Monthly Round-Up | June

Eat and Drink
Wagaya, Fortitude Valley

I literally discovered this restaurant on the last day of June. As a massive lover of Japanese food I have wanted to try it out for months but never had the time or right friends to accompany me.  I have been blown away and am headed back there tonight and probably twice more in the coming week or two. 

Review | Japanese Brow Pencil

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Is it Wednesday already? This week is flying by so quickly. So, I've been thinking, seeing as it is new to me, I should share what I've been doing with brows of late. I've been trying this medium brown brow pencil that I scored in Daiso (a cheap $2.80 Japanese store) and have been really impressed with it. I thought that perhaps at that price it would just be something I would use to experiment with the whole 'filled in brow' concept but the product itself is actually fairly great.

It is a fairly accurate colour for my hair and wears for a surprisingly long time which is normally at least a twelve hour wear. It conveniently comes with its own little spooly brush on the other end and a spare lid. Also, I am a big fan of pencil products that are self-sharpening. Nothing annoys me more than having to sharpen product when you're in a rush or the feeling of a blunt tip against my skin.

If you, like myself, have never ventured into the world of brows, it's totally not worth being afraid and is quite addictive once you get going. 

All in all, if you see this product around (probably not likely) it is much more impressive than its price tag. However, when I do run out I will probably be searching for another brow product so if you know of any that I should hunt down and try let me know in the comments.

See you on Sunday!

Erin xx

Vegetable Tempura Lovin'

I've been pretty bored of late, being unemployed and in a city without my friends, and so have been taking to cooking a lot more than usual. I love Japanese food and have never made Tempura before, or deep-fried anything for that matter. So, I gave this a go and thought you'd all like to see how I went. It's a really tasty, grease-crave-fulfilling, yet healthy option. Don't be frightened by deep-frying if you've never done it but definitely proceed with caution. Good luck!

Ingredients

Various chopped vegetables eg. carrot, zucchini, mushrooms, sweet potato, capsicum (see image for ideas and desirable size of mentioned vegetables)

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Tempura Batter

1/2 cup (75g) cornflour (cornstarch), sifted

1/2 cup (75g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1 tsp sea salt falkes

1 cup (250ml) cold soda water or beer

1 egg white

Tempura Dipping Sauce

1 cup (250ml) dashi 

1/4 cup (60ml) soy sauce

1/4 cup (60ml) mirin

To get it out of the way, and to ensure time between pan, plate and eating is as quick as possible, its best to make the dipping sauce first. Combine all the dipping sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiling, remove it from the heat, let it cool and set aside for use later when serving.

To make the batter combine the flours (cornflour and plain), salt and soda water/beer in a bowl and whisk until just combined. Whisk your egg white in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form (just like when making a pavlova) and fold gently through the batter. 

In a large deep saucepan (I used a wok), heat the oil until you can see it just starting to smoke (approx. 180°C/350°F if you have a cooking thermometer). Dip the vegetables in the batter, shaking to remove any excess, and deep-fry, in batches, for 3-4 minutes or until light golden and the vegetable is at your preferred eating consistency. Drain on absorbent paper and serve immediately with the dipping sauce. 

I served mine with some chicken thighs I had baking in the oven after marinating in honey, soy and sesame - but thats another recipe for another Sunday afternoon. 

Please let me know if you try any of these recipes or if I could write them in a more helpful way. So far I feel they're alright but I would love some feedback.

Erin xx