Grilled food on a cold wintry night, life's little pleasure

Nothing beats freshly grilled food
with a glass of beer or umeshu

OMG! I am behind on the SQ promotion cheap fares to Tokyo as my brain is suffering from election fatigue. Yup, every other person's status on Facebook is election related, not to mention, it's more news on tv, the internet or booklets stuffed at my doorstep. The plus point is I get to vote after so many years. Frankly, no more election news for me. Come Saturday, I am just going to get dressed, pop downstairs to the polling centre and cast my secret vote. Have already read about what to do and what not to do, cross, not tick in the box and what is a spoilt vote. Plenty of misleading posters around the neighbourhood that tells us to tick...

Back to the SQ mega cheap Singapore to Tokyo fare, it's only S$398 inclusive of tax. That is dirt cheap especially since you can see cherry blossoms around this time. But will I go? Nay. No time and that radiation problem at Fukushima that refuses to go away. I am sure the food that you consume in Tokyo is perfectly safe. Or very safe as I believe the Japanese have great respect for the food they sell and consume. Anyway, you can exposed to radiation in cities like Hong Kong and Singapore too.

Look, dirt cheap, right? At the cheapest in the past
for other airlines, it will be S$640 inclusive of tax.

But if you are going, please do visit this new favourite food haunt of mine in Tokyo. ふくはち Fukuhachi! Great food at affordable prices right smack in the middle of Shinjuku. Discovered it during my last trip to Tokyo. Super yummy.

What do I craved for while on holiday in the midst of winter in Tokyo other than a big bowl of piping hot noodles? Not sushi or tempura but a fresh batch of beautifully grilled yakitori, vegetables or whatever that is available at a Izakaya. Washed down with my drink of choice, pure heaven.

Seafood in Ito City 伊東

Fresh seafood is plentiful in Ito 伊東

Part II of my Ito 伊東, shizuoka trip. The food part. Being such a greedy gal, first thing on my mind when I reached a destination after checking in was to look for food. How do we know which restaurant serves good food?

By our sense of smell, long queues snaking round corners, luck or we will ask the hotel/hostel/ryokan's staff for their recommendations. Don't be shy.

We were famished after we checked in at K's House Ito Onsen. The four onigiris, japanese rice balls I ate earlier for breakfast at the train station just wasn't satisfying for me. I was hungry after the 2+ hours train journey from Tokyo. Yup, I ate four...that's a lot for a girl.

Gomiya is a family restaurant in Ito 伊東 that came highly recommended by the hostel's staff. We walked past the restaurant on the way to the hostel from JR Ito station. The grilled fish aroma wafting out of the restaurant was really enticing. The aroma, coupled with the people queuing in the cold stopped me in my tracks then.

Here we were again.

R 's queuing. If there's a queue, we will queue.

Menu. Appetizers, sashimi, various kinds of
seafood set meals, donburi and alcohol.
Don't worry, they have a picture menu
if you can't read this menu

What to do when it is public holiday and you are at a supermarket?

Day 1
We ended up in the supermarket after the rain dashed our afternoon at the botanic gardens. Since it was so cold and gloomy,  we had sukiyaki hotpot at home. I love hotpots on cool nights. The sukiyaki sauce was from a bottle. Added more water even though the instruction said otherwise. It was extremely salty without added water. Vegetables? Tung-o, golden mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, pumpkin, beansprouts, leeks and bamboo shoots. Meat? Pork and scallops. R insisted on buying the scallops. A hearty meal.

We had sukiyaki at home in front of the TV.

The food

Gorgeous vegetables. More in the fridge.

Day 2
Leftover steamboat for dinner. Stewed the rest of the bamboo shoots, added white radish, leeks, pumpkin and carrots.

 

The leftovers steamboat and more side dishes.

My fav stir-fried bean sprouts. This is with tomatoes, king
oyster mushrooms and bamboo shoots.

Closed up of the stew.

The doesn't look great seaweed, carrot and soya bean dish.
Seaweed is very good for detoxifying the body
and a good source of iodine.

Fresh wasabi root from Alishan in Taiwan

Thanks for the fresh wasabi root, friends V & I

Does fresh wasabi taste different for the usual wasabi served at restaurants? The answer is a resounding yes. I have tasted freshly grated wasabi root in Tokyo and some Japanese restaurants in Singapore. Freshly grated roots are a faint green colour, lightly scented, mild but still with a kick unlike the lurid green ones from tubed wasabi. Tubed wasabi is made from horse radish, mustard powder and colouring BTW.

Couple V and I gave us the fresh wasabi from Alishan, Taiwan. Friend I's mum (Friend I is taiwanese) who came to visit had a friend who grows wasabi in her backyard in Alishan, Taiwan. So here we are, fresh wasabi. I never knew wasabi grew in Taiwan. Apparently, Taiwan imports their better quality wasabi harvest to Japan. All that I learnt from Japan Hour is that these roots need to be grown in very clean, unpolluted water and cool weather. Thanks for the root. : P

What did we do with the wasabi? R bought sashimi from Mediya and volia, dinner.

R's chirasu don with the grated wasabi

Mine, isn't it nicely presented?

Grating the wasabi, but here's one from our meal in Beer Delica, Tokyo.

Oops, I have forgotten to take a pic of the grating process. But here's a pic of our meal at Beer Delica, Tokyo, an izakaya I posted about previously. Hmmm, in Singapore, fresh wasabi is usually eaten in upscale Japanese restaurants. But in Tokyo, these can be found at Izakayas (local drinking joints). Not that out of reach after all.

Read more about Wasabi here