Kazari Maki-zushi: Roses and Plum Blossoms

I learned how to make kazari maki-zushi—decorative sushi rollsA Japanese friend of my family is a sushi making instructor; a while ago she promised to give me a lesson and so I visited her home and we made sushi. I feel a bit like I skipped a grade, because I’ve never even made basic sushi myself before. And now here I am rolling them into art pieces

She taught me the most basic shapes—a rose and a plum blossom. I was really impressed by how creative it all was, from the colourful ingredients that made up the different parts to the technique of stacking it all together.

Half of the sushi rolls were packed up for me to bring home, and the other half became our lunch. It’s not just mean to look pretty—it tasted good though! Probably because sushi rice is the queen of rice. It’s sweet and sticky, so it goes well with the slightly salty fillings

Eating four big rolls of sushi filled me up quite a bit, but we still had dessert after that. I’d brought some traditional kueh, so we ate that with the grape jelly that my friend (or sushi sensei? I’m kind of puzzled over what to call her because she’s a grown up lady) made herself.

If you’re curious about the ingredients we used…

Nori seaweed, sushi rice (Japanese short grain rice with rice vinegar, sugar and salt)

For the rose: Pink oboro, cucumber, mentaiko, ham strips, sesame seeds

For the plum blossom: Powdered umeboshi, cheese kamaboko, finely chopped omelette

Skirt Full of Sweets

Hello! Today I’m featuring a coordinate just because I got a new skirt. But not just any skirt—quite possibly one that defines who I am. It was a random find that I hadn’t planned to get when I went out on a whim to accompany my good friend on her shopping trip.

As soon as I wear it the whole outfit just becomes completely girly. So I decided to go along with it and pop on the beretSince you can’t see the skirt properly I’ll show it up close…

There it is! It’s a print of all sorts of delicious sweets and fanciful text, which is just about the most perfect pattern for a person like me who is devoted to her desserts (you know how much I love them). I usually like my clothes without any showy designs, but there was no question about this one. Especially when I saw it was on sale at $15

And here it is even closer up. There’s such an assortment of yummy pastries that it’s highly captivating just to look at every one of them. Have there ever been cuter illustrations of cakes and macarons?

Speaking of sweets, I had this slice of cheesecake when I ate lunch at a cafe the other day! Since the flavour was lavender, it was the prettiest pastel shade of purple so I fell prey to it immediately. But it tasted as good as it looked too; the honey in the cheesecake was a really good touch. Plus anything with biscuit bases is a winner

Breakfast and Today’s Outfit Menu

Hello!

It’s been a few weeks since my last outfit post. Here’re three as usual! I haven’t been shopping for a long while so I’m just mixing up the different items in my wardrobe (my creativity is getting stretched to its limit).

Thanks to the red skirt there’s a pop of colour in my otherwise typical outfitIt’s yet another expression of my love for the red and blue colour combination. The skirt contributes a feminine touch to the whole ensemble, but my good old denim blouson keeps it casual.

This time the outfit is toned down with more subtle shades of dusty green and pink in softer textures of material, but the striped top on the inside still adds some character. It’s another combination of colour and pattern that I love, because it’s sweet without being too girly

Although this one is probably pretty girly already—it’s a very fluffy sort of look with dreamy pastel shades. I wore black shoes with neat white socks for a preppy kick to the outfit’s meek look.

So these are some of my recent outfit coordinates! I think I need to think about expanding my style more and doing more than just rotating my skirts and jackets around.

And this is what I head for breakfast the other day.

It’s not just a random steamed bun. Every single time I have breakfast with my dad over the weekend, I always eat a fat, steaming red bean pau. It’s a symbol of our companionshipThough I think I’ve already mentioned this in a blog post before haha. I just really liked steamed buns. (Unless the filling is meat, which I’m not too crazy about)

Sweet Potato Banana Cake with Berry Explosion

And so the kitchen adventures continue, this time unadulterated by any academic obligations. Yes! My final year in school is overThere’s still a long while before the actual graduation, but for now I’m basking in my liberation from studying. I can actually have a bit of time to myself now, so I do things like make cakes. This one here was made this morning!

If the name makes it sound like a mouthful, that’s because it literally is with all the ingredients I stuffed insideIt was meant to be a simple banana cake with fresh strawberries, but then when I took the box of strawberries out of the fridge there was all this…white fuzz on it. Like cotton wool. Except cotton wool is nice and fluffy. This was like its evil twin—disgusting and totally appetite-ruining.

So, no more strawberries

But I found a surprise bag of frozen berries, and I unloaded that into the bowl instead because I didn’t want to waste all that batter I’d already made. And then because I was still disappointed by the sudden loss of strawberries I decided to decorate it a bit more by colouring it with sweet potato and cherry juice.

I’d been fantasising this really girly pastel pink cake, but somehow it ended up a shocking violet instead. Clearly it’s chosen its path.

After everything was done, I got a cake that was nice and chewy with a blend of sweet flavours from all the bananas, berries and sweet potatoThe loss of strawberries turned out to be a good thing after all since I got to play around with all those different ingredients.

Lesson of the day: Unexpected trouble can still lead to unexpected fruitfulness! And also sweet potato really stains.

Have a good weekend!