musashiya

Two doors or so down from Kaei is Musashiya.

Most of their items on their menu can be taken out, so we did just that on Sunday.

Sweet sour meat balls and tamagoyaki (rolled omelette)...980 yen (tax included).

It also came with some simmered konnyaku and veggies.

I enjoyed the sauce because there were nice pieces of takenoko (bamboo shoots) in it.

Lots of rice!

Satoshi ordered the double yakiniku....1000 yen (tax included).

His meal looked like it had quite a lot of food too.

Our food came out pretty quick and was still warm even after we walked home.

We look forward to trying other things on their menu and hopefully eat there in the future.

Musashiya

2-6-12 Higashiyaguchi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3759.6341

Closed: Tuesdays & Fridays

Hours: 11:30-14:00 (lunch), 17:00-20:15 (dinner)
*cash only 

kitchen croquette

We tried a new (to us) bento place, Kitchen Croquette.

They have been in business for over 40 years.

Matsuko Deluxe even ate there (there is a photo of her on the door)

Satoshi and I both got their daily bento which had 5 different bento items...white fleshed fish with tomato & clam sauce, chicken katsu with parmesan cheese, eggplant nibitashi (braised), pan fried ham, harusame (glass noodle) salad, cabbage and tsukemono...650 yen (tax included)

For 50 yen more you can change the white rice to multi grain rice...so that is what I did.

And since the shop is called Kitchen Croquette, we picked up two of their croquette to try...120 yen (tax included) each.

The croquette was perfectly fried, creamy, delicious!

And every item in the bento was flavorful and delicious.

My favorite item was the fish.

I'm glad we tried this shop and will definitely be back whenever we are nearby.

Kitchen Croquette

4-35-8 Oomorihigashi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.5471.2751

Closed Sundays

Hours: 11:00-14:00 (lunch), 16:00-20:00 (dinner) 

niihao

Thursday we tried Niihao's plate lunch.

3 choices for 648 yen (tax included).

I chose mabo tofu (spicy), happosai & yakisoba.

Satoshi chose mabo tofu, egg stir fry and shrimp fried rice.

They also have a 4 choice plate that I want to try next time because they have items like sweet sour pork.

We'll be back.

Niihao

Gran Duo 1F

JR Kamata station

Ota, Tokyo

Open when Gran Duo is.

josui

Yesterday, Mother Nature threw us back into winter with cold rain all.day.long.

We tried a new (to us) bento shop, Josui.

They apparently sell okazu (pre-made foods) too, but when I went, they only had bento on their shelves.

I tried their yurinchi bento..540 yen (tax included)

The chicken was still crispy when I ate it and the leek sauce had ginger, was slightly sweet and was shoyu based.

There was a lot of veggie side dishes too.

Satoshi’s bento was salmon and 594 yen (tax included) he had lots of veggie side dishes also and he said the piece of salmon was quite big.

I’m glad we tried this place and look forward to trying other bento in the future.

Josui

7-18-1 Nishikamata

Ota, Tokyo

Closed Saturdays & Sundays

Hours: 10:00-22:00

kaei

We tried Kaei back in 2019 and recently picked up some bento for our lunch.

I had their mabo tofu bento…800 yen (tax included)

This came with a small cup of soup, half a spring roll, some harusame salad and a mashed potato thingy.

The mabo tofu was spicy and filling, so I saved half of it for another day.

I'm glad we reconnected with this shop and look forward to taking out again and eating here in the future.

kunseiya ken

We picked up some smoked chicken for our dinner on Saturday from Kunseiya Ken.

Kunsei is the Japanese word for smoked.

This was meaty, smoky and delicious.

The skin was crispy.

I'm glad we tried this place and look forward to trying different items in the future.

Kunseiya Ken

1-2-25 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 080.6542.6008

Check social media for days off and hours 

this and that

It took me 3 years to figure out, but from our east balcony we can see the tip of the Tokyo Sky Tree...super super short video here.

AND if there wasn't a condo in the way, we would be able to also see Tokyo Tower.

As you know, from our west balcony, we can see Mount Fuji.

So lucky to be able to see all of these areas from this apartment.

Are you using Powerdirector? 

“Someone” wants to create a video business card or something like that, for his translator/guide work because “everyone else made one”…but guess who’ll have to learn how to use it first so that they can explain it to him?! as if I don’t have anything else to do around here…

We tried Yoshinoya’s gyudon for emergencies…it was expensive, almost 6 dollars for one can. 

Beside the beef type there is a pork, yakitori and fish (mackerel) types too.

Because this is for emergencies, you can eat it straight from the can without heating it up.

I thought it might be kind of gross that way so to heat it up submerge the can in boiling water for 10 minutes.

The tricky thing is to open the heated can without burning or cutting yourself.

In the can is brown rice, topped with a little beef.

