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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

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Monjayaki on Monja Street, Tsukishima (Tokyo)

In preparation for our little one's arrival in a couple of months' time, we've been searching for a bigger apartment to upgrade to. Apartments in Tokyo are notoriously tiny (as is the 1 bedroom apartment we're currently in), and it is no easy feat trying to get a good balance between size of the apartment and rental cost. One of the areas we've been interested in is Tsukishima, which is about a 20minute walk from our current location, and close to Rob's new office location in Shiodome. Everytime I mention to a Japanese that we've been looking around the Tsukishima area to rent, the first thing they'd say in response would be some reference to monjayaki. Monjayaki is a Kanto specialty that is similar to the hugely popular okonomiyaki, but with a more liquid batter. To give an idea of how similar yet how different the two types are: if okonomiyaki is a pizza-like pancake, then monjayaki is a soup-like pancake, both cooked on the teppan (hotplate).

Apparently Tsukishima is famous for monjayaki (often touted as the home and origin of monjayaki), just like how Osaka is the best place to eat okonomiyaki and takoyaki. Yet unlike how okonomiyaki is widely available in other areas of Japan (and even outside of Japan), from what I can gather, monjayaki is mostly found only in and around Tokyo. We were in the Tsukishima area last weekend after looking at some potential rental apartments so we decided to give the lesser known cousin of okonomiyaki a try for our lunch. After some leisure wandering around, we found ourselves on Monja Street where there are dozens of monjayaki restaurants to choose from. Our selection criteria was simple: to look for a crowded place which would at least ensure of its popularity and hopefully good monjayaki. As it was only 11am in the morning, our search in the warm humid weather was thankfully quite short since there were only a handful of eateries ready for customers at the time. All of the monjayaki restaurants also serve a good variety of okonomiyaki to cater for the majority of the population who probably prefers okonomiyaki. We settled on a small place called Juju which was almost full with patrons even at this early hour.

After I'd informed Rob of the more liquid texture of monjayaki compared to okonomiyaki (and after seeing it for himself in the restaurant), Rob wasn't too keen on it, so we ordered both monjayaki and okonomiyaki. Since I've previously given a pictorial on how to cook okonomiyaki by yourself at a restaurant, I only took a few shots of Rob cooking his choice of Hotate & Kani Okonomiyaki (scallop and crab) [~1200yen].





The okonomiyaki was nice, but not the best we've had. Having eaten okonomiyaki in several Japanese cities (and a town) including Kanazawa, Suzu, Osaka, the hiroshima-yaki in Hiroshima, and now in Tokyo, I still think that our experience in Osaka rates the best (we liked this okonomiyaki place in Osaka so much that we re-visited this place on at least one other occasion).

Now for the monjayaki. There are many types available, including mentaiko (spicy cod roe) with cheese and mochi (glutinous rice cakes), various mixtures of seafood, and even kare (Japanese curry) with four different combinations. I chose the Seafood Gratin with tako (octopus), hotate (scallop) and nama ika (squid) [~1200yen]. Having never cooked this before, we enlisted the help of one of the waitstaff to demonstrate how to cook monjayaki.

The bowl containing the ingredients for Seafood Gratin Monjayaki; tipping the solid contents of the bowl onto the hot teppan:


Chopping the ingredients up with the metal spatula while stir-frying; making a ring in preparation for the next step:


Tipping the liquid remainder of the bowl's contents into the middle of the ring in two parts; then stirfrying everything together to combine the liquid and solid masses:


Spreading out the liquidy batter into a relatively thin layer; and the finished product!


So how was it? I loved it! Sure, it doesn't look that great (nor very appetising) but I enjoyed the flavour and texture of the dish, and I especially I liked the slightly burnt cheese crust that forms at the bottom. Rob said he still preferred the okonomiyaki which is understandable. I would love to try the other combinations (I heard that adding mochi gives it a lovely chewy texture), and I may have plenty of opportunities to when we move in the area!

