Fukumame ふくまめ (Ueno) – Tokyo

September 17, 2014September 17, 2014Leave a comment

There’s tons of things to do in Tokyo, but during our visit, we coincidentally were there for the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival. This year, it was on July 26. The Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival is a huge event held every year and attracts millions of people. We decided to head to Asakusa to see this event. We knew it would be crowded, but I have never been in such a huge crowd in my life. Asakusa is quite a tourist area, with the famous Senso-ji Temple. It is a Buddhist temple and the oldest in Tokyo. Both women and men were all dressed up in their kimonos as well!

We didn’t really know where we going, so we just followed the crowds. At one point, we saw the Tokyo Skytree, a very new addition and tall building. It’s used mainly for broadcasting, but also features an observation deck and restaurant.

We finally figured out that everyone was trying to cross the Sumidagawa or the bridge that is over the Sumida River. You’ll literally be walking one step forward and stopping when you near this area. Here, you can see the Asahi Brewery buildings and that odd gold piece of art that is on top of the Beer Hall. Not too sure what it’s supposed to be… Anyways, there are tons of patrol here and the organizers assign groups of people numbers. The police will announce when each group can start moving forward. It’s super organized even though you are literally shoulder to shoulder to the stranger next to you. Now imagine this in 30 degree weather. Yup, sweaty arms brushing up against you.

I couldn’t get a lot of nice firework pictures since I only had my iPhone, but it was pretty spectacular. Basically, the festival is very different from any of the ones I’ve been to. The idea is to let groups of people on the bridge so that they can experience the festival for at least 5 to 10 minutes. The displays are exploded from both sides of the river and is supposed to be a competition. The fireworks literally go on for 2 hours straight so that everyone has a chance to get on the bridge. Once you’ve had your time, they announce that you must proceed forward and let the next group view the fireworks. The fireworks are pretty crazy, with complicated shapes and colours that I’ve never seen. Apparently at one point, there was a Pikachu! Leaving the Asakusa area was also a nightmare. You could barely move and by the time you got to the train station, there are people patrolling the area to make sure not too many people crowd in the station.

I wanted to meet T since she coincidentally was in Tokyo as well so we decided to go to Ueno station for a late snack. Ueno is roughly 2 stations away, but it took us over half an hour to get there because of all the commuters trying to go home! Anyways, we finally arrived at Ueno station, and there are streets filled with bars and izakaya type of food. We decided to go to Fukumame which was on the 4th floor of a building. The restaurant is very posh looking and you get a lot of privacy with lots of barriers between tables. They are famous for their Yakitori, which are chicken skewers. I ordered the set which came with 5 skewers. To be honest, I was sort of confused at what I was eating. It didn’t exactly taste like chicken because it was very moist and soft. I feel like it was mixed with some sort of bean and battered with egg. Some had a teriyaki sauce on it, while other soy glaze, radish, and guacamole. They were good, but not meaty enough for me.

We also got a desert to share. It was the Vanilla Ice Cream with Mochi and Red Bean. A very typical scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and sweet red beans. I was sad that it only came with three mochi balls, but they were very good! I can’t comment too much about the food since we only ordered two dishes. However, based on what we had, it was decent and the atmosphere was really nice for long chats. And that ended our last night in Tokyo!

Address: 6 Chome−13−9 Ueno, Taitō, Tokyo

Sushizanmai (Shibuya East Exit Branch) – Tokyo

September 15, 2014Leave a comment

C’s friend suggested that we should try Sushizanmai, which has several locations in Tokyo. A popular location is actually the one near the Tsukiji Fish Market. However, we decided to check out the one at Shibuya’s East Exit. Here, they are open 24 hours! When we arrived, there was a bar table and some tables, and all were empty but around two. However, they told us they were all reserved. We were only allowed to eat at the bar table.

