a foodie kind of weekend (sort of...)

On Saturday, Satoshi had to go to work, so I met my friend, Aya for lunch. 

The weather was awful, raining cats and dogs.

I was early, so I went into the Daimaru Department store to check out their sweets floor. 

They recently renovated it and brought in a lot of new shops. 

Two of the newer shops were Babbi from Italy and Debailleul from Belgium. 

This is what I bought: Babbi's Viennesi, which is a cremini (soft chocolate) wafer dipped in dark chocolate. Debailleul's orangette (orange peel dipped in dark chocolate), citronette (citron peel dipped in milk chocolate) and pamplemousse (grapefruit peel dipped in dark chocolate and then covered with powdered sugar).

Nearby Daimaru Shinsaibashi, there is a Western-style restaurant called Nishimoto. 

This restaurant has been in business since 1934. 

They have a bento (boxed lunch) called Tokubetsu (special) Youshoku (Western-style dishes) bento (boxed lunch). 

You can choose how many bento (dan) layers you want and the foods that go into the bento box. 

We chose the 2-layer bento that had 3 items in it. 

There was a hamburger patty with demi-glace sauce on it, 2 deep fried shrimps and an omelette, there was also some pasta and some potatoes, plus rice and consomme soup! 

Boy, were we full after that but it didn't stop us from having dessert! (he he he)

While having lunch, we talked about the bread shop that I wrote about the other day, Painduce. 

I told her that I wanted to go to buy some bread for our breakfast tomorrow and she said that it was a good thing that I wanted to go, because she needed to buy some bread too. 

So, we walked (in the rain) from Shinsaibashi to Hommachi (they are rather nearby each other, but we still got quite wet!). 

We got to the shop (it is rather small) and there were several people in there shopping. 

This is what I bought: from top in clockwise order--2 cranberry-walnut rolls with chocolate chips and orange peel in it, renkon (lotus root) pan (a cheese roll with chopped up lotus root in it) and a chocolate noisette (chocolate hazelnut danish with orange peel and cranberries in it). (All were great!)

From Hommachi we went to an area called Kitahama (again rather nearby) to a cafe called Gokan. 

Gokan means "5 senses" in Japanese.

This cafe is located in a historical building, so the interior is very old and the lighting is very antique looking. 

We both had the Gokan cake set. I chose a Kinomi (nuts) chocolate cake. 

The cake is made from Belgium and French chocolate. 

There are three kinds of mousse layered on top of the cake. 

And then it is topped with different kinds of nuts. 

There was also some yuzu (citron) sorbet which was a sort of kuchinaoshi (palate cleanser) and a piece of koocha (black tea) chiffon cake with raspberry and cream sauce. 

I also ordered the chef's choice of flavored tea, and was given caramel flavored black tea. 

Everything was so good. 

And the cafe had a really nice atmosphere (plus they don't allow smoking!! yeah!!)

While chatting over dessert, Aya had given me some things that her mother had bought for me while travelling in England.

Some Walker shortbread, Fortnum & Mason Earl Grey tea, a deck of card and a pocket mirror. They were such nice things. (Thank you!!)

After our foodie afternoon, I went to Umeda to wait for Satoshi to finish work so we could have some dinner. 

He called me at about 5 to say that there had been a bus accident in Cairns and some of his customers were hurt. 

He didn't know how long it would take to get things settled. 

So, I went to have some coffee while I waited for his phone call. 

It turned out that a tour bus was driving in the rain and when it tried to stop the bus fell sideways into a pasture. 

2 people were in serious condition, so it would take longer than he expected. 

I bought myself some dinner and made my way home. 

I also came down with a rather nasty migraine, so I went to sleep right away. 

Satoshi came home at about 1.

It's our 6th anniversary today, but Satoshi had to handle some of the arrangements for family members to go to Cairns, so he had to go into work. :( Kind of a crazy weekend, but accidents do happen...we have to be thankful that at least no one died in the accident.

Whew...this is a long post...one more thing: 

Here's a project that I finished in my beads crochet class. 

It's a brooch.

Have a great week everyone!!

Nishimoto
2-2-1 Shinsaibashisuji
Phone: 06-6211-3991
Lunch time: 11:30-15:00
Dinner time: 17:30-21:00
Closed on Mondays.

Gokan
2-1-1 Imahashi, Arai Building
Phone:06-4706-5160
Open 10:00-20:00