A Stroll Through Jindai Botanical Gardens

Sorry for the delay. I usually try to update this once every few days but I bought a new camera (Canon EOS 7D bringing me to the wonderful world of dSLRs finally) and I was using my free time to try to get to know it a little bit better. It is an amazing camera (if I might say so myself) and I don’t think I even scratched the surface but I decided the best way to learn is by doing. So I picked up my camera, put on a polarizing filter, and made my way to the Jindai Botanical Gardens which happen to be pretty close to where I live.

Getting in costs 500 Yen per person and inside you find a nice, serene park complete with a greenhouse and a little pond. If you happen to be by the Jindaiji Temple, this is just a 2 minute walk from there. I also had the chance to try out some delicious handmade soba which the place is famous for. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took :)

There weren’t too many flowers outside this being winter and all but these ones caught my eye.

The small lake in the gardens. I am pretty sure it looks even more amazing in the spring and especially during the cherry blossom season.

A water lily from inside the greenhouse.

Handmade soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) with Tempura served outside next to the fire to keep the customers warm.

Delicious Chinese food in Kichijoji

  I am a big fan of lamb and my recent trip to Hong Kong did pique my interest in Chinese food more so than before – two reasons why I was very excited to find out about X’ian, a very nice Chinese restaurant in Kichijoji serving up lamb dishes from the region of same name in China.

This little gem of a restaurant is actually located on the top floor of the Yodobashi Camera (yes in Japan even big electronic stores can have restaurants and even a floor full of clothing stores) in Kichijoji. They offer both various types of Dim Sum and a-la-carte dishes like the nice and yummy fried lamb leg you can see in the picture I took. The page I linked above has more information about the place than I can ever hope to put in there so feel free to check that out. One thing is worth noting though – watch out for the symbols for spicy food. They do mean spicy ;)

Dim Sum at Roppongi Hills

One of the greatest mysteries for me was how none of my friends in Japan seemed to know about Dim Sum. See, after Hong Kong I must say I got an appreciation for Dim Sum and I was sure there would be restaurants serving it in a city like Tokyo. Well it turns out I was right and people does know about it – it’s just it’s called something else in Japanese that’s all :)

So here is the thing – the kanji for Dim Sum is the same in Chinese and Japanese - 点心 but the Japanese read it as ten-shin (てんしん). This particular restaurant I went to is at Roppongi Hills, called “Hong Kong Tea House”. They offer both full dishes and dim sum a-la carte but it seems like, at least for dinner, they restrict you to open buffet if you want dim-sum. Their dim-sum list has 50 items on it and you can order to your heart’s content including most of the usual suspects (for up to 90 minutes and 3 dishes at a time) though it does cost about $40 per person… They also have this statement on there (which I took a picture of) – they charge you extra if you waste food. It’s a refreshing thing to see in this day and age where usually the opposite seems to be encouraged.

Food at Hong Kong (updated)

Hong Kong, being a pretty international city, offers yummy delicacies from both the Chinese and world cuisines. You can find good food in places ranging from cheap food vendors selling stuff outside to expensive restaurants overlooking the whole city. Here are a few I tried and what I thought about them:

Egg Tart

The Egg Tart is a pretty cheap dessert but boy, is it yummy. You can pretty much find it in any bakery but if you want to try “the best”, at least according to my amazing hosts, you should have it at the Tai Cheong Bakery in Central. It takes about 10 minutes to walk there from the MTR station, through the Escalator Link Alley. Just take the alley up until you see the small pizza place on your left then go down and walk a little to the right. You will see the small but extremely popular bakery. Alternatively you can take a cab from the station. Cabs in Hong Kong are pretty cheap (especially compared to Japan where the meter opens with about $7.50). If you are visiting Macau you can try the version of Egg Tart they have there which comes with a Portuguese twist. The full address for the HK option is:

泰昌餅家 Tai Cheong Bakery
35, Lyndhurst Terrace, Central
香港中環擺花街 35 號

 

