Ajisai Sushi Bar 味彩

September 23, 20141 Comment

Ajisai Sushi Bar is located in a little nook in one of Kerrisdale’s walkways. It’s pretty hidden, so you won’t notice it unless you actually walk down this alley. Offering a menu of authentic Japanese sushi, it’s a fairly small restaurant and is famous for the line ups. Luckily, when we arrived for dinner, it was only a 15 minute wait, which really isn’t too bad. Definitely not a great place for large groups though.

The seating is really just bar seats, with a line in front of the sushi chefs, and the other seatings against the window.

Tamago Nigiri

K and I started off with the Tamago Nigiri. The colour wasn’t the bright yellow ones you find at cheap restaurants, which is always a good sign. It was slightly sweet and there were some other ingredients inside, which made it very flavourful. I liked how you could actually feel the layered texture when you chewed on it.

Scallop, Red Tuna, Toro, Masago with Quail Egg, Negitoro, Baby Yellowtail

These were J’s selections. I’m not exactly sure which roll he got, so I won’t comment on that. However, the baby yellowtail was a special on the menu and he said was very good! He was ultimately satisfied with his plate.

Natto Negitoro Roll, Tuna, Negitoro, Unagi

K’s selections included the Natto Negitoro Roll, which I don’t normally see in many menus. I find that their menu has many half/half rolls, which is quite interesting. Her unagi was also quite a large piece!

Scallop, Chopped Scallop, Negitoro Roll

As for myself, I chose some nigiris and a maki roll. The Negitoro Roll was really good! It was filled with a good amount of negitoro and I liked how there was wasabi already in it. My Scallop Nigiri was very fresh and came with a piece of seaweed underneath which I found interesting. As for my Chopped Scallop Nigiri, it was one of the better ones I’ve had. The scallops were fresh and there wasn’t an overload of mayo.

Ika, Red Tuna

I also ordered the Ika Nigiri, which was very tender and came with a leaf underneath to bring it a minty flavour. My Red Tuna Nigiri was okay. I wish it was more tender. This one didn’t seem as fresh as the rest.

Overall, Ajisai is a great place to go for good quality authentic Japanese sushi. However, the prices are a little steep, so it’s not a place to go crazy unless you have a huge budget. Their menu has a lot more variety compared to say Sushi Hachi. You’ll find non-authentic rolls here as well, so I guess that’s why it’s so popular. Be ready for a wait here!

Moncton Cafe

September 21, 2014Leave a comment

I never really knew what Moncton Cafe was for the longest time. For some reason, I never notice it. Finally, we made a trip to Steveston to try out this Japanese restaurant. It features yoshoku, which means Japanese cuisine that has Western influences.

The restaurant was half filled but has steady customers. It feels like home in here, with wooden furniture and paintings of destinations around the world. Service is a bit slow here, but bearable. At lunch time, they have deals which include the an entree, soup, and salad at the price of just a regular entree.

Soup and Salad

Here is the soup and salad that came along. The Soup is a miso soup and comes in a little cup. Very typical and nothing too significant. The Salad was very good! I think the dressing made it so delicious. It’s zesty and very appetizing. It’s mixed with lettuce, corn and radish.

Hamburg Curry – hamburger steak with curry sauce over steamed rice

I chose the Hamburg Curry, which features the hamburger steak. The patty was moist and flavourful. The curry was a Japanese curry, with it being sweet with a hint of spice. It’s actually quite a big portion and you’ll be more than filled up after.

House Hamburg – hamburger steak with demi-glace sauce

J got the House Hamburg, which features the same hamburger steak but comes with a demi-glace sauce. The sauce came with mushrooms and was very flavourful. I actually preferred the demi-glace sauce to my curry sauce.

Vegetable Curry – pan fried assorted vegetable with curry sauce over steamed rice

K got the Vegetable Curry, which came with the same curry sauce but with an assortment of vegetables that had been pan fried. Very simple, but perfect for vegetarians.

