Facade is real pretty.

The inside is a bit cramped and we were ushered immediately to our seats after our coats were taken hence we weren’t able to take a photo of the place.

Maj and I decided to go for the 5-course Canuts menu although we each chose a different course.

House-made tarama & toast served with seasonal salad for Maj.

Duck foie gras panacotta with green Puy lentils for me. I don’t eat liver and there are times foie gras isn’t that good but Lyonnais did good with this one. This one I think is my favorite for that meal. The bacon was served whole, for aesthetics purposes.

It has to be eaten this way.

Next up is our soup for the day – Pumpkin soup with blue cheese. My second favorite. So creamy I just love it. The pumpkin soup we had in our wedding by K by Cunanan was REALLY good but the one by Lyonnais is still much better. That’s probably how it is to be a Michelin starred resto.

They serve the dishes mostly in a gray clay slab but all their china bear the resto’s name.

My main dish is scallops and lobster. The scallops were great. But the whole dish smelled fishy, the kind that can almost make someone with a very sensitive stomach gag. Beyond the smell though, the dish tasted good especially the scallops. But I’d say this is the least of what I liked in our Lyonnais meal.

Whipped fresh cheese with chives, garlic & parsley.

Dessert time! After having had forgotten to take a photo of Maj’s main course, I made certain I took a photo of her dessert with the Lyonnais logo powdered into her clay slab. Traditionnal pink praline tart & snow egg style

Mine was Eskimo Iced pumpkin, hot chocolate and hazelnuts. You’re supposed to dip your ice drop into the hot chocolate. I know I’ve already had the pumpkin soup so having pumpkin again for dessert is kind of redundant. But I sure don’t mind since it was really good. And boy, it was really wholly made of pumpkin.

Food was really good I think. The only thing though is that you have to consume your five-course meal in less than two hours as they have sort of a time limit for their lunch meals. Yes, even on a weekend.

Still though, the place is worth a try and pretty affordable at that.
Do check the place out!

Lugdunum Bouchon Lyonnais
1st Floor, Ebiya Building, 4-3-7 Kagurazaka,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0825

A tempura restaurant, what is probably unique with Ginza Tenkuni is that they have their own (great) tempura recipes that you’d hardly find in any other restaurants.

This kakiage was my first favorite in the restaurant. A tempura of mixed shrimp and scallops flavored with Japanese soy sauce.

The other day though, we tried the Yuki set, which we considered almost a feast.

First came in the sushi with the chawanmushi.

Didn’t realize how much I missed sashimi. It’s been almost two months! The chawanmushi, supposedly an appetizer, I set aside for later. Yes, I’m the type who sets aside their favorites for later. Delaying gratification, yes.

The salad, dressed in a Japanese sauce that was a mixture of sweet, salty and sour was just so light and perfectly blended you’d want to have another serving. This one goes to the favorites column.

The main Yuki meal.

Their miso is not your usual kind of miso. It leans on the soy sauce taste and is a bit bitter-salty. Taste and smell is strong too. The meal also has a cold pork side dish, in sesame and onion.

They had the usual shrimp/fish/vegetable tempura.

But they won me with these two unique tempuras – scallop wrapped in seaweed and shiitake mushroom stuffed with shrimps.

Don’t mind the grease though. Ginza Tenkuni fry their tempura in sesame oil. Sossy.

The chawanmushi served as my dessert. Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) is actually an egg custard usually served as appetizer. Served hot, the custard (which is of course not sweet at all) is stuffed with mushroom, shrimp, chicken, ginna (ginkgo seeds which hubby absolutely loves especially as yakitori) and peppered with some herbs.

I giggled when I saw the saucer they used for the chawanmushi. A definite place for the cup and the convex of the spoon. A place for everything and everything on its place.

Located at Minato Mirai, Landmark Tower, Ground floor, left side if coming from Minato Mirai line.

All photos were taken from my iPhone cam.

This post however will not be about them yet. But rather about K.u.K Hofzuckerbäcker Demel; K.u.K Hofzuckerbäcker aka Imperial and Royal Court Confectionary Bakery. There’s this famous Habsburg Empress, Sisi , who was quite well known for being a Demel fanatic. There was even a receipt of a Demel purchase (and it was quite a long list at that!) in her museum. Now you may wonder why a confectionery receipt ended up in her museum – one would think there aren’t any other interesting stuff to display that’s why they even displayed receipts of her purchases. But no. It really makes sense. Because even with the proof of how addicted Sisi was with Demel confectionery, her waistline was still at a whooping 20″! Albeit she keeps to a strict exercise regimen (the props of which were also displayed in her museum) and that she is quite well known as well for her eating disorders. (Let’s have more of Sisi in another post).

