Eat, Drink, Sleep @Tokyo, Now in Nagasaki

東京で食う飲む!Restaurant or Bar around Tokyo and Far East. There is a great diversity of food and culture in Japan. You will enjoy the huge range style of food from very local Japanese food to a lot of foreign foods. I hope you will find and feel the diversity of foods in Japan.

30 June 2015

Bingzan, Datong qu, Taipei (冰讃, 台北), Taiwan

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The Mangos cultivated in Taiwan were very nice. The colour, flavour and taste, all factors remind me where I am. The apple mango has yellow orange, soft and low fibber texture, sweet and great flavour. The ripped raw mango has sticky texture with strong sweet flavour.
We can enjoy bowls of shaved ice in this shop. The middle aged lady shaved a large ice. The desert was soft ice like snow powder. This shop had two types of the ice: normal water ice and condensed milk. 芒果雪花冰is the condensed milk type and 芒果牛奶冰 is normal water type. Once I brought the ice and mango into my mouth, I had enjoy the harmony of sweet taste snow and sticky tropical fruits.
芒果牛奶冰
 
This desert stand opened from May to November which is just the season they can get the delicious mango.


27 June 2015

Fu Hang Dou Jiang, Zhongzheng qu, Taipei (阜杭豆漿 台北), Taiwan

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One of the most famous and popular soy milk stands in Taipei


This soy milk stand is located near the Shandao Temple station of Blue line (善導寺). I have gone up to the exit 5, which faced to the Hua san market(華山市場). This stand is opened on the first floor. From the early morning, you will find the very long queue for the Soy milk stand. The local people formed a queue like British. This soy milk stand is very famous and popular in Taipei.
The sign of the stand said the stand was established on 1958. The stand has a lot of table sets around the kitchen and the customers can have their foods on them. All things have been kept nice hygiene.
The table of the window side. We had a bowl of Xian dou jiang and Dan bing on that morning. As it was very late morning, the queue is shorter than that of what I read some blog. The Xian dou jiang (鹹豆漿) has very nice balance between sweet and sour. The warm soup were activated our body with the rich and good quality of soy beans protein. The soy source and black vinegar gave the soup nice flavour. I can also find the Chinese soup stock with small shrimp. The topped fried Chinese bread give some accent into the soup.
Xian dou jiang (鹹豆漿)
 
The Dan bing (蛋餅) with chili sauce was well. The texture was a little bit chewing.

You will find the queue to the 1st floor in front of the Shandao Temple underground station.
No. 108, Section 1, Zhongxiao East Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100

25 June 2015

How to visit the Soba-ya (Soba noodle restarurant)

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The dinner in Soba restaurant (Soba-ya) is very chic and looks easy but very difficult to take. A lot of famous Novelist, artists or literature has each style to go to enjoy the Soba noodle restaurant. There are a lot of points of stylish person to visit the Soba-ya

Today I would like write about how to drink and eat at Sobaya.

 

How to enjoy the Soba noodle shop

The best time to visit the Soba-ya is the evening before sunset. At first, some side dishes will be ordered as Japanese omelet or braised canard. You also order Japanese Sake, chilled or warmed. The warmed Sake will be nice in winter season to make your body warm. If you feel cold under the well air-conditioned situation in the summer, you also like to order the warm; it depends on your style. After enjoying the side dishes, the next is the Soba noodle. Noodle with warm soup or chilled soba is basic style. Noodle with plain Dashi soup stock (かけ,かけそば) is served in bowl and Chilled Soba (もり) is served with dipping soy sauce based soup. If you have empty of the Tokkuri (徳利) Sake bottle, you should order additional for your waiting for Soba noodle.

The most important and difficult part in Soba-ya is eating chilled Soba noodle (もり). But it will be just two points. Hold five to ten noodles with your chopsticks and carefully dip into the soy sauce based soup. Then you should care to dip the tip of the noodles hold with chopsticks. The flesh wasabi will be served to enjoy your style. These flavour should be placed on the noodles, not be dipped into the soup. In Japanese, Taguru (たぐる meaning “pull in”) is sometime used to refer “to eat Soba noodle (そばをたべる).”

