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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Thursday 30 November 2006

Okonomiyaki @ Kiji Honten (Osaka)

Did I mention how much we love Osaka? We had the opportunity to spend the evening there once again during our Kyoto trip a couple of weeks ago. As mentioned previously, Osaka is the place to have okonomiyaki (a Japanese-style pancake) On our first trip to Osaka, we searched in vain for this okonomiyaki place that was highly recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide. Well, actually, we did find it the first time round, but being Sunday it was closed (the Guide did mention that the place was open Mon-Sat but we were determined to find it since we were in Osaka for only one day).

Okonomiyaki dinner

Kiji is located in a food arcade under the railtracks of the Umeda line near the Umeda Osaka train station. In this arcade, there are many eating bars, cafes and restaurants so it was a bit tricky finding it (no English signs - only hiragana). It is a pretty small place, and it was full when we walked in. We waited only for maybe 5 or 10 minutes before we were invited to seat by the teppan. It's a very informal place, and the atmosphere is very much like a bar which probably contributed a lot to the fun we had. We were seated between two very friendly Japanese guys who gave good recommendations on what to try. One of them was on very friendly terms with the cook and told the cook to let Rob try his hand at flipping over an okonomiyaki.



Modanyaki came with a high recommendation, as well as the mixed okonomiyaki. Modanyaki ('modern') is a mixture of yakisoba and okonomiyaki. And it was delicious! Even more so than the mixed okonomiyaki.

Modanyaki:


The mixed okonomiyaki included pork and various seafood and although it was very nice, the tastiness was overshadowed by the modanyaki. Don't get me wrong though - I thought it was still heaps better than the ones we had in Kanazawa and Suzu.

Okonomiyaki:


And of course, we thoroughly enjoyed the company we had during dinner. And the total price of a delicious dinner? 1650 yen (between AU$17 to $18).

Dessert

We headed across the street to Yodobashi Umeda, which is this huge multistorey-ed electronics department store selling all sorts of electronic goods (we went to their branch store in Tokyo too). Anyway, on the 11th floor, there is this area called 'Sweets Museum', and we settled on a desserts cafe called Konzert (German?). We've never had parfait before, and since it seems to be quite the craze amongst the Japanese people, we decided to give it a try. Apparently, when Japanese call a dessert 'parfait', they're actually referring to a sundae. Since we've never had 'authentic' parfait before, we can't say whether or not what we had qualifies as a real parfait. So what did this parfait have? Vanilla and chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, cornflakes (?!), various sponge cakes and fruits. Oh and that long spirally thing which tasted like butter biscuits. I thought this was pretty good, and could be improved if they'd used wafers or nuts instead of cornflakes to give the crunchiness. But then it would cost them more, wouldn't it? A dessert like this doesn't come cheap - about 850 yen (~AU$9 to $10).

Parfait:


Rob diggin' into it:

Sunday 26 November 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving Day, and on Friday we had our first Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of Americans. It was great - everyone brought something and we all had a great feast and a great time with each other.

Kyoto - Day 3: the final day

Kiyoumizudera

Tuesday was our last day in Kyoto, and we were scheduled to return back home on the 13:00 train. We woke up early in the morning to check out Kiyoumizudera, another popular tourist-y temple. The three temples we've visited thus far were the ones recommended by my JTE (Jap Teacher of English), and to tell you the truth, I was all 'templed' out after three temples - I don't know how anyone else can visit more. An American dude (teaching English in Korea) who'd just arrived that morning into Kyoto mentioned he had no idea where to start, so we invited him along with us.

This temple was full of tourists by the time we arrived at 9:00. It is situated at the top of the hill, and it certainly was a workout trying to ride up the hill on the bicycle! There were many students perhaps on a school trip to the temple, and there were so many omiyage (souvenir) shops along the hilly road to the temple and inside the temple itself! I felt that it was rather mercantile which tarnished traditional image of the temple.

The entrance at the top of the hill:


The view of the city from inside the temple grounds:


The people drinking the water must believe it would do them some good. Unfortunately there wasn't any English signboards explaining the significance of drinking the water:


Gion during daytime

We returned back to the traditional streets of Gion to show the American where to go in the evening, and also a chance for me to take a photo of the streets during daytime.



