When Raquel and I went to Japan last year, I discovered this wonderful softdrink called Mitsuya Cider. It tasted like a cross between 7-Up and Juicy Fruit. That’s right, the chewing gum. I was an instant fan.

On the day we were to fly back to Melbourne, I came to a sad realisation: I wouldn’t be able to drink anymore Mitsuya Cider. That is, unless I can find a shop in Melbourne that sells the drink. Unfortunately, I’ve looked all over the place and couldn’t find an Asian shop that sold it.

Today, we went to the big Asian shop in the city to get some siopao and siomai. Since I was already there, I decided to look for the drink again I’m their drinks section. Well, it wasn’t there, as expected.

However, there was a drink being sold there that caught my eye. It was drink that I saw numerous times in Japanese animation. It was a variation of Ramune, the drink that’s sold in a glass bottle with a glass marble in it. Except the one in the shop was sold in a can and was called Ramu Bottle instead.

I’ve been very keen to try the drink since seeing it in anime and now’s my chance to sample it. I know I should’ve tried it when I was on Japan but I just totally forgot about Ramune and it wasn’t a drink I noticed being sold there. I would’ve instantly recognized the odd bottle.

Anyway, I bought it had a sip of it. To my delightful surprise, it had the same Juicy Fruit taste I loved about Mitsuya Cider! At last! Although I couldn’t find Mitsuya Cider anywhere in the city, I at least have a nice substitute for my favourite bubblegum soda in Ramune.

I’m so happy! I can’t wait to get back to the shop and get some more.

It all started when Gabriel opened a tin of tuna to prepare our breakfast sandwiches for the next day. He was in the kitchen and I was in the rumpus when he exclaimed that something’s not right with the tin he just opened. Imagining the worse, I thought there was something dead and rotting inside the tin, or something that shouldn’t be there, like maybe a dead insect or something. There was something inside the tin that shouldn’t be there alright, but it was not a disgusting insect or anything rotten.

You see, the tin he opened was labelled Caramelised Onion and Tomato and yet the contents of the tin had a white sauce instead of the expected red. We were so dumb-founded that we both stared at the tin on the counter for several seconds, maybe even a minute or two, trying to reconcile the label with the contents and wondering what the hell has gone wrong?

We ran a fork into the center of the tin to see if maybe half of the contents are right but all we saw was tuna, mustard seeds and white sauce. I was still staring stupidly at this suspect tin while hubby got another tin marked Caramelised Onion and Tomato from the cupboard. He opened that and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the expected red sauce. Looks like the first tin of tuna was an aberration after all and didn’t affect the whole batch.

Curious as to what the first tin contained, I proposed that we eat it. Horrified, hubby said that maybe I shouldn’t and maybe it’s not safe. Well, if curiosity killed the cat, this cat could have been killed by a tin of tuna because I ate it anyway. I poked around the can some more, smelled the contents, tasted it and proceeded to spread it onto a slice of bread. It tasted like tuna with mayonnaise and mustard and a later search in the manufacturer’s site made us conclud that the tin actually contained the Seeded Mustard Mayonnaise flavour. It was nice and hubby actually liked it but we were still disappointed that we now have one less Caramelised Onion and Tomato and we were already looking forward to that for our breakfast the next day.

The next day, I showed the tuna of the photo to a work mate and she said that I should write the manufacturer expressing my concern. I was planning to send the company a proper snail mail complete with a print of the photo I took of the two tins side by side. Having to compose the letter, print the photo and then mailing the letter just seemed to be too much work though and I finally settled on filling out the online form on the manufacturer’s site.

It took a couple of days for them to reply. The contents of the email basically had a reference number on it, inviting me to call their customer service lined on weekdays from 9am-5pm. At this point, I just couldn’t be bothered anymore and replied to the email that I have given them all the information they needed to rectify the problem (I sent them the barcode number and the numbers stamped on top of the tin, but not the photo as there isn’t a facility to attach photos in their online form). That was a couple of days ago and I thought that was the end of it.

