tartan nady

The other day, while it was flurry-ing, I took a rather long walk to Toyonaka and had lunch at Tartan Nady.

It had been over 10 years since I had eaten here (pre-blog). I had actually forgotten where the shop was actually located, but I was glad to re-connect with it.

I ordered their Tartan Nady lunch...1029 yen.

This lunch set came with 2 curries (mixed vegetable and chicken curry), a salad, a drumette and naan.

The salad and drumette were shoyu based.

The mixed vegetable curry was tomato based and wasn't spicy at all, I enjoyed all the different veggies like okra, cauliflower and zucchini.

I liked the spiciness of the chicken curry and the big chunks of chicken that were in there.

The naan was crisp on the side that stuck to the oven and fluffy on the side that puffs up when baking....mmm!

I'm glad this restaurant is still around and I hope to be back again for lunch soon!

Tartan Nady
3-11-45 Mukaigaoka, Rosa Mukaigaoka 1F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6852.0950
Open everyday: lunch 11:30-15:00, dinner: 18:00-23:00

room cafe roca

One of my friends on Tabera (Japan's Instagram for food) uploaded a sign that Room Cafe Roca was closing at the end of the month.

I went to try them this past Tuesday.

A small cafe, they have seats at their counter as well as a few tables and a sofa.

Their lunch starts at 11:30 and I was amazed at how many were there waiting for them to open.

They have a daily lunch, which I ordered...800 yen, this comes with miso soup and brown rice.

Click on the photo to see what I had that day.

You can also order some items a la carte, but from what I saw, most customers were ordering their daily lunch.

It did take some time for the food to come out but their food was delicious and relatively on the the healthy side.

It's a shame they are closing at the end of the month, but I'm glad I got to try them.

Room Cafe Roca
1-29-16 Shinmachi, #5 Nakamura Kousan B1
Nishi-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6532.1524
Closed Sundays & Holidays
Hours: 11:30-16:30 Mondays to Thursdays, 11:30-21:00 Fridays & Saturdays

on a walk (or two)

The weather is still crazy, we had flurries again yesterday.

The temperature wasn't even very low it was like 7C (44F)...still I have been getting out and walking...

Caught these girls with their make-shift basketball hoop.

It is actually a contraption used to hang clothes to dry. They were shooting the ball over the horizontal pole and making the girl up top fetch the ball.

I noticed these sasanqua trees.

Love all the pink petals scattered on the ground.

A car company that sells import cars.

Tried to catch a shot of this cat on the other side of his house, he thought he could out smart me, but I found him...

I've been taking my photos with my phone and sometimes I can't see what I'm taking because of the glare on the screen.

I thought I didn't snap this MINI, but when I looked at the photo I took, there it was.

What have you been seeing on your walks?

a terre

Yesterday, we woke up to white roof tops and flurries throughout the day...crazy yeah?!

On to today's post...I've written about A Terre before.

Well, on one of my walks back near the end of February, I stopped in to pick up some of their desserts.

Their puits d'amour (wells of love) and blanc fonce (white and dark).

A crème brûlée tucked into a flaky tarte... After breaking into the caramel shell, the custard cream oozed out, oh wow, this was good.

The blanc fonce (hazelnut slice) paled in comparison but was still delicious.

The puits d'amour only appears on the weekends, so go early.

We'll definitely be back.

It's Friday here, I hope you have a nice weekend.

blueberry soda

The weather here is far from being summery, but blueberries are in the markets, so it was my chance to try this recipe I saw in "USA Today" when I was in Hawaii last year.

Blueberry syrup : makes about 2 cups from "USA Today: Weekend" Anton Nocito, October 2013
1.5 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar
9 tablespoons lemon juice

you can find a detailed recipe, here.

NOTES: I cut this recipe to 1/4 because I didn't know how it would taste, and because well, we shouldn't be drinking THAT much soda...

The recipe says to strain it, but I left the blueberries in...why waste?!

Also, the recipe says to add 3 tablespoons to a tall glass with ice. But I didn't know how tall the glass had to be, so I just added a teaspoon to my "short" glass and topped it with soda water.

I'm sure you could add more syrup to taste.

This was super refreshing. And it reminded me of the berry soda I had at Corridor.

Too bad our weather hit a cold snap and we are still below 50F...I'd definitely make this one again though.

bento

The other day I had some time on my hands.

I was waiting for the delivery guy. He was scheduled to come between 9 and 12.

Not knowing if he would come at 9 or closer to 12 (or somewhere in-between), I decided to make some dishes for dinner and make a bento to take to the park for lunch.

I started with these purple carrots. I whizzed them in the food processor along with 1 orange carrot and make this...

Carottes râpées au miel (grated carrots with honey)

Awhile back, Kazumi had given me these sakura(cherry blossoms) preserved in salt.

I used 3 of the blossoms to make musubi. NOTES: this is super salty, so wash off the salt before using!

Another dish I made was Spring Cabbage Tuna Salad.

I added some leftover teriyaki, a tamagoyaki (rolled omelette) and some rakkyo (pickled scallions).

And wouldn't you know it, lunchtime came around, so I started eating and the delivery guy came...

oh well, didn't get to bring this bento to the park, but did go walking after lunch.

Hope your week is going well, we're having a cold snap and rain today.

girl's day

We celebrated Girl's Day on Sunday.

I made a chirashizushi of sorts and bought this platter of sashimi to put onto the sushi...

4 slices each of maguro (tuna), hamachi (amberjack), shrimp, ika (squid), salmon, kani-kamaboko (fake crab) and a scoopful of ikura (salmon roe)

Can you believe it was only 980 yen?! (It looks a bit messed up because I had to put it into my backpack...)

I made some sushi rice (add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar and a pinch of salt to one cup of cooked rice) and added some diced cucumber and kinshi tamago (thinly sliced omlette)

For each serving, I cut up two slices each of the different fish, layering it between rice, cucumber & the egg...chirashizushi in a cup!

When eating, I drizzled 1 teaspoon of shoyu over the top...looks fancy yet simple to make!

Since Satoshi had to work, he brought home this dessert by Impression Gateau Sucre, it was a rich chocolate cake topped with whipped cream and these chocolate shavings that looked like driftwood.

Thanks Satoshi! If you celebrated, I hope you had a nice Girl's Day!