monday

Monday was a National Holiday observing the Emperor’s Birthday, we decided to check out Ikegami Plum orchard since online, theysaid it was 60% in bloom. 

When we got there they said it was at its peak.

Most of the blooms were so high up, so it was hard to photograph close ups...

For lunch we checked out a soba shop, Katoriya, that Satoshi had been wanting to try.

This tiny shop serves soba & udon. 

Satoshi had their curry udon…1100 yen (tax included), which uses spices from Koshindo, a spice shop in Jiyugaoka.

He said it was spicy and that he enjoyed this

Kat tried their kurumi (walnut) soba 1150 yen (tax included)

Loved this! there were bits of walnut in the tsuyu (dipping sauce) and the tsuyu itself was shoyu based and creamy from the ground walnuts

In business for over 50 years, I’m glad we tried this shop and now have another to add to our rotation.

We’ll be back

Katoriya

7-11-4 Nishikamata

Ota, Tokyo

Closed: Fridays & Saturdays

Hours: 11:00-18:00 (Sundays), 11:00-18:15 (Mondays-Thursdays)

*cash only

friday

Friday we went to the Magome Cyclamen Garden, to see their cyclamen.

We had been here earlier in the year but at that time it was off season for them.

This time around, they had so many pretty varieties and there were quite a number of customers sending cyclamen to friends and family.

Lunch was at Kikuya 

I think they have been around for awhile since their interior is quite retro and so is their restroom...eep! Japanese style!

I had their tempura soba...the broth was a little too salty for my liking but the warm noodles hit the spot.

Satoshi had their curry nanban soba.

He enjoyed this and perspired profusely!

There are other items on the menu that Satoshi wants to try so we'll be back.

Down the street is a little cake shop...Maiko.

They opened last year and we finally got to check them out.

Marron pie...a whole chestnut and chestnut paste covered with flaky pastry.

Love!

Satoshi had their chocolate shortcake...a chocolate sponge with chocolate whipped cream and strawberries.

We'll be back to try other items too.

The weather has been great...sunny but cold!

Have a good week.

Kikuya

3-28-13 Ikegami

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3751.1127

Open daily 11:30-15:00 (lunch), 17:00-20:00 (dinner)

Maiko

3-29-15 Ikegami

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6303.5589

Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Hours: 11:00-19:00

nunotsunesarashina

It was our first time having cold soba with a thick dipping sauce in Tokyo.

We were shocked by this huge bowl of tsuyu (sauce) that I received. (In Osaka, usually tsuyu is served in a cup and isn't so thick)

It was like they poured it straight out of the bottle...so thick, so black.

Talk about culture shock.

Even though I was served grated daikon, I refused to put it straight into that thick, black tsuyu and ended up eating most of my soba without tsuyu.

Dunno if we'll be back, but I'm glad I experienced Kanto style soba.

Nunotsunesarashina
3-18-8 Minami-ooi
Shinagawa, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3761.7373
Closed Sundays
Hours: 11:30-15:00, 17:00-20:00

hiroeya

We tried a soba shop near the Hasunuma station, Hiroeya.

While their soba was delicious, I think the place could be a little cleaner...eek!

Not sure if we'll be back, but I'm glad we tried them.

Hiroeya
1-17-14 Higashi Yaguchi
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3731.3097
Hours: 10:30-21:00

ishikiri & hiraoka

Sunday we went to an area just before Nara called Ishikiri.

There is a huge shrine there but before you reach it, you walk through their shopping arcade.

I think this shopping arcade had more fortune tellers than actual shops.

Apparently this shrine heals dembo (tumors or boils) and other diseases.

While we were there we saw many people doing Hyaku-do mairi (he-yah-coo-dough-my-lee) which literally means praying 100 times. (click on the photo to see the video)

You walk from one point to another while praying in hopes of getting your wish granted.

It was my first time seeing a whole crowd of people doing this.

Some people were holding what looked like strips of paper, this is what they use to keep track of how many times they have gone back and forth.

It was interesting to see (I shot the video really far from where they were praying so that most faces are somewhat anonymous).

We tried the fuku soba (luck soba) from nearby Suzuya...but meh, it wasn't anything spectacular...bummer that the shrimp was ice cold too.