Hot (Clay) Pot

Hot Pot is a pretty popular dish for locals and tourists would, in my humble opinion, do well in checking it out for themselves. Thanks to our host I was able to try out a restaurant that is very much out of the way of the typical tourist spots but is a hot spot for the locals. And why wouldn’t it be with prices around $2-$3 for each pot full of chicken/pork/beef/seafood rice all prepared by a family? Get this – the restaurant does not even sell drinks and if you ask for anything to drink they simply point you to the closest convenience store. There are no private tables, everything is connected and you sit pretty close with “strangers” but I found the experience to be enjoyable thanks to the quality of food and the friendliness of the said “strangers”. If you do go, make sure you try out the oyster omelet. In case you are interested, the place is called “Four Season Pot Rice” and it is in Yau Ma Tei. The full address is:

四季煲仔飯 Four Season Claypot Rice
油麻地鴉打街46-58號
46-58, Arthur Street, Yau Ma Tei

 

Dim  Sum

Dim Sum is a bit difficult to describe, after all it is not one single dish but rather a collection of small dishes very much like the Spanish Tapas. You can find a much better description on Wikipedia right here. There are many different places you can have Dim Sum and I heard good things about Dim Sum in Macau but the meal I had was actually right at Discovery Bay.  The image is a list of what they had on offer and as you can see there are MANY different little dishes to choose from including seafood, beef, pork or purely vegetable. If you take the ferry there you can get a free return ticket (about $4 in value) if you spend more than $10 which is actually pretty difficult since the food is as cheap as it is good.

 

Western Food

There are many, many restaurants to get your “western food” fix but I tried out the “Pearl” on the Peak. It was pretty good, offering various Italian style dishes and especially very tasty meat dishes. The prices are more than a bit higher than your typical restaurant in Hong Kong given the prime, touristy location and the class of restaurant but the view of the whole city below you alone is worth the cost. The staff is very professional as well.

The mystery of “Shoecream” solved

When I first heard the term “shoecream” in Japan I was more than a little shocked. See, we were walking from lunch at a restaurant close to where I work and a Japanese friend asked me if I would like some “shoecream” as dessert. These turned out to be little cream filled puffs and I figured out that the word was simply a phonetic construction. It was not until about two years after that, or more precisely, last weekend, that I saw a box of “shoecreams” at the supermarket and realized what the original phrase is - “chou a la crème”. It’s a French phrase which, of course, means “creampuff”. It is very easy to assume that a foreign word in Japanese, rendered phonetically, comes from English as most actually do but in this particular case that assumption turned out to be worse than wrong. Still, it was pretty funny while it lasted ;)

Hungry in Dubai? How about McDonalds?

My three week “vacation” in Cyprus which involved about two and a half weeks of army training drained me not just physically but mentally as well. That being the case I can hardly motivate myself to write here but I came across some of the pictures I took on my way there that might be interesting to some (and me in the future) so here goes the story that accompanies those…

The fact that there would be Mc Donald’s in Dubai is not surprising by itself of course. After all, it is impossible to go to pretty much any big city in the world and not be greeted by the big yellow “M” these days. However, seeing it in Arabic script still made me do a double take. This one is in the Dubai International Airport by the way. There is a local specialty that escapes my mind right now and if I remember it correctly, no pork products are offered. Other than that, McNuggets tasted just the same and I could pay with a credit card so all was good.  Oh and unlike Japan they actually offer a 9 piece set – they only sell them by 6 here. Oh and sorry about the quality of the pictures – I took them with my cell phone so they are not the best as the light was not exactly good.

The watermelon is yellow

I don’t know about you but I have never seen a yellow watermelon – well, until a few days ago that is. Apparently these guys are pretty common in Japan and actually the price is not any higher than their good, old, red counterparts. The taste is pretty similar too, if a little sweeter. I think the outside of these is also a shade of yellow as opposed to green which makes it look almost like an over side melon as opposed to a watermelon. I wonder if these are indigenous to Asia…

A box of cherries for $150 – You can get it in Japan!

Fruits (just like vegetables) are very popular in Japan and the Japanese public enjoy having choices in their fruits, in the same vein as pretty much any other consumer item out there (for example Sony PSP comes in 7 different colors here for that very reason). This means apart from the run of the mill fruits one can find at a supermarket, there are "higher quality” fruits available at specialist stores with prices easily topping $100 for a box.  Of course given this price point, it is easy to see how these particular fruits can be used as a present. One of these specialist stores is Nakano and I visited their location in Shinjuku close to the train station(They also have smaller stores throughout Tokyo though not all carry these fruits, with some focusing on desserts).

