On a busy morning, or at that hectic time right after coming home, it’s hard to make your own meal from scratch.

Cooking expert Masako Ikegami shares a secret for easy cooking to make things simpler – giving ingredients a light seasoning before freezing them in a freezer bag.

With such preliminary arrangements, all you have to do is heat up the frozen meal.

This method is pretty simple, and helps you save time cooking.

Ikegami often uses this “seasoning-ingredients-before-freezing” method when she is busy.

“Sometimes I’m not in the mood to think about what I want to cook, or I can’t run to the store,” Ikegami said.

“On those days, I feel relieved when I realise, ‘Oh, I have stuff in the freezer.'”

She recommends doing this freezing process on your days off, then heating the food up for weekday meals.

The method comprises these five steps: Chop up ingredients; put them with seasoning in a freezer bag; let the air out of the bag; seal and flatten it out; stick it in the freezer.

Chinese fried dish with pork, eggplant

To freeze the ingredients for the dish:

1. Halve eggplants, and cut each half lengthwise into fourths.

2. Remove the cap and the seeds from red bell peppers and cut them lengthwise into fourths or sixths.

3. Put the vegetables in a freezer bag, add seasoning and toss together well.

4. Add pork, and knead the bag to let the seasonings soak into the ingredients.

5. Add remaining ingredients and lightly mix.

Pat down the vegetables before putting them into the bag to avoid frost.

Then let the air out of the bag, seal it and put it in the freezer.

By flattening the ingredients in the bag, the thickness of the bag becomes more even, which will ensure even cooking when heated.

When you heat up the frozen ingredients, pour water over them and then steam-fry or boil them.

“The ingredients are heated up when they’re still frozen, so pour water over them,” she said. “Otherwise, you’ll have problems effectively defrosting them.”

Steam-frying is recommended:

1. Take the ingredients out of the bag and put them in a frying pan. Add 100 ml water, cover it with a lid and let them steam on high.

2. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and continue to steam for about 5 minutes.

3. Stir the ingredients and steam for another 7-9 minutes.

4. When the meat is cooked, remove the lid and drain the water.

5. Add a little salt, to taste.

Salmon in cream soup

Freezing ingredients for soup:

1. Pat down salmon to remove excess moisture and halve it.

2. Cut broccoli into small bunches. Peel potatoes and grate them. Grated potatoes add thickness to the sauce.

3. Put them in a freezer bag, add seasoning and toss together.

4. Add salmon and knead the bag lightly to thoroughly mix everything together.

5. Add remaining ingredients, lightly mix them, seal the bag and freeze it.

For cooking the dish:

1. Put the ingredients into a pot and add 1 cup of water. Cover the pot with a lid. Cook it on high until it begins to boil.

2. Reduce the heat to medium and heat for about 5 minutes. Stir the ingredients.

3. Heat for a further 8-10 minutes until the salmon is cooked.

4. If the water starts to boil over, push the lid aside a little.

5. Remove the lid and reduce the sauce until it becomes creamy.

The ingredients are frozen and then heated up, which helps add the great flavor of the seasoning to the ingredients.

The two dishes are soft and moist, which makes them easy to eat.

“It’s better to freeze ingredients while they’re still fresh.” Ikegami said. “I suggest you eat the dishes within two weeks after freezing.”

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Chinese fried dish with pork and eggplant

150 grams end pieces of sliced pork

3 or 4 eggplants

2 red bell peppers

Mixed seasoning (1 tbsp miso, 1½ tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp sake, ½ tbsp soy sauce, 1 clove grated garlic, a dash of Chinese chili bean sauce)

Salmon in cream soup

2 pieces salmon fillet

½ potato

½ broccoli

1 clear soup stock cube

1 can cream of corn (150 grams)

1 cup milk

Mixed ingredients (½ tsp salt, a dash of pepper, 2 tbsp white wine)

To find out more about Japan’s attractions, visit http://the-japan-news.com/news/d&d

Night markets are a beautiful, vibrant part of this island’s cultural fabric.

