Almost New Year.....

With the lunar new year coming up, many bloggers have been busy making new year treats. I don't usually bake for special occasions (other than birthdays) because they usually fall within some sort of busy period where I just can't find enough time to bake something and blog about it in time. Thinking I was going to have to miss out on yet another occasion, I resorted to reading about other people's blogs (erm..whilst supposedly studying..hehe), as I usually do anyway, until I came across pineapple cookies/tarts on almost everyone's blogs- which reminded me, that I had actually made them a while ago!!

I'm guessing that these cookies are a Malaysian thing because when I asked my parents about them, they had no idea what they were talking about. To them these are more similar to the chinese pineapple cookies they buy from asian supermarkets (I don't know if they're the same thing???)

I'd made these at the end of last year after reading about it. I chose this recipe and made it one afternoon before I went on holidays to give to my relatives. It was quite a risk, making something I'd never made before as I often fail the first time I try to make anything. But since I don't have a signature dessert or a favourtie recipe or anything, I thought I'd just give it a try. Luckily, they turned out perfect so I was able to box them and take them overseas- my relatives loved them!

When I got back to Australia, I made them again- to take photos (so I could blog about them) and, more importantly because we all wanted to eat them again! Unfortunately, they didn't turn out as good as the first time but still tasted great! me and my sister had a fun time rolling these into balls- whilst my mum had....errrr fun cleaning the burnt bits left on the saucepan after I cooked the pineapples. Oops.

Rolling them is a bit tricky at first but is extremely fun- the dough is very soft due to the large amount of butter which leaves your hand all oily after rolling them, whilst the pineapple filling is extremely sticky. My sister made a few oddly shaped ones- just so that we could tell they were hers! Not surprisingly, they were devoured very quickly- I completely understand the food bloggers obsession with these cookies, and why everyone makes them for new year! I'll definitely be making these again and again and again!

Nastar (Pineapple cookies)

from J's Kitchen

For the pineapple filling:
1 can (440 gr) crushed pineapple, DO NOT drain
150 gr sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

1. Dump everything into a medium saucepan. Cook until caramelised, mashing the pineapple gently.
2. Transfer into a bowl and cool. Shape into small balls and place on a baking paper-lined baking tray. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until needed.

For the cookies:
125 gr butter, chopped, cold
25 gr powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
150 gr plain flour
25 gr cornstarch

1. Mix butter and powdered sugar on medium speed. Do not overmix - we don't want to incorporate too much air.
2. Add yolk and mix well. Sift together flour and cornstarch. Mix on low until combined.
3. Take 10 gr of dough and flatten it. Place one pinapple ball on the center and enclose with the dough. Place on a lined baking tray - cover with plastic wrap if necessary, to prevent the cookies drying out. Repeat until dough is used up. Do NOT brush them with egg wash (recipe follows) prior to baking.
4. Bake in preheated 180 C oven for 10 minutes. Take out and brush with the egg wash. Return to the oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned.

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp milk
1 tsp honey

1. Mix together all ingredients in a small bowl. Make sure the honey is dissolved well and the mixture is no longer lumpy.

J.J Sushi

If you ever wonder how teenagers remain so skinny these days, it because they have terribly small appetites. On our school camp last year we got three sausages, a pile of mashed potatoes and some peas for dinner. The sausages were normal (I'm guessing pork?) thin sausages like the ones you get from the supermarket. Not the most interesting dinner, but what was surprising was that most of the girls didn't manage to finish it!

Which is why, half a year later, when my friend decided to take us to a sushi train, I was not surprised that they only had two dishes each. I was planning to go to Kansai that night, which is why I ate a minimal amount (just enough to supress my feeling of hunger) and I STILL managed to eat more than them.

Situated in Paramatta, it's not too close to the shopping centre, so it's not too busy, but that also means that the prices are not as high as, say, Sushi bay. All of the dishes are around the $3 mark, with the most expensive being $3.50 (I think). They also had many unfamiliar dishes, which I always find fun to try.

Seaweed Salad Sushi
I had warned my friends that I was to photograph their food. However, I still managed to miss the first dish. By the time I noticed, my friend had already finished half of it.....

