reconnect

Reconnected with J on Thursday.

When we first moved to Japan back in 2001 (pre-blog), J and her family also lived in the same company housing complex as we did.

Over the years, we've kept in touch through new years cards.

There was lots to catch up on since we hadn't seen each other since 2001.

Lunch was pepperoni pizza, bolognese pasta and house green salad at CPK and dessert at Eggs'n Things...my first time eating at these places in Japan.

Monster whipped cream topping on the pancakes! (and very lightly sweetened!)

The memory I have of eating at Eggs'n Things at their very first location (and at the time only location) on Kalakaua one Sunday morning has no whipped cream whatsoever...

(I think Japan has 10+ locations in various prefectures.)

Chocolate sauce on the side to drizzle and a little coconut syrup (there was also maple syrup & guava syrup that you could use too)...so good!

It was nice catching up and reconnecting, I hope we can do it again soon.

CPK (California Pizza Kitchen)
Lazona Kawasaki 4F
Kawasaki, Kanagawa

Eggs'n Things
Lazona Kawasaki 4F
Kawasaki, Kanagawa

p.s. Golden Week (GW) starts today, we'll be off the grid for the most part (though I may update on Instagram)...I'll update here after GW ends on May 7...be well everyone!

civitas

Next to the shop that fixes our shoes is Civitas.

From what I can gather, they are known for their hot cakes/pancakes.

Since it was close to lunchtime, I didn't just want something sweet, so I ordered their "snack frank" plate.

Boy, was I surprised at the volume of this "snack".

4 sausages, 2 rather large pancakes...salad and fruit...wow.

I enjoyed these pancakes, crisp on the edges and fluffy in the center.

I'll be back.

Civitas
Tokyu Plaza 4F
Kamata, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3733.5775
Hours: 10:00-21:00
Closed when Tokyu Plaza is

takakuramachi coffee

We found a nice coffee shop called Takakuramachi Coffee and shared their fluffy pancakes served with fruits.

Like eating air!

Satoshi likes that they play Beatles' music.

We want to try their lunch, so we'll be back.

Takakuramachi Coffee
1-22-16 Ooi
Shinagawa, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6429.9936
Hours: 7:00-23:00

koa pancake house & liliha bakery

BFF had to get a blood test done, so we went bright and early then hit Koa Pancake House afterwards for breakfast...corned beef hash, over easy eggs and a short stack (3) all for $6.95 (plus tax)...cheap eats!

Loved how crisp the corned beef hash was and the pancakes were fluffy!

We then went on a little errand in town and hit Liliha Bakery on the way home.

Went in for cocoa puffs but came out with a poi doughnut and maple bacon doughnut.

I had seen a lot of hype about these poi doughnuts online.

They are good AND not greasy!

The maple bacon doughnut was more like a brioche dough with thick maple glaze and bacon...so good!

Early morning foodie adventure...Thanks W!

pancakes & waffles bld

Over the weekend, we went to breakfast at Pancakes & Waffles BLD. (BLD stands for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

I've been to their Kalihi shop in the past.

This was our first time trying the one that opened rather recently in Waimalu.

Satoshi went with their waffle eggs benedict, instead of the english muffin, they put the eggs benedict on top of mini waffles.

I ordered the bacon waffle. 4 pieces of bacon baked into the waffle...this was just as I remembered it.

My brother tried their Honey Butter Chicken & Waffles. The coating on the chicken tasted like mochiko chicken...yum! He thought it was too salty though.

FYI: if you order chicken be prepared to wait about 20 minutes or so for it to come out...

I'm glad they opened this shop closer to where we are, I'll be back!

Pancakes & Waffles BLD
Waimalu Plaza Shopping Center
98-1277 Kaahumanu Street
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone:808.200.7556
Open everyday 6:30-21:00

foodie friday

Friday started off with breakfast at Koa Pancake in Aiea.

Loco moco for Satoshi and a short stack of banana pancakes for me. Their coffee is awful...I know, I'm a coffee snob...

After breakfast, we did a few chores at home then visited with Dad and Grandma.

Lunch was from Poke Stop inside of Hawaii's Favorite Kitchens...the guy making the bowls was such a grouch...at least the lady at the register was nice...

