foodie friday

This morning I put together my bottle to make vanilla. Awhile back, I read this post on Melissa's blog. It took me awhile to gather the vanilla pods, which I bought via Jaden's & Melissa's recommendation, and the vodka. I hope it works...I'll keep you posted.

With vanilla in gear, I went to Umeda to meet Tamakikat.

She had also heard about Kuidaore closing down and was interested in checking it out before it did.










But before we did anything, we stopped in for some lunch. I wanted to take her to this yoshoku-ya(western food restaurant), Nishimoto, but I got kind of lost. Then with some luck, we stumbled upon it. My friend, Aya had taken me here awhile back and I liked the food and atmosphere. Since Tamakikat wasn't too hungry, we both decided on the daily bento.

This came with your choice of main dish, an omlette, spaghetti, tsukemono, salad, soup and rice--all for 800 yen (about US $8). She chose the hamburger, I chose the teriyaki chicken.

After chatting and full stomachs, we decided to check out Kuidaore.

This little guy is "the symbol" of Osaka. Kuidaore means "eat until you drop"--the motto of Osaka.

The restaurant that owns this guy (his name is Kuidaore Taro) has decided to close after many, many years in business. People have offered money to buy him, he's THAT popular. There were so many people standing around him taking photos with him, you would have thought he was a real Hollywood star or something.

After getting our photos of him we walked to Doguyasuji to check out the plastic food samples. (Those plastic food samples are expensive!)

From Namba, we walked all the way back to Umeda--a good hour's walk, but the time passed nicely, the weather was quite overcast, as we chatted the whole way.

We stopped in at Comme Ca Ism's cafe and had some pie and coffee (sorry the photo was a blur). It was a great day (Thanks Tamakikat!)

I came home and was stuffed, but since I don't like to skip meals. I put together a tuna salad. I whizzed some carrots in the food processor, added some tuna salad, then topped it with some of my mom's bread & butter pickles.

If you notice on the bottle, there is a sign that says "don't eat this". If I didn't put this there, Satoshi would have eaten the whole bottle, in ONE sitting. Once, my grandma made some pickled veggies for him, gave him a bottle, like the one in the picture and the next day, he gave the bottle back to me, empty!

Hope your weekend is going well.

UPDATE:Comme Ca Cafe is now closed as of 11/2011

the depths of osaka (part 2)

Well, the rain has stopped and we have cloudy skies.

Yesterday, we met some friends that we hadn't seen in 5 years for a champagne lunch at Trader Vic's, a restaurant in the New Otani Osaka Hotel--they are closing the restaurant down at the end of the month. It was a nice, leisurely lunch and we had endless glasses of champagne and plates of food. Did you know that most people in Japan, don't take a normal lunch hour? A lot of them eat on the run or at their desks. Koichi commented that it had been a long time since he was able to chat and eat at such a leisurely pace.

After lunch, we asked Koichi where he wanted to go. Since he is actually from Tokyo and now works in Kyoto, he hadn't seen much of Osaka. He said he wanted to see the Festival Gate. We had never heard of it, but told him that we would show him Tsutenkaku tower instead. In December, Satoshi and I took his friend, Gen, to see the depths of Osaka, which I wrote about (here).

When we got to the Tsutenkaku, Koichi didn't want to go to the top, so, we kept on walking and it was a good thing that we did. We found the Festival Gate! The Festival Gate is actually a run down amusement park. The roller coaster is still running, but most of the shops have closed down and there are a few fast food places. It is also the home of the Osaka professional wrestling ring which still hold matches. Koichi is a big fan of wrestling, so he was more elated that we found the Festival Gate than with Tsutenkaku.

From the Ebisucho area, we then walked towards Shinsaibashi. There are many shopping arcades in this area. Here is one of them, down the center of the photo is really dark, but it is actually ALL people!

Here is the "symbol" of Osaka. His name is Kuidaore Taro. Kuidaore, as I understand it, means to "eat until you drop". He is dressed up to cheer for Japan in the FIFA World Cup of Soccer.

Satoshi is working today, hope you are having a nice foodie weekend!