Tokyo Dec 2012 - Part II

Continued from Tokyo Dec 2012 - Part I

In this Part II, I'm going to share about Day 2 and 3 in Tokyo because there weren't many things to talk about, I was too busy shopping! LOL :p And also because I have already blogged so much about Tokyo in my previous posts. So my focus here would be the new places that I explored this time.

Day 2 was my Jiyugaoka Day. Yep, I always dedicate almost one full day for Jiyugaoka because I'm such a big fan of zakka.

During my last trip to Jiyugaoka in Mar 2012, I chanced upon this cafe only after I had lunch. And I was determined to have my lunch here this time!

The cafe is called Tokyo Sweets Factory, located at basement level, so it's kind of easy to miss if you didn't notice the display boards at the street level.

Their set lunch promo was quite attractive, salad + main course + drink + cake ranged from 1150 yen to 1350 yen ($14-$18).

The cafe was actually quite small, with about six 2-seater tables and one large 6-8 seaters.

Very cozy and nicely decorated.

I guess you can say, very Tokyo-style. A lot of cafes in Japan are tastefully decorated with lovely displays of zakka items.

And to think a small cafe like this has 6 staff (1 manager, 2 waitresses, 3 chefs), service was prompt and friendly. The manager even gave me a nicely packaged floral tea bag as Christmas gift.

 

Did I mention that the set lunch promo was value-for-money? This was the salad, looked so appetising and tasted so good! The portion was so big that I wondered if I could even take the main course.

Next up, mushroom and seafood pasta in light cream sauce. I seldom eat pasta, not exactly my favourite, but this was really yummy. The spaghetti was cooked al-dente, and the cream sauce complemented the noodles, mushroom and seafood very well!

I was filled to the brim already but I couldn't let my dessert down! The vanilla roll cake was one of the cafe's specialty so I had to try it. Needless to say, the sponge was very tender, fluffy and moist and paired well with the chantilly cream. With a nice warm pot of earl grey, a perfect ending to the lovely lunch. I was a happy gal!

After lunch, it was basically shopping and shopping and shopping till late evening. I dropped my shopping bags in the hotel and met hubby at Shinjuku for more shopping and then dinner.

Had hot plate steak dinner at Shinjuku. I think this steak restaurant is a chain joint or something, forgot the name. The soup, salad and rice were free-flow. Somehow it felt good to eat steak during winter :)

After dinner, we proceeded back to Shibuya Excel hotel as most shops were closed and it was too cold to wander about in the streets.

Day 3 and our last night in Tokyo, we woke up late, and had brunch at this bakery cafe nearby the hotel. It was located near one of the subway lines and I passed by it almost daily. Had made a mental note to try it. Lots of pastries and bread but the sandwich caught my attention. The fillings looked too tempting - potato and beef croquette, mayo egg, bacon and ham. Then the salad also caught my attention, ah, might as well try it too!

After the sumptuous brunch, hubby and I went our separate ways for shopping around Shibuya area. Then met in the late afternoon to go to Tokyo Sky Tree together.

The Sky Tree opened in March 2012, and it's a must visit new place especially when there's a mall, Tokyo Solamachi next to it! Initially I wanted to make reservations at the Sky Restaurant 634 but I heard it's quite impossible as the restaurant was fully booked every day in advance for months.

Anyway, the whole place was so crowded probably due to weekend and Christmas eve. We started walking around the mall at first, and close to 7pm, saw some people moving to the outdoors. So we followed them. Realised that everyone was waiting for the Sky Tree to light up.

I was kind of expecting a lighting show or something, about apparently not. It was just a plain simple light up that lasted like 5 secs? Disappointed. Nevertheless, the Sky Tree looked beautiful.

We proceeded to the entrance of the Sky Tree itself, trying to get tickets to go up to the viewing gallery. There, we found out that for crowd control, there were specific timings to enter the viewing gallery and the timeslots for 6pm to 8pm were all fully booked (via online booking). We could try to queue for the 8.30pm slot at the walk-in counter but when we saw the queue, we were like, ok let's KIV this for our next trip.