After pulling in the noodles, the Soba yu (蕎麦湯) which is the hot water used for boiling noodles will be served. Please add the Soba-yu into the soy sauce based soup. The flavour and taste will be matched with Sake.

 

What Soba is

Soba means Soba flour and Soba noodle in Japan. There are a lot of variations by locals or cities. In this article, I write just about the Tokyo Style.

There are several types of Soba noodle in Japan depending on the ratio of the flower and Soba powder. The noodle including 100 percent of the Soba flour (十割そば) called Ju-wari (じゅうわりin Tokyo) or To-wari (とわり).
 
 
served on the sieve もり (also called ざる)
 
Soba noodle in Dashi soup stock
 


Variation of Side dishes

In Soba-ya, they will serve typical dishes as Japanese omelet tasted with Dashi soup stock (だし巻: dashimaki,だし巻卵 -Tamago), Braised canard (鴨焼: Kamoyaki) etc. All dishes show how the quality of the basic soup stock or braise technique is in the restaurant. The soup stock, Soba powder and canard are also ingredient for just one bowl of Soba noodle served in the restaurant. They cook the various dishes from the very limited foodstuffs. The Soup stock, which is most important part of Soba noodle soup, will be used in the Dashimakitamago (Japanese Omelet). The Kamoyaki will be topped on the Soba noodle with Canard.

Japanese omelet(だしまき)
 
 
 
 

23 June 2015

Horaiken, Atsuta, Nagoya(熱田 蓬莱軒 名古屋), Japan

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There are a lot of special foods or dishes in Nagoya. Those are very different from the taste of Tokyo area or Western part of Japan. All food has strong taste in Nagoya.

 
Hitsumabushi (ひつまぶし) is one of the most luxury and famous food in Nagoya. The eels are dip and braised with sweet soy source based source. The chef braised the eels with crispy outside and soft inside of that meat. The eels are decorated on the rice and sweet soy source based source are topped on the eels and rice. The sweet and soy source taste are dripped into the rice. Braised soy source smell is one of the best smell for Japanese to remind the delicious white rice.




How to eat the Hitsumabushi

1. Cut and divide the eels on rice in the bowl into four parts with a rice scoop.

2. Serve one part of Hitsumabushi in a rice bowl

3. 1st, taste the plain style

4. 2nd, taste with condiments, like Wasabi, Nori (seaweed) or semami

5. 3rd, taste with Japanese Dashi soup; pour the Dashi soup stock into Hitsumabushi served in your rive bowl

6. 4th, taste with the style as you like it

 
 
 
I preferred the taste only with Wasabi. The flavour of Wasabi has nicely matched into the Hitsumabushi. The flesh and cool flavour of real Wasabi is lovely. Once the dry flavour and taste of Wasabi was come through nose from mouth, it was also tasted as dry, cool, tangy (I do not like this word for wasabi) and refresh on your tongue.
On your planing to visit, the reservation on the phone call will be difficult. Please directly go to the restaurant and make the reservation as soon as possible, when the shop open on 1130. The staff will tell you about your reserved time. Till the lunch, please take a walk around the Atsuta shrine which is located near the restaurant.
 
Telephone: +81526825598 (Main restaurant)
Web site: http://www.houraiken.com/ (Unfortunately, There is no English website)
There are several sister restaurant in Nagoya.
 
Main restaurant
503 Goudo-cho, Atsuta-ku, Nagoya city
Jungu branch
2-10-26 Jungu, Atsuta-ku, Nagoya city
Matsuzakaya department store branch
10F (GB 9F ) 3-30-8 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya city

20 June 2015

Hotel Okura, main lobby, Tokyo, Japan

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The most modern Japanese and beautiful hotel in Tokyo
 
The main building of Hotel Okura will close on the end of this August. I could capture some picture of  Hotel Okura lobby in one evening.The yellow orange light from the Okura lanterns were beautifully shinning at the modern Japanese lobby. The style will be the Western: sofa and lower table, but the viewpoint were placed on the lower level like sitting on the Tatami room. The okura lanterns which hanged on the lines were the world of Tanizaki's "In Praise of Shadows." If you go to the lobby in midnight, the lower tone of right and silence in the lobby will shown the quiet Japanese garden.



