l-o-n-g

Back in February I witnessed this l-o-n-g line in our shopping arcade.

Luckily Satoshi was with me because he was the one who told me what was going on.

At 20:30, the sozai (pre-made food) shop has a 50% off sale on everything.

The shop is where that orange awning is...and here I thought these shops never bring their prices down.

Amazing!

things I'm liking (disliking)

Some random things I'm liking and disliking...I'm liking these cookies by Harney & Sons.

The chocolate one is called Earl Grey Supreme and is flavored with earl grey supreme tea, citrus peel, cocoa and chocolate chips.

The white one is called SOHO and is flavored with tea, coconut, chocolate chips.

Super crunchy with lots of flavor.

I'm bummed though because these cookies are made with margarine, should've read the label better...

The cyclamen is blooming and brightening up our living room. This plant has been with us for over 10 years now.

These cupcakes called Hachimitsu Altena. Hachimitsu is honey in Japanese and Altena is a city in Germany.

These cupcakes are made by Konigs Krone, a confection maker in Kobe. We got these from my host-brother's wife. She gave us four, chocolate, matcha (green tea), tea (earl grey) and coffee.

The cakes are moist and rich, there is a little honey "crust" at the bottom and lots of chestnuts.

You can either eat it as is, or zap it for 20 seconds in the micro to warm it up. Either way it is pretty awesome. (Thank you!)

I'm liking this division for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

I saw this while walking in Tennoji and am glad that everyone keeps to their area, sometimes it gets crazy scary when bicycles zoom around us pedestrians...

I'm sure it is just as scary for bicycles with cars...

This black ramen by Ippudo.

It is curry based and they give you a bib so you don't get your clothes dirty when slurping. Kinda like eating squid ink?

This ramen had char siu, buttered corn, cabbage with balsamic reduction, and fried onions. Talk about different textures and flavors.

Too bad this one is only on their menu for a limited time.

This baguette with a slab of chocolate by Iena.

Toast it and the chocolate gets all oozy while the baguette crisps up...so good with coffee!

The croissant donut and fuwafuwa (fluffy) donut from Donuts Dept.

The croissant is filled with a custard cream, dipped in a little chocolate and topped with diced peanuts.

The fuwafuwa donuts is just that, fluffy goodness.

I love this little shop!

From Tada farms in Iwate, Tohoku, their chocolate pudding.

So rich and I love that hard layer on the top.

Speaking of Tohoku, I'm sending some good thoughts their way today.

What have you been liking?

tartan nady

The other day, while it was flurry-ing, I took a rather long walk to Toyonaka and had lunch at Tartan Nady.

It had been over 10 years since I had eaten here (pre-blog). I had actually forgotten where the shop was actually located, but I was glad to re-connect with it.

I ordered their Tartan Nady lunch...1029 yen.

This lunch set came with 2 curries (mixed vegetable and chicken curry), a salad, a drumette and naan.

The salad and drumette were shoyu based.

The mixed vegetable curry was tomato based and wasn't spicy at all, I enjoyed all the different veggies like okra, cauliflower and zucchini.

I liked the spiciness of the chicken curry and the big chunks of chicken that were in there.

The naan was crisp on the side that stuck to the oven and fluffy on the side that puffs up when baking....mmm!

I'm glad this restaurant is still around and I hope to be back again for lunch soon!

Tartan Nady
3-11-45 Mukaigaoka, Rosa Mukaigaoka 1F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6852.0950
Open everyday: lunch 11:30-15:00, dinner: 18:00-23:00

room cafe roca

One of my friends on Tabera (Japan's Instagram for food) uploaded a sign that Room Cafe Roca was closing at the end of the month.

I went to try them this past Tuesday.

A small cafe, they have seats at their counter as well as a few tables and a sofa.

Their lunch starts at 11:30 and I was amazed at how many were there waiting for them to open.

They have a daily lunch, which I ordered...800 yen, this comes with miso soup and brown rice.

Fried fish, tofu hamburger and salad with renkon (lotus root) and hakusai (chinese cabbage)

You can also order some items a la carte, but from what I saw, most customers were ordering their daily lunch.

It did take some time for the food to come out but their food was delicious and relatively on the the healthy side.

It's a shame they are closing at the end of the month, but I'm glad I got to try them.

Room Cafe Roca (UPDATE: 2014 closed)
1-29-16 Shinmachi, #5 Nakamura Kousan B1
Nishi-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6532.1524
Closed Sundays & Holidays
Hours: 11:30-16:30 Mondays to Thursdays, 11:30-21:00 Fridays & Saturdays

on a walk (or two)

The weather is still crazy, we had flurries again yesterday.

The temperature wasn't even very low it was like 7C (44F)...still I have been getting out and walking...

Caught these girls with their make-shift basketball hoop.

It is actually a contraption used to hang clothes to dry. They were shooting the ball over the horizontal pole and making the girl up top fetch the ball.

I noticed these sasanqua trees.

Love all the pink petals scattered on the ground.

A car company that sells import cars.

Tried to catch a shot of this cat on the other side of his house, he thought he could out smart me, but I found him...

I've been taking my photos with my phone and sometimes I can't see what I'm taking because of the glare on the screen.

I thought I didn't snap this MINI, but when I looked at the photo I took, there it was.

What have you been seeing on your walks?

a terre

Yesterday, we woke up to white roof tops and flurries throughout the day...crazy yeah?!

On to today's post...I've written about A Terre before.

Well, on one of my walks back near the end of February, I stopped in to pick up some of their desserts.

Their puits d'amour (wells of love) and blanc fonce (white and dark).

A crème brûlée tucked into a flaky tarte... After breaking into the caramel shell, the custard cream oozed out, oh wow, this was good.

The blanc fonce (hazelnut slice) paled in comparison but was still delicious.

The puits d'amour only appears on the weekends, so go early.

We'll definitely be back.

It's Friday here, I hope you have a nice weekend.

blueberry soda

The weather here is far from being summery, but blueberries are in the markets, so it was my chance to try this recipe I saw in "USA Today" when I was in Hawaii last year.

Blueberry syrup : makes about 2 cups from "USA Today: Weekend" Anton Nocito, October 2013
1.5 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar
9 tablespoons lemon juice

you can find a detailed recipe, here.

NOTES: I cut this recipe to 1/4 because I didn't know how it would taste, and because well, we shouldn't be drinking THAT much soda...

The recipe says to strain it, but I left the blueberries in...why waste?!

Also, the recipe says to add 3 tablespoons to a tall glass with ice. But I didn't know how tall the glass had to be, so I just added a teaspoon to my "short" glass and topped it with soda water.

I'm sure you could add more syrup to taste.

This was super refreshing. And it reminded me of the berry soda I had at Corridor.

Too bad our weather hit a cold snap and we are still below 50F...I'd definitely make this one again though.