How to Make: Japanese Style-Christmas Cake (クリスマスケーキ) Kurisumasukeki

Today is my birthday!  Yeah... So I made myself a cake.  Since it was close to Christmas or X-mas, I made a Japanese style X-mas cake, which is not too hard to make, and very yummy.  It's usually whipped cream and strawberry in a Asian style sponge cake.  It's also sold in Vancouver from many Asian bakeries most notably is the Chinese-Canadian supermarket chain T&T. This kind of cake, from what I hear, is almost like a tradition in Japan along with eating KFC (fried chicken).  This type of cake is sold at bakeries before Christmas and eaten on or before Christmas.  Strawberries are very expensive at this time of year, which make this cake even more special than a summer Strawberry Shortcake.  My decorating skills are not perfected yet by any means, but it turned out okay.  Try it out, it is very easy to make!  The sponge cake is a very good recipe, very light and fluffy.  It's another not too sweet cake, but be careful not to eat it all at once, I ate half in one sitting, but it's my birthday.

How to Make: Korean Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajun/Pajeon) (해물파전)(파煎)

Seafood Green Onion Pancake is a popular Korean side dish.  It is always available as a popular appetiser at Korean Restaurants, because of it's savoury and comforting taste.  Whenever I go to a Korean restaurant, I always order this because it's so good.  It's sort of similar to the Chinese pancake, except much easier because it does not require kneading the dough. Today, I made this Korean Green Onion Pancake with my mum.  It's actually very easy to make, and it's tonne cheaper than ordering in a restaurant.  The sharp taste of the green onion becomes mild after it has cooked.  The pancake becomes crispy on the outside, but very soft and slightly mushy in the centre.  It contrasts really well with the taste of the seafood.  If you don't like seafood, leave it out, and just add in more vegetables like carrot or more green onion.  I like to have a lot of squid in the pancake, so I used mostly squid, some octopus, crab and prawns.  Customise the ingredients yourself, it's really fantastic and easy to make!  Be sure to serve the sauce with it, it brings all the flavours together.

''Cooking Quick n’ Easy Dinner Recipes for Asian Dishes'' from James Kim (Guest Post) author of foodonthetable.com

Hi Everyone, today's post is my first guest post.  The guest is James Kim, author of http://blogcontentguildnews.com/.  Please check it out!  Today he writes and gives advice about ways you can eat a nutritious and satisfying Asian meal even when there is very little time.  He will explain what you'll need on hand, and what you should think about when shopping for groceries.  View James Kims popular website ''Food on the Table''

http://www.foodonthetable.com.

James also writes about food for 

http://blogcontentguildnews.com/

Happy Reading! Thanks James for your post!

How to Make: Jajangmyeon/Jajiangmien/Jajangmyun Black Bean Sauce on Hand Pulled Noodles (자장면)(炸酱面) Koreanised Chinese Food

It's December already, so it's time for some hearty food to warm up from the cold.  Zha jiang mian/Jajangmyeon in Korean, is a traditional Chinese dish, composed of a sweet black bean sauces, meat and other delicious ingredients on top of chewy hand pulled wheat noodles.  It's really good, and sometimes it can be spicy too. But today, this recipe is the Korean version of this classic dish, which tastes completely different, but it is very delicious as well.  Originally, the Chinese version has a combination of fermented bean sauces like, sweet bean sauce, yellow soybean paste (similar to miso), and/or broad bean sauce.  The Korean version uses Jajang, a black bean sauce combined with caramel which gives it a charcoal like taste.  It's slightly sweet, and it's very interesting.  There is an instant ramen variety of this dish by Nongshim, ''Chapaghetti'' because this Chinese dish is so popular in Korea.  Usually it's ordered with Tangsooyuk or Sweet and Sour Pork, another popular Korean-Chinese Dish.  Make sure you get Korean style Black bean paste, it's completely different from the original Chinese one.  It's super easy and satisfying!