I think they use brown, so it doesn’t get too mushy.

We ate this with spoons.

It’ll probably keep you full in an emergency…though “someone” was saying otherwise after his first bite.

I’m glad we tried this and think it would be good to have around in case of an emergency.

This meatball pasta sauce from Seiyu is part of their private brand.

The meatballs have that soft almost spongey texture and the sauce is a little sweet just like that canned meatball spaghetti that my mom would rarely let me eat.

I looked on the back of the package and it is made by Nagatanien, the same company that makes those chazuke mixes. 

Semi-success with caramel custard, cooking it longer made the custard firmer than the first try.

I still need to work on my caramel-ing. 

Satoshi says the custard tasted like I bought it…whoo!

Wednesday was a holiday, the Emperor's birthday.

we tried Chidori's taco rice...it is different from how I make it...they had nori on the rice and it wasn't too spicy, but it was still delicious (and filling!)

We wanted to pick up Inose's shumai for dinner but got there after they had sold out.

Instead, we tried their gyoza...a pack of 10 for 300 yen (tax included).

We bought two packs...It was meaty and delicious.

Gyoza snob approved…the wrappers are thin.

Tokyo's daily case numbers went as low as 8805 and as high as 16,129 this week.

Though there haven't been enough testing, so I'm pretty sure the numbers are higher...

Hope we can get everyone boosted before the "stealth" Omicron variant (a "new" one) starts to do its thing...sigh

Have a safe weekend.

yaguchi no watashi

Friday, we took out Cafe Akaribi's carrot cake and baked cheesecake...

The carrot cake was bland, it was a non-sweet cake/muffin with carrots in it.. not even cinnamon (bummer)....the baked cheesecake was delicious.

I want to try eating lunch there, so we'll be back when it is safer.

We also took out from Chidori...I tried their Chidori bowl...teriyaki chicken with lots of veggies and some rice.

I would get this again.

Satoshi tried their "loco moco"...the first thing Satoshi said when he opened up his bowl was "where's the gravy?"

Still, he enjoyed it, even if it wasn't local style...

Wednesdays they have taco rice, so I want to try this.

We'll be back.

Cafe Akaribi

1-32-3 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6715.4955

Hours: 11:30-20:00, days off vary*check before going

Chidori

1-25-10 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3756.0090

Hours: 11:00-19:30, days off vary*check before going

cusunoki

About 10 minutes walking distance from where we live, there is a small cake shop called Cusunoki.

We tried their ganache cake to celebrate Valentine’s & Kat’s birthday.

It was rich, chocolately & perfect with red wine.

We’ll be back.

Cusunoki

2-22-2 Higashiyaguchi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6459.8355

Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Hours: 11:00-18:00

p.s. our arms are sore from the booster vaccine and Kat had chills and headaches on Sunday, but overall we are doing fine.

yesterday

Yesterday we went to buy a new computer.

The one we have was getting really slow.

I think we had it for at least 10 years.

Anyway, there was haggling…as tiring as when you buy a car.

Which meant lunch was late, which meant Kat was hangry.

This cheese saba (mackerel) burger from Rakyo saved the day.

14057

Have been going to Oomori whenever we need coffee beans...yesterday, I went on one of those walks...

Passed by these two who were waiting for their mom or dad to come out of the bank..

The skies were overcast and gloomy.

This type of day bothers my eyes and I usually get a migraine afterwards...

Before going to buy our coffee beans, I went to check out Jugoya Seika.

They make karinto and have been in business since 1926!

3 bags of your choice for 1000 yen (tax included)

I purchased their sweet potato, peanut and black sugar.

They are all on the "harder" side but everything was delicious and not overly sweet.

They have a couple more varieties to try, so we'll be back.

Toyoshima Bakery...which has been in business since 1939.

I tried their croquette sandwich and cheeseburger.

Love their prices.

We'll be back.

14057...it was nice to be out but wish it hadn't been overcast.

Jugoya Seika

3-4-16 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 0339761.5153

Hours: 10:00-18:00

*call before going, closed days are not consistent

Toyoshima Bakery

1-35-5 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3761.1471

Closed Saturdays & Sundays

Hours: 6:30-18:30

another year

Monday marked another krazy year around the sun, but am thankful just to be able to celebrate it.

My host-mom in Kobe sent me these cookies from Freundlieb (thank you!)

I miss this cafe! actually miss just being able to hang out anywhere…

Host-sister, T, sent me French chocolates and biscuits (cookies)...thank you!

I went to Jiyugaoka to order something for my host-mom's birthday which is coming up next week.

Before coming home, I stopped in at Comme'N, a bakery that I've been wanting to check out.

He trained under the chef at Ça Marche, a favorite bakery of mine in Kobe.

Then opened a small bakery in Takasaki, Gunma.

