It's My Birthday and I'll Eat What I Want To

It was recently my birthday and as a treat, my lovely Squidward treated me to some very very delicious meals. First, an oldie but a goodie, Il Mulino. Il Mulino in Tokyo (there's one in NY too) is a great place to go if you're hungry and like Italian food. Like, real Italian food, not Spaghetti made with ketchup. Before you sit down at your table, there's already 4 plates of antipasti waiting for you. That's my kind of restaurant. A word to the wise, the specials never change. Another word to the wise, get the specials. 

Now on to the main event. On Sunday night, Squids and I headed to Joel Robuchon, which is housed in this random chateau in the middle of Ebisu Garden Place next to the Yebisu Beer Museum. Classy! A quick run down: Joel Robuchon has the most Michelin stars in the world, this one has 3 and he was named "Chef of the Century" by some people. Oh, and he's cool enough to appear on Top Chef! Last year, I had my birthday lunch at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Roppongi. It was a takeout chicken sandwich with brie and a side of Perrier. Oh how I'm moving up in the world!

 We ordered the tasting menu. It started off with a bang with some caviar mixed with crab and some sort of gelee. Delicious!

 So, I didn't have the balls to whip out my camera for every dish but this pearl pasta was too cute to not grab a quick snap with my iPhone. This was our 4th "main course" and I couldn't even finish this tiny plate of pasta because I was so stuffed. Everything was mindblowingly delicious though. My favorite was the egg dish which was wrapped in pasta like a little ravioli.

I really liked the waitstaff. Fine dining can be really annoying and people take themselves way too seriously. But the staff at Joel Robuchon were fun, funny and kept a close but not too close eye on us. We started making Sweet and Low castles and counting all the dessert spoons on the table and our waiters thought it was very funny and joked around with us. It really put me at ease. 

Did you know that petit fours does not mean that you get to choose 4 small little dessert treats from the petit fours cart? Yeah, me neither. (It means "small oven" and you can have as many as you want! Even better!)

No Joel Robuchon, thank YOU! Get ready for a bold, but factual statement: This is the best meal and best restaurant I've ever had. Yes, even better than Ko. First of all, this meal had about 17 dishes and every single one was interesting and delicious. If you ever have the chance to check it out, please do it! It is fantastic. 

By the way, what kind of people eat at Joel Robuchon? Former heads of state, that's who! On this particular night, we were surprised to see that our neighbor was none other than former Prime Minister Taro Aso! Well, we didn't notice until he got up to leave and only because Squids was mocking his amazing leather briefcase/clutch type thing. Taro Aso, by the way, is pretty cool. He's only my 2nd favorite Japanese politician (first place goes to Junichiro Koizumi because he looks like my dad and has AWESOME hair) but he's a pretty cool guy to see at a fancy dinner. According to his wikipedia entry, he loves fine dining! And now I can vouch for that. 

Why hello there birthday present! Happy birthday to me! 

Things That Are Awesome About America

Colonial America. You know, growing up out west, you really get robbed of the whole Colonial living experience. Basically, it is awesome and now I want to go on a rode trip down the East Coast. 

Gray's Papaya hot dogs with a side of papaya juice. Eaten standing up at the counter, people watching. 

Deep fried foods. Covered with sugar. Or candy. Or both. 

Honey Nut Cheerios. 

I heard this song a lot. And I like it. A lot. 

Banh Mi Sandwiches. Everyone has their favorite place and mine just so happens to be Paris Bakery on Mott in New York. Fresh baked bread every hour! 

Sandwiches! Check out this open faced chicken salad melt with bacon from Grey Dog Cafe in NYC. 

The Caprese Piadine from Tomatina in Walnut Creek, CA. It never gets old. 

Diet Coke. Not Coke Zero. Not Coke Light. DIET COKE. 

Corgis!

Homemade Sandwiches. A pre-wedding meal for the bridesmaids. What nice groomsmen! 

Bouchon Bakery. Who says you have to be french to make insanely good French treats?!

Nothing says Autumn like caramel apples. Already cut up and sprinkled with peanuts is so genius. 

Wine! We make some damn good wine. Again, eat it France! (errr...drink it France?)

Good deals. On really big Sandwiches. 

That someone at Hostess thought it wise to name this product GLO Balls..well, I tip my hat to you America. You did me proud. 

Out of Sight, Out of Touch

Who are these people?!

One of my greatest fears of living abroad for too long is getting out of touch with American culture. Namely, American pop-culture. It sounds really stupid and superficial, but it's how I communicate and connect with most of the people in my life. I work for an American company and conduct business in English. Communication isn't a problem and yet, it is. When you take away water cooler talk, simple conversation becomes a minefield of awkwardness and misunderstanding. There's no glue. At my old office, my co-workers and I couldn't be more different. But how could a Long Island mother of 3 and I carry on and fully enjoy a 15-minute conversation? Lost. 24. The Real Housewives of Orange County. How much I hate/you love the Yankees. They may have been purely superficial relationships and conversations, but at least it was a connection made. It makes working together easier somehow. It's the social lubricant of the American office. 

