foodie friday in kobe

As I said in my post yesterday, our building needed to have some work done so they had told us that the water would be off from 9 until 3. This was a great chance for me to go holo-holo (galavanting) in Kobe. Unfortunately, the weather was forecast for rain. Luckily when I left the house though, it was just a slight drizzle which ended up with the day being mostly cloudy.

My first stop was IKEA (the Japanese pronounce it ee-kay-ah, is this right?) Anyway it was my first time, and wow! it was furniture/interior heaven! I was surprised to see a lot of people there eating breakfast (from 9:30-11:00 they have a 99 yen breakfast! cheap!) I walked the whole store, I oohed and aahed at all the different displays, wishing I had an island in my kitchen (or that my kitchen were big enough to have one...) The one thing that was a little disappointing was that a LOT of items were made in China, that kind of turned me off, but I guess that is what keeps their prices really low...then as I was exiting the store I noticed that they had a free shuttle back to Sannomiya (I didn't know about this when I came over, I had taken the Portliner)...I jumped on and it dropped everyone off above the Sannomiya train stations...this was good because I was headed in this direction anyway.

I checked out an English tea shop, but was disappointed by their teas (I won't tell you their name), the tea's aroma just didn't jump out to me, it actually smelt a bit stale. So, I went onto the next shop on my list and walked to Caffarel, an Italian confection maker. They had many different candies made from milk chocolate, dark chocolate and giandjua (hazelnut) chocolate. They also had some baked goods as well as an eat-in area where you could have some cake. There were some other customers in the store and they were buying up a storm! Most of their candies run from 100 yen (about US$1) to 200 yen (about US$2). I bought some and then walked down Tor Road to my next stop, BAL.

On the 2nd floor of BAL is Mariage Frères, a French tea shop. I love their Marco Polo tea but was interested in picking up their chocolates and incense. They actually have several flavors of chocolates using different teas, but I really wanted to try the Earl Grey Imperial. This was actually the most expensive part of my adventure. The chocolates were 3360 yen (about US$36) for 16 pieces and the incense 1575 yen (about US$15) for 20 sticks. I didn't really want 16 pieces, I mean what if I didn't like it?? But I bought it and the "Fall in Love" incense--very flowery and a little fruity...nice.

I then headed towards the ocean to a little shop called Mont Plus. It was about noon and I was hoping to have lunch and dessert, but this shop only served sweets, so I picked up some chocolate guimauve (marshmallows) 4 for 250 yen about US$2.50 and caramels 160 yen each about US$1.60 each. I chose the salted caramel and the chocolate caramel. Then I headed to Daimaru via Chinatown. Boy, was this a mistake, there were several school groups which made the walkways crowded and noisy.
Daimaru's cafe, Caffera, was the first cafe at which I had cappuccino art. (This was actually several years ago--pre-blog.) I ordered a proscuitto sandwich (330 yen about US$3.30) and a cappuccino (600 yen about US$6). The waiter warned me that the sandwich was small....small was an understatement, it was gone in two bites, what a waste of money (but I was warned). If you go to this cafe, just go for the coffee and people watching.

I was still feeling hungry after all that walking, so I walked over past the International Hall to a little bakery and cafe, Comme Chinois. Their cafe, Honest Cafe is located at the back of the store and there aren't too many seats, so if you want to go for lunch or dessert, go early or take out. Since I'd already had a "sandwich" and cappuccino, I chose the salad and bread combination--892 yen (about US$8.92). This came with a large basket of assorted breads (about 8 pieces) and a large salad. The salad had grilled bartlett pears, pumpkin, mushrooms and lots of almonds. It was really delicious and hit the spot. The breads were mostly hard type, some had nuts, some had veggies in it, some had cheese...chewy and delicious. On top of that, they wrapped up the leftover bread for me to take home. (Not many stores do this for you in Japan)
Since Satoshi had a party with the baseball alumni of the Tokyo Big 6 (the Ivy League schools in the Tokyo area), he didn't need dinner.

Since he didn't need dinner, I didn't want to cook for myself, so I went to SOGO and wandered their food floor. I noticed they were having a food fair on the events floor so I went up to the 9th floor. They had my favorite chicken wings, Furaibo. The line was long as they were frying them up to order...I could have eaten them right then and there, the aroma was so tempting.

Dessert was a chocolate guimauve--light and chocolatey. A hazelnut chocolate--loved all those whole hazelnuts. And a taste of the Mariage Frères chocolates...OMG (goodness) this was worth the price. The Earl Grey fragrance jumps out as soon as you open the box. The dark chocolate around the ganache matches perfectly and the earl grey tea shines...

You know how we say in English "my feet are screaming" when they are sore? Well, the Japanese say "ashi ga waratte iru" or their feet are laughing...mine aren't, they are definitely screaming.

Still, it was a great day and I was lucky, the rain came down as soon as I walked in the door.

Oh, one of Satoshi's baseball team mates came in from Gifu (or was it Gunma?) for the party, so he will spend the night with us. It is our first time having him over, I wonder what I should feed him for breakfast...

Also, my cousin is here for work, but will visit us for a few days next week.

Then, we are off to somewhere warm.

Hope you have a great week.

IKEA
Port Island
Open 10:00-22:00
Phone: 078.304.7000

Caffarel
3-7-29 Yamamoto
Phone: 078.262.7850
Closed Wednesdays

Mariage Frères-BAL
3-6-1 Sannomiya-cho, 2F
Phone: 078.391.6969

Daimaru-Caffera
40 Akashi-machi, 1F
Phone: 078.331.8121

Comme Chinois
7-1-15 Goko-dori, Sannomiya Building South Building B1
Phone: 078.242.1502
Open 9:00-21:00, Closed on Wednesdays
Lunch from 11:30-14:00