jizoya

I think I've told you that my host-brother's wife is a foodie. I'm so glad "all of my family members" are foodies...she gave us this loaf of bread on Friday made by a shop in her neighborhood called Jizoya.

They don't use egg because many children in Japan have allergies to eggs. They do use flour, heavy cream, butter, sugar, salt and water.

The results...a very light almost airy bread.

The texture is like a brioche, rich and delicious. It was delicious toasted with a slather of butter. (Thank you!)

Jizoya
3-2-12 Yuminoki-cho
Nada, Kobe
Phone: 078.841.6230
Open from 11:00 until sold out
Closed Sundays

p.s. you may have noticed a "prove you are not a robot" thingy when you comment, at first I had turned it off because I moderate (look over) the comments before it is published. Then, I noticed many "anonymous" comments started spamming, so I put it back AND will no longer allow "Anonymous" comments, please sign in with an appropriate ID...Thanks in advance for understanding.

rokko

The other day, I went to Yamaya, and they were out of Wychwood beers (insert pouty face). I asked the cashier and she thought I said "wedgewood" and says, "they make beer?" Then asked the manager but no one knew...sigh.

So, yesterday, since my lesson cancelled last minute, I had free time on my hands. I went to Rokko to check out their Yamaya.

Of course before getting there, I checked out several bread shops.

Sometimes I think I could live on breads/pastries alone! especially when they are chewy, sometimes flaky, sometimes crispy, and paired with curry, sausage, cheese, chocolate...mmm.

So, I googled and found two that looked interesting.

Boulangerie Petit Blé is located near the Hankyu Rokko station. I didn't write anything down and tried to find it by memory...(I should have written down the directions)...I was going round and round longer than I should have been.

As I was just about to give up, I found it!

This bread shop was tiny, and had so many yummy things to choose from.

I picked up this fig and walnut bread 210 yen (about US$2.10), it is only the size of two fists, but will be perfect for our breakfast.

And I also picked up this chocolate croissant 180 yen (about US$1.80) for my 3 o'clock tea time. This was flaky, chocolatey goodness.

There was another bake shop I was looking for, but realized it was really far away, (plus it was really sunny and hot) so I gave up and found Yamaya instead.

The Yamaya in Rokko is HUGE! I think it is 2 times the size of the Minoo store. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Wychwood beers, but I did find some others (which I'll tell you about some other time).

On the way back to the Hankyu Rokko station, I stopped into another bread shop, Köln and picked up this pizza 180 yen (about US$1.80) and curry naan 110 yen (about US$1.10) for my dinner. (Satoshi had a business trip yesterday so he didn't need dinner, which is cool with me because this means I don't need to cook! and can just pick up something. I just added some vegetable sticks to these and dinner was served.)

The pizza was thin and crisp and l-o-n-g about 30 centimeters (about 11 inches)! The curry naan had curry baked inside the naan...this wasn't too spicy but still both were delicious.

It was a nice carbolicious Friday!

Boulangerie Petit Blé
1-2-3 Yamada-cho
Nada, Kobe
Phone: 078.858.8815
Open 8:00-18:00, closed Wednesdays and 2 Thursdays

Köln
2-3-15 Morigo-cho
Nada, Kobe
Phone: 078.841.3933

sunday

Yesterday we were invited for lunch at my host-brother's place. When I studied in Japan (many moons ago), I also was fortunate to stay with a host-family. Since studying abroad, I have kept in touch with them over the years. And now that I live in Japan (Osaka), we often get together.

My host-brother got married 7 years ago, and since then he and his wife has had 3 children. They are full of energy!

We brought over a bottle of wine that we received from Satoshi's staff the other week. (Thank you!) Apparently, this brand, Le Blanc de Villemajou Corbieres, is being served in Air France's business class. It was quite fruity, but delicious chilled.

While having lunch of ratatouille, seafood gratin and tomato salad, we chatted about all sorts of things. One of the topics was bread.

Kazumi (my host-brother's wife), talked about a bakery near the station called Poem. On our way home, we found the bakery still open, so we popped in and picked up a package with 4 slices of bread.

The bread was so soft and fluffy! I felt bad about toasting it this morning.

It was a nice Sunday. Hope you have a great week.