Anyways, having had learned that Demel existed since 1786 and has been the Habsburg Imperial confectionary, you can just imagine how I so WANTED to eat here.

We planned to have our coffee break in Demel at mid-afternoon after scouring the Hofburg Palace. Our map told us we still need to round a corner after the last of the Hofburg buildings but I gave an excited cry when I spotted Demel in Kholmarkt just a few steps after we left Hofburg.

This building is the very same building that stood back in 1786, with the interior in Rococo style.

I love this coat hanger!

Now, I’m not one for cakes. I’m more of an ice cream person. But looking at their display made me want to taste one and all!

We deemed it was best to taste the traditional apfelstrudel in Demel. Of course it was a great decision! Gawdness it was good!

Had trüffletorte as well. Yuuuum!

I am most excited to try Sisi’s favorite ice cream though – Demel’s violet ice cream. My regret? I only had one scoop of it. I should have had four!!!!

I already had melange (the Vienesse coffee which comes close to cappuccino) in another cafè hence we decided to have Demel’s house coffee. It came with a generous serving of unsweetened cream. Wow.

The bill. If you’re living in Japan, after having had ordered all the above, this is definitely cheap.

We were lucky enough to be seated at a table where we can see how the apfelstrudel is made.

Of course, we didn’t pass up the chance to buy chocolates and biscuits with art nouveau packaging for omiyage.

When you pass by Kholmarkt, look for the sign and do drop by.

K.U. K HOFZUCKERBÄCKER
CH. DEMEL’ S SÖHNE GmbH
Kohlmarkt 14
A-1010 Vienna
phone +43/1/535 17 17-0
Fax +43/1/535 17 17-26
wien@demel.com
OPENING HOURS
daily from 09.00 am – 7.00 pm

So we found the Lennon Wall. But there were only two restaurants in site. I figure John and George Café would be a bit modern.

But this one is very Czech, complete with duck and Pork knee entree (the conversion rate is pretty good though).

And the other is this.

This cafe’s summer garden points to the very same spot that was described as the location of John and George Cafe – by a small alley just right beside the Lennon Wall. Hungry and not up for pork knee, we decided to try Campanulla instead, hoping that John and George had changed their name to Campanulla. A number of people were already seated in the summer Café and it wasn’t really summer already. It was actually cold what with autumn in full gear. And it was getting dark by the minute so we really couldn’t enjoy the garden much anymore. Hence we decided to eat inside instead. Took a few shots of the garden.

I later learned that Ludwig van Beethoven himself likes to hang around this garden.

Although we missed the chance to lounge in a place where a famous composer used to hang around, we still loved (and preferred) to stay inside the cozy Cafe. My guess is that this is a Tonino Lamborghini restaurant.

Photos of famous personalities who used to hang around the place (?) were on display.

I love G12′s shots on the place that I’m posting the shots I took inside the cafe unedited save for the watermark. The places we went to were really beautiful and breathtaking. Yet this shot is one of my favorites.

This is Italian yes. There are lots of stuff in the place that suggests the place is Italian actually. Really good juice.

The bread that’s on the house was really good too.

Curiously, the smell of salami followed me everywhere we go in Praha hence I didn’t order for a pork dish anymore. Ordered a salmon even when I had salmon already the day before.
I tasted Atsushi’s pork before eating my fish and the moment I ate it, I regretted not ordering pork. The meat tasted so flavorful my mouth waters now at the memory of it. Pork tenderloin with green pepper sauce.

When I tasted my salmon though, I got happy I didn’t make the wrong decision after all. Salmon was cooked just right. I ate three salmon dishes during our Praha visit and this salmon is the best one I had. And it’s easily one of the best salmon I’ve ever had. A far cry from the salmon in El Nido even. Grilled salmon with chipotle sauce, cream, butter, onions and chipotle chilies.

The tourists.

Of course we capped our meal with dessert – apricot crumble cake.

Had it with uber rich hot orange chocolate drink that was just simply marvelous.

