Merry Christmas!!

I originally wanted to post about something else and I did promise it on the previous post however, this comes first in this holiday season... so!

How are all your Christmas Eve so far? Mine's pretty much well; went to a beauty salon in the morning, did some Christmas shopping, met up with some friends, and had a wonderful dinner :D

I was tempted to dine outside of course, but then the restaurants might be fully crowded (and full of couples joking around) so I decided to why not just cook a simple homemade meal while relaxing around...

Home-made Tofu Hamburg with Corn Frittata at the background accompanied by some delicious milk tea and chocolates, and a paper Christmas tree with Santa joining me for dinner! so I'm not alone :D My neighbour/friend came when I was eating and I had extra portions so I asked her to join me! It might not be as delicious as restaurant's meal but just the feeling of eating with someone else makes the food taste even better... and she told me it tasted okay so that made me happy :3

I also had the chance to eat these lovely beauties days ago.. Bought these lovely Vanilla and Framboise macarons from a cake shop called Boul Mich in the cake department in Kyoto's Takashimaya and they are so good, both looks and taste. You should have check the B1 floor at Japanese department stores, they have a HUGE selection of seasonal desserts and sweets and whatnots xD

The texture was a little bit soft, not that soft, just good enough for a bite. The vanilla and Framboise (some people would call it as Raspberry) taste was perfect, not too sweet and not so simple. It was worth my 210 yen each...

***

So that was my Eve Dinner experience, and I hope you guys had a lovely one as well!
I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! God bless you all!

See you when I see you again, I hope you all have a great days to come! :D

Dai's Kitchen for the Weekends!!

So, how are your weekends doing so far?? Mine's pretty much relaxing and chilling the whole day, so far so good :D

which brings me to our favourite comfort food...

 *stares...*

*Danbo wants some too...*

Yeap, you guessed it correctly, Pizza! ...and a special one on top of that! This actually brings me back to a story around two days ago, a harsh journey travelled just to acquire this lovely beauty... (okay that's too flowerish lol)

So me and my lovely friends were planning to go shopping, but before that we would like to eat something first because we girls are starving... one of the girls found this lovely pizza place called Dai's Kitchen while browsing around. There were lots of variations of toppings and guess what? The cheapest variations starts at ￥999 (￥1050 with the tax)!! 

Crazy cheap for a pizza here in Japan! The price for a medium pan pizza normally starts at ￥2000~ ish, so we were really excited, and we ran straightaway to the shop of course!! But, when we arrived there we saw no place to sit down.. too bad it was just a delivery shop! :(

But still we bought some pizzas *because they look good and the price was cheap. ahem* and then continue on walking :D
BUT THEN! I chose to just go home because I have no more energy after the journey and I ish very very hungry I can't wait to ravage it lol... I ish so weak :v

I had to commute back to my apartment using the bus so I literally have to 'hide' the big pizza box I had in my hands because it smelled so good, and every person I passed turned their heads around just to see what the good smell came from.. 

So! 'Popeye' was the name of the pizza I ordered, it was a cream sauce based pizza, topped with Cheese, Mushroom, Spinach, and Black Pepper. Sweet, sweet cracked black pepper... And just look at it, they were pretty generous in putting the toppings~ Thank you handsome pizza maker guy!!  :v

It was just like I had expected, sweet, sweet cream continued with bouncy mushrooms dancing around with a hint of spinach's sweetness spiced with just right amount of black pepper... me want seconds now.

The taste literally win my heart... what beats lazing around at home reading manga/watching movies online while munching down warm pizza slices?? 

I put my cute Danbo there for comparison, the pizza was 35 cm wide in diameter so it's HUGE and pretty much a GREAT deal :D We could actually choose between 35/45 cm ones actually and the price stayed the same! 

The next time, which very likely to be soon, I will just ask them to deliver.. I'm too lazy to go out, I admit it, and I feel bad for making people around me hungry on the way back home lol

***

Here's the menu selection (it's in Japanese): Menu
and the shop's location if you are willing to go there by foot on this cold, cold winter (it's also in Japanese, I'm not sorry): Location

So that's my adventure to start my weekend! For the next post I've actually prepared an experience which will likely suit a student's budget :v
Thank you for reading and tune in next time!

大戸や・おおとや・Ootoya

Hello people! I'm back with another dining experience! This time, it's your typical around the neighbourhood Japanese restaurant, Ootoya! :D
(and I just realised that they only got like, 3 branches in Kyoto itself. not so 'around the neighbourhood' apparently..)