Satoshi had their two choice with Garlic Edamame Ahi Poke and their Furikake Salmon Poke. I chose the mini with their Furikake Ahi Poke.

We both chose sushi rice but learned our lesson (too sweet) and will order just white rice next time.

We took our lunch to Kaimana Beach and were treated to free parking by the parking meter angels...there was a little over an hour on the meter! (Thank you!)

Then after lunch, we fought the gross back-up on Kapahulu due to road construction and picked up some items for dinner from Ono Seafoods.

On the way home, we checked out Satoshi's favorite lookout, Puu Ualakaa and then hit Champion Malasadas for a little snack.

Dinner was the lomi ahi and sashimi that we picked up from Ono Seafoods. It was our first time here but we liked their selection.

We also tried Lanikai Brewing's Pillbox Porter. I liked this one because there were nice notes of coffee and chocolate.

Another day of lots of running around, lots of food and lots of sun.

Ono Seafood
747 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone:808.732.4806

copycat

The other morning, I tried the copycat recipe for Boots & Kimo's Macadamia Nut Sauce. Boots & Kimo's is an eatery in Hawaii which I've written about here.

Yesterday was a holiday, I didn't want to feel frazzled in the kitchen, so I made the pancakes Sunday night and then made the sauce just before breakfast Monday morning.

Boots & Kimo Copycat Macadamia Nut Sauce from the internet 

1 cup macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup each whole milk and heavy (whipping) cream (OR 2 cups half & half)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoons lemon juice

Finely grind nuts in food processor. Dry cook in saucepan over medium-high for 5 minutes, until fragrant.

Lower heat to medium. Add butter; stir until melted. Stir in flour cook 1 minute.

SLOWLY add milk and heavy cream (or half & half), CONSTANTLY whisking. Add sugar, salt, lemon juice and vanilla. Bring just to a boil (or almost to a boil, be careful) and then reduce heat just a little so that it's not boiling. Cook 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring CONSTANTLY. Serve warm.

NOTES: First off, I cut this recipe to 1/4 (we don't need to be eating that much sauce).
I roasted the nuts in a 150C (300F) oven for 10 minutes, then chopped them by hand, so the nuts were chunky not fine.
I used full cream and skim milk, leaving out the salt and lemon juice.
I did this all on low heat because I was afraid of the sauce boiling, so it took awhile before thickening.
Keep your eye on this, and keep stirring.
To keep the nuts crunchy, I just sprinkled some on before serving.

This was delicious! Satoshi loved it too. I'm definitely making this again.

foodie thursday in minoo

I told you I met up with Fiona to check out Sanshikisaido.

I didn't get a chance to talk to about the food part of our day.

From Sanshikisaido, we walked to Onohara and had lunch at Crocchetta...a shop that makes croquettes.

They also had all sorts of bentos and side dishes to choose from.

Here is the bento I had...500 yen Not bad considering there were two oysters on the kamameshi (left side).

After lunch we went to Fiona's place and chatted until her husband, WR, came home.

The three of us then went to a cafe, Doux Doux, in her neighborhood that makes really fluffy pancakes....780 yen (with coffee)

It was a great day, lots of walking, lots of talking and lots of eating.

Thanks for a great day Fiona (and WR)!

Crocchetta
6-1-16 Onohara-nishi
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.728.8400
Closed Tuesdays, Hours: 10:00-20:00

Doux Doux
3-57-18 Yamada-nishi
Suita, Osaka
Phone: 06.6878.2522
Closed Mondays, Hours: 11:00-18:30

"pain to ippiki"

I first heard about this book from Dennis' post.

"Pain (the french word for bread) to Ippiki (the Japanese word for "one animal")" is a lovely book filled with photos and some narration about each photo.

At first I thought the cover was an illustration, but it is an actual photo.

Most of the photos are of the author, Kuwabara Natsuko's breakfasts and her dog, Kipple.

There are also some recipes at the back of the book for some of the foods that appear in this book.

I recently tried the one for french toast. Instead of using baguette, I used two slices of sesame bread.

Another recipe I tried was the one for black sesame pancakes.