Cherries seem to be particularly popular, as a gift, with the Japanese. The boxes here each contain 40 “specially selected” cherries and they can cost anywhere between $100 and $150 depending on the type and quality of the fruits. Other fruits such as guavas and peaches are popular as well and are available in their own packages or in combination with other fruits. They also sell fruit jams and fruit juice made from these fruits as well and some of the combo sets include these. The same store also sells champagnes for making custom gift combinations with prices reaching $500 and up.

It is definitely an interesting place to visit and with the fruit juice bottles costing around $10 one can try them out for a reasonable price. Oh and don’t worry about the weight – they take care of shipping for you on heavier sets.

Got milk?

Then you might want to get over to Roppongi, to “Motoyama Milk Bar”. I stopped by before watching Departures/おくりびと purely by luck. The “milk bar” which actually has a quick service window and a sit-down indoor patisserie is very close to Roppongi Hills though it is about a floor lower. You just need to walk into the building on your left when you are standing right at the entrance to Roppongi Hills (where you would be looking directly at the giant spider statue). Take the escalator down one floor and walk outside – you can’t miss the huge cow right outside the “milk bar”. The milk is actually from Hokkaido (it tastes really nice) and they also offer fried Hokkaido potatoes as well as milk and desserts made from milk. Check it out if you find yourself in Roppongi…

A good place for grabbing a burger in Tokyo

Just like any other big city pretty much anywhere else in the world, Tokyo is home to global giants like McDonald's which offer burgers for the burger connoisseur who may be on a tight budget. To top that off Tokyo also offers its share of local fast food joints like Mos Burger which is home to burgers with a local twist like the rice bun burger. These are all nice places and all for a quick bite but if you are the type that has a bit finer taste when it comes to burgers I just found a new place in Shinjuku which may be what you are looking for ;)

The J.S. Burger in Shinjuku was the place I found online when I searched for burgers and I am glad I did. The place is right next to Shinjuku JR Station's New South exit so it is very easy to get to even though there is usually a line inside, even during non-popular hours for restaurants like 3 pm, since people seem to know about the quality of the burgers there. I had myself an avacado burger (your typical hamburger with avacado slices) and it was one of the best burgers I ever had in my life. At about 1000 yen a pop with fries on the side it is a pretty good deal and I feel I will be back for more soon.

You can check out their full menu (they have item names in English as well ;)) on their homepage - http://jsb-cafe.jp/index.html.

Want a bottle of water? It will cost you just $120 in Tokyo...

So I was strolling through Ebisu (which I am going to write about soon - I just have so many things to mention and so many pictures to sift through that I cannot bring myself to start writing. Yes I am lazy...) and I came across a store in Ebisu Garden which just sells water - Luxury Water to be exact.

 

 

Yes, apparently there is a brand of water called "Fillico Beverly Hills" which calls itself "Jewellery Water". Each bottle, which has 3/4 of a liter, sells for between 11,000 and 13,000 yen - about $120 to $140 with today's exchange rate.  So what's so special about them? Well, the selling point seems to be the bottle which has embedded Swarovski Crystals and can be customized with the name(s) of the owner (names if a couple bought it for example).  After drinking the water, the bottle can be used as a candle holder too with the crown on the top being replaced by a candle. Talking about the crown - there are two designs: A queen crown for women and a king crown for men.

Now here is an interesting bit of information about this company that you can find with a quick Google search... They have nothing to do with Beverly Hills or the US in general. They are a Japanese company and the water comes from Kobe. Now I am not saying it is definitely not worth the price - I have never tried it but I can at least say that it is probably a bit overpriced ;)

University Festivals in Japan

This last weekend I was invited to a university exhibition by a member of my research lab who is attending the university part time working on his MA in design. What I found at the university was more than just an exhibition but a full on festival with students cooking/selling food, a small flea market and even a costume ball.

