Sunday Salon: Three mini reviews for Women in Translation Month

As we come to the end of August, I find myself with a number of books that I have finished for various blogging/bookstagram events where I have not yet written a review. I have found over the last couple of months that I have more books to review than I have days in the month spare in the blogging schedule. Today, I am therefore going to share some mini reviews books that I have read for various challenges or events which end today.

One of my blogging goals for this year is to review everything that I read by Australian authors, and all historical fiction novels. The books I am doing a mini review of today are books that don't fit into either of these categories. I do have some other books read but not reviewed which do fit into these categories and I will be reviewing them in September (hopefully!)

The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imae Messina 

This was a lovely read. When Shuichi returns to his home town following the death of his mother, he doesn't realise that a young boy named Kenta had been spending time with her. At first, Kenta was wary of Shuichi but eventually they build a relationship. The way the story is told means that we just get a layer revealed, and then another layer and so on, until we find out the truth of Shuichi's life which has been shaped by his health issues.

The author is actually Italian but has lived in Japan for more than 20 years so clearly loves all things Japanese. I loved the way the author shared stories about Kenji which is Japanese calligraphy. It was interesting that the titular library was important to the story but didn't really appear until late in the story. 

I've already picked up another book by this author which is called The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World.

This was one of the books I nominated for 20 Books of Winter. I read this in August, so this also counts for the Women in Translation month and the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader. The translator was Lucy Rand.

Rating 4/5

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

I had been really looking forward to reading this book since I first heard about it last year and I even requested it from Netgalley but the file format was painful so I didn't read it then. Earlier this year I went to hear the author talk at Melbourne Writers Festival and it was a really interesting conversation. However, it wasn't until my book club chose to read this book that I finally read it. We normally read on a theme but this month we agreed to all read the same book. It's fair to say it wasn't a really popular choice. 

So what did I think? I will admit I struggled with it a bit. The story is that the main character, Rika,  is a journalist who decides that she wants to interview a woman who has been convicted of killing three of her lovers. Kajii is an enigmatic character who is overweight and so people can't understand why she could attract so many men. Kajii is also very manipulative, even with Rika. From behind bars, Kajii manages to change Rika's life by interesting her to amazing food and has her reevaluating her life.

The subtext is about feminism and role of women in Japanese society, the pressure to look a certain way. However, there is also a lot about weight and fat shaming which I found a bit difficult. The words fat, weight and heavy appear more than 100 times in this book.

The book evoked quite strong reactions. One of our book club members declared that she had never hated a book more than she hated this one. My reaction is more muted. I am glad I finally read it, but I didn't love it mainly because of the repetitiveness and the fat shaming. I did love the food references and I am determined that at some point I am going to try rice with butter and soy sauce which was one of the first recipes Rika tried. I have seen this mentioned in various Japanese books.

It does also prompt an interesting question about why we get fascinated by women who kill, particular multiple people.  Recently in Australia there is a case of a woman who killed three members of her extended family by feeding them poison mushrooms in a Beef Wellington and the case seemingly captivated the nation.

This was one of the books I nominated for 20 Books of Winter. I read this in August, so this also counts for the Women in Translation month and the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader. At 464 pages, this book also counts as a Big Book of Summer. I am also sharing this post with Weekend Cooking and Foodies Read. The translator was Polly Barton. 

Rating 2.5/5

Dallergut Dream Department Store: The Dream You Ordered is Sold Out by Lee Mi-Ye

This book is a little bit different than my normal reads. The Dallergut Dream Department Store is somewhere we might visit in our dreams. There we can choose from a number of different floors where they specialise in different types of dreams. You could choose to dream of stardom or success, or loved ones who have passed on or dream of delicious food. You might wonder how we pay for these dreams? We pay with the emotions that these dreams elicit.

Penny starts working at the Dream Store and we join her as she meets the many colourful characters who work in the store. She is learning how the store operates by working in different roles, and soon finds herself working with the boss. Penny also meets the dream makers, some of whom are almost celebrity like figures

I think my favourite floor was the one where pets could come and get their dreams. Given the number of times we see our dog chasing rabbits in his dreams, it made me smile!