This time, I ate at the Shinsaibashi branch in Osaka. It was a cold, cold night and the heating system inside really helps. It was a bit quiet that night however, it gave me even more better reason to be able to take pictures peacefully (Yes, most people tend to look at you when you are working with your big camera .___. ).

And along with good customer service that they offer, we were immediately given water and tea by the waitress after seated. Let me repeat, WARM TEA. It was my first experience of receiving warm tea directly when I entered a restaurant and it was bliss~! Normally in Japan, iced water will be given in most restaurants so you don't have to worry about paying extra for it (I'm quite a cheapskate lol :x) but tea?? I rarely experienced it in my whole time living here, so this is a bonus point! And the best thing is? It's refillable! :D

Lots and lots of food to choose from, mostly they will offer it in a set menu (定食・ていしょく・teishoku) which comes with 5 types of rice to choose from, and miso soup and/or sometimes salad too, according to your menu choice. If you wanted to eat extra, you can order the big-sized rice (大盛・おおもり・oomori) for no additional charge! We could also order the food separately (単品で・たんぴんで・tanpinde), so if you don't feel like gulping down a big portion of it, you can always eat one dish only :3

This was my dish! Vegetables cooked in black vinegar sauce. I ordered it with red rice and miso soup. This dish itself is awesome, it smells so sweet yet appetizing. I don't exactly know how they managed to cook this dish, and it makes me curious. The vegetables are evenly charred and it was both soft and crunchy at the same time, like, how the heck did they made it??

I would put portions of vegetables on the rice and eat it together, so the sauce would drip down and hit the rice, doubling the taste. Every moment I took a bite of it, the warm sweetness permeates my tongue and there was a slight tangy vinegar aftertaste afterwards... the fresh taste of the vegetables still can be tasted and my hands can't really stop literally. The warm and bouncy rice boosts the taste even further. I love how colorful the pieces of potatoes, carrots, eggplants, lotus roots, and onions taste could be; each of the texture adds to the dish's beauty. I kind of managed to find some inner peace to actually stop eating and take pictures of it while my mouth was drooling lol.

The miso soup... I guess they didn't put enough miso powder in it. I would seriously prefer my university's canteen's miso soup than this one, because the taste wasn't quite thick enough. I would usually gulp mine down after every meal to cleanse my palate however this soup couldn't satisfy me so I actually finished it down first.

This, ladies and gentleman, what my adventurous boyfriend decides to order. It was some kind of dish apparently inspired from Mapo Tofu. I don't usually take spicy foods (rephrase, I hate spicy foods), but then I dared myself to try some of it just because:

1) I like tofu, tofu is nice
2) apparently the 'spicy foods' in Japan are not even as spicy as South-East Asian or Chinese food (approved by some Indonesian friends), he even said it's not even spicy!
and 3) just because he was brave enough to steal my yummy food!

I initially thought it will be sweet and sour, so I took the upper part... but it turned out to be very very spicy -__-. It was a stupid decision. I regretted it, the silkiness of the tofu was quickly defeated by the spiciness and I immediately drank a full glass of water to disperse the pain. "The spiciness was similar to the usual Chinese Mapo Tofu, or any spicy Chinese chilli kind of thing. It is kind of rare to find especially in Japan, I liked it", he said happily. 

To compensate, he gave me his potato salad, which has quite different texture with normal Japanese potato salad. Each bite I took consists of chunks of potatoes accompanied by onions, with a hint of black pepper; which in normal Japanese potato salad, you'd only taste the mayonnaise's sweetness instead of the potato's.

***

So what makes Ootoya different from other Japanese restaurants?? Pricing was quite average (￥600~900 for a set meal) and the portion was enough. The obvious difference is in the menu, they have this unique and stylish combinations of food, but still presented in a very Japanese way. They put extra effort in making customer healthier by putting vegetables in every dish/set menu, and they put calorie count in every dish they offer and I'm not even kidding. I didn't have enough room for dessert this time because it was quite late, but I'm sure there will always be next time...


Here is the store list in Kyoto if you guys are interested: Kyoto Branch
and here is the store locator all over Japan (it's in Japanese, beware): Store Locator
Thank you for reading! and see you next time :D

Alam Bali

What better way to celebrate than going out to savour good cuisine accompanied by your sweetheart? ;)

As I have seen, there are only a few South-East Asian Dining (especially Indonesian food) around Kyoto; of course I would be really delighted when I actually find one. I would suddenly feel nostalgic and was attracted to go in and eat. It happens all the time; it's not that I hate Japanese food or something, but hey, I also have this feeling called 'homesick' sometimes...

