Japan

Day 5 – My Trip to Japan

Day 5 – My Trip to Japan Our friends picked us up and took us out for a wonderful lunch at Obika Mozzarella Bar.  Obika means “Here it is!”, which is a dialect from Naples Italy. We were seated in a private room.  Our host is friends with the owner and he asked the chef […]

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  June 9, 2014   2 comments

Day 4 – My Trip to Japan

Day 4 – My Trip to Japan At the ryokan, we opted for the traditional Japanese breakfast. You can get a western style breakfast, but why would you do that? There was freshly squeezed Yuzu juice, pickled vegetables, Miso cod, Shishito peppers (my favorite!), etc. Exquisite is how I would describe it. After breakfast we took […]

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  June 8, 2014   No comments

Day 3 – My Trip to Japan

Day 3 – My Trip to Japan We took the bullet train to Kyoto and arrived around lunch time. We found a wonderful little place in the train station and had some amazing soba noodles. The train station in Kyoto puts most shopping malls to shame. There were so many interesting shops. After lunch we […]

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  June 7, 2014   No comments

Day 2 – My Trip to Japan

Day 2 – My Trip to Japan Mitsukoshi department store was founded in 1673 with the yagō (shop name) Echigoya (越後屋), selling kimonos. Ten years later in 1683, Echigoya took a new approach to marketing. Instead of selling by going door-to-door, they set up a store where buyers could purchase goods on the spot with […]

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  June 6, 2014   No comments

Day 1 – My Trip to Japan

Day 1 – My Trip to Japan We arrived around 4 pm Tokyo time, rather dazed and confused! Very tired. We needed to stay up. After checking in to the hotel, we bought some sandwiches and beer at FamilyMart. FamilyMart is Japan’s third largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven. The North American brand name is […]

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  June 5, 2014   No comments

Tonkatsu Sauce

Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ or トンカツ, pork cutlet), is a Japanese food which consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. Tonkatsu originated in Japan in the 19th century.   I wrote about Pork Tonkatsu about 3 years ago that was served with store bought Tonkatsu sauce. I had a hankering for breaded pork and was out of the sauce, so I decided to make my own. [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:216]

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  September 17, 2013   No comments

Miso Bagna Couda

Last night, I was invited at the last minute to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Pasadena, CA – thanks Dad!  As a starter, we had the Bagna couda (farmers market organic vegetable). 健康さんへ、旬の有機野菜をアンチョビとオリーブオイルで This is where two cultures successfully collide. Bagna couda, is a warm dip typical of Piedmont, Italy, made from garlic, […]

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  September 9, 2013   1 comment