sunday

It has been months since I've seen Midori, the last time was in Osaka right before we moved to Tokyo.

It has been years since I've seen Asami...probably pre-blog, since then she got married, moved from Osaka to Tokyo and has a son!

On Sunday, I got together with Midori, Asami & Midori's friend, Yuko.

They were all going to a concert in the evening so they asked if I had some time for lunch.

We ate at Singapore Seafood Republic...we've eaten here when we lived in Osaka.

Unlike the Osaka restaurant which is in a department store, the Tokyo restaurant is huge structure and feels like you are in a foreign country.

I don't remember what I ordered but we all had the same dish and I liked that the noodles were dry and the char siu was tender.

There was also a won ton soup and rice noodle salad that came with the meal.

Asami gave us these cute wasanbon (Japanese sugar) for Moon Festival.

And Midori gave us these delicious ginger pineapple coconut cookies.

It was nice to see them all and in the process I made a new friend.

Thank you for inviting me Asami, Midori & Yuko!

ya kun kaya toast & blood oranges

I recently received a bottle of Ya Kun Kaya Toast spread from T. It was our first time trying kaya toast.

It has a slight nutty flavor and isn't overly sweet.

Apparently you should eat it with some butter between two slices of bread...we'll try it this way soon.

Another thing we tried were blood oranges that were grown in Ehime...bummer that these weren't reddish, but they were firmer than the oranges we are used to and they were super sweet!

Thanks T for the kaya toast spread!

new friend

I recently met up with a new friend, Fiona.

She recently moved here from Singapore with her husband, who is studying at a local university.

We met up for lunch and tried a Korean restaurant that she wanted to try, Chingu.

I ordered the kimbap (Korean sushi), while she had the Bulgogi Chapchae.

Our meals came with some bancha (side dishes): omlette, kinpira gobo & kim chee. It also came with seaweed soup.

The owner also gave us some salad to share. The salad had slices of asian pear in it which gave it a little sweetness to it. There was also a little kick from it too, I think there may have been some kim chee sauce in the dressing.

The kimbap was delicious and really pretty looking.

After a pretty leisurely lunch, we went to have coffee at Sant'Andrea Cafe. I ordered the cafe mocha, but this one came with more whipped cream than coffee...

Then it was time to go, Fiona was kind enough to share with me some bak kwa from Singapore.

It is like jerky, but sweet. After tasting it, it reminded me of lup cheong.

Thank you Fiona for such a fun day, I hope we can meet up again soon!

Chingu
Labi Senri 4F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6872.5837
Lunch: 11:00-15:00, Dinner 17:00-22:00

Sant'Andrea Cafe
Senchu Pal
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6872.7775
M-F: 7:30-19:30, S: 8:00-19:30, SU: 9:30-19:30