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Went looking for Global knives with V & A yesterday.

According to A, the Global items only sold in Japan are only sold at Yoshikin in Roppongi.

After trying (many times) to figure out which way we were supposed to walk, we found the shop!

Then we went to check out Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Nakameguro.

There are 6 of these Reserve Roasteries in the world (Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York, Tokyo, Chicago, Mumbai)

Scan the QR code (on the building next door to the Roastery) to get a number on the waiting list.

Do not wait around the Roastery, wait for an email to let you know your number is called

Once your number is called, grab a seat if you plan to eat there.

(the waiting list number is only to get you into the building!)

If you see a tiny reserved sign on the table, it means that someone is already reserving their seat.

Then stand in line for drinks and food.

Alcohol beverages sold on the 3rd floor and also has some food items.

Tea type of beverages sold on the 2nd floor and also has some food items.

Sandwiches, coffee drinks (non-alcohol) and other items seemed to be sold on the 1st floor...

It would've been nice if instead of just a wait list to get into the building, they actually secured some seats for you too.

We were lucky to snag a table up on the 4th floor, it was a beautiful day, so it was nice to sit outside.

I tried their Arriviamo Espresso Tonic...1700 yen (tax included)

For the espresso tonic, you can choose the coffee you want them to use, I chose the Tokyo Roastery Microblend which supposedly had floral and citrus tones.

Super refreshing!

And their olive tomato foccacia...630 yen (tax included)

loved the crisp edges of the foccacia!

It was my first time checking out this Starbucks.

This shop has been crowded ever since it opened in 2019, so we've never been.

The food items are apparently made by Princi Bakery, an Italian bakery.

Not somewhere to go every day but a nice place to take guests from out of town.

Definitely be prepared to wait

Thanks for today V & A, sorry we got lost a couple of times, hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did.

Yoshikin

5-17-1 Roppongi, Axis Building 2F

Minato, Tokyo

Closed Sundays & Holidays

Hours: 11:00-19:00

Starbucks Reserve Roastery

2-19-23 Aobadai

Meguro, Tokyo

Open daily 7:00-22:00

mcgyver

I was wondering why the drawer in the kitchen would kinda sag whenever I pushed the drawer in.

Well, when I took the drawer out, I found out that the piece of wood attached to the “rail” for the drawer was not connected to anything! 

Just balancing on that piece of wood attached to the “wall”, so every time you push in the drawer it would waiver to the left or right…

AND the “wall” that the tiny piece of wood is attached to, moved when pressed upon too…sheesh

Since I am not sure what is behind the “wall”, I didn’t want to chance pounding any nails or putting screws through it…

So, instead I mcgyvered it with 2 thumbtacks, one on the left and one on the right…

At least now the “rail” doesn’t move and the drawer doesn’t feel like it is sagging.

blue and white (mostly)

Awhile back, Rowena mentioned that she wanted to see all the blue and white dishes I had...

Well, this is most of them...the rectangle ones are Delft patterns we got on our honeymoon.

Most of these are from the 100 yen shop.

Over the years, some are from MIL, from friends and from family.

Apparently the most blue and white dishes in circulation nowadays come from the Mino area of Gifu.

Most times when I buy, I buy 2, one for me, one for Satoshi...some still have their match, some do not.

The fish dish is from Iida's back when they were still around in Honolulu.

Same as the pasta dish which I got from Iida's before we moved to Japan in 2001.

I used to have 2 Snoopy dishes but one broke, so this is the only one left, which I got from the Sanrio store, many moons ago.

The white one with ume flowers are from my Mom's stash. It has metal in the design, so it isn't microwave friendly.

The reddish plate is from MIL and also has metal in the design, so it also isn't microwave friendly.

The Hello Kitty was also part of 2 but one broke, so this is the only one left.

Same goes for the dish that is "egg" shaped.

So that's the bulk of my "stash"...hope you enjoyed seeing it.

fish drawer (success)

You may or may not remember that I was going to try using the fish drawer.

