Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part VII

The last of the Roppongi food posts :(

Hubby and colleagues were super excited when Blue Bottle Coffee opened yet another branch in Roppongi (they're up to 6 branches in Tokyo now!), in the spanking new Tri-Seven Building across the street from Midtown. It made their daily coffee run much easier than, say, Omotesando (will post soon!). Hubby loved going there, and he loved to drag me along. I was more, umm, indifferent. Sure, I like coffee, but more so the flavor than the actual beverage, which can sometimes be too strong and bitter for my unsophisticated taste buds.

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood Part V

The last of the neighborhood food photos, though not the last of the Tokyo Eats series as I'm still sorting through my photos.

Check out this beauty I spotted in a tunnel in my old neighborhood. The left wing tip had a small tear :(

Kinkatsu right outside of Kamiyacho Station serves up tantan men (aka dandan noodles) and other, erhhh, Japan-ized Taiwanese noodle soups. We walk by this place all the time but it was always crowded so we never went in. Then one night when we were bored with everything else and the place seemed vacant enough, we tried their tantan men. Really good, but holy hell it was salty. I thought I already eat too much salt (and I do!) but these noodles tasted like a block of salt! We never went back.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part VI

My god, how many food photos did I take?!? I finally made it to the first week of August in the photo backlog, and it filled up yet another Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area post! I guess it was because hubby worked there, and so I went there everyday to meet with him for lunch. That was how I ended up with lots and lots of photos of mostly food ^.^"

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood Part IV

More food in my former neighborhood, again, won't be the last as I'm still catching up on photos.

We didn't dine at the Atago Green Hills Forest Tower lounge as D&E got tired of the food and wanted to venture out. But still, over the new year (which was a long time ago, I know...), they actually served zouni, a traditional new year soup with mochi!

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part III

It's taken us a while but hubby and I are slowly exploring the Roppongi area for good food ^.^

This Hainan Jeefan Shokudo in Azabu-Juban was a discovery from last fall. Hubby and his colleagues stumbled upon it and that was that. Funny enough I don't like the Singapore chicken rice, but I'll give them due credit that the chicken rice here is out of this world! My god that breast meat is unbelievably tender and juicy. How do they do it?! Anyway, I prefer their curry to the chicken rice, because it tastes like mum's curry ^.^

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood Part III (Picture heavy!)

More food posts because we eat out a lot ^.^ The spring was spectacular with all the blooms, though I nearly clawed my eyes out because of allergies. I took lots of sakura pictures but I'm behind as usual, so I'll post them later when I get there.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part II (Picture heavy!)

Alright, I can't procrastinate on this post anymore because it's growing too long. More food ahead, folks. In the Roppongi area, same old, same old. Took some photos over the holidays too, trying to get just that special one for the holiday cards. Too bad they all turned out meh so no cards this year. Oh well.

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood Part II (Picture heavy!)

More food pics from the neighborhood, from the Atago Green Hills Forest Tower and the Toranomon Hills Tower. Hubby and I made good friends with his colleagues, and all of us hangout and eat with E. and D. a lot, like a couple of times a week, at either their place or at the Toranomon Hills Tower.

From the Atago Green Hills Forest Tower Lounge, this steak plate is J.'s favorite. Hubby tried it once and now he orders it pretty often too. You have a choice of rice or bread. The bread is just a tiny wheat roll, but J. once made the mistake of ordering 10 grains rice instead and as you can see, it came out on a huge plate! For some odd reason, there's a huge difference between the bread and rice portion. Go figure.

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood (Picture heavy!)

Three months into our Tokyo stay and I'm finally posting about our neighborhood. It's very quiet around here, for which I'm thankful. We made a conscious decision to stay away from the boisterous and the lively after all. The only drawback is that most restaurants close at 8pm, the lights go out shortly after, and the small family-run shops and even parts of the subway station close over the weekends. We can always hop on the train if we want to go play, or walk, or if we're desperate enough, take a taxi, so I'm not complaining.

The first thing that jumps out at us in our neighborhood is Tokyo Tower.

Osteria Marco, Denver

Denver used to be SIL's stomping ground and naturally, we asked her for food recommendations when we were there. She suggested Osteria Marco. We went, and our conclusion was that the food was heavy and hearty but delicious, the portions were way too big and the place was way too loud. So go in a big group but expect to yell and scream to be heard.

The food was really good though, and the menu is huge! Hubby and I started out with meatball sliders and tomato basil soup, both of which were yummy.

We got cabin fever! (Picture heavy!)

A few weekends ago hubby and I got a bit of cabin fever and so we went out for an afternoon stroll through town ^.^

It was about 2PM, and having only snacked a bit for brunch we wanted to find a place to sit down for another snack. We got off at MRT Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Station and walked around. Unfortunately, the place we wanted to try was closed (Kiki's, many restaurants are closed between 2-5:30PM to rest) and so we went across the street to this Fifteen Pizzeria Napoletana. 

