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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
, 9:42 AM
Jan 4, 09
Gyu-Syoku Dining (牛角食堂) in Shinjuku (famous yakiniku chain)
790yen
To eat this you crack the raw egg into the still-boiling sauce/meat mix, then eat as you please!
First time I tried bulgogi, and damn is it amaaazing. Tasted 1 part yakiniku and 3 parts sukiyaki to me, and you know how much I love sukiyaki. Apparently in Korea it tastes more like yakiniku and less like sukiyaki. I'm trying this again when I go to Seoul in March!
Labels: EATINGOUT
@ , 1:28 AM
On New Year's Eve, also known as omisoka (more info here, I ate toshi-koshi-soba. On New Year's Day (shougatsu), I visited Chizuru's house and got to ate osechi-ryouri and some sumptous home-cooked food. :D
Toshi-koshi-soba, year-end soba, is soba eaten on New Year's Eve, as the long noodles symbolise long life, or something like that. More info, including recipe found here. I took the recipe very loosely and just hazarded the amounts, constantly tasting the soup till I thought it was okay. In the end the soup was a little bland, as one of my friends agreed, but overall everyone liked it (including a Japanese!) and well, so did I actually haha.
Osechi-ryouri, more info here. Let's see, in this set there is radish, carrot, chestnut paste/puree, beans, fried sweet egg...
Nori-wrapped mochi, seaweed-wrapped rice cakes on the left
Soup made by Chizuru's dad (some kind of meat broth)
Tako, or octopus, raw!
Clockwise from bottom right:
Boiled kani, boiled crab
Osechi-ryouri stuffs
Chinese meat/vege dish
Raw octopus and tuna
Charsiew!
Oishikatta. <3
Labels: EATINGOUT
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Monday, December 29, 2008
, 6:42 PM
Nov 28 - Nov 30, 08
various locations in Shirakawa
On my trip to the inaka-machi/rural town Shirakawa City in Fukushima Prefecture (about a 4hrs drive from where I live in Tokyo) I ate tons of cool Japanesey food that was actually really different from the gyuudon (beef bowls) and curry rice fare (which is pretty Japanese to me already) that I'm more used to in Waseda.
The one on top is dinner and below is breakfast the next day at the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). This is teishoku, or set meal, which is a tray filled with many little bowls with small portions of different kinds of food. The portions look tiny, but eating them all fills you up! In all honesty I'm not a huge fan of teishoku, because a lot of the food is cold, or cools down really fast due to being so tiny. There are tons of good parts in a teishoku though, like the karaage (fried chicken), or miso soup, or tofu...for breakfast there was freeze-dried tofu, which has a very unusual dense texture that I love!
Some really sweet snack that we ate as part of 茶道/sadou, tea ceremony.
This was definitely one of my favourite meals on the Shirakawa trip. Mmm, hot meals! It tasted somewhat like sukiyaki.
My very first buffet in Japan! They had the usual normal international buffet food but also some interesting stuff like the salmon & etc stuffed in the leaves as seen in the picture.
Okayu, Japanese rice porridge. I was really excited for this because I love my grandma's chicken porridge (or congee, whatever you call it), but it was suuuch a letdown. The rice porridge itself was bland, and the dried seaweed and pickles we got to eat it with weren't really my thing.
The last meal of the trip, and what a great way to end it off! The ramen was great (think it was soy-sauce-based?) and so was the rice side dish it came with. Love the egg, mmm.
Labels: EATINGOUT
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
, 2:51 PM
Nov 10, 08
Small shop near Takadanobaba station
This is possibly the cheapest sushi place around the area! 75yen/sushi is the average. Don't get tricked like us though. Sushi is served 2 pieces at a time so it's actually 150yen/'platter'. This sushi restaurant was a new experience for me in 2 ways. 1) You stand at the counter! 2) Sushi chefs make the sushi right in front of you (similar to the teppanyaki places in Singapore) and then serve it to you on some kind of leaf.
Oh, also the type of sushi they had was different from what I'm used to. It was basically all about the raw/semi-raw seafood, from salmon to tuna to squid to unidentifiable meat...if this is typical of Japanese sushi restaurants, I prefer the fake ones back in Singapore/Toronto. :( I love nigirizushi (rice wrapped in sweet tofu skin) and (cooked)tuna-nigirizushi and...is that about it? I'm not really a fan of sushi I guess. Give me my rice bowls anyday! I like waaarm food.
