Trứng Chiên Hành - Onion and Tomatoes Omelet

There are variations of this omelet in many cultures around the world, egg foo young is a quick example, so I'm not going to claim that this dish is exclusive to Vietnam. That said, this is what my mum fed me since I was little, so this is a Vietnamese version of it. Notice I said a version and not the version as I'm sure everyone makes it differently in Vietnam as well.

Here's my recipe for a version of this Onion and Tomatoes Omelet. This dish can be made vegetarian with vegetarian soy sauce - check the ingredients on the bottle and make sure the soy sauce is vegetarian as many Southeast Asian soy sauces are not!

Ingredients:

- Eggs, 9-10 large or 10+ smaller eggs. I used 12 when I made the omelets pictured and it yielded 4 generous dinner portions.

- Fresh tomatoes, 3 large or 4-5 smaller tomatoes, slice into whole or half medallions.

- Onion, 1 large or 2 smaller onions, sliced, though not too thickly.

- Scallions, chopped, as much or as little as you like. You can substitute regular green scallions with Chinese chives (hẹ) if you want a stronger onion/garlic taste, or leeks (negi) for a milder taste. Even though the omelets pictured were made with leeks (because regular scallions are way more expensive here!), I think I like regular scallions best because it's just right, not too strong but not too mild either.

Seasonings:

- Fish sauce, 3-4 Tablespoons. You can substitute vegetarian soy sauce here. I prefer my omelets with fish sauce but I haven't found any fish sauce here yet to I substituted with a combination of chicken broth powder, dashi powder, and shiro dashi.

- Black pepper, generous sprinkles.

Steps:

- Heat skillet with oil, then stir fry a handful of sliced onions.

- Mean while, beat the eggs with fish/soy sauce, black pepper. If you use chopped scallions, mix the scallions right into the eggs.

- When onions are soften, if you are using Chinese chives or leeks, add them here. Stir fry for a minute.

- Scatter the onions evenly across the skillet, then place several medallions of tomatoes on top. Let cook for a minute or 2.

- Ladle the beaten egg mix over, just enough to hold everything in place. Don't submerge the ingredients in the egg mix or your omelets will be too thick and very egg-y.

- Cover and let cook until omelet puffs up, then flip to cook on other side for a couple of minutes.

- Serve by itself or dipped in soy sauce. Yes, even though I prefer my omelets with fish sauce, I still dip it in soy sauce :P

Dove Beauty Moisture Creamy Face Wash

I wasn't really looking for a face wash since I brought a few with me from home (I know, silly me, right?), but of course I can only do so much in terms of self-restraint and bought this Dove Beauty Moisture Creamy Face Wash too :) It looked interesting :)

I am using this Dove cleanser in conjunction to the Etude House Happy Tea Time Cleansing Foam - Peach Tea (in process of reviewing). In the beginning, I designated it a morning cleanser (use only every 2 mornings, by the way, after my Differin retinoid treatment the night before) and the Etude House an evening one (as a follow up cleanser after the oil cleanser). My rationale was that Dove is supposed to be a moisturizing wash, so it won't be too stripping in combination with my alcohol-loaded Allie sunscreen. Plus my day moisturizer is much lighter than my evening moisturizer anyway (a heavier one tend to interfere with my sunscreen application), so a milder cleanser would be best.

Well, I was wrong. The Dove cleanser turns out not as mild as the Etude House one and I had to exchange their roles. The Dove cleanser is a runny liquid but is dispensed a foam, though thinner and not as "creamy" as it name suggests. It is scented with a fragrance very similar to that of Softymo Airy Whip, only with a hint of leafy aloe. It cleanses well and leaves my skin squeaky clean, which is to say that if I use too much, my skin will feel a bit tight afterwards.

It's not a bad cleanser, but I won't buy it again, especially when there are so many other choices...

Softymo White Cleansing Oil

Been using this Softymo White Cleansing Oil for a month now. There was a million and one choices for cleansing oils at the drug store, and I've got plenty of time so I started out with what I know.