Every day at nightfall, food stalls open for business across the country, from Keelung to Kenting.

Whenever you’re looking for something to do in the city, visiting a night market and feasting on the seemingly infinite choices of food is always an option – and often at the top of the list.

Linchiang Street Night Market, better known as Tonghua Night Market, is made up of two intersecting streets. It’s much smaller than the likes of the bustling Shilin and Raohe Street night markets, but here you can find all the typical night market fare – and it is much less crowded.

While loved by locals, Tonghua is also popular with tourists, as it’s less than 5 minutes’ drive from 101.

Tourism development has sometimes seen the soul stripped away from places like this. Shilin Night Market, for one, just isn’t the place I remember from my childhood.

But there are some night markets out there that my Taiwanese friends and I still love and that have retained a sense of community, as evidenced by the old favourite stalls that have withstood the test of time.

For me, Tonghua, Nanjichang and Ningxia are a few of the night markets that have held on to that magic.

1. Shanghai-style Pan-fried Buns

You’ll see this stall as soon as you enter the Keelung Road entrance.

This popular pan-fried steamed bun and pot sticker stall has cemented itself as a solid staple here, after over 20 years in business.

With a taste arguably better than its posh, sit-down restaurant counterpart Kao Chi, its price is unbeatable, with five buns costing only NT$50.

2. Kou Xuan Pin Stinky Tofu

Stinky tofu has an appalling reputation. The idea of fermented stinky tofu, pig intestines and duck blood might be overwhelming to some, but most Taiwanese grew up with this stuff. The broth is smooth and silky, warming you up almost immediately.

Although I prefer it to be spicier, Kou Xuan Pin’s stinky tofu hot pot is a great choice if you’re looking for a classic steamed stinky tofu. This is a taste you will miss.

But for those that like fried stinky tofu paired with sweet-and-sour Taiwanese-style kimchi, I recommend the Bite-sized Stinky Tofu stall a stone’s throw away.

3. Traditional Taiwanese Sweets

Tonghua Night Market might be small, but there’s no lack of traditional desserts that are distinctly part of Taiwanese food culture.

Among the most well known is the Jiufen Giant Taro Balls stall in the middle of the night market’s main street – look for the owner with his trademark white towel wrapped around his head. One bowl with a choice of any four toppings is NT$45.

If you’re a fan of chewy textures, Tonghua may be paradise for you: Nearby there’s also the famous Ice in Wonderland, which sees a perpetual line waiting for their hot and cold aiyu and grass jelly offerings.

So you’ve tried hot rice dumplings and shaved ice, but have you had them together? One of the hottest spots in town this past month has been Yu Ping Yuan’s Ice-Hot Rice Dumplings.

A good rule to follow so you can avoid hoarding clothes and makeup you don’t need: Stick to just filling up a certain container.

This trick is the ultimate space saver especially if you go on one too many shopping sprees.

The storage or container of choice should also be nice to look at, giving you easy access to the things you need.

This also helps if you tend to forget that you own certain things.

Remember the saying “Out of sight, out of mind?”

Avoid that problem with these containers and storage solutions that you can appropriate for your wardrobe and makeup.

Crate & Barrel Wire Baskets

For your makeup bottles and skincare solutions, keep them in a neat bunch.

It can also be easily hung from your bathroom wall, if you want.

Available at SM Megamall.

Habitat Isto Containers

Mascara tubes, lip liners, and various other products can be placed in these colorful jars.

No more digging around those drawers!

Available at UP Town Center.

Space Encounters Pantone Drawers

Do away with large cabinets if you must and replace it with this drawer set.

Each drawer is painted with a cute shade from the Pantone library.

Hence, you can create a scheme for your clothes based on each colour.

You can also use the top of the drawers.

Available online.

Raw Tura Nord Organizing Decorative Ladder

From you heels to your sneakers, display them on these decorative ladders so you don’t have to delegate them anywhere else.