Saturday 26 July 2008

Singaporean food @ Hainan Chifan, Tokyo

Last month, after our lunch at Ramsay's, we took a look around the Shiodome/Shimbashi area, in particular the Shiodome City building which is the location of Rob's company's new office. On one of the restaurant levels in this building, we came across a rare find in Japan: a restaurant offering Singaporean cuisine, Hainan Chifan. By the way, for those that are not aware, Singaporean food and Malaysian cuisine are very similar due to the fact that both countries have strong geographical, historical and cultural ties, however, I believe there are more types of dishes and regional variations in Malaysian cuisine due to Malaysia's bigger size and population. If you are a regular reader, you will already be familiar with our favourite Malaysian food.

As the restaurant's name suggests, the specialty dish is Hainanese chicken rice, and they offer many other dishes like bak kut teh, charkueyteow and even roti pratha. We'd already had our lunch that day, but it wasn't long before we were back to try the food. As well as the hawker-style one-dish meals such as the noodles and rice dishes, you can order a-la-carte vegetable, meat and seafood dishes. Most of the menu items are under 1000yen, with the seafood dishes having higher price tags on them. Since our visit was during lunch, we wanted something suitably light, so we ordered noodles, but I would love to try the Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab and bak kut teh in the future perhaps with a larger group for a banquet-style meal. I wanted horfun, but I couldn't see it anywhere on the menu so Rob suggested we try asking if they served it. I didn't like our chances of trying to explain to our Japanese waiter what horfun is, but I discovered that it really doesn't hurt to ask because the waiter went and got this Singaporean guy (the manager perhaps?) to come to our table and help us with our orders. Fortunately for me, they do indeed serve horfun, but it was on a special menu under an unrecognisable name in Japanese. So we placed orders for hofun (1500yen) and laksa (950yen).

Horfun (after stirring for a more photogenic shot); Laksa


The verdict? The horfun was yummy with plenty of large prawns and fresh (not dried) kuey teow noodles (which I have yet to find on the shelves in Japan). The laksa was pretty mild but it was very coconut-y which pleased Rob's tastebuds very much. The laksa had fried tofu, boiled quail's eggs and prawns. Compared to Mahathir Malaysian restaurant, the menu at Hainan Chifan was smaller but also a bit cheaper, and I thought the flavours were not as robust as Mahathir's but would suit the typical Japanese tastebuds just fine. We'll definitely be back here to try the other dishes.

While the food at both Hainan Chifan and Mahathir cannot compare to the real McCoy available in Malaysia (or even in Perth!), at least we now know of a couple of good places in Tokyo to go to whenever we have a hankering for this kind of food!

Thursday 24 July 2008

Exquisite Edomae Sushi @ Karaku, Ginza (Tokyo)

When our Japanese tutor found out that Rob and I love love love sushi, she recommended a sushi restaurant in Ginza which she thought served the best Edomae sushi in Tokyo. Apparently she's not alone in that thought because Karaku has been featured in magazines, on websites and even on national television! It is an establishment that has been around for 20 years, and it's no surprise that the sushi-ya maintains a strong reputation because the owner, Chef Togawa, was already highly acclaimed as head chef at one of Tokyo's leading high-class sushi restaurants, Nakata. Our tutor did warn us that the food is quite expensive, and advised that visiting during lunch time when more affordable sets and meals are available would be a lot nicer on our pockets. One of Rob's American collegues said he felt like eating sushi, and knowing that we regularly eat sushi, suggested that we go eat sushi together on the weekend. It gave us reason to try out a recommended place!