Plum Wine

I love plum wine and since I hadn’t tried it in Japan this whole trip, I decided it was time to try it out. Sadly, it was slightly different from the ones I’ve had before. It wasn’t that sweet ume plum taste. It was also quite pricey for a very small glass. Should have probably bought a bottle at the sueprmarket instead.

Maguro Tuna, Squid Legs, Scallop

The nigiris here are a lot more pricey than the ones I’ve had so far. But by no means is it crazily expensive like Jiros. I would say it’s quite average pricing and similar to Vancouver’s. Since we were here for more of a snack, we each ordered a few nigiris only. I chose the Tuna, which was probably the best I had so far. Next were the squid legs, which were decent, but not the best. I wish they had added a sauce to it. Lastly, the scallops were very fresh.

Blue Fin Toro Temaki

I also added an order of the Blue Fin Toro Temaki. The toro was very fatty and buttery. There was actually quite a lot wrapped in the rice. Yummy!

Fried Squid

C ordered the Fried Squid for us to share. Grilled Squid which was then battered and fried. It was decent with the squid being very tender, but I thought the batter was just decent.

Uni Temaki

K ordered the Uni Temaki, which is sea urchin. She said the uni here was much more fresh than the one at Sushi Daidokoya.

Maguro Tuna, Fatty Tuna, Scallop

She also got a few nigiris. She got the Maguro Tuna and Scallop, just as I did. However, in the middle, she also got the Fatty Tuna, which she said was very buttery.

I believe they also have nigiri sets, which are probably a better deal. Good quality food, but I would settle for the standing sushi bar since it’s much cheaper.

Address: 2 Chome-22-11 Shibuya, Tokyo

Sushi Daidokoya すし台所家 (Shibuya) – Tokyo

September 12, 2014September 11, 2014Leave a comment

Sushi Daidokoya is located in Shibuya and literally just by the corner of our apartment. Every time we walk past it, there are people in it. For me, it’s always a good sign when I see people inside a restaurant. It’s open from the morning until late night. During the day, they have some pretty good deals like Chirashi-don. Wish I had tried that… Anyways, after a tiring day in the sun, we decided to head down to grab a late night snack.

Sushi Daidokoya offers kaiten sushi, or more familiarly known as conveyor belt sushi! However, at the time we arrived, there weren’t too many sushi on the conveyor belt. Instead, we were told we could just tell the chef what we wanted and they would place the order. Pricing is determined by the colour of the plate. Luckily, a Japanese couple sat next to us and were able to speak English fluently. They were able to give us some tips on what was good!

The server gave us an English menu with pictures. Most orders come in two and are very well priced. Some items are pricier than at the Standing Sushi Bar (my personal favourite), but some are cheaper. Really depends on what you order. It ranges from 120 yen to 500 yen.

Maguro – Tuna (120yen)

The tuna did not look as nice as the one at the Standing Sushi Bar, but was still very fresh. Cheap price tag too!

3 Types of Grilled Fish (500 yen)

We ordered the 3 types of grilled fish, which were as named, all slightly seared on the top. I didn’t try all of them, but I had the one in the middle. I believe it was aburi salmon. Not bad!

Grilled Fatty Salmon – Aburi Toro Salmon (240 yen)

The grilled fatty salmon comes in two as well, but someone ate the piece too quickly! This piece of salmon was more fatty than the previous one. It was lightly seared and topped with some wasabi. It melted in your mouth! Loved it!

Tamago

The Japanese couple recommended us to try the Tamago. Here, the tamago are in thick blocks and filled with other ingredients like sausage! It was really yummy! Not your regular tamago.

Scallop – Hotate (240 yen)

The scallop were thick and fatty. Again, I found that they put much more wasabi in the scallop nigiris. I wonder why… Still good!

Sea Urchin – Uni (240 yen)

Say what? Sea urchin nigiri for only 120 yen a piece? That’s equivalent to roughly $1.20 in Canadian! However, we were slightly disappointed. It wasn’t as fresh and had a fishy taste. They also had the Supreme Sea Urchin on the menu for double the price though… Perhaps we should’ve gotten that instead?

