Pegedil/ Begedil Ayam (Potato Patty with Chicken)

Usually eaten with soto ayam (chicken soup with spices), these little babies are my great favourite. My mother often made them to be consumed on their own in big quantity and a battle of who got to eat more would ensue between my sister and I. So when I moved over to Japan, I missed…

Prawns in Oyster Sauce

At home, my mother sometimes make us prawn in oyster sauce which is easy to make and quite delicious on its own. When we came to Tokyo, we saw some pretty prawns and figured we could try cooking them in oyster sauce like mother did. So on our first try, we made it the simplest…

Alcohol Substitutes

Alcohol, typically mirin and sake are staple ingredients in Japanese cooking. This is of course an issue for us practising Muslims, as alcohol is one of the prohibited ingredients as well as for those who abstain due to health reasons, pregnancy or precautions resulting from personal past experience. I’ve heard and seen so many arguments…

Getting By in Japan

Being in Japan could be difficult unless you know the language. Even for someone like me who is currently studying the language, I struggle with reading the boards and information-loaded guides and flyers due to unrecognizable kanji. Which is why getting by, particularly when you’re a Muslim, or a vegetarian or a vegan – to…

Moving Procedures

Prior to coming to Japan, my sister and I settled to staying in a dormitory recommended by the school for convenience since we were not familiar with Japan. Little did we know we would have to go through some episodes with those who shared the common areas with us. We signed the three-month contract and…

Mosque in Japan

This Ramadan being our first experience in Japan, we figured we’d visit the mosque for prayer (we couldn’t stay for the late night prayer though, for fear that we might miss the last train) and eat free food at the largest mosque in Japan, Tokyo Jamii or Tokyo Camii mosque (and Turkish cultural centre) located…

Honey-glazed Chicken

If asked what is the best meal we have prepared thus far, we would be torn between fried chicken and honey-glazed chicken. We found a great, simple recipe for making honey-glazed chicken on allrecipe.com which we will definitely use again. But as I mentioned in my previous post, we usually make do with what we…

Strength

In class, we learned this word which is very relevant to our (my sister’s and my) experience lately: 辛抱（しんぼう）shinbou – patience, endurance Speaking of endurance, the first thing that comes to my mind is my experience in Mina during Hajj. Even though it took place for only a few days, the time spent there felt…

Books and Japan

When I first started with this blog, I told myself that I would try my very best to post something at least once a day but unfortunately I have not been able to post in the past few days because a lot is going on what with us having to settle about moving to a…

Japanese Ingredients

Coming to Tokyo, I did expect for the availability of the ingredients to be different compared to Malaysia, but some things are simply above expectations. For example, some seafood are so fresh here and quite affordable (unless you want eel, which is of course available here but at about ¥1500 or around RM60). Crab meat could…

Potato Salad (not really salad, but yeah)

Not so much salad as one would think when the word ‘salad’ is thrown, this recipe has no lettuce or even any vegetables in it, except for potatoes and spring onions. But it is my favourite because it has all my favourite ingredients and it is so very easy to make. This recipe was taught…

The White Sauce

Anyone who knows me would know that one of my most favourite food in the world is pasta. However, I had never made one myself until I came over to Japan because well, if you have an amazing cook as a mother, why bother, right? So, needless to say I had no idea how very…