Well, in that time, we moved to Tokyo and I now have a totally different fish drawer.

On top of that, there are no instructions on how to use it...boo!

So, thankful for the internet, including YouTube on how to grill fish using it. (You may not be able to view the YouTube video if there are country restrictions)

Anyway, according to the video, the guy instructs you to line the bottom of the drawer with foil.

Put the rack on.

Put another layer of foil onto the rack and poke holes in the foil.

Dry the fish well and put it on top of the foil layered rack.

Cook the fish.

Get your "fish plate" ready...

I need to figure out how long to cook the sanma (saury), and how to control the heat, but I think this came out pretty good for my first try.

Also, clean up was a cinch with the foil...all I needed to wash was the rack.

Glad I got over my fear of using the fish drawer and will use it more often.

things I brought back

Click on the photo to see some of the things I brought back from my mom's kitchen.

Sorry the video is kinda shaky and really short.

...an oil screen, oil guard, oshizushi (pressed sushi) mold, long oshizushi mold, grater and tofu drainer.

Can't wait to make ninjin shirishiri with the grater and trying to think of a tofu recipe to use the drainer for...

fish drawer

Since a lot of homes grill fish for meals in Japan, they have fish drawers located under the stove tops.

When we first moved to Japan, I was leery of using gas stoves because the heat is super hot and fast...now I love it because it is super hot and fast...

Anyway, I have never used "the drawer" that is in my stove because I have seen horror stories on tv on how hard it is to clean up afterwards.

Yesterday, I bought some sanma (pacific saury) and was debating how to cook it...

Since I've never used it, I have never cleaned it...so it is a dust drawer.

I have seen that you can cook pizza in this drawer as well as toast bread really quickly too.

Incentive for me to try using this, yeah?!

Love the cute fish near the dial you need to use to turn it on.

I chickend out in the end and used my oven.

But will definitely look for the instructions on how to use "the drawer" because I think by using gas, the skin of the fish will crisp up better (and probably cook faster too!).

Have a nice weekend!

thankful

The other day, I did something scary...

I intended to steam some broccoli.

So, I put the steamer basket into a pot, put the broccoli in and turned on the heat.

I put the timer on and started to put some dishes away.

The pot started to make a weird noise and when I looked at the flame it was green.

Emerald green.

I thought it was kinda weird because the flame is usually blue and whenever there is water on the pot, the flame turns orangey.

Then I realized I hadn't put any water into the pot.

I turned the heat off and put some water into the pot. Steam immediately rose up.

Did you know that the green flame is whenever copper is burning? I found out after.

I'm glad I didn't cause a fire. And thankful for whomever is watching over me. (Thank you!)

made in japan

Saw these drying blocks called "soil" at a zakka (knick-knack) shop and my friend, Kazumi gave some to me recently. (Thank you!)

Just break off a square like a chocolate bar and put it into a bottle of sugar, salt, whatever you want to keep dry.

They have various sizes to fit different containers.

Oh and I like that these are made in Japan too.

dokodemo cap

What do you do when you open a package that doesn't have a "zip" type top?

Put several rubber bands around it to close it? Put a clip on it?

Well, I recently found this gadget at the 100 yen shop. And it is called the "dokodemo cap".

You may or may not know about the dokodemo door from Doraemon, a Japanese cartoon. (It is a door that allows you to go anywhere.)

This cap allows you to put a cap pretty much anywhere. The gadget itself is 3 parts, one for the inside of the bag, one for the outside and then the cap itself. Best part is that it is made in Japan.

So far, I have only used it for my rice. I swear the Japanese have gadgets for everything.

my tiny kitchen

Our apartment is a 2LDK (That is how they refer to apartments in Japan: 2 rooms with a living, dining & kitchen). It is 60 square meters or 600 square feet.

Of the 2 rooms, 1 is where we sleep and the other is like a big walk-in closet (with our television in it).

Our bath is also where our washer is (can you believe in Japanese apartments that they only have cold water for the washers?! in the winter it is like washing your clothes in ice water...). The toilet is in a separate space, literally a "wash closet".

