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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 24 December 2009

Festive lunch @ Cravings, Tokyo

The silence on my blog for the previous week is due to the fact that I've been flat out busy preparing for the Christmas season and our trip to Nagano early on Boxing Day. We did, however, get a chance last Sunday to sit down for a Christmas lunch with a couple of friends at this gorgeous little American eatery called Cravings. This eatery is run almost singlehandedly by one girl, Miri, who is really good at what she does. So good, in fact, that Rob's office (full of Americans) caters their lunches from Cravings at least three times a week. Rob loves most of the things that Miri prepares, especially her desserts, and said that he learnt a lot about American food from his Cravings' lunch orders. Miri has been running Cravings for about four years, and she already has a solid clientele base, as is evident in her busy schedule.

After enviously hearing Rob rave on about Cravings' food for so long, I contacted Miri to arrange a holiday meal for our family and friends. She gave me a list of dishes for each course that I could choose from, and charged a straightforward price per head. I knew that Cravings is a relatively small diner that sits at most 10 people, but neither Rob nor I were actually prepared for how small it actually was! The small size wasn't a bad thing - in fact, it was warm and cozy once we'd strapped little Zak onto the bar stool (using a spiffy compact cloth belt that I purchased online only a few days prior - surprised that it worked on a bar stool!) and settled in ourselves. We had a nice view of the kitchen from the one and only table indoors, and occasionally watched Miri efficiently preparing beautiful and delicious dishes. She only had one helper to help serve the dishes, and to help with delivering catering orders, and it really is admirable how well Miri runs the show on her own.

View of the kitchen from the table:


For appetisers, we enjoyed Crabcakes with Tartare Sauce and Stuffed Mushrooms. Both were delicious. The crabcakes were perfectly crispy on the outside, and moist and flavourful when you bite into it. And of course, the tartare sauce was an excellent accompaniment to the crabcakes. The button mushrooms were stuffed with a cheese filling and topped with a crunchy crumbed coating that was both a delight of flavour and texture for the mouth. And even the humble salad of lettuce and tomatoes was tasty with a slightly sweet dressing - I wonder what ingredients Miri used for the dressing.

Delicious crabcakes and mushrooms:


When the Roast Pork Loin Stuffed with Apples and Chestnuts was served, we knew it was going to be delicious just by looking at it. We weren't disappointed. The pork was bursting with flavour, moist and tender, and contained a very nice stuffing. I'm not usually keen on most stuffings, but this was yummy, sweet with the apples and chestnuts. The pork was served with our side orders of Wild Rice and Chestnut Dressing and Corn Bread, both of which were so good that I could easily have eaten these sides as a main dish. I loved the nutty crunchiness of the wild rice, and the corn bread was slightly sweet with a lovely crust that kept you coming back for more.

The roast pork loin with the wild rice and corn bread:


The other main dish we had was Pan-seared Duck Breast with Berry Sauce. The duck was served with homemade chips which was deliciously crispy in a not-very-healthy way. I loved the berry sauce! I thought it had a good balance between sweet and tart that went really well to complement the gamey taste of the duck.

Close-up of my plate with the first serving of the pork, wild rice and corn bread; and the duck:


For dessert, we enjoyed a gorgeous Bûche de Noël (aka Yule log). The cake itself was quite rich, perfectly finished with a luxurious coating of chocolate ganache. This was a sinfully rich dessert.

The lovely Bûche de Noël:


Miri is really good at what she does, and I'm sure a lot of the gaijin (foreigner) community in Tokyo would agree with me. When asked if she thought of expanding, Miri said that she wouldn't be able to control quality as well if she did expand. I think she will be really successful (in the monetary sense) if she does expand, but I guess she is running this business at Cravings because she has the passion for cooking and not that interested in making money. We all had a great time, enjoying both delicious food and wonderful company. Zak was really well-behaved, which made the experience all the more pleasant.

Saturday 12 December 2009

Yatai eats @ Ueno Park, Tokyo

My sister Honey has a penchant for junk food, and Japanese junk food is no exception. Ever since she arrived in Tokyo almost two months ago, she's been asking me where she could find a takoyaki stall to get hot and freshly made takoyaki (octopus). These octopus balls are available in supermarkets in the takeaway section, but anyone would agree that supermarket food can never be as good as freshly made ones (although high quality food standards in Japan means that supermarket foods are incomparably excellent compared to the ones in Australia, America and Asia). If we were in Osaka, where these octopus balls originated from, my sister would have no shortage of takoyaki stalls. Unfortunately (for her), I didn't know where in Tokyo could we find yatai (mobile food stalls selling street food), now that the summer matsuri (festivals) season is well and truly over (there are festivals outside of summer, but they are few and far in between). So I went on the internet for a little search, and the search results seem to suggest that we could find yatai stalls in Ueno.