Black Sesame Pancakes adapted from "Pain to Ippiki" : makes 9 small pancakes
100 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
10 grams ground black sesame
60 mililiters plain yogurt
50 mililiters milk
20 grams sugar

Mix everything together.
On medium-low heat, pour a serving spoon size of batter into a non-stick pan.
Cook about 1 minute 30 seconds on each side.
Serve with butter and maple syrup.

NOTES: The original recipe called for black sesame paste, but I used ground sesame instead. It also called for cream but I used plain yogurt instead. The recipe also called for salt and some oil but I left those ingredients out.

I also made my pancakes smaller so I came out with 9 whereas the original recipe only makes 5. I really liked this sesame version.

I hope to try more of the recipes.

Thanks again Dennis for telling me about this book.

foodie friday

Friday I met up with Tamakikat.

She wanted to meet up in Osaka but not in Umeda. So I checked online to see what was open.

Since some companies' holidays were up to the 3rd, some shops were open from the 4th, in some other cases though, others decided to take a longer break and wouldn't be starting up until the 5th or even the 7th.

Some of the cafes I wanted to take her to weren't starting up until the 5th, so it made things a bit difficult but in the end we tried Butter.

Pancakes are all the rage now for some reason, if only crispy bacon would hit...

You should know that in Japan, french toast and pancakes are considered desserts and not things for breakfast, though the trend is slowly changing...slowly.

Anyway, since it was lunchtime, we both tried something savory.

I went with the bacon, egg and basil sausage pancakes while she went with the lasagna pancakes.

I enjoyed my dish the pancakes were slightly sweet though I wish the bacon were crispy and I wish I could've specified how I wanted my egg done, still check out the size of that yolk, huge!

I think Tamakikat enjoyed her dish even though she said it looked nothing like the picture in their menu.

After lunch we walked a bit and went into Gokan. I've been here previously but apparently she'd never been.

I tried their tarte tatin, this came with a piece madeleine with kuromame (sweet black beans) and a yuzu granita (palate cleanser).

Tamakikat didn't have anything for dessert just some flavored tea.

I enjoyed the tarte tatin, it had lots of apple. I also enjoyed the granita and madeleine.

It was a very icy day with some flurries here and there, but it was nice to get out and about. Thanks for a great day, Tamakikat!

Butter (UPDATE: 2017 this shop no longer at this location)
3-5-11 Dosho-machi OME Bldg 1F
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6226.4411
Hours: 8:00-24:00
Breakfast 8:00-11:00 (on weekends only)
Lunch: 11:30-15:00 (on weekdays only)

june berry "jelly"

The other day I went over to my friend, Kazumi's house.

She recently renovated her kitchen and invited me over for lunch.

In her front yard, I noticed a june berry tree, which is also known as amelanchier.

I had learned about june berries when I went to buy some cake for Satoshi's birthday.

The patissier had some cuttings of this plant near the register and it had lots of berries on them. I asked him what kind of berry it was and he explained that it was a june berry.

So, when I went over to Kazumi's and saw the berries I asked her if they were june berries.

She said the were and went to pick some. They were a little tart, look like a blueberry and had tiny seeds like raspberries.

When the berries are ripe, they turn a dark purple.

After a delicious lunch of tuna and onion cake salé, lox and bagels and some tossed salad, she let me pick about half a pound of these berries.

I washed them then cooked them in some water for 15 minutes.

Then I strained the juice out in some cheesecloth.

After straining, I ended up with 1.75 cups of juice to which I added 1.75 cups of sugar and cooked it for about half and hour (or maybe it was longer).

I ended up with three half-cup jars of "jelly".

The taste sort of reminds me of blueberry...The next morning, I checked on it, but it didn't gel so well because I didn't add any pectin and didn't have any lemons to add some lemon juice.

So instead of jelly, it is a very thick fruit sauce.

This is great on yogurt and I'm almost certain it is great on pancakes too...

Yup, they were good on pancakes, I just need to tweak my pancake recipe and cut back some sugar in that to balance everything out.

Oh and I gave Kazumi two of the three bottles, I hope she liked it...(Thank you!)

pancakes & waffles

When I made plans to meet up with my friend, Len, we intended to try Liliha Bakery.