Thought you might like to see my kitchen. It's about 2 tatami mats big...that's about 35 square feet.

It is in the shape of an upside "U", but only because I made it that way.

Actually, my kitchen is connected to my living and dining area. You don't know how many times, Satoshi and I have moved furniture around to "change the atmosphere".

I think right now, we've got a pretty good layout.

Previously, I showed you the inside of my refrigerator here.

Our refrigerator can open from either the left or right side, which is pretty cool.

But the freezer is quite small, only two drawers.

On the side of my refrigerator, I have a magnetic notepad to write down things I have run out of that need to be replenished.

There is also a calendar and another magnet to hold recipes.

Next to the refrigerator is the sink.

The only time I use that drying basket over the sink is when my other drying containers (I have 2) are full of dishes.

Above the sink and stovetop are some cupboards, I keep items that I rarely use at the very top and some cups and spices in the more accessible areas. Usually if I can't reach something, I try to grab it with a pair of tongs, lazy yeah?!

Also, we don't have a garbage disposal, so I use a basket to gather peels and stuff then empty it out frequently so it won't smell.

I also use an old tofu container to collect the used coffee & tea, separate from the peels so that it won't go down the drain.

Below the sink, is where I keep sugar, honey, vanilla extract on one side.

And cleaning stuff on the other side.

This is my really small counter. See it is only about the size of a folder paper (8" x 11"). Next to it is the stovetop.

I'm lucky because I have 3 burners.

Right below the stovetop is a "drawer" to grill fish, but I've never used it because I really don't want to clean it after using it.

Some gadgets that can't fit into my gadget drawer are hanging along the wall there.

Below the fish grilling drawer, is a cupboard where I keep cooking and baking pans.

I also keep extra saran wrap and ziploc bags there too.

There is also a really skinny cupboard to the left of that, but only trays fit in there...

At the bottom of the "U" is where the oven & rice cooker are.

There are also spices there too.

To the left of that is where I keep most of our dishes, most of which I bought at the 100 yen store.

I made the cover for the rack so that the dishes won't get too dusty.

To the left of the dishes is a rack where I dry dishes (in 2 containers) because they can't stay on the "counter" to dry.

My pantry is also on this rack. I have most items in baskets so that I can pull them out like drawers.

(After I drew that rack in my journal back in 2010, I revised what items are there.) This rack also has a cover but this one I purchased with the rack.

So that's my kitchen, everything has its place.

clean (part 2)

So, after cleaning out the clutter in my utensil drawer, I wondered what to do about my gadget drawer.

While trying to come up with a solution, I cleared out the gadgets that I rarely use. I didn't throw them out (cause you never know when you may need them), just took them out of the drawer and put them into a storage basket that I have in the kitchen.

With the gadgets I had left, I used the "cardboard method" of make a divider. And lined each area with non-skid cupboard liner.

Then one day, I took a loaf cake out of the freezer that my host-sister gave us. The cake was packed inside of this wooden "tin" made by Panibois.

Apparently with a loaf paper, you can bake in these, neat!

Not wanting to throw it out, I washed it and re-used it in my gadget drawer.

Now the gadget drawer is clean.

p.s. the loaf cake was a citron cake, very good. (thank you!)

clean

Ever since we moved here nearly 10 years ago, I've been trying to keep this utensil drawer organized.

Everything I tried just didn't fit nicely in this drawer...plastic dividers, boxes...the drawer is quite shallow and a little narrow.

So as I was daydreaming in the furo (bath) the other night, I came up with a way to organize my drawer...make my own dividers.

I used some cardboard and tape and folded it to fit the drawer and the space I needed for the different utensils.

Then I cut strips of non-skid cupboard liners and voila, clean and organized (I do have more silverware that isn't in the drawer at the moment, but I'm sure it will all fit).

Don't know why I hadn't thought of this earlier, now if I can only figure out how to organize my gadget drawer...if I think of a way, I'll be sure to share.