wabisuke

Tuesday, I met up with Twitter friend, H for lunch.

The place that we had intended on lunching at was on Summer vacation, so we had lunch at Wabisuke instead.

This tiny restaurant serves soba as well as other dishes.

We both ordered the Wabisuke Zen...1550 yen.

This came with all sorts of little dishes...kamameshi rice with satoimo (dasheen), kabocha simmered with pork, grilled eggplant, soba, a terrine made with some myoga and some chicken, vegetable tempura and matcha (green tea) mousse.

Everything was delicious and it was nice to spend some time with H.

Our weather is weird, when we came back from Hawaii they were having a cool spell. Now it is back to hot and humid.

Thank goodness for air conditioning!

It's Friday here, I hope you have a nice weekend!

Wabisuke
10-19 Hagoromo-cho
Nishinomiya, Hyogo
Phone: 050.5872.8939
Closed Wednesdays
Hours: 11:30-14:30 (lunch), 17:30-22:00 (dinner)

re-connect

Re-connected with my friend, Midori. It had been about 6 years since the last time we got together.

Our schedules just never clicked.

We met up in Shukugawa. Again, the cherry blossoms were in bloom but it was another gloomy drizzly day.

Lunch was at a cafe called Bin.

In Japanese, bin means glass jar and this cafe happens to make their own jams and jellies.

Their lunch is made with organic veggies...850 yen.

Everything was delicious.

After lunch we had some coffee 270 yen...a Sulawesi Mamasa, rich, smooth and dark roasted.

Another great day of catching up, lots of chatting and laughter.

Bin (UPDATE: 2016 no longer in business)
5-26 Horaku-cho
Nishinomiya, Hyogo
Phone: 0798.20.3087
Hours: 12:00-23:00
Closed Tuesdays

flowery, foodie wednesday

Yesterday Satoshi had the day off. What started off as just a small trip to an area in Minoo, turned out to be a L-O-N-G but beautiful day filled with lots of sakura (cherry blossoms).

We caught the bus and went to Gein, this area has a temple called Taishakuji.

The calendar we received from our city office had a beautiful photo of the temple and their sakura. Since we had never been to this temple, I thought it would be good for us to explore it.

Upon arriving at the temple though, we realized that the temple itself didn't have many cherry trees. In fact, they were busy preparing for the Buddha's birthday (Hanamatsuri), which was April 8th. 

They had decorated a little pavilion for the Buddha which they would fill with sweet tea to ladle over the statue.

So from Taishakuji, we walked to Ichirin Coffee. After seeing Amy's post, I wanted to check this cafe out. 

Since we don't have a car, I had to plan for us to have a reason to travel to this area to check it out. Luckily Taishakuji happened to be in the same area.

It was too early for lunch, so I had dessert, the chocolate berry tart. 

The tart was like a crunchy brownie, whipped cream and lots of berries (currants, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), some strawberry whipped cream to hold the strawberry macaron in place. 

Satoshi felt it was too early for dessert and had their breakfast plate instead.

The buses in Gein don't run too often, so we walked back to the Hankyu Minoo station (about 40 minutes). 

From atop the road back to the station we could see a pink river and remembered there was an area in Minoo called sakuranamiki (road lined with cherry trees).

Satoshi and I were both moved by this street, it was so beautiful. 

It was our first time to see this street in full bloom. 

Many cars and passersby stopped to take photos with their cell phones as well as big cameras, there was actually a little traffic jam too because everyone was driving so slow in this area to view the blooms.

At the Minoo station, we looked at the sakura chart which showed the status of the blooming trees in different areas. Since all were mankai (full bloom) we jumped on the train and went to Shukugawa.

I've gone to Shukugawa by myself during cherry blossom season, but this was the first time for Satoshi to experience this area on a weekday when it was in full bloom. 

I think he was moved by this place also.

There were many people picnicking along the river. We bought some prepared foods and had a little picnic ourselves. (This was my bento.)

It was quite warm but we were glad to be out and taking in all the beautiful cherry blossoms.

From Shukugawa, we talked about what we should do next, since it was still early we decided to head to Sumaura Park. 

Sumaura Park is about 30 minutes from Sannomiya towards the Akashi Bridge.

It was the first time for both of us to go to this park. This park overlooks the ocean.

They have a ropeway which you can ride for 1000 yen (about US$10) to the top where you can see the Akashi Bridge, this bridge connects Honshu with Awaji Island.

Through the polluted haze we saw the bridge.

After seeing the view, we came back down the mountain and decided to check out the Nishinomiya Gardens.

This is a huge shopping complex that recently opened in Nishinomiya (about 10 minutes from Umeda) on the land where the Nishinomiya Stadium once stood.

The Nishinomiya Stadium used to be the home of the Hankyu Braves (this team evovled into the Orix Buffaloes and have their own stadium in Kobe now). 

There is a little gallery on the 5th floor of the shopping complex to show what the area looked like before and pay tribute to the players of the original team.

On the 4th floor there is a garden area, this area was open and there were some tables and chairs to hang out and chat. 

I wished they had had more greenery, rather than all that cement. 

They also had a little water thingy where kids were having a blast getting wet.

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, but it isn't worth telling you about it.

It was a L-O-N-G day, we did a L-O-T of walking, but we got to see a lot of cherry blossoms. 

I think Satoshi enjoyed himself too (even though we woke up really early on his day off).

Ichirin Coffee
3-4-35 Gein
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.726.5206
Open 9:00-23:00
Closed the 3rd Monday

foodie saturday

My Saturday lesson cancelled due to hay fever (hope you're feeling better soon, Tomomi!), so Satoshi and I decided to check out Shukugawa to see if their sakura (cherry blossoms) were still in bloom since he didn't get a chance to enjoy them yet.

Actually, most of the single cherry blossoms have fallen off the trees. You can see the petals all over the ground and in the streams.

It is quite beautiful too, although the housewife in me often worries about who will sweep or clean this all up...

Luckily, the double cherry blossoms have started to bloom, so we had something to see. They look like pom-poms on the ends of the branches.

We were getting pretty hungry walking up the stream and found a pasta place, Ryu-Ryu to have a quick lunch at. This restaurant is actually a franchise and I've seen them around but this was our first time to try them. They were good and fast!

I had their kabocha (pumpkin) meat sauce. It was a little on the sweet side probably from the pumpkin, still it was delicious.

Satoshi had their eggplant, bacon, garlic and tarako (salted pollack roe) pasta, which he enjoyed.

For dinner, I used the cabbage I received yesterday to make okonomiyaki. Last night, I was thinking about using the cabbage for a stir-fry, but wanted to eat up some of the leftovers we had instead. Also, instead of using the food processor like I normally do when making okonomiyaki, I tried my best to sengiri (julienne) the cabbage. I still have a ways to go to get my sengiri as thin as most people can do it. In some okonomiyaki shops, you can order kim chee as a topping in the okonomiyaki, instead we just ate some on the side.

For dessert, I was inspired by Anita's puff pastry post. I didn't have leftover puff pastry dough like she did, but I did have puff pastry sheets in the freezer, so I took one out and cut an apple into fourths. I only used half of the apple to make 2 pies. I cut the sheet in half and put a whole fourth of the apple into the center with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and several grinds of cinnamon. Then I wrapped it up like a present and egg washed the top. I baked it for 20 minutes in a 200C oven and what came out was a great dessert!

Hope you are having a great weekend!