This actually takes me back to summer; where the weather is humid and hot in the afternoon, cool and breezy at night. Strolling down the streets with pleasant feeling, to love and to be loved...

My boyfriend and I was discussing on where shall we celebrate our first year anniversary of being a couple, and we remembered of this certain restaurant around Karasuma, which is called Alam Bali.

It is an Indonesian cuisine restaurant run by local Japanese people, and the current owner is the second one. Our good friend is actually working part-time in this settlement so that is pretty much how we knew about it.

The ambience inside really makes you feel like you are in Bali, and as an Indonesian, it successfully took my soul home, even just for a moment.

We started off with some complimentary appetizer, or 漬物 (tsukemono), as Japanese people would say, it was these lovely Pickled Oysters.

 a portion for two

I could say that whoever is going to be my partner is going to be fortunate since I do not really eat meat. You could say I am a half vegetarian.. So I gave my portion away to my boyfriend and he willingly accepts it and ate it happily. Lucky him. Oh, and how was the taste? "Fantastic".

 Look at how colorful and pretty it is! Appetizing? Yes please!

 Alam Bali's Tahu Gejrot.

Next we have this Alam Bali's Tahu Gejrot. It is a deep-fried tofu dish, then semi-broiled with special sweet tangy sauce. I can feel the sweetness of palm sugar and tamarind in every sip and every bite I took. It was heavenly.

 Fried Calamari for the boyfriend. "Crunchy, tangy, spicy. Calamari enough."

Then came our Main Dishes!

 Ketoprak (Noodles and vegetable in peanut sauce)

This one does not have the Indonesian taste.. either some key spices or ingredients are missing or maybe the noodle's taste is different. However, one thing for sure is they forgot to put enough peanut sauce and kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) for us to really enjoy our homeland tastes. When I mentioned it to my friend, who is working that night, he took our plate and gladly gave us extra sauce. Then the taste unexpectedly improved. Yay!

 Alam Bali's Perkedel

A Perkedel is made mainly from potatoes, and basically you can put any toppings in it and later deep-fry it until it is golden brown. It is a local delicacy, and every children in Indonesia grew up knewing it. It is similar as the Japanese's コロッケ / Korokke. The  Alam Bali's Perkedel is quite a unique combination of taste between Indonesian and Japanese flavor, and the taste is certainly not disappointing. 

 oh hai gorgeous.

The shape was contrastingly thick, quite unusual for our country's standard. It was juicy with slight taste of seasonings between the creamy texture, and inside there are thick bacon slices. I would not say that this is not an Indonesian food, nor Japanese either. I would rather say that this is actually a brilliant idea, it made me crave for seconds.

Banana Millefeuille Pie

My main principle in dining is, "there is always room for dessert", and we both wanted something sweet to end our lovely experience tonight. The chef suggested on this menu and he was right - we LOVED it. The sweetness of vanilla ice cream, topped with coffee powder, melts instantly with the banana pie's heat, and it synchronises harmoniously. It was a very modern dessert, yet overwhelming with nostalgia. 

***

Well that was nostalgic. I loved the whole dining experience here and personally would love to come and visit them again!

If you are interested please do pay them a visit! (There is also a spa and relaxation centre on the second floor!)

Alam Bali Cafe / 烏丸御池の個室バリ・アジア・エスニック料理 「アラムバリカフェ」‎

日本 〒604-8173 京都府京都市 中京区柿本町406 1F +81 75-211-1171

View Larger Map



Alam Bali's Official Site

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Thank you for reading!
All pictures are taken and submitted by myself.

I came. I eat. I conquer.

Hello people! Welcome to this blog and thank you for finding it!

I might have exaggerated a lot on the title but that is what mostly I will write and post in here.

Let's have a brief introductions, shall we?
Since I am pursuing my university studies, I am currently living in Kyoto, Japan. And most probably I will be stuck living here for the next years but I do not really regret it.. why?

Because Japan is AWESOME... for the culture, the people, the nature, the kindness, and not to be forgotten, the food. There are a lot of varieties of cuisines here and I managed to visit mostly nice restaurants with great hospitalities, and I would love to share some of those experiences to a lot of you and hope that someday, you would find the time and experience the similar amount of feelings!

Yes, some of you might be thinking of me as 'oh here is another one of those I-am-a-food-critic blogger so read my posts!' or another 'oooh this looks good let's post it on social media', etc. kind of girl, but I'm just trying to be honest and I wish to write for your enjoyment!

I promise I will not be that biased, and I will be honest with what I am feeling about my dining experiences, be it really fulfilling or the opposite.

Nevertheless, 
hope you guys will enjoy! :D