revenge

Last year, we went on a tour to see Mount Fuji from 16 different locations, which I kind of wrote about here.

The Japanese like to use the word "revenge" to mean that they will "try something again".

I think the word "revenge" is very negative, don't you?!

So, we're trying this tour again...cross your fingers that we'll be able to see more of Mount Fuji this time around.

foodie sunday in kobe

Sunday was my birthday, it was also a day before the start of Chinese New Year, so we headed to Kobe...

Instead of fighting the crowds in Chinatown, we ate at a yoshoku-ya (western style), Grill Ippei. According to their website, they opened their first shop in 1952 in the Shinkaichi area of Kobe.

The one we ate at was their Motomachi shop, which is near the East gate of Chinatown.

Luckily, we got there soon after they opened and there wasn't a line (yet).

I ordered their tan-stew (beef tongue) simmered until fork tender.

This came with a salad and rice or bread, I chose rice but afterwards thought I should've ordered bread to mop up the demi-glace sauce...

At 2200 yen (tax included) this was totally worth it.

Satoshi ordered their "C" set 1900 (tax included), his meal came with potage (soup), some salad, fried fish, fried shrimp and pork sauteed with onions and other veggies. His plate also had some potato salad, slices of ham and a little macaroni coated with tomato sauce. (no photo).

Everything that other customers were ordering looked good too, we'll be back!

Just around the corner from Grill Ippei is Coffee Labo Frank. Last year, I visited their stand-up coffee shop called Coffee Stand Frank.

Since then, they moved to this new address.

We liked the laid back feel and their coffee good.

We'll be back.

I'm not sure how I found about Kissa Maruo, but I have had them bookmarked for some time now.

The reason is their "William"...a whole apple pie...650 yen (tax included). I am not sure, but think it might be named after "William Tell"...

We took this home and heated this up in the oven at home and served it with some vanilla ice cream.

The crust was disappointing, really mushy.

We liked the apple and custard type filling.

I'm glad we got to try this.

At Ça Marche, we picked up some items to have with wine and other nibbles.

A beet and pastrami sandwich (we got two), some olive bread and a cheese bread filled with 3 cheeses and some bacon.

Although the wind was icy, the sun was out and it was a delicious way to celebrate.

Grill Ippei
2-5-6 Motomachi-dori
Kobe, Hyogo
Phone: 078.331.1144
Closed Mondays
Hours: 11:00-20:30

Coffee Labo Frank
3-3-2 Motomachi-dori, Imagawa Building 3F
Kobe, Hyogo
Phone: n/a
Hours: 12:00-19:00

Kissa Maruo
3-9-22 Motomachi-dori
Kobe, Hyogo
Phone: 078.331.0575
Closed Thursdays
Hours: 8:00-20:00

kung hee fat choy!

It's the start of Chinese New Year...the year of the monkey (fire monkey), which apparently occurs every 60 years.

We purchased these cute zodiac candies from Ogurasanso, earlier this year.

Not all the animals were recognizable, though.

They were still fun to look at and taste good too.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

genti osier

Yesterday, I got together with my host mom, host brother's wife and my host sister for lunch.

It's been awhile since my host sister has been able to join us.

While the food at Genti Osier wasn't too good, the dessert service was nice and it was nice to be able to catch up with everyone over lunch.

My host mom and I also celebrated our birthdays early.

I'm glad we've been able to keep in touch over the years. (Thank you!)

Have a nice weekend!

Genti Osier
2-8-9 Kitano-cho, Ijinkan club Part 2, 1F
Kobe, Hyogo
Phone: 078.231.2815
Closed Tuesdays
Hours: 11:30-22:00

freedom kitchen

I've passed Freedom Kitchen several times, just never when they were open.

I finally tried their bento...680 yen (tax included).

A salted musubi, one with nuts, and a slightly sweet miso musubi.

Rolled omelette, honey mustard sweet potato, papaya pickles.

A piece of grilled salted fish, spinach goma-ae and daikon kinpira

I really enjoyed this bento.

Lots of different items. My favorite was the musubi with nuts.

Roasted and a little salt, a nice substitution in place of furikake.

I snapped a picture of the menu so that I would know what I was eating and so that I could blog about it.

I'll be back.

Freedom Kitchen (UPDATE: 2018: changed location to 1-16-28 Sakura)
1-2-16 Sakura
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.725.0621
Hours: 11:00-17:00
Closed Sundays and some Saturdays

la terrasse

Saturday we tried La Terrasse.

On the weekends, their lunch menu is actually their dinner menu.

Satoshi and I chose two items and shared.

This mixed fry...1300 yen (tax not included)...meh! what a rip off.

A piece of fish (fried to death), two pieces of calamari and two teeny shrimp.

The bacon mushroom pizza on the other hand was good!

And cheaper than that fried plate...1100 yen (tax not included).

We loved the crust.

We also added salads and coffees..300 yen (tax not included) per person.

Aside from the pizza, this place is probably more popular for their desserts.

We'll probably be back to try the desserts, not soon though.

La Terrasse
Grand Front Umekita B1
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6485.7788
Hours: 10:00-22:00
Open when Grand Front is

p.s. tomorrow is Setsubun, if you are celebrating and eating ehomaki, the direction this year is south-south-east.

cool

When I was cooking the brussels sprouts, I had initially thrown the top into the garbage.

Then I looked online and realized you can eat the top too.

Luckily, there wasn't any garbage in my bin yet, so I fished it out.

After rinsing it and chopping it up, I added it to our vegetable soup the other night.

This was a bit tougher than "cabbage" more like kale.

A nice addition to our soup and now I know we can eat it too.