American bar, The Savoy hotel, London, UK

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I hope this bar staff improve technique beyond the history of the hotel.


The American bar in Savoy hotel is one of the famous bars in London. In the evening, a lot of ladies and gentlemen come and sit on a stool at the bar counter to enjoy their glass of cocktail and time. The barman or other staffs seemingly were proud of the occupation in this bar. The orange light was reflected from the brass in the furnishings.


This bar is very famous in the world as published cocktail book named “The Savoy cocktail book” which was the bible of the bartenders. The first book was written by Harry Craddock who was the chef bartender.


I had a glass of Gin with tonic, Rum with soda and gimlet on my visiting. The technique of bartender and presentation of the cocktail were nice, but the taste or flavour was unfortunately not so good. All cocktails are very wet.


The Gin with tonic was not bad. The premium Gin, No.3 gin from BBR had hugely helped the barman’s skill.


The Rum with soda was very bad; just brown liquid with bubble and no smells of the sweetness like caramel from Pusser’s. The long cocktails added some mineral water, soda or tonic water were called “Wari-mono (割りもの)” in Japanese. Some skilful bartenders always tell me the ratio of the liquor and added soda or tonic water. The Balance of the ratio had been broken.


The last one was not worthy of the name of the American bar. The gimlet was very wet and smell of lemon. The balance between bitter, sour and sweetness has lost after shaken. The barman had shown the cutting the ice in front of me. The edge of ice cube was dull to give huge surface area to the ice cube. On using the dull edge ice cube, all cocktail has gotten wet on service and had lost the flavours from liquor or fruits.


The Service of the bar was great. The barman or staffs listened to me; the English was very poor. I hoped this bar will be the sacred place for hard drinkers or bartenders to get a wonderful glass of cocktail.

18 June 2015

The riverside terrace and the bamboo bar, Mandarine Oriental Bangkok, Bangkok [Before renovation]

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I really love to drink a glass of Thaijito on the sunset at this terrace in Thai winter. And I prefer to approach from the riverside using the hotel boat. The winter in Thailand is very comfort and relaxed atmosphere. The climate is hot but very dry and show some cool winds at Bangkok. If you have chance to go to Northern Thailand like Chiang Mai, the cool morning and hot afternoon with comfortable wind will be nice for you vacation.
This Mandarin Oriental Bangkok is the Flagship hotel in the group of Mandarin Oriental hotels. This hotel has the atmosphere of luxury and exotic with sophisticated interior and the kind hotel staffs.
The riverside terrace used to be located next to the Bamboo bar. The Thaijito is made from Thai whisky and Thai herbs (Japanese ginger etc.) The flavour was very lovely and fleshed with a lot of kind of the herbs. The fried Fava beans were served as the side snack of the cocktail. This was also nice.
Some restaurants or Shops are renovated since my last visiting.  The bamboo bar and the souvenir shop were renovated. I hope they can keep the style of the bar.
Please be careful for your dress code on your visiting this hotel. I recommend you to a little dressed up, a jacket for men to escort his lady, to have the luxury service at this hotel.
 

16 June 2015

Taiwan railway Bento(駅弁紀行 台鐡便當), Taiwan

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There are a lot of Taiwan signature dishes or food from the braised shark fin to some sweets at a stand on a street. The Taiwan railway Bento is one of my recommendation foods on your traveling around Taiwan.

The Chu-kuang express at Tainan station
The platform at Tainan station
The Bento is a Japanese word. The people in Taiwan are keeping using this word for the lunch box. The Bento in Taiwan is very different from that of Japanese. Bento is just a word for food in the box on the purpose for ___ in Taiwan. They kept the purpose of Bento. Chinese generally prefer the warm food for their dinning anywhere.

The lunch box of Bento
 
The Taiwan railway Bento is warm paper boxed lunch box. A large piece of pork sparerib sweet soy source and anise flavour was topped on the steamed rice fully packed in the box. Some pickled vegetables are sided on the rice.