Then I saw something on FB (Facebook) which mentioned them being closed on Mondays...so I contacted him and we decided to check out Pancakes and Waffles in Kapalama instead.

I had seen posts on the place www.onokinegrindz.net (new site no longer up) and here...their photos will make you drool!

We got there a little after 12:30 and the parking was crazy as it was peak lunch hour. Luckily we circled once and were able to find a stall.

The menu has so many choices that you may have a hard time deciding...we did!

I chose the bacon waffles...4 crispy pieces of bacon baked into a waffle. How brilliant is that?!

Len chose their Strawberries and Cream waffle, this comes with a lot of whipped cream and strawberry sauce topping.

Each plate comes with some whipped butter. There is maple syrup and other condiments on the table.

After we ate everything on our plates we were full! It was a great place, the food comes out rather quickly and we were able to find seats without having to wait.

Thanks for a great lunch Len!

Pancakes & Waffles (City Square Shopping Center)
1284 Kalani Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.847.7770
Open: 6:30-14:00

greedy piglet pancakes

My Flickr friend, Greedy Piglet, uploaded a very appetizing photo recently. She was also very kind to give her recipe for those delicious pancakes.

I tried the recipe but instead of adding blueberries to the batter, I garnished them with banana & some defrosted strawberry & blueberries. I also used olive oil instead of the butter, and also added a strip of bacon.

mmm.

p.s. her recipe makes about 7, 3-inch sized pancakes.

p.p.s. The recipe just in case it cannot be accessed:
Flour ... 100g
Sugar ... 20~30g
Baking-powder ... 5g
Egg ... 1 *@ room temperature
Milk ... 70g *@ room temperature
Butter ...10~20g *dissolve it by putting the bowl in hot water, or by microwave.

1, Mix & sift flour, baking-powder and sugar. Put them in a bowl (A).
2, Mix an egg, milk and melted butter (B).
3, Add (B) onto (A), mix them with a whipper. *add blueberries
4, Cook it in a frying-pan a.s.a.p.

more recipes from ellie

So I've been trying various recipes from Ellie Krieger's "The Food You Crave", a recent trial was her Pasta Puttanesca, it was easy to put together.

I couldn't find arugula so I put in some sliced red leaf lettuce. Also, I roasted the garlic that needed to go into the sauce.

Her recipe uses whole wheat pasta, which I was happy to find at the gourmet supermarket. This was really flavorful and delicious.

On another night for dinner, I tried her Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic and White Beans. This was good and FAST! The thing that took the longest was roasting the tomatoes and garlic. I used whole wheat penne and dried basil since I didn't have fresh. The flavors are light and refreshing. The beans give it a little creaminess.

I served the pasta with some fresh peas, pancetta, onions and eringi sauteed in olive oil and pepper.

Now while I would like to say that all of Ellie's recipes are great, I found one that wasn't...the whole wheat pancakes. She says after putting the batter together, "the batter will be lumpy". Um, yeah and there will also be lumps of flour when the pancakes are cooked...blah. Sorry Ellie, but the next time I make this, there will be no lumps.

Okay, so far that one recipe was a bad one, but only because of the lumps. I'm happy with the majority of the ones I have tried. They are easy and best of all you know they are healthy. I'm still inspired to try more recipes from this book.

the past couple of days

After seeing Kirk's post on Chicago style hot dogs on Tuesday morning, I went out to find something close to it for lunch, but came up empty.

I did find a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki (550 yen about US$5.50), though. This was filling, lots of cabbage and yakisoba in the middle, but I was disappointed with the outside. Usually, Hiroshima style okonomiyaki has a thin crepe-like outside, this one was really eggy and thick. (Osaka style okonomiyaki has cabbage and other goodies mixed into the batter, so it usually turns out to be a thick fritter of sorts.)

Next to the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki were these taiyaki (120 yen about US$1.20). Taiyaki are baked in these tai (sea bream) molds and filled with an (sweet bean paste). This was disappointing too, the outside was really thick...more outside than bean filling.

Oh well...

On Tuesday night, I made the pancakes from the set that Satoshi received, for our breakfast on Wednesday. I also added a couple of handfuls of fresh blueberries into the batter.

