With or Without Cholesterol

The first 3 photos are a typical non oil food, most suitable for those concerned about cholesterol. Left: Sweet tofu cooked with shitake mushroom. Middle: sashimi salad consisting raw tuna, raw squid, lady's finger, yam sliced thinly, with "soy sauce and bonito flakes" as dressing. Right: asparagus cooked with crab meat.

Night dish: easy to prepare and this one reminds me a lot of my dinner in Australia ... without the rice though :)

Left: potato soup mixed with freshly picked parsley from the garden

Right: tuna & potato salad, honey sweetened carrot, broccoli with garlic sauce and my favorite, Australian beef sirloin steak!

My girl always wants an extra mayonnaise on her potato salad, while daddy insists i put less.... ugh! (headache :)

Goumet @Nagayu Onsen, Oita Pref.

Located by the river, Daimaru Ryokan @ Nagayu Onsen is an old Japanese traditional hotel with a history and well known for its quality hot springs and delicately prepared healthy gourmet.

For long stay visitors, a B&B cottages with an art gallery and a library are available at a more reasonable cost.

Japanese website:

http://www.daimaruhello-net.co.jp/index.html

--> Brownish color object under the red shrimp looks like a sausage is a sweet rice wrapped in konyaku jelly.

Lets see how many of them i can try and make at home .... :)

Gourmet @Takachiho, Miyazaki Pref.

@Ryokan Suehiro, Takachiho ... a small but comfortable traditional Japanese hotel run by a family.

The best way to start your day is to have a healthy breakfast. From bottom right, home made soft tofu, freshly boiled bamboo shoot, pickled seaweed, sweet black beans, fried egg (nothing special about the eggs, but the chicken is grown wild in the mountain and wild grown chicken is rare in Japan), konyaku jelly noodle cooked in black sesame powder, rice with wheat porridge topped with pickled plum and pickled vegetables. In the middle is a smoked wild masu-trout.

Gourmet @Takamori, Kumamoto Pref.

@Kamon Restaurant located in Takamori Town is noted for its authentic "kaiseki" (course meal) dish of seasonal mountain vegetables delicately prepared and served in a quiet atmosphere of an old traditional Japanese style house.

Special menu for kids are home-made pilaf with shrimps and colorful vegetables chopped finely, hamburger steak with freshly boiled vegetables, fried chicken (wild chicken) ... and beautiful looking desert a choice of strawberry or sakura ice cream (sorry but not in these photos) etc.

More about Kamon (Japanese website) : http://park1.wakwak.com/~kamon/index.html

Gourmet @Yufuin, Oita Pref.

Healthy roll cakes made of soy bean powder, with green tea cream fillings, or black bean cream fillings ... yummy!

Freshly "hot springs" boiled chicken eggs ... not for me though...

For lunch, vegetable lover likes to order the "dango-jiru", a miso & chicken & pork based soup containing more than six types of vegetables, from daikon radish, carrot, burdock, konyaku jelly, shitake mushrooms, radish green leaves, potatoes.... etc.

For kids, wild chicken meat cooked in sweet soy sauce with daikon radish and beansprouts

For me... sashimi (raw fish), @Satou Restaurant in Yufuin you get to eat fresh ones .... unfortunately, not shown in these pictures, since we are all familiar with sashimi :)