Foodietopo

I doubt I will stop drinking coffee. I found a small roaster that has good prices, even at the expensive places, it's a lot cheaper to brew my own coffee than drinking something at Starbucks. Some Japanese coffee shop charge almost 10$ for a cup of coffee, but it's one good cup. If I buy the same beans, I can get a cup for less than 2$ . Not stopping and I am seriously considering home roasting.

Subway just arrived in my part of Japan and it's running success. There is always a line in front of the shop, the quality is good but the service is so SLOW! I am sure the poor girls behind the counter will pick up speed. I eat there once in while, the shop is really clean if you compare it to a Canadian shop. Back when I lived in Canada, my local Subway workers were a bunch of crazy Russians who played Russian pop music all the time. I went there to practice my Russian, pretty much a 2 for 1. Somebody mentioned Harveys, I really miss Harveys hamburger!

I've never seen that brand in Japan. Beautiful bottle. I understand your husband, I would have probably bought a bottle myself. What did he think about the taste?

A foodie trip to Paris is not complete without a trip to E Dehillerin. I love this shop!!! http://www.e-dehillerin.fr/index.php My food shopping was mostly done in the 14th Arr. on rue Daguerre next to Denfert Rochereau.

These Taiwan pineapple cake are addictive! My brother-in-law has to travel to Taiwan for business often and he always bring back a box . Today, we got Hakata Torimon cake at the office. White beans and butter, sublime!

+1 on the yakitori. It's sometime no crispy enough for my taste, but I found a couple shops where the skin is really crispy. I've never made it at home, but it should be pretty easy to just skewer some skin and BBQ them. Each store has it's own sauce, but the base of yakitori is usually saké, sugar and soy sauce.

I use a combination of Chemex, Kalita and Hario V60 dripper. I had never used a pour over dripper until I moved to Japan in 2008. The first time I saw my wife use one, I almost believed that the pour over was just a weird replacement for a proper machine. After visiting a few very good café, we bought a magazine about coffee and we both started to improve our pour over technique. We also recently graduated from Starbucks coffee to a small local roaster. Poor over is really nice. I am now thinking about trying a nel drip and the siphon maker. I recently visited a very nice coffee shop where they used a nel drip. Japan is truly the land of great coffee artist. If you are interested, I wrote about coffee shops which uses pour over method on my blog. http://foodietopography.wordpress.com/category/coffee/

Last summer, I made some kimchi daikon inspired by the Momofuku cookbook that turned out to be a hit during lunch time. All the office ladies asked me for the recipe.

As much as I was shocked by the instant coffee in the Japanese workplace, the treats are amazing! We get everything from home baked cake to fresh fruits. There also a tradition in Japan of bringing back a box of sweets after a business trip. These boxes are sold all over the country and they have little Japanese sweets individually wrapped. I don't go to the office everyday, but I often find a couple of little sweets on my desk. In summer, we have a freezer full of ice cream and one of the office lady will do a round of ice cream at around 3 PM. There is also a box full of candies and snacks in the middle of the room. I remember bringing a box of maple flavoured cookies imported from Canada and my co worker went crazy for it. I wish I could find a donut shop somewhere close to my office, the closest is Mr Donuts and it's not my favourite.

Japanese curry share this history since it was also introduced by the British Navy. I believe both are still offered on a regular basis at the Etajima Naval Academy near the city of Kure not too far from Hiroshima. While both nikujaga and curry are delicious, I don't really like ketchup rice or ketchup pasta. Wow, interesting history. Seems like most of the stories of its invention lead back to the Japanese navy and an effort to create a beef stew similar to the ones prepared by British navy cooks.

There is the Japanese nikujaga which is meat, potatoes, onions, carrots, konnyaku all stewed in soy sauce, mirin, sugar and saké. It's a very old recipe and it's quite popular home dish. I was surprised the first time somebody served it since you don't expect beef and potatoes in Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikujaga It's a very easy and quick recipe.

I don't remember how they call it in Japan, but you can often find thin slices of stale bread that has been turned into a sweet crouton. It's pretty much a thin slice of bread with sugar on it. My wife made it once she pretty much sprinkled sugar on the bread and left it for a little while in the toaster oven. Nice way to use stale bread.

Making onion soup when it's crazy cold outside. Sharpening knife is one of my favorite thing to relax.

