Chawan mushi

I was introduced to chawan mushi by Sakae Sushi. It costs just S$2 for a hot, steaming cup of Japanese egg custard and I have never failed to eat one whenever I was at the restaurant. But in Houston, although the Japanese food here is absolutely creative and yummy, not many of the Japanese restaurants sell chawan mushi.

After being here for more than a year, I have learnt that although the egg custard is not on most of the restaurants’ menu, we can actually specially order it off the menu at some Japanese restaurants. But the thing is we can’t order just a cup, usually an order of minimum two cups is required, and each cup costs more than US$4. So after taking into account the sales tax (8.25%) and tips (minimum 15%), two cups of chawanmushi will cost around US$10! How expensive is that for a dish that costs so little to make!

So what did I do? Not wanting to let the restaurants earn my money anymore (giam kana @ work), I looked online for the recipe. Voila!

They looked even better than the pockmarked steam egg I blogged about the other time. I didn't have shrimp, chicken or mushroom, so I took whatever I could find in the fridge and throw them into the bowl - I put fishcake, fish tofu, and crabstick. Can't see the crabstick in these photos though.
Now I will never order chawan mushi in a Japanese restaurant ever again!