bummer

When I opened this can of Peach Belg.

It smelled so good, like the white peaches we have during the summer.

But, it tasted so gross...

Hated to waste this but it was so so bad.

foodie sunday in minoo

Sunday started out with breakfast at a new cafe, Ii ichinichi no cafe (literally good day cafe).

Satoshi and I both ordered their "itsumono" (the usual)...580 yen (tax included) each.

We both agreed that their refrigerated hard boiled eggs should've been warmed up...

I added a cafe latte, so my meal was 180 yen more.

I loved the quiet atmosphere and free wifi.

After breakfast, we walked halfway into Minoo Quasi-National Park and then turned around and walked to Minoh Beer...

They recently opened the Minoh Beer Warehouse.

Their original location is now only used as their brewery.

Satoshi went with a half pint of Pilsner and half pint of Osaru IPA.

I went with a half pint of their mugicha bitter (barley tea bitter), the tea was undetectable.

Bummer that they don't have a beer tasting menu...

We also tried some of their food items...hot dog (nice snap) with curried cabbage, lots of mustard, ketchup & relish...their beer battered karaage (fried chicken) good with the squeeze of lemon and their fries (could've been crispier).

They also have other items like pizza and curry and other types of pupus (appetizers).

We'll be back to both places.

Ii ichinichi no Cafe
6-4-17 Minoo
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.723.1133
Hours: 7:00-22:00 daily

Minoh Beer Warehouse
3-14-18 Makiochi
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.725.7234
Hours: 11:00-21:00
Closed Thursdays

craft beer house molto

Yesterday was a holiday, but Satoshi had to work so I met him for dinner in Umeda.

We checked out Craft Beer House Molto.

They have many craft beers from around Japan on tap.

You choose how much you want to drink...small (about 240ml), medium (about 450ml) and large (about 660ml)

And which beer you want to drink.

I started with Iwatekura's Oyster Stout (small) I liked the full body of this beer.

Satoshi also ordered a dark beer called Schwartz (medium), his seemed a bit watery.

The amuse bouche (tsukidashi--stuff you didn't order but are expected to pay for) was a jar of mixed nuts (pistachio, cashew & corn nuts)

Haven't eaten corn nuts in awhile, so good!

Buri (amberjack) carpaccio was the carpaccio of the day.

I liked the oiliness of this fish. They serve it with a gelee type dressing.

Assorted smoked items.

These come to the table on a smoking platter. Most of the items have been smoked previously keeping the meats/seafoods half raw.

This platter had tako (octopus), hotate (scallop), sasami (chicken breast), pork and salmon.

Under the salmon is a dollop of their potato salad.

Margherita pizza...tiny 4 or 5 inch.

The bottom was super crispy and the crust chewy.

Delicious.

By this time, Satoshi had had another beer (medium) (I cannot remember what) and ordered another one (medium) with my Isekadoya's Yuzu beer (small).

The yuzu beer started off with a nice yuzu aroma, but then the yuzu got to be too perfumy for my liking.

The view from the 31st floor was wonderful.

The weather was overcast, so the sunset was meh!

Total damage was a little over 8000 yen (the beers are what makes this place pricey). If you aren't a beer drinker they also have wines and cocktails too.

Make reservations if possible, they don't have that many seats and especially if you want to be seated by the windows!

We'll be back for special occasions...

Craft Beer House Molto
Hankyu Grand Building 31F
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6809.2641 (info), 050.5868.3983(reservations)
Lunch: 11:30-15:00, Dinner: 17:00-23:30
Open when Hankyu Grand Building is

merry christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope Santa brought all that you hoped for.

I bought us this assortment from Kiuchi Brewery, makers of Hitachino beers...Real ginger ale, Daidai IPA, Shuwashuwa umeshu (fizzy apricot wine), classic Japanese ale & Red Rice ale...we'll probably start tasting a couple of these tonight.

Christmas eve was an assortment of nibbles...veggies with bagna cauda sauce, kamaboko dip with ritz crackers and karaage (fried chicken).

I also had a glass of prosecco.

This morning, we traded gifts and Satoshi went off to work. Low-key Christmas as usual. I can't believe that 2014 is almost over.

We appreciate all the cards and messages from family and friends! (Thank you!)

Happy Holidays everyone!

baladin super

Recently tried this amber ale by Baladin called Super.

It had a medicinal alcohol taste to it. Dunno that I would buy this one again.

halloween eats

What did you do on Halloween? Satoshi had plans, so I partied alone...

I "made" myself some scary sushi...I got the idea from a commercial for sushi vinegar. Their version was jack o'lanterns.

I bought the sushi from the market and just added the "scary" eyes and mouths. I made jack o'lanterns with salmon and ghosts with ika (squid).