Mentaiko Pasta – spaghetti with spicy cod roe cream sauce

S didn’t go for the rice, but rather the Mentaiko Pasta. The spaghetti was covered in a cream sauce, mixed with cod roe, and topped with seaweed. It was decent, but I didn’t think it was the best. The sauce could be worked on.

Overall, Moncton Cafe is a great place to go for yoshoku. I don’t think we have too many of these restaurant in Richmond. Portions are great for the price you pay, especially during lunch time. They also have other appetizers and desserts on their menu. We even saw takoyaki cream puffs! I wonder what that’s like!

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

Kirin Ichiban Garden – Ichiban Shibori Frozen Draft – Tokyo

September 14, 2014September 12, 20141 Comment

Walking around Shibuya, we somehow came across the Kirin Ichiban Brewery.

There were tons of people sitting outside in the beer garden. Apparently, it only recently opened.

There was also the Frozen Beer truck! We got in line to see what it’s all about. In Vancouver, they only recently began to sell it at Guu. They offer several different flavours for the frozen beer. You can get original, cranberry, lime, lychee, mango or cassiss (blackcurrent).

Cassiss Ichiban Shibori Frozen Draft

We got the Cassiss flavour, which is essentially blackcurrent flavour. The beer is flavoured with blackcurrent flavouring, so it just tastes like a fruity beer. The foam however is the frozen part. It’s like a slurpee at the top. However, the foam doesn’t have much flavour. Apparently, the invention was so that the frozen foam can keep your drink cold for 30 minutes without needing to add ice. Pretty neat. Worth trying!

Address: 3-7 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya, Tokyo

Yoshisoba (Shibuya) – Tokyo

September 13, 2014September 11, 2014Leave a comment

There are tons of restaurants near the Shibuya station. For breakfast, we decided to head to the street where the Standing Sushi Bar is and look for some food. We came across Yoshisoba, which is a standing noodle bar. The prices definitely drew us in. For under 600 yen, you can get a don and soba set! What a steal. First, you must insert your money in the vending machine and choose your food. A ticket will print out and you hand it to the chef. He will ask you whether you want soba or udon.

Squid Tempura Don

I went for the set, which first consisted of the Squid Tempura Don. I was utterly disappointed with this. The tempura is not fresh at all. You can see a bunch of tempura already premade on the shelf. All he does is heat it up a little and dip it in a tempura sauce. It is then served on rice. I could barely finish this because of how soggy and cold the tempura was. The squid itself was very tender, but the batter was gross. Do not order!

Soba in Cold Soup

The set also came with the Soba in Cold Soup. Luckily this was more decent, but still not the best I’ve had. The soba is already put in the broth. Usually the broth or dipping sauce is separate, so that you dip your noodles in as you eat. It was just average and tasted like soba you can buy at the grocery store.

Overall, we were all very disappointed with Yoshisoba. It is cheap and will fill you up, but none of us finished our food because of how bad it was… Stay away!

Address: 4-26-5 Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo

Cup Noodles Museum – Yokohama

September 10, 2014Leave a comment

Cosmo Clock 21

On our third day, our group split up to visit our own point of interests. K and I took the train to Yokahama from Shibuya and it took just under an hour. Our trip today was to visit the Cup Noodle Museum! The closest station to get off is the Minatomirai Station. On our walk towards the museum, we saw the Cosmo Clock 21 which is at the Cosmo World amusement park. It is the world’s largest clock! There are rollercoasters around the ferris wheel as well. Pretty neat and kids seemed excited to be there.

It was a burning hot day, but the views in Yokohama were beautiful. Similar to Odaiba, you see a lot of blue skies and water here. It also lies on the Tokyo Bay as well. Yokohama is actually the second largest city by population in Japan, just after Japan!

An 8 minute walk or so, and you will see a large square building – the Cupnoodles Museum. If you’re lost, just follow children with their parents. They’re most likely going to the same place!

This is definitely a place for kids, since there were more kids than adults. However, if you love cup noodles, you will enjoy your time here! I believe admission was 500 yen for adults. Not too bad.