You can buy this nostalgic Bento (only for Taiwanese and some Japanese) on the Shinkansen in Taiwan and some express trains as Taroko/Puyuma, Tze-Chiang Limited Express, Chu-Kuang express, Jugaung express or at the railway stations.
The official site of the Taiwan railway company

Taiwan Shinkansen Train
I love the marriage of the high-technology and very local taste on board.

11 June 2015

TANG 四知堂 臺灣, Taipei, Taiwan

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四知堂, Taipei


After sunset, the darkness and cool spring wind had come to the city of Taiwan. On the small street, the orange sodium light had shown us the way to the restaurant. The auto mobile or auto vehicle traffic was few but relaxed local people groups were going through the street. This restaurant is located on the quiet street brighten by the orange light.


When going into the restaurant, the beautiful lady had seen us to show our table. The madam introduced the meal list in frequent Japanese. The other staff can speak English. The tables seem to come from Northern Europe. The atmosphere is very comfortable and home like feeling with slow tempo which is very different from the city of Taipei. The restaurant has very large space for the number of customer. Each table is nicely placed for the customers. Light brown woods based interior and furniture are very modern have beautiful contrast with the dark grey stones or locks in the small garden.

the dinner set placed on the table
 
For our starting.
 
The foods are very nice for Japanese. The tastes of the dishes are low salt, not strong, soft and easy for Japanese. Our first course was braised tofu. It was Chinese taste with sweet and soy source based, but flavour and taste are mild and soft for our nose and tongue.

The second course was steamed fish. This is our favourite food in Taiwanese food. The fish was steamed with soy source, rice wine and some spice. The shape of the fish which have been already steamed was very lovely and has shine on it. The taste was mild sweetness and the flavour and smell were lovely with Shanzai or other spicy vegetables like ginger. This dish has very nice balance between traditional Taiwanese and international Taiwanese as modern and new Taiwanese.
 
steamed fish with sweet potato

The other dishes are also nice. The braised pork and bowl of noodle were based on traditional Chinese taste but show the novel Taiwanese taste and presentation.

Braised pork with lily roots
 
sesami mousse
A staff in this restaurant made the sweets as chef patissiere. This mousse was very lovely. I can only feel the sweetness of black sesami. 
 
This restaurant will be nice restaurant for the Chinese food beginner.

You can make your reservation from this site.
They also keep the blog on their site

10 June 2015

A feature of Japan on your 2015 summer vacation in Japan (夏休み日本特集2015)

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How to spend your summer holiday in Japan

Feel the atmosphere of Japanese tradition and combination with French Kagurazaka


Sasaki in Kagurazaka, Tokyo

the traditional taste and flavour of Japanese summer in Sasaki

The high quality and beautiful technique of the Japanese chef shows the memorable dishes for us. The well selected ingredient show the essence of what the summer in Japan is.

Sasaki


Bar Kakinuma in Kagurazaka, Tokyo
very dry gimlet make you comfortable in hot tropical night at Tokyo
The dry and chilled cocktail will nice to make you comfort in the middle of summer. The Bar of Dukes in London will serve very strong and dry gimlet; as almost all barman cannot call it gimlet. But Mr. Kakinuma will serve so lovely cocktail you will forget the hotness in Japanese summer.

Bar Kakinnuma

Staying Nagasaki, the second city James Bond visited in Japan.

According to the BA highlife magazine published on 2013, there was a feature about Nagasaki. They only spotted on typical sightseeing places on their magazine: Kagetsu (花月 traditional Ryotei in Nagasaki), Hashima (端島 old coal-mining island registered as a world heritage site). I would like to introduce the spots like Nagasaki.
 Chirin-Chirin Ice in Nagasaki
Classical ice cream in the peace city
The summer of Nagasaki is very hot. The wet and strong sunshine made the climate Tropical hotness. The Nagasaki is located South-western area in Japan islands. When you are walking around for your sightseeing, you will not be able to stand the hotness in Nagasaki. Then you will find the ice cream stand somewhere in Nagasaki city centre.
The old woman will decorated this ice cream like rose on the corn. The light yellow like milk colour looks like real ice cream, but it is milk sorbet. The sweet will be melted on your tongue.
I hope you will find the nice skilled ladies to decorate the ice cream on yours.
Ice stand in Nagasaki
 
