A Japanese-themed dinner

We had a Japanese-themed dinner at our home today. I had planned to cook yaki udon for dinner and as such, I decided to "go all the way" and cook everything else in line with the same theme.

I woke up around 8.30 am and started by preparing the dough for the pizza base. I intended to bake a Japanese pizza today, using tonkatsu sauce (instead of a tomato sauce) as the base of the pizza and mayonnaise (instead of mozarella cheese) as the topping. I decided to use my breadmaker to make the dough instead of doing it "by hand" using SC's recipe.

When Da came home from work, he brought back a packet of char siew and roast pork rice which he bought from the Tanjong Pagar hawker centre.

Da and I shared the packet of rice. I also ladled out some of the ingredients that I intended to use to cook the yaki udon in the evening. I had already cooked the ingredients in a slow cooker and they were ready to be eaten.

As I was ahead in my preparations for dinner, I decided to bake some sausage rolls. I had ordered some cheese sausages when a colleague had gone round taking orders recently. I was inspired by the sausage rolls that SY made recently and I decided to bake some today. As it turned out, it was easier than I expected. Do not be fooled by the complicated plaited design that you see in the photograph below. The sausage rolls are quite easy to make.

I also baked some green tea cookies. Da and I had bought a packet of matcha from Cold Storage Supermarket a while ago and we had a little bit left. I used up all the remaining matcha today when I baked the green tea cookies and the green tea pandan cake.

In the evening, I packed some home-made goodies and gave them to the three handsome boys who live opposite Da and I on the same floor as us.

My brother (LB) and his wife (MF) were the first to arrive. While waiting for the rest of my family to arrive, I sliced some of the brie that WC and SC had given us and offered the sliced brie to LB and MF.

Ding-dong! The rest of the family had arrived. I had arranged 8 chairs at the table because Boy-Boy gets a chair too! He wants to see what we are eating.

Boy-Boy had developed a fever yesterday and his face became all swollen after the injection that the vet gave him to bring down the fever. Alarmed, my mother, my brother (LG) and LG's girlfriend (ZT) brought Boy-Boy back to the vet for the second time in the same day yesterday. When they went to the vet for the second time, Boy-Boy wore his "Champ Dog" vest and according to my mother, the nurses at the clinic were all giving second looks to our handsome darling.

The menu for tonight's dinner comprised:-

(a) yaki udon

(b) Japanese pizza

(c) salmon pie - it is something like a shepherd's pie, except that I added salmon instead of ground meat

(d) salmon patties - it is similar to bergedel except that I used salmon instead of meat

(e) miso soup

(f) sausage rolls

My mother now has cable television in her home and she is addicted to the Asian Food Channel! My favourite channels are the Asian Food Channel and Discovery Travel & Living. During dinner, we watched "A Cook's Tour" featuring Anthony Bourdain. In tonight's episode, Anthony Bourdain was in Mexico. Fancy eating sheep's head soup?

The cake that you see in the photograph below is a green tea pandan cake that I baked today. Unfortunately, my decorating skills are not as good as SCT (Da's niece) and hence, the two-tiered cake was not 100% aligned. I asked Da whether he would like to blow birthday candles again (since his birthday is tomorrow) but he declined.

LG and ZT had brought a tub of Meadow Gold Cookies and Cream ice-cream, which would complement the cake perfectly. I did think of making some green tea ice cream today but I had run out of matcha after I baked the green tea pandan cake and the green tea cookies.

Ah.. my two wonderful brothers were put to "work". LB sliced the cake while LG scooped the ice-cream.

Goodness me! LB managed to slice the cake into 7 slices. Each of us had a slice of cake with two scoops of ice-cream. Absolutely decadent but totally irresistible.

As anyone who has eaten at our home will tell you, no meal at our home would be complete without full bellies and overflowing food. Like Da's friend (SNC), whenever we host a meal, I will make sure that there is plenty to eat as it is not nice if there is insufficient food.

Boy-Boy ate some of the sausage rolls that I baked today (excluding the sausage). We did not allow him to eat any of the other food as he is currently under medication. As he was still hungry, Boy-Boy had no choice but to settle for his own healthy rice dinner which my mother had cooked for him and brought to our home. He was very well behaved at our home today and did not bark.