The museum has 4 floors. The first floor is the gift shop and admission booth. You then take the escalator and will arrive at the Instant Noodles History Cube. Here, it shows all the different instant ramen that exist. It all began with the Chicken Ramen!

I thought it was pretty interesting that by the year 2000, most of the instant ramen were in bowl form. Shows how we are so lazy to even cook noodles in a pot!

Over 3,000 product packages!

Here is Momofuku Ando – the inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles! He was actually Taiwanese, but moved to Japan to work.

Because Japan was suffering from a shortage of food after war, Ando decided to find a way to make sure everyone had food – especially noodles which are dear to heart for the Japanese.

That’s when he created the first pre-cooked instant noodles! It was called Chiken Ramen.

In 1971, he came up with the first Cup Noodle – something that would be even more convenient to eat!

And in 2005, the first Space Ramen was invented!

This whole room basically talked about how the noodles came about. Most of it are pictures with Japanese captions. There is at least one line written in English so you can get a gist of it. However, it’s definitely not very detailed. If you want, you can purchase the audio guide in English or another language at the admission booth. This one was pretty interesting. It showed the consumption of cup noodles by country. Loved how Hong Kong, China came first. The Chinese do love to eat cup noodles since they have such busy lives!

Continue walking and you’ll find a model of Momofuku’s Work Shed. This is a model of the shed that Momofuku worked in and created the first Chicken Ramen.

I guess he let the noodles sit outside to rest.

Very simple tools and equipment.

A pasta roller was already invented I guess?

Looks like a double boiler?

The third floor is where the fun is at! When you purchased your admission on the first floor, they will ask you whether you want to create your own cup noodles. If so, they will provide you with time slots. Choose a time, and they’ll print off a ticket for you. When you arrive at your chosen time slot, you show your ticket to the employees and you can stand in line at the “My Cupnoodles Factory”! To make a cup noodle, it costs 300 yen. I wanted to make more than one, but it said we were only allowed one per person due to huge line ups.

After collecting your cup, you will be directed to tables with markers. Here, you can decorate your cup for as long as you want.

Here is mine! It is the Sapporo Zoo Bear! They advise you to write down the date you made it since you need to eat your noodles within a month.

The front of my cup!

Here are our creations!

While lining up for the next step, we saw the Chicken Ramen Factory in process. Here, you can actually make the Chicken Ramen from kneading the doll to drying it with a hot oil drying method. It looked pretty cool, but I think you need to do advance booking for this as spots are limited. It is 500 yen for adults.

After designing your cups, you can now head over to create your cup noodle. The noodles are already made in advance.

Give your cup to the lady and she will place a noodle under the cup.

Now spin the wheel! The noodles will fall into your cup at the end. I guess this isn’t very necessary, but they want to give some interaction for the kids I guess.

Then you get to select your ingredients! You can choose 1 soup base. There is Chili Tomato, Original Chicken, Seafood, or Curry. For the ingredients, you can choose 4 out of the 12. Some of the choices included green onion, imitation crab, corn, shrimp, egg, pork, narutomaki (cured fish with a chick pattern), cheese, kimchi, and garlic chips. I’m not sure what the others were since it’s all written in Japanese.

Here is mine! I chose the curry base with pork, imitation crab, cheese, and narutomaki. Love the cute little chick pattern! By now, I’ve had a taste of my noodles, and they were very good! It was full of curry flavour! Yummy!

The next step is to place the seal or lid on your cup. The machine will press the seal down.

Then, the lady will take it and put some saran wrap on it.

It goes through a machine to vacuum seal your cup noodles so it maintains freshness.

Going through the vacuum seal machine!

And then it drops out, and there you have it!

My finished product – looking like it came off the shelf!

After that, we went to the fourth floor, where there was a resting balcony outside. When you walk out, you get to see the beautiful bay. Gorgeous!

Yokohama is also known to be one of the major ports now.

Heading back in, we went to the Noodles Bazaar – World Noodles Road.

