Mexican @ Salsita, Tokyo

I must admit that I am not a big fan of Mexican food, or at least the ones I've tried before. Greasy flavours and overloaded with cheese, I consider them not much different than the junk fast food. The exception would be the Mexican food I had at New York's Pompano, but that was a fine dining kind of experience and you can't really compare it to the types of food that most would associate with Mexican cuisine - food that I consider as street food: enchiladas, tacos, and so on. Anyway, some time last year, Rob ate at Salsita with some of his colleagues, and he raved about it and reckoned I would like it. However, at that time, I was pregnant and the thought of having Mexican wasn't really that appealing - the greasy cheesy stuff would surely trigger morning sickness and indigestion. Last weekend, the opportunity came up to visit this Mexican restaurant because we happened to be in the area around lunch time. The reviews I read online seem to favour Salsita as the best place to have authentic Mexican food in Tokyo, so I was willing to quell my prejudices against this cuisine to give the restaurant a try.

After checking that the restaurant is okay with a baby, we were seated in the cool air-conditioned dining room, a wonderful respite from the warm mugginess outside. Staff were great and friendly, and the atmosphere was buzzing as the restaurant filled up with the Saturday lunch crowd. Zak was as chatty as an 8 month old baby can be but no one seemed bothered by his noises.

Rob ordered the Cochinita Pibil (1900yen), which is marinated pork slow-roasted in a banana leaf. It was served along with some flour tortillas, refried beans and corn chips, red onions and a spicy salsa. The salsa has quite a kick, and I think it was made with habanero chili. The pork was simply delicious, which we ate rolled up together with the accompaniments in the tortilla. The refried beans were so more-ish.

Conchinita Pibil, wrapped and unwrapped:


I considered getting the Mole Poblano Chicken, but decided against it because Rob already had this dish on his previous visit. I went instead for one of the 1000yen lunch specials, the Two sauces Enchiladas for which you could choose cheese or chicken filling, and included a salad and drink. My chicken enchiladas came with a green and red sauce, refried beans and corn chips, and rice. Both the sauces were made with chili but neither were particularly spicy - the green sauce was perhaps made with jalapeño, and the red one maybe with Guajillo (I do have a high tolerance for spicy food, so some may find them spicy). I preferred the green sauce whereas Rob liked the red one better, but I probably liked the green one better because there were more of it to eat with the rice.

The salad that came with the enchilada:


For dessert, we got the Tres Leches Cake ("three milk" cake, 500yen) which had slices of mango in it. It was delicious and light, a great way to finish the meal.

Tres Leches Cake with mangoes:


Rob was right - I do like the Mexican dishes at Salsita. I didn't find anything greasy or overly cheesy, and it's certainly a nice change from the Tex-Mex versions.

It's summertime!

Summertime in Japan for me is not just about (enduring) the humidity and muggy warmth, but also about the matsuri (festival) season that it entails. We'd experienced amazing and unforgettable matsuri during our year-long stay in inaka (countryside) Japan, and it was nice seeing this cultural tradition also taking place in the city last year. A couple of weekends ago, we chanced upon the Tsukiji-jishi Matsuri when we walked past a street full of yatai, food stalls set up temporarily during a matsuri event. I actually didn't know that there was a shrine in the area (the Namiyoke-Inari shrine). We checked out the food stalls, but because we'd already eaten our lunch, we only got some bebī kasutēra (baby castella) which is one of the things I like to get from these food stalls, and some kuro-goma mochi (black sesame mochi) from the karami-mochi food stall. The mochi was pretty good - you can see whole rice grains which gave it a lovely texture somewhat different to the pounded or flour versions. It wasn't overly sweet either which was a nice change from the usually too sweet flavour in Japanese-style sweets. We didn't hang around for the parades because we didn't know the schedule and the baby needed a nap.

