christmas dinner

Today was a National Holiday, Tennotanjoobi (The Emperor's Birthday). Satoshi had the day off so we went to our favorite cafe for breakfast. It took us a little longer to get there than usual because most of the streets had snow that had melted and re-froze...which meant that the roads were VERY icy and slippery.

After breakfast, we tried to walk in areas that the sun was hitting, and made our way back.

Satoshi's sempai (senior co-worker) is active in a rakugo club. Rakugo is a traditional form of telling comical stories. We saw his performance about three years ago. Today, they had a performance in Namba (the southern part of Osaka). I couldn't really understand what was going on because the storytellers spoke very fast and in Kansai-dialect (plus, I kind of...shh...fell asleep...)

After the rakugo performance, we went to Toyonaka for our Christmas dinner. Toyonaka is 2 stations away from our station, Ishibashi.

The restaurant we ate at was Noix de Coco. It is rather casual french restaurant.
We had the prix fixe menu (a complete meal offered at a fixed price) in Japanese this is called "set-menu".

The aperitif was a glass of Dom Perignon champagne.

The next course was the appetizer tara shirako (codfish roe) with Shimonita (an area in Gunma) leek flan and zuwaigani (snow crab) tartare.

Next was choked or strangled wild duck (yipes!!) with foie gras in a zingara sauce (demi-glace sauce made with tomato & Madeira wine).

The next course was baked oysters with a red bell pepper sauce and a spinach sauce. Next came the sea urchin and yurinone (lily bulb) egg custard in a cup (chawan mushi).

Getting full yet? The next course was Homard lobster bouillabaisse....

The next course was Satsuma (Kagoshima area) beef filet simmered in red wine. And the last course (finally!!) was a plate of assorted desserts. I only took a picture of this course because I was running out of memory space....The dessert in the wine glass was sweet potato pudding, the orange one was persimmon sorbet, the one in the egg cup was strawberries in compote, and the one with the "xmas" on it was a gateau chocolat with green tea and banana sauce....whew!!

I think I've eaten enough this week to last me a couple of months...unfortunately, we have a get-together on Christmas day (yipes!!). Ever since we came to Japan, we usually get together with two of Satoshi's co-workers and their families for Christmas.

To all of our family and friends that have sent us Holiday greetings, thank you very much for remembering us!! We really appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness!!

Merry Christmas!!

Noix de Coco (UPDATE:2016 they have moved from this location)
1-11-1 Honmachi, Honmachi Building #102
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6854.7654