Udon Carbonara

Udon Carbonara


I came up with an idea to clean less dishes while and after cooking.
This requires you only one pan and one deep bowl to cook.
Also, I didn't measure at all so all the amount I put is by eye.


Udon is a type of noodle made from wheat.
The texture is fresh-made pasta but much thicker.


<Preparation>
Sliced pancetta or bacon (ham might work as well) --- 50g
Udon (cooked and pouched) --- 1 bag
Milk (I used low fat milk. Soy milk can be used.) --- 200ml
Garlic paste (I used one in tube.) --- as desired
Black pepper (cracked) --- as desired




(1) 
Put udon into a deep bowl and pour hot water to make the udon separate and warm up.

(2)
 Stir-fry thin sliced pancetta till it gets crispy.

(3) 
Use kitchen paper to blot excess oil coming out. 
It makes it easy to make the pancetta crunchy.
After taking out some oil, add garlic.

(4) 
In the same pan, pour milk (or soy milk). Let it simmer a bit. 
Drain hot water and put the warm udon into the pan.

(5)
Let it boil until moisture has evaporate for a little; approximately 2-3 minutes.

(6)
Turn the heat off and put the egg yolk unto the udon. 
Quickly scramble up with the sauce and udon. 
Use cracked black pepper to finish up.

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Lunch Pack: Almond Mousse Cream (Biscuit Crunch Chocolate in)

Lunch Pack Collection:
Almond Mousse Cream (Biscuit Crunch Chocolate in)

Marble pattern bread(cocoa flavored) has biscuit crunch chocolate and almond mousse cream. 

Gosh, it's really tasty!!


This one is from same friend again while she's in Kyoto.

I couldn't find this in Tokyo.


Yamazaki really should rearrange the manufacturing and bring this to Tokyo.

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Lunch Pack: Strawberry Jam & Whipped Cream (A Chocolate Bar inside)

Lunch Pack Collection:
Strawberry Jam & Whipped Cream (A Chocolate Bar inside)
*Using Strawberry Flavored Marble Bread.

The bread is thicker than other ones (I think) to hold strawberry jam, a chocolate bar and whipped cream together.

This one uses Asuka Ruby for jam, which is a kind of strawberry from Nara pref. (in Kansai area).

I like the design/pattern of the bread and the mixed flavor of the jam and chocolate after having a bite.


*A friend of mine visited Kyoto and she got this as a souvenir!

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Lunch Pack: Sagahonoka Strawberry Jam & Whipped Cream (Limited Time Only)

Lunch Pack Collection:
Sagahonoka Strawberry Jam & Whipped Cream (Limited Time Only)

Sagahonoka is a kind of strawberry made in Saga pref. (in Kyushu area).

This strawberry jam is pink, which is less vivid than other strawberry jams I had in lunch pack.

The whipped cream was a bit thick and creamy (not in a bad way).

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Lunch Pack: Katsuura Dan Dan Noodle

Lunch Pack Collection:
Katsuura Dan Dan Noodle

Supervised by "熱血!! 勝浦タンタンメン船団/Passion!! Katsuura Dan Dan Noodle Fleet."

Katsuura city is located in Chiba prefecture and it's on the edge of the land and facing to the Pacific ocean.


About 50yrs ago, this noodle was born to heat up divers and fishers' cold body during job at sea in winter.

The distinctive point of this Katsuura Dan Dan Noodle is the soy sauce based soup with chili oil.

Common Dan Dan Noodle uses sesame paste for the soup.

Also it uses stir-fried onion and ground meat.

I think this was spicy enough to have warning on the package.


(But not idiotically spicy.)

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Yamazaki Gourmet Box: Meat Gyoza (dumpling)

Yamazaki Gourmet Box:
Meat Gyoza (dumpling)

東園 (Toen) in Yokohama China town supervised this dumpling bun.

A real dumpling is set in the middle of the bun, which is popular and sold in convenience stores.


So you can see a real gyoza wrapped inside.

Tastes good but I want to add more soy sauce flavor into the meat.

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Lunch Pack: Bampeiyu Jam & Whipped Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Bampeiyu Jam & Whipped Cream

Bampeiyu is a type of pomelo (citrus maxima/grandis).

It tastes like grapefruit but sweeter.

One of TV programs "若っ人ランド/Wakatto Land" in Kunamoto pref. (a part of Kyushu area) collaborated with Yamazaki Pan and created this.

