Each of these picture tell a story of my time in Kuwait up until this point. I will add more photos as they come along. I have put short description below some of the picture so you can get some sort of an idea what the mean. Only thing that could have possibly made this whole experience more rewording is if there was someone to enjoy them with me. Hope you enjoy having a look though all of these and keep an eye out for more post tonight. 

Japonaise, the first thing that might come to mind is whether its origins is based from Japan. It would be a good guess as "Japonaise" in French does mean "Japan" or "From Japan". But in this case there is no direct connection between this Meringue and Japan. So I decided to play around with this confusing yet interesting meringue and made it more Japanese. The way this idea come about was when I was asked to come up with new desserts for the menu at work. As I am working in a Japanese Restaurant I remembered this meringue from back in college. I think it stood out too me because I also first though it would have come from Japan or at least have some sort of Japanese history behind it. At first there was only one popular Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate, matcha. Matcha is the Japanese name for finely milled green tea leafs which have recently exploded into a huge hype, similar to that of Red Velvet. 

The taste of good quality macha for me would be similar to that of seaweed or rather you would pick up some sort of "ocean taste" or "fishy taste" as some people say. This is what we who believe in the term umami could call umami. The meaning of umami when all your taste sensations are stimulated at the same time. This includes sweet, sour, bitter and salt

The other truly Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate is know as Anko, which is Azuki beans (red beans) which have been cooked till soft and then pureed. It is then sweetened and used in many traditional Japanese pastries. The way I would incorporate this unique flavour into my dessert is simple. I would start by making my own anko, this way you can control the sweetness and don't have to worry about it being over or under the desired sweetness. I would then incorporate it into a Diplomat Cream. Diplomat cream is the combination of whipped cream and creme Pastissiere. This would give you a good smooth and light texture which would go well with the slightly crunchy meringue. I have yet to experiment with this as I have not yet had the opportunity. 
So now that you know a bit more about Japonaise and the two major ingredients in Japanese pastry world, Im now going to give you the Recipe for Japonaise. Once I have the chance to try the filling I will then also post that recipe, but for now I will just provide you with my first filling attempt. 

The Eight Essential Traits 
Posted by Jonathan Merrill

I’ve always loved the number 8. I feel like it is a powerful number that no one recognizes its relation to ∞ on its end. These next eight traits are ones we as chefs and line cooks must adopt into our lives immediately and represent continually for all of time.

Culinary schools won’t educate you on this. Chefs will yell at you for not realizing these things yourself. Co-workers will secretly judge your dense inability to miss these crucial cues of becoming a culinary professional.


Chef Vagabundus’ Eight Essential Traits:

Humility:

You must realize you suck. We all burn things. We all fuck up a knife cut. We all have way more to learn than any of us will ever realize. Accept that you have a much longer path ahead to grow and you won’t seem like that shithead coming out of culinary school that thinks they know everything and can do any job. We, the already industry-seasoned chefs and cooks, can’t stand that person. Learn humility and how to just say “Yes, Chef.”

After spending half the day in bed catching up on some Grey's Anatomy, I got a call from a fellow chef  inviting me for late lunch at this new Japanese Restaurant Called ORA. So I decided to do little research about the place. Interesting, I must say.... ORA had'nt even opened it doors and yet it was already a hit on instagram and the rest of the Kuwait social media community. But that was not what I wanted to know though. As a Chef myself, when a new place opens, I'm more interested in the people behind the scenes than the name, but thats a story for another day ;-)

Fast forward, we get there... And I must say myself, I was sold from the moment we entered the door. The dining area was spacious, clean, and very welcoming to say the least. We had a look at the menu and it had more lots of beatiful dishes to choose, from Cold Tapas, Hot Tapas, Salads, Sigiture Sushi Rolls, Donburi's ( A Japanese "rice bowl dish" consisting of fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice), Dessert and finally Fresh Mocktails....
So in the blistering heat, I decided to kick things off with their Ginger & Lemon Ice Tea

From Hot Tapas I had the Tiger Creamy Shrimp. 

Signature Sushi Rolls we tried the ORA Crispy Roll

Crispy Rice with Tuna

Robata Grilled Lobster

Aslo tried thier Fresh Water Melon Juice

Cinnamon Bred Pudding (My flavourate*****) and Homemade Ice Cream

The place is beautiful! From the fresh flowers on the table, to the chilled out music playing in the background and the wierd but awesome art piece they have mounted on the wall. You can't help not notice such things. The  food as well is on its own level... Nothing out of the ordinary for me but definately something to try out when you are craving for something new and fresh. I must warn you though, the place is a bit pricey and some of the portions are a bit below par.

Other than that I liked the place on a once off basis. So i'm giving ORA a 4* seal of approval.
Want to try it out? Swing by at Arabella Mall  and check the place out

So today I decided to have some Chinese on my off day. The nice thing here in Kuwait is that almost every place delivers to your apartment. A really useful application for finding out what restaurant near you actually deliver is Talabat.com . So if you new to Kuwait or the Middle East and don't feel like going out on you off days, but still want to get some really good food, this is the app for you. Available on Apple Store as well as Android. Here's what I had for lunch today and diner later on. This is from @ChinagardenKW,  you can find them on Instagram and Twitter for more great photos of there menu items.

Being exposed to a wide range of new ingredients and products, I have decided to share a few of these amazing new products. Most of these products are widely used in Asian Cuisine and can only be found in certain stores that specialise in Asian Cuisine. I have included the traditional name as well as a rough translation of what each item actually is.  As time goes on and I become more familiar with these ingredients I will post some of my own recipes. So keep an eye out for those in the next month or so. Hope you all learn something new and put it to use next time you make a Asian fest for your Family or friend. Or even if you just able to identify those ingredients you never knew on the menu at you favourite Asian restaurant. 