Before heading back to Osaka, we checked out Hiraoka Shrine which is a couple of stations over from Ishikiri.

To me, this shrine had a more spiritual feel to it.

On the walkway to the shrine there was also a festival going on...food, entertainment and games.

I was shocked to see the people performing on stage without shoes...(zoom in on the shoes at the bottom of the stairs).

Thank goodness it wasn't wintry weather yet.

Back in Osaka, we finally got a chance to try Ice Monster.

This shop from Taiwan has had krazy lines since the day they opened last year.

Satoshi had their mango and I went with their frozen version of almond float (almond flavored shaved ice) topped with sesame ice cream, bits of lychee, brown sugar gelatin cubes and condensed milk.

While this was good, I got bored with the flavors about half way.

This shop doesn't allow you to share, which means each person needs to order a shaved ice and at 1200 yen or so each...it is quite pricey.

While Satoshi enjoyed his, and we were glad we tried it, we don't think we'll be back.

The weather is still pretty warm during the daytime, and for the most part we've had lots of clouds and rainy days too.

Hope your week is going well.

kunto no sato

Yesterday, my host mom took me and my host brother's wife to lunch to celebrate my host brother's wife's birthday.

We went across the ocean to Awajishima.

A 150-something year old house refurbished into a tiny restaurant called Kunto no sato.

The wife does the food while the husband is in charge of the soba.

It was a beautiful lunch, too bad that I had a bad case of motion sickness and couldn't eat much of it.

Still, it was nice hanging out with my host mom and host brother's wife.

Happy Birthday, K!

Kunto no Sato
1541 Shitoridoi
Minamiawaji, Hyogo
Phone:0799.46.0522
Reservations only (at least a month in advance)
No children allowed

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)

hikawa

We recently tried a soba shop in our neighborhood, Hikawa.

The owner is a potter, I think he makes the plates & bowls that he serves his soba in.

He renovated his work area into this restaurant himself...cool!

Lunch started off with some soba.

He doesn't serve "the same types of soba" that you'd find in most other soba shops, instead he gives his customers a chance to taste soba "au naturel".

The soba comes cold without a soup and you are encouraged to try it with different things like coarse sea salt, a soy sauce...so delicious! a little nutty in flavor with a nice chew to them.

Satoshi tried the soba nigiri set...1400 yen.

This came with a yakionigiri (grilled rice ball) wrapped with a thin soba (buckwheat) crepe. His meal also came with a piece of soba tofu and some pickles.

Satoshi said this was different but delicious.

I ordered the galette complète (literally complete galette)...1600 yen.

The owner uses all buckwheat flour in his galette unlike some other shops which start with a white flour base then add a little buckwheat flour to it. (He's checked out his competition!)

There was camembert cheese, ham, and fruits like kiwi & pear in there...sweet, salty and the crepe was crisp on the outside.

So good!

The owner also let me taste a piece of soba tofu, this was dense with lots of buckwheat flavor, nutty and a little smokey.

We were the only customers at the times, so after eating we chatted with the owner.

He was so nice that he also let us taste his thick soba noodles, these were chewy, almost like mochi.

With our meals also came a thick porridge made from the soba water.

He isn't doing the kind of soba that everyone is used to, in fact he said that some customers have left because he doesn't have tempura on his menu....their loss!

Still, he says he enjoys what he is doing...a good thing.

We'll be back.

Hikawa
1-1-17-H Iguchido
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.761.0159
Open Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday
Lunch: 11:30-15:00
Dinner*: 17:30-21:00 *by reservations the day before

the first couple of days

Reader Alan had wrote to me about not posting about ozoni.

I've posted about it several times, and didn't want to bore you and post about it again, but since he asked, I'm posting...

Let's reverse a bit...On December 31st, we had toshikoshi soba for lunch, in Japan, you are actually supposed to have this at midnight, but we didn't know whether we would be awake at that time or not, plus, eating that late is a no-no for us these days.

You know, I have many dishes, but nothing proper to warm sake in...sad, yeah?!

Our osechi was store bought, the only thing I made was dashimaki egg (which wasn't traditional)...my kind of cooking.

Buri teriyaki, chikuzeni, kuromame, namasu, konbu maki, tazukuri, kamaboko...I was missing some items from a traditional osechi but we got to eat some of those missing items when we visited MIL.