In its defence though, both Toby and Lolo liked this place. Toby says its his best sushi experience in Japan so far, and he knows his sushi.
Standing!
The sushi experience was made so much more enjoyable due to the great company I had, in the form of Lolo, possibly my best Chinese-speaking friend here! She's also probably the only good friend in my whole life who speaks to me predominantly in Chinese. >.> But ever since I came to Japan, I've found a lot more Chinese people who are willing to speak to me in Chinese and don't say my Chinese sucks! ^o^
Yaki-geso/Fried Squid legs
I had to eat these a whole piece at a time because the squid legs were too chewy. The mayo made it taste good (Toby's right, douse mayo on everything and it's delicious) but I don't particularly crave for it again.
Tamago/Egg
I wouldn't say this is my favourite sushii ever, but it's defnitely my favourite of all the choices we had today. Nigirizushi inai no? :(
VERDICT: 5/10
I wouldn't go back again because there's too much raw food for my liking
Labels: EATINGOUT
@ , 2:31 PM
Some cheap food that I bought from my school's cafeteria that are 'distinctive' to Japan...
(for simplicity's sake, take 100yen = 1USD/CAD)
Nattou, 42yen
What is nattou? Really gross food. Don't try it. Well, I'm clearly biased. Nattou apparently falls under the same kind of food category as chou tofu and durians. I.e. food which have a very strong odour and which some people really love while some people hate. Fortunately nattou was not as excruciatingly horrible as I thought. It was just kind of tasteless and extremely sticky.
Chocolate Banana Mont Blanc, 210yen
I suppose from the name Mont Blanc must have originated in France, but as with strawberry shortcake, baumkuchen (German light butter cake shaped like treetrunk rings), pudding ('purin' in Japanese) and a few other desserts, they are so ubiquitous to Japan you might as well consider them official Japanese desserts alongside the usual mochi etc. Strangely enough, the only mont blanc I've liked so far is this one from my school cafeteria, possibly because the taste of the chocolate was strong enough to mask the funny taste I've always felt when eating mont blanc...which I think now is chestnut, also an integral part of mont blanc. I feel kind of disappointed. I had such high hopes for the deliciousness of mont blanc since my aunt told me such good stuff about it.
Oh wells, I still love Japanese cheesecake. Although the ones that I've been buying from the combini/convenience stores (Hokkaido style cheesecake?) are a bit too sweet.
Labels: EATINGOUT
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
, 8:25 PM
Of course, these are not the only places I've been to this summer, but just a few interesting/good enough that I took pictures of to share.
Bistro 990
the food was well presented but the pictures didn't turn up well (dim light) and i was more enamoured by the bistro itself anyway
I will not go back to this place for a long while because it is definitely out of my budget (most expensive meal I've had in TO so far) but the patio ambience is lovely and the service is great. Unfortunately, the meals are a little too cultured for my taste maybe, although the food decoration is superb. I had pate and foie gras spring rolls, and unfortunately I must say that for the price, I definitely preferred the supermarket pate my mum bought before and the normal vege spring rolls at Chinese restaurants.
But the atmosphere! Priceless. (:
Rice Bar
(sorry forgot to rotate the pic of the food and now i'm too lazy to adjust it)
left is lena's prawn pizza with kimchi and other strangely mixed stuff
right is my uber-healthy black bean with egg and brown rice
Very interesting concept. You get to mix and match rice, sauce, meat etc to create your own meal. I couldn't make my own decision so I took a pre-matched combination of black beans, scrambled eggs, brown rice and some Spanish-type sauce I forgot, and I didn't like it. Without the scrambled eggs, I really felt like I was eating some kind of health food. Lena's prawn pizza was also kinda bland, I felt. And I really think describing paper thin pastry with what, 4 prawns on it as pizza is stretching it. Also, although I really enjoyed the whole style of the restaurant (Lena didn't and complained the wooden tables just looked old, haha) halfway through the meal we were bugged by a bee that wouldn't go away and actually alighted on my rice!! >(
Strangely enough, I will be going back if I can because I am determined to try some of those strange meal combinations. I am very intrigued by the out of the ordinary, if you can't guess yet.
Sejong
i love how korean eateries give you like 5-6 small bowls of appetisers (top of picture) which on any other day would serve as my entire dinner
Cat and I (my fellow foodie fan) decided to try True Korean Barbecue (after hearing bad reviews about all-you-can-eat buffets like Korean Grill House) so we ventured to this praised eatery in Koreatown. Got 2 kinds of meat (spicy chicken and special marinade beef or something like that, I don’t quite remember), which came with mushrooms and deliciously caramelized onions. The special marinade was basically a sweet sauce that people familiar with Japanese and Korean cuisine would recognize; I liked it a lot (as it’s this type of sauce or its variation which makes me love Japanese rice bowls). The spicy sauce was not very spicy (to me) but as I don’t like the taste of chili it wasn’t a hit with me.
