No, it's not what you think. Yesterday, after a full day of eating and sightseeing-- starting off with pastries bought the previous day for breakfast, more Japanese pastries as a midmorning snack (fried curry bun and cornflake-crusted fried salmon cream cheese-filled anpan), a bento lunch at an izakaya, expensive Japanese desserts at a place serving items similar to Kyotofu in Manhattan, green tea and bean dessert at a traditional tea ceremony at the Imperial Hotel, dinner at a traditional yakitori in an alley where we were the only non-Japanese clientele, and a secondary takeout dinner of unagi and rice-- Ivan and I each had the BEST BEST BEST in-room massages ever. The crazy thing was, it was on the bed in the hotel while wearing comfy pj's and the masseuses were two tiny little Japanese grandmas who rang the doorbell in professional white uniforms and carrying little white tote bags. At first, I thought, no way, what can they really do? But they really put their weight into massaging out all the knots and kinks in my shoulders and neck. If blindfolded, I would've thought it was a 200-pound guy performing an intense sports therapy massage, and not a 90-pound 70-something year old obasan. Crazy! Wow!
Yesterday, while exiting the Shinjuku station, we noticed a donut stand inside that made me look twice. My FAVORITE donut place (aside from Leonard's malasadas in Hawaii of course), Donut Plant in NYC, has a stand in Tokyo. No joke. Even thought it seems wrong to eat donuts in Tokyo, they have some flavors I haven't seen in NYC before --such as green tea with azuki bean. I plan on trying that and the blackout one today (chocolate donut with chocolate filling). YUM!!!!
-Sandra
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The lengths we go for an amazing meal
**This post was started 20 minutes after the meal ended, but I was soooo beat, I had go to sleep. The sequence of food encounters will be out of order because we still have to write about the food on the tour, and Tsukiji this morning!
__________
Day 1 Dinner
I'm a soba fan and I've only been to one fresh made soba place in my life (it's on King Street in Hawaii). Naturally, I wanted to find a hand made soba place in Japan. Tonight, we did just that.
I was so beat having woken up at 4:00am and going all the way till 6pm on our Tokyo tour. The guide book we brought on this trip highlighted a place that has been serving soba for the last two centuries, and it happened to be near our hotel.
We sought off to an address near the known red light district in Japan. Being Wednesday at 7:10pm, the streets were quite quiet and to the passing non Japanese reading eye, the area was just like any back alley commercial district in Japan. Look a little closer and you begin to notice some fishy/questionable/down right explicit advertisements and shops.
Following the directions given in the guide book, we ended up at the approximate location looking for a green sign. Green was no where to be seen, but, there was a white sign with Soba in Hiragana (Japanese alphabet) on it. I made the quick assumption that this was the restaurant we were looking for. The restaurant probably decided to change it's sign to avoid a throng of foreigners taking up too many seats and thus drive away their regular patrons.
Upon entering, we were greeted with the typical chorus of Irasaimasei. The place sat 20 at most. Arriving around 7:15pm we were patrons 2 and 3. According to the guidebook, the place is open from 7pm-4am...hmmm. The menu was already on the table - in Japanese only. With my best attempt at deciphering the menu, I could only make out soba, mountain, water, and fish. After mumbling with Sandra a few minutes, I mustered up courage to use the limited Japanese that remained in my head from the days I went to Japanese school (1st-5th grade). Eigo hanashi maska? Do you speak English? He didn't respond to my question directly, but he did say 'Eigo, hai' and promptly handed us an English menu. Hurdle 1 surpassed.
Sandra ordered smoked duck hot soba, I ordered conger eel tempura hot soba and we started with crab tofu.
The crab tofu came first. You would expect some shredded crab, on top of some tofu. But no, it was 6 1 inch cubes of dark green (think green tea ice cream) tofu served with wasabi. We questioningly took a bite and we were in instant crab heaven. The tofu was infused with a deep sweet crab flavor. Coupled with some course grated fresh wasabi (you could feel the lumps) and the tofu was even sweeter. The tofu texture was also different. Tofu in the US is often more on the gelatin side than what you would expect of a ground soy bean product. But, this was TOFU for sure. Sandra and I conjectured that instead of using water to make the tofu, a crab broth was used. For what was probably half the size of a Mori-Nu tofu back home, it was still worth the 800 yen/8.00US.
