M9 Earthquake, Tsunami and Radiation Leak......... 大地震、津波、放射能漏れ

It's been a week after the catastropohic earthquake on March 11.

(See the below link. You can see how much difference between before and after the quake.)
Before and After by sina.com.cn

First, the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Japan's northeastern coast offshore, it unleashed 10m (or 32feet) high giant Tsunami which swept all the cars, houses and, literally, everything!
Not only that, the Tsunami also attacked the nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture.  That triggered the explosion and knocked out their cooling systems. Then, radiation leak....
What a chain reaction.... 

Now, everybody is worried about the safety of food and water from the region.
It is difficult to get a right information, specially in outside Japan.
People here in China are going to Hongkong and Macao and buy up all the Japanese products. They are not only worried about the safety of the food but also rise in the price of Japanese items in the future.

Some international 5ster hotels in Hongkong have announced that they stop using all the Japanese product for the time being, in order to protect the safety of their guests' health....

But, think about it... How is it possible that any fresh seafood or vegetables which are potentially contaminated from that region have been exported to any other countries after the earthquake?? All the fishermen from that region have lost their fishing boat and most of the roads were destroyed.

I don't see that they have stopped using Japanese product because they concern about "guest's health".
To me, they are just causing another unnecessary muddle...

Japanese Coffee Break

Some ideas for Japanese Coffee Break...


Three types of new style sushi, Sesame tofu, Marinated mackerel wrapped in sliced daikon radish

Food for a coffee break should be light, clean and comes in one bite portion. 

So, actually, Japanese food is perfect for that. Like sushi or skewered grilled chicken...etc

Just need a little twist to make it more appealing and stylish!

Staff Training

I have been working on the staff training for the new menu.
(Please click on "News" and see what's on the new menu!)
Most of the dishes are new to all of my staff. They have worked without chef for quite few months and I see they are pretty lost... It is not so easy for me...
On top of that, I found Japanese kitchen staff's standards, here in China, are much lower than Taiwanese. Their knowledge and techniques of Japanese cuisine are nothing to compare with Taiwanese...
(Luckily, I mustard their language in past several years and here it comes very handy!)

California rolls. Easy to see what ingredients are inside of the roll on the left picture
 and how it should be presented on the right picture.

Steamed cod fish, tofu and vegetables with crab meat sacue.
See what ingredients come first on the left picture, cod fish on top of it in the middle picture,
 then pour the crab meat sauce over it after steam it for 15mins on the right picture,

I prepare the recipe cards, taking pictures of each dish, print them out for each staff....etc.
Then I look back what it was like when I was an apprentice in Japan, 15-20 years ago...
There was no recipe cards, no pictures, no written instructions, NOTHING!
My master back then would whack me if I asked for a recipe. He would say,
"Recipe? What recipe, you idiot! There is no recipe. Didn't you see what I was doing? Do you really wanna learn? Keep your eyes open and memories the taste of each dishes I make!"

So, things change....
Nowadays, Chefs need to prepare everything for their staff, ask them and please them to learn properly...
huh...