 

 

The university itself, Tama Art University, is a pretty small one, though I was told recently they built a bigger campus in another location. This original campus hosts 7-8 buildings with a pretty nice "garden" of sorts in the middle with trees. The buildings hosted the artwork while the garden was hosting the flea market in the center and the student's cooking and selling food around the sides.

 

 

The displayed work of the students seemed pretty interesting and even though I must admit some of it escaped my understanding, I enjoyed some quite a bit. There were very smart pieces which after spending a few minutes you do take a step back and say "Aha!", "I get it!" (and actually mean it ;)).  This one is called "Intrinsic Beauty".

 

 

Ok I must mention this one too - the food was pretty good. I had some yakitori/焼き鳥 which was both cheap and yummy. Yes I had to wait quite a bit - they are not professional cooks after all - but I enjoyed what I received in the end and each skewer cost around $1. Doesn't the picture look sooo appealing? :)

Now that's what I call good meat!

Steak House Satou is a, well, tiny, restaurant in Kichijoji. It is located on top of the butcher store with the same name which seems to have a constant stream of customers waiting to try their famous fried meats. This line can reach ridiculous lengths around lunchtime. The restaurant which is a bit more difficult to find than the butcher's is a bit more obscure but it offers top of the line quality Japanese beef with an English/Japanese menu to boot. They don't take reservations which may mean a bit of a wait standing on the steep stairs of the restaurant for a table to open but the service is very very quick and if you have the steak in their recommended way of preparing (medium-rare) the food is served literally within 5 minutes of taking your seat (they also ask for your order a little before they seat you so they get a headstart). The prices are very reasonable especially compared to other, fancier restaurants serving same quality beef. The portions come in three sizes 180 grams, 270 grams and 360 grams and I believe there are 6 qualities to choose from with prices going up quite a bit by the time you are talking about the finest of the fine. It is entirely possible to have a very filling meal of very good quality Japanese beef for around 50 bucks/5500 yen.

Kappabashi (合羽橋) Kitchen Town

If you are a restaurant owner in Tokyo starting a new business, you are going to need lots of things like utensils, chairs, signs, menus and so many other things. Well, you can get all that and more at Kappabashi - the Kitchen Town which is basically a very long street close to Asakusa (浅草). With offerings very very diverse and culturally significant, the street has become a interesting visiting spot to not just restaurant owners but other curious visitors as well.

Now before I mention some of the interesting things I saw there, let me briefly talk about the name. See, "Bashi/橋" just stands for "place" but "Kappa/合羽" is the name of a mythical creature that is said to live in rivers. It looks like a cross between a man and a frog with a star shaped crown on its head which holds a plate full of water. It was believed to kidnap children playing in the water and its main weakness is losing all of its power if the plate dries off so he always makes sure to keep the plate full of water. It looks like recently they have been working on this "monster's" image though and now there are very friendly cartoons of it drawn on the posters around Kappabashi. Moreover, there is a statue of Kappa (that's where I took this picture) hidden in a small inlet around the middle of Kappabashi.

Kappabashi is full of pots and pans of all prices as well as other usual suspects of restaurants all around the world but one can buy these things pretty cheaply here and some stores offer these not just in wholesale. The main stores of interest for me however were the ones selling plastic sample food (サンプル) that a lot of restaurants in Japan have right outside, kind of like a 3D menu. Some of these are very very detailed and their prices show that. A plastic sample of a hamburger with a "slice of tomato" and "lettuce", complete with "ketchup" and "mayo" sells for more than $100 easy. There is even sample food, usually not life-size, which can be used as a cellphone strap or fridge magnet. There was a fake scrambled egg badge even :P

Press Button for Service

See it only makes sense right ? If you are in a pretty big restaurant and there are only a few waiters, you need to be really lucky or get really loud in order to get the attention of the wait-staff. In Japan, where they seem to favor minimizing the overhead of waiters/waitresses, the customers are given a better option (at least in certain restaurants) - press a button and a little bell goes off in the front with an indication of which table pressed it. It's a win-win: The restaurant owner gets to minimize the staff cost and the customer does not have to wait half an hour to get a glass of water :)

This particular one is from a soba restaurant in Roppongi/六本木 which also offers an English menu. I guess that explains the extra English directions on the "button". Be warned though - as I must have mentioned earlier, the fact that there is some sort of sign in English displayed in a store says nothing about whether or not the people who work there can speak a word of the language.