Overall the food was good, but I wouldn’t return as it’s out of my budget (after splitting we spent 20bucks each).
Country Style
i really like the fact this random kid ended up in my pic, hurhur
When Cat and I passed this quaint Hungarian eatery on a stroll through Koreatown after our Sejong lunch, we knew this was our next food destination. And after trying it, it’s definitely a must return! The price is reasonable (taxes already included), at est 17 for a humongous schnitzel (DEFINE) with 2 sides and a vege that I actually ate for 2 more meals after taking away what I could not finish. And the food was good.
Biryani House
the different curries!
Very good buffet selection for price. For $12 you get about 8 dishes excluding rice and naan, salad and fruits and honey balls for dessert. The main reason I love this place is because they have about 6 types of curries (beef, goat, butter chicken, potatoes and chickpeas I believe) and I am a huuuge fan of curry. My favourites are the potatoes and beef curry. I really love butter chicken but Biryani House's has a strange sour aftertaste if you eat the curry on its own without rice/naan.
Labels: EATINGOUT
@ , 8:03 PM
Everyone knows I have a a huge sweet tooth. And one of my favourite past-times is to have a good cake and conversation. So I guess what's really surprising is that I haven't checked out more dessert places than the few listed below, like Cora's which is supposed to be famous for muffins. Oh well, I'll be back in Toronto for more food-finding soon enough.
Futures Bakery
bloor/brunswick (btw bathurst&spadina)
Mango Raspberry Cheesecake, my Futures fav and also the prettiest cake (to me) at the bakery
Our favourite famous downtown cake-place and a haunt for UofT students. Almost every time I’m here, I meet a UofT friend. But unexpected socializing aside, this is a great place for cake. For about $6.00++ after tax you get a towering slice (at least 3 layers) of your choice of about 20 cakes or so many of them cheesecakes (which North America is crazy fond of) or chocolate cakes. I don’t really like the atmosphere as it’s too dark and noisy and if at night, almost always packed. However, I will still go there for the likes of Strawberry Shortcake and Mango Raspberry Cheesecake.
Random uninteresting anecdote: I was attracted to Mango Raspberry the first time I went to Futures, but for some reason the first 2 times I went to Futures I passed over it (saving it for the future?) and then followed a string of very upsetting visits when Mango Raspberry was not being served! Boy was I relieved to finally see it a few weeks before I left TO. And after all that anticipation, it did not disappoint but instead became my favourite Futures cake. Sweet yet light and not cloying, this cake is delicious!
Simply Desserts
wellesley/yonge
If you take away, price-wise this is a better deal than Futures as it’s $5.00 flat. However, as I found out about this place a little late in the year I’ve only been there once and the only cake I bought (almond fudge or something like that) I didn’t like. I’ll be back to try out more cakes next year though. They don’t have as many choices as Futures, but it has a cozier, romantic restaurant-like environment.
Caroles Cheesecake Café
yorkville
Forgot what cheesecake this was
Located in uptown Yorkville a scant 5 minutes from my residence (wow does this sound like a promo article or what?), it boasts a very nice, cozy environment. The cheesecake Lena and I tried was okay, but nothing spectacular. Maybe we got the wrong one. I didn’t go back again as the price was similar to Futures but the cakes were smaller. Well, it is Yorkville.
7West
charles(south of bloor)/yonge
Apple Crumble!
They have like, 7 cakes available maybe, and I’ve tried 3 of them already (the only 3 that interested me). My favourite is hands down the apple crumble. Crunchy, cinnamon-y, juicy, mmm. I also tried Dad’s Belgian Cake and Mum’s Belgian cake. One of them had dark chocolate frosting and the other was buttermilk. The chocolate frosting was much, much better, and whoever I was with (I forgot) agreed.
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Note: All of these places don’t sell exclusively cakes. Futures is supposed to have a very good all-day breakfast menu, Simply Desserts has a typical restaurant menu, Caroles Cheesecake Café has the usual café fare and is quite big on (healthy) soups, and 7West is famous for being a 24-hour café. It helps that it’s 2 minutes from my residence!
Labels: EATINGOUT