Cancelled train services!

After checking out of our lodging, we headed back to the eki (train station) to grab lunch and hang out while we wait for our train ride back home. Being a weekday, the eki was more quiet and less crowded than on the Sunday we arrived in Kyoto. The same Grand Stair was empty which gave a great photo op:



It was a very windy and chilly day, and it was nice to have shelter from the wind while we waited for our train to leave. Except that it didn't leave. This was the first time we'd bought unreserved tickets, and it shall be our last time - the few dollars extra for a guaranteed seat is so worth it. The trains homeward-bound to our prefecture had not been running since morning because of the bad winds, which we later found out was because of a freak tornado that hit Hokkaido. We waited for two hours, and still it was not certain whether there would be any homeward-bound train service leaving that day. I was quite stressed out because
1) there was only one bus service from Kanazawa to our town, and we'd already missed it (but I'd arranged for friends to pick us up from the next town); and
2) I would be forced to take nenkyuu (paid leave) for another day if there were no trains running home at all.
3) there was the communication language barrier problem we'd had to deal with while trying to figure out what the hell was happening!

By 14:45, we decided that we weren't gonna be waiting around for a train that might never leave. So we called our lodging to make sure our room was still vacant, got a refund on our tickets and called my school to let them know that I wouldn't be heading in to work the next day. There wasn't really anything else to do in Kyoto, so we jumped on the local train and headed into Osaka to spend our evening there, where we had a great time!

Saturday 25 November 2006

Kaiseki dining @ Mametora (Gion, Kyoto)

Like I said before, the Kyoto trip coincided with my birthday (hm, I wonder if that was a deliberate plan on my part?), so we decided to splurge a bit to celebrate. On recommendation by someone who has lived and dined in Kyoto for 23 years, we went to Mametora in Gion which served kaiseki at reasonable prices (well, they were still expensive, but more reasonable than most places that serve kaiseki). Kaiseki ryori is very much an artistic piece of work featuring seasonal ingredients, and are notoriously known to be really expensive. Some say that kaiseki ryori is the height of Japanese cuisine. Many kaiseki restaurants are not intimidating only for foreigners, but for natives as well because they are like super-first class restaurants requiring a certain degree of etiquette and formality.

On the streets of Gion searching for the restaurant, we saw several geishas on their way to their appointments. The poor girls - having people shoving cameras in their faces. Being entertainers, they surely must enjoy the celebrity status, right? (That was my justification for taking a photo):



The entrance to Mametora:


Inside, our seats had a view of a Japanese 'zen' garden. The restaurant had a very calm and relaxing atmosphere:


We went for Mametora's special Mame Sushi kaiseki, which is an 8-course meal for 8000yen (~AU$90) per person. Everything was immaculately prepared and presented and the service was friendly and helpful. The food was very delicious, and I'm not obligatorily saying it was delicious because it was expensive - no no I've had expensive crap food, but this was truly perhaps the best Japanese food I've had so far.

Entree

The entree course consisted of six dishes - there were tofu, beans, shrimps, fish roe, and a piece of daikon served with a deliciously sweet sauce. In fact, the sauce was so delicious, I'd really like to know what it was!

(Clockwise from bottom left) daikon with that yummy sauce; strongly-flavoured shrimp (perhaps fermented?); I can't remember what this dish was like; fish roe; and beans deliciously prepared. In the centre is the tofu:


Mushroom soup with goma dofu

Oo, this was soooo yummy! I have previously given an account of our first encounter with goma dofu, so perhaps you can understand our excitement to find out that the tofu pieces in this course were goma dofu. In the soup were an array of various Japanese mushrooms, including the oh-so-expensive-and-rare matsutake. The soup was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s!

Big pot of mushroom soup:


Yummy goma dofu just for me!


Sashimi course

This included maguro (tuna), ika (squid) and a few other types of fish whose names I do not remember. The seafood was fresh and beautifully presented.



Fried sweet potato

We had the chance to enjoy one of the Japanese favourite autumn vegetable, which was either yam or sweet potato. The colour looked like yam but the taste was very sweet. When I asked if it was satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato), the waitress said another name and explained that it's like a type of sweet potato. We enjoyed it a lot anyway :)



Broiled fish

If I'm not wrong, the fish in this course is called ayu, which is a freshwater 'sweet' fish enjoyed during summer and autumn seasons. It is quite an expensive fish too. I enjoyed this fish, but I wasn't sure how to eat this fish, so I ate everything - head, bones and all. Rob was a bit more picky, refusing to eat everything and spent some time fiddling with the bones.