This author is Korean and the translator, Sandy Joosun Lee, was very enthusiastic about her role in translating this book.

I liked this enough that I have the next book out from the library to hopefully read soon.

This was one of the books I nominated for 20 Books of Winter and also counts for the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader. 

Rating 3.5/5

This week...

I'm reading

It's been another busy reading and blogging week! I feel like I have had a lot of different books in my hands and this list will confirm that!

I finished The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson as I had to return it to the library. My review is here. This is the second book in the Tea Ladies series and I have already requested the third book.

I had to put Beartown by Fredrik Backman down in order to finish The Cryptic Clue. Once I picked it up again I was absolutely absorbed. This is one of my 20 Books of Winter and counts as a Big Book of Summer. It was a 5/5 read for me and I have already requested the next book in the trilogy.

Then I started a couple of books but I will need to go back to them again this week. I started The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl because of Paris in July.  I also started Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, which is another of my 20 Books of Winter reads.

Once again, the library conspired against me and said I couldn't renew Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn so I read that. This was Claire van Ryn's debut novel, but I had already read her second book. I hope to have a review for this one up shortly.

In order to try to get in front of the library I then read Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee who is from South Korea This is also one of my 20 Books of Winter. It's a different read for me but I did like it enough to request the second book in the series. The idea is that in our sleep we all go to the dream store to purchase the dreams that we want. We then pay for them using our emotions. 

Finally, I started reading A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan which is the current Cook the Books selection.

I did do a summary of the books that I read for June for the 20 Books of Winter . You can read my recap post here.

Bookish Travel

I did a fair bit of travelling through the pages of books during June. Here's some of the places I visited.

Australia 

Melbourne  - The Butterfly Women

Sydney - The Cryptic Club

America

Maine- The Mirror

Washington - The Diamond Eye

Michigan/New York - The Page Turner

Europe

England - The Silver Ladies Seize the Day, Once Upon a Thyme, The Storytellers

Scotland - Over the Seas to Skye, the Woman Who Got Her Spark Back

Ukraine/USSR -- The Diamond Eye

France  - A Secret Garden in Paris, French Rhapsody, The Girl from Normandy

Greece - The Island of Hope and Dreams, Not My Greek Wedding

Portugal - The Lost Story of Sofia Costello

The Cruise Club (visited several countries!)

Africa

Morocco - Half Truth

Best of June

In June I read 19 books and these 6 are the ones I rated as 4.5/5 reads. 

I'm watching

I finished watching Gary Barlow's Wine Tour: Australia. I will finish watching his South Africa show this week I think. 

I also re-watched The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan this week. I originally watched it last year as part of the French Film Festival (and I posted about it here). I was surprised to see it on the normal movie channels on our cable provider as normally if I want to watch any foreign language films you have to go searching for it. 

Life


After 3 weeks, I still sound a bit husky but finally feel like I am getting better. 

We did have a busy weekend as our kids were down from Brisbane for the day on Saturday so Robert was being dad's taxi service driving all over the city while I cooked dinner. Then we had my sister and her family around for dinner on Sunday along with my mum who is over from Adelaide. 


Posts from the last week

20 Books of Winter: June

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: July links
Paris in July 2025!

Paris in July/Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Eiffel Tower on the Cover
Paris in July: Since the last Paris in July
The Lost Story of Sofia Castello by Siobhan Curham

Paris in July: Mini Movie Reviews
Blog Tour: The Cruise Club by Caroline James
The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - June
Six Degrees of Separaton: Theory & Practice to Sisters of the Resistance

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton

 

Recently we went on a cruise that visited both Japan and Korea. I already had this book on my TBR list but I decided to move it up the list because it was set both of the countries we were visiting, and I was very glad that I did.

White Mulberry tells the story of Miyoung who is a young girl who lives in a village near Pyongyang in Korea. Both of her sisters have gone abroad to marry leaving Miyoung at home with her ailing mother. Miyoung is very clever and dreams of becoming a teacher, but her mother knows that there are limited opportunities for her in Japanese occupied Korea. She is therefore sent to Japan to live with her sister to continue her education.

