... i am also looking forward to savour the seafood and fresh catch from the sea...

besides the three trips, the prologue of my vacation is starting with us going for a day sailing this saturday, together with a group of friends we chartered a sailing yatch for the whole day. then with a girlfriend of mine visiting us next weekend, it going to be a day of oyster catch at zeeland...

between my first and second city trip, i am also planning to squeeze an overnight or day trip to visit a big antique market... perhaps i am too ambition??

well, it's summer, so i am allow to pamper myself a bit, making sure i get enough of sunshine index and tan before i know the autumn will sneak in silently....

viva summer vacation!!

my.new.hairstyle

what do you think of my new hairstyle? it has the japanese magic touch to it!

my hairdresser is karino-san, he is new kid in the block, arriving dusseldorf just 3 months ago and staying for a 3 to 4 years contract term. he is originally from sapporo but has been working and living in tokyo for over 10 years. with my limited japanese and his limited english, we were able to communicate, at least he is sharp in hair fashion and knowing i am in for a bob cut and show me the right hairstyle in the magazine in spilt seconds...

living in the western country, i never found a suitable hairdresser so far, somehow western hairdresser cannot manage asian my hair. the last satisfactory cut i last had was also from more than a year ago at my hometown where i transformed my long hair into bob cut.

the front view, i also had some coloring touch up done, price is about the same as in the netherlands...

rear view, a little bit of layering there

the hair cut itself is a little bit expensive than the usual chinatown salon, the coloring is about the same price... but the fact is i feel and look few years younger and that's something money cannot buy...

and the side view, there is a deep v cut at the side

i am not sure how to maintain this hairstyle, surely this is too difficult for the chinatown salon, neither will i try any western salon

perhaps an excuse for me to visit dusseldorf more frequently???

german.dusseldorf

well, the entire trip is not merely about japanese sights, scenes and food. we also ventured beyond japanese town to the famous shopping street in dusseldorf which is almost similar to omoteasando of tokyo if i insist to put a japanese tag to it....

we took the u-bahn to the k�, that how the street is called... here you see all the big names and people walking passed carrying brand name shopping bags....

we went into one or two big malls, doing a bit of window shopping, admiring things that are nice but not necessary...

inside the k� karrel, where we find the muji store, johannes got something from here and i like the simplicity and the black color from jil sander...

at midnight on saturday, i gave him a surprise gift for his 4-X birthday!! actually the whole weekend trip itself is to celebrate his birthday, so he wasn't expecting anything else besides the fact that he can shop liberally on the saturday :)!

on sunday, where all shops are closed in germany, we venture out to a rococo style castle just at the edge of dusserdolf

we were attracted by this big standalone mansion and approaching it for some photo shots

and i asked him to pose for a wall photo, but we were told off by an old germany lady basically asking us to stay away from this private compound in an unfriendly way....

then we arrived at the pink rococo style castle called schloss benrath

it has a beautiful and large garden in both french and english styles....

the french style sculpture between the castle and the well mend park

the mansion is overlooking a pond with some summer flowers/boarders and beyond are open fields...

at the other side of the castle with an english garden

there is some sort of fair going on just at the town of benrath, we walked around a little bit, finally see the typical german elements, the worsts grilling on the platform, the tea house with german cakes, the stall that selling the german sweets and biscuits and of course ample of beer stalls...

we went back to the city and took a stroll at the hoofdgarten - a nice park in the city with lots of greens and space...

and the trees lining nicely forming the shade

and of course we saw a german lady sun tanning herself in the park, that's how a typical germany should be in the summer!!

miso.ramen.kudasai

there are two ramen restaurants in japan dusseldorf that we kinda like, there are a couple more small eateries but not really specializing in ramen only like these two.  unfortunately one of them is closed due to summer vacation, so there is technically just one in town this trip...

this restaurant is known for the long waiting time, at peak hours there is always a line of human traffic waiting to get in....

again as japanese as it can be... like any typical ramen restaurant in japan, the seats/tables are cramp together, the smell of the ramen and the heat all come in one package as you dine in...

you can almost mistaken that you are in japan if not the visible currency sign in euro (€) instead of yen sign...

 

karagae - this shop has the best karagae so far....

gyoza - dumpling on offer, a portion of six at €2.4 whilst the regular price is €4.8... the offer is only on saturday...

my special miso ramen with marinated egg - it tastes really so so good, the soup is the best and i almost drink up the whole bowl....

 

johannes regular miso ramen, although we both ordered miso ramen but the taste of the miso and the soup is completely different, mine has a much stronger taste but both equally delicious

just before we return to the netherlands, we had our early dinner here again, this time we opt for outside terrace as i don't want to smell ramen as well after the meal and have to endure the journey home with the miso smell all over us...  i wanted something slightly different so i ordered this dipping noodle instead of the normal soup noodle.  and this is absolutely a delight, the noodle sprinkle and dancing in my mouth... the texture of the noodle is incomprehensible and absolute delight to the sensation of the mouth and appetite...

japanese.shopping

we came back to this street again after our breakfast at the hotel... the first discovery is a small bakery that selling freshly made daifuku

i was so tempted to try some but my stomach was completely full then... so i give it a miss...

then we saw this shop that selling japanese arts and crafts, there were already quite a lot of foreigners browsing through the items when we arrived...

there is also a wide selection of japanese ceramic and lacquer ware, of various quality and price...

then we crossed the street to a kind of bookshop but besides japanese magazines and comic, it also sells a full range of groceries

japanese soft drinks such as bottled tea, sake, hello kitty and snacks...

a full range of comic and a few machines for self shot photo and transform them into little stickers...

we walked further to the side street, here is another japanese bakery with a rather fancy name

bakery my heart

they have soft buns made of matcha or azuki red bean paste, they also sell the mentaiko baguette and the typical so called japanese style western sandwich such as one that wrap with port cutlet (tonkasu)...

although i was not hungry, but i couldn't further resist this... I can't recall the name anymore but basically is a typical summer snack made of flour, dust with matcha powder (green) or sesame powder (brown) and you dip it into the syrup before you eat it... a very common and refreshing summer snack that i ate everyday when i was in kyoto last year around the same time...

then we walked across the street to the two big koreans/japanese groceries stores...

a full range of japanese curry paste, we bought two pack so that we could have japanese curry at home soon...

a cold section from one of the grocery stores, displaying full range of konyaku, fish rolls, fish balls and even kimchi...

a full range of miso (white, red) from korea or japan, also a comprehensive selections of japanese pickles that can imagine ....

another full range of curry paste, from mild to hot, from paste to cube, from various cities in japan...

we both were thrilled to see onigri on sales here in another shop, it is really so so japanese as you can buy all sort of onigri from seven-eleven, family mart and different 24 hour convienient stores that exist on every streets and corners.... we both had a konbu onigri to munch on...

muij is not located in japanese town but at the famous shopping street called k�ningsalle... though muji has stores operate internationally but it is good to browse in one here, we both got a top from muji, just like the simplicity and the concept of this brand....

so what do you think of the japanese shopping experience here in dusseldorf, impressive?