Sushi course

The star dish of the whole dinner is the sushi plate. One word: beautiful. The presentation was amazing, and the taste was even better! This dish included unagi (eel), hotate (scallops), ebi (prawn) and maguro (tuna) interspaced with vegetable sushi like daikon, seaweed and red onion.



Dessert

By this time I was stuffed. Dessert was a traditional wagashi: a green tea mochi with anko (adzuki bean paste) filling.




Phewy, this post took a while, didn't it? All this talk about food is making me hungry!

Monday 20 November 2006

Kyoto - Day 2: temples, geishas and food market

It's about time I wrote about the second day of our Kyoto trip. That Monday was also my birthday, and it was a nice day :) Naturally, we had to explore the area in typical Rob-Jean style, so we rented a couple of bicycles for the day.

The scenic route by the river:


Kinkakuji

We rode about 50minutes to our first destination on Monday morning to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion temple. It is so named because the pavillion is covered in pure gold leaf (except for the ground level). It is one of the most popular tourist spots in Kyoto and it was absolutely packed with tourists.

The Golden Pavillion:


There are two things besides anko, mochi and anything-and-everything-soybeans related that Japanese people go crazy about: hanami season during spring when the fleeting sakura flowers are in blossom, and the coloured leaves season during autumn. Being early November, the leaves of the trees were only beginning to change colours, and there were only a couple of trees at Kinkakuji that had already transformed completely to red. I kid you not when I say that there were crowds clustered around these trees trying to take photos of the red leaves, and it is truly an amusing sight to behold. That said, I could not resist the urge to take photos of these red leaves myself.



Palace grounds

Next up on our itinerary is the Nishiki Market in downtown Kyoto. On our way there, we passed by the Imperial Palace grounds. It was so quiet which was such a nice change from the tourist crowd at Kinkakuji and the noisy city streets.




Nishiki Market

Truly, as any regular reader of my journal would know, I have a love affair with food markets. I just had to visit Nishiki market. In this arcade, you can find all the culinary delicacies of Kyoto. We even found matsutake (a type of mushrooms) for 10,000 yen (about AU$110)!



Geisha dance

Watching a geisha dance is a privilege usually reserved only for high paying clients. However, there are performances performed on stage for the paying public four or five times a year, and our Kyoto trip coincided with one of these dances. It was a bit of a drama trying to secure tickets since we could only buy tickets in person, and it was a sure bet that tickets would have sold out by the time we arrived in Kyoto. I'm glad my brother gave me the contact details of some friends in Kyoto before we came to Japan - who would have thought that I'd need their help when I first contacted them a couple of months ago?

I enjoyed the performance, although I'm not quite sure if Rob was awake enough to agree with me :P Maikos ('apprentice' geisha?) opened the hour-long performance, then a series of geisha dances followed. There was even a humorous act which involved a couple of the geishas taking on a male role and an ugly maid role.

All the performers in final act:


Nanzenji

After the geisha dance, we had a couple of hours to spare before dinner time. We decided to visit Nanzenji. Honestly, by this time I was pretty tired from riding the bicycle everywhere, and the thought of having to look at another temple was not that appealing. The grounds were huge, and we had trouble trying to figure out where the entrance to pay the entrance fee is. So we just wandered around and I took photos.

Huge threshold of the Sanmon (Mountain Gate) at the entrance to Nanzenji:


Rob on the stairs leading to the Sanmon:


There were huge archways which I guessed to be an aqueduct, and sure enough, there was a stream of rushing water on top of this structure:



Then it was time to go to our dinner appointment in the Gion district.