I bought this for my mum but never cared to try it myself. I wasn't into anything whitening because frankly I think it's an odd concept not to mention the ingredients are just useless extra additions. But my mum loves all the whitening stuff, so... Anyway, fast forward to the drugstore, and when faced with so many choices, I was quick to pick this because it's the only 1 left out of the 3 Softymo cleansing oils I haven't tried, the other 2 being the Deep Cleansing Oil and Speedy Cleansing Oil :P

Texture wise, I would say this White Cleansing Oil is the thickest out of the 3 Softymo cleansing oils. Other than that, it's almost identical to its Deep Cleansing sibling, having the same orange-citrus scent (though the fragrance is so light I don't even notice it anymore), no silicon feel, and rinses clean. The whitening factor? Not that I've seen, unfortunately. Perhaps it's been formulated like American made whitening toothpaste and you'll have to use it for years and years to notice the slightest change, if there are any. Ha...useless extra ingredients... Oh well, at least it makes my mum happy.

Sunday date night outfit

No shorts today :P And it looks like I'll be posing in front of my apartment for a while since it's a bit more hidden and passerby's won't think I'm one of those funny tourists. Well, I sorta am but, shhh....

Soap Crazy Part VIII (Picture Heavy!)

Most of these were given out as gifts, but here are some more soaps for your viewing pleasure :)

Anderson Soap Company: now that I think about it, I haven't bought any new soaps from Dennis recently *gasps* I have to check out his shop to see what's new!!!

- Sugar Blackberry Viennese Latte Exfoliating Soap: hmm...this bar smelled a bit strong for me.

- Green Tart Exfoliating Oatmeal Soap: on the other hand, this bar's scent is so faint I couldn't smell anything else other the base fragrance in all of Dennis's soap.

Fresh & Clean: bought a big batch of soaps and this time they didn't come with the soapy-plasticy odor they did last time. Actually, they smelled fantastic coming out of the box! I was so happy as I got almost all the bars I wanted ^.^ There were a few I didn't get but will definitely come back!!!

- Kumquat: smells like an exact dupe of Dennis's Rosehips and Kumquat Soap, which is by no means a bad thing. I love the scent, so smelling it again in a different bar of soap is always fun. In fact, this is the second duplicate of the scent I have found, as the first was from Jadedmind's Orange Passion Shea Soap. Actually, I need to give more credit to this Fresh & Clean Kumquat bar as it was the most fragrant bar out of all 3 and it scented our entire bathroom with a sweet but citrusy scent. Lovely!

Huge bar too!!!

KcSoapsNmore: I've been keeping an eye out for more of these lovely scalloped layer soaps with the pretty cellophane wrappings but haven't seen any for the longest time. I think the seller has stopped making them :(

- White Ginger & Amber Goat's Milk Soap: for some reason this one smells like a Bath & Body Works type Rice Flower & Shea.

- Cherry Polka Dot Goat's Milk Soap: I was so, so sad to have parted ways with this particular bar as it had been one of my most treasured bars. Isn't it just adorable? And cherry fragrant too!!! I really really hope the recipient love this bar as much as I did.

- Coconut Citrus Sorbet Goat's Milk Soap: another one of my favorite that ended up being given away. Coconut citrus is such a nice combination and I could smell the coconut through the cellophane :(

- L'Occitane Vanilla Bath Soap: sneaking in a small bar of L'Occitane soap :P I thought this was going to be sugary sweet, but it turned out to be an understated but beautiful flowery vanilla scent. Loved it!

LostRiverRags: I guess my main complaint with this seller's soaps is that the fragrance only shows up in a few bars and for the vast majority of the others, they don't smell like anything. And a lot of them still have this musty odor I hate. So I've decided that when I run out of their soaps, I will only go back for their awesome Goats Milk Hand & Body Lotion. And may be their Goats Milk Sample Soap Sets too.

- Winter Mint Goat's Milk Soap: the soap version of the lovely lotion I used up in June.

- Sweet Sugar Goat's Milk Soap: again, the soap version of the same awesome lotion. If I like a scent, I have to buy them in sets, you see ^.^

- Lavender Mint Goat's Milk Soap: I could barely detect faint lavender scent, but nothing else.

- Composure Goat's Milk Soap: same with this bar. Didn't smell much of anything, unfortunately.

- Almond Goat's Milk Soap: same sad trend of nonexistent fragrance. This bar didn't smell at all like anything, not even the musty odor, almost as if it was unscented!

- Oatmeal Milk & Honey Goat's Milk Soap: finally a nicely scented bar! I wish the other soaps' fragrance come off like this bar too! Anyway, I really like this warm and comforting scent (I think I must have bought this same scent from every soap seller LOL!) and also bought the lotion version in this scent. Can't wait to get to the lotion!

