Shin-Maruko

My first time here and I was pleasantly surprised by the nice shopping street outside the station and that they have quote a variety of restaurants there.

Lunch at Punjabi Dhaba.

This shop totally deserves its high ratings on Google Map because the biryani and chicken that we ordered were super delicious.

Very happy to be able to enjoy such a yummy biryani.

After that, we walked to the Hydrangea Garden (アジサイ園) which was just across the Tamagawa River.

As the name of the park suggests, it is full of hydrangeas.

There weren't many people when we were there so we go to really enjoy the space.

The park area seems to spread out pretty wide as after this hydrangea garden, there is a lot more park space. However, we were too tired to explore.

So we left, and head to SW's house to visit her. And she nicely made us some egg tarts!

For dinner, we went to SCHMATZ Musashi Kosugi (シュマッツ・ビア・ダイニング武蔵小杉).

We initially wanted to try another restaurant but because of the pandemic, restaurants are closing earlier than usual. We couldn't wait and queue for the restaurant even if we wanted to. So, we just went into a place that could take us during that time.

We weren't drinking, but we enjoyed beer food.

Luckily, the food here is very nice despite the small portions.

Anyways, I am happy to be eating German sausages and food, as it has been quite some time since I had them.

 

Malaysian food in Tokyo

Met up with some friends to visit Malayhuko for lunch.

Thanks SW for the invitation as I did not know that there was a place where we can order whatever food we want to eat.

There were 6 of us and we ordered 5 dishes.

First is this big plate of roast duck which was delicious!

Then we had this claypot tofu.

Prawn curry, which went super well with rice. Actually, all of the dishes that we had ordered went really well with rice.

This chicken rendang here was also very yummy. 

The prawn curry and chicken rendang are my top 2 dishes of the day.

We also have this preserved veg and pork which I have not tasted in a long time. As there was so much food, each of us packed some back home to dinner that day. 

After that, we went to get some desserts and I ordered this set that came with 3 different desserts and tea.

Over the next few day, my furusato nozei order for cherries arrived.

Very happy with this a the cherries were sweet and delicious. I think I will repeat this again next time.

 

First time Fishing!

I went fishing with my colleagues at Yokosuka one weekend.

First time fishing, and we were fishing from a boat! The tools were already set up for us when we boarded. There is the fish food/ paste that we need to put into a cage to shake later on to attract the fishes and there was also cut squid to be added to the fishing hooks to bait the fish.

I know nothing but luckily, the colleague who suggested this came recently with her dad and taught me how to do it. Amongst the 5 of us who were there only 2 had fishing experience. Apparently, weu need to drop the cage filled with fish food to the sea bed and then start bringing it up bit by bit while shaking the rod so that the food gets released from the cage to attract the fish and then they will eventually take the bait on your hook. You can feel a slight pull when the fish has taken the bait. That is when you start to bring back your fishing line to check if you've caught a fish.

For the first hour, I was feeling sea sick even though we all took pills to help prevent sea sick. Plus I was having a really hard time figuring out where the fishes are from the sea bed. To add on to that, my fishing line kept getting tangled with the others around me, so I had to continuously buy new hooks for my fishing line.

But luckily, I did eventually figure how to do it and caught some fishes. Here is a picture of me with my first catch of the day. My very first Aji. This method of fishing here is mainly for Aji fish. Apparently, the fish swims at about a certain height from the sea bed so with this method, we were able to catch Aji. Some experts will focus on a different level and manage to catch some other fishes.

Once I got the hang out it, I want to keep catching more, especially since we were separated into 2 groups to see who can catch more. Look at the amount that I caught. While I did catch them, my colleague helped to remove the majority of them from my hook because I was having a really hard time trying to remove the fishes from the fishing hook.

Also, sometimes the slip and start jumping around the boat. Plus they are slippery so it is hard to catch them to throw them back into the pail.

The captain of the boat was also nice enough to gift me 2 saba fish that he had caught! 

In total, I think I caught about 15-17 fishes. Not too bad for a first timer I think.

I don't think I would've been able to do this without the help of my colleagues because it is not just catching them. You also need to remove their gills and clean the fishes before bringing them home. I was not able to help out at all with that part. I have never handled a live fish in my life.