I don't think the maple syrup in the set was 100%, it had a coffee flavor and was kind of watery, not the thick syrup that I was thinking of.

I also wanted to make candied bacon, but couldn't find the brand of bacon I liked at the store, so I just served it with some ham and the Darjeeling tea that came in the set...delish!

Thursday's breakfast was the leftover pancakes (from the mix I made 6, the bag said 4), ham, asian pear, leftover succotash & herb tea. This was the other tea that was in the set. The most outstanding flavor was mint, though the label said blue mallow, citrus peel and hibiscus (I think the label was wrong). It was still a good tea and breakfast.

After breakfast, Satoshi left for Tokyo and I had a lesson. After my lesson, I wandered around Takarazuka's Hankyu Department store. This store isn't as big as the main one in Umeda but they do have a food area.

I picked up this bento for my dinner at Yonehachi--750 yen (about US$7.50). I like this place because their rice is okowa and you can choose which ones you want. Just pick out the bento and tell them what okowa to fill the empty areas with. Some bento have 3 empty spaces, some 2. They had 4 choices of okowa and I chose the chestnut okowa and the shiso chirimen (perilla & whitebait) okowa. The main dish was a tofu "hamburger" (though it had no meat in it)...very filling.

Friday morning, I had another lesson, so I had my breakfast at Starbucks. Cranberry pancakes (the last time Starbucks had blueberry).

Lunch was at my favorite cafe, Per Caffe Bianco, as I was interested in seeing what kind of art would come with the iced cappuccino. There was no art, but they still make you feel special by putting it into this champagne glass.

Satoshi came home late last night and brought home these ningyoyaki (literally baked dolls) Like the taiyaki, it is baked in tiny molds the difference is that the outside is castella (an eggy sponge cake) and filled with an (sweet bean paste), the taiyaki outside is more like a waffle...delicious.I liked the packaging very festive. I think this is a picture of a matsuri (festival) in Asakusa. The house like thing that the people are carrying are called mikoshi. Mikoshi are tiny shrines. Different parts of Japan have different types of mikoshi. If I'm not mistaken, carrying the mikoshi gives you good luck and helps your wishes come true. Many men do this to wish for their wives health and households safety and children do this to wish for good grades and good health.

Remember the tomato that I threw into a pot?....looks like we'll have tomatoes soon! (hopefully before autumn rolls around)

It is Saturday, the candidates for our city council and mayoral election are out in full force, it is raining and gloomy and Satoshi is off to work.

making fizz and "stuff"

Thanks for all the great comments. I was surprised to hear about all the different types of drinks and snacks that everyone has at their Starbucks. And I was also happy to hear that, not everyone hangs out there. For me, I like them only because it is smoke-free, if I really had a choice, I know I wouldn't go there because they are quite pricey. In fact, they recently raised the price of their beans and drinks. 10 yen..but still.

Anyway, enough about Starbucks for now...In a recent post, I wrote that I was craving fizz and sugar. Since then, I have been trying to wean myself off of soda (since there is tons of sugar in it) and tried to make something as natural as possible.

On Thursday, at the supermarket, I debated over the lemons. They were selling 3 tiny lemons for 150 yen from the U.S. Versus 1 big lemon from Chile for 129 yen. I chose the 3 for 150 yen about US$1.50 and bought 2 bags. Then I squeezed the 6 lemons (about 1/2 cup lemon juice--not much juice as they were teeny) and added 2 cups of fizzy soda water. Then in a glass, I added ice and a teaspoon of blueberry honey.

I mixed it well to make sure that the honey dissolved. It was really refreshing and having it in the morning really wakes you and your tastebuds up! (You can adjust the sweetness if it is too tart, but we really liked it this way.) I am definitely making this again.

Did I say enough of Starbucks? Well, yesterday, I tried these blueberry-yogurt pancakes. Delicious, light and fluffy and on their "Wellness Selection" menu. I guess having yogurt in the pancakes make them "healthy", but I think it was counter-acted by the whipped butter...which I used the whole little container of (there is a butter shortage here, couldn't let it go to waste, could I?)

