Inside-out cheeseburgers

I like cheese. I like hamburger (Japanese style at least). Combine the two and happiness ensues! I think I had scotch eggs in mind as well as stuffing and cheeseburgers. So I thought I should try stuffing stuffing with cheese, a classic stuffer (of both people and other foods). My basic hamburger recipe includes ground beef, slice of bread, an egg, garlic, onion, pepper, tomato paste (A BIT! not a whole can like my koibito. he tries. a lot), soy sauce and some mixed herbs or something. Occasionally I want them a little spicy so I finely chop a fresh chilli or sprinkle some curry powder into the mix. Combine well (hands work best!) and shape into patties. To stuff them I formed a small handful into a half sphere with an indent and placed the cheese in the middle of it, then plonked a bit more meat mix on top and rounded it off and shaped it as normal. I fried these and finished them with the teriyaki sauce used in spam musubi and placed them on a bed of rice with some cooked spinach on the side. Cheap and easy, like Nancy. I don't think the cheese I used was strong enough so the cheesy flavour was a tad on the mild side. But it was a good meal. Filling. I suppose you can use it the patty in a hamburger but I love my rice ;) hashidetabechatta! gochisou!

It's roast beef dinner jelly time

Every semester at the dorm of the skinny mushroom there were at least 2 parties which involved these special dinners. The chef would prepare a few special dishes and order boxes of sushi, both of which made me very happy. A popular creation was this roast beef platter with roasted potatoes, carrots and green beans. What amused me most about this dish were the little amber cubes of jelly that were piled up on the slices of beef. No they were not sweet, I'm guessing they were consomme in a more solid form. They were very cute and jiggly and I liked how they were solid soup pieces that melted in your mouth. The plate tended to be a bit on the dry side but drown it all in gravy for a little while and you are good to go. There always seemed to be a tendency, with all of the chefs that cooked for us, to really try hard with creating foreign dishes, mostly western with the exception of the chuukaryourisenmon no cooksan (specialised in Japanese-Chinese cooking) who made Ebi Chilli (I was so happy and scraping up the leftovers that night, so not much different from any night!). I think this was at one of the Christmas Parties. Lots of food and drinks is a recipe for a good time.

I want to eat a spam musubi

...so I made some! ah spam, the poor man's meat. But considered a gourmet delicacy in Japan! 'Tis where I learnt of the fantastic wonders of teriyaki glaze from my tabedachi, who has taught me so many things and shared in many cooking adventures. It was there, in the dorms of the skinny mushroom that I first encountered the Spam Musubi. Imagine giant nigiri sushi. Although if you know what nigiri sushi is there's a good chance you already know what musubi is...oh well! Teriyaki sauce is so simple! Sugar, water and a good Japanese soy sauce (I used thai soy sauce once and it didn't taste quite right, not bad though) in equal portions. The amount of sugar looks a bit scary when you first put it in but it really is the catalyst for the teriyaki flavour. Plate licking finger sucking goodness. Pour it over your fried slices of spam and cook it into the meat until the liquid has slightly reduced and starts to coat the spam with a nice glaze. Mould some rice into a block using a mould or your hands, lay the spam on top then wrap the whole thing in seaweed and presto! The magical mystical musubi of spam is born! Great for a snack or a really satisfying meal if you have a few. Excellent picnic food as they are pretty sturdy and compact and can last for a while in you bag as long as you don't sit on them.