Quick Weekend Branch – Taco Rice

When it’s sunny and warm, I feel like cooking Okinawan dishes.
Taco rice is quite a popular one.  Okinawan people invented it by replacing tortilla with rice.

No doubt it’s best to try it in Okinawa – in that distinctive climate and atmosphere – , but it’s also lots of fun to cook your own taco rice.

Actually it’s quite simple.
Serve cooked rice on a flat dish, taco meat, julienne cut lettuce, shredded cheese and tomatoes – that’s it!

* I make taco meat using what’s in the fridge and spice cabinet instead of buying instant taco seasoning mix. I usually cook chopped onions, ground meat (sometimes with celeries, carrots, mashrooms etc.) in a pan, then season it with ketchup, tonkatsu sauce, salt, black pepper, herbs availabe in my planter and tabasco sauce.

Simple Sweet Potato Dessert Recipe 2: Imo Kenpi

Again, simple & traditional Japanese sweets recipe. It’s called “imo-kenpi” and goes well with Japanese green tea. All you need is sweet potatoes, oil, sugar and water.

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1. Prepare cold vegetable oil in a pot. Sliver sweet potatoes and put them in the pot immediately.

2. Heat the oil and deep-fry the sweet potatoes. Once they are well cooked, drain them on kitchen paper.

3. Heat sugar and water in a pan to make syrup (3-4 tbsp of sugar + the same amount of water). Put the sweet potatoes in it and mix them gently to coat with the syrup.

* I used purple sweet potatoes but any sweet potatoes will do.