Yellow Tail – Hamachi (120 yen)

Yellow tail can be quite pricey in Canada, but this was a steal! I didn’t get a chance to try this one, but the girls said it was pretty good!

Octopus – Tako (120 yen)

I tried the Octopus, which was very good. Normally, octopus can be slightly too chewy. However, this one was more tender than tough.

Horse Meat – Sakura (500 yen)

Um ues, this was horse meat. Raw horse meat to be exact. I know it may be a taboo in many countries, but it isn’t something too rare in Japanese cuisine. Topped with a bit of ginger, you can still see some of the fat. I took a nibble from the meat and found it to be very gamey. It sort of reminded me of lamb. K ate it and said it wasn’t terrible, but not something she loved. Apparently, they serve raw whale meat here too…

Raw Octopus – Namadako (240 yen)

Lastly, we had the Octopus. I found that it reminded me of cuttlefish. It’s not live octopus, so don’t worry about the suction cups like in Korea… I liked the bouncy chewy texture. Yummy!

Overall, Sushi Daidokoya is great if you want to try a large variety of fish. They also have specials written on signs on the conveyor belt, but it’s mostly in Japanese. If you’re daring and want to try some exotic items you are unlikely to find in America, then this is the place to go! Prices aren’t too bad either and the chefs are very nice even though they don’t speak too much English.

Standing Sushi Bar Uogashi Nihon-ichi (Shibuya) – Tokyo

September 9, 2014September 8, 2014Leave a comment

Prior to our trip, I had done some quick Googling to see which restaurants would be great for sushi, specifically nigiri sushi. There was the popular but expensive Jiro, and a popular one was the Standing Sushi Bar Uogashi Nihon-ichi. Luckily, there are two in the Shibuya area, and one was literally right across the street of our airbnb. It is also extremely close to the Shibuya metro station. K and I decided to head here for a late night snack.

What’s cool about a standing sushi bar is that there are no seats at all. You must stand in front of a bar table to eat, so it’s not the ideal place if you’ve walked too much and need a seat. Perfect if you want to just eat and go though. You meal will usually last from 10 to 20 minutes. Plates and chopsticks are on the lower bar table. On a higher level, they place a lotus leaf where they place the sushi on. You also make your own tea here. There is a hot water dispenser, and you just add a bit of green tea powder in your cup. You tell the chef what you want to order, and he will make it for you on the spot. They provided us with an English menu and we just pointed.

Squid (Ika)

First up was the Squid, which was probably the best ika I’ve had! It was very fresh and had a nice bite to it without being too chewy.

Red Tuna

One of my favourite was the Red Tuna. I liked it because it wasn’t as soft as normal tuna. It had more of a chew, similar to salmon. Very fresh again!

Egg (Tamago)

Next, K wanted to try the Tamago. I didn’t end up trying this since she wanted both. She said it was very good! As you can see, all nigiri come in a pair. The above three items were all only 150 yen for the two pieces. That comes to only 75 yen a piece! That’s like impossible to get in Vancouver! Such a great deal!

Scallop (Hotate)

Next, we got the Scallop, which was also one of my favourites. Each nigiri had two pieces of scallop. All nigiris come with wasabi already placed inside. It’s usually the perfect amount, but I found that they put more in the Scallop one. It might be to remove the fishier taste that scallop usually has. Nevertheless, the scallop was smooth and fresh.

Grilled Squid Tentacles

We then realized many customers were ordering nigiri that were lightly seared with the torch to make it aburi-style. We decided to order the Grilled Squid Tentacles, which was delicious! The tentacles were lightly grilled and topped with some mayo and torched. Loved the grilled flavour and the squid had a nice chew. These were roughly 200 yen, so only 100 yen per piece! A good deal again!

