torakris

But one thing Yokohama has going for it that Tokyo doesn't is good Greek restaurants. I had a great meal last month at Sparta (045-253-1645), about 5 minutes from Kannai station. Nothing like it in Tokyo. ← This is great to know! I have known about Sparta but had heard almost nothing about it. I need to make a trip to the Yokohama immigration offices in September and they are just a short walk form Kannai station. I now know where I can have lunch. ← Unfortunately they don't do lunch..... Sparta homepage

But one thing Yokohama has going for it that Tokyo doesn't is good Greek restaurants. I had a great meal last month at Sparta (045-253-1645), about 5 minutes from Kannai station. Nothing like it in Tokyo. ← This is great to know! I have known about Sparta but had heard almost nothing about it. I need to make a trip to the Yokohama immigration offices in September and they are just a short walk form Kannai station. I now know where I can have lunch.

6/12: Way back at the end of April we were discussing bora (striped mullet)..... ボラのへそ bora no heso Heso means belly button but in the case of bora this refers to the stomach. It is often served on skewers, lightly salted and grilled. Though I have never seen it before a couple sites described it as looking like abacus beads and sure enough after some searching I was able to find a picture (scroll down to 2006/3/9)

I tried the grilled chicken sandwich, too. I thought the meat texture was a little weird (not a big surprise, being McDonald's), but the flavor wasn't bad. It was a bit peppery, though, and the pepper flavor lasted 5-10 minutes after I was finished eating. ← cheeseandcheese, I don't know how I missed this... Welcome to eGullet and the Japan Forum! I finally tried the chicken sandwich yesterday, it was quite nice and I enjoyed the light lemony flavor. It may have been better if it didn't take almost 30 minutes for my husband to get home after buying it. I had a coupon for the sandwich and the mixed berry yogurt set. The yogurt was a nice alternative to french fries.

Here is the thread on Mexican food in the Tokyo area. I highly recommend Salsita, you will find quite a bit about it in the thread.

This recent article from the Japan Times on a couple Turkish restaurants really has me craving craving the like. I just wish I lived anywhere near any of them...

Lotteria is undergoing some major changes this year, I guess they were tired of being the underdog.... They are getting back to the basics with their new "Straight burger" campaign. Announcing that it is time to bring back the "good ol' burger". They are also jumping on the current health foods trend by offering 2 new sets that come in at under 400 calories each. Tofu and hijiki burger with a 3 bean salad Grilled chicken and ratatouille These last two look quite good, I am almost wishing I had a Lotteria close by....

The other day in the snack aisle, I noticed a new Kinoko no Yama flavor: Kurogoma-Matcha (black sesame and green tea) It sounds really good but at close to 200yen a box, I passed.....

Some new chips on the left is Italian Salad flavor (with basil and anchovy) and the right is buta-man (steamed pork bun). I only tasted about 3 chips from each bag and I really liked the Italian Salad one but found the buta-man to be too sweet. Also Matsuzaka steak flavor, I haven't opened this one yet. This one and the butaman one are part of a series, I didn't realize this until I looked at their homepage. They bring out 2 new ones every 4 months, you can see pictures of the previous ones here, in the news release from the company. They are all from different areas... #1 was Hokkaido's butter potato flavor #2 was Tohoku's (Sendai) grilled tongue flavor #3 was Kyushu's (Kagoshima) black pork and tonkatsu sauce flavor #4 was Hyogo's Kobe beef #5 and #6 are pictures above I am not sure how I missed those first ones especially the tongue and tonkatsu. They don't seem to be doing very well though, I picked them up on sale for 68 yen a bag (about $.50) when most chips are over 100yen..

another cream puff coffee jelly cream puff, this was extremely enjoyable at only 50yen!