Edo is the name given to Tokyo around 200 years ago, and a popular type of food in that era consisted of fish and shellfish caught off the shores of Edo, which were lightly preserved with vinegar, salt and other seasonings, and then laid on shari (vinegared rice). It is said that Edomae (literally translates to "Edo front") sushi is the ancestor of modern day sushi. With that in mind, most of the sushi toppings and fillings at Karaku have undergone some form of preparation rather than presented as it is. The fish and shellfish are prepared one or more days before being served. The restaurant itself is quite small, with only perhaps eight seats at the counter and a couple of private tatami rooms. Naturally, we opted to seat at the counter, which is the best place to be in a sushi restaurant. The kitchen and work bench were kept meticulously clean and spotless at all times, as it ought to be (the high standard of food hygiene in Japan is one of the reasons why I don't think it's such a health risk to eat sushi and raw food in Japan while pregnant. Indeed, many Japanese would be surprised to find out that pregnant women in other countries are advised to stay away from raw fish). Karaku caters well to the English-speaking foreign clientele, with English menu available (presented to us even when not requested!), and Chef Togawa also speaks good English. The price of courses start from 3150yen (~AU$31).

Chef Togawa at work to prepare our lunch:


I went for the Chirashizushi Set (3150yen) while Rob ordered the 7-piece Sushi Set (3150yen) that also came with a roll of kanpyo (dried gourd) sushi. Both sets came with clear soup with a small amount of noodles and a strip of fried tofu skin. I loved the variety and colours of sashimi (raw fish) and cooked items in my bowl of chirashizushi, which included maguro no zuke (marinated tuna), madai (red sea bream), anago (conger eel), gyoku (an egg 'cake' that had a spongy texture due to the addition of white-meat fish paste; not the usual tamagoyaki that we're used to), kohada (shad), crabmeat, hotate (scallop), ika (squid), ikura (salmon roe) and a couple of others that I don't know the names of. The kuri (chestnut) was a lovely sweet surprise in the midst of all the seafood. Every item in the bowl was beautifully fresh - something that you can enjoy visually and taste-wise. The shari (sushi rice) had the perfect balance of sweet and sour and a lovely texture.

Chirashizushi:


As for Rob's sushi set, he informed me that everything on his plate was excellent. I love kanpyo sushi for its simple, uncomplicated flavour, and I ate a couple of these from Rob's plate.

Sushi Set with the kanpyo sushi:


Rob then asked Chef Togawa for his o-susume (recommendations), and the chef whipped out the o-toro (fatty tuna belly). Over the past year of regularly eating sushi, we've come to recognise good melt-in-your-mouth o-toro, or grisly chewy o-toro, and the ones the Chef used were the perfectly marbled types. Rob and his collegue eagerly ordered one each, while I look on longingly. (For the benefit of those who are not aware of the reason why I haven't been indulging in maguro (tuna) lately: tuna flesh contains high mercury content, and especially unfortunately for me, pollutants tend to accumulate around in the fatty areas of fish). Before Chef prepared the o-toro, he warned that one piece would cost 1500yen (~AU$15), because he only sourced fresh tuna meat and not frozen ones as is usual at most sushi restaurants. Not blinking their eyelids, Rob and Chris were still eagerly nodding their approval. This is one of the few nigirizushi that is presented as it is without any prior preparation or marination, simply because it is the best way to savour the gorgeous flavour and texture of o-toro. I know it tasted good even without Rob having to tell me.

O-toro:


Then Rob asked for more o-susume, and Chef Togawa took out a container of tai (sea bream) marinating in a sauce that included shoyu (soy sauce) and goma abura (sesame oil). This was excellent - the flesh was very tender and had the melt-in-your-mouth texture, and the flavour of the marinade was really good. Chef looked a bit surprised when Rob asked for one more recommendation, and he presented the skin of the tai. It was served hot and fresh from the oven, and it was surprisingly soft and tender (I'd half-expected the skin to be chewy).

Tai and its baked skin:


The bill for the three of us came to around 17,000yen (~AU170), which made it a pretty expensive lunch, but we all felt that the food fitted the bill. I am so glad that I can still eat sushi and sashimi even when pregnant! Afterwards, we went across the road to Pierre Marcolini for some ice-cream.

