Venus Fort, Shopping, Food and Cars!

Going back to December 2010 in Tokyo and I decided to visit Odabai Island and Venus Fort. So what is Venus Fort? 

Well, it's a place with lots of interesting stores. 

Stores for older people and for younger people. And the young at heart.

Along with interesting services. Like weddings. Yes, you can get married at Venus Fort. Actually wedding photos here would be very beautiful. 

The reason why is because of the architecture inside Venus Fort that replicates an Italian city. 

 

Complete with arches, statues and more.

Like this beautiful fountain. 

Reminds me so much of the Venetian in Los Vegas, right down to the day and night lighting.

There are vintage cars in the History Garage and people dressed up as characters

And the occasional Italian street.

 I was hungry since I didn't have breakfast.

 So I sat down at Cobara Hetta for a dish of pasta interpreted Japanese style.

 It was interesting with okra, salmon, mentaiko, nori and grated daikon. The soup and salad were very good too.

 The best part was the view from my table.

(this post was originally posted December 2010)

Something about Ｍana-sama in Yukata Enjoying Somen Noodles During Hot Summer in Japan

Summer is over and there may not be a lot that we have to look back on, in a friendly way, but there was one thing we were able to enjoy and share in. That was enjoying the Mana in Yukata making negashi somen video. And while most of us do not have a somen noodle slide, it was still possible to make and enjoy cold somen during the hot summer days.

 

Chilled somen is not difficult to make, and Mana showed how to make excellent eggs to go with it. So what I am going to share in this blog is a little information about the dipping sauce tsuyu or mentsuyu.

There are a lot of recipes on the internet, with various ingredients and amounts of how much to put in. So I will share a little bit about the ingredients that can be used. Since they are basic staples for Japanese cooking, it is worth trying to find them. The first staple is sake. You could use regular sake, but it is nice to have a bottle of cooking sake on hand. Cooking sake tends to have less alcohol but also have salt which regular sake does not have. 

Something that works in place of sugar or with it is the second staple, mirin. While sugar could be substituted, I find mirin has a nice distinctive flavor that is found in so much Japanese food. It is also a rice wine like sake, but with a higher sugar content. Like all of the ingredients, there are many good brands, but I prefer a glass bottle because the top closes better.

The third staple is soy sauce or shoyu. So many varieties out there! What I have right now in this photo left to right is a special shoyu from Hokkaido, tamari, usukuchi light color shoyu, and less salt shoyu. 

I use the Hokkaido shoyu for sashimi and sushi dipping and other dishes where shoyu is a stand-alone ingredient. While somen isn't a gluten free dish unless gluten free noodles are used., tamari can still be used to make gluten free sauces. Usukuchi is sometimes used in some Japanese dishes. I find less salt or reduced sodium shoyu is good not just for health reasons, but also for taste. It is up to each person as to what they want to use. I do think it is worth it to try different shoyu, because there can be differences in flavor. 

The fourth staple of Japanese cooking is dashi. Again, there are a lot of recipes online and just as many varieties of dashi. Basic dashi consists of three things. Water, konbu and katsuobushi. Konbu is a dried seaweed. It is thick and for cooking you can buy it in large pieces and cut off as much as you need. Konbu is used in various ways so it's worth searching for it to have in the kitchen. You can even use it in non-Japanese cooking. Add to a broth or sauce or rice for additional umami. Finely shredded konbu can be used as a topping for okonomiyaki and rice.

As for katsuobushi, that also comes in various forms. Katsuobushi is dried smoked bonita, a skipjack tuna. In Japan, some cooks have it in blocks which they shave with a katsuobushi kezuriki. While it helps to use larger pieces for making dashi, outside of Japan it's the smaller shavings that are usually in stores. These also work, just a little harder to remove from the dashi broth.

While dashi does take time and effort to make, it is definitely worth having. An easier way is to find instant dashi. Which also comes in a lot of varieties. If you want basic dashi stock, there is instant dashi for that. There is also dashi that can be used for making ramen, like the anchovy iroko dashi. Another instant dashi that I like is the Shimaya tennen dashi. As you can see, it also has shiitake mushrooms and anchovies in it. I use these and also make dashi, depending on the dish.

Of course, there is another way to have tsuyu. You can buy it premade. I do think it's fun to make dishes from scratch, but sometimes it's not possible to find all the ingredients or there isn't enough time cook it. So nothing wrong with using good premade items.

I hope you enjoyed my blog post. Here is the Moi-même-Moitié video of gothic elegant Chef Mana making somen noodles.

So Haneda Once Again

The day had arrived where I was suppose to fly back to Oregon. I tried to relax and enjoy these cute mini donuts from TAU Hiroshima. But the hotel forgot to tell the maid I was staying a little after regular check out. Given that I was the only guest on that floor, it seem a bit much that she kept pounding on my door. Finally the front desk apologized. It wasn't helpful, I was stressed because of the almost daily cancellations of flights by JAL, and the fact that I could not find any information as to what terminal my flight was leaving from. 

