no soup tan tan men

Tried the no soup tan tan men from Family Mart

Take off this packet before zapping it in the micro

Mouth.on.fire.

Also, it was a good thing I looked at the directions, because that teeny blue packet can make things slightly spicy to krazy spicy (glad I only put a little)

Both of these (the no soup tan tan men & biang biang men) are made by Nissin

Loved the chewiness of the noodles

to peel or not to peel

Do you peel your kiwi?

I saw something online where you should try to eat the peel because of the nutrients in it

I can kinda understand the red kiwis because their peel is smooth

But I don't think I would be able to eat the green ones'...seems too prickly 

The red kiwi peels are a little “chewy” like some pear peels can be and a little tart 

We’ve been eating the red kiwi peel but will try with the gold ones, since I just bought some

shichirin an an

We tried a new (to us) yakiniku place, Shichirin An An, they have many shops all around Japan.

Order with your smartphone, or if your table has a tablet, you can order with it

Of course if you want to talk to a human, that is possible too

We ordered several cuts of meat, some pre-cooked squid, an assortment of kim chee and sanchu

Satoshi had 2 beers and Kat had an oolong tea.

Satoshi was in charge of cooking everything

We thought the prices were quite reasonable and the service quite fast

4433 yen (tax included) for dinner, we'll be back

Shichirin An An

3-32-17 Ikegami

Ota, Tokyo

Hours: 11:30-26:00 (Saturdays & Sundays), 17:00-26:00 (Mondays-Fridays)

akihabara & nezu

Satoshi went to sell some of his "treasures" at Akihabara, while we were waiting for them to figure out how much they were worth, we had lunch at Joto Curry

We've eaten at their shops in Osaka

Their curry starts off a little sweet and then the spices start to creep up on you

It was nice to reconnect with this curry chain

How cute are these coin purses?!

After Satoshi received a little pocket money for his "treasures" we walked to Nezu Shrine to check out the azaleas.

Going through Aki-Oka, which Satoshi had not been through before, but I had had lunch at one of the shops there before

When we arrived near Nezu Shrine, the line to get into see the azaleas was way, way, way, outside!

So instead we admired the azaleas from the outside 

It was still nice to see, even though there were tons of people

I had been wanting to try this cream puff by Le Coussinet

And luckily we walked past just as the batch had come out of their brick oven

Apparently it takes 90 minutes to bake up

The last 10 minutes is when the outside crisps up

The custard cream is rich, vanilla-y and not too sweet

The "best before" time limit is 1 minute! (I had thought it was 10)

So you'll see everyone enjoying their cream puff around the outside area of the shop...

They won't allow you to buy them to take home, they must be eaten right there.

I'm glad we passed by when we did and would like to try their other sweets

It was nice exploring the tiny alleyways of Nezu

Seeing all the different flowers in bloom

It was a beautiful day, though I felt a little "crispy" again, the wind is still a little chilly especially in the shade, but it is only a matter of time before the "h" word starts and all we'll be talking about is the heat and “h”

Le Coussinet

2-34-24 Nezu

Bunkyo, Tokyo

*days closed and hours, check their social media sites

credit card accepted for purchases over 3000 yen

this and that

I love finding interesting buildings among the highrises...this was in Akihabara
 

This bar in Ikegami

This Italian restaurant in Ikegami

tried this new (to me) spam musubi, it also had taco meat in it

the spam was fried, no sauce on it

the taco meat was chicken based and it was quite spicy, would get it again

what would AI propose?...that's what Meiji did when it asked AI 

AI combined kinokonoyama & takenokonoko and named it kitakitanokonokonoyamazato

Try saying that 3 times fast!

Mixed review of this online...bits of the pretzel from kinokonoyama and bits of the cookie from takenokonoko

They also added puffed rice 

It is quite sweet but I like the different goodies in this

Though if no one told you, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it was these two candies combined into one

Someone also said it is similar to those Black Thunder candies

I’m glad I got to try this

saw this careworker, they often bring the bathtub to people who cannot take a bath on their own

I didn't know it was this large though, wonder how it fits into some apartments/houses

I did notice that they can attach a hose to it, so maybe they do it outdoors?!

Sad they will be tearing down this apartment nearby...loved the tile on the building

Love the light green colored leaves that come out during Spring

Bi Bim Bap style salad...was spicy 

Sriracha potato chips...mouth.on.fire

It is a little chilly today, but our temps are supposed to go up to 30C (86F)?!  tomorrow...eep!

Have a safe weekend.

lup cheong

Remember this lup cheong that I bought in Yokohama?

I tried one in fried rice for our breakfast this morning.

I'm happy to say that it tastes like the lup cheong I grew up with.

Now to look for some mochi rice and chicken stock so that I can make a dish that my mom used to make for us

char siu chicken

Tried this new (to me) recipe for Char Siu Chicken from Recipes Palace which I saw on FB

Serves 4

1.5 pounds boneless chicken thighs

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon chopped green onion for garnish

In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients except green onion until smooth

Add the chicken thighs to the marinade and coat well

Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or up to 4 hours for deeper flavor)

Preheat oven to 400F (200C) and lightly grease a baking dish

Arrange the marinated chicken in the dish and brush extra marinade over the top

Bake for 20 minutes, then flip the chicken and brush again with marinade

Continue baking for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and slightly caramelized

For extra charred edges, broil for 2 to 3 minutes at the end of cooking

Remove from the oven, let rest for 5 minutes then slice

Garnish with green onions

Enjoy!

NOTES: Since I had all the ingredients for the marinade, I just bought some chicken 

I made half the recipe and left out the paprika, because it didn’t sound right (to me) to put it in the marinade

I didn’t have green onions so left it out 

I baked this on parchment for 20 minutes, I flipped the chicken over at the halfway point (10 minutes)

I didn’t have skin to crisp up so didn’t put this under the broiler 

This tastes similar to the hoisin sauce chicken that I’ve made in the past

Since I had leftover marinade I heated it on the stove and plan to use it on something soon

Not sure I would make this again but glad I tried it

FYI: Last night, I used the leftover sauce (was only a little over a tablespoon) in a stir fry with pork and some veggies, this sauce tasted better with pork 

pps leftover chicken, a couple days later tasted more like char siu than hoisin sauce chicken