Back in Japan (March 2016)...Some lunch photos

Oyako-don with extra fresh yolk

As always, I ate so much good food during my stay back in Japan.


Xiao-long-bao and Taiwanese noodles in Ebisu.

 
Spring mushroom soba and "sansai" (spring mountain vegetables) tempura at an old soba house in Ueno. They've been making soba since 1893.


Oyako-don made from all-star ingredients, including Tsukuba jidori chicken, and "Ryu" egg from Kyushu.


Aji Hitsumabushi - mackerel in barley miso, topped on rice and served with dashi broth on the side. Came with "banzai" small bites.


Aosa seaweed and fresh ao-nori seaweed soba.

So good.

Back in Japan (March 2016)...DONABE Cooking Class at iga-mono Tokyo

Left bottom photo by Nagatani-en

(March 17)

On a sunny day in Tokyo, I had a pleasure hosting two donabe cooking class events at Nagatani-en's iga-mono shop in Ebisu.


Both classes were sold out immediately after the announcement. For 12 seatings each class, Isako said more than twice the number of people applied!


Isako, Akiyo, and staff of iga-mono helped setting up the classes.


Recipe packet was beautifully designed.


I demonstrated 4 different dishes (all made in donabe) from my DONABE Cookbook.


Steamed shrimp on tofu with sizzling sauce.


Niigata-style sake-rich hot pot.


Butter scallop and daikon rice.


Matcha steam cake.


So much fun.


My friend from high school, Yoshiko, also came to the event. So happy she came! She also took some of the photos (rectangular size ones) above. Thank you, Yoshiko!

Happy donabe life.

Back in Japan (March 2016)...Dinner at Igarashi in Ebisu

Donabe Tai-meshi (rice cooked with sea bream head)

(March 16)

I had some shopping in Ginza today, so I stopped by at Akomeya Tokyo for lunch.


This is my regular lunch spot. Their daily lunch set including donabe rice is always wonderful.


For dinner, I met my girlfriends, Fuku-chan and Fujie-chan. We went to the same high school and university together. Fujie-chan picked a nice Japanese restaurant in Ebisu. It's called Igarashi. The dinner course started with seasonal hamaguri clam, wakame, and hisui-mame tofu in a broth.


Marinated fresh hotaru-ika (firefly squid) was served with individual stone skillet. Sizzling hotaru-ika was so aromatic and tasted sweet.


All the seasonal flavors.


Duck was so tender.


Rice course was tai-meshi! Large head of sea bream was broiled on the skin and cooked with the rice in a dashi broth in a donabe. It was beautifully cooked and so delicious. I got to eat the eye ball, too!


The owner/ chef Igarashi-san is very talented and he is also very humble. I enjoyed the dinner and the wonderful time with friends so much.

Happy donabe life.

Back in Japan (March 2016)...Lunch at Ichirin

(March 15)

The rain was up today and the sun was out. I went out with my sister to have lunch at Ichirin in Jingu-mae. We've been huge fans of Chef Mikizo-san's artistic Kyoto cuisine there.


All the beautiful spring flavors.


Mikizo-san's sashimi and hausse courses.


We enjoyed a few kinds of sake.


Oyster and tarano-me tempura. And, grilled tachi-uo fish and bamboo shoot.


Tai (sea bream) and dashi broth to enjoy with the donabe rice.


Desserts.


Another extraordinary meal! We also exchanged each other's books. Such a wonderful time.