和カフェ Tsumugi, Isetan Yokohama

Dinner time at 和カフェ Tsumugi FOOD＆TIME ISETAN YOKOHAMA店. 

Website: https://www.cafe-tsumugi.jp/menu/

As this place specializes in tea too, we each ordered a hot and cold tea from their time limited menu. I cannot remember what tea these were at the time of writing but they were good. For the hot tea, when you are around halfway there, you can request for a refill.

J ordered the beef ochazuke which came with a variety of condiments. This is definitely a fancy ochazuke.

Meanwhile, I had the green tea pasta in cream sauce and seafood. This is soooooo good.

This place was where I first discovered yuzu tobasco sauce and fell in love with it. When you order their pasta, they serve it with yuzu tobasco to spice things up. 

After the first time, I bought a bottle to keep in my fridge to spice up pasta, salads or just meat dishes in general. 

Lunch with colleagues

These were from 2 separate lunches with my colleagues.

This here was when I went for lunch with a colleague of mine at Outback steak house. We both ordered the lunch set that came with beef steak and grilled ribs. This was definitely a heavy lunch on a weekday as the rice served was buttered rice too. Every thing was delicious and I am reminded that once in a while it is ok to splurge a bit on lunch at work too to reward ourselves for the hard work that we have put in. 😊

This here was from a weekend lunch date with my colleagues & ex-colleague at Ottimo · Seafood Garden (オッティモ・シーフード・ガーデン 新宿店) in Shinjuku.

Website: https://ottimo-seafoodgarden-shinjuku.com/course

We got the Chef's course for 2,700yen. It came with a appetizer plate of 3 kinds of appetizers, followed by a pasta of your choice, meat plate of choice and dessert.

Overall, the food was ok, I still prefer Cova's food. The overall environment and feel of the place is nice, which is probably why it is a popular spot for young adults.

 

Cova Italian

Back at Cova Italian again after a long time.

Website: https://osteria-cova.shopinfo.jp/

This time, I revisited with Mish and SW.

We always go for the course lunch at 3,500 yen.

For my dishes, I had chosen this sardine wrapped in crepe dish which was yummy. 

Then for pasta, I had this squash carbonara which was the bomb. Their fettucine is hand made and their carbonara sauce is rich and flavorful. I always go for their fettucine carbonara! 

And for my choice of meat, it was grilled pork. It was delicious and food for me too, to help with the tiredness from working. Saw this on TV before, that having pork can help with tiredness. Lol.

And lastly, dessert! I am always excited to have dessert here because I never know what to expect, but every time it is amazing! I always wish that they will serve it ala carte so that I can order another plate of it when I want to.

One more wefie, as we enjoy our tea with caramel and canelé. This is the only place whose canelé, I actually enjoy.

Once again, this will not be the last as I will continue to revisit again and again.

Meals between house hunting

After 2 not so good meetings with different housing agents, we booked a 3rd meeting with a new agent.

Before our meeting, we had Hamasushi. After our meeting with the agent and several hours of trying to find an apartment later, we grabbed dinner at Sushi Ro.

You'd think that after having sushi for lunch, I'd pick other food but no, I still chose sushi.

On another day, I decided to go furniture hunting and we ended up in Ikea.

Of course, we need to grab food there as food is always part of the reason why we go to Ikea.

This is the first time I saw lasagna there and had to try it. It was delicious! I wish that I could easily get it anywhere. I was also very happy to have the Daim cake after a long time.

After shopping around, we left and grabbed dinner at Bamiyan which is a franchise that serves Chinese food in Japan for cheap and reasonable prices.

I have only been to this place 3 times and the depending on what you order, the food can be a hit or a miss. We had the ramen which was not bad and this other side dish of stir fried egg and pork which was too salty to my taste. Also, I had never tried this dish before, so it was interesting and gave me and idea of what I can cook at home too.

 

Asian food cravings

More Asian food cravings. This time I decided to go for Indian food. 

Went to this Indian restaurant neat the station. I had been passing by this place for months and had been interested to try their food.

We tried their chicken briyani and naan set. 

The chicken briyani was mild in taste, I really wished that it was spicier. Meanwhile, the naan was really nice. Overall, the ambience is nice and the food is good. But Mumbai Kitchen is still my favourite place to go for Indian food in Japan.

After shopping around, we stopped by Starbucks to rest and also to continue our apartment hunt on our phones.

Tried their limited edition cake for the season. I can't remember what it was called but it was delicious!

I like this Starbucks because the seats are far apart and you get a pretty spacious space compared to some other branches.

Before heading home, I grabbed some Korean food at the food court. It was interesting to see my food packed in a box, because food courts usually serve food on proper plates or bowl. However, I do like it because it was easy to pack food home and since it was paper, I don't have to worry about extra plastic waste.

 

That night, my furusato nozei delivery of muscat grapes arrived! Super happy to have received 3 bunches, but this will also be the last time I'll get muscats again. This is because I realised that due to the high sugar content in them, it messed by my gut micribial ecosystem, which cause diarrhoea every time I have them. But this happened because I took them after every lunch and dinner. Probably not good to over indulge in them, even though they are the best grapes ever in my opinion.

 

Cravings for SEA flavours

For weeks, I had strong cravings for SEA flavours. Probably because of the pandemic and the thought of not being able to go back home anytime soon had all these cravings kicking in.

One weekend, we had chicken rice for dinner at a shop called 海南鶏飯食堂. The shop even included this cute little slip that teaches you how to enjoy chicken rice, which is good for those who have never tried it before. They might be wondering what each of the sauces are for.