It soon becomes clear that Japan is not going to be any easier than Korea was. Koreans live segregated lives, working only the lowest of job and are discriminated against consistently. The only way to get ahead is to pretend to be Japanese, so Miyoung becomes Miyoko and trains to become a nurse. 

Eventually Miyoko starts attending a clandestine Korean Christian church and there meets a young man who is fighting for better rights for Korean immigrants. This makes her life even more complicated. She is a Korean pretending to be Japanese but in love with a Korean man and she is Christian at a time where this is frowned upon by the Japanese authorities. It doesn't help that when she marries her husband's family is difficult as well.

As World War II rages, Miyoungknows that her only hope is to get back to Korea, but also that will be difficult to say the least. What will it cost her in terms of her family and her life? And who will be left in Korea to help support her re-establishing her life there?

It was interesting to read about the differences between these two cultures and how someone who is trying to navigate these different worlds. I enjoyed the food talk, and I really liked the relationship between Miyoung and her sister, Bohbeh, who faced her own challenges and yet supported Miyoung when she needed her the most.

One of the reasons I read historical fiction is that you can learn so much. I had no idea that Korea was occupied by Japan as far back as the 1910s. I did know that they invaded Manchuria in the years leading up to WWII but not Korea! While I was in Japan I learned some things about the post war years that really surprised me. For example, did you know that the US controlled the Japanese island of Okinawa and only gave it back to Japanese control in 1972? They still have a significant say in the decisions of the island because of the military bases on the island. 

This story is made all the more interesting in that it is based on the author's own family history. It seems that there are quite a few WWII stories now that are based on true stories like this. I am sure that there are a lot more interesting stories out there still!

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading challenge which I host here.

Rating 4/5

Weekend Cooking: What We Ate on Holidays - Japan and South Korea - the sweet edition.

Last week I shared just some of the food that we ate during our recent trip to Japan, but it didn't include any sweet food. That's because the cakes, particularly in Japan, were A-MAZ-ING and therefore definitely deserved a whole post of their own.

One of the things that amazed us in Tokyo was how amazing the food areas were in each of the major train stations. Our hotel was quite close to Shinagawa station, one of the busiest train stations in the world, and once you got inside the station, there were the most amazing stores selling all kinds of things from sweet treats to cooked food you could have for a quick dinner, and everything in between. We went into these food halls in multiple stations and they were all different but all amazing!

Before I share some of the things we did eat, I thought I would talk about something we didn't eat!

Look how gorgeous these biscuits are! We saw these in the shop at the station and I instantly said we need to try those. Little did we know we would try for three days and still not get to eat them. Every time we went through the station they were sold out! One time, I joined the queue and they said it was at least a 45 minute wait, and in my wisdom I said I am not waiting in a queue for that long for a biscuit. That was probably our best opportunity. We knew that they should be restocked at 8am and 5pm so one our last morning I sent Robert down to get some at 8am but the delivery was running late so we still didn't get any. 

Now, onto things we did eat.

I was very surprised by how prevalent strawberry was as a flavour in Japan. The first night in Tokyo we decided to buy two different flavour cakes - strawberry and orange. The strawberry was deliciously light and fluffy. It honestly feels a bit like you are eating air. I didn't enjoy the orange one quite so much.

After we didn't get the biscuits I mentioned above, we consoled ourselves with these strawberry mousse cakes which were totally amazing! Inside there was some sponge and strawberry sauce! So good!

On the Saturday morning, we ended up walking along a waterfront area where we ended up in a large local shopping centre which included a little dog park for residents to exercise their dogs, and nearby there was a cafe where dogs were welcome. There was even a dog on the straws! I had an ice cream which had a black charcoal cone!

When we couldn't get the biscuits that we wanted on our last day in Tokyo, this was the alternative - it is a biscuit which is filled with strawberry jam and flavoured cream. They were so good!

