Squid Mouth With Guts!

Met another friend for dinner today. We went for Thai food at Jiyuugaoka (自由が丘). I arrived early. So while waiting for me to arrive, I went around the station. Literally took one round around the station ^^. I wanted to have my fortunes told. But the shop was closed...And I reckon this is integrated ash tray is a pretty good idea. Integrated into a lamp post. No use for countries where smoking in public is banned.You know the Thai name of this dish? In English, it's something like "morning glory salad". I love Thai food. It's one of my favourites (steak is also one my mine). Just love the rich flavour. When I was in Singapore, I used to frequent a little Thai shop called "lemongrass". Don't know if it's still there. In Sydney, there were much more Thai restaurants around. I ate at quite a few. But my usuals were "ben's thai takeaway" and the other name I don't quite remember... "pattaya" was it? It was along Kingsford. Anyway, even in Japan I still eat Thai frequently (usually at Bangkok Kitchen in Jiyuugaoka. Wednesday's the best. Bring a lady friend and you'll get 20% off the bill! Yeah!). I even have a bag of chillis give to me from a Thai friend! Sorry... got carried away with eating and chatting I forgot to take photos of the other dishes!Next we headed to an izakaya (居酒屋、いざかや) for some after dinner snacks and a drink (yes, we eat alot here ^^). I found some interesting things in the menu. "Skewer of Squid Legs 183" and "Skewer of Squid Mouth 183". What's 183? It's the price of one skewer.Check out the squid legs and squid mouth. The funny thing was we asked the both the waiter who took our order and the waitress who brought our order what "tonnbi" (とんび) is. The one at the top. Both of them had no idea... It's the round thing on the right. It tastes pretty good!This one I didn't try. My friend didn't seem up to it. "Squid Mouth with Guts"! I want some squid mouth with GUTS! Next time perhaps ^^.You have any favourite food besides mum's cooking? Or maybe a favourite restaurants where you bring dates to ^^?

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Presentation and 黒豚焼き(pork bbq)!

How do I look? Smart enough for my presentation?


The calm before the storm.


And I'm the storm muhahaha!


Woo hoo! Work is all done! Presentation went well. Received lots of name cards from lots of big weights. Seems like people found my talk interesting ^^.


Bibimba for lunch.


What did we do between lunch and dinner? Check back later to find out!


All the side dishes. It comes with every meal... is it considered free? You can get extra too!


Meat on the grill!


I don't know if it's only for foreigners, but someone cooks and cuts up the meat for you.


You can wrap it up with whatever you like and stuff it in.


Our last 2 strips of fatty pork...


Food was cheap! It was a total of ₩68,000. Less than ¥1500 per head! Hungry for meat again tonight? ^^

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First day at the conference

Registration and stuff...



What?! Lunch time already?



Just taking a break inbetween sessions.


Nice giant bear to cuddle up to when you're tired.

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First dinner out in Jeju

That's the restaurant we went to on the right. Being in Korea is alot more difficult because everything is in Hangul! No kanji (chinese characters) and no English! A good thing some local Koreas spoke Japanese. We were able to ask them to recommend something for dinner.


Check out the menu...


On to food! Glorious food!



The color of wasabi looked a little off to me... it tasted alright, but it was just a tad bit funky green ^^.




This is something different. Raw crab... you can just suck out the juiciness inside!











There was just one photo I forgot... I forgot the dessert! But after all that stuffing, dessert just couldn't go in...

3 of us had a course dinner set for 2 for a price of ₩80,000! That's like about ¥3000/head. And look at the amount of food! We were so stuffed you could pick us up and roast us straightaway... if you're inclined that way ^^.

There's this other funky dish we had... some live seafood. Check out the video below. A word of caution though. Not for the faint-hearted! Would you like to try it too?

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Gozilla 55 steak (ゴジラ55)

Instead of a birthday cake, I had a birthday steak! 550g of pure meat! Beef is quite expensive in Japan. However, aussie beef here is relatively cheap. Here's the address if you're in town.

Red Steak House
World Porters 1st Floor
2-2-1 Shinko, Nakaku
Yokohama
045-227-6051

Check out the prices on the menu. Of course they have premium Japanese and Mexican beef as well, but I was going for volume!


See that massive slab of meat? It's all going down.


Tomato garlic sauce on the top right.


Here we go! First bite!


Heading for the second bite ^^.


Too difficult to eat this way... better to just work it with me fork and knife.


Halfway there...


In case you're wondering, I like my steaks either rare or medium. Today, it's rare! Hence the redness.


Around a third left.


Only a few bites left...


Down to the very last bite... at this stage, I felt a little lonely. I got to this stage in about 30 minutes of slow eating.


There. Nothing left...


Walking back to Minatomirai station from World Porters departmental store.


I like the skyline.


Enjoying the fancy lights.


Ok! On to presents I received. You always get to open presents after having your cake right? ^^. Got this tie from 2 of my labmates. Seems like they want me to wear it for the conference at Jeju Island which I'll be going to real soon. Anyone been there? Good spots to recommend?


And this one is hush hush. It's something you wear inside under your jeans. Nope, you won't get to see it ^^.



Having 550g of steak reminded me of that time in Sydney when I had 1kg. I was also much younger then ^^. Think you're up for a Gozilla steak too?

Update: Here's a map on how to get there from Minatomirai station (みなとみらい), a few stops from Yokohama station. Courtesy of Google Maps. You can even see the shadow of the Landmark Tower on the left!