A family photo:

Last weekend, we made an afternoon trip to Ueno, not just to look for Honey's junk food, but also to enjoy the coloured leaves in the beautiful autumn weather at the park. Whilst in search for the park's lake (not so easy with the seemingly ambiguous maps around the park), we came across a ishiyaki imo vendor selling hot satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potatoes), freshly baked over hot coals. These are so good to eat in the cool weather, and the three of us shared one.

Hot baked sweet potato!

We hit jackpot when we reached the lake - like killing two birds with one stone, because we not only found the lake, but we found a bunch of yatai selling unhealthy food. In good time too because the baked sweet potato made us realise that we were pretty hungry. Rob and Honey went into the crowd to check out the yatai offerings whilst I stayed behind with the baby and pram and watched the kyarakta kasutera ("character" castella vendor churn out Doraemon and Hello Kitty "baby" cakes. I love bebi kasutera and I couldn't resist getting a bag of 20 baby cakes (all 20 Doraemon and Hello Kitty were gone by the time we got home). Rob and Honey returned shortly after with takoyaki and a compact version of the okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake). Honey also enjoyed yakitori (skewered chicken).

Yatai stalls, with the bebi kasutera vendor at the entrance enticing children and adults alike; takoyaki and okonomiyaki:

The bebi kasutera vendor doing his thing really efficiently: filling the mold with batter, then closes the lid and waits for the timer to ding to let him know that these babies are ready, then unmolding little Doraemons and Kitty-chans out:

Tasty little Doraemons and Kitty-chans - sounds morbid, but they were delicious! Zak agreed (by the way, I don't usually give him sweet treats like cakes, but he snatched it out of my hand while I was taking a photo of it and started munching on it. He hadn't been eating well for the previous couple of days due to his teething problems, and him eating something was a nice change):

While it was good to satisfy our mid-afternoon hunger, the food was only so-so. We have definitely had better versions of these food, but hey, beggars can't be choosers!

Saturday 5 December 2009

Colours of Autumn in Tokyo

Autumn is my favourite season of the year, both in Australia and Japan. I just love the weather during this season, and in Japan we get to enjoy coloured leaves. Coloured leaves are to the Japanese autumn what cherry blossoms are to spring. Just like the Japanese tradition of hanami ("flower viewing") during the sakura (cherry blossoms) season in spring, many Japanese participate in momijigari ("red leaves hunting") in autumn. Right now, most of the deciduous trees in Tokyo have already turned and some are balding, but there are still a number of trees displaying brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow coloured leaves. A month ago, on a gorgeous autumn day with clear blue skies, we headed to Yoyogi Park on two occasions a week apart. On the first week we were there, the leaves were only just beginning to turn. We went to a relatively open area where Zak could roam around (and he had such great fun with the small amount of brown leaves on the ground). A week later we returned to the same spot to find the ground completely covered in yellow ginkgo leaves. I guess the fallen leaves will keep the groundskeepers busy for a while!

Here's a small selection of my favourite shots taken on those two visits:

The "Big Fountain" (first visit):


A bridge near the Big Fountain (first visit):


My two favourite guys, with a lovely backdrop (first visit):


Yellow ginkgo leaves on the ground (second visit):


The sunlight on the yellow fallen ginkgo leaves resulted in a beautiful golden glow (second visit):

Thursday 3 December 2009

Vietnamese Pho @ Hoang Ngan, Tokyo

For part of my sister's birthday in Tokyo, we organised what we thought would be a small gathering with a couple of American we'd met at the Halloween party we recently went to. We met up at a Vietnamese restaurant in Shibuya called Hoang Ngan, and were surprised to find a larger-than-expected group had gathered, including another baby. Unfortunately Rob had to work on that Saturday (not a usual occurence, thankfully!) so he couldn't join us for lunch, but he made up for his absence by taking my sister and some friends out to an izakaya in Roppongi that served up really good yakitori, one of Honey's favourite Japanese food.

My lovely sister enjoying her pho lunch set, with the group:


I must say that I would like to develop a deeper appreciation for the Vietnamese cuisine, beyond the typical phở, but the restaurant offered lunch sets with a noodle or rice dish that was too cheap to pass on. I got a gỏi cuốn (fresh spring roll) in a sweet spicy sauce, Chicken Phở, and a small plate of dessert, all for less than 700yen. The spring roll was delicious, the phở was nice, but I wasn't keen on the almond jelly.

Chicken Phở lunch set:


I like noodles in soup - they're so easy to prepare and makes for a quick home-cooked lunch, and perhaps it is for this reason that I feel somewhat blasé about phở. I hear that it is the soup base that makes or breaks a phở (as with any noodle soups), so maybe I haven't yet encountered a broth that would make me go "wow".