garlic jo's

Sunday after running some errands we had lunch at Garlic Jo's

This restaurant is part of a group of American style restaurants in the Yokohama area

Everything on their menu is garlic

They even have Gilroy garlic festival posters on their walls.

We started off with their tako (octopus) carpaccio...thinly sliced octopus covered with garlic and other spices...Satoshi thought this didn't have enough garlic on it

Garlic fried rice with beef and lettuce...loved this! the beef was tender and the garlic didn't overpower

Garlic shrimp...supposedly like Hawaiiʻs, but these were different

We also ordered baguette so that Satoshi could mop up all the garlic sauce...

I loved all the old skool knick knacks on their shelves...like this lunchbox!

I'm glad we tried this place and will be back whenever we want to eat garlicky foods.

Garlic Jo's

Azalea Kawasaki

Kawasaki, Kanagawa

Hours: 11:00-22:30

*closed when Azalea Kawasaki is

crane house sandwich shop

Lunch was at Crane House Sandwich Shop

They are related to Crane Burger where I had the Luther Burger

The store manager cooks everything to order so everything takes some time to come out

Plus they do delivery/take out too

I had their iced citrus berry coffee...this was delicious! like chocolate raspberry

My sandwich was a BLT plus hummus...love that they toast the bread!

And since crispy bacon is hard to come by in Japan, their "bacon" was more like the outer part of a baked ham! loved it!

Satoshi had their hamburger with egg...the sandwich looked good!

They do have rules...when taking photos of your food, make sure there are no other diners in your photo (to respect their privacy) and no videos

Since all of us were seated at a huge table, I waited until the other diners left to take these photos.

I love their huge windows and plants!

I'm glad we got to try this place, I'll be back whenever I'm in the area

Crane House Sandwich Shop

1-11-12 Kojima

Taito, Tokyo

Closed: Tuesdays

Hours: 11:30-17:00 (Sundays & Mondays), 11:30-15:00 & 17:00-19:00 (Wednesdays-Saturdays)

irifuneya

Saturday, we were near Akihabara and needed to kill some time

As we were in search of lunch, we walked through Okazu Yokocho

You may remember I walked through here before

This time, more businesses were open...like Irifuneya which has been in business since 1935

They make all sorts of tsukudani and side dishes which they have displayed in the front window

The cool thing is that there is a screen door on the back of their front window, kinda like those old skool refrigerators/cabinet thingy that my grandma used to have

We bought a 100 grams of shiitake konbu...650 yen (tax included)

There wasn't too much shiitake in the tsukudani but it was super flavorful and good with rice

and 100 grams of furikake...350 yen (tax included)

The furikake was delicious too, lots of katsuo bushi (bonito flakes).

I also thought the scales they used were cool too

We look forward to eating this in the coming days.

And I look forward to trying other things the next time I'm in this area

Irifuneya

1-4-5 Torigoe

Taito, Tokyo

Closed: Sundays

Hours: 9:30-18:00

*cash only

this and that

I wanna know why falling dishes fall in slow motion...
 

gloopy gravy loco moco...this organic gravy was meh...Satoshi still enjoyed this though

I see a smiley face

cyclamen getting ready for the pretty season

so mini

so teeny

Yesterday, got to spend some time with V...we went to lunch at Butadaigaku...so ono!

And then visited Ikegami Plum Garden

early blooming cherry blossom at Ikegami Honmonji

Thank you for all the omiyage V, the kettle corn is so ono! and we look forward to spending time with you towards the end of your trip. Enjoy!

Have a safe weekend.

epinard

Friend Hiromi, sent me these sweets from Epinard for my birthday

When we lived in Osaka, Epinard was in our area, Minoo

 

It was nice to reconnect with their sweets

And I look forward to sharing these truffles with Satoshi

Thank you Hiromi! I appreciate our friendship and your kindness

gimme chocolate

Saw this ad on Instagram for Gimme Chocolate, a small business from Yamaguchi Prefecture

I love the name of their product as well as the packaging

Their chocolate uses ginger grown in Yamaguchi and also has lemon, beets, carrots, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise, lemon grass, licorice & fennel in it

The chocolate has a strong ginger fragrance

It isn’t too “creamy” so I am thinking it is a darker chocolate

I’m glad I tried this and would get it again  

lunar new year

Went to Chinatown in Yokohama yesterday 

It was quite empty because I've heard that the Chinese were told not to visit Japan...
 

I wanted to check out Ryuuka a tiny market...

I've been looking for Hoisin sauce...620 yen (tax included) and they have it! hope to get the other ingredients together so that I can make Hoisin sauce chicken

This restaurant was in the J-drama, "119 Emergency Call"

I was also looking for lup cheong...there was one shop that was selling imported lup cheong from the US, but they were selling it for $29!

Instead I bought this Taiwan brand from Sakamoto (forgot to take a photo of the store front)...650 yen (tax included)

I hope this will be similar to the lup cheong flavor that I grew up with...

Hoping the Year of the Horse will be a good one for everyone

Ryuuka

136-13 Yamashitacho

Naka ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Hours: 9:30-21:00

*cash only

Sakamoto

190 Yamashitacho

Naka ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Closed Wednesdays & Thursdays

Hours: 11:00-18:00

*cash only