Green Tea, Pepsi, and Okonomiyaki

Some snacks I ordered from J-List came in yesterday. I bought some Okonomiyaki Sauce, Green Tea poweder, and BoaBab Pepsi. The Pepsi is a limited edition flavored with the BaoBab fruit from Africa. I haven't tried the green tea yet, but the Pepsi was really good. I wish I had ordered a couple more.

And of coarse if you have Okonomiyaki sauce, you need some Okonomiyaki to put it on. I made it using this recipe at Okonomiyaki World. They also sell ingredient kits to make your own. I made mine using some sausage, ham, mushrooms, and green onions. I had enough to make 3, but they are kind of hard to flip. The one pictured is the only one I didn't have break apart when trying to flip it.

Anyone else ever tried making this or another dish they heard about in manga or anime? Which manga or anime was that made you want to try it? I think it was Ranma 1/2's Ukyo character that first got me wanting to try the dish.



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Sesame Seed Balls

I decided to try making some sesame seed balls today. These are Chinese sweets made from rice flour and sweet bean paste. One of the Chinese buffets here, Eastern Empire, sometimes serves these on their buffet. But because they don't serve them all the time I wanted to see how hard they were to make at home. They are actually quite easy. I used this recipe from About.com

More after the jump....



Using the recipe linked above your dough should look something like this. This picture is after I had already made some balls.


Make a ball of dough about this big.

The recipe suggests dipping the ball in water after you've made it and filled it with the bean paste to help the sesame seeds stick. I found it better to wet my fingers before making the ball, because it helped keep the dough from sticking to my hands and sealing the ball around the paste.



Using your thumb make an indention in the dough to put the bean paste in.


Put a level teaspoon of sweet bean paste into the indention, and then form the ball around it.


Roll the ball around in the sesame seeds and then deep fry per the instructions in the recipe. The recipe says turn them for 2 minutes then press them on the side of the pan until golden brown and tripled in size. Altogether I think I cooked mine for about 5-7 minutes 4 at a time. I suggest trying one or two by themselves and then cutting them in half to see if the dough is cooked through in order to get your timing down.

Sweet or Glutenous rice flour and sweet bean paste can be found at most Asian markets. You can also find sesame seeds there.

The bean paste is actually good by itself, and since the beans are sweet and mashed into a paste your kid won't know they are beans. The can even suggest serving the paste on ice cream.

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Ronin Japanese Restaurant

Went to a new Japanese restaurant that opened out by the mall in the building that used to be R.J. Gator's. The name of the restaurant is Ronin. It has both a Hibachi grill and a sushi bar. I ate at the sushi bar, and the meal was really good.

More after the jump....



I bought a lobster and filet mignone combo plate, which came with soup and salad. I ordered a similar meal at the Tokyo Steak House in West Monroe. Ronin's serving of soup and salad were much larger than Tokyo Steak House. Both soup and salad were really good.


I had the filet cooked medium, and it was extremely tender. It was very good by itself and did not need any of the sauce they served on the side for it. The lobster was also perfectly cooked, and while good by itself was even better with the sauce. The fried rice was great as well.


From their sushi menu I ordered eel, yellowtail, and king crab. The king crab wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Possibly because it had been frozen and tasted somewhat watery from being only partially thawed. The eel and yellowtail were delicious though.


There are 4 Japanese Restaurants in the Monroe/West Monroe area that I know of, and I've eaten at all at least once. In my opinion Ronin is tops. In terms of entree's I'd probably rank Tokyo Steak House 2nd, Kyoto 3rd, and Samurai 4th.

In terms of sushi the ranking would be Ronin, and Samurai tied for 1st, Eastern Empire Buffet 2nd. I haven't had the Sushi at Tokyo Steak House so I'll rank it 3rd, and Kyoto dead last. I threw Eastern Empire in the rankings for Sushi because even though they are a buffet their sushi was far superior to what I had at Kyoto.

Anyone else in this area eaten at any of these places? What was your opinion of them?

Exterior photo from Urbanspoon
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Miso Soup

Tried my hand at making some Miso Soup this week. It's really simple provided you can find a store that sells the ingredients. I got the recipe out of the Manga Cookbook I recently bought. If anyone is interested this was the recipe.

2 cup water
1 1/4 tablespoon instant dashi stock
2 tablespoon miso paste
1/3 block tofu
1 green onion
1 sheet nori cut into strips

The dashi and miso paste can be found at asian food stores. If you live in the Monroe, LA area there is one on Desiard called Bao Bao.

Add the dashi to the water and bring to a boil. Next stir in the miso paste until dissolved. Cut the tofu into blocks then add the tofu, nori, and green onions and enjoy.

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