Rachel Rene

- Strawberry Rhubard Pie Soap: couldn't smell this bar through its plastic wrap before gifting it away. Oh well.

- Lilacs in Bloom Soap: I was very sad to have parted with this bar too as it was so beautiful to look at. The 3 pastel layers just go together so well! It made a really nice gift though, that's for sure!

- Cucumber Wasabi Soap: I hope this bar didn't really smell like wasabi :X Then again, the person I sent this bar to is adventurous when it comes to trying out new things. I hope she liked it.

- Creme Brulee Brown Sugar Soap: this one was nice, although it was also itty bitty!

sunbasilgarden: this seller makes some really fun, interesting, not to mention beautiful soaps, although I haven't bought from her recently. Waiting for a sale :P

- Strawberry Banana Milkshake Soap: this bar looks really nice with the exfoliating bits, but I couldn't smell its fragrance through the packaging. Yeah, it was a gift. Oh well...

- Fresh Baked Bread Soap: I could smell this bar though and it really does smell like baked bread! Awesome!

- Candy Cane Ruffle Soap: Had a time parting with this bar too since I like anything pepperminty. And it was huge bar too!!!

See my previous posts:

- Soap Crazy
- Soap Crazy Part II
- Soap Crazy Part III
- Soap Crazy Part IV
- Soap Crazy Part V
- Soap Crazy Part VI

- Soap Crazy Part VII

Okonomi Monja Raku Ten Ya

Not satisfied with Botejyu's okonomiyaki, hubby and I combed through our Yokohama city restaurant and shopping guide book, hoping to comfort ourselves for the lack of a local Yacchin's. From the book, we found several okonomi and monja houses with the majority located in or around Yokohama Station, and Raku Ten Ya (楽天家) seems easiest of them all to find being right outside the West entrance. Our novice selves know we should start slow, and for a Saturday night date we decided to play a fun game called "Where's Dinner?"

If you've ever been to Yokohama Station, you'll know that dinner is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The gigantic station is also an endless web of distraction and an easy location here doesn't always equal an easy time searching. Imagine a very large train station with various tall buildings scatter in all four of its corners, many of them house shopping malls and myriads of restaurants on several of their floors. Now imagine all the same tall buildings become interconnected beneath the entire area in a series of basement levels (yes, under the streets and train tracks but above the subway tracks, which are 4-5 levels down), and each of those basement level houses even more shopping malls and myriads of restaurants.

If you're not picky about where you're having dinner, all sorts of food are beckoning at every turn, 360 degrees. You can literally close your eyes, walk randomly and will arrive at dinner. However, if you are looking for a specific place to have dinner, good luck finding it. That is, if you still have your resolve, lost in the sea of potential dinner candidates. See why "Where's Dinner?" is such a fun game to us? We desperately needed to preoccupy ourselves with some humor in order to make out of that place alive, in the same physique we entered, and not go flat broke having one too many dinners.

And we were handsomely rewarded. The sun had already set, and Raku Ten Ya turned out to be on the 6th floor of some random building outside the West entrance, but it has a big and lit up yellow sign in red font hung vertically along the side of the building. Can't miss that!

Preparing dinner and mixing my okonomi batter

The mixed okonomi batter, this one containing pork and kimchee. Yep, it wouldn't be dinner without kimchee.

Having walked all around the station looking for dinner, we rewarded our effort (and resolve! I can't say we weren't tempted along the way!) by ordering not 1, not 2, but 3 okonomi's! The top middle has pork and kimchee, the lower right has a mix of squid, shrimp, and pork, and the lower left has mentaiko, my other favorite ingredient for, oh, everything.

Just in case you're wondering how much food is 3 okonomi's, one measures about 8 inches across and 1 inch thick after cooking, filled with batter (eggs, all purpose flour, and grated nagaimo), cabbage, panko, and meat or seafood ingredients. It's like taking a medium pizza and fold it into a personal size with all the same amount of cheese and toppings on it. So yeah, 3 medium pizzas for 2 people is a lot of food.

Cooking, cooking!!!

Hubby's plate.

My plate, with lots of sauce and mayonnaise (before you go yuck, Japanese mayonnaise tastes nothing like the American sour variety).

Did we finish all our food? Nope. We stuffed ourselves with 2, and took half of the mix and half of the mentaiko one home.