I, literally ate the whole week away.
My HK colleague is an amazeball foodie and trawls Taiwanese blogs for good eats in Japan – she claims they have the most specific and perfecto food write ups – and having specific places she must check out, we made full use of our evenings to gallivant around town, getting lost just to find that …specific patisserie shop or restaurant.
It was fun having a “visitor” around – good excuse to leave the office early and having like-minded (i.e. crazy, loud nut) company to enjoy the week-day evenings. Going forward, I’ll need to religiously ensure with the pockets of days in between the arrival of my first and second batch of visitors, that I stick to RABBIT FOOD.
Re-cap of some of the yummy and worth mentioning eats:
Restaurant Name/ Type: Pasutakan, Okonomiyaki
Address: Shinjuku MYLORD 8F; 1-1-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023
Got out of the office later then expected, so decided to eat nearby. We were up for some okonomiyaki and this place allows you to cook it on your table and in the ways you want to go about ‘building’ up your okonomiyaki with variety of sauces for you to choose from. We opt for the salmon base okonomiyaki mixture, siders of tender beef cubes and tako balls. Let’s not forget our sparking wine too.
If you’re around the area and looking for some comfort food to share with friends – this is a good choice. I love the okonomiyaki selections available but being such a heavy -carb laden meal, do go light on the sauces and drown some oolong tea thereafter!
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Patisseries: Pierre Herme and Quil Fait Bon
Address: 1-2F La Porto Aoyama, 5-51-8 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo/ 2-18-2, Ebisunishi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
If I don’t see it, if I don’t have it in front of me, chances are I won’t crave or go seeking for it. Yet, when I’m being told constantly, day in day out how good it is, or when it’s place right in front of my face – trust me, I won’t deny my palate and stomach the joy of knowing it.
That’s my relationship with sweets, pastries, desserts…and the likes of it!
One evening we headed off at 5:30pm on the dot, in search of the these two places – within close vicinity of each other, and giving us some time-allowance to get lost hur hur! It’s the week of White Day hence pretty much all patisserie/confectionary shops were in prep mode. Pierre Herme Cafe was closed off , but that didn’t stop us from buying two sweet thangs – Ispahan and Mont Blanc – to savour right at the most convenient spot outside, near the shrubs and all :). We were the only ones doing that and got SO many stares by passerby but we have a legit reason – we’re tourists and no one comes between us and our sweets, yo! [the Ispahan did not dissapoint – fresh rasberries, lychees and rose petal buttercream. Lovely combination of favours with rose buttercream shedding off the most distinctive flavour]
Next up, was the short alley-walk to find the enchanting, visual display of fruit tarts at Quil Fait Bon. Sadly, to say when we arrived there was little to none for us to gawk and order, but what was left was enough for us to point and order pronto. Gutted to know the white strawberry chocolate tart was sold out, but that calls for a second visit.
The slice of seasonal grape tart was refreshingly sweet, the crust and custard cream base was moist and crunchy – just the way I like my tarts to be :). This time round, we were lucky enough to find a spot outside with benches for us to sit, relish and talk before we embark on the 50 mins stroll back to Shinjuku.
Funny enough, my dessert-tasting adventures in Tokyo HAS always been either on a sidewalk, near the shrubs or in an obscure bench area in an upscale shopping mall.
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Izakaya: Kisyu -Ya
Address: 2F Ogawa Building, 1-18-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku West, Tokyo
I love, love, LOVE hole -in- the -wall izakayas and bars in Tokyo with aged-old umeshu or whiskey. Part of the reasons why I’ve not trawled food blogs for yummy eats in Tokyo, is personally, I find immense novelty and satisfaction of finding a hidden gem on one of those many exploration or getting- lost walks.
With that said, there is a place that a friend bought me to during one of my first work trips here; note to self : make a solo trip back there one of these days.
Am digressing here, this place was not on the pal’s list, basically we went hunting for a place that will satiate our meat and umeshu craving. Not that hard I must say, there are loads in Shinjuku just that some required reservation made way in advance. Quite lucky to have found this after walking into a few and staring at the many boards (part of smart space planning, most of izakayas or restaurants in the area is located on the upper floors of a building) and trying to decide which looks decently right for us.
This place was indeed a gem of a find – liked the fact we were seated away from the smoking area. Fresh, succulent wagyu beef (A3) for our shabu shabu, maguro sashimi and my absolute favorite, maki tamago. Aplenty of umeshu and hearty chats into the late night, by far, one of the best nights I had in Tokyo thus far.
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Restaurant: Torafugu Tei
Branch: Shinjuku San Chome, exit B2
Website: http://www.torafugu.co.jp/
Torafugu-Tei is a restaurant chain serving up one of the most notorious Japanese dishes – fugu or otherwise known as puffer fish, and most importantly, won’t burn a big hole in your pocket.
We opt for a set to share which gave us a good variety of broiled puffer fish skin, puffer fish sashimi, torafugu karaage, puffer fish hot-pot, and rice porridge using the same soup base from the hot pot. Many of the patrons in the restaurant would opt for a set of their own, which we both felt was a bit too much, and was pretty cool with sharing and leaving space for the creme brulee ice cream and of course, umeshu.
I personally find this place good for first time fugu eaters, given that it serves up the fish in different ways and extremely well-priced, considering how expensive this delicacy can be. I made it a point slot in a reservation here for the first dinner the parents and gf will be having when they arrive in weeks to come. We’ll probably skip the set and go ala carte, considering I got some really choosy and particular eaters to entertain.
That’s a wrap of the good eats this past week, which deserve such a lengthy post of it’s own. To prevent further expansion of the waistline, this weekend is all about my yogurt bowl of apple and granola, and a little sidetrack of steamed egg and daikon from 7-11. Still healthy, NO?!
J-emine's reflexionando 
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