foodie sunday

I had been waiting for the "Sex and the City" movie to make its way to Japan. Finally, this past weekend it did. I was happy that it would be played in English with Japanese sub-titles and not voiced over in Japanese. I hate when it is voiced over, so much is lost in the translation. (I actually laughed out loud in some places by myself.) I loved the movie and was amazed that Satoshi sat through it with me. There is a movie that he wants to see so I'll sit through that with him soon.

Our Sunday started off with Satoshi going to vote. We recently had a mayoral and city council election. Whenever it is election time, I make sure that Satoshi goes to make his voice count. I once told him, "if you don't vote, you cannot grumble". From then on, he goes to vote. Did you know that they have to write the name of the person they are voting for on a piece of paper and I think the ballots are counted by hand...how ancient is that??

So, after voting, we went to Per Caffe Bianco to try their breakfast. Because they open at 9:00 (most places open later), it was a perfect place to have breakfast before catching the bus to the movie theatre.

We both decided on the english muffin breakfast (200 yen about US$2). This comes with one english muffin, a poached egg with marinara sauce, salad and fruit.

Of course, I cannot go to this cafe without ordering a cappuccino (500 yen about US$5)...

Today was an elephant. Actually I thought it looked more like an elephant after drinking some of it.

We then caught the bus to see the movie. When we got there, the movie that Satoshi wanted to see had already started and the next showing would be at 15:00, so we decided to get seats for "Sex and the City" instead. Since we had some time we wandered around Carrefour (a french megamart). I love wandering their food aisles.

After the movie, we caught the bus back and Satoshi took a little nap.

When Satoshi woke up, it was dinner time. We went through our mental list of places to eat at, but nothing stood out. I suggested we try the Hiroshima-yaki place we saw across the street from Grill Nana. Satoshi gave the "thumbs up" and we were off.

Pinieru was tiny, only 8 seats. As soon as you walked in, there was an "L" shaped griddle counter and the owner behind it. We ordered a Hiroshima style modan-yaki (700 yen about US$7) and a mixed seafood yakisoba (800 yen about US$8).

The yakisoba was the easiest to cook and came first. It had lots of noodles, seafood and cabbage and it came with two sunny side up eggs.

The Hiroshima modan yaki took longer to cook, but was the real deal, not like the one I had a few days ago. A crepe-like outside with cabbage, green onion, yakisoba noodles, pork layered underneath. (Hard to see from the photo because everyone was watching me take the photo and I wanted to hurry and snap it. I would have wanted to take a closer shot but was already embarassed.)

When it came time to put the sauce on top, the owner asked us if we wanted mayo on it. I didn't, but Satoshi did, so she put mayo on half the okonomiyaki.

We enjoyed the food there, but felt a bit out of place, most of the other customers sitting around the griddle knew each other and were chatting about this and that.

After dinner, we walked home for dessert.

Remember the blackout ice cream? Well, I told Lori in the comments that it tasted like rocky road without the almonds and marshmallows...Since that kept replaying in my head, I decided to actually put some almonds and marshmallows on top. Mmm...rocky road.

I hope you had a great weekend.

Pinieru
2-3-6 Iguchido
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.761.6464