Toyoko Inn Hotel Tokyo

I have been delaying this post for some time as I was busy trying different method in making soft buns =). Really hope that all Japan posts will be useful information for anyone who like to travel to Japan for trip. In this post, I would like to recommend the hotel we stayed during our trip to Tokyo last October. In fact, I have been staying in this hotel, Toyoko Inn for all my previous trips to Tokyo.

Toyoko Inn is one of the famous hotel chain in Japan and it has numerous of branch throughout whole Japan. Lately I also found out that, they also already spread their wings to Korea! As we all know, accommodation is not cheap at Japan especially in big metropolitan like Tokyo and normally the room size is pretty small. Fortunately, Toyoko Inn offers a decent room price with average of about 5900Yen per night (please check their website for latest rate).

Twin Room

What I like most about Toyoko Inn is that all the hotel is located close to the nearest train station which is important for free & easy traveler like us. Beside, the rooms are really really CLEAN and I just feel like home when staying in the hotel.

Like other hotel, every room come with a FREE internet access, electronic toilet and breakfast is included. Yes, they provide Japanese style breakfast together with western style. Love their breakfast to the max because they serve various flavours of onigiri with pickles and miso soup. What a hearty meal.

Breakfast at Toyoko - Onigiri with radish pickles, salad and miso soup

Another best part of Toyoko Inn is they have a complete room reservation system at their website with English language which make it easier for foreign travelers to reserve their rooms. Besides, for room reservation, no charges will be applied during online reservation, payment only require during check-in. This give us a flexibility for us to change the reservation in case of any changes in the itinerary.
However please do not abuse in using this facility! We should only reserve the rooms when our itinerary is confirmed and inform the hotel in advance in case of cancellation.

Besides, Toyoko Inn is offering a membership program whereby Toyoko Inn Club Card Members will get a 20% discount on Sundays and Holidays of the lodging country, and also 5% discount on weekdays and Saturdays! With this card you can accumulate points with number of nights at Toyoko and in return you could use the point to redeem a free night stay at Toyoko Inn.

Do visit their website for more information. Definitely a recommended hotel to stay when you are traveling around Japan!

Soft Sweet Bun - Worth a Try!

As mentioned in the previous post, I've been into bread baking frenzy mode. Was searching the best method to make a pillow soft bread texture. Made lots of bread loaves and buns within the month. In previous post, I posted a bread recipe using Tang Zhong method. I found that Tang Zhong method is a good recipe for soft loaves. However I found that Tang Zhong bread turn out to be slightly coarse and a little dense after a overnight. Not sure is it because of the weather at Melbourne (which is quite cold now) and because of that I continue to search recipe from the internet for a soft bread texture.

Finally I cam across to Cheah's blog and saw her post on Meat Floss bun using the gelatinized dough recipe. Her bun looks absolutely SOFT with a cotton look like texture. Got motivated by her post and decided to give it a try =). The result? Excellent! The bun are superb soft with cotton fine texture. I'm really impressed with the recipe and satisfied. This is indeed another recipe to keep beside the Tang Zhong method. Do give it a try. I'm sure you will never regret with it.

Soft Sweet Bun

Soft Sweet Bun Recipe


(A) Gelatinized Dough

1. 100g bread flour
2. 70 ml boiling water 

 Method:

1. Mix the bread flour and boiling water together till form a dough.
2. Cover the dough with cling wrap and place into the fridge for 12 hours.
3. Thaw the dough before adding it into the main dough mixture. 

(B) Main Dough

1. 400g bread four
2. 75g sugar
3. 2_1/4 tsp instant yeast
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 170ml cold water / cold milk
6. 1 egg
7. 75g butter

Method:

1. Mix all the wet ingredients (except butter) and place it into bread maker/stand alone mixer.
2. The follow by all the dry ingredients. 
3. Tear the gelatinized dough into small pieces and add in into the mixture. Draw a wall in the middle of the dry ingredients and put in the yeast.
4. Start mixing the dough using the bread maker (dough mode) / stand alone mixer. Kneading bread dough is not easy, therefore for this step, I used the bread maker to do the job. If you do not have a bread maker, you can use a powerful stand alone mixer like Kitchen Aid to knead the dough.
5. Add in the butter after 3-5 minutes of kneading.
6. Bread machine will knead the dough for 1 hour and do the 1st proofing for 1 hour. Different bread maker might have different settings.
7. When the dough is ready, poke a hole in the middle to release the gas. Knead the dough briefly and form the dough into a ball. 
8. Divide the dough into small size ball based on preferred size. Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 mins.
9. Shape the dough and place the buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let rise in a warm place until double in size.
10. Bake in preheated 180°C oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Hong Kong Style Sausage Bun

Lately I have been crazy into making bread after visited Christine's blog and saw her success in making homemade bread using special Tang Zhong method. Tang zhong is a technique origin from Japan to create soft and fluffy bread.