However, I got an envelope bearing the manufacturer’s name yesterday containing a letter, a page of recipes flogging their corned beef and a mail order cheque for $3. Here’s part of the body of the letter.

Incorrect labelling is very unusual because of the strict precautions taken to ensure that each container has the right label. What may have happened in this case is that an error has occurred either in sorting or in feeding labels into the machine, and this has been missed during final inspection before packing.

As a result of your report, our Quality and Production staff have been advised so that corrective action can be taken.

We are concerned that you have been inconvenienced as a result of this incident and, as a gesture of goodwill, we have enclosed reimbursement for your purchase. We value your custom and trust you will continue to enjoy our products in the future.

Should you require further information do not hesitate to call us on our Consumer Services Helpline (number given).

And with that, I suppose that is the end of the whole tale. I’m still a bit wary of their product though and haven’t bought anything else from them since the tuna incident. I buy things from manufacturers expecting that I get what I paid for and that it has passed stringent quality checks. Although package mislabelling doesn’t seem to be such a big deal in this instance, it somehow casts a shadow of doubt on what else could go wrong or has gone wrong in their production process.

Would I buy from their brand again? Not if I can help it.

I’m not a fan of anything pre-mixed but figured I should probably try some before I knock them so when the local supermarket had a promotion of 2 cake mixes for cheap, I bought two. This is the first of the two I’ve baked. I followed the instructions on the box exactly, going as far as timing the mixing on the stop watch function of my mobile phone. It’s pretty much fool-proof I guess, just add two eggs and milk.

The finished product came out looking just like the photo on the box and the cake was moist and had a very nice texture to it. We weren’t too keen on the lemony taste of the cake though and I bought most of the batch to work. A work mate rated it “very nice”.

Hmmm… maybe this pre-mix thing isn’t too bad after all? Don’t know about that though as I scanned the ingredients list on the box and saw several ingredients with numbers in them (477 or some such thing). I guess they’re okay for when you’re in a pinch or just can’t be bothered making things from scratch but I won’t make a habit of it.

Bought these two tins of tuna from the supermarket on special. Aside from blurring out the brand name, the subjects and the photo were not changed in any way.

Hubby had to work late tonight and I had to eat dinner alone. Here’s what I had, chicken and zucchini soup. The original recipe called for pork but I used chicken instead although I followed the recipe exactly (although the proportions were a bit different as I rarely measure ingredients). As the recipe had no photo, I submitted mine and it got accepted. Anyway, the soup was yummy and hearty, perfect for a cold night alone.

At the risk of this blog being all about food, I did a photo dump from my mobile and found more food photos. What can I say, we absolutely like to eat!

This is by far the oldest photo in the batch and is so far my first and last attempt at Spanish Flan or as Filipinos know it, Leche Flan. I think the finished product looks decent but it was on the bland side. It wasn’t creamy enough nor was it sweet enough. Definitely not one of the best that came out of the our kitchen. If I ever have to make one again, I would have to look for another recipe to use.

With winter well and truly upon us, our usual breakfast of cold sandwiches just have to change. We wanted something to warm us up in the morning and I don’t remember anymore how I came up with the empanadas but I recall searching for recipes online. Some of the recipes mentioned using frozen puff pastry instead making my own and I did just that even if it’s technically not the proper way of doing it.

Well, the empanadas worked well and we’ve been having them for several weeks now. I’ve used two brands of puff pastry and I find the most thing I have difficulty with is estimating the amount of filling to put in. Too much filling and the filling would spill out as it bakes, too little and we’d end up hungry before lunch.

While we were in our weekend away at Brissy, we frequented the food courts for some fast food. We found a Japanese shop at Wintergarden on our second day called Hanaichi and decided to try the limited menu mainly because of the number of people queueing in front. With the price ranging from $6.20 to $6.70 a bowl, it’s quite affordable as well. I gave the Chicken Hanaichi a try after seeing so many other customers order it and I must say that although I initially had misgivings because of the amount of greens it has that it’s almost like a salad on rice, the accompanying karaage chicken with the sour cream made it my favourite. Gabriel, on the other hand, was consistently a Katsudon fan.