The thing with having chicken rice in Japan is, don't expect that there will be options of roast or steam chicken. No, there is no taugeh too. The is no such thing as extra fried ginger paste too.

This steamed chicken breast here is the standard. 😂

On another weekend, I was still having these cravings, so we went to the noodle bar at BETELNUT THAI VIETNAMESE DIMSUM that serves various SEA noodles for dinner.

Website: https://www.huge.co.jp/restaurant/modern-asian/betelnut

It is nice to see chilli available on the table.

We were served this pickled lemon grass, which was interesting because I have never tried something like this before.

We ordered this steamed pork ribs in black bean sauce, but it turned out to be this unappetizing looking thing. hahahhaa, completely different to the usual steamed pork ribs in black bean sauce that I am used to back home.

I guess I shouldn't complain and be happy that there was something that is slightly similar to it.

This here is the Malaysian dried pan mee. This was also different from the usual dried pan mee that we are used to but the flavours are not too bad if you do not expect it to be a typical chilli pan mee, if you know what I mean.

This here is the Singapore laksa, but to me this is not laksa but feels like prawn mee instead. This is because while the description states that it is a prawn and santan broth, the santan is very mild and the prawn flavour is strong. I am no complaining because I love prawn mee. So when I crave for prawn mee, I'll come and order this 'laksa' here.

For desserts, we packed some goodies from Startbucks Roastery. I love their tarts. Can't help but order one whenever I visit. There 2 chocolate tart and berries tart are delicious. I had them a few times now and I believe that they will continue to stay on my go to list.

 

Apartment hunting #1

As the apartment that we had been living in was having some mold problem in the closet due to a problem with the water proofing of the wall on the closet side, we had decided to search for a new apartment. 

The mold was a problem that we had for several months, but we did not know that the wall's waterproofing had a problem. The first time I found mold was in winter and I thought that it was from the moisture that had built up in a room that had the hot conditioner turned on. I cleaned it and discovered it again a few months later. Cleaned it once more and decided to monitor it.

It came back.

Also in that few months, we noticed some spots on the bedroom floor that could not be removed no matter how we tried. So we called the landlord. He came immediately on the same day and said that he will get the contractors to come.

They came 1-1.5 months later and said that the wall needs to be waterproofed because every time when it rains, water seeps into the wall and into the apartment.

We waited for about 3 months for them to come fix it but there was no news and we decided to move because it was not healthy to be living in a room with mold.

***

 On the weekend, we had lunch at Ippudo because we wanted to check out the nearby area at the station nearby as we were apartment hunting. We wanted to see how the route to the station is like and also how noisy the area would be being close.

Ippudo is always nice because I like their flavourful tonkotsu soup base and the thin noodles. 

I also like that they provide a small plate of spicy bean sprouts as condiment to the ramen.

We spotted a few areas near the station that seemed like a good spot but unfortunately, they were not when we examine the area in person. 

1. The area behind the station was within 10 mins walk but the area was hilly and prone to floods. Also, there is not proper walkways, so humans walk on the same paths as the cars which is dangerous at night and when it rains. Also, because of the hills, which were pretty steep, it would be hard to walk to work in heels.

2. The area to the right of the station was also within 10 mins, but there was no straight path to the station due to the train tracks. We had to cross a very tall and long pedestrian bridge, which is next to a popular highway. While the apartment building looks pretty and new on the outside, it was facing the tracks. Also, the apartment that was available for rent, was at the same height as the track where the shinkansen would pass, so I assume that it would be very noisy.

As there was no supermarket along the way, the only place to get groceries would be at the station. Not very convenient.

Also, interestingly. on the way there, we had to pass by several love hotels.

The next day, we stopped by Asobuild, on our way to meet the agent.

We went there for ramen at 横濱丿貫.

J had the nigoshi, which was good. A flavour that we had a few times now.

Meanwhile, I had the green chilli version, which I assumed would not be spicy but I was sooo wrong. This has to be one of the spiciest dish I had in Japan!

Asobuild is interesting, here are many restaurants there that were all busy. There also seems to some area for workshops and exhibitions. It feels like a place that is popular with the younger crowd.

Anyways, the agent that we went to was a total fail. They probably never had experience with foreigners before. He introduced us several apartments based on our requirements and I asked him if they allow foreigners and to check with the owners. So he called the owners to check and all of them answered that they do not accept foreigners. He felt nervous and told us that, 'Japanese are not racists'. 

I told him that I am used to it, as I have been through this process before and smiled.

Other foreigners who live in Japan will understand the struggle of trying to rent an apartment in Japan.

In the end, we ended the discussion and we felt like they probably might not have a apartment that would accept foreigners because the agent did not seem to know that he will need to check with the owners first or that there are 'foreigners ok' apartment.

***

Ending the post with some random makan from a busy month of work and apartment hunting.

This here is where I stopped by for lunch one day before a meeting with a client. The place specializes in soba and as with most soba places, they are popular with senior citizens. I was surprised that the restaurant that was located in a shopping mall was so packed at lunch with senior citizens.

I ordered this soba with egg for 1000yen which to me, is a premium price to pay for a simple soba.

On the way home after work that day, I bought these donuts from Krispy Kreme because I had been craving for some donut and they happened to have some interesting refreshing lemon flavours, All were delicious but I was slightly disappointed with the chocolate ones because I thought that the toppings would be crunchy, but they were soft.