Clara Ole Asian Salad Dressing, California and Kani Maki

Here are some photos and thoughts form my recent encounters with some oriental flavors.

Salad prepared by Adrienne Nicole Bernal

I love the taste of sesame seeds and any other product used with it. Sesame oil, for instance, gives off such a powerful oriental flavor. I remember using it in my burger patty recipe that I blogged about before. This is the same flavor that can be found in Clara Ole's Asian Salad Dressing. For around 40 pesos, if I remember correctly, you can get those small budget packs that will surely enhance your salads or anything you want to add a wonderful asian flavor to.

For example, in the salad you'll notice that there's chicken meat from the breast part. I usually hate the white meat part of the chicken but with the asian dressing makes it so flavorful and appetizing, I swear. It's surely a must-try! This is something you can use not just for salads and in my opinion slays any other kind of salad dressing being that I am partial to oriental flavors.

Home made California and Kani maki
Speaking of Asian and oriental flavors, I recently had a chance to learn more about making your own maki/sushi. My mom's friends with the owner of the Japanese restaurant Hanakazu, located in BF, Parañaque. We got to borrow some of their knowledgable employees for a day and they prepared some maki for us.
It's much easier than I thought. The rice is basically just flavored with some special vinegar and sugar then you just roll whatever you want inside with the seaweed wrapper and then maybe add some roe around it if you want.
In my blog post about Raw Fish Recipes, I expressed how much I love Japanese cuisine. It's been one of my top favorites since I was young. I've always been so intrigued by its complexity. Their cuisine reminds me of origami, their artform of paper folding, very delicate and requires skill, technique, and discipline. I've always been thinking that unlocking the secrets of Japanese cuisine can make one's life better.
You may have noticed a bit of change in the design of this blog. I'm really just experimenting with the ad placements, hopefully to increase my earnings. I plan to blog about it more over at my other blog Beating the Search Engine, so be sure to check that out if you are curious.