So I left early because of that, and because I had to change trains to get to Haneda International Airport. I reached the monorail station as planned, but when I asked a worker there which track I should be at, they told me the wrong one. More than once. I knew what direction the monorail would be coming from, since I had been at this station once before. So I picked that side, and I was right.

I wasn't right in guessing the terminal. And there were no information anywhere as to what gate the flight was leaving from. Thankfully the information person must have been prepared because she was able to tell me and explain what bus to take to get to the right terminal. Also it probably helped that there were very few flights that day. So eventually I made it back to the terminal where I had spent the night of March 11th, 2011. I didn't visit the shops where I slept that night, just saw them from below. Kind of fitting because it felt like another disaster trip.

Checking in and getting through security was pretty fast. No temperature checks, just asked me if I had been to China and one other place. The airport was almost empty. They did have cute displays in places though.

The play area was closed because of the virus. Since there weren't any children, I don't know if it would have mattered. Lots of social distancing this day.

There were some shops that were open. Just no customers.

I found my gate and I found a restaurant that was open. Curacion Cafe.

It was time for lunch and time for something good. Chicken curry, tsukemono pickles and a draft beer.

It was all good. 

I still had some time to wait. That was my gate and no one was there. But at least I made it to the airport without too many difficulties. So being a little early was okay.

I don't normally take photos in the bathroom, but I thought it was interesting to see what Japan was doing in regard to the virus. The air hand dryers are popular in public restrooms, but they had sealed them off from use.

And had installed an air cleaner system. Public health is serious in Japan.

Meanwhile, still waiting. So a few photos of the almost empty Haneda Airport. This was March 31st in the middle of the day.

I didn't forget to take a carpet photo.

The plane was waiting. The only flight by Japan Airlines to San Francisco that day. Only the second flight that week. With none going out of Narita Airport. That was a major reduction.

It was about tea time now, so I ate a little Hiroshima lemon cake. I also was carrying my Moi-même-Moitié bag with me. I didn't want to lose it.

Finally boarded the plane. Lots of space. Having a whole row of seats to myself, with no one in front or behind me. Everyone was wearing a face mask also. No delays with take-off, since there weren't many planes flying. Strange feeling, like it was another world. 

Since we were flying out of Haneda, the route was slightly different. And I got to see something special. The top of Mount Fuji above the clouds. That was nice because I had thought about going to a few places at Mount Fuji this trip, but because of the virus and the uncertainty of my flight, I did not. So seeing the mountain as I left was a bit sad, but also beautiful.

Back on the plane, service was excellent. I think because of the situation, we were given a little first class treatment. At least business class. I started with white wine and rice crackers.

Eventually lunch was served. This was a bento styled lunch created by a famous Japanese chef. It was very delicious. That's miso soup in the cup.

Several hours later, breakfast was served. I had trouble sleeping, in part because the disinfectant bothered my sinuses. I wore gloves for most of the flight, so it didn't bother my hands this time. The airline sprayed the interior of the planes with disinfectant in hopes of reducing viral spread. I ended up watching the new "Little Women" movie, which was nice.

I was tired, but I still enjoyed breakfast from Soup Stock with green tea to drink. It's funny, because I would pass by Soup Stock in Ikebukuro Station all the time, and it always smelled good. But I never ate there. My flight from Japan had small reminders of my times of being in Japan.

My last post will be about the second part of my trip back to Oregon.

A Birthday at Manmaru

It was tough. There are so many places I want to dine at in Tokyo. Yet it was March 27th, 2020, and worries about the virus made me think twice about that. It's why I didn't go back to Vampire Cafe and a few other places. Or try new restaurants. At least I didn't have to travel far to one of my favorites, and it is a very small restaurant with good ventilation. Has to have that because of the charcoal grills.

Yes I was back at Manmaru, with Pick Happiness sake again.

That perfect pour. I really need my own sake cup set.

Beatles' music playing and an older couple next to me celebrating one of their birthdays. He gave her a lovely watch locket that was a lot like one I have, and she gave him a beautiful blue tea bowl. So sweet!

I had not stopped thinking about that tomato.

So yes, I did get it again. And it was wonderful tasting once again. Ripe, sweet and thin skinned. A tomato grown to be eaten like this.

Of course there was grill unagi. I'm finally getting really good photos of it!

My unagi don. The miso soup is also very good at Manmaru

The celebrating couple ordered this lovely little block of cold tofu. I could not resist asking for one myself. Creamy, salty and a little sour topping with heat from the wasabi. So good.

That cup of hot tea. And my left over rice. What shall I do?

Into the bowl the tea goes. I am learning. This was the end of another "pushuu~" meal.

One last moment from Manmaru. The Beatles "Birthday" started to play. I did my best to tell the birthday couple that this song was on. They were so happy! I wished the man "Happy Birthday!" and both of them were very nice and also waved good bye as I left. It was a wonderful moment that I got to share in their birthday fun. 

Back at the hotel I enjoyed a little Kit Kat, thanks to the local 7-Eleven. It's nice not having to buy a big bag.

And a couple photos of the monaka that I got at Rikugien.

Sweet and crisp, they were like little rice macarons. Really nice treats!