Yakiniku (焼肉) in Kanagawa (神奈川)

Yesterday we had our annual company BBQ at a small theme park in the Kanagawa called プレジャーフォレスト (which even though is not really written in English, it would be something like "Pleasure Forest"). The theme park is in a very green area about an hour, an hour and a half outside Tokyo by car using the highway. There is also a nice lake that is visible from a few places in the park. Apparently they offer cheap overnight accomodations as well in tents (about 25 bucks a night), log cabins (35 bucks) and deluxe log cabins (45 bucks). There is a swimming pool, a mini rollercoaster, a place for BBQs and picnics among other things but when the weather is as gray and misty it was a yesterday the whole place looks deserted, almost like a ghost town...

When I first heard the term BBQ, I was under the impression that we would have a traditional BBQ - you know, with coal etc and steaks and all. Instead we had these hot plates, with very thin sliced beef and vegetables. You grill the meat in the center, take it out and dip it in yakiniku sauce. This traditional way of preparing food is generally known as Yakiniku or literally grilled meat. The meat cooks pretty quickly and tastes pretty good too. Unfortunately it is a bit tricky to pull off at home.

28 years old today :)

Well, today is my 28th birthday and apart from feeling a tad older I must say I am feeling a little strange as well - this is my first birthday in Japan. My parents, my sister, and my grandmother called but still that's a bit different right? Anyway, here is a snapshot of my cake. The Japanese confectionery stores are just amazing and this is an example of that. The packaging makes sure the cake does not get smeared in the box while they include a little cold-pak to keep the thing from melting... Nice.

Rice and salmon wrapped in seaweed

I haven't been able to write for a bit longer than I would have liked but it was one hectic week. To top it all off I stayed up late on Wednesday to watch the Euro 2008 semi-final game between Turkey and Germany (which Germany won 3-2). It was a slow week too with not a lot to report - well not a lot with me being able to capture a picture of but once again it's Friday, and I am enjoying every second of it :)

Well today I wanted to post pictures of a snack that has saved me from many a skipped lunch. This particular one consists of rice with salmon in the center and a sheet of seaweed to wrap it in. The nice thing is they are made fresh (daily), very cheap (less than 200 yen), and come in a lot of varieties (in terms of content and shape). If you ever find yourself in a convenience store like 7/11 or FamilyMart, give it a try! Oh and a quick note, Salmon is cooked but some varieties are not so... be careful if you aren't into uncooked fish.

Making fresh Wasabi (山葵)

I have never been a big fan of wasabi (Japanese horseradish for the uninitiated) save for using a little tiny bit on sushi in the US. As it turns out here there is already more than that tiny bit in the sushi rice so here I use it even less if at all. However for many Japanese, wasabi is a key ingredient providing that little "bite" to what may otherwise be considered bland food. The typical serving of wasabi in the US, which was the only "format" I knew for wasabi, is like compressed green powder. In its home country however one can get, no no make that "make", wasabi fresh right at their table with the aid of a cute little grater in a few minutes.

This picture is from one of the nicer restaurants I have been to in Japan and it specializes in soba. In case you were wondering that is not my hand :P The restaurant and the fascinating nail designs of the Japanese women deserve their own posts so I will keep this about wasabi...

Steak as fast-food

One does not usually consider steak and fast-food together (unless one considers Philly Steak I suppose ;)) but in Japan there is a fast-food chain specializing in steaks, called Pepper Lunch (ペッパランチ-http://www.pepperlunch.jp/), which actually is pretty decent and cheap. Today, I gave the branch at Kichijoji (close to the train station) a visit.

The whole process of ordering food to eating it is pretty streamlined. You order the food and drinks from a machine which gives you a ticket. Then you just go and sit down at the counter (there are no tables, just a round counter) and hand the ticket to the waiter/waitress who go and retrieve your food. There is no need to tell them how you want your steak - you cook it yourself anyway ;) They give you the steak cubed or cut into strips on a sizzling plate with veggies and you cook it yourself as much as you want. It's no Peter Luger's but if you are interested in getting a quick bite for a reasonable price this is definitely an option. I think I will definitely revisit.