boulangerie un

This apple tarte from Boulangerie Un was delicious.

I especially liked that the apples had a pink tinge to it.

Oh and kaki (persimmon) are in the markets now too...whoo!

Happy Wednesday.

lee's & scratch

Last year I raved about the transfer system on the bus here.

So far on this trip home, I've ridden the bus twice.

On one of my trips, I stopped off in Chinatown to pick up a custard tart from Lee's.

The price went up from $1 to $1.25, still relatively cheap and still delicious.

And then I stopped into Scratch Kitchen and Bake Shop to purchase this peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie..$2.75

At least they don't make you buy 3 now...loved the amount of peanut butter and chocolate in there, super rich!

Both were great for breakfast.

The weather is still hot and very humid in Hawaii with hurricanes/tropical depressions coming around almost every week...gah!

I've been hearing from friends in Osaka that it is getting cooler in early mornings and evenings, guess Autumn is approaching...

re-connect

Spent part of the day catching up with my friend, Aya today.

She recently moved back to Osaka. We've kept in touch through nengajo (New Years cards) as well as social media.

I hadn't realized it had been close to 10 years since we've seen each other...wow!

Lots of changes, lots of catching up and lots of good food.

Thanks for a great day Aya!

p.s. that tarte was from Qu'il Fait Bon

qu'il fait bon

The other weekend Satoshi and I tried Qu'il Fait Bon, a shop that sells all sorts of fruit tartes.

They have many shops around Japan and they opened one in Grand Front Osaka.

We've wanted to try this shop, but the line to eat there and the line to take out have been krazy!

Last weekend, Satoshi had something to do, so while I was waiting for him, I stood in line...an hour and a half later, I got us a table.

I ordered myself this fig and chocolate tarte (1080 yen) and some coffee.

So much fruit and the chocolate was on the dark side so it balanced things out.

> Satoshi ordered the kaki (persimmon) and chocolate tarte (648 yen) and some coffee.

Satoshi's tarte had lots of kaki on it too.

A bit pricey but we agreed that with the amount of fruit on these, they were definitely worth the wait.

Dunno when we'll be back, but we will be.

Qu'il Fait Bon
Grand Front Osaka South Building 2F
Phone: 06.6485.7090
Cafe: 10:00-21:00
Open when Grand Front Osaka is

p.s. today is Pocky Day!

sunday dinners

We had Sunday dinner at my Aunty's the other night.

In addition to all the delicious food, we ended with this beautiful mango tarte.

Apparently this year's mangoes are kinda scarce due to bad weather...boo!

Hope your week is going well.

miam miam

Sunday, Satoshi had to work, so he brought home some dessert from Miam Miam.

I think miam miam means "yum yum" in French.

Anyway, this particular patisserie makes fruit tarts.

He purchased a slice of orange tart.

And a slice of fruit tart.

The orange tart was a bit on the "tart" side, but packed with lots of oranges.

The fruit tart had a variety of fruits, and had a nice natural sweetness to it.

We've tried this shop's tarts before, and I thought I'd written about it, but apparently I didn't (if you find it in my archives, please tell me where I filed it).

We'll be back.

Miam Miam
Hankyu Umeda Department store 1F
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.0661.1381
Open and closed when Hankyu is

sundays

I think I've mentioned before that we get together with family for Sunday dinners. My mother and her sisters take turns cooking and we gather at the house which dinner is being cooked.

Last night was my Aunty M1's turn to cook, so we gathered at her house. Her husband is Swiss so we had a Swiss dish called Zurcher Geschnetzeltes, which is like beef stroganoff except it uses veal, or in this case, she used pork. It was delicious though I thought the gravy could have been a little thicker. We also had salad and some sauteed beans.

Dessert was this fabulous tart, made with fresh berries. The colors of the berries were so deep and the fruits were ripe and delicious. On top of that, the crust was perfect! nice and flaky.

It was nice to see my Aunty too, she and her husband travel a lot, so they are usually on the go.

I hope your Sunday was just as nice.

antenor

I had been eyeing this in the glass case of Antenor for some time now, but kept putting it off until last week.

Lemon tart 315 yen (about US$3.15).

A flaky crust (though I have eaten better crusts a.k.a. mom's), sponge cake, lemon curd, more sponge cake, more lemon curd, topped with spurts of whipped cream.

The lemon curd was tart, the custard was sweet...it was a good balance.

The box it comes in makes a nice little photography studio too.

addicted to...

Recently I've been addicted to roasting red peppers and then combining them with caramelized onions, eringi, a cheese and olives.

I wash the red peppers then put them into a 220C (425F) oven for 40 minutes. I've seen recipes which instruct you to coat them with oil before baking, but I don't. The oven does all the work and all I have to do is wait to peel them (oh, I do turn the peppers over halfway through). The peppers get so sweet and tender!

Last week, one dinner was a veggie wrap. I steamed some thinly sliced cabbage, then on a tortilla I added the cabbage, some caramelized onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese, roasted red pepper and eringi mushrooms....mmm.

For yet another dinner, it was my first time making a savory tart.

With a defrosted puff pastry sheet, I cut it in half then pricked it with a fork leaving a border.

I added goat cheese, caramelized onions, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers and eringi. I baked it for 30 minutes in a 200C (400F) oven.

As I was eating the tart, I wondered why I hadn't tried making this before...it was so delicious!

Flaky pastry plus that combination of flavors that I am hooked on at the moment....yummy! I paired it with a green salad and it was a simple, yet delicious dinner.

And on yet another night, we had goat cheese, eringi, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and red leaf lettuce toasted on a tortilla like a pizza.

Toasting the tortilla in the oven, the edges get really crispy....mmm.

Is there a flavor combination that you are hooked on at the moment?