This assures you know what to wear in one look.

And hey, it’s an easy way to show off those prized pairs you have.

Available online.

West Elm Geo Boxes & Dish

Get a hold of all the little knick-knacks with these pretty and Pinterest-worthy boxes and dishes.

You can store your jewelry here (just line it with some cloth) or even other makeup items.

Available at Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons.

UENOHARA, Yamanashi – Additive-free sausages made by a master are the specialty of Hayari Terrace, a cafe just one minute’s walk from the south exit of JR Uenohara Station.

The cafe is owned by Takeshi Murakami, 39, an expert on sausages from around the world. He has even written a book on the subject. Murakami runs the cafe with his wife, Mayumi.

In November 2009, Murakami opened a restaurant serving sausages from around the world in the Ebisu district of Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and it soon took off.

While searching for an ideal place to make a factory that would efficiently produce sausages on the outskirts of Tokyo, Murakami found a building in Uenohara that used to be a restaurant. He opened the factory there in 2014.

Although he often used to travel between Tokyo and Uenohara to operate the restaurant in Tokyo and the factory in Uenohara, he finally moved to Uenohara in April last year, impressed by the rich and varied foodstuffs available there.

Last September, he opened a cafe at the factory, hoping to make it a place where local people can drop by.

Among the cafe’s popular dishes is the Yamanashi Plate (¥1,300 (S$16.10)). The dish is served on a large plate, including the sausage of the day, a salad made from vegetables grown in Uenohara, special eggs and rice with mixed grains.

The dish is only served to five people a day and reservations are required in advance.

A hot dog option called “30 centimeters! Uenohara Hot Dog” (full portion ¥980, half portion ¥500), which uses a new sausage made with miso paste made in Uenohara, also sells well at the cafe, and Murakami said many people buy it after they eat the hot dogs.

Many people tend to associate sausages with Germany, but Murakami says there are various types around the world, including France, Italy, Mexico, Peru and China.

“Sausages are a tube-shaped food stuffed with local delicious ingredients,” Murakami said. “In a way, the food can be seen as a memory stick filled with local culinary culture.”

*Hayari Terrace
Open: Noon-5 p.m. for cafe. Sausages are sold until 7 p.m.
Closed: Thursdays
Address: 983 Arata, Uenohara, Yamanashi Prefecture
http://hayari-sausage.com/ (in Japanese)
Credit cards not accepted.

Born on a small island in southern China’s Zhejiang province, Chen Penbin was resigned to fishing for a living and rarely setting foot on the mainland – just like his father and grandfather before him.

Now 39, the man dubbed ‘China’s Forrest Gump’ is an ultramarathon icon and has become a national celebrity for competing on all seven continents in his pursuit of endurance excellence.

“I was like a frog living at the bottom of a well, only able to see the little patch of sky above and never daring to believe that I would be living a different life other than fishing,” Chen said of his childhood.

Determined to ease the burden of a family barely able to make ends meet, Chen went into the fishing business with his father and brother after his graduation from primary school.

That venture might have temporarily narrowed his ambition, but it steeled him with a resolve and discipline that eventually paid dividends in his athletic pursuits.

The fisherman who got hooked on running

“Since I was very young I knew I needed to stand on my own feet as soon as possible,” Chen said.

“My father had to hire another man to help us on the boat. Although I was only 13, I wanted to replace that man and help to cut down expenses for my father. So I would never be lazy. I learned quickly to always give it my all when I was working.”

For the next nine years, Chen worked as a fisherman, often facing dangerous situations at sea, until one fateful day in 2000 when a local push-up contest during Spring Festival altered the direction of his life.

“I only trained for about 10 days and I did not know how many push-ups I needed to win, so I just kept pushing myself,” Chen recalled.

“When I finished my 438th push-up, a kid pushed me on my shoulder and I fell on the ground. He told me the other contestants were gone for a while. It was at that moment that I realised I had won. Otherwise, I would’ve done more push-ups.”

