Work Related : Japanese Foods & Drinks Sticker Packs Version 2

Read previous post here.

I'm glad I managed to finish up the second version of the Japanese food series last week, I sent out to print and spent the weekend cutting 20 packs of this sticker series (to send the stock to Salt x Paper, KK and put it up in my Etsy shop). We watched a lot of The Office series on iFlix (our current obsession) over the weekend. It's like the first proper weekend rest since almost 2 months ago T^T

I am so happy I made this. These foods and drinks are mostly things that I consumed on my Japan trip or just foods in kombinis that I really like (because their packaging are all cute and colourful). Illustrating them makes me happy, even cutting all these stickers are now a therapy (when I don't want to illustrate things but I still want to work) :F My next illustrations will mainly be the halal foods I ate in this Osaka trip (because this time, we spent a lot on proper Japanese foods as well - compared to the Tokiyo trip). So I have a bunch of things to illustrate ❤

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The sticker packs in group :

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Note : Oh, and on the Melaka travelogue, it is already reaching the 70/100 draft phase T^T

I am really considering going full-time freelancing again.

Little Things 217 : 26 + 32

My brother turned 26 and my older sister turned 32 !

Another addition to the number we are counting ourselves. What it is about being adult that people keep on pestering us on how to be the 'right' adult? How we should spend our lives, where we should work at, how much money we should make, which partner we should be with, how big the house we should be living in. Who are we anyway, to make such demands and decisions on someone else's life?

At this point, I couldn't really point it out like we used to when we are much younger. As far as I can see, we are all grown-ups, and for me what that really mean is giving them full trust and space for them to grow and make their own decision. And maybe, try to respect that as well.

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I guess the huge difference between my brother and I at 26 is the responsibilities. I am one of the oldest siblings in the family, and he is used to having several strong figures in his life. So he is a bit off-track. But I've been thinking, who am I to put a certain 'label' in what's good in his life, at his age? As much as I concern, I don't like people to decide for me as well. So here it goes, I've decided that I will help if he asks for help, I've decided that he should pay the house rent because I'm not going to pay for his part anymore, but; which career path he will choose, or how he spends his money, won't be my problems anymore. I'm a bit concerned about him, but I have to let it go, I'm not his parents for-god-sake :p As his sister, I'll give him the space he wants - as long as he is in charge with his own life. Deal.

Af & I got him a pull-up bar and Starbucks gift card :

As for my older sister. She's fine. If she is figuring out what she wants in her life, and she's taking it slow, then that's her choice. I don't really have a word of wisdom to share, she has survived much longer than me :D I'm just hoping that she is happy. Also : Be fit and healthy ! Shessh.

We shared and got her a nice little printer to print photos directed from smartphones or digital camera. It was soooo cool I feel like I want one for myself :F So she doesn't has to go out to print pictures for her crafts projects.

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We celebrated their birthdays several times. 

Mostly including a big amount of foods and some presents. Ha. We should probably think of something else next time. Eating out/in is getting a bit over-done. We each brought our best-friend this time. So I invited Tasya, Aja invited Wati, Azmi invited Wan, and Azura invited Aizzah. Plus: Ma and Af, also different event with my dad and Ali. Small gatherings for our introverted family :D 

I personally like the last celebration that we did at home. The one that Ma cooked for us all the Japanese dishes she learned while living in Japan. T^T Aja requested this and so Ma went out for days to find all the raw foods and items needed in making all those crafty foods. She even took the whole day to prepare the food with Azura, and that night all of us helped her with the final stage : frying the tempura.

So there were beautiful sushi, rich miso soup, chawamushi, tamagoyaki, kinpira gobo, and tempura set for all of us. I can't give enough appreciation for her, can't imagine the time and effort to prepare everything for all of us T^T

We should definitely just celebrate at home in the future.
:D

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Little Things 217 : Basic Japanese Food

The Miso :

I've been searching for Miso soup paste for awhile now. Since I've been spending a lot of my money on eating sushi and miso soup with rice at restaurants, I figured that I might teach myself to make it myself.

I found a local reseller that sells halal Miso paste from Japan with non-GMO soy for RM 10/500g. So I ordered the pack with extra wakame (dried seaweed) from her as well. The pack arrived a week later. Since that day I managed to make miso soup for myself in almost every dinner - mostly just with additional wakame, and sometimes I added veggies as well. Af can't process the taste so I think I will finished it up all by myself. *it might take awhile.

Like all the fermented soy, Miso soup got hundreds of benefits - it goes almost the same level as our tempe. Yes, it contains a lot of sodium and a higher risk of having it genetically modified, in that case you can use less Miso paste for each meal, don't add any salt to it and find a non-gmo soy in the ingredient list. The taste should be quite subtle, additional foods like tofu and wakame can give a nice taste. 

If you are interested in buying a non-GMO soy, halal miso paste, you can contact this lady and ask her more about it : kesoma.rai@gmail.com .

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As for sushi and onigiris :

One weekend, I tried to make some sushis and onigiris using our normal cooked rice. I put some tuna, added those rice in the diy mini sushi maker that I've been keeping and tried to wrap it using nori. I failed. It crushed =.=

So during our next restock, we bought a different type of japanese rice that is supposed to be more sticky and stay together to create nice little sushi. I waited until Af  isn't at home to try it out - can't accept another failure in food experimentation. But this time it worked ! The japanese rice can stick together and it was really easy to form :D So I made some sushis and onigiris with the cooked rice, tuna, cheese, some kewpie mayo and nori.

T^T I can make my own basic onigiri now T^T
We can definitely save more money making our own onigiris for lunches during our next escapism in Japan. Kaaaaan.

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