onolicious hawai’i’s garlic shrimp

Kathy of Onolicious Hawai'i posted a garlic shrimp recipe and I finally got around to trying it.

It was simple and tasty.

• Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp from Onolicious Hawai'i
• 12 ounces shrimp (deveined, shell-on)
• 2 tablespoons mochiko
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• lemon

Devein the shrimp with the shell on and dry with paper towel (I used the toothpick method to devein)

Melt butter and add minced garlic and cook for about 3 minutes.

Take out of pan and set aside.

Dust the shrimp with mochiko, paprika, cayenne & salt.

Heat olive oil and place shrimp in pan in one layer and cook for 2 minutes on each side.

Add the garlic butter back to the pan and cook for another minute.

Squeeze lemon over and enjoy!

NOTES: the only hard part for me was deveining the shrimp with the shells on. The recipe comes together quickly. I would definitely make this again.

marenoya

There is a tiny daigaku imo shop in Kamata called Marenoya.

I had them bookmarked and when Satoshi and I were out walking, we noticed a line and stood in line for these.

Small size daigaku imo and thin cut daigaku imo.

These were delicious and not overly sweet.

I liked that they didn't stick to my teeth like some others do.

The thin cut was like eating sweet potato chips coated with the daigaku imo “caramel” sauce, some were crunchy and some were not.

We'll be back to try some of the other items on their menu.

Marenoya

3-2-1 Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 090.1777.1351

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 10:00-18:00

takeno to ohagi

The other day on Instagram, my friend told me about the double sakura (yaezakura) that bloom at Sakurashinmachi...thank you!

Since we were already out of the house, we made a special trip to check them out.

The whole street is lined with these yaezakura trees, so glad we were able to see this!

One place that I have had bookmarked in this area is Takeno to Ohagi.

It is a tiny shop that makes ohagi.

They are so popular that when they first opened they would sell out within the first half hour of opening!

I stood in line for 40 minutes to purchase these.

Apparently they have 7 flavors daily...so I purchased one of each.

Koshian (smooth sweet bean paste), sakura (pink), fava bean (green), berry (pink/mauve swirl), pumpkin & apple (yellow), tsubushian (chunky sweet bean paste), coconut & lemon peel (white).

These were delicious! not overly sweet.

The price for each varied but total for this was 1860 yen (tax included).

Definitely for special occasions, I'm glad we got to try this and will be back whenever I need a special gift for someone.

Takeno to Ohagi (2023 UPDATE: no longer at this address)

1-21-11 Sakurashinmachi

Setagaya, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6413.1227

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 12:00-18:00 or earlier if they sell out

ikegami station

Our station got a facelift last year and last month they opened up some shops in the building.

Our public library moved onto one of the floors of the station building and there is a Starbucks next to it.

Hoping to hang out here once this pandemic is over...
 

this and that

I went past that senior day care nearby and they had a pretty origami sakura tree.

Hibiya Park's tulips that Satoshi saw on his last day of work.

There was also a professional airman drawing happy faces around Tokyo. (you need to look at the photo upside down)

Satoshi didn't explain when he sent this so I didn't know what it was until the news did a story about it.

I had bought some lilies from the cute flower shop in our neighborhood. 

So happy they all bloomed.

I had this raisin bread in Asakusa bookmarked and found out it was sold at another shop also.

So when I went to the Ueno area, I picked up a small cinnamon raisin.

Packed to the gills with raisins...love!

So glad we got to try this and will definitely buy more whenever we are nearby.

Near Okachimachi is Tonkatsu Isen that has been around for at least 80 years.

They are supposedly the ones who invented the tonkatsu sandwich.

Their katsu is super tender that one is supposedly able to cut it with chopsticks.

Bummer the owner (a woman) was so cold. 

Still I'm glad we got to try them, and we will be back to try other items on their menu when dining in is safe.

The sandwich set up above also had egg salad and crab cucumber.

One thing to note is that they urge you to eat this sandwich within two hours of their making it. (um, please note that on your website!)

Was my first time to check out the cherry blossoms at Ueno.

I don’t know if they do this every year, but they had it sectioned off for one way traffic, to avoid crowding.

Too bad by the time I went most of the blooms had fallen.

Another week....leading into another weekend.

Can’t believe it has been a year since my cousin passed due to this virus.

Japan’s numbers are spiking due to the variants.

Our vaccinations are still moving at a snail’s pace.

Have a safe weekend!

Coffee &  Budopan Maizuru

3-33-9 Yushima

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3836.5406

Closed Sundays & Holidays

Hours: 10:00-18:00

Tonkatsu Isen

3-40-3 Yushima

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Phone: 050.5456.1802

Closed Wednesdays

Hours: 11:30-21:00 

*cash only

sakura walk (tamagawa)

 I went back to the Tamagawa area last Wednesday.

Here is a short video that I made with the Reels mode of Instagram.

There was music on it when I uploaded it to IG, but lost the music when I uploaded it to youtube.

Enjoy!

sakura walk (chidoricho + kugahara)

Tuesday, it was overcast but I walked through Chidoricho and up to Kugahara.

There is a huge tree near the Tenrikyo church.

A tiny pocket park with a huge sakura tree.

The cherry blossom season is always so short.