shibata crepe

Earlier in February, Shibata Crepe opened up in the space that Daimatsu used to be in.

Place your order, pay and then you will receive a beeper
 

When the beeper goes off, pick up your crepe(s)

I ordered the smoked chicken...800 yen (tax included) + 10 yen for the plastic bag, this has lots of smoked chicken, cheddar cheese, grainy mustard, lettuce & caesar salad dressing

This was so good! chicken in every bite!

TIP: eat this with the paper "cone" in the plastic bag because the dressing starts to drip while you are eating

I also ordered ghee & sugar...450 yen (tax included) + 10 yen for the plastic bag...so good!

The sugar kinda "crunches" while you are eating this

TIP: there is a lot of ghee in there and it will ooze towards your last bites...keep the paper "cone" in the plastic bag and eat near the sink

Be prepared to wait...the owner is making these to order

I'm glad I tried these and paid for those plastic bags because they helped keep things from getting messy while eating.

I look forward to trying other items on the menu, I'll be back

Shibata Crepe

5-11-22 Nishikamata

Closed Sundays & Holidays (and some Saturdays)

Hours: 11:00-16:00 (weekdays), 10:00-16:00 (Saturdays)

*closes earlier if they run out of batter

back to parla

After lunch we went toward the Palace where it started to rain, guess who never bring his umbrella?!

So Kat let him use her umbrella and waited under a covered area while he went to check out stuff for his next tour.

It was kinda muggy with the rain, and I was craving something cold

Our first choice had quite a line, so we went back to Parla for crepes and coffee instead

Satoshi chose their Crepe Tatin, baked apples, vanilla ice cream, honey & calvados. He enjoyed this with a hot coffee

I chose the Sicilian Emerald, pistachio, marscapone, griotte cherry (a type of sour cherry) and vanilla honey. This was so ono!

I love their iced coffee too.

Satoshi got to check out the areas he was concerned with and we got to try a new (to us) lunch place as well as revisit a favorite sweets place.

Hopefully the tour goes smoothly.

parla shot & crepe

Been looking for this shop every time I've been at Tokyo Station, finally stumbled upon it the other week and brought Satoshi with me to try.

They make each crepe to order, so be prepared to wait.
 

I ordered the bleu cheese and fig...1400 yen (tax included)

Loved this, it was more savory than sweet.

There was also bits of bleu cheese, semi dried fig pieces, candied pecans and not too sweet whipped cream

If you want to have a shot of whiskey with your crepe you can (additional cost depending on what you choose), we had coffee...450 yen (tax included) each

This shop is a stand and eat type…I'll be back.

Parla Shot & Crepe

Outside the ticket gates at JR Tokyo Station in Kurobei Yokocho B1

Hours: 10:00-21:30 (Mondays-Fridays), 10:00-20:30 (Saturdays & Sundays)

january the first two days

On the 1st, we did our usual things like hatsumode. No shops or restaurants were open around us, so we just laid low.

And had osechi for dinner. Nowadays we don't eat all the celebratory foods, we just purchase the ones we (Kat) like (s) to eat.

I also made tataki gobo , namasu and dashimaki egg in place of the datemaki type

I had wanted the one cup of Sawanoi sake, but the shop I went to only had this cute bottle, so that is what I got

On the 2nd, we went to see a Japanese movie, “Grand Maison Paris”

(We had seen the J-drama ("Grand Maison Tokyo") and was interested in seeing the movie)

A lot of the dialogue was in French with Japanese subtitles so I had to watch “by feel” because my French is bad and my Japanese reading is not so good

Keeping the French theme, for lunch, I wanted to check out Le Bretagne Creperie in Kagurazaka and were lucky they were open (most places were not)

They are part of the Breizh Cafe group and most of the wait staff speak French

Loved this, it made me feel like I was in France 

There was a one drink minimum and you each had to order one main dish,  desserts could be shared

Satoshi ordered the Galette Kagurazaka with white wine

Inside the galette was St Jacques crevettes (shrimp) poelees (pan fried), herbes sauce fruits de mer (herbed sauce for seafood), bechamel au crabe (crab bechamel), fromage (cheese) and creme fraiche

I ordered the Paysanne with red wine

This had potatoes, raclette cheese, sausage and a grainy mustard sauce

So cheesy and the edges of the galette were so crispy! love!