Toro

Since we enjoyed most of the food so far, we decided to just go for it and purchase one of the pricier items on the menu. The Toro! Tuna belly is expensive in Vancouver, and here, they sold the pair for 400 yen. The toro was very smooth and buttery, but I felt like I’ve had better in Vancouver. To be honest, we thought that the red tuna was more worth it! We ended up getting more of the red tuna instead since it’s of much better value. The chef also served us another pair of the red tuna, but didn’t charge us. Super nice!

Grilled Salmon

Since the aburi nigiri was so good, we also got the Grilled Salmon. Again, the salmon was topped with mayo and lightly seared. Loved how the salmon would now melt in your mouth. Yummy!

Overall, I would definitely recommend coming to the Standing Sushi Bar. There are many locations all over Tokyo. Great value and great quality. The service was also extremely friendly! I think we paid less than 1,500 yen each and were more than full! I’d definitely come back here again!

Address: 2-9-1 Dogen, Shibuya, Tokyo

Kindenmaru 金伝丸 (Shibuya) – Tokyo

September 5, 20142 Comments

The next morning, we woke up early to take the airport limousine to Incheon Airport. We had the worst luck ever and were stuck in a huge lineup for check in. Luckily, after some speedy runs, we made it to the gate and boarded our Asiana flight. Super happy with the service on Asiana Airlines and I would definitely recommend it! We had great meals even for a 2-3 hour flight, and the flight attendants were extremely friendly! Next thing you know, we were in Tokyo, and we took an airport bus to Shibuya station. We had a terrible encounter dealing with our Airbnb host, but we finally settled in. We stayed literally on the streets of Shibuya, so it was extremely convenient.

For dinner, we walked across the street and found a bunch of restaurants. Shibuya is filled with restaurants, but the shops are also very small! Most of them were actually all occupied. We ended up at Kindenmaru 金伝丸, where we luckily snatched four seats at the bar table. Here, you can watch the chefs prepare your noodles.

In Japan, it’s pretty neat how many ramen shops just place a vending machine, and you can insert your money and click on the dish you want. A little ticket will print out, and you just give it to the server or chef. It’s not about the service at these shops, but rather about the efficiency. You can sit down, get your food, and leave. We realized that most Japanese people don’t linger around and chat at these shops. The ramens at Kindenmaru were roughly 800 to 1000 yen, which was actually a bit pricier than many of the other ramen shops.

Garlic Ramen

T got the Garlic Ramen, which had a deep brown coloured broth. I had a taste of it, and I really enjoyed the flavour! Very rich and thick. If you like more flavourful broths, this is the one for you.

Miso Ramen

K and C both got the Miso Ramen. As you can see, the broth is again very cloudy, showing that the stock had probably simmered for many hours.

Shoyu Ramen

For myself, I chose the Shoyu Ramen, which is soy sauce based. Like the other ramen, it came with a soft boiled egg split in two. The yolk could have been more runny as I found that it was starting to become more of a hard boiled egg. It also came with two slices of cha-shu (pork), beansprouts, corn, kelp, and green onions. The noodles were bouncy and chewy. Loved it! There was also quite a lot of ramen and I was thoroughly full. The only downside was that I found the broth to be a little too salty. Otherwise, it was a delicious bowl of ramen!

Address: 2-9-2 Dogenzaka, Shibuya, Tokyo

Warawara – Seoul

September 4, 2014September 3, 2014Leave a comment

After dinner, the boys took us to look for some fruit soju! We took a 10 minute walk and ended up in a street full of bars. And this was a random Wednesday night, but the street was busy! Shows how much Koreans love to drink! Anyways, we ended up Warawara, which is supposed to be famous for their fruit sojus. The dining bar was in the basement floor, and the decor is all wooden. I liked how they had little rooms with blinds separating you from other diners so it gives you some privacy.