This year's ozoni was "lazy" style.

A packet of instant o-suimono, some mochi, some daikon slices and hot water.

Heat your mochi and daikon in a pot with water so that they soften, and then pour over the dry o-suimono in a bowl.

I actually saw a version of this on a TV commercial, their version only had the mochi and the o-suimono.

You could probably "jazz" it up with some kamaboko and carrots too.

January 1st, we visited MIL.

Besides osechi, we also had sushi. She said it was her first time ordering from this sushi place, but we thought it was pretty good.

On the 2nd, we did our hatsumode.

We went to a couple of our "usual" places to pray but also went to the Toyonaka Inari Shrine. We were amazed at how big this shrine was, I think we're adding this to our list of places to pray at.

And we had some Japanese sweets, uguisu mochi (which is coated in a green soy bean powder) and shogatsu mochi from Kagetsudo.

So there you go...If you're interested, you can also read a detailed post about Japan's New Year here.

Kagetsudo
1-12-24 Honmachi
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6852.6105

p.s. It's Friday here, and a 3-day weekend, enjoy!

sobakiri masa

Friday, I met up with a friend that I hadn't seen for quite some time, Mari.

She took me to her neighborhood soba shop...Sobakiri Masa.

This shop seats about 20 and fills up fast during the lunch hour.

After ordering you need to wait awhile for your food, so if you're in a rush, it is probably not the place for you.

This shop makes their noodles by hand and cooks them after you order them.

While you wait, they give you some futomaki (a type of sushi), hand rolled by the owner.

I ordered the Tenzaru Kuro, this was soba (buckwheat noodles) was made not only from the ground buckwheat grains, but also the hulls, which gives it a darker color and nuttier flavor.

This came with assorted tempura, light and crispy eaten with sea salt.

Mari ordered the Tenzaru Shiro, this soba was made solely from the ground buckwheat grains, so her noodles were much lighter. Her noodles also came with an assortment of tempura.

Everything was delicious and it was nice to catch up with her.

Thank you for a great day and for lunch, Mari!

Sobakiri Masa
1-16-12 Utsubohonmachi
Nishi, Osaka
Phone: 06.6225.3030
Closed on Mondays
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11:30-14:00, 17:30-21:00
Sunday 11:30-14:00

u.f.o. sobameshi

I think I first talked about sobameshi here.

Nissin recently came up with a Cup Noodle flavored dish, but instead of the noodles they replaced it with rice, which I think they call "Cup Noodle Gohan", gohan means rice, I haven't tried it.

Since they figured out instant rice, they paired it with their U.F.O. instant yakisoba and came up with a sobameshi.

You pour about 3/4 cup of water into the container, then add the noodles and rice, mix well.

Then you nuke it for the directed amount of time...about 5 or 6 minutes depending on your wattage.

When it comes out, let it sit for 2 minutes then add the yakisoba sauce and mix well. Then top with aonori (green laver) & dried ginger bits.

I decided to take this dish to another level, and added an over-easy egg.

So good! I'm glad I tried it.

urume

Well, it has been about 2 weeks, since MIL was admitted into the hospital.

Yesterday, we went to visit and apparently her wounds are healing nicely and some feeling has returned to her legs, but it seems she will be in the hospital for awhile longer.

While MIL was having her bandages changed, we went to find ourselves some lunch.

Most times when we visit MIL (before the accident), we eat at home, having a shop deliver food, so we don't really know of places to eat near MIL's.

Near the hospital which MIL is at, we found a great little soba shop called Urume.

Looking at the outside of the shop, Satoshi didn't even think they were a restaurant.

It was a good thing we decided to go in, because the inside of the shop was very homey.

Satoshi ordered the curry namban, lots of curry topped freshly made soba.

The curry had a punch to it and was delicious...1000 yen (about US$10)

I ordered the tenzaru. Cold soba with tempura....1470 yen (about US$14.70).

The noodles were delicious, cooked perfectly and the tempura, light and crispy.

There were lots of vegetables, shiso (perilla), shishito (Japanese pepper), lotus root, eggplant, pumpkin, sweet potato, shiitake & shrimp.

I gave the shrimp to Satoshi because it is favorite, and he enjoyed it.