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Seafood cup noodles

Sometimes on a busy day, I have no time for lunch. All I can afford is just a cup noodle and a drink. The seafood flavored noodles are pretty good. Probably one of the popular ones. Anyone know the difference between royal milk tea and milk tea? You get royal milk tea from boiling tea leaves in milk and just regular milk tea by adding milk into tea! I learn something new everyday ^^.

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Rasuta Ramen（らすたラーメン）

I'm going to introduce one of my favorite Tonkotsu ramen. Tonkotsu ramen use pork and soy sauce as the base for the soup. Hence it's usually oily! Rasuta is one of my personal favorite and it's pure tonkotsu ramen! Oily and yummy!

This place is along the Tokyu Toyoko Line which runs from Yokohama to Shibuya. Hiyoshi (日吉) station is like right inbetween. This is the stronghold of Keio university ^^ (had to introduce one here since I did one for Takadanobaba). Walk straight from the station to the yellow mark on the map. Place is only open 5pm-1am. So don't even think about going there for lunch.


This is the store front.


The various kind of toppings you can have. From right, chilli paste, ginger, garlic. There's also black pepper, vinegar and some sauce for rice too.


Here is their basic "Rasuta ramen".


That's usually the amount of toppings I add to my bowl.


The basic is ¥600. You can also add more toppings... but that usually involves more ¥. There is also a store special which goes for a little more, but it comes with more char siew (slices of pork), egg, more noodles, more seaweed, more spinach. I usually have the basic with rice. So it's ¥700 everytime I go. I remember the first time I had this. It was love at first *slurp*.

You know that feeling ^^?

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Keisuke（二代目けいすけ 海老そば）

If you're in town, it's best to check out this ramen... eh... soba shop. Ebi-Soba (海老そば) loosely translates to prawn soba. It's pretty tasty. Reminds me a little of prawn mee back home. *drool*. This is the map I stole off google maps ^^. On the left is Takadanobaba station (高田馬場駅). The JR Yamanote line (JR山手線) runs through it. This place is supposed to be the stronghold of Waseda (watch out Keio students!). From the station, follow the main road till you hit the green arrow. The shop is along the main road so unless you're busy checking out the waseda chicks, it's pretty hard to miss ^^.


Here we are. The shop entrance!


It's quite narrow. Typical ramen parlour. Half of the shop is the kitchen.


Keep a lookout for these signs when you walk there.


I ordered with full toppings. Toppings came first.


After a while, the humongous bowl of soba appeared. Looks yummy doesn't it?


Bowl of ebisoba with topping on the side.


Yummy shot! *drool drool*


Wait a minute! That's a strange looking bowl!


The strange bowl is accompanied with an enormous humongous spoon (affectionally called a renge, レンゲ, in the ramen world)!


All gone... Prove of how yummy it was!


Takadanobaba station on the way back.



Hungry for some ramen today? ^^. What variety of ramen do you have in your area? Are there any you recommend?

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Motoyama milk bar

Want some milk? Unhomogenized milk from the "Motoyama Farm" in Yakumo, Hokkaido to be exact. Walked past this new Motoyama Milk Bar in Roppongi hills while I was heading for a movie. The lot used to be a tofu cafe. hmm... tofu moved out, milk moved in ^^. Maybe I should try it someday. Can someone tell me the advantages of drinking unhomogenized milk? Last I checked, milk is homogenized for our own good... Unhomogenized milk doesn't come cheap too. 200ml costs ¥300!

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長浜ラーメン (Nagahama Ramen)

I was hunting around for a good Sendai beef tongue ramen (仙台牛タンラーメン) to have before the trip back to Tokyo. I found a shop, but it only opened in the evening. So ended up having a meal here instead. Pretty good ramen. You have a choice between how full flavored you want your soup to be. But the interesting thing is that you have a choice of 3 kinds of ramen. The noodles. 仙台風、博多風、九州風。Sendai-styled, Hakata-styled or Kyusyu-styled. Most ramen parlors have some kind of special lunch service. Here, you can choose between an onigiri or more noodles. (Yeah, lots of choices to make here ^^). The noodles come after. Like a second helping or おかわり. So if you do make it there at lunch time, you'll get to try out two different kinds of noodles. Don't think they will refill your bowl with soup though. Remember to leave some soup in your bowl for your second serving.

Nagahama Tonkotsu Ramen.

The shop front. It's right next to a convenience store (I think it's sunkus).

I don't remember well, but it's in that area. Right off one of the smaller lanes that branch off from the main path. Search for the convenience store and look in the path next to it. You should see the exact same thing in the picture above. Funny I actually found this place when I went into the convenience store to ask the clerk to recommend me a ramen place. And he hasn't been to this one yet ^^!


Do you have a favorite ramen shop? If so, where is it?

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仙台牛タン（Sendai beef tongue)

What's good to eat in Sendai? Beef tongue (牛タン) of course!

Nope, we didn't have beef tongue at a restaurant called "Sperm". Just chanced upon this clothes shop with a strange name.

The shopping arcade in Sendai, Ichibancho Shopping District.

Was told this place is famous for its beef tongue.

Spiderman deciding what to order. 牛タン定食 (beef tongue set, comes with grilled beef tongue, rice and Japanese-style oxtail soup) is usually what you order if you were alone.

Other things on the menu.

Grilled beef tongue! Look at how thick it is!

Want a bite too ^^?

This is beef tongue sashimi（牛タン刺）. Raw! I don't think this counts as french kissing a cow.

Yummy stuff.

Spidey's waiting for the next dish.

Beef tongue stew!