hodaka beef

Host Mom messaged me the other day whether we would like beef or grapes

I told her whatever she chose we would be grateful to receive

Then she messaged and asked thinly sliced or bite sized yakiniku meat

I told her thinly sliced

So that is what she sent to us

8 beautifully marbled slices of wagyu from Hodaka Beef, a butcher counter in the shopping arcade down the street from where Host Mom and Dad live

with 4 of the slices I made rolled beef with Japanese tartar sauce

I rolled iceberg lettuce and some shiso from the freezer in these

for the tartar sauce I used takuan, rakkyo and shibazuke

the beef was so tender!

then with the other 4 slices I rolled them with iceberg and onions

And used some kalbi sauce

I should've drizzled some sauce as I was cooking this and also served some to dip in

The piece of tallow that came with the beef, I cut and put into the freezer to use whenever I make fried rice

Thank you Host Mom & Dad! we appreciate your kindness

komeda coffee

Komeda Coffee opened in our train station while I was in Hawaii

We tried to eat here at lunchtime but the line was kinda krazy

So on a Sunday, we went when they opened at 7:00 

It took some time for us to figure out how to order on the tablet 

But at least it wasn't too busy yet

Satoshi ordered the mix sandwich

I ordered the egg toast

While eating we realized that these sandwiches are quite large, so in the future will order one to share or just order off their breakfast menu

We are glad we tried this place and plan to come often for their morning service

Well, we already went back, but their morning sets are a little "too teeny" for us, though we did find a larger cup of coffee on their menu.

And it seems like this shop’s menu is a little smaller than what they show online

Anyway, we’ll try another combination of items the next time we go

Komeda Coffee

Etomo Ikegami 3F

Ota, Tokyo

Hours: 7:00-22:00

seiryumon

We got together with friend Hiromi and her family.

The last time we saw them was last year in Kyoto.

This time, her son has moved to a new job in Yokohama.

We had dinner at Seiryumon.

We've eaten at the Universal Studios Osaka shop (pre-blog) many many moons ago

The interior is still as krazy 

The portions seemed small and it seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves

Anyway, it was nice catching up with everyone and we hope to see them more often in the coming months

Thanks for today!

Seiryumon

Cross Gate Yokohama 3F

Yokohama, Kanagawa

Hours: 11:30-15:00 (lunch), 17:00-22:30 (dinner)

change

Changed our curtains since it has been so blazing

These curtains were from when we were living in Osaka because Satoshi had complained that even with the curtains we had back then, it was too bright.

Well, we got these the other day and boy does it shut out light!

The left side is the new curtain, the right is the old

They are too long because we measured wrong, not sure if I will cut and sew them...too lazy! (though it does irk me that they are too long, so I’ll probably hem them)

I don't know if it will make things cooler but at least the sun won't feel like it is laser beaming into the apartment

domino pizza

We recently ordered from Domino Pizza

They had a curry pizza that I wanted to try

Also if you ordered a large you could get it at the medium price

 

The Summer Curry Quatro :

Summer Veggie Curry, Butter Chicken Curry, Mayo Potato and their Kalbi

I was surprised that on the receipt they tell you what each part of the pizza is, so you’d know what you were eating

Unfortunately, the way I took the photo of the pizza was not the same configuration as the receipt

still I thought it was a cool idea, and the pizza was ono

Actually, I was thinking of ordering two types because I wanted to also eat the kalbi one, but after seeing it was one of the toppings for the quatro, I just ordered the one pizza

natural disaster (s)

Last week, Typhoon 15 (Chan Hom) passed Tokyo, we had rain but not much more, other areas were not too lucky

Then Chiba had massive rain (I can’t remember if it was from Typhoon 15?!) and they had lots of flooding and some deaths

This past weekend, Tropical storm Lala turned into Hurricane Lala, so much rain and wind! for Hawaii

All the damage was so sad to see especially those fallen huge trees!

I know a lot of you in Hawaii don’t have power, hoping you get some soon, cannot imagine life without air conditioning!

Yesterday, there was also a huge landslide in Korea!

Hoping everyone can get back to their daily routines soon.

Sending good mojo

kalbi

even if I just came back from Hawaii, I was craving kalbi, the kind we have in Hawaii

looked in one of my cookbooks and found a recipe for the sauce

I made 1/4 of the recipe (the recipe I am posting is the full recipe)

Kalbi from Wisteria Delights Cookbook

2.5 pounds short ribs, sliced thin

Sauce: 

3/4 cup shoyu

1/4 cup sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed (or use one tsp prepared crushed garlic)

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup honey

3/4 cup shopped green onion

Mix sauce ingredients and marinate beef for one hour

Barbecue on grill but don't overcook kalbi

NOTES: Instead of throwing out the extra sauce (because I soaked the meat in it), I should have only used a little of the sauce to marinate the meat and then used some extra sauce to drizzle onto the rice

I like the flavor of this sauce, so will make some to have on hand in the refridge