Ingredients List 

1. Takano Stame - Dried Chilli
2. Kochukaro- Red Pepper flakes 
3. Szechuan Povar - Mixture of Spices native to the Szechuan Province of China 
4. Hondashi Gyomuyou - concentrated grains of bonito flakes used for flavouring 
5. Itogaki Katsuo - Fine shaved Bonito Flakes 
6. Shisen Tobanjan - Assorted Chilli Paste 
7. Moniji Orashi -Chilli Paste 
8. Hoisen Sauce - Thick sauce made from soy beans, vinegar, sugar, garlic and various spices
9. Goma Abura - Sesame Seed Oil 
10. Nata mame no Hanna - Prepared sword bean blossoms 
11. Yuzu Kusho - Spicy citrus paste (yuzu, Japanese citrus fruit similar to lemons in appearance) 
12. Nagai’s Aonori Ko - Prepared Sea Weed
13. Kozuru Zero - 0% Saki (Rice Wine) 
14. Matcha Midori - Green Tea 
15. Layu - Sesame seed chilli oil 
16. Kaiso salad - Sea weed salad 
17. Me hijiki - Sea weed (fine black) 
18. Saitaku sushi nori - sushi sea weed sheets 
19. Yakisushinori - sushi nori (roasted, Gold brand)
20. Itagaki Katsuo- shaved Bonito 
21. Fueru wakame - seaweed mix dried
22. Katsuo kombu awase dash - seaweed crushed dried bonito & kelp 
23. Kewpie (QP) - Sushi mayo 
24. Karashiko - Mustard powder 
25. Harusame - Cellophane noodles or Glass noodles made from starch and water
26. Dried Vermicelli noodles - Type of Rice noodles
27. Dashi kombu - Dried seaweed/ family of Kelp
28. Mizu Ame - Liquid Candy used as a sweetener (Millet Jelly)
29. Tankatsu Sauce - Thick brown sauce similar to HP sauce.
30. Mamenori San Goma - Soy bean sheets for sushi 
31. Rayu - Chilli infused vegetable oil 
32. Masago - Capelin roe
33. Negi - Japanese leak, mistaken for green onions 
34. Kanikama Mix - Artificially flavoured crab sticks made from white fish.   
35. Yamaimo - White Japanese yam/ wild yam
36. Sansho pepper - Powdered berry like fruits from the prickly ash tree. (Shuan Pepper)
37. Miso - Fermented Soy Beans 

Choux pastry is a great recipe to have in you cooking arsenal, it is a versatile product that can be used for sweet and savoury dishes. Depending on your piping capability you will be able to pipe eclairs, profiteroles, choux buns and even choux pretzels. Making classic pastries such as Croquembouche, St. Honore, éclaires, Choux Swans and Paris-brest. If you are more of a savoury person, use all of  the classics and use them in savoury applications. For example instead of filling the profiteroles with creme patisserie, use a fulling of cream cheese, smoked salmon and dill. Or use the St. Honore as a base for your next sautéed  Mushroom medley with fresh ribbons of baby asparagus and a mushroom stock Veloute. Or the next time you want to make your own gnocchi, you will be able to make your own Choux pastry. Choux pastry truly has an endless amount of uses that can make your next dinner party that bit more Extraordinary. 

Recipe

•  250g water
  
• 75g butter
  
• 150g plain flour
  
• 180g egg (scramble eggs and then weigh) 
  

Method 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 220C/482F
2. Start by adding your water and butter into a medium sized sauce pan and bring to the boil.
3. Sift flour to prevent lumps in your pastry 
4. Once butter is completely melted remove from the heat and then add in your flour.
5. Using a wooden spoon, vigorously stir the mixture till it becomes a smooth paste with no flour lumps.
6. Once there are no lumps, and then allow to cool down slightly.
7. Now gradually add in your egg mixture while you vigorously stir the mixture to prevent egg from coagulating. 
8. Once all your egg mixture has been mix in, you should have a smooth some what firm mixture. 
9. Place into your piping bag and pipe onto silicone paper into the shape you desire. (to prevent silicone paper moving around the baking tray, use some of the pastry to glue it down.) 
10. Before you place the tray into the oven sprinkle some water over the tray to help the pastry to puff up nicely. 
11. Keep in the oven for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. 
12. Remove and allow to cool down, one cooled use in desire application. 

So what can you expect from me Chef Dewet in 2014.  

Well I'm not sure if I have mentioned that I'm heading to Kuwait to go work there, but my visa has just recently arrived (supper excited about it) and the first 2 months I wont be able to post as frequently as I'm used too. 

But with that being said, I'm now going on a totally new culinary Journey where I'll be learning a lot more from the Local Kuwait cuisine, as well as my favourite cuisine, Japanese. 

I will be working for a Japanese restaurant in Kuwait (unfortunately I can not tell you guys the name of the restaurant)  and I'll be starting at the bottom, working my way up. In my opinion this is the best way to learn a cuisine, from the roots all the way to the highest branch. At this restaurant I will get to learn how to prepare sushi as well as other traditional Japanese dishes. So with my surroundings inspiring my recipes I post and the articles I write, you can expect more Japanese style recipes. 

But I also believe in learning about the country I'm staying in and exploring their local cuisine, so I will also definitely be posting authentic Kuwaiti recipes on my website. 

I'm also looking at posting video blogs where I can actually show you how I prepare the complete recipe, as I know a lot of people are visual learners. 

So that's what you can expect from me in a nut shell.

I am planning on posting at least once a week, which will be on my off days, and as I get back into a normal routine I'll start posting more per week! But the quality of my posts will be maintained and I will not slack on that! 

Edited by: Monique Boaventura