Monthly Archive: February 2006 [28]
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February 27, 2006
紅花 日本橋別館
ココットカレー(スリランカ風激辛チキンカレー)。
Sri Lankan super spicy chicken curry, 1500yen. Seriously.....it is HOT!!! Both my friend and I are quite used to eating spicy food but halfway through it, we were both breathing heavily and our faces were reddening and my friend kept drinking water and I started having a headache....^^;; But the first half of it was very tasty indeed....
紅花別館
Comments(3) [ 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
FORTNUM & MASON(日本橋三越)
Afternoon tea set! The sandwiches, the scones, the cakes, and of course the Assam tea are all very good. Usually afternoon tea is not about the taste but the moment of feeling like a rich madam, but here the food actually tastes nice, wow! ^^;; We ordered 3 afternoon sets and we got to choose 6 different cakes and the scones came in different flavours too!
Comments(6) [ cakes and sweets | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
Thani Kitchen(タニ・キッチン＠大森)
タイのさつま揚げ。焼きビーフン。
Tod Man Pla(Fried fish pancake). Pad Thai(Fried noodle). Both superb.
肉ラーメンと黒いスープ、モツのたくさん入った、タイ東北部のラーメン。
Soup noodles with entrails, Northeast Thai style. The noodles are in slices and rolled up, very very good!
タイ東北地方のソーセージ。シーフードのカレー炒め。
Sausage Northeast Thai style. Seafood fried curry(with egg). Fantastic x 2.
ラオス風牛肉とハーブの和え物。トムヤム・ヌードル。
Beef and herb salad. Good but mainly meat and quite salty, would be great to eat with rice though. Tom Yam Noodle.
Some super sweet coconut dessert, forgot the name. 4 girls shared all the food, with 2 drinks each, only 2000yen per person!! So cheap!! Though the location of the restaurant is not so convenient. The food were all very mild and not spicy. Wonder if it is Northeastern style or just toned down for Japanese customers. And the very sweet and friendly madam happened to have lost her voice that day but we kept asking her this and that. ^^;;
Thani Kitchen
Comments(4) [ my favourites | other cuisines ]
Lilla Dalarna(リラ・ダーラナ)
Sweden cuisine! But the Framboise alcohol drink turned out to be from Belgium! ^^;; The assorted marinated fish appetizer was very very good, salty and sour and somehow makes you feel "Ah~~very Scandinavian" although I have never been there before. ^^;;
Chicken salad.
Beef tomato stew. Hmm?? Hmm?? Can't tell the difference from Japanese "western food". ^^;; Oh but the pasta-thing on the side was very chewy so nice~~! Definitely the highlight of this meal for me. Potato gratin was quite good too.
Sugar-coated chocolate mousse. Very very sweet, couldn't finish even it was so small.
Lilla Dalarna
Comments(3) [ other cuisines | 麻布・六本木・赤坂 ]
February 24, 2006
Restaurant hAru(ハル)
海の幸（才巻海老・トコブシ・ホタテ・ウニ・牡蠣）のコンソメゼリーがけ、人参のムースと共に、２２００円。
Seafood including prawn, shellfish, scallop, sea urchin and oysters, with consomme jelly and carrot mousse. So good! The scallop is super sweet.
ランド産フォワグラのポワレ、トリュフ風味、下仁田ネギのエチュベ添え、２２００円。
蝦夷鹿ロース肉のポワレ、黒コショウ風味、３４００円。
Pan-fried foie gras, with truffle and spring onion. Foie gras very rich-tasting and cooked just right.
"Ezo" venison, black pepper sauce. I always get venison whenever it is available somehow, even though the portion is always so much smaller than say pork or beef, which my friend got and couldn't finish cos they were too big portion! ^^; But the venison here is very soft, but fried crispy outside.
紫イモのモンブラン 紅茶のアイスクリーム添え、１２００円。
洋梨のジュレとムースのパルフェ仕立て 牛乳のソルベと御一緒に、１０００円。
I had the taro Mont Blanc, with tea ice-cream. My friend had pear jelly and pear mousse parfait with milk sorbet. Both are very good.
Overall very good, the waitor and the waitress were super friendly, which really makes a difference. The only weak point is the bread, which is a bit hard and tasteless. So I ended up not eating much bread and didn't feel as full as I should have. One glass of wine and a coffee, it came up to 11000yen, quite luxurious. ^^;; Oh the restaurant is owned by Rakuten's boss' wife, and by chance the boss and his wife and their kid were all there when we went. I didn't know them of course but my friend got quite excited. ^^;;
Restaurant hAru
Comments(4) [ my favourites | french food | 神宮前・青山・広尾 ]
いけす懐石 築地竹若
刺身御膳。Sashimi lunch set, 1890yen. The place is very big and the food tastes a bit mass production - the tempura was cold!!