Double-scoop cone with hazelnut praline and chocolate:

Friday 18 July 2008

Iron Chef Sakai's La Rochelle, Tokyo

We are huge fans of the Japanese TV program Iron Chef, and we used to watch the old episodes that used to air every Saturday night on SBS in Australia. While we were amused by the exagerrated and theatrical English dubbing, we were at the same time amazed by the excellent culinary creations by talented chefs prepared under a limited amount of time. In the few years of watching Iron Chef, I was introduced to many gourmet ingredients and haute cuisine dishes which only fueled my foodie interests. It was only natural that after moving to Japan, one of the goals for our culinary experiences would be to dine at an Iron Chef restaurant. Our favourite Iron Chef was the charming Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai, who held an amazing winning percentage, and won the title "King of Iron Chefs" after becoming the victor of the show's grand final tournament involving all of the current Iron Chefs. Fortunately for us, Sakai's main restaurant La Rochelle is situated in Tokyo. The restaurant is named after the French city where Sakai spent some time as an apprentice. Did you know he also spent a year and a half in our hometown of Perth (Australia) when he was 19 to develop his skills at the Hotel Oriental?

La Rochelle is on the 32nd floor of the Cross Tower in Shibuya, and not suprisingly, it's a beautiful restaurant that is also quite popular as a wedding function venue. I tried booking a table at La Rochelle a couple of months ago for Rob's birthday, but the earliest they could fit my reservation in was last Saturday (June is a very popular month to get married in Japan and the whole restaurant was fully booked on weekends for weddings). The service was faultless which certainly contributed to an excellent dining experience. And more importantly, we were blown away by the quality, presentation and flavours of the food. Rob commented that this was the best meal he's had in a long time (and Rob doesn't use superlatives often). I'm inclined to agree!

We were greeted and ushered right from where we got off the elevator on the 32nd floor. We waited a short while in the gorgeous lounge area, perhaps to give us a chance to cool down and relax after coming in from the humid heat of Tokyo summer, and we were then ushered to our table in the main dining room. I love how we get to keep our own copies of the menu which saves me the effort of having to take note of the names of our food. I also love how there is a recipe included inside one of the menu! And I love the never-ending supply of warm fresh baguette slices placed on our empty bread plate by the attentive staff - never mind the doctor's advice at my last prenatal checkup to avoid carbs. Three types of seasoning were placed on the table for our perusal throughout the meal: olive oil, a type of red salt (we couldn't discern any particular flavour other than saltiness!) and a sweet black vinegar. The food were already seasoned very nicely, and we weren't quite sure how to use them so they remained untouched during our meal.

The plates had cute animal prints on them:


Unfortunately, Chef Sakai was away on business trip (he'd left only the day before), but there was a little statuette of Sakai in a showcase in the hallway between the lounge and the dining areas.



For the lunch service, there were three main types of courses offered, priced respectively at 4500yen (~AU$45), 6500yen(~AU$65) and 8500yen(~AU$85), as well as the option to go a-la-carte. After some consideration of all that was available to us, I settled for the 4500yen course menu, and Rob chose the 6500yen option. The 4500yen menu was titled Menu de Fumiduki, which I thought was cute because it employed both the French and Japanese language (fumiduki is the old, classical Japanese name for the month of July). This option is a 5-course meal, and as suggested by its title, the dishes changes every month to utilise the seasonal ingredients available for that month. The Menu Maestro (6500yen course) is a 7-course meal and uses more pricey ingredients. Both of these courses gave the option of choosing between two meat dishes. While we were eating our respective meals and tasting each other's, we couldn't stop marvelling at how fresh the ingredients were, and how amazingly flavourful everything was. You could taste that the chefs have used only very high quality produce.

Le menu du mois de Juillet 08

(Apologies for the crappy translation as I utilise my rusty French.)