Everything is made to order, so if there are a lot of people expect to wait for your food, though you won't be disappointed.

We had a nice lunch and nice visit with MIL. We hope she gets discharged soon.

Urume
51 Koyama Nishi-Oono-cho
Kita, Kyoto
Phone: 075.495.9831
Open: 11:00-17:00 or until they run out
Closed: Tuesdays

foodie tuesday in kyoto

Met up with Tamakikat in Kyoto. She had travelled to Europe as well as mainland America over the summer, so there was lots to talk about.

We walked around the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Garden. The grounds are very large, with smaller gardens here and there.

The saltzberry as the Japanese call it (or crape myrtle) is in full bloom now. I've mostly seen it in bright pink but also have seen white and light pink blooms too.

It was my first time but I was glad I got to see the grounds.

Lunch was at Honke-Owariya, a soba shop that has been in business since 1465. Even though she lives in Kyoto, Tamakikat had been wanted to try this place. I was amazed at how many people could be seated in their tiny shop.

I ordered the sobazushi, sushi made with noodles instead of rice. I have had sobazushi in Hawaii but never in Japan.

This was simple. Delicious with lots of flavor from the wasabi that was in it.

After lunch, we were craving something sweet and decided to check out a donut shop just a few doors down from Owariya called Nicotto & Mam.

This shop is tiny with only a few seats and had about 9 different donuts to choose from.

We decided to get 3 each and split them to try.

Cinnamon, Peanut & Matcha Milk...cinnamon and peanut stood out in this group.

The donuts have a nice texture and the glaze is just right.

Matcha just didn't have enough "matcha" flavor though.

Black & White, Plain & Mocha...black & white and plain stood out in this group.

All in all the weather was overcast, though we did get caught in a passing shower, it was a good day and nice catch-up.

Honke-Owariya
Kurumaya-cho Nijo Sagaru
Nakagyo, Kyoto
Phone: 075.231.3446

Doughnut Cafe Nicotto & Mam
Kurumaya-cho Oshikoji Agaru
Nakagyo, Kyoto
Phone: 075.223.3630
Closed Sundays

p.s. while at the gardens, I spotted this cat inside of a stone lantern...shhh! don't wake it.

azuma

Azuma is a tiny noodle shop in Ikeda.

On our way to Kyuanji last fall, the bus happened to stop at a light and while we were waiting for the light to change I noticed this huge line of people waiting to go into this shop.

If you remember, in Japan whenever you see a line, you can almost be certain that the people are waiting for something good to eat.

After googling, I found out that this tiny shop has been in business since 1864. Over 100 years! There was an apartment building that built around this building. You can kind of see it in the first photo.

Inside the shop there is a tatami mat area that seats 8. And there are about 20 more seats (tables and chairs) across from the tatami area.

When they are really busy, you'll have to share your table. This is called aiseki. For example, if there are only 2 in your party but you are sitting at a table for 4, you'll have to share with another pair.

This was actually our second trip to Azuma, the first time, I didn't have my camera.

Satoshi ordered the Azuma udon, 700 yen (about US$7). This was udon with aburage (fried tofu), mung beans, green onions and ground sesame seeds. He also ordered a musubi on the side, 100 yen (about US$1).

I on the other hand, ordered a cold noodle dish. The sasame kitsune udon, 750 yen (about US$7.50). This comes with a thinner udon noodle, tenkasu (the bits from tempura), grated ginger and a seasoned aburage (fried tofu).

Azuma also has a Sasame udon, 700 yen (about US$7), which has a thick sauce, the thinner udon noodles, kamaboko, grated ginger, some kelp and sliced aburage (fried tofu). This is a hot dish and Satoshi tried it on our last visit. He also tried their kayaku gohan on our last visit, vinegared rice with cooked veggies that are seasoned, diced and mixed into the rice. (This time around they were sold out by the time we went for lunch.)

If you are in the area, I would suggest going on a weekday, maybe after the lunch rush, the weekends are kind of chaotic here. We went during a weekday after the lunch rush, but we still had to wait for a table.

If we are in the area and in the mood for udon, we'll be back.

Azuma
6-17 Nishihonmachi
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.751.3644
Closed: Tuesdays/Holidays
Open: 10:30-18:00