Hands On Temaki Sushii

I had my first experience of making sushii. Yoku and her friends, decided to teach us the simpler Temaki sushii, improvised with Nato since we wanted to try nato so much.

The ingredients we bought for Temaki Sushii

Mix the sushinoko into the rice. We used the koshihikari...

Above is Nato. Many foreigners have a bad impression of nato, saying that it smells bad. I do not think so after trying it. Just like durian, you either like it or you don't. Nato is fermented soy beans. The texture is like Alien vs Predator saliva as shown in the cinema. It's a bit disgusting when you open the package and stir it up (just as shown in the photo). But Japanese love Nato because of it's health benefits...

Ingredients spreaded over the table...

First dose of nato onto the temaki sushii

Yumi, showing the way to wrap and eat it....

My first own-made temaki sushii, learning from the best...

Nagaoka

Made a brief stopover at Nagaoka on the way back to Niigata from Urasa. Konan had his friends to bring us around the town. It is not as big as Niigata but definitely more happening than Urasa.

Me posing at the Nagaoka Institute of Art

IUJ Asean & Japan Nite

Before

After

Made a trip back to my prospective university in Urasa. They had the Asean and Japan Nite. No regrets going there as I enjoyed myself alot. Stayed overnight at the students' house. It is the first taste of staying in IUJ before becoming a student there. The rooms are much smaller than the one I am staying in Niigata and more expensive too. I have to reserve my comment on the room. So you will just have to look at the photos and comment for yourself...ie the size and all. The room is just nice for one student. No visitors for sure. The room is very clean, neat and cosy though.

Anyway, the ASEAN nite was fanstastic. Malaysia was also represented. The Malaysian booth was serving nasi lemak, cucuk udang, kacang merah and ayam goreng (the Malay style with kunyit). Proud to tell that the Malaysian booth was very well received with people returning for 2nd or 3rd servings even though there was a long queue.

Trying out one of the delicacies from the Myanmar booth

We were invited to a Bangladeshi breakfast by Farhana's compatriot, Jamal and wife. They are both current IUJ students doing E-Biz under the same scholarship. We were served with their version of roti canai, rich sup daging (which is supposed to be the sauce to dip the roti) and payasam.

Jamal and us...

We left IUJ at 11am for Nagaoka.

All You Can Eat Yaki Niku

Singgih (from Indonesia) making sure there is a seamless flow of meat onto the table

Scholarship money came last Thursday and there is cause for celebration. We decided to try out the All You Can Eat BBQ Meat (Yaki Niku or 焼肉）near our apartment. Many university students go there. The concept is somewhat similar to the Korean bulgogi, only more meat and less vegetables. I had so much meat (pork, chicken and beef) and sausages that summed up to a total of 20 plates altogether! Some seniors thought it was an admirable feat considering we had 3 bowls of rice, and each plate of meat serving was for 3 persons. And we had 20 of that. The sausage was really tasty but like always, (most)tasty food are unhealthy food. I got really jelak eating them after my 20th or so batang.

Me and Konan (from Ivory Coast) enjoying the Yaki Niku. This is the first picture of me featuring the military hairstyle

Da Kanji Code Solved

The Da Vinci Code has been phenomenal in Japan and I am sure other parts of the world too. Video shops here have been selling and renting out their own prelude versions of the "Code" and it is just crazy. Sometimes I just could not comprehend what is so great about the Da Vinci Code. I just read the book, and am now looking at the other side of the story with the "Da Vinci Deception". It is true that many people have been deceived by the book. Embarassingly, Dan Brown called it the Da Vinci Code instead of Leonardo's Code. Da Vinci which came from Leonardo Da Vinci means Leonardo of Vinci, just as how people say Alden of Kuala Lumpur. So, if I become the next Renaissance man, and someone writes a book about me and call it "Of Kuala Lumpur" or "Da Kuala Lumpur"...it would have been a colossal faux pas.

O, this blog is not about Dan Brown but my own code. The Kanji code. My Chinese name. For weeks I had been trying to find out how to pronounce my name in Japanese. I finally cracked this "code". My name 葉偉雄 (Mandarin: Ye Wei Xiong) is pronounced as "You-i-yuu". ..or Happa, Erai, Osu from the direct translation. The three words mean Leave, Hero, Man (brave). Sugoi hah! (sugoi=cool)

Code cracked....