Saturday 18 November 2006

Yudofu Sagano (Arashiyama, Kyoto)

After our trip to the monkey park in Arashiyama, we went in search of our dinner. I'd wanted to try shojin ryori, a vegan cuisine rooted in Zen philosophies and served in Buddhist temples. Alas, the only place recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide for shojin ryori in Arashiyama served only during lunchtime. In fact, we found that most eating places in Arashiyama shut early in the day around 5pm to 6pm, which contributed to the fact that the streets were so dead by nightfall. We settled for another recommendation by the Guide, a restaurant called Yudofu Sagano (also shuts early-ish at 7pm) specialising in yudofu (a tofu hotpot). At 3800 yen per person (around AU$42), we thought it was pretty pricey, but I do not regret our choice.

To tell you the truth, I was a little bit iffy about eating so much tofu for dinner (I grew up despising tofu, mainly because it was too tasteless for my kiddy-tastebuds back then) but I had nothing to worry about. Kyoto is the place in Japan to eat tofu, and I have discovered that there are many different types of tofu, many ways of preparing and serving them, and that the ones you get in supermarkets (even the expensive ones) pales in comparison to the ones we've eaten in Kyoto. Our most exciting discovery was of the existence of goma dofu (sesame tofu - goma is Japanese for sesame). It is truly a delight eating goma dofu.

Back to the restaurant. It is located in the side streets so it wasn't super easy to find. Plus having to search for kanji characters in the dark is quite challenging. At the restaurant, we were greeted warmly by people who did not speak much English, however their service was friendly and faultless. It helped that our dinner was already decided and we didn't have to look at a Japanese menu. The restaurant itself was nice complete with a traditional Japanese garden. We were brought to a Japanese room which was nice and warm in comparison to the chilly night air outside. And the food were beautifully presented with an impeccable taste to match.

First, we enjoyed the yudofu with a series of side dishes that included goma dofu and sashimi konnyaku. Kinu tofu (silken tofu) was boiled in some dashi in the pot, and it was so smooth, silky and quite delicious. And how to describe the deliciousness of goma dofu? I probably enjoyed goma dofu more for its exquisite texture than for the taste. Apparently, there is no soybean in goma dofu, like how there is no soybean in tamago dofu (egg tofu). Sashimi konnyaku is a specially-prepared konnyaku meant for eating sashimi-style. It was my first time having sashimi konnyaku and I found it pretty tasty and a lot softer (more palatable?) than the usual konnyaku, and the sweet sauce served with it went well with konnyaku.

First course. Big hot pot of kinu tofu with some small condiments and shoyu to eat with the tofu, and the row of dishes at the bottom (left to right) consisted of a sort of tofu dumpling made from momen tofu (literally 'cotton' (i.e. firm) tofu), goma dofu, sashimi konnyaku and a whole poached egg:


Next was a serve of tempura vegetables with rice. I'm not a big fan of battered and greasy fried foods (in fact I would refuse to eat them), but the tempura I've eaten in Japan have been very lightly battered and not very greasy at all. Dare I say that I enjoyed these tempura?

Tempura with rice:


To finish off the meal, we were served a delicately-sweetened chilled tofu-like dessert which I enjoyed a lot.

Dessert:


I have never had so much tofu in one sitting before, but everything was very well prepared that I never once related to my childhood dread of having to swallow tofu. It was so good, in fact, that I'm tempted to think that, contrary to all the stories I've heard, it really can't be all that bad being a vegetarian in Japan (at least not in Kyoto!). I'm glad I don't have to face the difficulty of being a vegetarian (or vegan!) in Japan :P

Monday 13 November 2006

Winter is advancing.. nabemono time!

It has been raining for perhaps three days now, and today did not get warmer than 9 degC. I have a quilt wrapped around me even as I type (I refuse to bring out the stinky kerosene heater! Not yet anyway :P). No better time than now to enjoy nabemono (hotpot), so we braved the wet and cold yesterday to go to the supermarket and equip ourselves with ingredients like renkon (lotus root), ito konnyaku (konnyaku noodles) and negi (skinny Japanese leeks) for a hotpot feast.

Hotpot is common in Asian cuisines - the Koreans call it jigae and the Japanese call it nabemono but steamboat is the name I am most familiar with. I love steamboat, and my family enjoyed it even in the hot humid weather back in Malaysia (no, it's not just a winter food, but for some reason the Japanese refuse to enjoy nabe except during winter - they insist that winter food is for winter, and summer food is for summer). I find that the homemade ones are the best, like the one we did last year at my parents'.