Kiyokawa in Nagasaki city
Reasonable Hamo course will lovely experience in Nagasaki.
This kappo restaurant will serve seasonal courses of traditional Japanese food. The chef has trained in Nadaman in Akasaka and Kagetsu in Nagasaki, where are very famous Ryotei in Japan, as an Itamae.
The Hamo is very famous as the seasonal signature fish in Japan, especially in Kyoto.
The major fish-landing spots of Hamo are Nagasaki or Kumamoto, west Kyushu. You can enjoy the luxury fish, Hamo by very reasonable price in these cities because these cities are the major harbour Hamo are landing.
Please enjoy Hamo at Nagasaki, except on the season of Gion festival in Kyoto (the most expensive season on the reason all landed Hamo will send to Kyoto).
Kappo serving Hamo in summer season


Unzen Kanko Hotel

The bar of the hotel

This traditional Switzerland hutte style luxury hotel is located in Unzen city. If you will rent a car at Nagasaki airport, you can enjoy your journey to Unzen going through the zigzag mountain road.

The summer in Nagasaki is usually very hot and wet in the city centre. The Unzen area is the highland and has a lot of hot spring spots. You will enjoy the holiday with cool wind and hot spring spa. This hotel has reasonable spa facility in itself.

This mountain area is nice to go hiking. Please contact with the hotel staff to access the mountain area.

9 June 2015

Meisyan, Kagurazaka (梅香, 四川料理, 神楽坂), Tokyo, Japan

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The perfect balance among the flavours and taste in Szechuan dishes

There is small entrance and small dinning space, but warm hospitality and delicious dishes. This small restaurant is located in front of the metro station of Ushigome-Kagurazaka. This area of the Okubo Street is a little bit darker than the other area of the street. The light of the restaurant looks like the oasis in the desert. The interior was very simple like the local restaurants in the Taipei city centre.

The staff of this restaurant are two ladies and sisters. They serve the courses with their great chemistry coming from the relation of sisters. The menu list show they have deep insight in also the wine.

On my visiting, I ordered hors d'oeuvres, Mapo doufu (Sichuan dish of tofu and minced meat) and Tan tan men (Szechuan dish of noodles covered with a sauce of sesame paste and chili oil). As the hors d’oeuvres, they served firefly squid pickled with shaoxingjiu (紹興酒), beef reticulum and steamed chicken with chili oil (口水鶏).
口水鶏

夫妻肺片
 
Each course has the wonderful taste and flavour. In the hors d’oeuvres, I can have one pint of lager beer with this dish. The firefly squid has the essence of the shaoxingjiu. Once I bitted a squid, with filling my mouth with the sweet taste and flavour of this liquor. The steamed chicken was lovely. The balance of the sauce among the chili miso paste and chili sesame oil was wonderful.

The Mapo doufu (麻婆豆腐) is the best dish on my experience. The flower of Japanese pepper was significantly flavoured and tasted on this dish, but the chef was able to control the balance of the each element. This dish has a power of exhalation in our body, the Japanese pepper has also effect to warm stomach.

The tan tan men without soup was the last course. The texture and flavour of pine nuts was nicely matched with the sauce and noodle.

The half size of tan tan men
 


6 June 2015

Miya Kishimen, Atsuta shirine(宮きしめん,熱田神宮), Nagoya

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Miya Kishimen, Atsuta shrine, Nagoya

That was the sunny spring day and I can feel the sunshine like summer. In the Atsuta Shrine, there are huge precincts and three Torii. On walking through the precincts, I found noodle stalls. The name of stall was Miya Kishimen.

Kishimen Stall
 
Kishimen is one of the soul food for people in Nagoya. The noodle looks like wide width Udon. The dough of the noodle is made from wheat, salt and water like Udon. The texture was very soft. We can find this type of noodle only in Nagoya area (Mikawa and Owari area).