Since it was approaching dinner time, we decided to go for dinner instead. All the restaurants had long queues and we had no choice but to join in the line for an Udon eatery. Waited in line for almost 45 mins before we got our seats.

Ordered a Ume udon with a seasonal tempura to share. The soup base for the udon was light and soothing and warmed my tummy. Tempura was also fried to perfection, crispy but not oily.

After dinner, we walked around the mall for a while more before heading back to the hotel for packing, as our flight out was around 6am in the morning.

 

Well, this concluded my very short trip to Tokyo. In my final Part III, will share my shopping haul. Stay tuned!



Tokyo Dec 2012 - Part I

Hubby and I escaped to Tokyo (yes again!) last December near Christmas season. Come to think of it, this was the first time we spent Christmas eve in Japan. Personally I have been to Osaka during Christmas season several years ago for a homestay programme, but not us together. Our usual period of visiting is end Nov to mid Dec or Mar to Apr.

Based on this trip, we concluded that it's not really advisable to visit Tokyo during Christmas period because the shops and restaurants were really crowded with long queues due to Christmas gifting and partying. Plus, it was really cold so we had to put on at least 3 layers of clothing like an inner wear, a sweater and a jacket. It's kind of inconvenient especially when there are nice and pretty clothes but I cannot buy because I dread the process of changing (peeling off 3 layers of clothing, try the new clothing, remove, then put on the 3 layers again x 2-3 times coz can only try maximum 3 pieces each time).

I digress. Anyways, we took the red-eye flight via SQ and touched down Narita Airport in the early morning. Next up, our usual routine of taking the Airport Limousine Bus to Shibuya Excel Hotel, deposited our luggage (too early to check-in) and proceeded to Tsukiji Jogai Shijo. It has been 10 years since we last visited the place!

The outer market was buzzing with activities even though it was raining, I guess coz it was the weekend and just before Christmas. I was once again overwhelmed by the array of foodstuff, ranging from seafood, dried goods, pickled products to vegetables and fruits.

Unfortunately the rain made it difficult to shop as the outer market was not sheltered and it was quite a hindrance trying to maneuver with an umbrella, a camera, and wallet (when trying to pay).

It was so cold that my fingers felt frozen at some point and I had to put on gloves. In the end, I gave up taking more photos.

We decided to seek refuge at one of the sushi restaurants, Sushizanmai and take an early lunch. But well, everyone thought the same too and we had to wait for about 30 mins to get a table. Luckily there was a large heater outside the shop and we sought warmth there while waiting.

There are several sushi restaurants at Tsukiji Jogai Shijo, in fact I read about the most famous ones but the queue was simply too daunting (more than an hour).

We sat at the bar counter where we could order sushi directly from the chef.

I guess this was the freshest sushi we could ever get. Hubby was a happy camper since he loves sushi to bits.

I have a thing for handrolls :p
Freshly rolled Ebi Temaki, crisp nori, warm fluffy Japanese rice, succulent prawn, crunchy cucmber, happy!

Ume Temaki. I love Ume, especially in handroll or onigiri.

After the hiatus at Sushizanmai, we were a little sleepy and tired.

Decided to spin by Kappabashi Dogugai briefly as I wanted to check out some baking stuff there.

And thereafter, finally checked into our hotel in the late afternoon.

 

We booked for a double room and were pleasantly surprised that the bed was much bigger than we expected.



Room size was quite decent. For 12000 yen a night at a prime and convenient location (heart of Shibuya, connected to mall and JR station), this was not bad at all!

I love this cross junction outside the JR station.

Such spontaneity and vibrancy, yet orderly in a different way. I love Shibuya!

After resting for a while, I headed out for shopping! No time to waste!

Met hubby for dinner at one of the street eatery. A hot bowl of ramen soup was simply perfect for the cold weather.

Hubby's choice - with extra char siu.

Mine, with extra veggies. Forgot to take the egg, you know those kind with lava egg yolk? Here it was cooked to perfection! The soup base was also very soothing. Wish I could find something like this in SG (or maybe I didn't find hard enough). But good ramen in SG is more pricey, like $12-15 a bowl? Here, about 600-800 yen ($8-10).