Hors d'œuvre: Salades de gombo et concombre en gelée marine de saumon et moule et hamo (Okra and cucumber jelly with salmon, mussel and pike eel). I thought it was an interesting combination of the neba neba (aka slimy) okra and the crunchy cucumber in a smooth terrine-like gel, and eating it was like having a textural party on my tongue (if that makes any sense). I also enjoyed the taste and texture of the seafood ensenmble, where the smoked salmon was used as a circular case to hold the mussel and the battered and deep-fried pike eel.

Soup: Soupe gaspacho andalouse (Gazpacho). This chilled soup was very refreshing and tasty. It was served with tomato jelly and small pieces of fruits like orange, grapefruit and kiwi fruit.



Poisson (fish): Omble chevalier meunière beurre blanc au citronnelle (Japanese char fish (a type of trout) meunière with white wine butter sauce. The fish was simply pan-fried, and the beurre blanc sauce complemented the fish very nicely.

Viande (meat): I chose the Longe de veau grillée etuvé de navet ruby porto & purée sauce porto blanc (Grilled veal and red port-braised white turnip with white port sauce). The veal was perfectly cooked, tender and juicy. The turnip was nice, but I must admit that I thought it was an odd vegetable to serve with veal.



There is one more course left (dessert), but I will write about that after describing Rob's meal.

Menu Maestro

Hors d'œuvre: 9 kinds of small appetizers. True to its name, there were indeed nine types of appetisers served. The dish was seafood-based including prawns, salmon, crab and a few others that Rob had forgotten due to the sheer number and variety of different ingredients. He did have one thing to say about all of them though - that everyone of them was good! He enjoyed the flavour and freshness of the ingredients. I did get to try a couple, and I was particularly impressed with the firm crunchy texture of the prawns which indicated the utmost freshness.

Seafood: Scampi with organic vegetables bagna cauda style. The scampi was super-fresh, and Rob enjoyed the variety of very fresh and tasty vegetables. He's not a fan of tomatoes, but his eyes lit up when he ate the segment of tomato and exclaimed how good it was (he regretted not giving me a taste of it because I love tomatoes!). The dipping sauce was wonderful! It was crab-flavoured and was really good with the baguette.



Poisson: Grunt fish soute with macadamia nuts and tomato sauce. The fish was beautifully cooked, and once again we marvelled at how well the Japanese know how to prepare fish without overcooking it. Succulent and juicy, it was a delight on our palates.

Soup: Chilled Corn Soup. Sweet, refreshing and bursting with flavour.



Viande: Barbarie wild duck wrapped with pie and orange sauce. The perfectly crisp pastry and the wild duck were accompanied by a gorgeously smooth orange sauce. The sauce was so good, in fact, that we were unashamedly mopping up the remainder with the fresh bread.

Avant dessert (pre-dessert): Passionfruit mousse. It's my first time encountering a 'pre-dessert' dessert. The mousse was slightly frozen which gave it an interesting texture.



Dessert Course

For dessert, our waitress wheeled a dessert cart to our table and asked what we would like to have. To Rob's delight, the waitress informed us that we could have as many types as we'd like. So, naturally, we said that we'd like to try all of them, and she kindly accommodated our request.



Thankfully the slices and servings of each dessert were quite small so we could eat most of the plated dessert before feeling like we'd eaten too much rich sugary food. My favourites were the Chocolate Orange Cake and the Nut Mille-feuille.

First plate contained the Chocolate Orange Cake, Peach Cake and Macerated Grapes; the second plate held the Nut Mille-feuille, Strawberry Sorbet, Passionfruit Meringue and a Cheesecake of some flavour that I can't quite recall:


There was also mint jelly and a pudding which are not pictured.

After consuming the carb- and fat-laden plates of dessert, one of the waitstaff came by our table and informed us that we could have our tea in the lounge area where we could take our time. And that was what we did. We enjoyed the view from the windows of the 32nd floor and reflected on the excellent meal we'd just consumed. We were very happy with the quality of the food, the impeccable service and the beautiful decor. La Rochelle comes highly recommended from both of us.

