It is almost miracle what a handful of flour and water can create.

It creates so much that noodle chefs get offended for calling their noodle-lookalike noddles such as Udon and Spaghetti.

Not quite sure of what defines noodles and where the borderlines are, but I happily submit to their claims.

But I was quite surprised when my favourite traditional cuisine Houtou was not Udon! Endless branches to the flour-made-slurpy-sticks-families!

Technicality aside, I love the heartiness that noddles (oh please, let me just call them all noodles)  offer, in soup or creamy sauce or fried or chilled!

Almost on a daily basis I have inner fights where mini-mes are arguing about the fattening and satisfaction factors.

But what is life all about if you ain’t got no satisfaction! My favourite author and well of inspiration says that people take action or not take action primarily for two reason; motivation to gain pleasure or to avoid pain.

How well said… and this is exactly why the argument is endless! I want to eat (pleasure) but I don’t want to put on weight (super painful), with the exception of one thing. when I am in a location where I can only enjoy that food there, traditional cuisine!!!

Yes, internet and super infrastructure and mega-smart logistics have enabled us to acquire almost anything we want today, but it is just not the same if you can’t have Herring in a fishshop in Holland or Durian on the streets in South East Asia or mum’s cooking at home!

So, always, always I have what I want to have when I get a chance to eat something in season or locationally restricted.

Coming back to Houtou it is a wonderous dish, noodle so thick and bouncy and soup so earthy and flavour-bomb, and chunky vegetables wipes away the anxiety of having something naughty.

If you have not had it, I strongly suggest you visit the province Yamanashi when or if you are in Japan, the infamous land of hot springs and Mount Fuji! If you just look at the picture you know it is perfect for cold winter. But actually it’s perfect for summer as well! And a glass of beer on your side!!!! We visited 4 Houtou restaurant in 3 days, but the best one by far was this one. http://www.navi-city.com/iine/ganko/ And the environment is so dreamy… You eat it underneath grapevine! You can eat them too. They had several types of grapes but strangly yummy was a kind of grapes they call banana. If I haven’t confused you enough it is sweet like banana too! So what is this actually!?

I apologise for being overly excited. I must admit that I am very ecstatic to write on my blog again. Anway, back to Houtou, I miss it so much that sometimes I just look at the picture and reminisce… at the end of the day it is not the most accessible place! It is 6,000km away from Kuala Lumpur. So I was just browsing through the internet, and found out that I can make Houtou, quite easily!

Reading that, I gained a bit of confidence in noodle making at home, so my noodle pilgrimage begins….

I do not fancy sweets much.
I am a woman though, there is always exceptions to rule right?
However, how can I resist to awe and wow when you see this!

A window full of colours!

I get sick from raising my sugar level but I do appreciate art of colour and design.
And no, I did not take this at an atria,  but I tool this at Kyoto station!

What a work of art! This is pure professionalism. So neat.

Thank God we had an excuse to try out few of these because it was Christmas!!!

I may sound dangerously patriotic but I believe that Japan offers one of the best food.

But where did that come from? We sure did not have a lot of food back then (like, B.C. back then). We were such a skinny country that grew nothing much.
Today, Japanese beef is undeniably the best beef you can find but we did not always have it.
Even rice, oh the Japanese rice.
Unless you hate the starchy rice you must love the Japanese rice. We did not have rice till the Chinese generously taught us the know-how of cultivation.
Thank you guys!!

I think with us it is all about kaizen, or improvement.

Because we did not have much, we improved on what little we had.
And that spirit persisted after we has the luxury of availability of raw material.
I think that’s a beautiful thing.

One more thing we are known for is the “strange” things we eat.
AND NO. WE DO NOT EAT WHALES AND DOLPHINS. So please stop saying that, it makes you sound silly.

In one of the first dates, Robert proudly said that he once tasted jelly fish but I just didn’t know which part I was supposed to be impressed by. Then I find out it was the “jelly fish” part.
I then kind of realised our differences.
We eat jelly fish all the time! I don’t know who ate it first, but people must not have had much food and just decided to eat jelly fish that someone accidentally caught one day.

Anyway, I hope this convinces you to stay with me when I introduce some of the lovely food we eat which you might find…. unusual.

We eat these guys…

What do you think?
I know some people think we are cruel and vicious to eat these cute creatures but I try to compensate it by not eating meats other than organic chicken.
I heard that cattle (apparently these guys are on the farty side) exhaust more CO2 than all types of automobile put together.
I have no source of this though.
But provided this is true, we will decrease the CO2 emission but eating less beef.

Robert was stubborn and did not believe that we eat all of the above creatures till he went to Japan.
He loved most of what he was served so I am happy that he is less skeptic to try new “creatures”.
But one dish that I had to push just a little knot is this.

Chicken Sashimi.
Yes, we eat almost everything raw!
But please, believe me, it is so delicious and its texture is just inexplicable. And do not think it is going to kill you.
I bet you, that this chicken is much cleaner than the ones you eat.
Otherwise they would not dare serve it, would they?
You can also tell it is very clean because there is no “animally” smell.
Plus, we eat this dish with wasabi, which is so stringent that it will kill any possible *germs*.

One rule of thumb is, never, never, ever eat at Japanese restaurant that looks kind of dodgy…
Well, you can, but it is best to stay away from raw food.

Enjoy!

If you talk about the most Japanese Japan, Kyoto would have to rank in.

Kyoto, once a capital of Japan during Edo era, is a province where many temples and shrines are reserved. Kyoto is known for its beautiful architectures and food.
Robert has never been to Japan. One would have to show him Kyoto first.

So here we are, in Kyoto, we are at very prestige hotel called Yachiyo.  They served us traditional Kyoto cooking…