The Tan Tans' Life Begins

This is the menu for Christmas Day itself at the Tan Tans' Minshuku. Days of celebration for the 2 Tan Tans. Christmas Menu i. Curry Puffs - one of the appetitizer.. I know.. it does not really fit into the christmasy mood ii. Smoked Duck Salad iii. Slow-baked Tomatoes iv. Roasted Vegetables Soup v. Roasted Spiced Ribs vi. Pomelo favoured baked drumstick vii. Ice-cream topped with Apple Crumbles, Walnuts and Rasin viii. A bottle of Red Wine Left: Slow Baked Tomatoes with the tomatoes cut halfway and baked with garlic slices and rosemary seasoned with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for more than 2 hours under 120 degrees. Center: Smoked Duck Salad. Smoked duck is bought off the shelve in the supermarket but Mrs Tan Tan had brought the taste to a higher level with the salad combination of apples, walnuts, parsleys, parmesan cheese, oilve oil, honey and rocket salad. Right: Roasted Vegetables Soup. Left: Roasted Spiced Ribs. This dish took Mr Tan Tan 3hrs to cook as the ribs need t...

This is the second time that the Tan Tans celebrated Christmas in Japan. Well but there is a twist to this year's celebration. The Tan Tans whipped up a fest in the comfort of Tan Tans' minshuku. Christmas Eve Menu - i. Pumpkin Apple Soup ii. Grilled Salmon iii. Shepherd's Pie iv. Baked Drumstick v. Baked Mushroom vi. Strawberries & Truffles vii. A bottle of Champagne Left: Baked Mushrooms with guidance from Jamie Oliver Center: The tastiest shepherd pie ever - Courteasy of Gordon Ramsay. Right: Baked drumstick from our neighbourhood supermarket - Shufu No Mise Apple-pumpkin soup - great combination of taste and perfect for starting the meal with The truffles and strawberries ended this great christmas eve dinner with both Tan Tans slightly tipsy from champagne overdose.

haha.. this is one of the blog that is like almost 2 months late.. The Tan Tans conducted another cooking class in an Elementary Sch for the parents of some kids. Menu - Roti John and Agar Agar with coconut milk. Well, Roti John is very easy to make and typical of Singaporean food and the Tan Tans felt that it will be perfect for kids too - and it turned out. Great! The kids stirring the ingredients including onions, minced beef, pepper, salt together with the eggs. Everyone enjoying the end products.

Ha ha ha... Finally, with all the hard work and sweat put into gardening, the little garden of Tan Tans' is ready for harvest. And by little, I literally mean it. Well, we are harvesting the mini-daikon (radish) And as we harvest the daikon, the familar childhood song was sang . . . ba rou po, ba rou po, hey yo hey yo, ba bu dong... And here is a satisfied Mrs Tan Tan with the harvest.. and a not so satisfied Mr Tan Tan with the ultra small daikon. So.. what is the fate of the daikons harvested? A wonderful pot of daikon soup of course!

10 ways how Christmas celebrations are different in Japan 1) It is not a holiday. Sigh. 2) There are no turkeys. They are not even sold in the supermarts. 3) Instead, lots and lots of chicken, grilled or fried, can be found. We even heard from that people here like to eat KFC during Christmas. 4) Christmas cakes can be found everywhere, from the supermarts to the convenience stores. 5) Sashimi, sushi, tempura and even Chinese food (chili prawns etc) are often served at Christmas parties 6) You can count the number of times you receive a "Merry Christmas" greeting 7) You don't even get Christmas cards. Actually I received one. 8) Christmas songs are sung in Japanese. 9) Gift exchange is highly uncommon. As I have learnt from the kids and adults I work with, most of the presents are given by parents to their children, who double up as Santa Clauses and leave presents by their children's beds while they are asleep on Christmas eve. 10) It is cold, with no central heating...

While normal curry puffs call for all purpose flour to be used in the making of the crust, unless you're in a really big town, you can hardly find this in the local supermarkets in the inaka of Japan. The only flour we could find was wheat flour, and Japan has it in 2 types. 強力小麦粉 (Strong flour), normally used for breads and 薄力小麦粉 (weak flour), normally used for cookies, tempura and cake. After a few experiments, we decided to use a combination of both to give our curry puffs a crispy yet fluffy texture. In terms of the filling, the seasoning is key and we used our own curry powder from Singapore. However, if you are in Japan, you can also use the Indian curry powder found here. Note though, that the curry powder here is usually a lot sweeter and so if you're using it, remember to 1) cut down or leave the sugar out totally from the recipe and 2)add more chili powder. Ingredients Filling 4-5 tablespoons of oil Onions (chopped finely) Potatoes (cooked in water and chopped) Chic...

In a town that is approximately 10 hours away from your home country, that is more than 2 hours away from the nearest city, that has no other restaurants serving anything apart from Japanese cuisine What do you do when you are craving for your favourite food from home? Simple. MYO. Make your own. Recently we have been cooking up such a storm in our Japanese kitchen we feel like we're training for the opening of our own restaurant in Singapore (that is, if we still have the stamina to do so when we join the active ageing community). Some recent creations in addition to the others we've already blogged about: - CNY peanut cookies - Banana cake - Curry puffs Recipes will be posted separately. So far, the snacks have proved to be quite a hit with our Japanese friends. So much so that we came up with a purrrfect fundraising idea. We would make and sell these snacks at the Owase's monthly market in February to raise funds for charity. Haven't decided exactly what, but we woul...

The trip to Koya-san (高野山) started as as early as 7am in the morning. It was a 5hr bus ride to Mount Koya passing by Matsusaka, Iga, Nara etc. It was a great ride as we were greeted by great scenery along the way. Left: Sunrise Right: Mountains full of autumn colours. A brief on Koya-san. Founded in the 8th century (Tang Dynasty) by Kukai (空海) or Kobo-Dashi (弘法大師) to spread the Esoteric school (密教) of Buddism after he spent 2 years in China's Qinglong Monastery (青龍寺) and gained the knowledge. Located in a 800m high valley and surrounded by 8 peaks, it was said that when viewed from the top, it resembled a lotus in full bloom. Thus from Koyasan, Shingon sect buddhism of Esoteric school spreaded throughout Japan. In its peak years, Koyasan had over 1,500 shrines and temples in an area of approx 6km length and 3km wide. Currently, Koyasan has over hundreds of shrine and more than 500,000 graves spreading over 2km and includes the graves of famous fedual lords as well founders of corp...