And then we ordered dessert to share...Dame Banane

Bananes poelees (Pan fried bananas), a la sauce Rhum caramel (rum caramel sauce), noix (nuts), raisins, chantilly and canelle (cinnamon)

So delicious, not too sweet, I usually don't like when bananas are pan fried, but this was delicious…total 9900 yen tax included)

A bit pricey for lunch but I hope to try other items on their menu.

After eating so much we walked from Kagurazaka down to Kanda to catch the train back home.

It was a nice day, glad we got out and about.

Le Bretagne Creperie

4-2 Kagurazaka

Shinjuku, Tokyo

Hours: 11:30-22:00 (Mondays-Fridays), 11:00-22:00 (Saturdays & Sundays)

inokashira park

Last year, we said farewell to Satoshi's friend, Gen.

Since then, his family moved out of his company housing and back to Kichijoji, which is where his wife, Kinuko is actually from.

Ever since we moved to Tokyo, Kinuko and I have been trying to coordinate getting together and finally were able to last Thursday.

From the Keio Kichijoji station, Inokashira Park is about an 8 minute walk.

The park is huge!

This was the first time I've seen canned bread and cat purses in a vending machine.

And super spicy snacks.

We had crepes at Cafe de Lievre while we chatted and watched all the doggies out for walks and rides in their strollers.

Even though this was the first time Kinuko and I had actually sat down to chat, I'm glad we were able to find some things in common.

Hopefully we'll be able to get together again more often.

Satoshi also wants me to bring him here, so we'll be back.

Inokashira Park
1-18-31 Gotenyama
Musashino, Tokyo

Cafe de Lievre
1-19-43 Gotenyama
Musashino, Tokyo
Phone: 0422.43.0015
Hours: 10:30-19:00

le beurre noisette

Last Friday, one of the largest shopping areas opened in the Umeda area of Osaka. Grand Front Osaka.

200-something shops and restaurants. As if we don't have a lot of places to shop and eat at in the area already.

Many shops and restaurants are "first timers" in Japan as well as "first timers" in the Kansai area.

Honolulu Coffee for one (first time in Kansai), as well as an Italian restaurant in Waikiki called Taormina (first time in Japan).

We also got a Dean & Deluca shop, which I mentioned in yesterday's post, and they also have a cafe.

Sunday, I had some time to spend while waiting for Satoshi to finish his German class, so I thought I could have some breakfast at Dean & Deluca (because I've done just that in Tokyo) and then maybe wander around the new shopping area afterwards....

Well, I got there at 9:30 (half an hour before opening) and found thousands of others with the same idea. In fact, there was a line to get in to the shopping areas!

10:00 came around and I found out I didn't need to be standing in line after all...boo!

I also found out that Dean & Deluca doesn't do morning service only lunch...boo!

Hungry and a bit peeved with the lack of organization...I found a creperie right across from Dean & Deluca.

I quickly grabbed a seat and ordered.

A salted butter caramel crepe...650 yen. And for an extra 500 yen, I could add the soup set which was a bowl of soup and a cup of coffee or tea.

I wasn't too sure about ordering soup with a sweet crepe, but looking at the menu a cappuccino by itself was 500 yen, so to get my money's worth, I chose the soup set and chose coffee.

The soup was a potato cream soup served warm.

After I finished my soup, it took awhile after that for my crepe to come out but the sweetness went nicely with the strong black coffee.

They also serve galette (the crepe's savory cousin). These actually looked quite hearty.

It was only afterwards, I found out that the main shop is actually in Paris.

I'll be back...probably after the crowds dwindle down a bit though.

Le Beurre Noisette
Grand Front Osaka, Umekita B1F
Phone: 06.6485.7795
Hours: 10:00-22:00

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