The Foodie's Food Trip

The Japan Food Trip

Hubby and I went to Japan during the long holiday (Chinese New Year). On top of our agenda - to eat authentic Japanese food! I was even able to convince hubby to eat rice for dinner so we can eat yummy food (he doesn't eat rice for dinner).

Some of the food we've tried (in no specific order):

Gyudon (Yoshinoya & Matsuya)
Japanese Curry
Kaiten Sushi (sushi served in a conveyor belt)
Katsudon
Tempura
Okonomiyaki - we had this in Kyoto and that's the only item in that restaurant's menu
Takoyaki
Ramen
Japanese Crepe
Onigiri
Yatsuhashi - from Kyoto
Dango
Taiyaki
various drinks from vending machines (I think that's included hihihi)

Just listing them down is making me hungry...will try to post more details/pics when I'm no longer busy. :D

Nutella Cookies

have to post this now before I completely forget about it hihihi!

I baked some Nutella cookies a few days before Christmas. I got a bit tired of baking all those chocolate crinkles we gave out for Christmas, plus I got some orders from a friend (happy!). So I decided to bake something new... something I haven't tried before.

I've been wanting to bake something with Nutella since I got my oven. I have a jar half-empty that's starting to harden and needs to be used immediately. I finally saw a recipe from My Kitchen Addiction (original recipe from Taste of Home Recipes). The cookies are called Caramel Nutella Crisps, which the author shared as part of the 12 Days of Sharing.

The author got the recipe from Taste of Home Recipes. It's originally a peanut butter cookie recipe, and not made of Nutella at all. But I read from another blog (I seriously can't find the link... I'm so sorry) that since peanut butter has the same consistency as Nutella, you can substitute one with the other.

I made a few changes - I did not roll the cookie doughs in sugar and I didn't put Milk Duds inside. In other words, it's plain Nutella cookies.

I got two ice cream/cookie scoops at home. One is the normal ice cream scoop size, and the other is a smaller cookie scoop. I used the big cookie scoop first, and realized that the cookies will flatten and spread out while baking. It ended up so big it was four times bigger than the size of a chocolate crinkles.

So I used the smaller scoop for the succeeding cookies. I didn't bake it as long as I should (just 8-10 minutes), so I can still have the cookies soft and chewy.

The first bite... didn't end on the first bite. Even when they were still a bit warm, I think I had two to three cookies in one sitting.

If you love Nutella, you'll love this recipe. Next time I'll try rolling it in sugar, or maybe adding some chocolate chips hihi!

Banana Crumb Muffin

I loooove bananas! As a kid I can finish two to three bananas in one sitting! hihihi! I also looooove banana bread! My favorite so far is the one from Red Ribbon... very flavorful and with a sweet crumbly top... perfect!
When I was searching for a banana bread recipe, I always thought that banana extract/flavoring was added to the batter to make it tasty... when I finally baked some I realized that the flavor was all natural. :)

I finally found a recipe for banana crumb muffin and was able to try baking some a few weeks ago (see previous post Bake On Baby!). It has the crumbly top too, just like the one from Red Ribbon! :)

The muffins were moist and soft and the crumbs made a perfect complement.

Banana Crumb Muffin
from All Recipes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

The original recipe yield 10 muffins. I was able to make 11-12.