Tokyo, Hiroshima and Osaka scenery shots

There were quite a few posts from my last trip to Tokyo that I forgot to blog about, hence the spurts of various Tokyo posts in between the Melbourne food posts. It took ages to sort through the photos, and I'm not even sure I have the best shots here, but for what it's worth, these photos are among my favourites taken during my trip.

Happo-En gardens near Shirokane - a beautiful scenic place to have tea and walk among the landscaped garden (http://www.happo-en.com/english/)

View of the city from Hamarikyu Gardens (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3025.html), near Tsukiji Market. Well worth the 300Y entrance fee which came with a free headset, telling stories about how the shogun would have used the different buildings and spaces within the grounds

Miyajima Island, a 1hr tram ride and ferry ride off the cost of Hiroshima

Miyajima's famous torii gate at low tide

The Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima

Night scene at Osaka with the famous Glico running man sign

Dotonbori with the famous Kani Doraku sign

Osaka Castle

View from Mt Takao, one hour west of Tokyo

At the summit of Mt Takao

Beautiful pre-autumn colours

Gardens at Ukai Chikutei at Mount Takao - detailed post on the food coming right up next.

Pacific House - Best Roast Duck in Melbourne

The best roast duck to be had in Melbourne, in my opinion, comes from Pacific House. There's nothing quite as comforting as a warm hot steaming bowl of rice drizzled with the soy drippings from the duck, coupled with the crispy skin and tender duck meat. We headed there on average about once every 1-2 weeks for meals that made us really happy - it's the closest thing to comfort food I can imagine in Melbourne. This duck was from the Richmond outlet - somehow it looks nicer when it's slightly more red.

 Having the chilli oil makes it even more shiok - I could eat this with rice alone.

 

Their diced chicken with tofu and salted fish is pretty tasty too, and is amazing with rice.

The veggies with tofu skin wasn't terribly exciting, but it was functional.

Another round of duck at the South Yarra outlet-  I dare say that even though it tasted almost similar to the Richmond outlet, somehow the one from Richmond makes me a bit happier. Maybe it's the reddish tinge.

We had a feast at South Yarra though, stuffing ourselves silly.

We even ordered the chicken ribs with salted egg - gloriously hot and crispy with each chicken piece coated with salted egg flavour.

Another look close up

The salt and pepper seafood is pretty good too. We usually order the jiu yim you yu - or squid, but decided to try the prawns on a recent visit.

The standout dish has to be the mud crab noodles with ginger and spring onions.

This was the dish that had me raving about Pacific House many years ago....incredibly tasty noodles with super fresh crab would make anyone happy.

Especially with lots of roe.

Best Chinese food in Melbourne! 

http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/directory/restaurant/pacific-seafood-bbq-house

Kushi Waka Maru, Naka-Meguro, Tokyo

Our last visit to Kushi Waka Maru in Naka Meguro in 2012 was one which left a very deep impression on us. As a result, during our subsequent trip to Tokyo, we set aside one night to head back there for dinner. The key landmark for me has always been this fish pancake shop, so if it moves, I'm not sure what I'll do for subsequent visits!

A glimpse of the drink menu - I always think it's impossible to go to an izakaya without drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

They always start you off with an appetiser of whitebait and grated daikon, which is super yummy with a little bit of shoyu drizzled in

Sake in bamboo cups to start with

The place was packed, but we managed to get reservations thanks to my now-very-fluent-in-Japanese-especially-when-it-comes-to-making-reservations sister.

Slurrrrp

We started off with grilled shishito, or little green Japanese peppers

Followed by tebasaki, nankotsu and gingko nuts

Grilled to perfection

A salad to make ourselves feel better

Lovely Japanese tomatoes

Daikon salad

Yet more food - grilled beef skewers, bacon wrapped around mochi, and tsukune

Another view of the beef skewers

Then we had bacon wrapped around asparagus and ham with tomatoes

A closer look

Super juicy and sweet tomatoes grilled with ham - this was amazing

Various skewers of squid, pork belly, leek and garlic - by this time, we started sharing everything.

There's always a steady stream of people and a queue outside - without reservations, there's simply no chance.

The bill for 3 people came up to 11,000Y, or around S$50 per person. Such incredible value, only in Tokyo.

Contact details of the shop can be found in previous post. It's also possible to walk there from Shibuya and Daikanyama stations, but unless you know where to go, it's just much easier to take the train to Naka Meguro and walk along the canal, which is amazing during sakura season. Shopping tip - walk slightly further along the canal away from the station, and you'll find Don Quijote which is an electronics store, department store, pharmacy and supermarket all in one location which is open 24hrs.

Home Made Truffle Scrambled Eggs

As a result of the amazing truffle degustation dinner that we attended at Chiara, we each went home with one truffle that we knew we needed to save for a special occasion. The time came when we were staying over at a good friend's place, and had time to prepare breakfast. 

We had never handled an entire truffle before.

We put it in an airtight box with eggs for 3 days to allow the truffle aroma to infuse the eggs before scrambling them. 

And when we opened the cover - WOW. The truffles were super fragrant.

Ready to be shaved, but no of course we were too cheap to buy a truffle shaver. So we used a vegetable peeler instead. 

If the internet could transmit smells, this would be one photo that would need to be transmitted. The truffle smell had completely gone past the shells into the eggs. It was awesome. 

I beat the eggs up, then added some milk. Cream would have been perfect but we didn't want to buy any since we wouldn't have known what to do with the remainder. 

Getting the eggs cooked was super simple - just stirring them non stop in a non stick pan, with butter, watching the heat constantly to make sure that the eggs didn't overcook. 

And this was it - absolutely perfect scrambled eggs. Point to note from us cheapskates is that a vegetable peeler just won't do. Don't stinge on the truffle grater. The truffle slices were way too thick!

 

Not the best shot of our brekky, but it was a pretty amazing meal, with smoked salmon and dill on the side and toasted sourdough bread.