Miya Kishimen(jpy650)
 
Normal wheat noodle in Japan is Udon. Udon in Japan has huge variation town by town. The noodle was served with some soup stock. The soup stock was also various in all over the Japan. The famous ones were Sanuki in Kagawa prefecture, Hiyajiru in Saitama, Hakata in Fukuoka or Inaniwa in Akita. Goro Udon from Goto islands in Nagasaki prefecture were hand pulling, strong texture, coat with camellia oil and very narrow width.
Torii of Atsuta Shrine


Kagura (Shinto Music and dance) on the 1st May

The main building of Atsuta Shrine

4 June 2015

Myon ga, Okubo (名家, 大久保) Tokyo, Japan

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The most delicious Ganjang gejang (간장게장) in Tokyo

 
The lady chef, the Korean calls her Omoni with their familiarity, was quiet but has a backbone. She was very helpful and able to speak Japanese very frequently. She served various Korean foods from small kitchen and each food was better than that of Seoul. She came to Japan 30 years ago from Chuncheon city, Gangwon dong.

There are two major Korean town areas in Tokyo, Okubo and Ueno and several Korean communities in the Metropolitan Tokyo. The Korean people historically came to Japan on several phases, after Annexation, during Korean War and after 1980s. After Japan-Korea Annexation, Japan merged the Korean peninsula to the Japan territory and a lot of Korean people voluntarily crossed the Tsushima Strait to get the better life, job and income in Japan main islands. They have got job in the dockyard or coal mine in Kyusyu. They were still staying Japan under US military administration in Japan main islands and Korean peninsula after World War II. During Korean War, the Korean peninsula had chaos and people left the peninsula to escape the War. The third generation has come to Japan with some democratic reason or commercial purpose. The Ueno area was one of the oldest commercial Korean town in Tokyo, formed after Annexation. The Okubo area was formed by new generation who have come to Japan after 1980s.

This restaurant was located on the end of the city centre of Okubo Korean town. Once, I have gone down the stairs to enter the restaurant. The interior of restaurant was simple and had no decoration to make me so familiar with them. The simple furniture and nice old women had made very lovely and quiet atmosphere in the chaotic Korean town.

 
 
The service was heart full and each dishes satisfied me. The Ganjang gejang was the very nice season on my visiting. The flesh meat of crab was very nice and fitted with the soy-source taste and pickled for several days. The texture and taste were very nice. The chef has cooked raw and fresh crab for the Ganjang gejang from the Tsukiji seafood market. She recommended the customer should come in early crab season, end of April to May, because the crab is most delicious season with the eggs and rich with meat.
Ganjang gejang

The Seafood Buchimgae (Korean pancake) was also nice. The spicy chili source was simple but essential of the Korean food. I have enjoyed the crispy cake and good texture of the seafood.
Seafood Bushingae

In the daytime, the area Korean origin people live is not so clean as the other area Japanese live. A lot of dusts were spread on the street and a lot of people who feel bored in the world were sitting around. The darkness of the evening had covered the all thing the Japanese do not like. And the bright K-pop shop white light kept cheap pomp on the street. I hope the residents in Okubo love their town and clean up the street. The general Japanese will fell it is easy to visit Korean towm.

3 June 2015

A feature of Soy milk stands in Taipei

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One of the most delicious breakfast in the world



Taiwanese people start the day with Soy milk as their breakfast.


The polished stainless steel kitchen made Japanese tourist feel safe and clean in the Soy milk stands. Japanese tourist will find the similarity to the tofu factory in their home town, where the old man and woman made and sold their original tofu from their own recipe.

