Lake Shakotan Trip (September)

Before going to Sapporo, I joined a tour to explore Shakotan!

I figured it would be a good time to visit during the beginning of autumn and I definitely should visit before winter comes. But probably the best time to visit Shakotan should be on summer, as there's more sunshine and it's less cold. The time I went it was raining a little bit, and it was freezing. Oh well.

Entrance to the Shimamui Coast.

Beautiful view awaits you after the tunnel.

The wind was super strong and the weather was really cold. (Didn't wear enough layers) Only a few people walked down to the shore. I stopped half-way and couldn't take the cold anymore so I went back to the bus instead.

The end of the tunnel at the Shimamui Coast's side. Apparently that day that I went was the last day visitors are allowed as the tunnel will be under construction.

Lunch set ready upon arrival to the restaurant. It was a delicious crab stew in that pot. I really enjoyed lunch that day.

After lunch, we proceeded to Cape Kamui. Which is the highlight of the tour!

Really breathtaking view! Pity that the weather was cloudy that day, most of my pictures were quite dark.

But still, awesome view.

Ended the tour with a visit to Yoichi Nikka Whisky Distillery.

Sipped the (Complimentary) Nikka Whisky and I had a lot of the (Complimentary) Apple Juice too.

Here's a video taken that day:

Living in Niseko during September

Summer has officially ended and most of us were pretty sad. Which means we're few months closer to the official start of Niseko 2014-2015 winter. And I'm not looking forward to the craziness yet. 

My mission for this month is to not spend money until the 30th September, which is the day I'll be going to the city to collect my visa. It was so challenging to not spend money at all. And it was my first time ever not leaving my room on my off day. Usually on my off days I'll be out and about visiting my favourite restaurants. 

I had a lot of rice and spaghetti collected from previous winter. Guest will leave a bunch of stuffs after they check-out and I collected all those stuff and kept it for summer. My effort did not go to waste as I actually do have a lot of spare food!

But unfortunately I did not manage to stay until 30th of Sept in not spending money. I lasted only until 22nd of September. I had valid reasons! Because I was going through my most difficult and stressful year ever! And food is the only thing to make me feel better =)

So for the whole of September, I spent 25,000yen inclusive of one day in Sapporo. Can't believe I can spend so much when I'm in the city. All those shopping and good food really gets to me. 

Why is this weeds plant thing so beautiful? It was really calming watching them swaying when the wind blows.

The blue flowers turned purple! Oh still so pretty...

HERE's how it looks like being blue.

Melon season might be over but I was still blessed with melons by my colleague!

Also, I'm only into orange flesh melon instead of the green flesh ones as seen above.
The green ones I had actually tastes exactly the same as the orange flesh ones but I'm just spoiled like that. Colour do make a difference doesn't it?

Blessed by Mooncakes in the office!!! OMG my eyes popped out when I saw these babies. 

I kinda finished everything by myself though..... Sorry colleagues...

My first restaurant meal for the month. Deep fried breaded pork steak. It was amazing.

And I rewarded myself with my favourite dessert from my favourite dessert restaurant.
The cream fell as I walked 30 minutes back to my home. But it still tasted so good. So so good.

All time favourite meal - Soup Curry.
This is a Hokkaido specialty, please try it when you visit Hokkaido!

I bought some ribs and meat at the supermarket too. Can you guess what I cooked?

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Bak Kut Teh!!!

So good So So So good.....

Wanted to cook Adobo (Filipino Dish) but the vinegar that I thought I had weren't vinegar after all, so it's just pork in soy sauce. But it's surprisingly good! Super proud of myself. I shall train harder to improve my cooking skill.

Diet Recipe #1 - Storing Porridge

Refer to my previous post on Diet Recipe - Porridge, this is a continuation on how to store your porridge.

After cooking, I would leave my porridge to cool for about 30 minutes, but even so, the porridge can still be very warm but I didn't wanna leave it to cool completely as the top layer could turn dry.