I wanted to have our anniversary dinner here again, the following evening, but of course we had to try out other Czech restaurants to have more experience with the place.

But if ever I’ll be back in Praha, I’d surely eat here again. And again.

But I was mighty impressed with it’s interior.

Traditionally, udon is dipped in soy sauce or 醤油 (shōyu). However, this shop offers a different kind of alternative.

I’m not big on curry; if I can avoid eating it, I’m happy. But for Konaya’s curry sauce, I wouldn’t mind having it with udon several times a week.

Oh, see that shrimp above? They have several set menus that offer this angel shrimp (yep, that’s how it was called). Now, I really love shrimps but this one is just sooooo good.

Surprisingly, it comes really affordable at only 1050yen for some set meals, including the ones we ordered.

Do try it out!

(Yes, it-is-expensive besides!)

Nor did I foresee myself having mentaiko (roe of pollock or pollack) as a favorite!

If truth be told, they look GROSS. Hubby said though that for Japanese, the site of roe is appetizing. And I could understand why – probably because they already knew how good it tastes and remembering how good the roe tastes makes your mouth water at the mere site of it.

One friday last March, after picking up hubby in the office for a date, he hauled me off to Komeraku in Landmark Tower. The poster up in the store front features a mentaiko meal set and for me, it wasn’t appetizing at all . I was scared of trying it, to be honest! But hubby encouraged me to try it because it’s one of them traditional Japanese food and I should give it a shot at least once. And boy was I so thankful hubby insisted.

I chose the mentaiko set because it had pork in it. Figured that if I can’t stomach the fish eggs, there’s always the pork to eat.

The pork (the one at the far right) was re~~ally good. Tasteful and so tender, so yasashii! Yet, although the pork was good, it was a far cry from how the mentaiko (pink one on the left of the pork) tasted. It-was-just-so-good I repeatedly told hubby how good it was the whole time we were eating. Pardon the blurred photos though.

The teapot nearest me in above photo contains flavored hot water which you can use to make Ochazuke. I wanted to taste the mentaiko as much as possible hence I poured too little water on my ochazuke. Yep, that’s how good the mentaiko is.

Last Wednesday, hubby and I were craving for the mentaiko again hence off we went to Komeraku. Once seated though, the lady staff told us that the mentaiko set is already sold out for the day (it was already 8pm). Feeling adventurous, I chose the Ikura/salmon roe set.

It turned out I made a great choice. The meal was truly an explosion of flavors.

Ikura on top of flavored rice, peppered with salmon bits, herbs and arare (small rice crackers). Besides being truly flavorful, the meal is very interesting what with the salty-flavorful little eggs exploding inside your mouth as you chew, and the arare giving a bit of crunch.

The meal comes with a special sauce. Pardon though in that I don’t know how to describe it further other than that it made my meal even more flavorful.

This time, the ingredients on my ochazuke had the right proportions.

Nori and arare are available on each table to add more taste to your ochazuke . Nori addicts as we are, hubby and I emptied out the container, I think, after our meal.

Ahhh..so good. What made Komeraku even better is that aside from all the good food (and additional helping of rice besides), your meal comes at an affordable price of ~1200~1000yen only.

If you’re in the area, do check the place out; be adventurous and you’ll be rewarded with good food. Komeraku is just right in front of Tonkatsu Wako in Landmark Tower Ground floor.

Thankfully though, authentic Japanese food can be found in Omakase ATC, conveniently situated only a few minutes walk away from the (ex) office.

They offer a number of selection on their menu. But a personal favorite is their Tuna Tataki.

Lightly-seared tuna. Spices dust the lightly-seared sides.

Brace yourself though, this one is addictive. One order is just not enough.

The chef and his apprentice.  Oh how I envy the apprentice! I wonder what it takes to be one.

We had our reservation for lunch. Esaki has only one 6-course menu for lunch and it was at 5250yen – which I think makes Esaki the most affordable among the Michelin Tokyo 3 stars list, at least for lunch (dinner menu is around ~20k or more). Their ume shu is certainly not cheap though, at 1000yen a glass. In other restaurants, normal price of ume shu is at 200~500yen.

the brown-sugar one (darker) that Hubby ordered tasted better albeit it was stronger

As a support to the nationwide, if not worldwide, campaign to help Tohoku recover  fast, Esaki used ingredients taken from the quake-hit regions.