The history of Taiwan

The island of Taiwan was very beautiful known as Fermosa in Portuguese. The strong and wet green on the mountains or old red brown brick buildings contain real figure of Chinese culture, customs and characters. Taiwanese keep the traditional Chinese character and come from all over the province of mainland China in their original roots. They also have the essence of national treasures from the Hu-chin palace in Beijing in the National Palace museum in Taipei. On the Mainlander destroy the culture and beautiful historical spots in Mainland after 1949 revolution, great culture revolution on 1960 to 1970s and  Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Taiwanese has been keeping the essence and passion of the real Chinese cultures.
On the other hand, elder Taiwanese people has "lit pun tsian sin (日本精神)"; Nowaday, Taiwan Tsian sin. They have kindness, real patriotism for their country nature and family, hospitality and voluntary.
Japanese people respect the historical and old Chinese culture so long time, expect the Chinese communist party era which the Mainlander lost their origin of culture, nature and agriculture after 1949. We should not confuse the beauty of the long history in China in the monsters has the shortest history in the world for just 65 years. The communist party is not able to became the follower of the tough Chinese culture or history.
The Taiwanese will be the only successor of the Chinese cultures.

The origin of Soy Milk was Mainland?

The soy milk breakfast has come from Mainland of China after World War II. A lot of people who have various origin or roots has come from Mainland when the Chinese Nationalist Party Government has come to Taiwan. They brought some variation of the soy milk products. The soy milk stand has some difference in the taste, flavour or products by street or community. I think, the tastes or flavours might depend on the community in Taipei. There were a lot of variation in the soy milk taste, source, vinegar or salt by the stands. Some stands have long history for 60 years  to keep the taste or flavour of themselves.

The custom of the breakfast were also kept in Taipei. A lot of people make a queue to eat their breakfast from early morning. In some stands, the staff automatically, hand some customers some type of soy milk products which was customised for him or her. The soy milk stands is the necessary place for Taiwanese people of daily life. 


Soy milk stands in Taipei

In this blog, I had several articles about the Soy milk stand in Taipei.

Jiang Ji Dong Men Douhua/Tofu, Dong Men soy milk stand, Dong Men Market(江記東門豆花), Taipei, Taiwan
http://edst23.blogspot.jp/2015/11/jiang-ji-dong-men-douhua-dong-men.html
Fu Hang Dou Jiang, Zhongzheng qu, Taipei (阜杭豆漿 台北), Taiwan
http://edst23.blogspot.jp/2015/06/fu-hang-dou-jiang-zhongzheng-qu-taipei.html
Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (永和豆漿大王 民生東路 中正 台北), Taipei, Taiwan
http://edst23.blogspot.jp/2015/12/yong-he-dou-jiang-da-wang-taipei-taiwan.html

1 June 2015

Enoteca Laura, Kagurazaka (エノテカ ラウラ 神楽坂), Tokyo

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The Italian but very Japanese flavour dishes.

This Italian bistro is located near the shrine Akagi in upper Kagurazaka. They have just eight tables in the hall. The friendly three staffs will welcome you.
They cook the dishes from Japanese food. The seafood were come from Noto, Ishikawa and the meat, they served jibies(wild game) in winter season, were come from all over Japan. The canal was come from Kagoshima, the dear was come from Hokkaido and the beef was come from Iwate. The vegetable were  come from Kamakura. The dishes were served with Japanese seasonal ingredients.
The entrance
The seasonal salad of the early summer

The Pasta and risotto are also nice. The rice keep a little bit hard in rice core. The sauce was wonderful with the essence of shrimp.The shell of shrimp was grilled till given crispy. The flavour, sweetness and texture of the shrimp will be satisfied with your sense.

They present the a la carte on the black board in Japanese.  But the floor staff may be able to speak in intermediate Italian. He will coordinate the course for you(Usually Japanese like to share and change the course on the table.)
In the early summer season, the fish named Isaki or striped pigfish was lovely. Some chef called this kind of fish as the black fish. The skin of Isaki is black. The flavour was very nice like Islay malt smokiness and seashore smell. The meat was very sweet and juicy. The grilled Isaki with sea salt and Somen noodle (vermicelli) were a common feature of my family in the early summer time in my childhood.

Grilled Isaki
They will serve so delicate Italian dishes as the real Japanese traditional dishes with well selected Italian wine. One of the best Italian in Tokyo as Attore Ginza.

Enoteca Laura
3-7 Akagi Motomachi Shinjuku-ku Tokyo, Japan
+81-3-6265-3545
Tuesday to Sunday
lunch and dinner

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