jyfoodie - Food & Travel Blog

[jythehungryronin]

The strawberries here are small at the moment but there are a lot of them that are juicy and fairly sweet. The guy at the counter was so nice as well, the strawberries were $10.80, Joyce only had $10.70 in coins and the guy said it was ok. #strawberries #newzealandstrawberries (at Zaknich Farms - Zakberry) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYgW5nov2pe/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Assam Laksa with Yee Mein instead of the usual rice noodles. I wrote a more detailed description of what it taste like but instagram crashed before I could post it but basically it is a sour, savoury, spicy fish based soup with a hint of sweetness. the sourness comes from Tamarind juice and dried tamarind added to it. This is a must try dish if you ever are in Penang, Malaysia where my Dad is from. While you can make the soup from scratch, if you're lucky, you can buy the ready to go paste in a sachet from your local Asian Supermarket that you just need add water and fish to make the soup. #assamlaksa #malaysianfood #malaysiancuisine (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYD9LYqPWot/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Bought these two tasty morsels from St Pierre's Sushi St Lukes. The mochi for both of them were soft, chewy and feels fluffy like I'm eating a cloud even though I put them in my refrigerator for a day, they didn't become hard and very chewy. The left one is filled with smooth and fairly sweet Anko (red bean paste) with a bits and pieces of whole beans inside so there is a contrast of textures between the smooth parts and the slightly firmer almost whole beans. The mochi is then dipped in roasted and finely grounded black sesame seeds which gives the mochi a nice nutty flavour to it which I like. I love sweet stuff made with black sesame especially black sesame ice cream. The right one which has a light yellow colour to it has mango cream in it. While it say it is mango cream, I feel like it is more like a light and smooth mango paste with some whipped cream in it. The mango flavour is delicious and I like the texture of both the mochi and the paste and cream inside. I highly recommend getting these two. They have other flavours as well like blueberry but I have yet to try them. #mochi #anko #kurogoma (at St Pierre's Sushi) https://www.instagram.com/p/CXvUtYxPJPf/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Hospital Food. Yay or Nay people? My heated up frozen meal from last night after surgery was unexpectedly delicious for the most part. The stringy pulled apart beef stew was soft, tender and flavourful. The french beans still had a bit of a bite to it and was tasty. The potato gratin on the side was still firm enough that the potato slices bent when I picked it up with a fork and did not fall apart and yet when I ate it, it had a soft enough almost potato mash like feel in my mouth. The taste of the gratin was a bit lacking though. The cheese on top didn't have much flavour and the gratin didn't have much flavour. I dipped the gratin in the leftover beef stew sauce and it was so good. Arguably, my meal maybe tasted really good because I hadn't eaten anything for 15 hours but I sincerely think it would probably still taste decently good even if hadn't been fasting for surgery. When I was eating it I felt like was eating airplane food. Which again is another category for a "Yay or Nay" debate. Let me know your thoughts about Hospital food and Airplane food. Like which airline serves the best food or the worst food? What's the worst hospital food you've had? etc #beefstew #potatogratin #hospitalfood (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWjB9BfPNQH/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

I tried Air Frying a Steak today straight from the freezer and it was not bad. It was still sort of juicy but not as tender as cooking it sous vide. Maybe because this Ribeye or as we call it Scotch Fillet here is New Zealand is pretty lean. It only took 14 minutes @ 200 °C to cook it to medium rare (flipping it half way through) which is pretty amazing since it came straight from the freezer. However, I prefer the Sous Vide method as the meat will still be relatively tender even though it is quite lean. But if I'm hungry and I forgot to put the steak in the Sous Vide machine 2 and a half hours before eating time. I would not mind air frying a piece of frozen steak. #airfryersteak #airfryerrecipe #steak (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWXGL8rvtgs/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Pillow soft doughnut from @newworld Hobsonville with generous amount of Raspberry filling. So good! The dough at the bottom is still a little crispy as well so it was freshly made recently. #jellydoughnut #doughnut #donut #aucklandeats (at New World) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWAWeJ2PJ78/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

This is a warm hug in a bowl. Have you ever had Corned Beef Silog? It is a popular filipino breakfast consisting of steaming hot rice, stir fried corned beef with plenty of garlic and onions, then topped with a luscious and runny sunny side up egg. #filipinocuisine #filipinofood #pilipinofood (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVSWwgCvAgm/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Steak and Stir Fried Brocolli and Onions with Rice and Yakiniku Sauce on the side. Cooking steak with the sous vide method is my favourite way so far to make medium rare steak. It's set and forget for 1 to 2 hours and then just sear it after to produce a great medium rare steak that is juicy and flavourful. #sousvidesteak (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVBgqQRBR7c/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Durian and choclate gelato from @mister.gelato. So good. The durian taste is strong and fragrant. The gelato is slightly dense, smooth and creamy unlike some supermarket ice creams that are full of air. The chocolate is chocolaty and what I like is that the gelato stays soft and doesn't get icy even if I store it for a long time in the freezer. Don't mix the chocolate and durian together though, those two flavours don't go well together. Best to eat them separately. #gelato #auckland #newzealand (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUOO91nvNUh/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Spanner Crab Fettucine in Garlic, White Wine, Cherry Tomatoes and Shao Tsing Wine Sauce. #crabmeat #crabpasta #pasta (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUMj6pUPHME/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