Chen gave his prize of 600 yuan (S$123) to his father.

More importantly, Chen had tapped into his exceptional stamina, and his competitive instinct had sprung to life.

He began to compete in a wide variety of endurance contests, like triathlons.

Odder challenges, like running a marathon wearing leather shoes and racing with a large water-cooler tank on his back, were also on his agenda.

Chen’s fame gradually grew nationwide, and after running the 2009 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc event he got the bug for competing abroad.

“I saw the Chinese flag flying from the hotel as soon as I arrived there, which touched me a lot, and I came up with an idea to race in all seven continents, representing my country,” he said.

In 2010 he set off on his bold plan to run ultramarathons in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica.

He fulfilled his goal in just four years, completing the feat by winning a 100k nonstop ultramarathon in Antarctica in 2014.

True to his nature, Chen didn’t stop there.

In 2015 he ran 100 marathons in 100 days, starting from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and finishing in Beijing.

“Persistence is what has continued to push me forward; I’m really happy that I could achieve this,” Chen said after crossing the finish line outside Wukesong Arena.

“Some said I’m a stubborn man by doing this – but that’s not a good word to describe a person. I just believe that if you want to do something great, you have to be stubborn, to be persistent.

“By running marathons, I hope more Chinese people can get involved in sports and do sports for their health. I saw people run after me in every marathon in the past 100 days, and I believe I can inspire more.”

Last year, to try to attract more participation, Chen invited ordinary runners to form relay teams of 10 and run 100k races alongside him in five different cities. Some 15,000 signed up, but Chen’s ambitions go beyond mere numbers.

“There are millions of people running in China. I want to teach them how to run correctly, how to strengthen the body while avoiding injury. And I want to do this through the internet, sharing my experience to as many people as possible,” he said.

The world’s most populous nation has witnessed a running boom in recent years.

In 2011, there were a total of 22 road running events held or authorised by the Chinese Athletics Association.

By 2016, the number had mushroomed to 328, with around 2.8 million participants.

“Both the ‘seven continents ‘and ‘100 days’ accomplishments are my milestones. But it is this running boom that has created my fame and influence,” Chen said.

“If I had accomplished these feats 10 years earlier, people might not understand me and may think I am mad.

“If I’d done them 10 years later, I might not be the first Chinese to do them and the milestones would be meaningless.”

“So I really need to thank the running boom. And I think it is time for me to do something to help it.”

Sesame seeds and the paste made from them are very popular ingredients in many countries.

As you may know, sesame paste is one of the most fundamental ingredients for everyday cooking in Middle Eastern countries.

Sesame is also quite popular in the United States, where I live now, and in European countries.

So it’s no wonder Japanese dishes using sesame are really popular with everyone in my cookery class.

It’s a key ingredient in goma-ae (cooked vegetables with sesame dressing) and black sesame pudding.

In traditional Japanese cuisine, we don’t eat much fresh salad.

However, I would love to share my favourite salad with sesame dressing.

This is delicious and easy to make for everyday meals.

To create a richer flavor, I mix ground sesame with sesame paste.

It is even nicer if you grind the sesame seeds yourself.

Another tip for a delicious salad is to use Japanese mayonnaise that contains apple or rice vinegar instead of distilled vinegar and water.

Such mayonnaise with fermented vinegar gives a thicker texture and a richer, fresher flavor.

If you live outside of Japan, you can find it online or in Asian grocery stores.

Any salad leaves or veggies or even fruits like figs go well with this dressing.

I love to use fresh chrysanthemum leaves with their slightly bitter taste in this salad.

Of course, spinach or romaine lettuce go well, too.

Mango brings sweet, tangy notes to the plate, while almonds add texture and a nutty, tart touch.

If you don’t live in Japan, you can substitute tahini – a popular food in the eastern Mediterranean region – for Japanese sesame paste (neri-goma).