I made some guacamole. I didn't have jalapenos so I just sprinkled some of that habanero salt that Kirk gave us...so good!

I munched on some Pop popcorn in their Rogue Blue (cheese) flavor...really cheesy and quite piquant.

For dessert I had a mont blanc which had purple sweet potato and pumpkin puree in place of the chestnut topping.

And for something to drink, this white beer by Baladin, an Italian maker. Super citrusy.

Hope you had a nice, safe Halloween.

meh

Over the weekend Satoshi and I shared the following two beers by Belhaven...oh em gee...just colored fizzy water with foam.

How can they even call this beer?!

Even more disappointing was their stout...just darker colored fizzy water with foam.

You know, I really don't like to post negative things, but this was bad.

Meh.

okonomiyaki hiro

I think it has been over ten years since I've eaten at Okonomiyaki Hiro.

This tiny shop is one of the first places Satoshi brought me to, to have okonomiyaki when we moved to Japan. (I'm glad they are still in business!)

My friend, Greg is visiting Japan with his mom. I'm glad he had some time to meet up.

Since Satoshi also knows Greg, we all had dinner together last night.

Gyoza, yakisoba, okonomiyaki and lots of beer.

Hope they had enough to eat. It was nice meeting Greg's mom and I hope they enjoy the rest of their stay.

Okonomiyaki Hiro
11-10 Toganocho Swiss Building 1F
Kita, Osaka
Phone: 06.6314.2328
Hours: 17:30-3:00
Mondays to Saturdays, closed Sundays

sunday dinner

With the salts that we received from Kirk, we tried them with dinner yesterday.

Kirk mentioned that the habanero salt was good with steak, so that is what I served. A-5 Kagoshima kuroge wagyu ichibo (top side).

I wasn't too sure what to serve the uni (sea urchin) salt with, but after tasting it, I thought it might be nice to dip seafood into it.

So I pan seared some scallops.　Since I didn't season the scallops before searing them, the uni salt gave the scallops a nice ocean-y flavor.

And we dipped our steak into the habanero salt...boy, did it have a nice after burn (cough!).

The fried ika (squid) and fried shrimp I picked up at the market so these were already pre-seasoned. We ate them as is.

For veggies we had some kiriboshi daikon mustard salad.

and washed everything down with this Italian Collesi Amberata. This amber ale was a little fruity and with 7.5% alcohol content had a nice kick.

This beer is unpasteurized and naturally fermented in the bottle. They suggest you serve this with grilled meat so this was perfect with my menu.

I'll keep experimenting with these infused salts. Do you use infused salts? Write how you use them in the comments. We both enjoyed our first try of these salts...Thanks again Kirk!

inedit

I saw this beer on Tabera (Japan's foodie Instagram) and when I saw it at a upscale market, I decided to check an import market near our area.

They had the beer and it was a little cheaper than the upscale market's price...whoo!

At 750 mililiters this amount was similar to a bottle of wine...The name of the beer, Inedit, means "never been done" in Spanish. Created by Ferran Adrià of El Bulli in 2008, he wanted a beer to "accompany and compliment modern gastromy".

This beer has some spices like coriander, liquorice and orange peel.

The little booklet that comes with the bottle suggest foods like starters, salads, fatty fish...citrus, cheese...so that is what I served.

kale chips and roasted cauliflowers, both tossed in a lemon balsamic dressing before roasting.

It was the first time making kale chips for me, I liked the crunchiness of the kale!

Caciocavallo, a cheese that reminded us of mozzarella, that is made in Hokkaido.

I've been wanting to try this cheese for some time, I'm glad we got to. So good melted!

I also made some fragrant chickpea salad.

And I marinated some sliced onions with some sliced lemon, vinegar, sugar and olive oil. I steamed some asparagus and topped it with some smoked salmon, the sliced onions and drizzled a little of the vinaigrette.

They suggest you serve this in a white wine glass.

Different to drink beer this way, but with all the different foods, the fruity notes really matched the foods, so good!

We also had some bread laden with two types of olives.

I'm glad we got a chance to try this!

p.s. I've started using Instagram again, please follow us if your are interested!

craft beer picnic

Saturday after Satoshi's German class, we grabbed something light for lunch, then headed to Nakanoshima Park to check out the Craft Beer Picnic.

There were about 13 booths and about 50 different beers from around Japan.

Even though there was a typhoon approaching, it was good to see everyone out and about.

For 1000 yen, you can buy "Drink & Food". You receive 10 tickets valued at 100 yen a piece. If you want to buy a 270 mililiter cup of beer you can use 4 tickets, or you can just use the tickets for foods.

For another 1000 yen, you can buy "Picnic Beer" tickets. You receive 4 tickets for 4-150 mililiter cups of beer, a paper tray, and a ticket to borrow a mat.

We bought one of each ticket.