@lunacafenz Croissants. The cream filled ones are slightly small but really tasty. The flavours are (arranged from most favourite to least favourite) 1) Super Choccy 2) Double Ube Halaya 3) Peanut Butter Strawberry 4) Matcha Almond The first 3 are cream filled while the last ones is an almond meal kind of paste mixed with matcha powder and sugar. The croissant itself for all of them was crispy, crunchy and flaky on the outside and tasted buttery and slightly salty which ticks my check boxes for a good croissant but the croissant for the matcha one was a bit dry on the inside. The Super Choccy was exactly that, super choccy. I love the little choc brownies added on top which boosted the chocciness and added the usual brownie texture to it where it is kind of crunchy on the outside but slightly moist on the inside. The Ube Halaya cream had an ok ube taste if I eat the cream on its own but somehow when eaten togther with the croissant, the ube flavour just becomes better and more pronouned. The popcorn topping add to the prettines of the Ube cream topped croissant and the flavour goes well with the Ube Halaya cream but most of it was stale by the time it arrived at our doorstep so it was not crunchy anymore. The Peanut Butter Strawberry was good. Classic combo, nothing much to say about it. The strawberry jam is homemade I think so it has its own distinct taste compared to store bought ones. Lastly the Matcha Almond one is my least favourite, as mentioned above, the inside of the croissant is a bit dry and I couldn't taste the matcha filling when eaten with the croissant, I can only taste it if I eat the filling on its own and it was a light matcha taste. #creamfilledcroissants #croissant #nzeats #aucklandeats #auckland #nz #newzealand (at Luna's Express) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUIyAxyBsl6/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Champagne Ham, Gravy and Apple Sauce on Crumpets. #champagneham #applesauce #gravy #crumpets (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUGW-NzBM-B/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Was craving for some Bratwurst sausages so I made bangers and mash. #bratwurst #bangersandmash (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUDkr74BA2-/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Homemade Sushi (From Left to Right) - Salmon and Avocado Roll - Salmon Ikura Gunkan - Salmon Sashimi - Tuna Belly Sashimi (supposed to be medium fatty tuna but there wasn't much fatty parts when it arrived ☹) #sushi #sashimi #japanesefood #japanesecuisine (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUCL83pPffE/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Philly Inspired Cheesesteak. Had leftover Nacho cheese sauce so I used it to make a Phillly like Cheesesteak. #phillycheesesteak (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTgYLo-FK3A/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Tori Shoyu Ramen based off @wayoframen 's recipe on youtube. My favourite channel to watch for ramen recipes. I was hungry and craving for some chicken ramen with a light soup quick so I used some ready made roasted chicken from @countdown_nz supermarket to make the stock and bought a bottle of kombu tsuyu which is soya sauce that is already been seasoned with kombu, bonito, shitake and other stuff to use as my tare. Tare which means sauce I think in Japanese is the base flavouring for a bowl of ramen in addition to the soup and aroma oil. I made the aroma oil and burnt garlic and spring onions with a neutral tasting rice bran oil because there wasn't enough chicken oil coming out from the rotisserie chicken and it was quicker to use the rice bran oil rather than boil down the chicken oil that is scooped out from the soup. The aroma oil made a difference to the soup adding more umami to it. With the burnt garlic and spring onions, at first I was skeptical if something burnt could taste good but I'm glad I tried it and it was rather tasty. It goes well together with the chicken and noodles plus the soup. It also adds a kind of smokey flavour to the soup. For the noodles, I bought ready made wonton noodles from an asian grocery store which works well with the soup and toppings. Overall, the whole bowl tasted pretty good and could be made in under 30 minutes if you already have all the ingredients, I still had to go out to get the ingredients so the whole process took me about an hour and a half. Thank you @wayoframen for sharing your recipes and providing clear explanations of your techniques and some history behind the techniques or recipe as well sometimes. I later experimented using some ponzu sauce to try to make like a yuzu shoyu tori ramen but it didn't turn out good, it was okay. It was really hard to balance the punch from the yuzu taste in the ready made ponzu sauce with the taste of the soup. #toriramen #ramen #torishoyu #torishoyuramen #homemaderamen (at Auckland, New Zealand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTLEkSnhTdg/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jythehungryronin]

Been wanting to select a proper user name for my account now since I started jyfoodieoffical. That username was meant to be temporary while I figured out a new username that represented who I am. I have now finally decided it to be JY the Hungry Ronin as I love eating, wandering around different places to explore them and also I love Japanese food and culture. I may or may not change username again in the future but for now, I am satisfied with this name. #jythehungryronin https://www.instagram.com/p/CTHUQpdFfzW/?utm_medium=tumblr