Saturday 12 July 2008

Odaiba, Tokyo

Last weekend we headed to Odaiba in search of a sports store to buy some fitness equipment for me to use at home (so that I don't have to walk in the Tokyo summer humid heat to the gym later in the final trimester of my pregnancy). Rob stayed at a swanky hotel in Odaiba early last year when he flew into Tokyo from our then-residence in the Noto to sit an interview for the job he currently has, and he had some opportunity to explore the surrounding area during that short stay, He told me there were some things of interest to see in Odaiba, so our trip there last weekend wasn't strictly a shopping errand (albeit a futile errand because we found out that the sports store had shut down). Rather than taking the cheaper and faster Rinkai Line, we caught the Yurikamome which takes a more scenic route to the artificial island of Odaiba.

View of the Rainbow Bridge from the train; and on the beach (bridge in the distance) which is probably too polluted to swim in but that didn't stop people from going in the water on this hot day:


And artificial it was. There are many things that are replicas of real things such as Little Hong Kong in the Decks shopping mall, the statue of Lady Liberty and the Venice-themed shopping mall called Venus Fort. I'm sure there are many tourists and locals who appreciate having these replicas around in the one place, but to me it all made for a very fake atmosphere and kitsch-y feel.

Little Hong Kong:


The replica of the statue of Liberty; inside the Venus Fort shopping centre:


One of the amusing things Rob showed me was the pet-friendly section opposite the artificial beach. Pet-'friendly' is actually putting it mildly because it seems like the whole area was obsessed with pets. There were pet salons where pets get pampered, have fur-cuts and blow-dry; dog restaurants where owners and their pets can enjoy meals together; and even pet furniture stores for all your pets' needs. It's all really quite OTT, but business were thriving so there is obviously demand for these services (an "only in Japan" scenario?). We went into a shopping mall that permitted pets - one floor where you could walk your pets on a leash, and on the other floors they required you to keep your pet in a bag - obviously assuming that if you own a pet, it'd be one of those miniature animals that are just so kawaii (Japanese for cute). At this same shopping centre, I saw a dog pee and I felt sorry for its owner when she had to clean up the mess with tissues. At least you put diapers on babies and you can clean up the mess in the privacy of the bathroom.

A dog getting its fur-cut in one of the pet salons; one of the pet restaurants:


Anyway, we had some mediocre dimsum lunch in one of the restaurants inside Little Hong Kong. I heard Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) spoken by the staff so I have no doubt of the authenticity, but the food is nothing to write about.

Some of the nicer dishes we had - pork and prawn dumpling; daikon (aka Chinese radish) cake:


Lotus seed paste bun:

Thursday 10 July 2008

Two weddings and a lot of good food!

Recently Rob and I had the privilege of attending two weddings in two different countries: a Greek wedding in Brisbane, Australia, and a mixed Aussie/Japanese wedding in Tokyo, Japan. And like most weddings, there were plenty of delicious food to ensure a wonderful atmosphere and lots of happy guests. And as usual, I was armed with my dSLR to not only snap the merry proceedings, but to also take shots of the food (to the amusement of the guests seated nearby us).

The Greek wedding fare

It was our first time experiencing a Greek wedding, and there were lots of food, merry-making and dancing - I participated in my first Greek dance, and spent half the night on the dance floor! (I'm sure there were many who wondered if an almost-6-month pregnant girl in high heels should be on the dance floor, but I didn't care!) And the food - I enjoyed learning firsthand about Greek cuisine by eating them! I'm grateful to Eleni (the 'best friend of honour') who sat next to me on the bridal table for giving me an insight into the Greek culinary world. The wedding menu technically contains four courses, but there were so many dishes within each of these courses that it could have easily passed for a 12-course dinner!