Not forgetting some gyoza to share!

After the late dinner we bought some drinks and snacks from a C-store and back to the hotel to re-charge for the intensive shopping the next day.

Stay tuned for Part II :)

Chinese Heritage: Stocks & Soups by Chef David Yip

I am a soup lover (mostly Chinese soups) and so does my family. I would usually cook soups 2-3 times a week, either slow-boiled or quick-boiled versions. The Chinese believes that soups, especially herbal ones are nourishing and beneficial to different parts of the body, depending on the types of ingredients and herbs used. To me, it's more of a comfort food; the soups provide soothing warmth to the stomach and body and feels so wholesome.

When I saw the Chinese Heritage: Stocks & Soups class conducted by Chef David Yip offered at Shermay's Cooking School, I registered immediately. So far, I've been relying on cook books and internet recipes to cook soups, but I reckoned it would be beneficial to learn from a master in traditional chinese cuisine.

And I was really glad that I attended the class. Chef David was humorous, and very generous in showing his knowledge and know-hows of the kitchen, throwing bits and pieces of gossipy anecdotes, giving additional reicpes, making the entire 3hr class very enjoyable.

The recipes demo-ed were:

• Basic meat stock
• Braised soy sauce chicken
• Mui Chai pork
• Basic fish stock
• Snakehead fish noodle
• Watercress soup
• Double-boiled chicken with chinese herbs

The first soup we got to taste was the Double-Boiled Chicken with Chinese Herbs - Shou Wu 首乌. All along I had the misconception that Shou Wu is very bitter and would make the soup taste bitter, but I was so wrong! The soup was very fragrant, sweet and soothing. It was so good that most participants went for seconds, myself included. I am definitely going to cook this!

The second soup that we tasted was the Watercress soup. The watercress soup that I made at home usually tasted flat, either that or it had a strong "grassy" taste. But this was very mild, with a slight tinge of sweetness and subtle taste of watercress. I'm sure my family would welcome this.

Then we got to taste the Braised Soy Sauce Chicken and Mui Chai Pork. They were so yummy and the sauces were perfect with rice! The braised soy sauce chicken was stir fried to perfection with a glistering sheen, the meat was flavourful and so tender. And now I finally know how to cook Mui Chai Pork proper. The one and only time I cooked it, it was disastrous (too salty for consumption). These 2 dishes are also in my to-cook list now.

And the last dish we tried was the Snakehead fish noodle cooked using fish stock. The milky colour you see was not milk but protein "released" from fish (stock) after cooking for sometime. Some hawkers added milk to the sliced fish noodles these days instead of making effort to prepare fish stock. The soup was so yummy, no fishy taste or smell at all. It had a very natural sweetness, rich yet not heavy on the palate. The fish was perfectly cooked as well with very nice texture (slightly QQ but tender and remained intact without breaking).

I must say that I was very impressed with this class and it had been a while since I last enjoyed such an outing (me-time!). Chef David has 2 more classes upcoming but I don't think I can make it for those classes, next time perhaps.

Yuzu Chiffon Cake

(This is a back-dated post, from Dec 2012).

During my Dec 2012 trip to Tokyo (I'm going to blog about it soon!), I managed to pick up some fresh yuzu from Tsukiji Jogai Shijo (Outer Market) at a steal. They were sold at 3 for 200 yen, which was about SGD1 each. One such fruit could probably cost $3-5 each at Meidi-ya or Isetan Supermarket? Actually I have yet to see them at these two supermarkets but heard from someone/somewhere that sometimes they do have stock.

Anyways, I grabbed 3 packs (9 yuzu) coz I absolutely love the taste or rather scent of yuzu. Like, I use only one brand of lip balm, which is the Yojiya yuzu lip balm; I always stock up 2-3 tubs when I go Japan. And the yuzu shower gel from Muji. And the yuzu honey drink. You get the drift :) I digress.

I reckon that a light chiffon would best bring out the essence of yuzu, (and I love chiffon cakes) so decided to bake Yuzu Chiffon Cake.