築地竹若
Comments(2) [ 池袋 ]
莫莫居 鶯
日替わりの三元豚の角煮定食。Fatty pork "kakuni" lunch set, 780yen. The pork is very nice but there is only one small piece...too little! I wish they would raise the price and give more.
莫莫居 鶯
Comments(2) [ 池袋 ]
February 22, 2006
おわん（池尻）
自家製豆腐とおひたし。鶉の燻製。
A dinner that I have been looking forward to for a month! Nice and trendy interior, all counter seats. Tofu and the boiled veggy are free. Smoked quail eggs.
刺盛り（馬レバ刺、かつお、さより）。黒豚しゅうまい。
Sashimi: horse liver(just tastes like any liver ^^;;), katsuo, sayori. Shui-mai.
霜降和牛しゃぶしゃぶサラダ。桜海老と新玉葱のかき揚げ。
Beef shabu shabu salad. Fried sakura-shrimp and onion.
霧島鶏の水炊き。炙り焼きチャーシュー丼。
Chicken hot pot and Grilled pork rice bowl.
All the food are very nice! Though I was looking forward to eat a lot of fish sashimi but their menu changes and when we went they didn't have what we wanted to eat.
おわん
Thai Tae (タイ亭)
Bla Mee Nam Moo Sup, 900yen. The noodles lunch menu was in Thai only so I chose by looking at the pictures. Turned out to be minced pork and fish ball soup noodles. The soup was a bit too thin, but after adding a lot of sauces and chilli it became good. ^^;; The Thai waitress was super friendly.
Thai Tae
Comments(2) [ 池袋 ]
B&B Kitchen
あぶりまぐろの醤油カリー、ベーグルフレンチトースト。
Broiled tuna soya sauce curry, quite bad. Bagel French Toast, so-so. Oh well, just a quick lunch.
February 20, 2006
美松
寒ブリ照り焼き定食＋とろろ。Yellowtail teriyaki set lunch, 1050yen, and a side order of tororo, 300yen. Back to this very tiny shop with very nice Japanese style set meal. The tororo is exceptionally good here - can eat 3 bowls of rice with it alone.
美松
Comments(1) [ 池袋 ]
February 19, 2006
Dobro （京橋）
クロアチア風真鯛のカルパッチョ。
シュトゥルクリ （クロアチア風ラザニア、パプリカスープ仕立て）。
A Croatian restaurant! Red sea bream carpaccio. Lasagne in paprika soup. Super yummy!
サルマ(クロアチア風ロールキャベツ) 。
Cabbage roll. It has meat and rice inside, very very good! It is near Ginza and the interior is very stylish, yet it is inexpensive and has good quality. I went for lunch but our menu was specially ordered that included some dishes from the dinner menu, the course was 2500yen and a glass of red wine was 800yen. Very very cheap indeed.
Dobro
Comments(7) [ my favourites | italian food | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
きら星（武蔵境）
みそつけめん＋炙りチャーシュー、９００円。 I waited, outside this ramen place, alone, in the freezing cold for 40 minutes!! There were only about 8 or 9 people outside and I thought it should probably take 15 minutes, and also I am not familiar with this area and only know this ramen place. Turned out to be a long wait....the noodles and the grilled pork were very very good, but then I was so cold and tired and hungry...^^;;;
きら星
Comments(2) [ good cheap eats ]
中国家庭料理 永利
漬け白菜と角煮、中国風腸詰のなべ。Hot pot with fatty pork, pork blood sausage and preserved salted cabbage, 1370yen. I went on a weekend alone, which was a big mistake! Because in weekends they didn't have set lunch for one person, and everything on the menu was huge portion. Of course I couldn't finish it, and it was quite salty that I couldn't eat it without rice. But it was good, a Northern Chinese cuisine that I don't think I have tried before. All the waitors and waitresses were all chinese, the restaurant was not exactly nicely decorated but the food was very cheap and authentic-looking.
Comments(2) [ 池袋 ]
麺屋武蔵 二天
辛巻らーめん＋豚天、９８０円。A big fried spring roll with meat and spicy miso paste inside, and I ordered an extra fried pork...^^;; The spring roll was very nice but somehow the paste was all squeezed into one corner, so you would be eating non-spicy meat most of the time and then in the last bite your mouth was full of spicy paste....I wonder if it was deliberate.