Another motivation into making bread is that because Asian style breads and buns are selling expensively back in bread shops in Melbourne. Haha! Thus, I get my husband to get me a brand new bread maker which only cost us aud $69 and there it goes my exploration in making bread =)

HK Style Sausage Bun

Tang zhong method involves cooking flour with water over the heat till the batter reaches 65°C as a starter dough. Basically here is the recipe for HK Style Sausage bun. For more details on the steps and more Tang Zhong bread recipe, you can visit Christine's blog.

HK Style Sausage Bun Recipe ( Tang Zhong method)

Ingredients:

(A) Tang Zhong / Starter Dough

1. 50g bread flour
2. 250ml water

Method:

1. Mix the bread flour and water together until dissolved without any lump.
2. Heat up the mixture on the stove with medium heat. 
3. Keep stirring the mixture till it start to thicken. Mixture is ready when the temperature reach 65°C or alternative way to recognize is when lines is observed at the mixture during stirring.
4. Cover the mixture with cling wrap and keep it in refrigerator. Let the mixture return to room temperature before using it. It can be kept for 3 days.

(B) Main Ingredient

1. 350g bread flour (high protien flour)
2. 55g castor sugar
3. 5g salt
4. 1 egg
5. 125ml milk
6. 120g starter dough
7. 5-6g instant yeast
8. 30g butter

Method:

1.  Mix all the wet ingredients (except butter) and place it into bread maker/stand alone mixer.
2. The follow by all the dry ingredients. Draw a wall in the middle of the dry ingredients and put in the yeast.
3. Start mixing the dough using the bread maker (dough mode) / stand alone mixer. Kneading bread dough is not easy, therefore for this step, I used the bread maker to do the job. If you do not have a bread maker, you can use a powerful stand alone mixer like Kitchen Aid to knead the dough.
4. Add in the butter after 3-5 minutes of kneading.
5. Bread machine will knead the dough for 1 hour and do the 1st proofing for 1 hour. Different bread maker might have different settings.
6. When the dough is ready, poke a hole in the middle to release the gas. Knead the dough briefly and form the dough into a ball. 
7. Divide the dough into small size ball based on preferred size. Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 mins.
8. Shape the dough into a slim roll and roll it over to the sausage. Place the buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let rise in a warm place until double in size.
9. Bake in preheated 190°C oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Last 5mins before the baking time end, brush in the egg wash on top.

Tokyo Must Eat Part 2: Ramen - Takoyaki -Yakitori!

Tokyo Must Eat - Part 2

Apologize for the long delay post on the Tokyo Must Eat Part 2 as I need some time to get through the numerous of photo that we snapped during the trip =). Hope you enjoy Tokyo Must Eat Part 1. As promised, below is the list of food that not to be missed when you are at the Land of Rising Sun! Hope you enjoy the photo.

List of Must Try & Eat
4. Yakitori
I guess everyone shall familiar with yakitori which also know as grilled skewer. It is a popular food among the Japanese especially as a snack with beer after long hours working in the office. There is a alley in Shinjuku with many small eatery shops selling yakitori and other small snacks. The alley was named as "Shinjuku Yakitori Alley". You could find different type of yakitori at this place ranges from different meat, seafood and also vegetables. Please bear in mind that most of these shops do not have any English or pictorial menu. It is truly a typical Japanese after work eatery area. Fortunately the shop that we went have a English menu and they charge a small amount of 200yen per person as entrance fees. We ordered a combination of 5 skewer and a yakisoba. Price is not cheap but worth a try. We enjoy the food with surround by the locals.

Yakitori - Chicken heart, meatball, gizzard, thigh meat, skin

Yaki Soba

5. Takoyaki
Takoyaki is also one of my favourite Japanese snack. I used to buy these balls from Jusco Mid Valley when I'm back in KL. Thus, I would never miss this snack when I saw this Takoyaki chain near our hotel. Made fresh, these balls really really yummy with generous of bonito flakes and mayonise on top of it. You could choose with different fillings. Typical fillings is with octopus, FRESH small octopus. Takoyaki is common in Japan and it can be found at any eatery stalls along the street. Worth a try!