Fried Mussels

A lover of fried foods, I decided to try this, just for the fun of trying something new (to be honest, I had no idea what this was until I looked at the menu). My friend warned me that it didn't taste good- I should have listened. You see, I forgot one very important thing when eating at sushi trains- the fried foods have steam on their covers when they're hot. The lid to this dish? Was clear. Absolutely no water vapour at all. Consequently, the mussels were cold (no, not even warm) and hard. Yes. Hard.

Terriyaki Sushi

It took my friend about 10 minutes before picking her first dish. Because she sat there, intent on getting a plate of terriyaki sushi. It took ten minutes to find one, and there weren't any after that. How lucky!

The sushi was quite large in size (compared to the other sushi) and not too bad for the price. It also took a LONG time for my friend to finish, and it was very very messy. Nevertheless, we had a very fun time photographing and videoing her eat the sushi (which was too large to fit in the mouth at once) with chopsticks (let's just say, her chopstick skills were, errr....non existent =P)

From what I heard though, the sushi was quite delicious. But then again, terriyaki will always please =] It did however, leave my friend feeling very full- so full that she was contemplating whether or not to get a second dish.

Fried Prawn Inside Out Roll

After the not so great experience with the fried mussels, I decided to try another of their fried dishes- this time, making sure that the lid was covered in water vapour. This however, did not ensure that the fried prawns were hot- they were still warm but not as hot as I had expected. Nevertheless, they were crunchy and the fried prawns with lettuce and mayonnaise was a nice combination.

Seafood Croquettes

Recommended by my friend, they decided to order on each, me skipping out because I'd already eaten two dishes. Although I did not know if they were hot they were(although I suspect they weren't) , they must have tasted good becuase it's something that my friend orders each time she comes here. They didn't look too bad either!

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

A meal is never complete without something sweet, and this japanese cotton cheesecake was the perfect way to finish this one. I've never had dessert at a sushi train, mainly because I've never been to one with dessert (no, fruit does no count). So I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was japanese cotton cheesecake on offer- something which I'd always wanted to try. It was really good- it tasted like a cheesecake, only with a texture like a sponge cake (although slightly less airy than a normal sponge cake).

J.J Sushi
3/188 Church St
Parramatta NSW 2150
(02) 9891 1399

All you can eat Japanese food.....

If you've ever read the 50 or so reviews of Kansai on eatability, you'll notice that they're very varied. Many have said that they've had good experiences, many say they've had terrible. Lucky for me, every time we've been here, it's been brilliant even though the food is often inconsistent- not so much in quality, but in what you actually get.

The dinner all-you-can-eat offer is $38 a head-which is about the most our family will ever spend on dinner (we usually come here for our birthdays). There's also another option of $28 per head, which excludes the hot pot and sashimi boats, but it's not as fun! They give you their usual menu and you can order whatever you want. Which is great because unlike buffets, you not have to get up (haha....we're so lazy) and the food is also hot and freshly made!

Sashimi Salad

The sashimi salad is great- it's one of our favourties which we order everytime. You can't really see in the picture, but they give a generous amount of sashimi with the vegetables- usually salmon, tuna and kingfish. But what makes this so good is the dressing- it's a special japanese salad dressing which tastes slightly like soy sauce, only ten times better!



The sashimi salad is so good that we re-order it. The second one is much larger than the first- see what I mean about the inconsistency? haha. But it tasted the same.... which is all that matters =]

Gyozas

The gyozas are pretty good. Although you order from a menu, they let you choose how much you want of everything- we order 8 pieces for the four of us. They're pretty good, and they all get eaten quickly (as they taste better when hot) but they're not the best I've ever had.

Terriyaki Eel

The eels are delicious! Covered in the special terriyaki sauce, it tastes slightly different from the ones you buy from asian supermarkets- only better! You can order it with or without rice (personally, I think it tastes better with rice) but we order it without, since the hand rolls have plenty of rice in them already! And since this is an all you can eat- you don't want to fill yourself up with too much rice!

Salmon Roe Sushi

I'd only ever had salmon roe once, and that was quite a while ago so I'd forgotten what it tasted like. These salmon eggs remind me of nemo....which makes me feel slightly bad eating them. When you bite into it, each egg quirts out the liquid inside, which tastes rather like salty water. We each take a bite and then leave the rest for my dad, the only one who likes these.