The food stalls, view from the main street towards the shrine; and the entrance to the Namiyoke-Inari shrine:


Goma (sesame) mochi - it tasted a whole lot better than it looked! And a group of people in their happi outfits on their lunch break opposite the shrine's entrance:

Revisits: Lao Hu Dong Yi Ju and Cold Stone, Tokyo

It was Rob's birthday last week, and I like taking him to nice restaurants to celebrate. Last year we ate excellent food at La Rochelle, two years ago we enjoyed our first fine dining experience in Tokyo and unforgettable Japanese-French fusion cuisine at Restaurant Yonemura, and my very first blog entry in this journal was about the exciting teppanyaki meal we had for Rob's birthday way back in 2005. So anyway, I wanted to take Rob to a nice fine dining restaurant (I was thinking kaiseki), but unfortunately, unlike in NYC, such restaurants in Tokyo won't allow young children. So that plan went down the hole, and I asked Rob to choose a place we have been to before that we've liked and are happy to accommodate babies. He chose Beijing restaurant Lao Hu Dong Yi Ju in Roppongi Hills, which we have been to twice before. This time we didn't order their delicious signature dish, the Beijing-style Sweet and Sour Pork, and instead chose to try out other dishes.

To start with, we ordered Nira Manjyuu (prawn and garlic chives dumpling, 500yen for two). This was really good! It was pan-fried which meant it had more flavour than if it was steamed, yet not overly greasy like deep-fried ones. The prawn and chives were a great combination, and I found that it was delicious to eat as it was without any sauce.

Prawn and garlic chives dumpling:


We each chose a dish, and Rob selected the Deep-fried Prawns in Spicy Sauce (1980yen) which was also yummy but I let Rob have most of it since I am not big on deep-fried stuff. The prawns were fresh and juicy with flavour, and there were deep-fried squid too! The squid pieces were tender - I would love to know how do they get it that tender? My dish was the Seafood with Vegetables and Rice in Claypot (1480yen). The rice had soaked up all the gravy/soup and had a wonderful mochi-like texture because short-grain Japanese rice was used. I liked that the dish was mildly flavoured which allowed the subtle seafood flavours to shine through. The seafood were nicely cooked, not overdone at all.

The deep-fried prawns and the claypot rice:


Once again, Lao Hu didn't disappoint us, but their dessert selection is quite limited, so there was no doubt from the start that we would be heading elsewhere for sweets. Since it was Rob's birthday celebrations, he got to choose where to go for dessert. And where else but to Cold Stone? We shared a German Schokolatekake (chocolate ice cream, pecans, coconut, brownie, and fudge instead of caramel). Yummy! Too bad Zak is still too young for ice cream.

Delicious eice cream from Coldstone Creamery:

Lebanese @ Alfanoose, NYC

Yes, I'm still blogging about our NYC eats even though we've been back in Tokyo for over a week now, but this is the last one. Rob's auntie arrived in New York two days before our flight back to Tokyo, so we met up with her for dinner on that Thursday. Rob and I actually had no idea where to bring her, only that it had to be somewhere downtown near our apartment because we had an early morning flight the next day. The problem was, good restaurant eats are hard to find in the financial district of the city. In the end, we decided to go to Alfanoose, which was a 5-minute walk from our apartment, and it has plenty of good reviews so we knew the food would be decent enough. However, we didn't expect it to have such a casual setting, but this is not a really bad thing. It's the first time we've brought her somewhere we haven't been before. (By the way, the spellings of the dishes names are as given by the restaurant's menu, which differs slightly from the more usual spellings.)