With the Japanese nabemono, there are different names depending on the types of ingredients used and the region it originates from. For example, sukiyaki uses beef, yosenabe features seafood and motsunabe utilises the innards and guts of a cow. There are many other types like shabu shabu, chankonabe (for sumo wrestlers), dotenabe (featuring oysters) - the list goes on. This website has a pretty comprehensive list and descriptions of nabe types.

The beauty of hotpot is that anything goes. I love simple dishes that are so delicious and healthy for the body. The nabemono I prepared today probably resembles the closest to mizutaki, using chicken and various vegetables. It was my intention to use tofu and mushrooms, but I think I got sidetracked at the supermarket and forgot to pick them up. I do love the variety of fresh autumn veges available at the moment.

Ingredients

Water
Chicken with bones, marinated in some shoyu (soy sauce), mirin (sweet cooking sake) and sesame oil
sliced ginger
sliced garlic
potatoes, cut into 1/8ths or 1/12ths pieces
renkon (lotus root), sliced 0.5cm to 1cm thick
carrot, sliced to the same thickness as the renkon
daikon (Chinese radish), sliced in a similar size to the renkon
negi (skinny Japanese leeks), sliced
Chinese cabbage, cut into pieces
ito konnyaku (konnyaku threads/noodles), rinsed and drained
seasoning to taste (shoyu, mirin, pepper and shichimi)

Method

No hard rules to follow. Just put the ingredients in the pot in the order of the time required for them to cook. The chicken (with the marinade) was first simmered in some water, ginger and garlic for perhaps 15 to 20 minutes (during which the vegetables were prepared). The ingredients above are listed in the order that were put in the pot. This is best enjoyed freshly cooked and hot out of the pot, on its own or with rice or noodles.

Sunday 12 November 2006

Kyoto - Day 1: Old world Japan and monkeys

We had an awesome time in Kyoto, and truly, Kyoto is a foodie's paradise! We did so much in just two days and I took more than 250 photos!

It seems that the Japanese do very well at equipping the eki (train station) at most cities, and Kyoto eki is no different. In fact, there is a huge Isetan shopping mall more than 11 storeys big. Mainly women's clothing and fashion, but my favourite floors are the food omiyage (souvenir) department and the food market sections. In the middle of the eki area is the "Grand Stair" - basically a huge open space, not unlike an amphitheatre, extending about 10 storeys with a performance stage within. It was packed on the Sunday that we arrived in Kyoto, and some school band was playing on stage.

Near the top of the Grand Stair at the eki


After arriving in Kyoto on Sunday afternoon and checking into our accommodation at K's House (which is an excellent, affordable and convenient place to stay at - very popular though so it gets booked out very quickly), we armed ourselves with maps and took the train to Arashiyama to see the monkeys in Iwatayama (I'm happy to say that we are no longer so bewildered about buying train tickets). There are temples and other traditional stuff in Arashiyama, but with a tight itinerary we only had time to see one thing, and seeing monkeys seemed a lot more interesting than visiting temples.

Since it was the last day of a 3-day long weekend, the streets of Arashiyama was absolutely packed with Japanese tourists (Rob was the only gaijin-looking person in the crowd!). The walk from the eki (train station) to the hills took about 20 minutes, and I'm sure the traditional streets would have been more beautiful without the tourist crowd.

The streets of Arashiyama:


The breathtaking view of the river:


The bridge:


After paying the 520yen entrance fee to the monkey park it was a 20 minute hike up the hill in the monkey park. We encountered a few curious monkeys on the way to the peak, but there were so many more monkeys at the top (a total of about 150 monkeys, and each one has a name). The baby monkeys were sooooooo cute! Very noisy though. We could also feed the monkeys from inside an enclosure. (The greedy adults kept snatching food from the baby monkeys!)

Rob keeping oh-so-still in the hopes that the monkey would come near him:




Feeding a monkey


The view at the top of Iwatayama was beautiful (I'm inclined to say that me being in the picture spoiled the view, but the groundskeeper was helping take photos of other couples, and I guess he assumed we wanted one too) :


By the time we got back to the bottom of the hill, it was already twilight, so we went in search for our dinner. Arashiyama certainly isn't the place to hit at night - the empty streets after dark was quite starkly different to the noisy crowded streets during the day.