saijiki

Lunch on Saturday was at Saijiki.

Actually our first choice was a bust, so we popped into this place.

I ordered the subuta (sweet sour pork) teishoku (set meal)...spinach, shishito (pepper), pumpkin, tofu, salad, miso soup, pickles and kuromame (black bean) rice...850 yen.

Satoshi ordered the jagaimo (potato) carbonara, his dish also came with all the same sides that mine did, so I only took a picture of his main dish...800 yen.

We had envisioned noodles made from raw potato or something to that effect, not potatoes topped with a cream sauce.

Still, Satoshi said he enjoyed it.

A nice thing about this place is that at the time we went for lunch (about 11:30), it wasn't crowded...we'll be back.

Saijiki (UPDATE:2016 no longer in business)
6-18 Chayamachi
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6373.1587
Lunch: 11:00-14:00
Cafe: 11:30-17:00
Dinner: 17:00-23:00

fun

It was as if these people were looking for this cat and it silently went through the building behind them un-noticed...

Happy Sunday!

wi-fi

We just got this portable wi-fi router. Our internet provider said for an extra 300 yen a month, we could use this router for 2 years.

Pretty good deal as my cell phone provider wants to charge 490 yen a month for wi-fi service at their gazillion spots.

Since we still have our LAN service (we still have a laptop not a tablet), I didn't set up our computer to use the wi-fi, just my iPhone.

Next step is to get Satoshi to start using a smartphone, though he's waiting for the iPhone 5...

Oh and our rainy season has started...let the humidity and uncomfortableness begin...

meatless gyu suki ni

"Gyu suki ni" from what I can find on the internet is a dish that tastes similar to sukiyaki, but instead of being eaten from a hot pot, the ingredients are simmered in the sweet-salty sauce and served with rice.

If you know some Japanese, you'll know that "gyu" means beef, so the main ingredient should be that, but during the week, we try to eat meatless dinners, so I tried this recipe, minus the meat.

Meatless Gyu Suki Ni : 4 servings

1 package maitake (hen of wood), pulled apart
1 package eringi, sliced
1/4 orange bell pepper, diced
1/4 onion, sliced thin
1 block of konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly), the size of your palm, cubed
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
thinly sliced green onions

Sauce: adapted from NHK "Kyo no ryori"
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon sugar

Saute your veggies in the olive oil, when the onions become a little transparent, add the sauce.
Simmer in the sauce for at least 5 minutes.

Serve over rice, sprinkle with some green onions.

NOTES: the konnyaku and mushrooms have enough texture so that you don't miss the meat. I'm making this again.

Since I used only 2 servings of the 4, with the leftovers, I added some broccoli, a scrambled egg and an 85 gram piece of tofu when I heated the leftovers up for our dinner yesterday.

I again served this over rice....yum!

It's Friday here, hope you have a great weekend!

foodie saturday

Did you get to see the transit of Venus yesterday? We did. Well at first, there were clouds here and there.

This "event" wasn't as popular as the solar eclipse last month, but the great thing about this one was that it was all morning, so you could "check-in" with it off and on.

I gotta say though, "Venus is so teeny in comparison to the sun!" When Satoshi first looked at it, he was like "Where? Where?"

Apparently the next time to see this is 2117?! so, I hope you all got a chance to see it...

This past Saturday we headed to Umeda to have lunch before Satoshi's German language class.

We chose Ken's curry, in the Yodobashi Camera building because there was no line to get in.

You buy your meal ticket from the machine outside the shop and pass it along to the staff inside.

I chose the spinach curry topped with cheese...780 yen for the curry, 100 yen for the cheese.

Satoshi went with the seasonal vegetable curry...850 yen. This was topped with some takenoko (bamboo shoots) as well as other veggies.

My only peeve about this place was that it took so long for us to get our orders. There is a guy in the center of the "O" shaped counter that fills a small pot with some curry and passes it into the kitchen where they cook everything.

I swear they were cooking everything from scratch with the amount of time it took.

While I enjoyed the taste of the curry, which was a little spicy, their service was a little too slow and price-wise I think they were a little higher than the curry we had last week.

After lunch, Satoshi had some time before his class so we headed to the basement of the Yodobashi Camera building for some coffee at Barissimo.

Apparently the name is a fusion of "barista" and "-issimo" (which apparently means the best in Italian)

Satoshi had a regular coffee while I went with their cafe cioccolata (a hot chocolate with a shot of espresso)...rich and chocolatey!

Then Satoshi was off to his class and I was off to do some window shopping.

What did you do last Saturday?

Ken's Curry (UPDATE: 2016 no longer in business)
Yodobashi Camera Umeda Building 8F
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6292.4003

Barissimo (UPDATE:2018 no longer in business)
Yodobashi Camera Umeda Building B1F
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6375.5681

momo

In Japanese, peach is momo. You may have heard the story of Momotaro (peach boy)?!

Anyway, with summer upon us, the stone fruits are starting to pop up in the markets. Some, like the bing cherries are imported. But the bulk, like peaches and plums are local (meaning, grown somewhere in Japan).

I bought these peaches they were a little small, only the size of a tiny fist and only weighed about 100 grams each. They also weren't as expensive as they can sometimes get...298 yen.

These were good, the skin just peeled right off and the fruit was very juicy and sweet.

Looks like rainy season will start sometime next week for us...definitely not looking forward to that, but am looking forward to more of these summer fruits.

What fruits are you enjoying these days?

this and that

Last night, there was a partial lunar eclipse, but we couldn't see it, it was too cloudy...boo!

Were you able to see it from your area?

Anyway, I don't know about you, but sometimes, I just need junk food.

Jagabee by Calbee is great, they look like fries and they are crunchy.

They recently came out with a curry flavor. (I think curry is trending this summer, don't you?!)

Some of their flavors are hit or miss, but I liked this one along with the original flavor (plain).

What are some snacks that you enjoy?