Next came the soba. As a hot soup dish, it hit the spot because it was about 40 degrees out, and we had just gone through an exhausting 10 hour bus tour. The broth was definitely fresh - we found bits of orange peel, and sliced ginko nut at the bottom of the soup. The noodles at the beginning of the meal was firm and slightly chewy. By the end of the meal, they were a bit soft - but that's what happens with hot soba. I wish I had it cold - then the noodle texture/freshness would totally have been showcased, but thats ok. It was still damn good. My 3 pieces of conger eel tempura was very delicious- super fresh firm texture/ bone free/ and a nice white flesh. That deserved an oooiiishiiii. Half way through the meal, as I looked out the window, contemplating the wonderful flavors I was experiencing, the large LCD screen across the way quickly reminded me of the district I was in. I'll leave it at that.
Sandra's smoked duck soba came with thinly sliced duck, and large leeks as the accompaniment, and the same soba and soup base.
Awesome meal number 1.
Ivan
__________
Day 1 Dinner
I'm a soba fan and I've only been to one fresh made soba place in my life (it's on King Street in Hawaii). Naturally, I wanted to find a hand made soba place in Japan. Tonight, we did just that.
I was so beat having woken up at 4:00am and going all the way till 6pm on our Tokyo tour. The guide book we brought on this trip highlighted a place that has been serving soba for the last two centuries, and it happened to be near our hotel.
We sought off to an address near the known red light district in Japan. Being Wednesday at 7:10pm, the streets were quite quiet and to the passing non Japanese reading eye, the area was just like any back alley commercial district in Japan. Look a little closer and you begin to notice some fishy/questionable/down right explicit advertisements and shops.
Following the directions given in the guide book, we ended up at the approximate location looking for a green sign. Green was no where to be seen, but, there was a white sign with Soba in Hiragana (Japanese alphabet) on it. I made the quick assumption that this was the restaurant we were looking for. The restaurant probably decided to change it's sign to avoid a throng of foreigners taking up too many seats and thus drive away their regular patrons.
Upon entering, we were greeted with the typical chorus of Irasaimasei. The place sat 20 at most. Arriving around 7:15pm we were patrons 2 and 3. According to the guidebook, the place is open from 7pm-4am...hmmm. The menu was already on the table - in Japanese only. With my best attempt at deciphering the menu, I could only make out soba, mountain, water, and fish. After mumbling with Sandra a few minutes, I mustered up courage to use the limited Japanese that remained in my head from the days I went to Japanese school (1st-5th grade). Eigo hanashi maska? Do you speak English? He didn't respond to my question directly, but he did say 'Eigo, hai' and promptly handed us an English menu. Hurdle 1 surpassed.
Sandra ordered smoked duck hot soba, I ordered conger eel tempura hot soba and we started with crab tofu.
The crab tofu came first. You would expect some shredded crab, on top of some tofu. But no, it was 6 1 inch cubes of dark green (think green tea ice cream) tofu served with wasabi. We questioningly took a bite and we were in instant crab heaven. The tofu was infused with a deep sweet crab flavor. Coupled with some course grated fresh wasabi (you could feel the lumps) and the tofu was even sweeter. The tofu texture was also different. Tofu in the US is often more on the gelatin side than what you would expect of a ground soy bean product. But, this was TOFU for sure. Sandra and I conjectured that instead of using water to make the tofu, a crab broth was used. For what was probably half the size of a Mori-Nu tofu back home, it was still worth the 800 yen/8.00US.
Next came the soba. As a hot soup dish, it hit the spot because it was about 40 degrees out, and we had just gone through an exhausting 10 hour bus tour. The broth was definitely fresh - we found bits of orange peel, and sliced ginko nut at the bottom of the soup. The noodles at the beginning of the meal was firm and slightly chewy. By the end of the meal, they were a bit soft - but that's what happens with hot soba. I wish I had it cold - then the noodle texture/freshness would totally have been showcased, but thats ok. It was still damn good. My 3 pieces of conger eel tempura was very delicious- super fresh firm texture/ bone free/ and a nice white flesh. That deserved an oooiiishiiii. Half way through the meal, as I looked out the window, contemplating the wonderful flavors I was experiencing, the large LCD screen across the way quickly reminded me of the district I was in. I'll leave it at that.
Sandra's smoked duck soba came with thinly sliced duck, and large leeks as the accompaniment, and the same soba and soup base.
Awesome meal number 1.
Ivan
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Morning 1
Oh, it's about 4:20am here. This is not the first time I woke up this morning. The first time was 1:50am having gone to sleep around 10:30pm. My eyes shot open, and I was ready to embark on our 1 day Tokyo tour. http://www.city-discovery.com/tokyo/tour.php?id=1355
My closest friends know that I have a ridiculous body clock. My wake up pattern since last wednesday: 5:30am, 5:30, 5:30, 7:30, 6:30, 5:30. It's nearly impossible for me to sleep in. I'm obliging to stay up this morning because we're going to Tsujiki fish market tomorrow, and that requires a 4:30am wake up call.