The curious thing about yuzu, its aroma is quite subtle as a fruit, it tastes extremely sour (more so than lemon), there's not much flesh and the seeds are huge. But once you zest the fruit, the aroma becomes more distinct, and when the batter (together with zest) is baked, the aroma turns intoxicating and I can get high sniffing on the chiffon! I guess people don't really eat the fruit in Japan, they are made into jams, drinks, cakes/pastries, or the zest used in cooking or sushi.

I baked 2 batches of yuzu chiffon cake (to use up all the fruit) varying the amount of fresh yuzu juice and bottled honey yuzu water. I found it necessary to add some honey yuzu water as the amount of fresh yuzu juice is not enough (need lots of yuzu!) in proportion to the cake batter.

Honey yuzu drink can be found at Muji, I think $2 per pet bottle. I checked the Paragon branch in Jan, it was out of stock; and stock likely to arrive in Feb (not sure). In Japan, it's 116 yen (about $1.50-1.60) per bottle. If you refer to the photo below, it's the one in the middle "Honey & Yuzu". The other brand is Minute Maid (found in most C-store in Japan), and another rarer brand is from JAL but I couldn't find it this time. Haha, see how I'm obsessed with yuzu drink?

An alternative of yuzu drink would be the Korean Citron tea (make enough quantity as the yuzu water in the recipe below and adjust sweetness accordingly). I have yet to test the recipe using Korean Citron tea so can't comment on the results of the cake.

Yuzu Chiffon Cake
(Yields TWO 21-cm chiffon cake pan)

Dry Ingredients

• 225g Nissen Violet flour (This is a Japanese brand, can be found at NTUC Finest, Meidi-ya, Isetan, Cold Storage. Flour is very fine, good for sponge and chiffons. Alternative: top flour/cake flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder (I use double-acting, Phoon Huat)
• 210g caster sugar
• ½ tsp fine salt

Wet ingredients

• 7 large egg yolks (60g nett weight eggs – Chews)
• 110g oil (sunflower/canola/grapeseed – so long as neutral tasting, avoid olive)
• 50g freshly-squeezed yuzu juice (about 4-5 fresh yuzu)
• 130g yuzu honey juice (Muji pet bottle juice or make from bottled Korean Citron Tea)
• Finely-grated zest of 5 fresh yuzu
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Meringue (Egg whites mixture)

• 9 large egg whites (60g nett weight eggs – Chews)
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 75g caster sugar

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 165 degree celsius. Prepare TWO 21-cm clean and grease-free chiffon pans size.
2. Dry ingredients: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into mixing bowl. Add caster sugar and mix thoroughly. Set aside.
3. Wet ingredients: Combine egg yolks, oil, yuzu water, yuzu juice, yuzu zest and vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk till blended. Set aside.
4. Meringue: Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in electric mixer bowl. Beat on high speed till foamy, gradually add the caster sugar. Beat till stiff, glossy peak form. Do not over-beat.
5. Add wet ingredients (3) into dry ingredients (2) and whisk gently together until smooth, do not over-mix.
6. Add one-third of Meringue to the batter (5) and fold very gently until almost blended. Add the next one-third of Meringue and fold in likewise. Lastly, scrape all the batter back into the bowl containing the last one-third of Meringue and fold gently till just blended. Do not over-fold.
7. Pour batter gently into the TWO chiffon pans. Bake immediately, do not delay. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes. Cover the top of cake with foil after 30 mins if it browns too quickly. When the cake is done, a cake tester/satay stick inserted into the cake will emerge clean.
8. Remove cake from oven and immediately turn it upside down. Let cool completely before unmolding. Best serve the next day for flavours to develop.

* I baked TWO chiffon cakes at one go. If oven is too small, half the recipe for ONE cake. Batter must be used immediately, cannot be left in the open.

The yuzu chiffon turned out beautifully and it's even nicer than my signature orange chiffon cake :p LOL. I made 3 cakes in total, brought some to my office and some to hubby's office. Everyone commented that the cake was fluffy, tender and light, with an alluring aroma of yuzu.

Now, where can I get hold of yuzu to bake more of this cake?