Italian Creamy Fried Chicken

Apparently, you must eat when you drink! It’s drinking etiquette to always order at least one dish to share. They say that’s how they get drunk, since you keep eating, and so you’ll drink more… Anyways, we ordered the Italian Creamy Fried Chicken, which was by far my favourite fried chicken we had in Korea. It definitely had to do with the creamy and cheesy sauce! I had thought that the best fried chicken would be the classic, but they really know how to fusion up their classic fried chicken. They were little chicken balls that were boneless, so no hassle with deboning. Filled with vegetables like corn, peppers, broccoli and onions, the dish was extremely flavourful!

Then came our fruit sojus! What’s cool about this bar is that they actually use fresh fruit to make your soju or other alcoholic drinks. None of that cheap processed juice or powder! What’s even cooler is that they actually present the drink in the fruit’s shell! So here we have the server actually physically bring us all the equipment to make the soju. His blender was filled up half with soju already. He then pulls out the pineapple with a metal tool.

He then actually blends the whole drink in front of us! Super cool! Plus, you’re guaranteed it’s fresh!

Pineapple Soju

And here we have the finished product of the Pineapple Soju! He fills the pineapple shell with half of the soju and places it on a plate filled with ice to keep it cold. Loved the experience and the drink was absolutely delicious! I love how you get some pineapple pulp in it, and it tastes more like juice than alcohol! I see how you can get drunk off of this so easily…

Watermelon Soju

The pineapple soju was so good that we had to get another round of soju! This time, we chose the Watermelon Soju. Unfortunately, they said they ran out of the actual watermelon skin for the bowl, so we were only able to get it in a jar already made. I’m not sure how that works out though, because where did the watermelon come from if there’s no shell for it…? Odd… Again, super refreshing! These fruit sojus are a must try if you normally like calpico sojus that are flavoured peach or grape and such. Never thought these fruits would be so great with soju!

Cass Beer

We mentioned how we liked the Korean beers, since it’s really light and diluted, so the boys taught us how they normally drink their beers. This time, we tried Cass, which is also a popular Korean beer.

Soju

Now apparently, just drinking beer alone isn’t enough to get these boys drunk….so they mix it with soju! Here, the boys were showing us a trick where they spin the green soju bottle, and place light from their phone under the bottle to create a tornado…

Soju Bombs

Typically, you can make soju bombs by dropping a shot glass of soju into a pint of beer. Instead, the boys just poured the soju into the beer. They then took a spoon and poked the drink through, and somehow the drink just mixed itself together. Pretty neat!!

And here is what it ended up like! Some foam at the top, and the beer and soju mixed up! This definitely gets you more drunk quicker!

Overall, an absolute fun night to finish off our trip in Seoul! Can’t wait to visit these crazy boys again. Warawara is definitely a great place to hangout and have a few drinks in a comfortable environment! If you’re not a heavy drinker, those fruit sojus are perfect for you! I believe they have several franchises all over South Korea, so it shouldn’t be hard to find one!

Street Food & More – Seoul

September 2, 2014Leave a comment

A trip to Seoul isn’t done properly if you don’t have some street food! I was actually surprised that there weren’t as many street food stalls as I had imagined. Anyways, if you’re looking for street food, Myeongdong is a good option since you can shop and eat. However, most of the stalls don’t come out until the evening time. I love grilled sausages, so this stall caught my eyes immediately.

Grilled Sausages stuffed with Rice Cake

This sausage skewer isn’t your typical American sausage skewer. We had some spicy beef sausages, but there were also pork sausages that were filled with rice cake! I thought that was pretty neat! Yummy too!

Another stall in Myeongdong offered a large variety of grilled squid, octopus, and fish.

Some seemed to already be grilled, while others needed to be grilled.

Grilled Octopus

We had originally wanted to get grilled squid, but we couldn’t really figure out what was written on the signs. I believe that we ended up ordering grilled octopus. They placed these slices on the grill right away for a few minutes to heat it up. Honestly, these were terrible! They were so hard and tough that I’m pretty sure I had a difficult time digesting it. Won’t recommend this!