I'm getting dangerously close to becoming a complete foreigner to American culture. This sucks mostly because I used to be like...for reals in the know. I knew things, I probably shouldn't have, but it made me feel like I was a part of society. Celebrity gossip. Political gossip. What music was acceptable to show people on your iPod and which ones you should hide. I just looked at the iTunes top selling singles and albums and couldn't identify anyone other than Katy Perry and even then, I have no idea if I'm supposed to like her or hate her. Glee? Never seen it. Why is the #9 most downloaded song called (and spelled) Gonerrhea? There's a movie about Facebook? Is Twilight still "a thing"? Enrique Inglesias is now making music again? Have I seriously been away so long that pop music has lapped me? I've gone from working at The Worldwide Leader in Sports to not being able to tell you who won the last World Series/Super Bowl/Final Four. (I'm so un-American in my sports participation at the moment, that I could tell you who won the World Cup, Tour de France and any Grand Slam this year.) 

Sure, the internet helps a ton. I'm religious with my Google Reader reading and my friends keep me somewhat informed on what's "hip" and "groovy". But still, for every Marcel the Shell I do catch, 20 others come and go and I'm left standing alone with my sometimes functioning Apple TV catching up on last season's hottest show hoping not to read any spoilers online. And then there's the struggle between trying to stay relevant and trying to go out and live my life in this weird, wacky and pretty awesome in its own right country. Poor me, right? 

I'm about to go back to the States for 10 days and fear that I'm going to be overloaded with culture shock. Seeing as how much of my trip will be spend inside a metal tube high above the ground (an airplane), I'll be stocking up on the latest American Culture 101: Why We're a Dying Civilization required reading - Us Magazine and People. 

PS - Just kidding! America is awesome! (NO REALLY, don't block me at immigration. I've got some weddings and family hug parties to get to!)  

Hong Kong :: Hutong, More like Woo!tong

On the our last night in Hong Kong, Squids and I made 7pm reservations at a Michelin starred restaurant called Hutong. Hutongs are narrow streets and alley ways in Beijing and the food served here is a modern take on the food that can be found in hutongs. There are a few cuisines, like Chinese and Mexican, that I think is best in the mom and pop shops with plastic covered tables and sticky floors. But a few of Hutong's dishes really made me rethink this especially factoring the amazing view of Victoria Harbour. Much to the annoyance of our waiters, we ate very slowly in order to catch the 8pm Symphony of Lights shows from our table. Every night, the buildings on Hong Kong Island put on a lovely light show that is best viewed from Kowloon. We enjoyed the show while sipping on lychee wine and chowing down on crispy lamb, noodles and apple fritters. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

Lychee rice wine served in a classic clay tea pot. This would most certainly make my mom sing, as she tends to do when she has a little something to drink. 

 Simple noodle soup with shitake mushrooms. The broth was incredibly flavorful. This was Squidward's favorite. 

My favorite dish of the night, crispy lamb done in a traditional peking style. I have never had lamb so juicy and delicious as this. It has a salty and crispy"skin" (I don't think it was actual skin...that would be kind of gnarly) which gave it some texture. I hope they never take this off their menu. 

Apple "eggrolls" for dessert. This definitely reminded me a lot of my dad. He's doesn't spend a ton of time cooking. He's mostly responsible for stocking my mom's kitchen with the proper tools and gizmos and telling her how delicious her meals are. But he does have a few signature dishes up his sleeve, one being banana fritters with honey and sugar and vanilla ice cream. I think that's why I tend to like fruit desserts over chocolate. 

We actually ordered a lot more food than this, but the restaurant is VERY dark and my pictures were coming out pretty bad and I think my flash was really annoying some of our neighbors. The menu at Hutong, like many Chinese restaurants, is HUGE. I welcome the chance to go back and try some of their other dishes. 

Hong Kong :: Dim Sum Delight

Monday was "Respect for the Aged Day" in Japan, so I went to Hong Kong for the long weekend. You can't really mention Hong Kong without talking about the food and you can't talk about food without talking about dim sum. It's pretty tough to find good, authentic dim sum in Tokyo, so I was happy to be reunited with this Sunday morning tradition.

Really fucking happy, actually. I didn't realize how much I missed it, but once we stepped into our first tea house and I heard the clinking and clanging of tableware, I was transported to a happy place. This despite being seated at the most disgraceful seat in the house -- furthest from the kitchen! You gotta box out for the dishes you want! Naww, just kidding. Since it was lunchtime, we just ordered off an English menu, instead of the morning carts. But I would have gotten East Bay/SF Chinatown on the locals if I had to! Anyways, back to my happy place. I love snacks and can put away a ridiculous amount of food so long as there is variety. If I had to eat a huge dish of just 1 thing, I probably couldn't stomach too much of it. But place 100 little plates in front of me and I'll eat you under the table. That's a threat and a promise.