Fifteen Pizzeria Napoletana

Hubby was thrilled for a slice of pizza as he was starting to get homesick and, well, sick of Chinese food LOL!

Miami Garden

Miami Garden is a chain serving a take on Italian food, mostly pizza, but I'm afraid they're not that great...

Hubby and I were craving for a pizza, and we weren't ready to venture (or more precisely, dial) into the delivery point of no return yet ^.^

Shrimp Scampi

Was trying to get back into the roll of things and, well, started craving Italian food. Gosh I miss Jersey. So what do I do but looked up the recipe on the internet and try to make it myself! I had pasta, a couple of tomatoes, and shrimps. Google turned up Shrimp Scampi and I thought, damn, that sounds really hard to make!

It turns out this dish's surprisingly easy to make! I couldn't believe it at first but after making it (and try eating it), I literally squealed because now I know how to make Shrimp Scampi! ^.^ Here's the recipe of Shrimp Scampi I tried.

I threw in the crab legs I had too ^.^

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Both hubby and I agreed that one of the best thing about living in Jersey was the readily available Italian food. God I'm desperate for a good slice of pizza and the thought of a fresh, hot, crispy loaf of chicken parmigiana makes me want to cry. Damn I miss Jersey.

That said, Japan is the land of the breaded-n-deep-fry (katsu, tempura - hello!) so there has got to be a way for me to buy my own unassembled chicken parmigiana. Let's see, I'll have to make my own sauce, buy chicken katsu, bread, and mozzarella. Then assemble them and toast in my little toaster oven. Argh so complicated!!! As for pizza, forget it. I don't have anything to bake it in, and ordering from Pizza Hut or Domino's on this side of the planet is just...pitiful. Not only they're doubled-tripled in price and halved in size, they come with toppings catered to the local tastes, to be gentle. Erhh...sorry, I like my pizza the "usual" way they're made.

So the only thing left that's doable for me is to make some pasta. Funny how I never order spaghetti when I eat out in Jersey. I only make it at home.

Dinner was spaghetti in meat sauce with garlic bread (just store bought bread, butter, garlic powder, and dry parley, all toasted in the mini toaster oven) and instant potato soup ^.^

Here's my recipe for the Meat Sauce.

Ingredients:

- Ground beef, though I prefer ground pork because it makes the sauce sweeter, 1 lb.

- Onions, 2 large or 3 medium, diced

- Tomatoes, 3-4 cans whole tomatoes, though I prefer fresh tomatoes, especially tomatoes on the vine, 12-15 medium, chopped. When I use tomatoes on the vines, I also pick out a clean vine, wash it well, and set it aside to throw in with the sauce. This will result in a very "tomato-y" and fragrant sauce - yum!

- Garlic, 2-3 large cloves, chopped

- Lime or lemon, 1 slice. If the fresh fruit is not available, a few sprits of the bottled juice will work, but be careful to not to use too much since the bottled stuff tends to be stronger.

- Optional: mushrooms. I hate most mushrooms, so I never use any mushrooms in my meat sauce.

Seasonings:

- Salt, 3/4-1 teaspoon. This sounds a lot but you're also making at least 2 meals' worth of meat sauce for 2 people (4+ servings), and that's with hubby inhaling 2 large plates each meal! So really, this recipe will probably yield 6+ servings for those who eat only 1 plate like me. I use sea salt because it tastes less salty than table salt, plus it adds a touch of sweetness to the dish.

- Dark brown sugar, 1/2-3/4 teaspoon. When I use fresh tomatoes, especially tomatoes on the vine, I skip sugar. I made the mistake of adding sugar once with fresh tomatoes and my sauce turned out super sweet. Ooops.

- Black pepper, generous sprinkles

- Dry basil, generous sprinkles

- Dry oregano, generous sprinkles, though don't over do it and avoid using more oregano than basil as it is stronger and will overwhelm the entire dish.

- Optional: crushed pepper, to taste

Steps:

- Brown the meat, and if you want to eat lean, drain the meat of the grease and transfer to a clean bowl.

- Add 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil (this is the good fat you want to eat!) to pot, quickly brown the garlic.

- Throw in the onions, cook until tender.

- Add the browned meat, then before mixing the meat up with the onions, season with salt (and brown sugar if use), black pepper, basil, oregano, and crushed pepper. Mix well.

- Add chopped or canned tomatoes, mix well. Throw the cleaned vine in here and make sure it's submerged.

- Cook for at least 1 hour until the tomato sauce is smooth. Cooking with fresh tomatoes will take much longer, about 2-2.5 hours since fresh tomatoes will give off tons of water. If you use canned tomatoes the sauce will be ready in just over an hour.

- Squeeze the slice of lime/lemon into the sauce pot and mix well right before serving. I didn't have either the fresh fruit or the bottled juice, so I used the bottled yuzu juice ^.^ And don't forget to remove that vine!