Sandra was concerned that we weren't going to have time to blog...but at this rate, I've got at least two hours in the morning before she wakes up.
While looking for dinner last night, we crossed paths with an El Torito, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme in under 3 minutes. Global economy.
My closest friends know that I have a ridiculous body clock. My wake up pattern since last wednesday: 5:30am, 5:30, 5:30, 7:30, 6:30, 5:30. It's nearly impossible for me to sleep in. I'm obliging to stay up this morning because we're going to Tsujiki fish market tomorrow, and that requires a 4:30am wake up call.
Sandra was concerned that we weren't going to have time to blog...but at this rate, I've got at least two hours in the morning before she wakes up.
While looking for dinner last night, we crossed paths with an El Torito, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme in under 3 minutes. Global economy.
In Japan!
There's so much to write about....I don't know where to start. I'm not going to even try to write about the wedding itself, the wonderful people who came, and the great friends who helped out in my current insomniac like state. So, more on that later. Probably way later. But, thanks for everyone who came and everyone who helped out. Sandra and I loved the way it turned out.
After 3-4 nights of little sleep due to traveling down from SF, preparing for the wedding, and entertaining family members who flew in from all over the place, I was a little concerned about what state I would arrive in Japan in. We are very tired after that 12 hour plane ride, 1 hour wait for the train, then a 1.5 hour train ride into Tokyo. But we made it. The plane ride actually wasn't that bad for me....thanks to Final Fantasy 3 on my Nintendo DS. American Airlines served us 2 meals - chicken or beef for the first round and chicken or pizza for the second. Not great, quite salty, but it was food.
The first glimpse I had of Tokyo (I had fallen asleep while the Narita Express was underground) was a billboard that read THK - We Make Linear Motion. That's a shout out to all the Medica readers! Since we happen to use THK rails in the EasyCell.
Our hotel is 3 minutes walk from Shinjuku Station - the busiest train station in the world with 3.4million people using it every day. The hotel makes up the top 20-39 floors of an office building that is mostly occupied by Microsoft.
I did quite an extensive search for hotels, and I am happy with my choice. In Tokyo standards, the cost is average - to me its quite expensive. But, the room size is fair, the view is awesome and the location is efficient. Can't complain. If the weather cooperates, we may see Mt. Fuji. http://www.southerntower.co.jp/
We walked across the street to Takashimaya Times Square for dinner tonight and ate at a Japanese style Italian restaurant ala Pietros in Hawaii. The flavors were as expected, and I think it was a decent meal having walked into a building and trying to look for food under 10 minutes.
I am dead tired.
Goodnight!
After 3-4 nights of little sleep due to traveling down from SF, preparing for the wedding, and entertaining family members who flew in from all over the place, I was a little concerned about what state I would arrive in Japan in. We are very tired after that 12 hour plane ride, 1 hour wait for the train, then a 1.5 hour train ride into Tokyo. But we made it. The plane ride actually wasn't that bad for me....thanks to Final Fantasy 3 on my Nintendo DS. American Airlines served us 2 meals - chicken or beef for the first round and chicken or pizza for the second. Not great, quite salty, but it was food.
The first glimpse I had of Tokyo (I had fallen asleep while the Narita Express was underground) was a billboard that read THK - We Make Linear Motion. That's a shout out to all the Medica readers! Since we happen to use THK rails in the EasyCell.
Our hotel is 3 minutes walk from Shinjuku Station - the busiest train station in the world with 3.4million people using it every day. The hotel makes up the top 20-39 floors of an office building that is mostly occupied by Microsoft.
I did quite an extensive search for hotels, and I am happy with my choice. In Tokyo standards, the cost is average - to me its quite expensive. But, the room size is fair, the view is awesome and the location is efficient. Can't complain. If the weather cooperates, we may see Mt. Fuji. http://www.southerntower.co.jp/
We walked across the street to Takashimaya Times Square for dinner tonight and ate at a Japanese style Italian restaurant ala Pietros in Hawaii. The flavors were as expected, and I think it was a decent meal having walked into a building and trying to look for food under 10 minutes.
I am dead tired.
Goodnight!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Last night in NoCal
Why am I blogging? There's so much to do!
Check back later for exciting updates on our trip to Japan.
Check back later for exciting updates on our trip to Japan.
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