View from the seats of honour (shot taken before guests were seated):


Bonbonniere/favours (gifts for the guests) on the table included a handmade Greek Almond Ball and chocolates in a heart-shaped box that doubled as a name placecard:


The food was served banquet-style, and we helped ourselves to the food as they were brought to the table. First course was crusty bread and a meze platter that included feta cheese, stuffed bell peppers (with a cream cheese mixture - really good!), sundried tomatoes, olives and vegetable sticks served with three types of dips: taramosalada (cod roe dip), tzatziki (yoghurt and garlic dip) and eggplant.

The wedding cake (chocolate and caramel mudcake - yum!!); and the Meze Platter of the first course:


The second course brought a myriad of dishes that included grilled haloumi (a type of cheese), grilled marinated baby octopus, calamari (battered and deep-fried squid rings which were very moreish and not at all greasy) and sheftalies (a type of sausage).

Grilled Haloumi and Calamari:


For the third course, we enjoyed boorgoori (cracked wheat) with Greek yoghurt (although it's a simple dish, I really liked the boorgoori a lot), moussaka (a Greek dish with layers of mince meat, eggplant and tomatoes, but this one was topped with mashed potatoes much like shepherd's pie - and although I was already quite full, I kept spooning the moussaka onto my plate), yemista (tomatoes and zucchini stuffed with rice), kleftiko (lamb with lemon and herbs) and lemon potatoes.

Sheftalies and Yemista:


The main dessert was baklava with ice cream, but it came accompanied with a plate filled with slices of the wedding cake (chocolate and caramel mudcake), galatoboureko (custard-filled parcels) and gourambiethes (buttery shortbread biscuits). I get the impression that the Greeks sure love their desserts! What can I say but that we were in sugar heaven! (It was no wonder that on the following week during my routine pre-natal check up at my hospital back in Tokyo, sugar was detected in the tests and I had to be told by the doctor to lay off sugary carb-laden stuff.)

Baklava and the Dessert Plate:


See what I mean about there being so much food? I love variety, and I don't think I've eaten so many different Greek dishes in one meal before!

Western-Japanese fusion wedding

The following week, we attended a wedding where the bride (my friend) is Aussie and the groom is Japanese. The affair was decidedly more western than Japanese (white weddings are very popular in Japan, and I think it's a sad thing that traditional Japanese weddings aren't so common nowadays) but we did witness the traditional Japanese custom of Kagami Biraki where the newlyweds break open a small barrel of sake (Japanese alcohol). The dinner reception was held in Sunshine Cruise on the 58th floor of the Sunshine60 building in Ikebukuro. The venue was very chic and sophisticated, with a sweeping view of the surrounding area.

View from our table:


It was a 10-course fare and the food was as chic and sophisticated as its venue - seasonal Japanese ingredients served Western-style. The food was served banquet-style, but rather than self-service, I found my fellow female table diners were serving other guests' plates first before tending to their own plates, in typical Japanese put-others-before-self style. The food was lovely and presented with great care. We had metal chopsticks to eat with, which lends a sophisticated feel to the tableware, but my Japanese friends commented that it was difficult to eat using metal chopsticks. The courses included Japanese-style meatloaf, satoimo (taro root) with yuba (tofu 'skin'), chicken salad (which was very tasty for a salad!), hotaru ika ('firefly' squid, so called because they glow in the dark when still alive), unagi (eel), fatty pork morsels served with crisp pumpkin slivers and prawn sushi. Dessert was a relatively light milk pudding.

Here are photos of some of the dishes for you to enjoy with your eyes (titles are given by me since I don't have the actual names of the dishes):

Japanese Meatloaf and Satoimo with Yuba:


Hotaru Ika and Pork with Pumpkin Chips:


Unagi and Prawn Sushi:


Quite a bit different to the Greek wedding fare, isn't it? I love Japanese food because they are usually quite light (both in flavour and on my stomach) and I certainly didn't feel like I overate even though I'd eaten plenty that night.