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Lunch Pack: Sakura Bean Paste & Whipped Cream (with Gyuhi)

Lunch Pack Collection:
Sakura Bean Paste & Whipped Cream (with Gyuhi)

Sakura (cherry lossom) bean paste is famous for Sakura season (spring for sure).

Sakura bean paste is made of sweet bean paste and Sakura leaves. A little bit saltiness in sweet paste usually.

This one has not too thin Gyuhi, made with rice flour, and it gives nice Mochi (sticky rice cake) texture.

This bean paste has a good balance of sweetness and a hit of salt.


*Sakura Panda is a mascot character of one of the oldest department stores called Matsuzakaya.


http://sakura-panda.com/ (Only Japanese is available.)

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Lunch Pack: Amaou Strawberry Jam from Fukuoka pref. & Whipped Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Amaou Strawberry Jam from Fukuoka pref. & Whipped Cream

They use Amaou strawberry jam from Fukuoka pref., which is located in Kyushu area.

The jam isn't too sweet and this is now my favorite strawberry jam lunch pack.

I want more whipped cream tho.

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Lunch Pack: Sugar Margarine

Lunch Pack Collection:
Sugar Margarine

Contains crispy sugar with margarine.

I could feel the crisp and even see the sugar.


Margarine has a bit of saltiness, which gives nice balance.

Two pieces are a little bit too much.


When it's hot, it might taste better.

193 calories per bread.


Super high-calorie lunch pack EVER!

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Lunch Pack: Uji-Matcha Cream & Sweet Bean Paste

Lunch Pack Collection:
Uji-Matcha Cream & Sweet Bean Paste

The matcha (green tea) cream contains 0.4% of Uji-Matcha.

Uji-city is, in Kyoto, one of the most famous tea-producing sites in Japan.

I expected to taste the matcha cream more, but sweet bean paste has strong sweetness.


For me, it's hard to tell there's green tea cream.

I'd rate this 6 out of 10.

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Lunch Pack: Honey & Margarine (Limited Time Only)

Lunch Pack Collection:
Honey & Margarine (Limited Time Only)

I could imagine what it is like.

It's interesting that they use jellied honey (maybe to prevent the bread from getting wet?) and it still has a strong scent. 

If you toast this, it might taste better as honey and margarine melt and mix well.

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Lunch Pack: Kinako Mochi

Lunch Pack Collection:
Kinako Mochi (Soybean Flour and Rice Cake)

They use Gyuhi instead of real rice cake.


Gyuhi is made with rice flour and similar to Tukish delight.


Kinako is mixed with some sort of cream and really smooth. 


Gyuhi is so thick that I don't doubt why they put a warning "Be careful of Gyuhi getting caught in your throat."

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Lunch Pack: 3 Kinds of Chocolate (A Chocolate Bar Inside) *Limited Time Only*

Lucn Pack Collection:
3 Kinds of Chocolate (A Chocolate Bar Inside)
*Limited Time Only*

Smooth chocolate cream, whipped chocolate cream, and a chocolate bar inside.

Wish it had more of those chocolate cream and whipped cream.


1 in./2.5 cm on the edge was just a plain bread... :(

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Lunch Pack: Strawberry Cheese Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Strawberry Cheese Cream

The drawing on the right upper corner gave me an image of strange taste...


But they actually use cream cheese and taste really good. 


I wanted to tell Yamazaki to switch the cheddar cheese picture to something else, 
and I DID.

I went to the Yamazaki Lunch Pack Special Site and commented,

"It was tasty, but the image of the cheese made me have weird image to the taste."

Funny thing is, they posted as what I said. lol

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Lunch Pack: Sauce Yakisoba

Lunch Pack Collection:

Sauce Yakisoba

I didn't see cabbage but saw some small pieces of pork.

It tasted like Yakisoba Pan (which is bread in Japanese) from high school cafeteria :9

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Lunch Pack: Salted Sweet Bean Paste & Whipped Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Salted Sweet Bean Paste & Whipped Cream

Salted sweet bean paste is from Chiba prefecture.


Milk is from Zao, Yamagata prefecture.


I liked the hint of salt in sweet bean paste.

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Lunch Pack: Milk Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Milk Cream

Using milk from Zao, Yamagata prefecture.

Tastes like custard but lighter and milkier.

