Yoku Moku Cookies Part II

More Yoku Moku Cookies, and probably the last of them. It seems we've gotten bored of these and moved on to other goodies. Plus these are difficult to get a hold of, and expensive, and the selections are always the same because LE flavors are out of reach for us :(

These Double Chocolat Blancs were from a Japanese grocery store downtown, and for $18/tin too which I thought was pretty reasonable. However, when I went back for more, I was told they could no longer restock these. No reasons were given :(

Snack Time Part III

This Snack Time post has gotten way too long so I thought I'd better get it out there before it gets lost in my draft folder.

 

In May of 2019, I received an amazing care package from Julia, stuffed full of yummies. Thank you, Julia! With the exception of the Hanamizuki teas I'm savoring slowly, the rest didn't last very long ^.^

Afternoon Tea at the Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Part II

One midday Sunday last fall, hubby and I were nostalgic for those spectacular afternoon tea sessions in Tokyo, so we dragged ourselves downtown Denver to find something close to make do with. We first stopped by a small tea room near his old company's office. Of course, of all the days we picked there was a demonstration downtown that day and the small tea room was totally full with an hour wait time. So off to the Brown Palace Hotel we went, and we got the last table too!

Snack Time Part II

Last year, in addition to my obsession with ochazuke I ventured into snacking territory as well. Again, I think this was my nostalgia for Japan taking on the form of cravings for certain foods and snacks. 

First up: Shijimi Wakame Soup. I was really looking for something similar to the one I found at Nishiki Market in Kyoto. I bought 4 packages to share with my parents. Too bad these didn't taste anywhere near as good as the Kyoto version (of course, what was I thinking?). They weren't too salty but had a heavy briny and fishy taste that the Kyoto version didn't.

Snack Time

Since last fall, dear friends in Japan have been sending me care packages with snacks and other goodies. The first giant package I got in November was from sweet Julia who sent me a whole lot of everything I love: adorable printed masking tapes from Daiso, sweets, snacks, tea, hand cream, and lippies! How am I so lucky, I've no idea, but let's just say the sweets and snacks and the tea didn't last past the month. Good thing I took notes as I ate (and drank) them ^.^

Alexander's Patisserie, Mountain View

Upon exiting Maison Alyzee, I promptly crossed the street for Alexander's Patisserie. Talk about a literal patisserie face-off--they're staring each other down from across the street. Fine with me though. More patisseries means more sweets for me to enjoy ^.^

Maison Alyzee, Mountain View

As hubby and I grabbed a quick snack at the Hong Kong Bakery & Cafe, I couldn't help but notice Maison Alyzee right next door. After he left to do work stuff, I went in to check it out despite having had a snack. I could never pass up a patisserie. There's always room for desserts in this tummy ^.^

Mountain View, California

Last year, hubby had to make a few short work trips out to California, once to SF in late July and twice to Mountain View in the fall (beginning of September and end of November). I tagged along each time and took some photos while wandering about (and yes, I'm still perpetually behind on posts...).

Both of the trips were super short. Each time, I had just a couple of hours in the afternoon to explore and get myself some snacks while hubby got some work stuff done, then we met up with old friends for dinner and went home the next day. So I ended up just wandering up and down Moffett Boulevard/Castro Street (downtown Mountain View) and took pictures of the shops that caught my eyes (mostly food :P).

Crown & Crumpet Tea Room, San Francisco, Part III

While hubby was busy with work conference, I roamed around Japantown and visited familiar stores and shops until I got tired. Plus, having a few days away from our little one (he stayed with my parents) meant precious writing time for me.

That said, writing meant I needed a place to camp and staying all cooped up in the hotel room was not an option. This was in SF, after all! Thank goodness for Crown & Crumpet Tea Room on Post Street.

Tea Time Part IV

Has it really been more than a year since my last Tea Time post? Where did all the time go? I've hoarded a bunch more of teas since, and that's with several that I'd totally forgotten to take pictures of before tearing into and subsequently tossing the packages.

***Disclaimer: I'm *not affiliated* with any of these tea brands or vendors. Just sharing the goodies I enjoy is all.

My first encounter with Ahmad Tea was through A., my Japanese-school classmate back in 2012 in Yokohama. A. is Iraqi, born and raised in Baghdad but had met her Japanese husband S. via an online chatroom.Their story belongs in a book and movie--Far East meets Middle East, he converted to Islam and all the high jinks ensued--but I'll leave it to her to tell this story.

Yoku Moku Cookies

Cookies!!!