One of the things I knew I wanted to try again was Doriyaki. I first heard about them when I read the book Sweet Bean, and then when I watched the movie of the book. We had some of these when we visited Osaka Castle. I had the tradition red bean paste flavour and my husband tried the custard one.  Aren't they so cute!

One of the things that we did on the cruise was a wine tasting class. They gave us a few tips and then we did some blind tasting using the dark glasses on the table, and you had to tell them whether it was red or white wine, what kind of wine it was and whether it was an old or new world wine! They were trying to get us to be able to smell and taste the underlying flavours which I can never do. One thing this lesson did really surprise me with was when it came to how food changes the taste of wine. Now, I know that wine and food pairing a thing, but this was such a simple demonstration. When we tasted the wine, and then had a bit of macaroon, and then tasted the wine again, there were definitely differences in the wine experience! And the bonus was we also got to eat macaroons!

I mentioned in last week's post that we went to a fish market in Okinawa. I also tried this ice cream there which is a salt pineapple flavour! It was really good!

The way that food is presented in Japan is just so beautiful. This is a slice of Castella cake. Each perfect slice comes individually wrapped, and then packaged in a gorgeous box. Castella is considered a specialty of Nagasaki, and originally derived from Portuguese cakes when they were one of the few traders allowed into Japan when it was otherwise closed off from the Western world. I had heard about Castella before when I read What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, and one of the characters taught herself to make the perfect Castella cake. I was excited to be able to try it!

Moving on to Seoul, we went to crazy busy market in Seoul where we got to try these baked fish. They are actually filled with bean paste whilst the one on the right are corn shaped and filled with custard. So good!

On our last day in Seoul we went searching for a Pandora store (because I buy a Pandora charm for every country we visit) and we needed a break so we went to a coffee shop and had this amazing mandarin cream cake. It was so good! We did share it, although it was very light and fluffy and delicious and you could easily eat one by yourself! The drink I had was a peach and strawberry frappe and Robert had a condensed milk cappuccino. My mouth waters just thinking about that frappe!

I did think that would be the last of the sweet treats to share until the ice creams were handed out of the flight from Seoul to Singapore. Have you ever seen ice cream shaped like a cob of corn? I hadn't!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Beef and Broccoli Noodles
Sunday - Out for dinner
Monday - Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognaise
Tuesday - Chicken Stir Fry
Wednesday - Green Curry Chicken Pie
Thursday - Baked Tuscan Chicken and Rice
Friday - Away

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: What We Ate on Holidays - Japan and Korea - The Savoury Edition

Are you ready for a ton of food photos? 

Last week Robert and I returned from a 18 day trip to Japan and South Korea, which included a 12 night cruise. Along the way we ate some amazing food!  Normally I would mix savoury and sweet together and just do a week at a time but we didn't have internet on the boat so instead I am going to do two posts - one will be lots of savoury food and the second will be sweet treats. Oh my goodness ....the cakes! But that is next week.

We have been talking about going to Japan for a long time, and one of the main reasons for booking the cruise we did is that we would get to be there for cherry blossoms! We didn't quite get the full cherry blossom experience where you have cherry blossoms fully blooming on both sides of a path creating a blossom tunnel. We were probably a week early, but we did still get to see lots of cherry blossoms in both Japan and Korea.

In Tokyo, we spent some time in Euno Park where there was a Sakura festival taking place. This mean heaps of interesting looking food being sold. The day we were there it was busy enough. I can't imagine how busy it would get once all the blossoms came out. 

The one thing that we wanted to do while we were in Japan was to go to one of those small restaurants that you see in Japanese series like Midnight Dinner. The kind where there are just a few seats in a small restaurant, with a tiny kitchen which serves up delicious morsels. We found this kind of place as we walked through all the laneways, although we just had a beer because it was standing at high tables only and they were very clear when we walked in that there was no English menu available. 

