humba

Been craving for Filipino food lately – actually, more like, I miss Papa’s cooking – so I cooked humba (slightly sweet adobo) using Japanese condiments – dashi, mirin, Japanese soy sauce, sesame salt, sesame oil plus wei pai, a Chinese flavouring that’s great for soup. The result, deliciously Filipino Humba, as if it was Papa who cooked.

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chahan champloo

Atsushi suddenly had the inspiration to cook chahan (fried rice) for us. He claimed it will be the best chahan in the world. True enough, it rivaled with my favorite chahan in Osho, a famous Chinese restaurant near Sakuragicho Station.

First attempt. Atsushi called it the “Rice of Chaos” because even he himself couldn’t understand its appearance. It may not look much but it sure is really good.

Yes, it-is-sticky. He added mochi kibi (glutinous rice additive) while boiling the rice hence when it cooked it was pretty sticky. We use brown rice at home by the way as (Atsushi says) it is healthier it being unrefined – philosophy is same as brown sugar being healthier than white, refined sugar.

First attempt was for dinner last night. Atsushi made his second attempt for lunch.

Love the taste. If I weren’t worried about my stomach getting bigger by the day (and no i’m not yet pregnant), I would have requested A to make another batch.

What made his fried rice better than the ones I did (and a rival or even better than Osho’s) is that he added this special soy sauce enriched with kombu (sea tangle) dashi which brought out the umami taste – salty and a teeny-weeny  bit sweet and sour. Truly delicious.

More chahan please!