Comments(0) [ 池袋 ]
February 11, 2006
PAS MAL(パ・マル)
I arrived at the restaurant precisely at 11:30am when it just opened, and there was already a guy waiting outside...unbelievable. Appetizer: chicken liver mousse. It is huge, especially the big pile of the marinated carrot salad. The mousse is nicer with bread so I ate half of the baguette too. I was 50% full by the time I finished the appetizer(the carrot!), and by that time the restaurant was full with customers.
The main dish looks familiar? Lamb in white wine stew - exactly the same dish as the one I had in the restaurant "LE MOGADOR" next door. There were 6 choices for the main dish, the others were pan-fried fish, pork sausage, chicken confit, beef steak and tripe stew...all of them sound predictable and not appealing at all. Believing that different chefs will make the same dish differently, I decided to give it a try.....but I was so wrong. It turned out to be very similar to the lamb stew I had the other day - similar tomato-based sauce, even the side vegetables were the same!! Though this time the sauce was much thicker. Maybe simple bistro menu are just similar everywhere and I was expecting too much? ^^;; I felt so tired of the taste halfway through and didn't want to eat it anymore, but I forced myself to finish most of it. And I made a terrible mistake in ordering the dessert sampler at the beginning...the sampler turned out to be a lot! The chocolate terrine was really nice, mocha and caramel ice-cream were good, pear tart was alright and I just couldn't finish the tarte tartan. All together it was 1880yen....it is so cheap! ^^; I couldn't resist and asked the waitor if this restaurant is related to the restaurant next door. He said the two restaurants are under the same management(oh right!!) but the chefs decide their own menu and cook in their own style. I told him I had the same lamb stew in the restaurant next door and it tasted pretty much the same, but he said the chef in the other restaurant prefers more "dry" taste while the chef in this restaurant prefers "sweet" taste. I think the other one is better. Anyway, "mission completed"!! ^^;;
PAS MAL
Comments(3) [ french food | 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
February 10, 2006
弁慶
I was completely obsessed and decided to go to the other French restaurant as well on the next day.....but it was fully booked for a lunch party!!! Ah~~damn!!!! ^^;;; So I ended up walking back all the way to the station and went to this soba place. I was very pissed off and my reasoning snapped and I ordered the most expensive and the most fattening thing on the menu - pork cutlet with rice and soba set, 1100yen. The pork was alright, but I chose "cold" soba instead of "hot" soup soba, expecting "cold" means room temperature, but it was seriously cold, like just taken out from the fridge....Anyway, I am going to eat in that other French restaurant one day no matter how many times I need to try, you watch me!!! ^^;;
Comments(4) [ 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
LE MOGADOR (ル・モガドー)
I was desperately craving some French food so I decided to drop by this area which is kinda sad with nothing around but shabby shops and offices, but on the same location there are two popular French restaurants right next to each other, which both provide cheap but down-to-earth French food. It is a bit of a walk from the station so I have been lazy and haven't tried them yet even though they are convenient for me to go for lunch on work days. But I had no luck on my first try....I went early, well before noon, but by the time I arrived at this restaurant it was already full!! What?! But there is the other target restaurant next door....it was completely dark and apparently closed....but I checked on the internet beforehand and it should be open on that day!! Damn they changed the day they close. -o-;;; So I had no choice but went to the not-very-appealing Italian nearby, Il Mio, in the previous entry, which turned out to be very bad....I was so pissed off that I tried again on the next day, and thank god both two French restaurants were open and not yet full. I chose to go to this one first. It is very cheap!! Appetizer or main dish alone is 700yen. Two dishes is 1200yen. Plus dessert is 200yen. Of course I went for full course, plus coffee which is another 200yen.
中トロのマリネローズマリー風味。仔羊の白ワイン煮。
Marinated tuna(toro) with rosemary. Gosh it is such a big plate! Very fresh and nice. Lamb white wine stew, meat is soft and tender. I think this place is great cos the taste is not salty and oily - somehow cheap bistros always tend to be too salty and heavy.
栗のタルト。Chestnut tart. I saw the chef taking the tart out from the refrigerator and warming it in the microwave....err...^^;; Not too much taste but at least it is not too sweet. There is only the chef doing everything - preparing the food, bring the food, pouring water, turning away customers when the place was full, answering the phone and doing bookings....but he seemed to be all cool and calm, very impressive.