Outside, they have a brief overview of the different noodles from major countries.

Inside, it’s dimly lit and filled with people, tents, tables and chairs. It’s trying to make you feel like you’re at an Asian night market. The bazaar features 8 varieties of noodles while Momofuku was traveling and searching for ideas for his ramen.

We found the Original Chiken Ramen. I love how they still spell it as Chiken. There is a vending machine next to the stalls and you can order your ramen here. For the Chiken Rame, it is 130 yen.

The Chiken Ramen is seriously a small bowl of ramen! More like for kids. You can finish this in 3 bites! You can only choose two additional ingredients. I chose the kelp and cha-shu (pork). I feel like I’ve never actually had chicken ramen before. I normally get other flavours. The broth was surprisingly quite good, and the noodles were cooked so they were al dente. Not bad, but such a small amount!

K got the Chiken Ramen with cha-shu (pork) and corn.

The museum takes roughly 1.5 hours including making the cup noodles. We were most interested in making the actual noodles than going through the exhibit since it’s catered for the children. We then headed back to the first floor to check out the Gift Shop! Lots of unique cup noodle themed items! We got this set but I have yet to try it. It had some pretty interesting flavours I’ve never seen in Canada!

These were so cool. Japanese pancake stuffed with sweet bean jam, but shaped like cup noodles!

The Cupnoodle Matryoshka is supposed to be simliar to a set of Russian dolls. The container holds the different ramen ingredients. The cup, noodle, tamago, ebi, niku, and negi. Cute!

A cup noodle candle…Wonder what it smells like…

At the base of the stairs, there is a huge cup noodle with the chick!

There is a huge cup noodle statue as well!

After the museum, we decided to head over to World Porter’s. It’s a huge shopping mall with shopping, food, and entertainment. We found a bakery selling these cute ducks! I think they were just bread.

And these bear paws were so cute!

Take the elevator to the top of the shopping mall, and you’ll reach the roof top. Here, you’ll find an outdoor go-kart course as well as a mini golf course! You can also see the Cosmo Clock 21 here and some beautiful views of Yokohama. Definitely worth checking out Yokohama if you have some spare time. We only spent half a day here since we needed to meet our friends back in Tokyo, but there is definitely more to see!

Address: 2-3-4 Shinko, Naka-ku, Yokoham

Gundam and Takoyaki Museum at Odaiba – Tokyo

September 8, 2014September 7, 20141 Comment

Fuji Television Studio

The next day, we made a trip to Odaiba by metro. Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay which was initially built for defense, but is now a popular spot for tourists. Upon getting off the metro, we walked across this skywalk where we immediately saw a beautiful building. This was the Fuji Television studio! Apparently there is an observation deck on the top floor too.

We then walked into Diver City Tokyo Plaza, which is a large shopping mall that is also filled with entertainment. It had the typical big international brands like any other mall, but it also had a Calbee shop! Calbee chips are my favourite! Here, you can also get freshly fried chips, and some had chocolate toppings on them… We ended buying a few bags with unique flavours I haven’t seen in Vancouver. Pretty cool!

Gundam at Diver City Tokyo Plaza

The main purpose of going into the Diver City Tokyo Plaza, was to exit on the other side where the huge permanent Gundam model was situated. I don’t watch Japanese anime, but from what I know Gundam is a giant robot. Here, they placed a 1:1 lifesize statue of the robot. It’s pretty cool! Apparently at specific times, the robot will move too! There’s lights turned on and you can see it when it’s darker.

You can actually walk under the Gundam! Other than the statue, there is a Gundam Cafe, and a venue inside the plaza called Gundam Front Tokyo, which features more Gundam related experiences.

Daikanransha Ferris Wheel

Nearby, you can also see the Daikanransha Ferris Wheel. It was the tallest ferris wheel when it was first built, but is now the 12th tallest in the world. When the sun began to set, the ferris wheel lit up with beautiful lights and the pattern changed every few minutes. Beautiful!

