Creamy Cauliflower with cheese | Cauliflower dishes #4

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Another cauliflower dish on the blog! I bet you couldn’t have guessed this veggie was so versatile, could you?

This Creamy Cauliflower with cheese is a great side dish for your lunch or dinner. We love to have it with a beautiful steak and some fresh salad.

You can also make a huge batch to have leftovers for the week, saving you some precious cooking time when you need the most.
I feel this is much better the next day by the way, with all that gooey cheesiness happening. 🙂

Ingredients
  • ½ head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
  • 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
  • 2 tablespoons of capers
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 teaspoons of salt
  • Black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup of ricotta
  • ½ cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded
  • 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped
Directions
  1. Place in a baking dish the cauliflower florets, garlic, capers, olive oil, salt and black pepper. Mix well.
  2. Roast them, tossing occasionally, at 180C for about 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender, but not browned.
  3. Then, add in the ricotta, mozzarella and parsley, mixing well.
  4. Bring it back to the oven and bake until the surface is finally golden and brown. Approximately 30 minutes.
  5. It’s done!

Looking more ideas on what to prepare with cauliflower?
Find here more recipes using cauliflower as the main ingredient.

Bento box – Shinkansen (Tokyo and Kyoto stations)

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In case you are planning to travel around Japan using the Shinkansen (the awesome bullet trains) you can bring your meal to have on the train while enjoying the view, especially if the trip is going to take a few hours. And an excellent option for such purpose will be the traditional bento boxes!

We took the Shinkansen twice, first time going from Tokyo to Kyoto and then from Kyoto to Tokyo. This trip takes around 3 hours each way and the trains are well equipped with tables (aeroplane style) so you can have your meal there.

Both Tokyo and Kyoto stations had a great number of stores selling bento boxes, all varying between A$8 and A$18 (U$ 7 to 15). There are plenty of options (including vegetarian and kids-friendly meals), and they are served at room temperature, very convenient as you don’t need to worry about storing them in any special way until it’s time to eat. As our trips were both at lunchtime, we didn’t think twice and grabbed them to have on the train! 🚅

Tokyo station – Tokyo Bento

At Tokyo station, we bought our lunch at Tokyo Bento. The food was very good, tasty, well-sized portions, and lukewarm.

Tokyo Bento store
Tokyo Bento store

Our choices there were:

  • Hubby: On the left: rice, omelette, pork. On the right: beef kebab with rice.
  • Mine: Rice, pork dumplings, Japanese omelette, narutomaki, beef, and sorted pickles.
On the left: rice, omelette, pork. On the right: beef kebab with rice.
On the left: rice, omelette, pork. On the right: beef kebab with rice.
Rice, pork dumplings, Japanese omelette, narutomaki, beef, and sorted pickles.
Rice, pork dumplings, Japanese omelette, narutomaki, beef, and sorted pickles.

Kyoto Station

Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten to take a photo from the store we bought our lunches, and I don’t even remember its name. :/
Sorry, my fault! Anyways, it a very big one selling souvenirs too (in case it helps). There we got:

  • Hubby: Rice, crumbled pork cutlet, and ginger.
  • Mine: Rice with veggies and beef stew. Plus chicken (in pieces and like a meatball), Japanese omelette, rice dessert, and pickles.
Rice, crumbled pork cutlet, and ginger.
Rice, crumbled pork cutlet, and ginger.
Rice with veggies and beed stew. Plus chicken (in pieces and like a meatball), Japanese omelette, rice dessert, and pickles.
Rice with veggies and beef stew. Plus chicken (in pieces and like a meatball), Japanese omelette, rice dessert, and pickles.

So, in summary, if you’re going to use the Shinkansen to travel between cities while visiting Japan, don’t think twice, grab a few bento boxes to have on the go and enjoy the local food like a boss. 👑

Hungry for Change – Documentary

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Hungry for Change

Hungry For Change is a documentary created by James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch, both nutritional consultants and filmmakers. Over 1 hour and 29 minutes, the creators try to expose what constant dieting, weight loss, and the food industry do to our bodies and how you can overcome it by starting a healthy life, eating whole and nutritional foods from natural sources.