First off, Sazae and Asparagus in sazae liver sauce. Sazae, a turban shellfish (that looked more like a snail) harvested in Chiba, tasted mushroom-like and a bit tough for a shellfish. The asparagus, which was from Hokkaido, was so tender yet crisp. The sazae liver sauce has a really curious alternating taste – bitter, salty, sweet. It was so delectable though that you’d find yourself spooning the sauce when you’ve already eaten the meat and veggies. 

Mushroom and veggies. The mushroom came from Fukushima. I love the yam sauce with the mushroom. It was slimy yes, with just a very slight hint of saltiness. The one in the apex of the triangle has a sesame and peanut sauce. It actually reminds me of the peanut sauce in the Filipino Kare-kare. The beans on the other hand means to off-set the taste of the two, I think, with it being almost bland – no flavor whatsoever.

Sashimi. Thin, almost translucent slices of hirame. Very fresh, very nice.

Now this one’s my favorite among the entrée. Salmon with black rice. This kind of salmon matures during autumn. So when this kind is harvested at this season when they’re still adolescents, it makes for a creamier meat that’s almost boneless (I certainly didn’t see nor felt any bone on the one served me). The salmon was fried perfectly, no fishy taste and smell at all in that I even ate the skin when normally I always keep the skin at the side of my plate, uneaten. The black rice was curiously crunchy and sticky. Fatsia sprout (taranome) tempura was also added in. The whole lot is sprinkled with salt that was extracted from the bottom of a hot spring. Very very nice.

True to the Japanese custom, rice was served last. We had Takikomi Gohan (boiled, flavored rice) with Miso soup. The boiled rice was seasoned and cooked with the cabbage from Miura Peninsula. Even though meatless, the rice was so flavorful in itself. The miso soup served was one of the most unique miso soup I had ever tasted. The button mushroom was made more slimy and flavorful by the natto added to the soup. Yep it has got that distinctly natto taste – similar to soybean yet more stronger.

The rice and miso were great combi with the houji-cha or roasted wheat tea.

Now, for dessert! We were served a bowl with a lid that would make you think that whatever is inside is something hot. Hence I had some difficulty connecting it with the fact that it was now time for dessert.

When we opened it, we got this. Suggestive of a tomato sauce.

But once we took a spoonful of the rich redness – ahhhh, it was heaven. It-was-just-so-good that each sip was almost orgasmic. So goood. Ahhh, so good. Yep, it’s so good you just can’t stop exclaiming so with every spoonful. As Hubby said, it was the best dessert he has ever had in his entire life so far (glad to have had made the breakthrough on his birthday ). Puree of Amaou Strawberry from Fukuoka with a teeny weeny scoop of sherbet.

My dessert went great with the herb tea.

Ahhhh…good food!!!!

By the way, Esaki’s toilet is so pretty and clean I can stay in it and while the day away.

An interesting fact: With 14 restaurants having Michelin 3-stars rate, Tokyo still tops Paris this year, making Tokyo still the center of the gastronomical world. Very interesting. And exciting, especially if you’re living in the area.

Address: Hills aoyama B1, 3-39-9 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Telephone: 03.3408.5056
Home Page: http://www.aoyamaesaki.net (In Japanese)

But then whenever I go to the groceries store, I smile as I thought of different menus to experiment as I walk down the (groceries) aisle. I’m basically teeming with ideas! Weird thing is that the ideas ebb out of me whenever I walk out of the store haha. Suffice it to say that I usually end up buying much more than what I initially intended.

I was just initially thinking of bacon with mushroom as side dish. But I picked up a small pack of shrimp, baby corn, asparagus, green bell pepper as well. In the end, what was originally a side dish became a full main dish. I tossed it in Japanese soy sauce. Hubby kept on exclaiming it was so good the whole time he was eating. haha!

If you want to try this, you may opt to shell the shrimp. I preferred it with the shell kasi.

So hmm, what’s for dinner tonight?

It’s quite easy to prepare though.

1. Boil water and sprinkle some salt and pepper. You can also put the Japanese soup flavoring “hondashi” for that slightly Japanese taste.
2. Once boiling, put the spinach and wait for about 2 minutes to let it cook.
3. Drain.
4. Sauté the bacon with olive oil until lightly brown or until natural juice comes out.
5. Add in the hourenso.
6. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Tada!