Some tasty Japanese dishes!

So, a few weeks ago, one of my students very kindly sent me some wonderful gifts; some adorable handmade bags I can use while hiking, some stylish folders, some caramels (my favourite sweet flavour!) and some different instant foods; ramen, curry, butter chicken, and hayashi!

I’ve already used the bags while hiking, so I know they’re fantastic! But this blog is about some of those foods!
First, I decided to make the curry!

Getting sticky Japanese-style rice is a little tough around here, so this is closer to Indian-style rice (I think?) The grain is longer, and it doesn’t stick like the rice I’m used to in Japan, but the end result tastes the same! Look at this tiny rice cooker!

For me, I loooove beef in curry, so I picked up some. I realized after this was a bit too much… but that’s okay! More beef is always delicious!!

The curry was simple enough; it’s already made inside a bag. Some dialects of English call this a “retort” bag, but in North America, we usually just say “instant”. I could microwave it, but I wasn’t sure of the power of my microwave, and I didn’t want the bag to leak, so I decided to boil it instead.

I wasn’t sure which spices would be good with the curry, but I KNEW the garlic would be good. Garlic is good with anything! :D

I cooked up the beef, added it to the rice, and then poured the curry on top!

The curry had a gentle flavour, but it was definitely Japanese-style! We have Japanese-style curry here, but it’s mostly the curry roux, which is annoying to cook, so this was nice and convenient!

A few days later, I decided to make the ramen!

Some of you might remember from my previous blog in New York that Ichiran was my favourite ramen chain in Japan! (Not gourmet or high quality, but the flavour and experience was my favourite!) So my dear student was so considerate by sending me some of their instant product!

In a lot of ramen in Japan, a cut of pork called “chashu” is used. However, that style isn’t used here. I could prepare it that way, but maybe you all know, I’m too lazy for that! So I got some pork belly, and cut it into bite-sized pieces.

I didn’t want to change the flavour of the ramen or the broth at all, so I didn’t even add garlic this time!

The instant ramen was prepared as you might expect! Put the hard noodles in the boiling water, and wait a little bit. The broth was prepared in an unexpected way, though; usually I see a dry powder, but this stuff was liquid, oily, and fatty. But to make “tonkotsu” (pork bone) ramen, that’s to be expected, I guess!

There was spicy seasoning with it, which is usual at Ichiran, and the package warns me “Careful! It’s spicy!”
Normally, at Ichiran, I get level 8 or 10 spiciness, so I wasn’t afraid at all. ;)

The result was pretty tasty! It honestly was pretty different than what I ate in the restaurant, and not spicy at all! But it was still delicious, and the tiny spiciness from the special powder made my nose run just a little bit, just like back in Japan!

Thanks again to my dear student (you know who you are! :) ), this was a very pleasant surprise to receive, and I appreciate everything you, and all of you reading this, do for me! :D