We decided to go for the Combination Meat Platter (US$18) where you can choose two types of meats, and it comes with a pita bread, the choice of mojadara (lentils with wheat or rice) or salad, and either homous, baba ganouge, tabouli or foul mudammas. I was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar terms and the variety of options to choose from, and it didn't help that Rob and his aunt left it up to me to choose dinner, so I just chose the meats and let our server decide what would go with the meats. We got the Lamb Shawarma (sliced lamb meat marinated in vinegar and spices, US$13.25) and Shish Tawook (charcoal grilled cubes of marinated chicken breast). I honestly do not remember which side dishes were chosen for us, only that they were yummy. We also shared a serve of Meat Kibbeh (ground lamb with cracked wheat, stuffed with chopped meat, onion, walnut and spices, US$7.95). This was nice, but I probably preferred the falafel which I'm comparing to because they're both deep-fried balls. Rob mentioned that although the meats tasted good, they were pretty dry on their own, but that was easily fixed by liberally using the dipping sauces that came with the platter.

Combination Meat Platter with Lamb Shawarma and Shish Tawook; and the Meat Kibbeh:


In addition to the meats, we shared a Combination Vegetarian Platter (US$12) with a choice of three vegetarian dishes. This option is served with a pita bread and mojadara or salad. I chose the Falafel, Stuffed Grape Leaves and Foul mudammas. The vegetarian musaka was also on the plate, so I guess the combination vegetarian platter included an additional side dish. The falafel was pretty good, and Rob said it was his favourite item out of everything. I enjoyed the musaka too.

Combination Vegetarian Platter:


I liked the generous serving sizes - although there were four of us sharing the two combination platters, we couldn't finish everything. I also liked that you could choose wholewheat pita bread here. And also the fact that this place caters to both the herbivores and carnivores with plenty of choices. Rob always has room for dessert, and Alfanoose has a decent selection of Middle Eastern desserts. He selected Namora (US$1.75) and Kinafa (US$2.75). The Namora was a rather dense coconut cornmeal cake soaked in sugar syrup, and it proved too sweet for us. The Kinafa was a light and creamy cheesy dessert, which was really nice! So nice that Rob went and enquired more about it. It uses shredded phyllo dough called kataifi, which gave it a lovely light texture to the dessert. And it wasn't too sweet, which made it all too easy to eat too much of it.

Namora and Kinafa:


This is a great little place for Middle Eastern food in a laidback atmosphere. Friendly and helpful staff too.

Street and deli eats, NYC

After our dimsum lunch at Red Egg, we headed towards Little Italy in search of the nougat/torrone stall we encountered last time. When we couldn't see it anywhere (admittedly, we weren't looking very hard nor going very far to look for it), we decided to buy a cannoli. (Actually "cannolo" is the correct term for singular cannoli, but our NY foodie guru Michael said that most New Yorkers (even the Italian-Americans) would use cannoli/cannolis for both singular and multiple.) This one was chocolate covered cannolo (US$4) filled with a creamy cheese (which I think was mascarpone because it was too smooth and creamy to be ricotta). It was quite rich, and I'm glad we shared one between the two of us.

Chocolate-covered cannolo:


Other than the ubiquitous street carts all around NYC, delis are a popular place to grab breakfast and lunch. My last day in NYC saw me with an empty fridge, so I headed down to the nearby Champs Deli for a takeaway lunch. I got the Grilled Chicken & Fresh Mozzarella Panini (US$7.45) which also had arugula and tomatoes in foccacia bread. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that sandwiches at Champs came with a choice of either chips, coleslaw or baby carrots. The panini was delicious with generous amount of chicken breast, and the mozzarella, arugula and tomatoes were a great combination - I guess that's why those ingredients are a popular pizza topping! It was a very filling lunch.

Grilled Chicken & Fresh Mozzarella Panini from Champs Deli:

Dimsum @ Red Egg, NYC

On our last weekend in NYC, we met up with Michael, whom we lunched with two times on our previous trip to NYC. We went to Red Egg, which is a rather curious name for a dimsum restaurant. A few reviews of the restaurant seem to indicate that this is a rather pricey option for dimsum, but most agree that the food is pretty good and quite authentic. We hadn't eaten dimsum for a long time, so we were looking forward to this lunch. We weren't disappointed, and the bill was a rather pleasant surprise, which elicited a somewhat embarrassing (involuntary) reaction from yours truly. Those who said that Red Egg was expensive for dimsum have certainly not had dimsum in Tokyo where one can expect to pay around US$40 per person, which was how much we paid at Red Egg for four people. Of course