Another thing we tasted in Brisbane was the Wicked Banana at the Southbank markets. It’s basically a banana that had a thin strip of chocolate injected at its center. They had different kinds of chocolate such as milk chocolate, dark, hazelnut and a few more. However, we only ever bought the milk chocolate ones and hubby loved it so much that he bought one again when we visited the market again the next day. Having the combination of a naturally sweet banana paired with chocolate though gave him the inspiration to create his own version. He bought a bottle of chocolate hard tops, sliced a banana and had the chocolate as a topping. I must say it’s his favourite snack at the moment that he keeps stealing the bananas I’ve been buying for baking!

I like my salmon occasionally and rotate through a few recipes. Unfortunately, hubby doesn’t like salmon and hasn’t taken to any of the recipes I’ve cooked. However, I recently tried this recipe that’s supposed to be simple but yummy. I marinated the slices overnight then baked it in foil packets. I gave Gabriel a small slice as usual and lo and behold, he actually liked it enough to ask for more! With this small miracle, I wrote the recipe a review and said that even my salmon-hating hubby liked it. After typing up my review, I proceeded to read the comments of the other reviewers and found out that most of the other reviews were the same. Something along the lines of even husband who won’t eat salmon loved it. Gabriel jokingly then said that the recipe’s title should be changed to Salmon Hater’s Grilled Salmon. Yeah, maybe they should!

Between bouts of Nintendo DS game playing and sleeping, my time is being occupied by another hobby recently. I’ve borrowed a copy of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook from the library and got inspired by the beautiful photos to try my hand at baking.

Aside from muffins and the occasional quick bread, I haven’t done much use of our oven. Although hubby likes his sweets, he’s not that much into cakes and with me not being a sweet tooth at all, there was just no motivation to progress beyond what I’ve been doing. However, Gabriel has been hankering for some pound cake lately and couldn’t find a Sara Lee version anywhere so I thought it might be a good opportunity to learn how to make one.

First though, is the problem of equipment. Hand mixing is fine for muffins and quick breads but I don’t think I could cream butter and sugar with just a wire whisk. So after several days of researching mixers, going to the shops to compare prices and going back and forth between getting a handheld one and a stand mixer, I finally settled for a basic Breville Wizz Mix. While shopping, I also got myself a pastry brush, cake tester and a rolling pin (for when I try my hand on pastries and breads).

Next, I scoured the Net for a suitable recipe and bought some ingredients. Since we have some leftover yogurt in the fridge, I decided that my first try on cake baking would be for a pound cake using yogurt instead of the usual sour cream. Then there’s the problem of creaming butter and sugar, I just don’t know how to do it and there’s nobody who can teach me!

Enter YouTube with instructional videos galore. When I first read about creaming with sugar and butter until the batter is light and fluffy, I didn’t believe it possible or if it is, what does light and fluffy look like? What if I don’t mix it enough? How do I even know what is enough? As it happened, I shouldn’t have worried about not mixing enough.

Once I started the creaming process, I found that I need to get a bigger bowl if I’m to do this again. Next, I had some difficulty with the bowl wandering about in the counter top at first but I soon got used to controlling the mixer’s speed and direction. The rest was easy and an hour later, I have baked my first cake. Ten minutes of letting it cool on the rack and it was time for the taste test.

Hubby and I shared a fragrant slice and pretty soon decided that it was too sweet for our tastes. We also noticed that the cake was too crumbly - some searching on the Internet later suggested it was caused by too much mixing.

Anyway, there was no way for us to finish off a whole loaf and I brought the rest of the cake to the office. I left the cake slices anonymously on a plate and when I checked on it an hour later, there was only a small half slice left. I guess that was a good sign although I suspect that some people were just feeling peckish and thought morning coffee goes well with a piece of cake.

Would I be baking another cake? Perhaps, although I’m mighty glad I didn’t plonk out major cash for a stand mixer. After seeing the amount of sugar that goes to into a cake, the experience reaffirmed my preference for muffins and breads. What’s my next kitchen experiment going to be? Stay tuned.