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Lunch Pack: Ham Katsu

Lunch Pack Collection:
Ham Katsu

Thin sliced ham katsu (cutlet).

No fatty part is in it unlike the other one.

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Lunch Pack: Chocolate Bar & White Chocolate Bar

Lunch Pack Collection:
Chocolate Bar & White Chocolate Bar

This is another 2 different flavors in a package.


But no Mickey or Minnie on this pouch :(


White bread contains white chocolate bar with milk cream.


Cocoa-flavored bread has chocolate bar and chocolate cream.

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Lunch Pack: Black Chocolate Bar & White Chocolate Bar

Lunch Pack Collection:
Black Chocolate Bar & White Chocolate Bar

In a package, there're 2 types of bread.

You can enjoy different flavor with one package with Disney print on it!

White bread has crunchy black chocolate bar with whipped cream.


Cocoa-flavored bread has crunchy white chocolate bar with whipped cream.

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Lunch Pack: Strawberry Crunch Chocolate & Whipped Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Strawberry Crunch Chocolate & Whipped Cream

Sour and sweet pink chocolate.


This strawberry chocolate contains crunchy puffs and it has nice accent to the soft bread.


Whipped cream is really smooth and soft.

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Lunch Pack: Nectar Apple Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Nectar Apple Cream

A bit sour apple taste, which was close to real apples.


No whipped cream. 


This may be accepted by many people.

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Lunch Pack: Chump Chop Ham Katsu

Lunch Pack Collection:
Chump Chop Ham Katsu

About 1cm/half in. thick ham katsu (cutlet) is in it.


If it had sauce both sides, it'd be great and prevent the meat from getting dry.


When it's warm, it was slightly tastier.


Personally it was too fatty and hard to chew on some weird streaky fat.

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Homemade "Smoke" Beef

Homemade "Smoke" Beef


I wanted to make smoked meat and chose beef.


To buy a smoker costs and I wasn't sure how enthusiastic I would be to make another one.
Thus, I searched some recipe and found a unique technique to put the flavor into the ingredients in a regular oven.


Here is the easy steps to have smoke beef.


<Ingredients>
A block of meat (any kind, but I used beef this time)
Salt (by guesswork)
Spice mix (by guesswork)
Lemon grass (2-3 strands) >>> tear them into about 2in.

<Preparation>

(1) Get a block of meat. 

This was only 397 yen for 406g.

(2) Poke, poke and poke!!

I used toothpick but it WAS a lot of work so I recommend a knife or fork.

(3) Sprinkle seasonings over the meat.

(4) Seasonings are salt, coriander, lemon grass, and mix masala from Dubai. 

(I noticed that the mix masala contains coriander, so I put away the coriander bottle.)

(5) Work the spices into the meat.

Do this all over the meat.

(6) Put in a ziplock bag with lemon grass.

(7) Let it rest in fridge for 2-3 days.

Drain the liquid if there's any coming out from the meat. 

(8) Preparation to smoke.

Cover the oven tray with aluminum foil first

(so that in case the drippings come out while cooking, it's easy to clean the tray). 

Place cooking sheet/wax paper. 

Spread tea leaves to give flavor into the beef.

I used Taiwanese tea called Toho Bijin (東方美人),

but any tea leaves (English tea, too) are fine.

(9) Place the meat over the beef over the leaves. 

*Fat part should face to the bottom. 

You can wipe off the leaves after it's cooked.

(10) Preheat the oven at 120 Celsius.

(11) Place the tray at the bottom.

(12) Grill the beef for 90min at 120 Celsius.

(13) Leave the beef for 20min after the timer goes off. 

To let the meat settle, you can leave the beef in the oven and it won't burn.

(14) Done!

(15) Inside of the meat. 

Wish I had meat slicer to serve thinner beef.

(16) Ready to eat!

Thou I didn't use any smoker as you could see, the beef had nice flavor into it.

As it's easy to prepare and cook, you can have some flavorful beef at the table or even in sandwiches. 

<Extra recipe for mashed potato>

Some potatoes were sitting in my fridge but I didn't wanna get them bad, so I cut them randomly and used microwave to cook it in a silicone steamer. (10min)

Put the cooked potatoes into a ziplock bag and smash the potatoes with fist.

I recommend you think of something or someone you're annoyed at when you punch the bag because it really works well.

Once it's soft and no more chunks, flatten out the bag evenly and put in freezer.

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