The one dish that deserves a special mention is the Durian Puff. Flaky pastry with a creamy filling made with real durian flesh, this is one great way to enjoy durian without its "perfume", for those who are strongly opposed to the smell (for me, the durian fragrance is part of enjoying the fruit). Another dish I particularly liked was the Taro Cilantro Dumpling. The other dishes were more or less the standard dimsum fare, most of which were done well and delicious but there were a couple of disappointing ones. Rob said the only dish he was disappointed with was the Ha Cheong (steamed shrimp rice roll), one of his favourite dimsum dish, because the prawns and sauce weren't that tasty. For me, the dish that disappointed would be the Chicken Feet, because the sauce just wasn't that great - I definitely have had better ones. Other than those, everyone agreed that the food was pretty good.

Durian Puff (US$3.75); Pan-fried Turnip Cake (US$3.75):


Ha-cheong (Steamed Shrimp Rice Roll, US$4.50); Steamed Fun Gaw (US$3.75):


Lormaikai (Sticky Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf, US$3.75); Chicken Feet (US$2.75):


Taro Cilantro Dumpling (US$3.75); Charsiu-pao (Roast Pork Bun, US$3.75):


Stuffed Green Pepper (US$3.75); Sesame Ball (US$2.75):




By the way, today is Rob's birthday :)

Austrian brunch @ Wallsé, NYC

I stumbled upon Wallsé while looking through the list of restaurants on OpenTable.com, a web service I use for making reservations online for NYC restaurants. Wallsé stood out to me because I've never had the opportunity to try Austrian cuisine before, and also because it is a Michelin one-star restaurant (yes, yes I know I'm a sucker for the Michelin-starred restaurants). I booked us a table for lunch time on a Saturday, and eagerly looked forward to our introduction to Austrian food. (Lately we've been dining out during lunchtime because Zak tends to be a better dining companion early on in the day. I'm amazed that many fine dining restaurants in NYC are baby-friendly, but I feel that most of them would be more accommodating to a baby during lunch time than during the dinner rush.)

Since we knew very little about Austrian dishes, and I didn't want to spend too long making our decision at the restaurant asking too many questions, we had a look the brunch menu available online and googled the names of the dishes beforehand. Hence we knew what we were going to order even before we stepped into the restaurant, which was good because our walk from our downtown apartment to the restaurant had worked up an appetite in us (it took about 45 minutes one way, carrying an 8kg baby in a carrier). Service was great and our waitress (with her gorgeous accent) really looked after us.

After being seated and settling in, I decided I also wanted to try one of the cocktails they had on the brunch menu. Neither of us are alcohol drinkers and we hadn't heard of most of the alcohol names in the cocktails, so I kinda randomly chose the Lingonberry Rob Roy (US$13), a combination of Dewar’s, Sweet Vermouth, lingonberries, and bitters. Apparently they'd decided the day before to remove that cocktail from the menu, but the manager (who was also the bartender) whipped one up for us anyway. It was berry good (sorry, couldn't resist that one). Bread and butter was brought to the table for us to munch on while we waited for our food, and it was hard trying to resist filling up on these yummy carbs.

Complimentary bread and butter; and the Lingonberry Rob Roy coctail:


Rob ordered the Palatschinken with smoked trout, apples and organic greens (US$16). It is like a rolled-up crêpe with a smoked trout filling. Delicious, but this one is definitely a light brunch option or for those with a much more tiny appetite. I got the Spätzle with braised rabbit, wild mushrooms, sweet corn and tarragon, which was really good, but I felt it was a bit over-seasoned with salt. Obviously this was clearly a matter of taste because Rob thought it was seasoned just right. I loved the mushrooms.