I wish I had written down the name of this particular tea house next to the Western Market. Basically, if you ride the tram down Des Vouex Road in Central, it is the dim sum restaurant next to the Western Market. There are bunch of cool old dudes off-track betting outside if you need another landmark. I'm almost certain they'll still be there if on your trip to HK.

I finally learned that these pork and shrimp rolls are called cheung fan in Cantonese. This was the first Cantonese word I looked up when we booked our tickets. This has been my favorite dim sum dish since I was a kid. Even though you're supposed to share everything on the lazy susan, my family would order me my own plates of shrimp cheung fan and just leave me alone. These are steamed rice paper rolls with pork or shrimp filling. Sounds pretty bland, but the key is the soy sauce. Cheung fan comes with its own special sweet soy sauce. I could drink it by the tubs and would save my empty plates to sop up the extra sauce with other dumplings and buns. Omagahh...I'm so disgusting. I love it.

The other must have dish at dim sum for me are phoenix talons. That's a fancy Cantonese way of saying chicken feet. Now, trust me when I say that it is not the meat of chicken's feet that appeals to me. I've been served cold, plain boiled, unsauced chicken feet (oddly enough, on a number of occasions) and they're pretty gross. (Special message to Squidward, my sister and mom -- remember those gnarly black ones we got in Vietnam?!) The dim sum style chicken feet come in a spicy black bean sauce and while they're not the sexiest things to eat (you have to spit the tiny bones out on to your plate and you constantly have sauce on your face) they just can't be resisted.

Hey wait a sec. That's not dim sum! That's right, it's not but I'm not afraid to order off the menu. When a restaurant goes out of it's way to hang their roasted meats in their window (basically every restaurant in HK), you'd better order it. This is a plate of chopped pork topped with crispy pig skin -- also a childhood favorite of mine (no seriously, I was a disgusting child! how did I have friends and not develop gout?) Salty, sweet, fatty and delicious.

Look at that shiny delicious morsel! 

Eating Dim Sum in Hong Kong was at the top of my list of things to do. Had we eaten at a tea house for every meal, I would have been perfectly happy. But we didn't. We had lots of other great food! Perhaps I will tell you more about it sometime. (Probably tomorrow.) 

My Summer in Tokyo in 20 Pictures

Though it may not show, I do actually take a lot of pictures. Usually, it's with my iPhone but lately, I've been using my regular point and shoot more. Most of the pictures I like are ones that need some context but it's hard to muster up the energy to put in captions for every picture you upload on Facebook and Flickr. I have this blog for a reason and with the summer pretty much over (I hope), now is a good of a time as any to share some of the random things I've done this summer through photos.

3, 2, 1... 

It was great to be in Japan during the 2010 World Cup. Expectations were really low for the national team but with some luck and scrappy play, they managed to make it out of the group stage. After the tournament, we stumbled upon the JFA Museum where they were riding the soccer craze wave.

Oh, Roppongi. You just never know what you're going to see. This neighborhood of Tokyo is nightlife and foreigner central. It's loud, over the top and kind of weird -- much like this pooch on a bike. 

I really like taking pictures of produce. 

Drank some ice cold sake too keep cool. This sake is frozen and then shaken to make a sake slushy. Perfect drink for the Tokyo humidity. And you get to keep the glasses. 

Beer is another good option...but maybe not from this rusting vending machine in Chiba. 

Aside from fruits and veggies, I also like to take pictures of buddha statues. 

Rode on a boat in Saitama. 

Jonesing for some my mama's cooking, I went through an intense Vietnamese cooking phase in early August.  

Accidentally stumbled upon a photo of 3 of my former students from Asakusa Junior High School in a famous photographer's latest book. They're famous! Ume Kayo is a young Japanese photographer that takes photos of the quirky moments of daily life. She has a really great point of view and has a knack for taking hilarious photos. I got a chance to see her Tokyo exhibition this summer after discovering her book. She's great. Here's a recent interview. 

A couple of friends came to visit. I always enjoy this because it gives me an excuse to eat some of my favorite Japanese foods that aren't part of my routine. 

I despise the summer weather in Japan. I watched this rain storm from my balcony, begging it to come my way. 

By far, my best purchase in Japan. 

See, I told you liked taking pictures of buddhas. Like a moth to a flame. 

Fireworks!!!

An unexpected but much adored gift from Squidward. 

Got a healthy dose of culture watching yosokoi dances in Yoyogi Park. 

The cutest shaved ice I've ever seen or eaten. 

Beer + Summer = Best Friends

Finally decorated the walls. 

Bye bye Summer.