Unsurprisingly, hubby and I have found that of all the gifts we brought back from Japan, the snacks are some of most popular among our family and friends. And not just any snacks but iconic ones:
1. Kit Kats in multitude of flavors. Cliche? Yes. Fun? Yes! You can definitely find some of these at your local Japanese (or even Korean!) grocery store, but of course flavors are limited. I've consistently seen matcha and strawberry, both are ubiquitous and boring. The more interesting LE releases are Japan-only, like wasabi (sweet, with only a faint taste of wasabi) and toast-able "pudding" (by "pudding" they always mean Spanish-style flan, I did toast them, and they did have a custard-like flavor).

***Stock photos from Amazon and RocketNews24.

2. Shiroi Koibito. Our family went nuts for these and for good reasons. They're delicious, enough said. You can get them via Rakuten Global or even Amazon, but you sure pay one way or another, via shipping from Rakuten or marked up prices from Amazon, take your pick. Which was why we loaded them up with our move home and even then, our 12 boxes were woefully inadequate and disappeared pretty much instantly.


Then came this past holiday season and one of my sister's friend in Japan sent her a giant tin of Yoku Moku Cookies. Like Shiroi Koibito, Yoku Moku is a brand of premium cookies. The founder Noriichi Fujinawa first tasted a variety of butter cookies when he visited the town Jokkmokk of Sweden. Upon coming home to Japan, he went straight to work recreating the goodies he had and couldn't forget.

Tea Time! Part III

More teas, hooray, now that I'm reunited with my tea shelf ^.^ Here are some new acquisitions since moving home last October. After spending a few years sampling extensively from numerous vendors, I now only purchase very specific favorites that I haven't found elsewhere. There are many other favorites that aren't featured in this post, but I figured I'll run out sooner or later and will have to restock, at which point I'll take photos and post about them.

***Disclaimer: I'm *not affiliated* with any of these vendors. Just sharing the goodies I enjoy is all.

I like a few things from American Tea Room of Beverly Hills, CA. Their teas are of decent quality but are on the pricier side, so I don't buy anything else from them other than these 4 teas: Anastasia, Brioche, Madam Bergamot, and Victoria.

Tokyo Eats - Shibuya Area

Shibuya was another under-explored area for me and hubby. Believe it or not, we went to Shibuya more often while living in Yokohama than we did while living in Tokyo. I blame the same big, dense city exhaustion, because being a suburb Yokohama was nowhere as crowded as Tokyo.

Tokyo Eats - Akasaka area

Landing in Tokyo in August of 2015, we got ourselves a major craving for some okonomiyaki. This was before we found Kinu in our neighborhood, you see, so upon some googling we decided to go with what we knew, a Botejyu branch in Akasaka that was closest to us. Little did we know we'd be coming back to Akasaka again and again throughout our time in Tokyo, though mostly for Shichirin Yakiniku AnAn below.

Anyway, I didn't like our first visit to Botejyu years ago but in our desperation we gave it another chance just to relive our previous Japan experience. We ended up having a great meal there and went on to bring friends and family back, until the smoking in the restaurant became unbearable and stopped us from coming back. It seemed the restaurant had grown and the food vastly improved since we ate there last.

These were the seasonal offerings for the fall of 2015.

Tokyo Eats - Omotesando area

Hubby and I, and our friends too for that matter, only went to Omotesando a few times when we were in Tokyo. It wasn't because we didn't like it. We felt--for lack of better words--out of place there. Why? From our view Omotesando is really poshy, the all-grown-up-and-super-successful big sister of Harajuku. Ginza? Pffft, too touristy, which was why we spent a lot of time there because we could blend into the crowds of tourists. But there at Omotesando, our decidedly "un-hip" appearance stuck out like a sore thumb.

The Prada Aoyama branch.

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 - Shinjuku area

Throughout our time in Tokyo, the majority of our visits to Shinjuku was to eat sukiyaki tabehodai (all you can eat hotpot) at Nabezo with a host of friends and visiting family. The remaining of the time was me exploring the Shinjuku Isetan and a few other shopping destinations, me meeting up for lunch and coffee with my old friend K., and our afternoon tea club hanging out at the Peak Lounge or the New York Bar of the Park Hyatt Shinjuku ^.^ So suffice to say we did a great injustice to the enormous and super dense Shinjuku and didn't explore it as much as we could and should have.

Tokyo Eats - Ginza area Part III

Wow, has it really been more than a year since my last Ginza post?! Anyway, here's the last of the Ginza series and a long post ahead. I'm almost through with the rest of the Tokyo food photos too. I guess I should be happy to finally be done with the gigantic photo backlog, but coming to the end of the Japan pictures makes me so sad and nostalgic :(

Mum-in-law visited us back in early April 2016 with her older sister, aunt D. Aunt D. was the one who took this pic, with me photo-bombing hubby and his mum ^.^