Though both pastes are made out of pure sesame, there are some differences.

Generally, tahini is raw sesame paste, while Japanese neri-goma uses roasted seeds, creating a richer and nuttier paste with a darker colour.

Because it’s toasted, most of my students say it smells exactly like peanut butter.

If you want to get that flavor into your salad, you can add toasted sesame powder to tahini or try non-sweetened peanut butter, instead.

You may also be able to find Chinese sesame paste, which is called zhi ma jiang.

However, this is made of sesame paste mixed with vegetable oil, so it is not a substitute for neri-goma.

You will enjoy this sesame dressing with any seasonal salad greens plus fig, persimmon, apple and so on.

But it’s also delicious on thinly sliced beef or even noodles.

Mari’s recipe for salad with sesame dressing

Ingredients (serves 4):

Salad:

• 1 pack of chrysanthemum leaves or any green salad leaves
• 1 mango
• 15 almonds

Goma dressing:

• 1 tbsp neri-goma (Japanese sesame paste)
• 1 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
• ½ tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tbsp honey

Directions:

1. If you can’t find toasted sesame seeds, toast raw sesame seeds until they become golden brown. Using a mortar or food processor, grind the seeds until they become a powder. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk well, or mix in a food processor. It is easier to get a creamy consistency with a food processor.
2. Dice the mango. Tear the chrysanthemum leaves from the stems. (You can use the stems later in a stir-fry or soup.) Crush the almonds roughly.
3. Toss the chrysanthemum leaves with the dressing. Combine with mango and almonds and serve on a plate.

When Downtowner, a burger spot, first opened in Hannam-dong last year, it was a quiet and uneventful affair.

“On our first day, sales were 100,000 won (S$125),” said CEO Joon Lee, 36.

Lee revealed it took two months for word to spread.

Now, people stand in line to get their hands on one of Downtowner’s famous burgers.

When a second location opened several weeks ago in Sinsa-dong, there was already a line of people waiting to grab lunch on the first day of business.

Word had spread fast.

Lee attributes the steady and growing success of Downtowner to friendly service, tasty burgers and snap-worthy packaging.

Amongst the line-up of burgers on the menu, the avocado burger stands out.

Slices of avocado are seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper before being carefully fanned out over a 130 gram beef patty with cheese and crisp bacon.

The bun, crusted with sesame seeds, is soft and works well with the creaminess of the avocado.

According to Lee, this is their most popular burger.

Then, of course, there is the presentation of the burger.

The burger is served in a paper carton standing up, so one can see everything that went into it right away.

Fries are crinkle cut and served up six different ways, including their most popular garlic butter dressing — a sweet and rich take on topped fries — and a guacamole variation amped up by slices of jalapeno.

There are meaty chicken tenders slathered in everything from a General Tso’s chicken-inspired sauce to a basil cream variation.

Then there is beer, both draft and bottled, from Magpie Brewing Company’s flavorful pale ale to Brooklyn Brewery’s potent, intense and caramel-flavored Sorachi Ace ale.

The selection of draft beer at Downtowner’s Sinsa-dong outlet is different from the selection offered at the Hannam-dong store and that, according to Lee, is intentional.

Lee said he wants to keep these sorts of details, including the interior, different for customers who want to experience something new when visiting both spots.

Lee is also busy adding a new burger to the menu, which will be available at the Cheongdam store soon.

“We will soon be launching a protein burger,” Lee said, explaining that this will be an avocado burger wrapped in romaine lettuce instead of the usual bun as a low carb option.

Plans are to eventually open a total of five stores in South Korea and Lee is already scoping out a location for his third store.

Downtowner Cheongdam Store

• 14 Dosan-daero 53-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
• (070) 8860-3696
• Open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily, closed Mondays
• Burgers cost 6,800 won to 11,800 won, fries cost 4,300 won to 6,800 won, chicken tenders cost 7,300 won, beer on tap costs 6,500 won