back to kitchen croquette

Friday, went to pick up lunch at Kitchen Croquette.

This shop is one we discovered during the pandemic.

I got the daily bento...Cod with lemon leek sauce.

Tarekatsu (fried pork with a sweet salty shoyu based sauce)

Roast chicken (the meat was dry (probably breast meat) but the skin was crispy and had the right amount of salt)

Hijiki

Daigaku imo (sweet potato coated with a caramel sauce)

I forgot that they can switch out white rice for mixed grain rice (it costs a little more too), so I ended up with white rice...at least I asked for a smaller amount of rice and they took off 20 yen...630 yen (tax included)

I also got their milk pudding for us to try...it comes with a coffee black sugar sauce...170 yen (tax included) each.

Both the bento and pudding were delicious...the coffee black sugar sauce was a little bitter but still a little sweet and got the thumbs up from Satoshi.

The owner had been sick earlier this year, so I'm glad I was able to have their bento again.

The shop is not too close to where we live, so I'll try to walk out here whenever possible. 

oh em gee

The last time we went to Takeuchi Bakery, their sign for roll castella caught my eye "after" I came out of the store.

Apparently they only sell this on Saturdays.

It is similar to swiss rolls except they use castella for the cake.

The castella is filled with buttercream.

Oh em gee.

The castella as well as the buttercream is so light! not dense and dry like some castella can be.

It was so hard to slice without "squishing" it but we got 4 nice sized slices.

Only 410 yen (tax included) 

They also have plain castella filled with raspberry jam and raisin dotted castella filled with buttercream.

Most bakeries have been raising their prices due to various costs going up, Takeuchi Bakery will be raising their prices in May.

I’m glad we tried this and will definitely get it again the next time we are here.

sakura walk

Saturday, Satoshi had an online thingy with some tour guide friends, so I went to Umeyashiki to pick up our lunch.

Been watching this house because it has a huge sakura tree in their garden!

I’m glad I got to see it bloom.

The bakery I planned to pick up lunch from was not open, and the sign said they would be closed for awhile...hope the owners are okay...

So, I went a little further to Sakaeya Bakery.

Nearby is a park which we saw wisteria at last year.

Too early for wisteria, but, they had lots of sakura.

I hadn't realized that this park is called Former Nomigawa Green Space Park.

The park is at least a mile long (I think)

Loved the look of this house especially with all the plants.

Caught this one waiting for someone to let him in.

Crossing the tracks you could see some sakura...

This is the current Nomigawa.

Then after eating lunch, Satoshi and I went towards Tamagawa.

This is the view from the Tamagawadai Park.

Next door is the Tamagawa Sengen Shrine.

Cannot touch all the power stones now...pandemic protected.

View from the Shrine.

Tamagawa had tons of people.

Little uncomfortable for me to see these crowds.

But, you should’ve seen all the food & booze! was kind of like pre-pandemic…

27055...short video here.

ps this may the last sakura walk for the year, it rained all day Sunday and is forecast to rain all day today (Monday) too.

Hoping next year we all can travel.

9232

Went to Oomori yesterday to buy some coffee beans.

I had thought these sakura trees were kawazuzakura but looked at our ward's page and these were noted as a variety called yoko.

Love the dark pink color.

While waiting for the train to leave...love the anime type billboards.

Cup sake...bought the sake for hubs and the cups for me...he he

Neko neko bread...these are supposed to be strawberry swirled.

We ate this with cream cheese this morning and it was so good.

You could smell the strawberry as it toasted.

This type of bread is a bit pricey to eat every day (250 yen or so, a slice), but would be nice to give away.

300 yen (tax included) bento from Oogoshi.

Croquette and grilled salmon.

Delicious.

I also purchased some kinmedai nitsuke (simmered splendid alfonsino)...400 yen (tax included) each for our dinner.

Love how they also pack some "gravy", to pour on top when I reheated this.

The wind was fahreezing yesterday but it was nice to get out and about after the rain/snow.

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) 

on a walk

Been enjoying the store fronts on our walks...most are barber shops

Look how teeny the delivery car is for 7-eleven...

We've gone past this arare shop several times...I think they may be out of business since we've never seen them open...

We checked out Nichieido Bakery...we purchased their fried shrimp, yakisoba, curry pan, chocolate coronet and rock cake...everything was a little over baked....

I ate the curry pan...it was filled nicely with curry from end to end.

A little oily but still delicious.

I also ate the rock cake...it really was on the harder side luckily not as hard as rock…it was like a biscuit with raisins.

I don't know if we'll be back, but it was nice to try them.

I love the look of this chinese restaurant and hope to eat here when our number go down and our boosters kick in...

Nichieido Bakery

6-3-2 Omorinishi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3761.5991

Closed Sundays

Hours: 6:30-19:00

umeyashiki park

We just discovered Umeyashiki Park which is near the tracks of the Keikyu line.

In the Edo period, many apricot/plum trees used to grow here.

And the Emperor Meiji is said to have visited this area often.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, a large Imperial villa once stood on the grounds which apparently used to be 3000 tsubo (106,749 square feet).

I read somewhere that said there were 100 or so tree, but there weren’t that many and not a lot were in bloom yet.

There was also an flower bed area where iris (ayame) bloom in May.

At one end of the park is a small sumo ring, locked behind a gate so kids don’t play on it as it is supposed to be sacred, not sure if it is used often.

This park reminded me of Suigetsu Park in Osaka but way smaller and not as well taken cared of.

Still, I'm glad we got to check this park out.

kirin coffee

Back in April we took out Kirin Coffee's egg sandwich.

Fast forward to October and we had lunch there.

I ordered their spice curry...the coffee rice is cooked with coffee, surprisingly it wasn't bitter.

Their curry was rich with chunks of beef, carrots and potatoes.

Satoshi ordered their udon napolitan.

The noodles cooked until soft and their tomato sauce is not sweet.

Both meals come with a small salad and drink of choice.

I ordered an iced coffee while Satoshi ordered hot coffee.

Love their different coffee cups.

Kirin means giraffe in Japanese and you can find giraffes just about everywhere in the cafe.

Love the sink outside of the bathroom too.

Everything was delicious and we already know what we want to eat the next time, we'll be back.

Kirin Coffee

7-7-20 Omorinishi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6424.4275

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Hours: Weekdays 7:00-20:00, Saturdays & Sundays 8:30-20:00

on a walk

Saturday it was blazing but we decided to go on a walk...

The house that had that plumeria tree, now has 3 more!

First time to see white agapanthus.

Sorry my finger in the way again...we met a new friend.

He was actually out looking for the dogs that had passed a couple minutes before.

Oomori Furusato Hamabe Park...when we first explored this area, we were looking for the sandy beach...here it is!

The water and sand looked gross to me (am totally spoiled with beaches in Hawaii!)

On the way to the park, we picked up sandwiches from Takeuchi Bakery and Sakaeya Bakery and had lunch on a bench

It was nice to be outside and take off our masks for a little bit.

The park has pergolas, pavilions and benches, so there were many people having lunch or just talking (with their masks on) to friends

There were also many people sun bathing or walking their dogs.

The park also has beach volleyball courts...the sand looks nicer here!

On our walk home, we saw some houses covered in vines.

Social distancing at the bus stop...

The humidity was pretty nasty especially with masks on and our legs were jelly from all that walking, it was still nice to be able to get out.