This year's summer has been really hot which may not be a good thing for us humans, but it has been a good thing for the veggies. They are HUGE! Take for example this eringi, (was about 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter) usually they are skinnier and half this size.

I saw a television program once that said that Japan measures their produce by weight, them packages them for sale at about 100 to 150 grams per package, so most times they mix small veggies with big ones.

When I bought this (for 98 yen about US$.98), there was just this one inside, though I don't think it was 100 or 150 grams.

p.s. something is wrong with Blogger...I cannot access my blog to answer comments. Hope this gets fixed soon!

dorayaki

Ever have leftover pancakes? Well, there is an easy Japanese treat that you can make with them. It is called dorayaki (literally sweet bean paste between two pancakes).

Dora in Japanese means gong. Some say that dorayaki is called this because it resembles a gong. Others say that it is because it was cooked on top of a gong. In Kansai, it is also called mikasa because it resembles Mt. Mikasa in Nara. The first dorayaki was apparently made in the Taisho era. The pancakes that are used for dorayaki resemble castella--a sweet Portugese, part sponge cake-part pound cake from the Castilla area brought to Nagasaki in the 16th century.

Since I don't have much time on weekday mornings to make pancakes for breakfast, I usually make them the night before then re-heat them for our breakfast in the morning. While I was making them the other night, I remembered that I had some leftover sweet bean paste, so I made two extra dollar sized pancakes (actually a little bigger) and made myself a dorayaki.

Depending on the kind of pancake you make will determine how sweet your dorayaki will be. The pancakes I made didn't have any sugar in it, so the sweetness came only from the sweet bean paste. It was the perfect snack!

If you can't get sweet bean paste, don't like it or can't have it, you can also fill it with apple pie filling or even nutella--the combinations are endless!

ku-cha-ne-ku-cha-ne

I've learned a new saying from Satoshi...it's called "ku-cha-ne-ku-cha-ne". What does it mean? "eat-sleep, eat-sleep"...because that pretty much sums up what we've up to since he's come home. (wait a minute, since I've come home too!)
Friday, with all the changes going on in Waikiki, Satoshi was curious to see what was happening. We walked from Hilton Hawaiian Village ALL the way to the end of Waikiki. A majority of hotels are going under renovations and along with these renovations are the property name changes. Boy, I can't even keep them straight! Anyway, while walking through Waikiki I saw this group of people having a surf lesson. (Hang ten!)

And people gazing at the ocean. (You know, I miss not having benches to rest on in Japan--they are obsolete!)

Lunch was at Ryan's Grill. This place holds a special place in our hearts because it is where we went on our first date.

I was surprised to find out that they serve all of their menu items all day. We started off with some seared ahi (tuna), this tuna is coated with togarashi(chili) and sesame seeds. And served with a wasabi(japanese horseradish)-ginger aioli. They used to use a cajun spice on the outside of the ahi, but this version was still very tasty.

Fried calamari with a black bean aioli and a chili cucumber salad. This version was very light, previously they had a tex-mex flavor to it.


French onion soup--rich broth, cheese and onions...how can you go wrong?

Romaine lettuce with maytag blue cheese crumbles, slivered almonds and egg--crunchy goodness.

Saturday, Satoshi had to leave to go back for work. So, for breakfast, we hunted out one of his favorites...loco moco.

I had seen a restaurant called Koa Pancake House while we drove in Wahiawa the other day, and somehow that had stuck in my mind. I looked in the phone book and was pleased to find a location in Waipahu.

Satoshi couldn't decide between loco moco and eggs benedict (another of his favorites)...so he ordered both! Both servings were huge, as usual. The eggs for the benedict weren't runny, so he was a bit disappointed, but said that everything was delicious still the same.

I ordered the chocolate chip short stack with eggs and bacon. The pancakes were light and fluffy and had LOTS of chocolate chips inside.

The bacon could have been a bit crispier, but went well with maple syrup on them.

So, it is back to the grindstone for Satoshi...Everyone including me was sad that Satoshi had such a short stay.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Ryan's Grill
Ward Centre
1200 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
Phone: 808.591.9132

Koa Pancake House
Waipahu Town Center
94-050 Farrington Hwy C1-2
Waipahu
Phone: 808.671.7172