This is bringing me back to my youth, my mom used the square one and she used to call it "the contraption", I am calling her tonight to make sure she doesn't throw it away! My mom use to make hamburger in these: meat, onion, mustard, relish and bread.

We ate the dark meat which is not too fatty. It's dark red like a tuna steak when raw and when it's cooked, it looks and has the texture of a 1 cm thick steak well done. It's not beef jerky hard, but it's has a very specific texture. It's not fishy at all, it's more like meat. After all it's a mammal. I would maybe compare to moose meat. I've had buffalo once, but it was a long time ago. If you push back the fact that whale meat has a lot of mercury, I find it pretty delicious. I've seen whale fat in some shops and whale bacon. The whale bacon is not bad, but I try to stay away from big chunks of fat. I sat next to a 6 years old kid today and it was her first time eating whale and she told me it was delicious.

The waiter at Chartier in Paris write your order on the the paper table cloth and walk back to a cashier and will tell the cashier the whole order which he has memorized. I've been there with a bunch of friends and we were just amazed! I once watched a documentary about the Chartier waiters. Might not be the best food in the city, but I love this old establishment.

I've been teaching for 3 years in Japan and today is the annual whale school lunch. I know this might be a touchy subject, but it's a very weird tradition here in Japan. For the occasion, they will have a very old man come to school to tell the story of how whale meat was pretty much they only source of proteine in the harder days. I had an old teacher almost tear up last year when they told me about the whale eating after the war. I've had whale maybe 4 or 5 times since I've moved to Japan, it's not my favorite, but I eat it with the kids. Whale meat is very different, a little tough. Today's menu was whale with a ketchup sauce and sauted onions, rice and miso soup. I know that whale hunting is frown upon by most of the world. Do you have whale eating experience that you would care to share?

When I moved to Japan, I discovered Japanese mikan, love these! The taste is a bit different from everything I ever tasted back in Canada. They are also growing a lot of these in the inland sea not too far from my home. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Satsuma_%28fruit%29

Looks like the second shop is open. From what I can see on the map, it's right next to Kyodo station which is not too far from Shibuya. I will certainly try to visit his new shop on my next visit. The first shop is not too far, but it's not in central Tokyo. I took the train from Shinjuku to get there.

There is a really cool ramen shop own by an American in Tokyo, "Ivan Ramen" which might be the only foreigner owned shop in the whole country. http://www.ivanramen.com/ He recently opened a second shop, his first shop is a little bit out of the way. I talked a bit about ramen with Ivan Orkin and he told me that ramen Jiro was a scary experience. Ramen Jiro offers a massive dose of umami according to him, so much that you keep eating despite feeling 100% full, it's like drug.

Come to think about it, I really HATE milk. In Japan, they serve milk everyday at school, it's a very rich 3.5% milk and I have never drank it. I love milk products, but a glass of milk gives me shivers. I use to hate urchins until I came to Japan and I ate the really fresh stuff including fresh sea urchins in a morning fish market not too far from Fukuoka. I don't like to eat fish bones, most Japanese do. I get weird looks from my students when I leave the bones in my plate. I was told all my life by my dearest mother that bones were dangerous, but the Japanese keep telling me that they are healthy...

I am asking myself pretty much the same question. Should I invest in a really expensive grinder or buy a Hario ceramic grinder for less than 30$ in Japan? I already use a massive Melitta hand grinder on weekend with great success, but I don't have a grinder for my second home, so I was wondering if I should invest in a fancy electric grinder. I also only use the drip method. If anybody has any experience with the Hario grinder, I would be happy to hear about it. @edwardsboi What is your brewing method?

Just to make your life easier, this is a link which includes maps to the Ramen Jiro in Shinjuku http://www.ramentokyo.com/2007/06/ramen-jiroshinjuku-nishi-guchi.html

The ramen Jiro in Shinjuku is quite an experience. Ramen Jiro packs a punch. There is also a special ramen underground alley in Tokyo Station which has a bunch of very famous ramen shops. Japanese curry is indeed very good, I hope you can try a good one. Enjoy Japan!

Sweet! Thanks for the link! I used my Chemex this weekend and the result were quite good. It's a beautiful object in itself. I just wish the filters were a bit cheaper in Japan.