I am there for 2 nights and 3 days as well (Shannon Elise and I will be sharing a room ). rockandroller, I am sure we can figure out a carpool from Cleveland, I am going to see if I can borrow my mom's car or even rent one as a last resort. I need to be in Middleburg Heights at noon on Sunday so I could drop you right off at home.

the pineapple recipe can be found here. I think it is the third one down

Steven Raichlen's BBQ USA has 3 versions, one is a simple basic recipe, one has honey and lime, the third has pineapple. I have only made the first one first one, but is is great and I have made it for 3 BBQ's I have had recently, I will also be making it this upcoming Saturday. I can PM the recipe to you if you are interested.

As anyone who has read this thread knows I love horse meat, especialy raw, but i recently ran across something that curls my toes: raw horse flesh ice cream

My favorite is the raw horse flesh ice cream

The Wackiest World of Japanese Ice Cream a photo display from Mainichi (in English) I am pretty sure we have previously linked to the other photos from 'The Wacky World...' and 'The Wackier World....' but in case you missed it those links are included in the article.

The omakase is popular in Japan and not just at sushi restaurants, but at any kind of smallish restaurant where you pretty much have direct contact with the chef. Some of the small top end sushi places don't even have menus, it is omakase or nothing. On a recent trip (with eGullet member Robin) to Kozasa Sushi we were given a choice of the sushi omakase or sashimi omakase. In larger restaurants they often have course menus and I find this is essentially the same as the omakase, the menu will list just appetizer, soup, meat dish, fish dish, etc without being specific. Depending on the place the food served will change daily, weekly or even monthly. How often do the Japanese do it? Depends on how much money you have..... In Japn it is all about seasonality when it comes to an omakase, you will usually be served on what was the best on that partiular day. So the omakase you had today could have completely different foods a month from now.

Two of my favorite lunches are hiyayakko (usually with slivered cucumbers--because I always seem to have them in the house) topped with either Thai style sweet chili sauce or a garlic oil mixed with some ponzu (or just the garlic oil alone). Both of these are even better with a handful of cilantro tossed in and the second is great with some chopped tomatoes as well.

Yes it is the same place as the photos above, and it is really good. Just remember that it is kaiseki based on tofu dishes, so if you are not a huge tofu fan.... EDIT at lunch most meals are in the $20 to $30 range and so it is an excellent value.

My brother, who lives in Lansing, is moving to Boston in two weeks.... I was hoping to go with him and crash at his place but he will no longer be living in the area. I will thus be on my own. So anyone carpooling from Cleveland please include me in your plans. I was hoping to go up for the Friday activities as well and need to be in Middleburg Heights by noon on Sunday for a family picnic. Anyone going around those times? Also any other females travelling alone that might be willing to split a hotel room?

I don't really care for the term ethnic but unfortunately it is the word they use here to describe restaurants from the area of Southeast Asia (and sometimes other areas as well). Two days ago after a trip to the US Embassy we stopped in Tinun for lunch, the restaurant describes itself as Thai yatai ryouri. Lunch was packed and we had to wait in line for a bit but it was definitely worth it, lunch sets ranged from about 800 to 1000yen and we fed the 5 of us for 2900. The Tameike Sanno branch is just about a 3 minute walk from the Embassy so if you ever find yourself in the area..... Any other favorite "ethnic" restaurants in the Tokyo area?

This is probably my favorite Korean noodle dish. It is wildly popular in Japan (and has been for some time) where it is known as reimen (literally 'cold noodles'). The city of Morioka, in Iwate Prefecture, is famous for it's reimen.... In Japanese supermarkets you can buy packs of noodles and soup for reimen in the refirgerated sections all year round, though they quadruple in the summer. The noodles vary from brand to brand and I have been dissapointed in most of them. I must have kimchi in my reimen along with either apple or Asian pear, anything else is optional.

Are you sure you don't want rice again? This is really good! It is a nice pasta or pizza topping though

It took about 3 minutes with the prepared sauce pack.... I, too, always thought that ito konnyaku was just fat shirataki, I had no idea they were called different things in different regions.

What about the taste? ← Sorry about that! It was really good. The pastry was soft because they kept it refrigerated and the custard was on the runny side because I left it unrefrigerated for a good 30- 40 minutes but I would definitely buy it again.