Odaiba Takoyaki Museum

While walking towards another mall, the sky suddenly turned black and rain just poured on us. What’s worse was none of us had brought umbrellas. Lightning and thunder then stroke. Super scary! I’ve never been under lightning out in the open street. We quickly ran to the closest building, which was called Decks Tokyo Beach. The complex is more like a entertainment facility. It’s got themed buildings and has a boardwalk so you feel like you’re by the beach. We quickly realized, there was a Takoyaki Museum here!

The museum is free, and honestly not really a museum. It’s just an area with lots of takoyaki themed items. Cute place to take some photos!

They have an area for takoyaki souvenirs. Tako plushies, keychains, and some other very odd items. Takoyaki food items like chips as well.

They also had a showcase of the takoyaki pans.

At the end, you will find a bunch of stalls selling takoyaki. To be honest, they seemed to sell pretty much the same takoyaki with similar price points.

Takoyaki

we went for the 4 by 4 takoyaki. 4 takoyakis each of each of the 4 flavours. Two of the takoyakis had a lot of green onions piled on it. Almost way too much. However, it tasted really good! The sauce was the major factor that made each different. On the bottom left, these takoyakis were sort of like tofu! At least that’s what we came up with at the end. We were to dip it in the oden soup. It was quite delicious, but it fell apart really easily. Overall, the takoyaki were good, but they were very soft. I’m not sure if that’s how takoyaki is actually supposed to be like. However, I feel like you can probably get just as good takoyaki out in the streets. The prices are probably higher at the museum since it’s a tourist spot.

Definitely check Odaiba out if you have some time. It’s a nice change from the busy city center. There is also the Tricks Museum in the Decks Tokyo Beach plaza, which I hear is quite fun!

Cafe Est! Est! (MyLord Shinjuku) – Tokyo

September 7, 2014September 5, 20142 Comments

Mille Crepe Cake Parfait

After lunch at Tamago to Watashi, we found a dessert shop on the same floor. It was called Cafe Est! Est! and the plastic models of the desserts presented in a display outside their store definitely lured us in. They had a large selection of parfaits, crepes and sundaes. Other than desserts, they also have actual main entrees, but we were here for the desserts! After sitting down, we realized that again, each person had to order at least one item. Seeing that the drinks were roughly the same price as the desserts, we ended up each ordering one dessert. For myself, I chose the Mille Crepe Cake Parfait. After having the Mille Crepe from Lady M in Korea, I had to try it again! Unfortunately, this was nothing close to as good as the one from Lady M. It did have the layers of crepe, but it was hard rather than light and fluffy. It didn’t seem like a fresh cake. Underneath, there was a scoop of vanilla ice cream, some corn flakes, and the rest were whipped cream! After eating the cake, I didn’t even end up finishing the rest of it. It was overly sweet and eating pure whipped cream was nasty. It wasn’t even good whipped cream. Super disappointed!

Black Sugar Mochi Crepe

K went for the Black Sugar Mochi Crepe. It was filled with mostly whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. On top, there were also mochi that was covered with black sugar. Some sprinkles were added to make it look cute and pretty. I actually enjoyed her crepe much more than my parfait. The black sugar mochi were very yummy!

Cheesecake Parfait

C got the Cheesecake Parfait, which had the same problem as mine. Way too much cream at the bottom! The cheesecake was decent, but it wasn’t the best I’ve had. It was smooth, but again, it didn’t taste fresh. Overall, I wasn’t too pleased with the parfaits at Cafe Est! Est! They are also quite pricey, at around 800 to 1,000 yen for a basic parfait. If you are interested in crazy looking parfaits, then this may be the place for you. They have a famous parfait called EST 48, which has ice cream sundae cones stacked on top of another and reaches 48 centimeters. high. But honestly, I doubt that it tastes that great. It’s more for the looks.

Address: 160-0023 Tokyo, Shinjuku, Nishishinjuku, 1−1−3, 新宿ミロード7階

Every Day is a Food Day

Category: Uncategorized