Another area with lots of street food is the Dongdaemun area which is filled with shopping malls like Doota and is filled with many wholesale shops. We found a stall with more sausage like skewers. These were dipped in a red sauce!

On the left is a fish cake wrapped around squid. To the right, I got a skewer with a variety of sausage, rice cake, fish cake, and meatballs. The sauce was not even very spicy. It was more sweet than spicy. Cheap and delicious!

Green Tea Parfait – O’sulloc

O’sulloc Tea House is a modern looking tea house that offers Korean traditional teas. It specializes in green tea, but also offers many other items like ice cream, desserts, and juices. They have several shops, but we stopped by the one in Myeongdong. I decided to share the Green Tea Parfait with K. The parfaits are quite expensive, at more than 8,000 won! Honestly, I didn’t think it was that good. The bottom was green tea ice topped with lots of whipped cream and red bean. It was then topped with a scoop of green tea ice cream, some green tea cake, and a tea biscuit. We found that the parfait just tasted like cream. I would’ve much preferred the parfaits at Mimibuloveme in Vancouver. I find that O’sulloc is overrated with high prices! I know they specialize in green tea, so I’m guessing their teas are probably more on the right track. Definitely not going back for the desserts though.

Dumplings in Oxtail Soup

On another day, K and I went out early in the morning and walked over to Insadong to look for some quick breakfast. We ended up heading up to this random cafe on the second floor of a building. I never got the name, but it was filled with office people! It’s more like a fast food/ cafeteria type of setting but still with full service. I chose the Dumplings in Oxtail Soup, which was absolutely delicious! Filled with roughly 6 dumplings, and topped with onions, seaweed, and egg, the broth was the best part! It didn’t taste like MSG, but rather a hearty broth filled with flavour. As for the dumplings, they were pork and chive dumplings, and a great way to start the morning! Must try!

Tteokbokki with Cheese

We also found Tteokbokki with Cheese on the menu and thought it would be quite interesting. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disappointment. There wasn’t enough cheese on it! They definitely skimped out here. There were only a few strings of melted cheese, but not enough to create a cheesy effect. The rice cakes were soft, and sitting in a spicy hot pepper sauce, and topped with white sesame. It also came with half a hard boiled egg. Overall, these were just decent. I would highly recommend trying their soups instead, since most of the locals were ordering that.

Chir Chir Fusion Chicken Factory (치르치르) – Seoul

September 1, 2014Leave a comment

After doing some night shopping in Myeongdong (again), we got a bit hungry. At the end of the Myeongdong street, we found a chicken and beer restaurant. We still hadn’t had chicken and beer in Seoul! We decided to go into Chir Chir Fusion Chicken Factory. It had a large selection of chicken dishes. The first level was for smoking, and the second level was non-smoking. The restaurant is actually quite huge and it was very packed.

Crispy Classic Fried Chicken

We wanted more of a snack, so we decided to order one order to share. It’s pretty huge! I believe there were roughly 8 pieces of chicken, so it’s perfect for 4 girls. We wanted something original, so we went for the Crispy Classic Fried Chicken. When I saw it, I thought it looked quite similar to KFC’s, but after eating one, I can see why people love their Korean fried chicken! The flavouring is so much more delicious! Plus, it didn’t feel too oily! Lightly battered so that it was crispy. It came with two sauces – a tartar sauce and a sweet chili sauce. It was delicious without the dipping sauces! I liked how it wasn’t too salty, and by the end of the night, I wasn’t even really thirsty. That’s always a good sign!

All orders come with some side dishes as well. It came with some salsa (which I really didn’t like because of the cilantro and raw onions), some corn, and some crackers. Wish we had gotten some beer to go with it, but we felt that they priced their beer a bit too high. I guess that’s how they make their money here!

Every Day is a Food Day

Category: Late Night