happy birthday

Saturday was Satoshi's birthday.

I am not too sure when we had the conversation about mentaiko (spicy pollack roe), but he had mentioned that even if the nutritionist said it was "bad for him", he wanted to eat some with rice.

So, I figured, for his birthday...why not?!

Little did I realize that most vendors are putting sorbitol in their mentaiko...WT?!

Wasn't it a salty, savory food?

Why was it necessary for artificial sweeteners?!

I found a box...kinda pricey at 1166 yen (tax included).

It is made in Japan, the roe also comes from Hokkaido. (most are from America or Russia)

AND they don't use any red food coloring (or artificial sweetners).

Satoshi enjoyed this thoroughly...even licking the plate.

Happy Birthday...may 2017 be healthy & happy...love you.

yamaya

I heard about this place, Yamaya, and was interested in having Satoshi try this place out.

He ordered the gyusuji nikomi (simmered beef scraps)...980 yen this comes with a soft boiled egg, a salad, a big bowl of rice and miso soup.

The meat wasn't the best of cuts so it was simmered for a long time and you can tell because it was so tender and flavorful.

I ordered the buta shogayaki (pork ginger)...980 yen.

This came with a salad, lots of shredded cabbage, miso soup and a big bowl of rice.

The pork was tender and very flavorful too.

For your greens, use the mentaiko (spicy pollack roe) dressing. I thought it would be "fishy" tasting but there was a lot of citrus in there and it was delicious.

The reason why I wanted Satoshi to try this place is because he loves mentaiko.

They have a bowl of mentaiko and a bowl of takana tsukemono (pickled chinese mustard cabbage) in the middle of the table, which you can take as much as you want to eat with your rice.

If you want seconds of rice you can have more rice too...Satoshi had seconds (plus half of my rice and half of my shredded cabbage (I must not be feeding him at home...eep!))

This place doesn't have many seats, so you have to share your table with others, this is called aiseki (eye-say-key) in Japanese.

We'll be back.

Yamaya
5-1 Kakuda-cho, Umeda Rakutenchi Bldg 1F
Kita, Osaka
Phone: 06.6316.0888
Lunch: 11:00-14:00, Dinner: 17:00-23:00

odds & ends

Just cleaning out my photos....

A.C. Perch tea. I saw this on QVC Japan and found it at Dean & Deluca Japan. This one is called Copacabana. It is very fruity and has a nice aroma.

A new product from Meiji, Hokkaido choco-potato. Potato sticks covered with milk chocolate. I was hoping the sticks would be bigger and the chocolate darker...I'm going to try making this on my own (later though).

When you go to bars or some restaurants in Japan, you may see bottles with tags on them, like this. They call this "bottle keep"--you pay the bar to hold your bottle of booze. In some restaurants recently, they have "mayonnaise keep"--where they keep your bottle of mayo and "chopstick keep"--where they keep your pair of chopsticks. I'm not sure if this is a Japanese thing or if other cultures do this too.

Bamboo curry spoons from my friend, Kazumi. She got them from a bamboo craft center in Kobe. (Thank you!)

Mentaiko (salted pollack eggs with chili). Satoshi loves this, but I can't bring myself to eating this, it reminds me of tongues. Though I will eat beef tongue...weird? maybe.

Natto (fermented soy beans) I don't eat this either, mainly because it smells. Another of Satoshi's favorites.

Some of our cherry tomatoes. We were lucky to get some even with the cold. I brought the plant into the house and it gave us some tart but delicious tomatoes.

The tuna cans don't have the normal pull tops here. They have been replaced by this thin, but sturdy foil-like top. I'd still be careful though, you probably could still cut yourself on the edges of the foil.

Anyway, I'm off to somewhere warm in a couple of days....tell you about it soon.