Here is the cleaned fish that we will bring back to my colleague's home to cook. There is actually 2 cooler boxes filled with fish. The other one, my colleague planned to bring home to share with his family.

After drying ourselves, we went to Kaneyo Art Café (かねよ食堂) for lunch before driving back to my colleague's home.

There the 2 boys started to remove the gut and scales of the fishes, while I dried and packed them in cling wrap. 2 of my other colleague went to return the car to the rental car shop.

After cleaning the fishes, the boys were super tired and went to nap while the girls continued prepping the food while chit chatting.

After that, we all got together to prepare this feast here for dinner.

As you can see, we had Aji in sashimi, tataki, fried version and even grilled saba. After that we separated the remaining fishes amongst ourselves and brought them home. I was super happy with the outcome of that day's catch as I had fish at home for the next few days.

 

From pasta to bah kut teh

We went to Kamakura Pasta, near Oimachi station for lunch with friends.

It has been years since I went to Kamakura pasta.

We all ordered the all you can eat bread option with our pasta. I like that they serve the bread hot and that they bring it right to our tables.

As we were 5 adults with 2 kids, we ordered 6 pastas. Here are pictures of what we had ordered.

I do not like carbonara at family restaurants because the sauce us heavy on the cream. 

One thing that I do like, is the option to choose fresh pasta for the extra chewy texture.

I ordered this uni which was yummy. But somehow I am more excited about the bread than the pasta. Lol

After that we walked around the area to try to burn off some calories before dinner.

We arrived at this playground where I&A played to their hearts content.

After that, we headed back to T&I's home to make some you tiao for dinner to go with the bah kut teh that Tony has cooked.

Not bad for our first try.

While it is not as airy as the professionals and it is thicker in general, I am just very happy to have some to go with the bah kut teh.

Group picture!

JJ made us a yummy fruit dessert and I brought a chocolate cake.

Thank you T&I for inviting us over for dinner! ;D

 

Garden Lounge, Hotel New Otani - Super Sweets Buffet

Having watched several videos on this dessert buffet on youtube and on instagram, I had really wanted to come and try it for myself.

We came to the Garden Lounge of Hotel New Otani for their expensive super sweets buffet （スーパースイーツビュッフェ）, which costs 7,700 JPY/ pax, as a form of celebration.

This hotel has a cafe called Patisserie SATSUKI (パティスリー SATSUKI), which specializes in fruit short cake. And at this buffet, you get to try the mini versions of it.

While it is a desserts buffet, you do get savoury items, such as various finger sandwiches, pasta, curry, etc.

Look at the amount of food on our table!

Super happy to finally be here!

I like that not only their cakes are yummy, but the savoury dishes are all very good too. Here I have the eggs benedict, burger, beef stew and a cheesy baked dish.

While I wanted to eat more of their hot savoury dishes, I held back because I wanted to eat more of the Pierre Herme collaboration dessert, which is this rectangular cake here. This is really good, I especially like the biscuit base! Maybe because I prefer cakes with a biscuit base, I liked this more than the short cakes.

As much as I tried to stay away from rice or pasta, I couldn't help it but ordered this curry rice. As you can see, there are both red and green curry here. I saw online that you can ask them to put 2 curries on the same plate and I did that. I also knew from reviews that the curry is very delicious. Hence, I went to order a plate too and true to the reviews that I saw, the curries were very delicious!

After the super sweets buffet, we were both super full and needed to walk around to burn some of the calories from the sugar.

We walked around the garden in the hotel and found some really nice hydrangeas.

There was nice little Japanese garden like area and the new green colour of the new leaves makes the area a nice photo spot.

Here is a view of the fancy hotel in the background.

As we explored around the hotel, we found a place that is probably for holding weddings too.

The lighting there was really nice for photos.

This buffet was really expensive, but I am glad that I came because after watching all the videos about it online, I kept thinking about it. Now that I have been here, it is like one of those "been there/ done that" kinda moment. So now, I do not have to keep wondering about how the food is like in my head as I already know. And I most likely would not return because it is very expensive.

As I get older, I cannot eat as much. So buffets are really not worth the money for me. I tried to compare the amount of food that I ate to the amount of food that a youtuber that I watched ate when she visited. I did not even eat half the amount that she ate.