Items you will need:
Container
Cling film
Tissue (You will see why as you read on)

1. Line the bottom of the container with cling film, leave extra cling film so you can wrap up your porridge.

2. Fill up half of the container.

3. Wrap it up nicely and fold up the edges.

4. Place a layer of tissue paper on top so the next cling film won't stick on the bottom cling film.

5. Line the container with cling film again.

6. Fill the remaining porridge into the container. (If you have extra left in the pot, lucky you!)

7. Cover it tightly and you're set!

8. This is how it looks after it's frozen and removed from the container.

My microwaved porridge with a lot of soy sauce during lunch.
* Feel free to add water if you like your porridge less thick.

Enjoy! =)

Diet Recipe #1 - Porridge

I had a lot of rice leftover from the winter guests. I think I had like 3 bags of 2kgs each.
Then I thought to myself like, how can I be on a diet with rice?
Rice is like the first thing I should cut out if I'm on a diet.

Then I did some research online and just concluded porridge should be the healthiest I can go with rice. (Provided you put in healthy ingredients)

Ingredients:
1 Cup of cooked rice
Chicken breast
Carrots
1 Egg
Sesame Oil
Salt

* Cooking porridge with cooked rice lessens the cooking time so I usually cook a batch of rice, portion it out, and freeze it. When I wanna cook the porridge, I'll just take 1 portion of the rice to cook the porridge.
* The carrots I used were blanched and then freezed. This is because I bought a batch of carrots and since they can't be kept for long, best way would be to blanch them and freeze them. By blanching them would keep them fresher than freezing them raw and also lessen the cooking time when you are using them in a dish as well.

Steps:

1. Prepare a pot and place 1 Cup of (frozen) cooked rice and around 2 cups of water and start boiling it under medium heat.

2. Chop up the chicken breast and carrots into cube size. The portion of both ingredients is based on your preference. Place it into the pot.

3. Cook until the porridge thickens and chicken breast is cooked, then crack an egg into the porridge. Crack the yolk then scoop some porridge and cover the egg. Don't stir it first.

4. After like 10 seconds, lightly swirl the egg around and don't stir it for 20 seconds. This is to let the egg have some texture.

5. Once egg is cooked then add some sesame oil and salt, stir it around and it's done!

I'll leave the porridge to cool for about 30 minutes then I'll start to pack it into the container to freeze it.

The size of my pot is the exact size of my container so that makes it really convenient.

Click HERE to view on how to freeze your porridge.

Living in Niseko during August

Gotta say August was the most happening month for me.

But my level of 'happening' is just solely because I had more excess to yummy food.
And I had to go to the city to renew my visa one day so I was going all out doing research on the best restaurants in Sapporo. My research certainly did not end in vain. I had a blast in Sapporo.
Click HERE for my Sapporo getaway.

This happening month did ended me with 70,000yen lesser in my pocket. Ouch.

Anyways, shall start with the flower sighting.

August is the month of Sunflowers! How gorgeous are those sunflowers!

No idea what is this.

Fluffy poisonous looking thing? Very pretty but didn't dare to touch it.

I've never seen such flower before?? It's so unique and pretty!

Next up... Food pics time!

 Deprived of good pizzas, this was fresh out of the oven and tasted so so good.

August is the month of melon. Sweet glorious melon.

Bought the left melon while the right was gifted by my colleague. She knows I'm CRAZYYY about melons.

Bought cut-up melons too as it was half priced and it's so ripe!

Juices were overflowing! Wanted to keep half for the next day but, who am I kidding? One whole melon wasn't even enough for me!

Half priced haul! (Except the cheesecake) Was circling the food section and waiting for the store staff to smack a half price sticker on items I was eyeing. I certainly did look desperate and a little scary I suppose.

Red ladies finger???

Homecooked eggplant and some vege. It was surprisingly edible!

Meh. It's just a snake.

Except I was freaking out and exclaiming how huge is it to my colleagues. They merely responded with 'Erm, that's just a baby snake'.

Ending my monthly diary with my FAV restaurant! Korean BBQ.
And yes I ordered 2 portions of meat and I finished everything. Heaven.