Mish's Bday at Cova

For Mish's bday, I treated her to Cova for lunch. Lol, we were supposed to go in Oct but we couldn't match our time....so we went in Nov instead. 

This chicken dish here is probably like one of the fixed appetisers as we've had this several times now.

My fish appetiser was yummy and Mish's meat appetiser was good too.

The Bday girl~

We always enjoy a good meal here~

We both had the mushroom pasta which was super creamy and delicious~! Their nama pasta is really good. The noodles aldente and super flavourful.

Next, I had the pork main dish which came with a super yummy sweet potato.

Meanwhile, Mish had the fish main.

Lastly for desserts, it was gateau chocolate with vanilla ice cream.

To end the meal, they always provide us with 2 little dessert treats to go with our tea~

This place has become so popular lately that it's hard to dine here without a reservation.

Various eats with Amanda

Amanda came to stay with me for a few days on the last few days of her trip and we went to various placed for food together.

We went for 1000 yen sushi lunch which was always yummy. Of course, this cannot be compared to the 6000 yen one, but still really good!

We also went to Katsuya and had some katsu over rice, together wth some fried ebi~ Cheap and yummy dinner!

We also went to Chanoma at akarenga, where you get to dine on beds. Lol~ not sure why I didn't take a picture of anything else except the bread, which was all you can eat. While I find the concept of being able to dine on a bed interesting, it's really not comfortable as you can't sit or lie on it anyway you want. There are rules and you need to follow them. Also, it's a real hassle of having to take your shoes off and wear them again every time you want more bread. It's great if you have a small child or baby and want more space for them.

Tsukiji Shutoku Honten 築地秀徳 本店

Amanda and David were here for a dance event and we managed to catch up. 

I brought them for an omakase sushi experience at Tsukiji Shutoku Honten.

We met up early and walked around Tsukiji a bit for some street food before deciding to for this actually. 

We opted for the 6000yen course and got a nice seat near the left end on the counter. 

The sushi master was really nice as he explained where each piece was from and during which season, they're the best!

He was also nice enough to try explain things in english to Amanda and David. Just a little....but we really appreciated the effort.

I really like the fact that they use this special flaky salt from France to enhance the flavour of the of the seafood. I feel like it really brings out the umami flavour.

Another interesting thing about this shop is that they don't just use the usual white vinegar to flavour their sushi rice, they use red vinegar. Hence, their rice is slightly brown in colour.

And how they keep the rice at room temperature is to put a bag of slightly warm water over it.

This omakase experience is a must try in Japan.

While you do not get to pick what fish you want, you get to try fish that you normally wouldn't.

Office lunches

My second subway in Japan after so many years.

Lol~ I always don't pass by subway and whenever I pass by one when I'm out on the weekends, I'm always already full.

One day, I just decided to walk to one about 10 mins away from my office. And I was surprised by the number of foreigners there. heehee~

The thing I found interesting about the subway in Japan is the chips served here. It's basically fried pieces of potatoes! Lol, and when I asked for a cheese topping, it was literally a spoon of cheese powder!!! Not a fan of this, definitely wouldn't get this again.

This is my favourite bento ever from the supermarket near my office. It's a chinese style bento and I like chinese bento because they come with vegetables. I usually get this kind of bento with a few side dishes and I will try to get one with the ebi mayo, veg and chicken.

Mary's Cafe

Stopped by Kitte building for some desserts and we realised that there happened to be a HK pavillion going on there. And look at the crazy queue outside the pavillion! We initially wanted to drop by but that line was just too crazy, we decided to just go for desserts.

We decided to grab desserts at Mary's Cafe because their menu looked great!

I like that they served a good range of chocolate drinks and desserts~

We ordered an ice blended chocolate and a hot orange chocolate. 

The ice blended one was super flavourful that I couldn't stop, it tasted like a super rich ice cream. The orange one was good too if you enjoy citrus flavour.

We ordered the vanilla creme brulee which was super pretty! This is probably one of the prettiest creme brulee that I had. I really like the berry ice cream and nuts that were topped on the creme brulee.

The second desert that we had was the chocolate milli feuille which I felt was just ok. The best part was the chocolate milli feuille, which was layered with chocolate mousse.

I will definitely be back again for more chocolate desserts.

Lunch at Kakoiya (かこいや)

When we went to Marunouchi on that day, we came across a kind of yosakoi festival in the area.

We went for lunch at Kakoiya (かこいや).

We both ordered their lunch sets.

J had the beef rice set which came with an onsen tamago and miso soup. The beef was yummy and I feel like the onsen tamago adds a nice accent to the dish.

I had the temdon and soba set. I like that the soba was served was hot and that the tsuyu was not too salty. The tendon was yummy and it was nice that they gave the sauce separately so that you can control the flavour.

Afuri Ramen

For tea break, we stopped by Moriva cafe as I really wanted to try their autumn pumpkin selections.

We tried their pumkin tart which was delicious~ We also had the chicken and pumpkin sandwich which was super delicious~!!! Highly recommend this and will go back when they have this on their menu again.

For dinner, we went to Afuri ramen at Yokohama Joinus. The queue here is not that bad as it's not too long and moves quickly.

I always enjoy the ramen here as the flavours are good and it's always refreshing to have the yuzu citrus flavour

We also ordered some extra braised pork and mizuna to add on to our ramen.

This kakuni is not normally a topping for the ramen but it was a nice add on as it was braised really well.

Yokohama Chinatown street food

One day we decided to visit the Chinatown in Yokohama for the street food there.

J tried the Peking duck which he said was pretty good. Best part of all there is no queue.

This char siew sou is my favourite item that we had the entire day. The pie pastry is flaky and goes well with the bbq pork inside.

We also tried xiao long bao from one of the stalls with a long queue outside. I felt that it was just ok. I would rather go to Din Tai Fung anytime over this.

From another stall with probably the longest queue there, we ordered steamed pork buns and some pan fried buns.

While the queue was the longest, the food was horrible. The steamed bun had a thick doughy skin and the meat in the middle wasn't even yummy. I couldn't even eat another bite after the first. As for the pan fried ones, they all had different fillings, so I took a bite from each and that was it. Lesson of the day don't trust the queues.

Then lastly, we had a harumaki which was not bad, but I feel like the one from 7-11 tasted better and costs cheaper too.