We ended up wandering down the street a bit further and found a place. We weren't really sure what the food was going to be like but it was a place which specialised in soba noodles. Everything was delicious, although we did get two surprises here. One was that the noodles were cold, and the other was that this cute little bottle was for whisky soda! I saw the can and the word soda. It was only when this glass arrived that I realised we may have made a boo-boo!

At the end of our second day of walking around, we really just wanted to go somewhere local and so we found a little place a short walk from our hotel, which really fit the definition of the small restaurant I mentioned above, but much more modern. It was run by an older couple, cash only, no English menu but the Chicken Katsu Curry was had there was absolutely delicious and super cheap! It also had a takeout window so I suspect a lot of people just come there to get something cooked for them and then take it to their nearby houses to eat it.

On our last night in Tokyo we went up the observatory tower, Skytree, which was absolutely crazy! Talk about crowded. It seems everyone wanted to be there for dusk.  The view from the top was amazing though. We headed down to the shopping centre and then wandered through the floors where all the restaurants were. We really struggled to find a place where the food looked okay and there wasn't too long a queue. Getting both of those was a bit of a struggle, so in the end we just picked a place and then queued up to wait for our number to be called. And let's just say, we chose a great place. They serve up all sorts of dishes where you get an assortment of dishes including very thinly sliced meat in a broth which is sitting in a dish over a flame so that you dunk the meat in, and it cooks very quickly. It also comes with an egg, some miso soup, pickles and a steamed egg custard. This meal completely blew out minds. The broth was oh my goodness level of delicious! What we didn't know is that we would see this style of dish several times over the next few days, but this one was spectacular.

The others were all good too, and each had regional variations which represented the city that we were in, and they all looked so beautifully presented. In one place, there was a little bit of whitebait, in another the specialty was more fried dishes as accompaniments and then in another place, instead of the ingredients being in a metal pot over flame, it was served up in a thick, coated paper, which didn't burn as long as there was still some liquid in. They were all so beautifully presented

We did buy this gorgeous tea set from a market set up in one of the cruise terminals. I wasn't really looking at buying anything like this but I had to have it when I saw it!

When it comes to the food on the ship, it was fine, nothing much to write home about, but we did do a dinner in the French restaurant on board which was really good! I had French Onion Soup (not quite as good as the one we had on our foodie walking tour in Paris but not too far off), a beautiful piece of steak and a poached pear served with a dark chocolate sauce and ice cream. Robert had a mushroom soup, pork with peppercorn and floating meringue islands. 

In Okinawa we went to a really interesting fish market. There were all different stalls where you could just go and choose whatever seafood you wanted. I forgot to take a photo of what we chose, but here is one of the lobster options that were available. They were really reasonably priced too.

In two of our stops, Nagasaki and Jeju, we didn't really have any time to have have any meals as the ship left port mid afternoon. We did visit a village on Jeju where women divers live and work, which was an amazing experience. I knew that was the excursion I knew I wanted to do after reading Lisa See's book The Island of Sea Women. I did learn that Jeju is famous for it's mandarins and we did get to taste a piece of that, and the women divers also gave us a taste of some of the seafood that they catch when they were out diving. I tried some conch but I didn't get a chance to take a picture of that unfortunately. 

On our first day in Seoul we did a full day excursion before getting dropped off at our hotel. The lunch stop was at a big market where you could get absolutely anything. Food, drinks, fabric, electrical, kitchenware, you name it! Our tour guide tried to encourage us to try one of the specialties which is raw octopus but I ended up choosing the steak tartare bibimbap instead, which I quite enjoyed. I wouldn't normally choose steak tartare from a menu, but with the egg, vegies and rice it worked out quite nicely

Our last night in Seoul we stayed in a hotel quite close to the airport, as we had an early flight and it takes at least an hour and a half to get to the airport from the city. We weren't really sure where to go, but we ended up wandering around and found this Korean BBQ place. It has these very cool contraptions on the table which was really interesting to see! We had dumpling soup which came with various side dishes including what I think were maybe picked quails eggs. Whatever they were, they were slippery little suckers. It did amuse me to see that the Korean man next to us just used a spoon to pick his up!