I started off with Ise Kadoya's Stout (Mie prefecture) while Satoshi tried Shiga Kogen's African IPA.

Both were delicious!

For something to snack on, we bought this currywurst...600 yen.

Even though I like the snap of sausages in Japan, I like that the guy cut these up for us, it was easier to eat! That bread that came with it was good for mopping up that homemade sauce.

We also bought a large cup of chips...200 yen.

And a small bag of popcorn...200 yen.

Next I tried Dotombori's Osaka Dark Ale and Satoshi tried Tazawako's Pilsner (Akita prefecture)

Both of Satoshi's beers were really fruity!

A little bigger than the World Craft Beer Tasting event, we thought this event was nice too.

I hope we can check out more of these types of events in the future.

rogue beers

I recently found several Rogue beers at an import store.

These are their 355 mililiter bottles, perfect for one.

I like how Rogue's website gives suggestions as to what foods to pair them with.

Dead Guy Ale is supposedly good with spicy and pork, so I tried this with a Thai bento.

It had a little bitter ending to it but I enjoyed this pairing.

The Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout is supposedly good with Seafood, Beef, Dessert and Cheese.

So I tried it with a maguro avocado salad, some beef pâté and other nibbles along with a slice of cheese cake....loved this!

Hazelnut Brown Nectar is supposedly good with beef, pork.

I had this with some renkon pork patties, but found that it matched more with this....

Caramel ice cream.

The beer was a bit too nutty for me, but matched caramel ice cream perfectly.

What have you been enjoying these days?

world craft beer tasting

Saturday the weather was beautiful and HOT!

Satoshi had a morning chat session with people from his German class, so afterwards we met up to check out the World Craft Beer Tasting.

They had many beers from the US, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, as well as some from around Japan.

If we had bought our drink tickets earlier for 3000 yen we could've gotten 6 drinks for 500 yen each. Instead we paid 2800 yen and got 5 drinks for 560 yen each.

Satoshi and I shared the first beer...Minoh's Peach Weizen. This beer was really fruity and peachy!

Perfect for the heat.

Apparently, this peach weizen was a limited edition beer, so I am glad we got to try it!

We shared this pork sausage by Taverna Entrata...600 yen.

Super hard to eat without getting messy, but I loved the snap of this.

Just like a carnival, you use scrips to purchase your beers...one beer per ticket.

Food items had to be paid with cash.

Next I tried Fifty Fifty's Darkslide IPA, this was more like a Porter or Stout...love!

Satoshi tried Crew Republic's Munich Summer beer.

We shared this plate of smoked sanma (saury) and roast pork by Aggi.

We weren't sure why they served this with a dollop of wasabi. The seasonings without the wasabi were simple and the smokiness made these dishes perfectly match the different beers.

Satoshi then tried Van Eecke's Extra Dry Hopped Hommelbier 2014 while I tried Pizza Port's Ponto Session IPA.

I hadn't read the signs properly and thought I was ordering a port, so I was surprised when the server handed me a light colored IPA.

This beer was nice and fruity and it was served really cold which hit the spot since it was so hot out.

It doesn't look like a lot of people at this event, but there were and I was surprised at the amount of foreigners that were there.

This was our first time going to an event like this and we had fun.

I hope we can check out other craft beer events in the future.

things I'm liking

Random things I'm liking...

This bowl for sauce/dressing.

My Twitter friend H sent this to me recently.

It is made by a potter named Shimizu Kumiko, who is with the Maruhachigama in Tamba.

This type of pottery is called Tachikuiyaki. I like the pretty blue glaze. (Thank you!)

Corn Kim chee Fritters.

Fresh corn, some kim chee, edamame, red bell pepper & some onion added to the fritter batter. So easy and so good (with beer)!

Recipe here

Daruma maguro, which is apparently the young version of Mebachi maguro.

This piece was super tender. Slicing it for poke (po-kay) was like slicing butter!

This came from Chiba, it was 189 grams for 752 yen. Not bad for local. I'm not sure if it was caught in Chiba or farmed.

Super fresh!

Andes salt and pepper Doritos...

look how "black" these chips are!

Not sure as to how they got them this black but they are really peppery!

White Belg by Sapporo.

Super fruity with orange peel and coriander.

Mint candies. I know some people hate this combo, but I love chocolate paired with mint.

Summer is pretty much the only time you see this flavor combo here...

Haagen-Dazs' Green Tea & Chocolate ice cream sandwich.

Chocolate wafer with green tea ice cream and a surprise piece of chocolate in the middle...crispy, yum!

Charles VII Biscuits filled with dark chocolate by Maison Fossier.

The biscuits reminded me of Hawaii's creme cracker and are slathered with dark chocolate...nice!

The coconut cookie from City Bakery.

Super chewy with lots of coconut in it...love!

What are you enjoying these days?