LE MOGADOR
Comments(3) [ french food | 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
Il Mio
Spaghetti with squid and broccoli in white wine sauce(completely tasteless and horrible), comes with tuna salad(the tuna is too sweetened, quite gross) and tiramisu and coffee, 1000yen. Then I never meant to go to this restaurant in the first place - see later entry for why.
Comments(4) [ 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
GRIP
ズワイガニと水菜のリングィーネ。
Linguine with Zuwai crab and mizuna. Lunch set comes with a big green salad and coffee, 880yen. The pasta is cooked just right, but the sauce is a bit too light and the portion is very very small...^^;
GRIP
Comments(5) [ 池袋 ]
February 04, 2006
黒福多
A friend's birthday. She loves pork so I picked this place which is specialised in kagoshima pork.
Free appetizer, pork ear(!) and cabbage salad.
ゆで豚とろマスタード風味。Poached fatty pork, with mustard. Drenched in too much oil, but the pork is soft and tender.
ロースカツ。Deep-fried pork shoulder meat. Wow it is sooooooo nice!!! Probably the best I have ever eaten!! It is surprisingly NOT oily and the meat is soft with the right amount of fat. I am not a big fan of fried pork but oooh this is heaven!
角煮。This is usually my favourite dish but this one turned out quite hard and not fatty enough....hmm....
バラシソ焼。 Grilled pork belly with siso. A bit rough and tasteless.....
コラーゲン揚げ。It is called "fried collagen" but it is just fried pork skin, taste is so-so.
軟骨煮。Stewed gristle? This is very very very good!! Well balanced amount of meat and fat and soft bones.
サツマイモアイス。Potato ice-cream, not bad. Two of us both had a drink and a coffee, and the total came up to about 7000yen.
黒福多
Comments(6) [ my favourites | japanese food | 麻布・六本木・赤坂 ]
どん丼丸
Salmon and salmon roe and tororo rice bowl set, 945yen. Late dinner again....tororo potato gives you a healthy impression but eating it with rice is like carb+carb....^^;;
Comments(5) [ 池袋 ]
February 03, 2006
西村の店
Pork steak(half) and panfried sole-fish(half). Comes with a small potage and bread. Appetizer(pork terrine) and dessert(fig tart) and coffee are optional. Taste is okay, but the tiny restaurant gets very crowded during lunch time. Total was 1580yen, but the waitress forgot that I ordered the optional dishes and gave me back 720yen change which was too much, I reminded her that and she took back the change and gave me 520yen.....I told her the correct change should be 420yen and she seemed very upset....maybe because the chef/owner was standing nearby....I should have just shut up next time. ^^;;
西村の店
Comments(2) [ 池袋 ]
February 02, 2006
Trattoria Metropolitana
豚ロースのグリル、抹茶スフレチーズ。Grilled pork lunch, 1200yen, plus dessert macha cheese cake, 300yen. The pork was really oily and salty but at least it looks good in pictures. Oh I am dying for something nice....
Comments(4) [ 池袋 ]
Ristorante la lunga vita
Vegetable potage, octopus and anchovy peperoncino, chocolate mousse and coffee, 1300yen. I have never eaten peperoncino that is in soup! But the soup was good. The cheaper pasta lunch is 1000yen but I ordered "homemade pasta" which costs more, yet I don't think the pasta is homemade at all....oh well.
Ristorante la lunga vita
Comments(2) [ 大山・板橋 ]
Cappello(カッペロ)
カキと下仁田葱のクリームスパゲッティー。Spaghetti with oyster and spring onion, cream sauce. Pumpkin potage, cream caramel dessert, self-service salad and drinks(very basic stuff) included, 1050yen. The pasta came out like 5 minutes after I ordered...how could it be good? The meat dishes other people ordered seemed soooooo much better...really regret! ^^;
Cappello
Comments(0) [ 池袋 ]
甚家
カルビ丼定食。 Beef rice bowl with small udon, 800yen. Another really bad lunch - that's why I had no motivation to upload for days. The beef was so rough so hard so salty, even the side dishes were terrible. I finished only the rice and udon.
Comments(3) [ 池袋 ]
Dining Cafe SHU
とろとろ玉子の豚丼。Pork and egg rice bowl, 950yen. Although it was very cheap for a weekend lunch including salad, soup and drink, and I wasn't expecting anything fantastic....the poor quality still came as a shock. Come on, I cooked this kind of food for myself decades ago when I was happy enough to stuff anything into my mouth!
Comments(4) [ 池袋 ]