We flew to Tokyo and then back from Seoul on Singapore Airways. I have to say that they are right up there when it comes to their service and food. That is one airline that you don't get off the flight and think gee I am really hungry. 

Next week I will be back with some of the sweet treats we enjoyed

Weekly meals

Saturday -  Meatballs
Sunday - Roast pork and vegies
Monday - Honey Pepper Chicken and Rice
Tuesday - Pork chops, mash and vegies
Wednesday - Takeaway
Thursday - Pork Nachos
Friday - Out for dinner

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 

When this book was chosen as the current selection for Cook the Books I was curious but wasn't sure what to expect. After all, I had no idea who Michelle Zauner is, let alone what a H Mart is! So first things first, Michelle Zauner is an indie musician who is part of a band called Japanese Breakfast. She originally published an essay called Crying in H Mart. That essay in effect became the first chapter of this book, which is an examination of grief following the loss of her Korean mother. Other topics covered include her search for her own Korean identity given that her mother is Korean and her father is white American.

As for a H Mart, that is a Korean supermarket, usually located on the outskirts of towns, where there  are often restaurants. The supermarkets are filled with the ingredients that remind immigrants of home.

Michelle had a very interesting relationship with her mother. Whilst she hated that her mother had very definite ideas of how she should behave and dress, what she should do with her life, and she rebelled against it, she also looked for validation from her. They were sufficiently close that when her mother became ill Michelle dropped everything to go and look after her. The devastation that the aggressive cancer diagnosis for Michelle's mother, and Michelle watching the decline of her mother was very clear.  I wouldn't be able to do this with my mother, both because of our distant relationship (physical and emotional) and not being able to deal with the physical aspects of such a diagnosis and treatment.

When she was younger, Michelle and her mother used to travel to Korea on holidays, and part of the question for Michelle is how does she maintain those relationships. I have gotten this far in my review and realised that I have not once referred to Michelle's mother by her name, Chongmi, which seems a bit of an oversight. And to be honest, it feels a lot like this in the book too. There were times when I was emotionally affected by the book but there were other times when I found Michelle to be a bit juvenile.

I did find the search for a sense of identity quite interesting, especially given that my own son's heritage is part Afro-Caribbean and part Australian. As far as I know he isn't particularly interested in that side of his identity, but I am also aware that could change at some point.

I was also saddened by the strained relationship with her father. Even watching her mother die did not bring them closer together. Given that I was in Perth just last week spreading my father's ashes after her passed away last year, I did feel that. Then again, I am always emotionally affected by father daughter stories because of the relationship that we had.

One of the things that I enjoyed was when Michelle Zauner started trying to learn to cook more Korean food by watching Youtube videos from a person called Maangchi. I have now gone down a bit of a rabbit hole watching Maangchi's videos. We are heading to Japan and Korea next year on a cruise and I am enjoying seeing some of the foods that we might be able to explore while we are there.  Between the Youtube channel and all the food references in the book, there is plenty for us to explore.

When it came to choosing a recipe, I have a Korean cookbook called Rice Table: Korean Recipes and Stories to Feed the Soul which I bought last year. Interestingly this book is the author trying to find her Korean identity through the exploration of Korean food after living in the UK away from her family for 20 years. She then becomes the mother of a Korean/British child and is trying to share her heritage, so there are definitely some differences but yet some similarities between the themes of the two books.

We have tried a couple of recipes from this book, including a delicious roasted baby potato with soy sauce and cheese recipe. I really need to make those again. 

However, this time I chose to take inspiration from a very popular Korean dish, Kimchi, to make a version of fried rice. This does feel as though it could be a great recipe to adapt, either by adding tuna as suggested, or adding in some chicken or some other protein.

I did have a Korean workmate who suggested that this recipe was overly complicating things and all you really needed was some rice, some kimchi and some tuna and you had a delicious lunch, but we definitely enjoyed this when we made it, and it is an easy mid-week meal. I could have been a bit braver when it comes to creating the crust, but I am also aware that our non stick frying pan is not as non stick as it used to be and I need to be a bit careful with it

I didn't have any Gochujang so I subbed in a small amount of Sriracha. We have also run out of nduja paste. I only know of one place where we can get it so next time I am in the area I will drop in and get more.

