tonchin ramen @ Ikebukuro

A slightly luxurious breakfast for a saturday morning...

mushroom & ham cheese toast, strawberry bread with red bean paste

(btw, red bean paste goes really well with toast!)

Then we we headed on for Js super familiar spot, Ikebukuro, to chill out & shop.

After cracking our heads over where to eat, we decided, we wanted something safe =P

So...

ramen at one of his favourite places as a high school kid.

Chinton ramen

i had fish & pork based ramen soup

J had his fav standard tonkotsu ramen

really thick pork broth with lots of back fat which is supposed to be sweet & tasty

I still dont really know how to appreciate pork fat, so seldom am keen on tonkotsu style.

This place, over the years has turned so popular, the queue runs to outside the shop.

But the good thing about ramen, is that u eat and go, so the queue pretty much is moving all the time.

Dinner was lots of veg & salmon in soy milk hotpot

wiht grilled mochi, tofu & fish cakes

finished off with rice and tororo seaweed added to the miso soymilk broth

somehow miso + soymilk combi gives a cheese taste, but is so much easier on the stomach. =)

red bean day

I made oshiruko, thick red bean soup today and had i think i overate in the afternoon. =P

i could finish the whole pot, but then that would mean J would have to sleep with a plug on his nose.

I just had to have something light for dinner

pork and mushrooms mizoreni,

a grated daikon simmered dish

pink daikon salad with mixed beans

and this was Js dessert.

oshiruko with mochi

Traditionally red bean porridge is eaten on the 15th day of the new year, usually in the morning, to ward away evil & signify good health for the rest of the year.

But J and i dont really fancy it, so i made oshiruko.

i love making oshiruko, the smell of it, the colour of it, the taste of it after all that hard work of stirring. =)

squid ink paella & pink salad with homemade ham

When i brought out our dinner plates today.

His eyes almost popped out.

then he was thinking quietly, i know i am on a diet, but seriously are we having only salad and baked potato?

Then... tadaaa~

squid ink paella

I never cooked this spanish rice dish before in the real way, that is, in the frying pan.

this time i took up the challenge, and hmm... am quite impressed!

not as difficult as i thought since i know basically how rice cooks now.

baked sweet potato

pink daikon salad with home made chicken ham, tossed in caesar dressing.

This chicken ham recipe was easy to follow and so i decided to try homemaking ham since i am having ham very often these days.

and since the salt content plus preservative is not going to be good in the long run, i figured the only reasonable choice is to make my own.

Salt & honey cured for 3 days, then boiled only! super easy.

gonna try it on a pork loin the next time =)

microwave chilli prawns

Chilli prawns are very popular here as a chinese restaurant dish.

sometimes i crave chilli prawns, but after 2 or 3 pieces and i will be sick of the oil filled prawns.

Very often, the prawns are coated with flour, fried and then wok fried again in sticky sweet chilli sauce. i discovered a new way to do this without the frying!

using the microwave.

chilli prawns on blanched broccolli

grated mountain yam pancakes

microwave chilli prawns

300g prawns

A 2 tsp sake

some salt

2 tsp oil

2 tsp cornflour

B 5 cm leek

a knob of ginger

1 clove of garlic

(all minced)

C 1tbs sake

3tbs ketchup

1/2 tsp chill paste

1 tsp chicken stock granules

2 tsp water

Coat the prawns with A well, pour A into a microwaveable dish, top with B, then pour over mixture C.

Wrap, and microwave 5minutes at 500W.

Unwrap, stir well, and pour over blanched vegetables or lettuce.

Simple, guilt free, yummy!

it was nice & sunny today! what a change from gloomy snowy yday.

snow

Tokyo saw its first snow of the winter this morning.

the weather forecast, as usual, was right on!

Tried as i might to take photos of the snow, as soon as it reached my eye level, it was almost rain.

Well, it turned to rain eventually anyway. =P

It was really really cold this morning, this afternoon, now.

Am sososososososo thankful for my hot carpet =)

Breakfast was colourful thanks to our day outing at tokyo station yday.

managed to get some yummy breads at a stylish bakery

luxury breakfast at home

Dinner was...

I dont know why, but i was craving chicken & potatoes

Roast chicken with onion & mushroom brown sauce, baked young potatoes with bacon bits, and roasted rosemary carrot

I havent had the brown sauce from marks and spencers for a long time. and when we have chicken & potatoes, most of the time it is at home, so after a long time, i try this sauce store bought. i was quite shocked by the strong taste.

well, yummy, but i think i am gonna try to make a version to suit our tastes.

sauerkraut!

made with chikuwa fishcakes instead of ham/sausage

brrgh, cant wait for the sunshine to come shining tmr!

super indulgent day

We met up with grandma for lunch at a very interesting tenpura restaurant.

With unusual tenpura like anago (a kind of eel) & bosa prawns (tiny prawns but not sakura prawns).

appetiser tenpura, bosa prawns kakiage (big fritter like tenpura)

salt grilled anago & chawanmushi for sides

Anago is usually grilled with loads of sauce to hide the smell. But this being fresh, was really tasty simply salt grilled.

Anago tenpura don for mains

super crunchy coating with sweet & fluffy fish flesh

And since meeting the folks for lunch means super early lunch at noon.

Yeah, noon is early for us.

We had the whole afternoon free and so hung out at the Tokyo station area, where i love to feast my eyes on the cakes at the big Daimaru.

And since we had a cafe in mind to try out, we decided to late afternoon when i was having my usual sweet crave.

From afar, we spotted the meiji company building

and as we drew closer,

Just had to have their waffle plate

with a comforting cup of chocopresso (chocolate & espresso)

really really light & fluffy waffles with ice cream, chocolate mouse & chocolate sauce

there was even a special waffle with the cafes name embossed!

we each had a piece of chocolate with our coffee

and was amazed to find the date printed on the orange & wine white chocolate piece!

it says, Today being seijin no hi, which is the day 20 year olds officially are recognised as adults in the country, this chocolate flavour was chose to celebrate the occasion.

After tenpura rich lunch, and super indulgent tea time, dinner had to be something gentle on the tum tum.

Choc full of veg alphabet pasta minestrone soup

Hot yuba (beancurd skins) & cheese topped on brown rice mochi, drizzled with shoyu

I know this is crazy, but i just had strawberry cheesecake ice cream bar for dessert.

super indulgent day eh?

Yummy macha chocolate donuts

The both of us are on high relax mode now.

Cos the weather since new years day has been really good, cold but so sunshiney, and we are in the middle of a long weekend =)

This was for lunch, which really upped our mood cos it was fantastic!

Glass noodles in curry soup

And, i didnt make the curry soup, it was instant!!! Just added lots of veg, and this was gorgeous!

We bought misdo doughnuts again! everytime we see the advert on tv for 100yen donuts, we both know where we are headin to during the weekend.

This was a new creation, green tea with chocolate coating.

Rally good!

I wanted to have fish today.

And we managed to get some fresh buri (a fatty yellowtail fish).

J requested for western style, so we grabbed some tiny asparagus to go with our fish plate dinner.

Buri in teriyaki butter sauce, topped with yuzu,

tiny asparagus and prawn cakes

tofu & mozuku seaweed clear soup

=) another one day off!