In 2019, his team won the Mondial du Pain contest in France and in 2020 he opened Comme'N, near Jiyugaoka.

We tried the cream cheese cranberry raisin, proscuitto camembert (and butter), hot dog and cake brioche.

Everything was delicious.

The cream cheese cranberry raisin had a huge piece of cream cheese in the middle...yum!

The hot dog had cheese and some sauerkraut. The sausage was herby..so good!

The proscuitto camembert surprised me...I toasted it before eating and realized there was lots of butter in it when I bit into it and it started dripping profusely...love!

I couldn’t let the melted butter go to waste and used the cake brioche to mop it up…

The cake brioche was light almost fluffy and I loved the caramelized walnuts on top.

They have x-ray cash registers, so when the tray of baked goods is placed on the scanner, the prices and names of the items pop up on the register screen (so there are no mistakes!)

What was also nice is they messaged me and thanked me for posting on Instagram.

Love their business cards, it looks like those tags that they use on bread bags...I'll be back whenever I'm nearby.

Yamato Nadeshiko from Satoshi, a delicate carnation with a slightly spicy fragrance.

Dinner was meyer lemon chicken...I sprinkled some lemon garlic seasoning then cooked the chicken in a pan with some olive oil.

When the chicken was almost cooked through, I added slices of meyer lemon to caramelize in the pan...delicious!

Thanks for today.

Comme'N

7-18-5 Okusawa

Setagaya, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6432.1061

Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Hours: 7:00-18:00

p.s. Over the weekend, I found these huge meyer lemons at the market that were grown in Mie Prefecture...2 were 198 yen (plus tax)....and have been using them in cooking or as a condiment.

ehomaki

About mid-January, Rakyo posted on Instagram that they would be taking orders for their ehomaki…1500 yen (tax included) for one.

So we called and put in our order.

Last Thursday, we went to pick it up…it was HUGE!

They had 10 different items in the ehomaki…7 items were fish related and caught locally (mackerel, squid, amberjack, belt fish, croaker, spanish mackerel, mackerel soboro(floss)), the remaining 3 were cucumber, dashimaki egg & red daikon namasu.

There were l-o-n-g pieces of fish in the ehomaki since most ingredients should not be cut.

The lucky direction was hoku-hoku-sei (north-north-west)

This was so good (and filling), some of the fish had been marinated, while others were not.

Satoshi used shoyu but I didn’t.

I also made miso soup.

This was totally worth it and a nice way to support local fishermen and a small business.

Loved the hashtag they used too… “to live is to eat” (ikiru koto wa taberu koto)

Like last year, I'm hoping that this pandemic is over soon.

houou no hane

New (to us) bakery nearby (about 20 minute walk) that we checked out the other day called houou no hane (wing of phoenix)

Apparently they opened up last November, then at the beginning of this year closed to “level up” their baking skills…they re-opened at the end of January.

The baked items are in a jewelry showcase and as you tell them what you want, they place each one into a glassine bag.

Satoshi had told them he wanted the “fromage” (cheese) bread, but the girl gave him a butter roll...which looked similar to a croissant. 

He wasn’t paying attention when the girl was packing the breads nor did he pay attention when he put the purchases into our eco bag.

I wasn’t paying attention either since I went to pay for the purchases.

So when we got home, we realized we didn’t receive the right bread and called them.

Apparently it is a 30 yen difference and the cheese bread was more expensive.

We told them we would DM (direct message) a copy of our receipt and a photo of the purchases.

As I am writing this they have not looked at our message….boo!

We will not be back.

p.s. the other baked items we tried was their an butter (sweet bean paste with butter), currywurst and cinnamon roll.

watanabe

Tried a new (to us) sushi place/izakaya, Watanabe.

I ordered the chirashi...this was not worth 800 yen (tax included).

More wakame than anything...AND there was a piece of iwashi (sardine) that had so many bones!

The rice smelled funny too...eep!

Satoshi ordered the negitoro bowl...750 yen (tax included).

He was disappointed as well.

He said the rice was dry (maybe old?!)

We are glad we tried this place but won't be back. 

this and that

Tokyo People...was following behind these two grandmas...so cute that they were "talking story" (with their masks on).

this guy with a beret...he actually bypassed me
 

As Valentine's gets closer there is more chocolate to be found...

This doughnut covered with chocolate truffle pieces...with every bite some would fall off...too sweet but loved it had a lot of chocolate.

Bought this for Satoshi...crispy croissant filled with chocolate cream and those chocolate truffle pieces...he said it was ono!

Since last week, I think Japan now has a total of 80,000 cases...Tokyo has been increasing 10,000+ cases per day...eep!

There is panic for the close contacts trying to find a place to get tested and or to even find home tests.

As for boosters, just like vaccines, Japan has hit another bump, again there aren’t enough…sigh

Hope we can avoid getting this...

Have a safe weekend.