Midnight Kimchi Fried Rice 

Serves 2

1½ tbsp vegetable oil
200g (7oz) kimchi, roughly chopped
1 tsp golden granulated sugar
70g (2½oz) ’nduja (cured pork spread)
1 tbsp mirin
300g (10½oz/2½ cups) cooked white short-grain rice
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp gochujang (Korean red chilli paste)
1 tsp oyster sauce
¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper

To finish

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 eggs
2 tbsp gim jaban (crumbled toasted seasoned seaweed)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil



Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat. Add the kimchi and sugar and sauté for 3 minutes to soften the kimchi. Stir in the ’nduja and mirin and cook for 1 minute to incorporate. Stir in the rice followed by the soy sauce, gochujang, oyster sauce and black pepper. Continue frying for 3–5 minutes.

Reduce the heat and, using the back of a spatula or a large wooden spoon, spread the rice thinly and evenly around the pan, while pressing down quite firmly. Let it sit over a low heat for 3 minutes without disturbing the pan to form a light crust. Remove the pan from the heat after 3 minutes. Let it sit for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, to fry the eggs, heat the olive oil in a frying panfor a couple of minutes over a medium heat. You want the oil to get nice and hot but not smoking, so that when you crack the eggs in they sizzle. Crack the eggs in, ensuring they are not too close together. Let them fry for 2 minutes without touching. After 2 minutes, tilt the pan slightly away from you to pool the oil and carefully baste around any whites that still appear raw. Keep the yolk nice and runny. You should have perfectly fried eggs with a crispy edge. Remove from the heat.

Serve the rice immediately, topped with the eggs and crumbled seaweed and drizzled with the sesame oil. Eat straight from the pan to scrape off the caramelized rice at the bottom.

I am also counting this book for Non Fiction November, and will be sharing the link with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story.  This book also fits the theme for my read on a theme book club. This time the theme is food/cooking 

The next selection for Cook the Books will be Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang. This sounds like it is going to be another book where I am going to be a bit outside my comfort zone, but that's okay. Hopefully I will get that review up a bit before the last possible day! Today is the last day for the contributions for this selection!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Away
Sunday - Away
Monday - Pork chops, mash, broccoli and gravy
Tuesday - Beef and beans stir fry
Wednesday - Kimchi Fried Rice
Thursday -
Friday -

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Top Ten Tuesday: Foodie TV and movies

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the them

e is Non-book Freebie so I decided to talk about foreign movies.

The whole point of this post at the beginning was to talk about a movie called Language Lessons which I watched a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed. Then I started putting my list together and realised that I could easily make a list of ten which are all about food! So here are ten foreign foodie TV series or movies I have enjoyed. 

Midnight Diner (Japan) - I have watched a season and a half of this. Every now and again I think I should watch more. (Review here)

Foodie Love (Spain) - I binged watched this during lockdown (Review here)

Tuesday Club (Sweden) - I watched this as part of the Scandinavian Film Festival and really enjoyed it! (review here)

Babette's Feast (Sweden) - Something of a foodie film classic. (Review here)

The Perfect Dinner (Italy) - I saw this one as part of the Italian Film Festival last year. (Review here)

The Recipe (Korea) - This was one of the earliest foreign movies I posted about on this blog. (review here)

The Tasting (France) - My most recent French Film Festival movie. I saw this a couple of weeks ago and just posted about it last weekend. (review here)

Delicious (France) - This is supposedly the story of the first restaurant although I am not sure how historically correct it is! (review here)

Kings of Pastry (France) - These days I watch Bake Off:  The Professionals to see amazing creations like the ones in this, but these were next level. (review here)

Romantics Anonymous (France) -  I have probably watched this movie 3 or 4 times over the years. It is a lovely film (review here)

Oh, and watch Language Lessons. It was good!

I will be sharing this post with Weekend Cooking which I host here each Saturday.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page