nose

Last Thursday, I met up with my friend Kazumi and she took me up to Nose (pronounced no-say). This area has a lot of farms, I think there is even a dairy.

We stopped at a roadside market and picked up some veggies. Everything was so cheap! I picked up some daikon, 2 for 60 yen (about US$.60) with the tops. Whenever you buy daikon in the supermarkets they cut off the tops! so you almost never get to cook with them, which is sad because the tops have lots of nutrients in them.

I also bought a package of spinach. There were about 8 small bunches in this package and only 105 yen (about US$1.05), a container of rakkyo (pickled scallions) for 600 yen (about US$6), this was the most expensive thing I bought but how can you go wrong with homemade?

We heard that if we had come earlier there would have been a better selection, still, we were happy with our purchases.

After buying our produce, we stopped into their restaurant for lunch. Their food is all homemade. We had their tofu hamburger set 840 yen (about US$8.40), this came with lots of different veggie dishes and the hamburger which had tofu mixed in. It also came with kodaimai (purple/reddish rice) which was also delicious.

After our filling lunch, we went to check out a little cafe nearby called Yamaboshi. This cafe just opened in April and Kazumi knew the architect who built it.

They have a light lunch menu and a dessert menu. We tried their dessert plate and we were so stuffed afterwards! The plate comes with a slice of chiffon cake, your choice of the dessert of the day and your choice of the gelatin dessert. All that with drink only 800 yen (about US$8), definitely worth the price (sorry no photo!).

The coasters were cute too, made to look like those origami aloha shirts.

On the top floor of the cafe is a little quilting school.

It was a great little cafe.

With the veggies I bought from the roadside market, I made takuan with the daikon. The recipe I used needed to be doctored, so I won't share it with you. Let's just say until I doctored it, it was super sour!

With the tops of the daikon, I blanched them and chopped them up. With half of the tops, I added 1 can tuna (drained), 1 tablespoon yogurt (placed on cloth for 20 minutes to get out water), 1 teaspoon mayo. Mix well and top with sesame seeds.

The spinach, I wilted and served with ponzu (citrus soy sauce).

Here was our dinner on Sunday...kim chee with mushrooms, takuan, rakkyo, kodaimai, spinach with ponzu, green beans with lemon and dill & daikon leaves with tuna.

These are the times I wish we had a car, so I can go veggie shopping here. Thanks for a great day Kazumi!

Cafe Yamaboshi
45-86 Morigami
Nosecho, Toyono-gun
Osaka
Phone: 072.734.2227
Open 11:00-17:00
Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

p.s. with the other half of the daikon tops, a made a kind of furikake...heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, add 50 grams of chirimen jakko (dried young sardines), toss. Add the blanched and chopped daikon tops, toss. Then lastly add 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds. After everything is coated in the oil. Take off the heat and serve over rice.