Soft Shell Crab Hand Roll

This is another one of our favourites at Kansai. The first time we ordered it, we were dissappointed in the size of the crab, compared to the amountof rice in the hand roll. But being freshly fried, the soft shell crab is very crispy and tastes great with the mayo and the rice. We leave the rest of the rice to eat with the eel!

Salmon and Avocado hand roll

My sister orders this- I'd much rather have the soft shell crab! Again, there is a large amount of rice compared to the amount of filling but my sister loves it!

Terriyaki Salmon

This was the first time we ordered this, so we only ordered two pieces. It's a good thing we did too- it looks nothing like what it did on the menu. Notice how one piece is like 5 times the size of the other? haha. The salmon is overcooked- it didn't have the nice, soft texture you would expect of salmon- instead the texture is rather like that of chicken. The sauce is supposed to be teriyaki but just looking at the colour, it was obvious that it didn't really taste like it. We were therefore, very dissappointed in the dish.

Prawn and Vegetable Tempura

The tempura is the best! Like the gyozas, you can specify how many pieces you want and you also have the choice of prawn and vegetable. The first time we ordered, we were wondering why they didn't ask us WHAT vegetables we wanted but then it came and we realised that they don't fry pieces of specific vegetables but vegetables all shredded and mixed together. And it tastes so good! Mainly because, apart from the normal vegetables like carrots, it has a LOT of onions (I'm an onion lover!) The prawn tempura is also good- if the vegetable tempura is already so good, what can go wrong with the prawns? The tempura is freshly fried and is therefore very crunchy, and comes with a tempura dipping sauce, which is like light soy sauce. Needless to say, we re-order this a lot of times.

We try a couple of the sushi- the more unusual ones of course. We order tobiko, after looking at it on the menu and wondering what it was (we asked the waiter) and then found out that it was the normal orange fish egg-like things. We also order the scampi, as I had no idea what it was (well my dad told me is was raw prawn and since I'd never tried it before I might as well try right?). It wasn't as cold as it probably should have been (sashimi is supposed to be cold right?) and so it was kinda disturbing and scampi tastes really weird! It's kinda like the texture of most sashimi only it's a bit goo-ey. It wasn't all that great. Lastly there was the...umm...kingfish? I don't really remember (since I didn't eat it!)

The first sashimi 'boat' we ordered was not actually a boat but a bridge.....

Today there are three types of sashimi- tuna, salmon and kingfish. Sure, it doesn't look as pretty as other sashimi boats I've seen but as always the sashimi on the boat is fresh and cold (unlike the scampi...*shudder*) and tastes great! Once, we got a boat with only salmon and tuna though......

And then we order another one. And this time it was actually a boat!

For some reason, this boat was smaller than the first one (in terms of the number of pieces of sashimi)- we were sure we'd ordered large again! But oh well.

Teriyaki beef

This is much more like teriyaki then the salmon was. The beef is nice and tender. It's nice to have something diffferent, something not seafoody.

Lastly, there's the seafood hot pot. It doesn't look like much- the first time we came here, we didn't order it because it seemed like a huge pot of udon noodles. Besides, eating everything else makes you too full to order a huge hot pot. But out of curiosity, we ordered one on another visit and it was so good, we order it everytime!

There are three choices of hot pot on the menu, seafood being the most expensive option. You get a choice of either a miso or chilli broth. Since us kids can't really stand hot foods, we always go with the miso. What you get inside the hot pot really depends on the day- but there's usually a couple of mussels, prawns, and a huge octopus which then shrinks to normal cooked octopus size after is cooked. It's really cool to watch the octopus shrink! On this occasion, there was also soft shelled crab- but it seemed like so much of a waste as it didn't taste all that great in soup. There's always salmon fish heads underneath the udon, which make the broth taste seafoody (in a good way though). We usually drink a lot of the miso, instead of ordering miso soup. After eating a lot of sashimi, and other foods, it's always nice to have something warm!

At $22.50 a head (normal price), just the hot pot and the two sashimi boats we ate before (normally $58 each) add up to more than what we pay for our bill!

Kansai Japanese Restaurant

Hunter ConnectionBasement,

Shop B1, 7 Hunter St

Sydney NSW 2000

Phone (02) 9231 5544

www.kansai.com.au