Takoyaki

6. Ramen
Ramen! Ramen! I still miss the ramen that we had near our hotel so so so much. It taste so good and I remembered the first night we arrived at Tokyo, we immediately went straight the this ramen shop for a hot bowl of "char siu" ramen. It was so warm as the night was chill and after that we had a good rest after a long haul flight. For a nice bowl of ramen, it is not only the soup base and ramen play an important role. The char siu and the soft boiled egg are equally essential. Not many ramen shop could produce a good and tasty piece of char siu. Not in Malaysia nor Singapore. Char siu at Japan really taste different! The ramen shop have been my regular visit whenever I stayed at the hotel at Ninggyocho. I"ll post another post on the hotel we stayed in Japan, hopefully will be a helpful guide for one who plan to visit Tokyo soon.

Ramen

7. Oden
If you a steamboat / hot pot fans like me, then you must like oden. Oden is a Japanese winter dish that contains different type of ingredients such as fish cakes, shells, eggs, konyaku, daikon and more boiled in a soya based dashi soup base. Oden can be easily found at any 24 hours convenience store such as 7 Eleven or Family Mart. They are sold in food carts with skewers of the ingredients simmering in the broth. Don't underestimate by its look. It really taste much more better that it look.

Oden at Food Cart

Oden - Skewer of clam shell, konyaku, round fish cake. Yummy!

Glimpse of Melbourne City

City of Melbourne

Last week a friend of mine came to visit us at Melbourne and I got the chance to bring him for a 2 day tour at the Melbourne CBD. As he was a professional photographer back in Malaysia, I got a chance to learn up some "technique" from him on how to get a good nice shots. Below are some snaps of some famous landmarks in Melbourne.

Royal Arcade - View 1

Royal Arcade - View 2

Flinders Train Station - View from Southbank

Flinders Station

Southbank

City Circle - Free Tourist Tram

Government Offices near Parliament

 p/s: Tokyo Must Eat - Part 2 will come next (delayed for long time ;)  )

Seoul Soul - Nice & Cheap Korean Cuisine

Seoul Soul
Melbourne is always well known as home of various cuisines around the world. Korean cuisines is one of food that can be easily found in Melbourne and often served with authentically by Korean.

We found the Seoul Soul, a Korean tapas in Richmond after church service, hungry for lunch. I personally was impressed by it's slick interior design. Not only that, we also were attracted with their lunch set "Lucky Bucket" which looks interesting. Thus, we decided to give it a try. Let's the photos below do all the talking.

Nicely Interior Deco

Lucky Lunch Bucket - Beef Bulgogi

Bibimbap

We also notice that they serve BBQ meat in their dinner menu and we plan to drop by next visit for a try. =) Food taste at Seoul Soul was not bad and affordable. Definitely worth a try!

Seoul Soul
323 Victoria St
Abbotsford, VIC 3067
Tel: 0478 768 760
http://www.seoulsoul.com.au/

Food rating: 3.5/5 (This is based on my individual taste)

Sweet & Sour Chicken - Is it your favorite?

Sweet & Sour Chicken Recipe

I guess craving for certain food does not only apply for pregnant mummy but also to all the ladies at any time =). Sweet & sour chicken used to be our all time favorite dish when we are at Malaysia. But when I'm at Melbourne, I never cook it at home bacause I thought the cooking process will be tedious as I need to deep fry the meat and consume a lot of oil. But I was wrong, I just fry the meat within a small pot with just right amount of oil to cover the meat. It works!

I got this sudden craving which at one hot weather at Melbourne, when I was busy figuring what to cook for dinner of the day,I thought maybe I shall give it a try.  I have included 2 recipes here, one of them is using the instant sweet & sour sauce from Kantong which I found it taste perfectly nice as the homemade sauce. It is best for anyone that short of time but want to cook a delicious meal at short time.

Ingredients:
300g of pork belly / chicken thigh / chicken breast
** I found that pork belly & chicken thigh is better option in terms of meat tenderness 
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1/2 tomato

Marinade:
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 egg
a pinch of pepper

Sauce:
3 tbsp tomato sauce / ketchup
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cornstarch

OR
1/2 bottle of Kantong Pineapple Sweet & Sour sauce (Kantong only available in Australia, I think)

Method:

1. Cut meat into small cubes and mix in all the marinade ingredients. Marinate it for at least 1 hour inside fridge.
2. Cut onion, green pepper & tomato into small pieces.
3. Heat up a amount of oil in a pot. Amount of oil to use: Enough to cover the meat is OK. Dredge meat cube with cornstarch and fry the meat till golden brown & cooked through. ** Don't use too high heat as it might cause the outer skin to turn brown but meat inside is under cooked.
4. Heat up 1tbsp of oil to fry onion, green pepper& tomato. Add in the sauce mixtures and bring to boil over high heat. Turn of the heat and quickly stir in the cooked meat.