Palatschinken; and Spätzle:


For dessert, we chose the Kaiserschmarrn with fruit compote and marinated raisins (US$12) and the Apple Strudel with Schlag (US$12). The kaiserschmarrn was actually on the brunch section and not under dessert, and for a good reason too - it was a huge serving! It was so deliciously eggy and fluffy, and was absolutely divine with the caramelised apple and vanilla ice cream. I loved seeing the tiny black specks of vanilla seeds in the ice cream. The apple strudel was nice, but somewhat overshadowed by the kaiserschmarrn.

Kaiserschmarrn with the caramelised apple and ice cream in the background; and the Apple Strudel with vanilla ice cream in the spoon and cream:


This was an excellent introduction to Austrian cuisine. I would jump at the chance to have Austrian food again if the opportunity presents itself.

Porky goodness @ Porchetta, NYC

One of Rob's colleagues is a big pork fan, and he recommended Porchetta as the best place to eat pork in NYC. This is a no-frills place specialising in Roman-style roast pork, so don't be surprised to see only ten items on its menu. There are limited seating at this tiny eatery (maybe 6 stools by the corner bar lining one wall and window, and a couple of small tables outside), and this place gets crowded during peak meal times.

Roasted piggies on display:


We got the Porchetta Sandwich (US$9) and the Porchetta Plate (US$14). The sandwich was pork and crispy crackling presented in a toasted ciabatta bun with nothing else. The pork was so good that it really doesn't need anything else. The simple sandwich is a great way to enjoy the roast pork for all its deliciousness, unspoiled by condiments and other ingredients that usually accompanies sandwiches. Meaty, juicy, tender and crispy with the fragrance of herbs - I honestly did not expect it to be this good. The plate was the same roast pork served with chicory and beans. The sides were not that great - the greens was swimming in oil (although it was nicely garlicky) and the beans was rather tasteless and bland. Not necessarily a bad thing as it emphasises the fact that Porchetta focuses on its specialty (pork) and not much else, and hence do a fantastic job at it. I reckon the toasted ciabatta was a better accompaniment to the pork, but Rob said he liked that he could enjoy the pork on its own with the plate.

The Sandwich and the Plate:


Porchetta is a must for pork fans in NYC!



This will be my last post for a few days because I will be busy with preparing for our return trip back to Tokyo.

Hard Rock Cafe Niagara Falls, Canada

Before we headed out of Niagara Falls back to our hotel for the wedding, we needed to grab lunch to take away before our 2-hour long coach ride. Although it seems that everyone has a Hard Rock t-shirt (good marketing strategy - customers pay for merchandise and advertise for them), both Rob and I have never been to Hard Rock Cafe. From the main road, we spotted the sign to Hard Rock Cafe and thought we may as well take this opportunity to try the food. I've always thought it was a funny name to give to a cafe - aren't all rocks hard? Well, the mystery is solved when I realised that 'rock' refers to the music genre - kinda obvious with all the autographed electric guitars displayed everywhere, and even a display of Beatles memorabilia.



The sandwiches seemed like a healthy and sensible thing to order from the menu since we had to takeaway. Rob got the Hickory Smoked Pulled-Pork Sandwich (CAN$16.50 before tax) which came with fries, ranch beans and coleslaw. Mine was the Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken Sandwich (CAN$14.50 before tax) and included bacon, lettuce, tomato and Jack cheese, also with fries and coleslaw. In a bid to stay healthy, we requested for no fries. When we opened the boxes, we realised that these sandwiches weren't really very healthy at all, and worse, the fries were included despite our request - it's not easy to resist them when it's there in front of you. The pork sandwich was very tasty, and we ate some of the fries with the ranch beans. The chicken sandwich was also sinfully delicious, and it was with great effort to throw out half the fries. We certainly felt like gluttons because we also had the 12-course wedding feast later that day.

Pulled-Pork Sandwich; and Grilled Chicken Sandwich


It was a rather expensive lunch, with the total coming to around CAN$36 (incl tax), but it was yummy.