The documentary brings interviews with many best-selling authors, leading medical experts and real life transformational stories, going through the following topics:

  • Modern lifestyle that leads to epidemic obesity.
  • Huge offer of tasty but poorly nutritional food.
  • Marketing and industry tricks to make you eat and buy more processed food.
  • Discuss sugar consumption and how it triggers our brains to eat in excess.
  • High consumption of refined carbohydrates.
  • Fat free products, “their healthy appeal” and their hidden sugars.

I believe this documentary is perfect for those lacking a bit of foundation knowledge about health and general well-being. It’s a good choice to send to that friend we all know that should consider having a bit more of information about the topic, or maybe had just started thinking about the subject.

I’ve watched it on Netflix. In case you’re interested, find the official trailer below:

Roasted Cauliflower head | Cauliflower dishes #3

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This is a very simple, yet extremely delicious, recipe I’ve learned from an Israeli friend.
It’s basically a whole cauliflower head boiled until tender then roasted to get a beautiful golden colour and an amazing caramelised flavour. It seems this was created by an Israeli chef and since then it’s getting more and more popular. I totally understand why. 🙂

You can’t believe how delicious this thing is. Sometimes I need to control myself because I could eat the whole thing alone. I’m telling you, this is amazingly good!

Ingredients
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons of salt
  • Black pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Fill a pot with water. This pot needs to be large enough to fit the whole cauliflower head in it. Also, make sure to pour just enough water to cover it.
  2. After the water starts boiling add in the salt and the whole cauliflower head.
  3. Boil it for a maximum of 10 minutes.
  4. Then, place a baking sheet on a tray and put the cauliflower head over it. Brush olive oil all over it and season with black pepper to taste.
  5. In a preheated oven at 200C (392F), bake it for approximately 30 minutes or until its surface becomes golden and brown.
  6. It’s done!

Keen to learn more recipes with cauliflower?
If so, here’s our collection of cauliflower recipes!

Chibo Okonomiyaki | Osaka

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Chibo entrance
Chibo entrance

Okonomiyaki is a must try while in Japan; for the uninitiated: the dish consists of a savoury pancake mixed with cabbage, topped with a large variety of ingredients, and finally cooked on a hot grill. You can find places that allow you to cook it by yourself (like on my visit to Tsurujiro Okonomiyaki) or, you can also find places like Chibo where the food is served already cooked and you just keep it warm using the grill on your table.

Either experience is fine, in my opinion, what really matters is to take into consideration the flavour, and regarding this one, Chibo got the crown!

My order

There are plenty of options in their menu, with a huge variety of okonomiyaki flavours. We decided to go with Dotonbori yaki and Hiroshima yaki meal for two, which consists of:

  • Hiroshima yaki: Pork, cuttlefish, prawn, scallops, and noodles.
  • Dotonbori yaki: Pork, beef tendon stew, cuttlefish, prawn, and cheese.
  • Chibo’s salad.
  • Omelet wrapped pork.
Dotonbori yaki and Hiroshima yaki meal for two.
Dotonbori yaki and Hiroshima yaki meal for two.
Hiroshima yaki - Pork, cuttlefish, prawn, scallops, and noodles.
Hiroshima yaki – Pork, cuttlefish, prawn, scallops, and noodles.
Dotonbori yaki - Pork, beef tendon stew, cuttlefish, prawn, and cheese.
Dotonbori yaki – Pork, beef tendon stew, cuttlefish, prawn, and cheese.
Chibo's salad.
Chibo’s salad.
Omelet wrapped around pork.
Omelet wrapped pork.

As I said before, they bring the okonomiyaki already cooked and you use the grill on your table only to keep it warm, different from other places that allow you to cook by your own, which is very fun actually. Anyways, in case you seat at the counter, it’s possible to see the chefs preparing it in front of you.

In addition, it is a very good sized serving, both of us (hubby and I) ate everything until full, and of course, it was delicious! we liked everything, especially that pork omelette.

The verdict

In case you are an okonomiyaki fan spending some time in Osaka, I would highly recommend you to visit Chibo. The service is good, staff are friendly and food delicious! Also, the combo for two meal is very cost effective comparing to one single serve.

About the English: English menu available and staff can communicate in English.

Bill: 3840 Yen (A$45.00)

Exact location: https://goo.gl/maps/LaLeWT6kmFz

More information: www.chibo.com/en