foodie sort-of saturday

The last weekend of February, the cold came back.

That Saturday evening, Satoshi went to Kyoto to meet up with some of his high school baseball teammates for a reunion of sorts.

Since he would be staying over at his mom's after the gathering, we went to pick up some Japanese treats for her from Kamuro.

Then a couple of streets down from Kamuro, we went to Minoh Beer.

I've been wanting to check out their brewery and to pick up some of their W-IPA (double India Pale Ale) to try. This beer uses 2.5 times the hops and malt to make a strong ale.

The brewery is a small warehouse and is run by 3 sisters who brew, bottle and even paste the labels onto the bottles by hand.

I didn't realize how close this place was to Yamaya. Next time, I go to Yamaya, I'll definitely try to stop by here too.

And a couple of doors down from the brewery is Mimiu, a fancy udon shop. This shop has the patent to the word "udonsuki" which is a dish where udon (wheat noodles) is simmered in a hot pot with seafood broth and vegetables. Apparently the parent company originated in Osaka over 200 years old and has shops around Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya.

Satoshi had their kayaku gohan set 1600 yen (about US$16) and I had their agemochi udon 1150 yen (about US$11.50). Kayaku gohan is also known as Gomoku gohan, rice cooked in a shoyu flavored sauce with vegetables and aburage (fried tofu). Agemochi is a fried rice cake.

It was my first time eating at Mimiu, I enjoyed their udon, not a place I would to go everyday for udon, but still delicious.

It was great to explore more of Minoo's foodie offerings.

Kamuro
3-9-13 Makiochi
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.725.9622
Closed on Wednesdays

Minoh Beer (UPDATE: 2015 they moved a couple of doors down to a larger location called Minoh Beer Warehouse, this address is only their brewery now)
3-19-11 Makiochi
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.725.7234
Hours: 10:00-18:00, Closed Thursdays

Mimiu
1-1-19 Ina
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.720.5688
Closed 2nd Tuesday

p.s. UPDATE: Not knowing what foods would be good with the W-IPA, I googled around and found that most match with spicy foods. I had envisioned something Mexican, but since I realized we had some kim chee in the refridge that needed eating, we tried the W-IPA the other night with kim chee gyoza and leftover Indian curry. It went nicely with both of these foods. The beer had kick (9% alchohol), hoppy with hints of fruit. I liked it.