Out

Another round-up, this time featuring stuff I've been eating out.

Last month I had a nice coffee and book swap in Kichijoji with Ms J, a commenter on this blog. Among the many coffee shops in the area we chose a place called medewo & dine, which has an odd name but turned out to be a nice place: spacious and bright, with the tables so far apart that we didn't even notice we were in the smoking section. The lattes were good too, and came decorated with the cutest latte art I've ever seen. I thought maybe the rabbit was for Easter, but it seems to be a regular design. I hope I get the sneezing cat next time.

Earlier this month a friend and I couldn't find a cheap dinner in Shibuya, so we settled for our regular standby Tenya, a fast food chain specializing in tempura. They now have ochazuke (rice with hot tea), which is a favourite food of mine. It's quite common at izakayas or other drinking places, but not normally found at fast food type shops so I was pleased to see it on the menu. This is ume-chazuke, topped with chopped kari-kari ume (crunchy pickled plums), nori seaweed, shio-kombu (salted kelp), arare (rice puffs) and mitsuba (trefoil).

The seasonal tempura came with takenoko (bamboo shot), sakura ebi kaki-age (a large disc of tiny pink sakura shrimp with onion and mitsuba), hanpen (fish paste), green beans, and shrimp. It was good, especially the kaki-age, and not a bad deal for 970 yen.

We were in Shibuya, by the way, to work out at a fancy gym that we had a trial coupon for. Called Wow'd, it had great views: that's Shinjuku up above. The place was full of nice new equipment and thin young women in expensive outfits--I felt a bit conspicuous in the crumpled and ill-fitting gym clothes I'd found stuffed at the back of my closet. .

We tried a belly dance class (harder than I thought) and a great stretch class, and during those two hours not once did any of the other women talk to each other. The complete silence while waiting for the classes to begin was especially creepy, and if I had been alone I would have fled.

Another cheap fast food place is Ringer Hut, specializing in Nagasaki champon: stir-fried vegetables and seafood over noodles. On a recent visit I got the Nagasaki sara-udon set, with the stir-fry served on crunchy fried noodles and a side of gyoza. It's not the finest food I've ever eaten but it's tasty, filling, healthy (at least compared to a burger and fries), and very cheap: the set only cost me 680 yen.

After my disappointing Fillet-o-fish a few months back I've been on a quest for a good fish burger. At Mosburger I finally found it.

A generous fillet, properly crunchy, with a toasted bun and the right amount of sauce (just mayonnaise and onions actually). The cheese is just as unnecessary as it is on the McDonalds version, but you get a whole slice here. Strangely, there was also mustard on the bottom, which I thought would be weird but tasted alright. The fries could have been a bit crispier but were piping hot and properly soft and fluffy inside. At 590 yen for the burger, small fries and a drink, it's only slightly more expensive than McD's version. Which means there is no reason for me to ever set foot in a McDonald's again (at least after 10:30am: I still love their breakfasts).

My first official visit to Tokyo Midtown (a year after it opened-- can you tell I don't get out much?) was with Shan, another person I met through this blog (and also at the eGullet get-together earlier this month). We lined up to get into a trendy cafe, something I thought I'd never do. But this was no ordinary cafe: this was the sit-down section of the Jean-Paul Hevin chocolate boutique.

The line wasn't really all that long, and it gave us time to figure out what we wanted as every single thing on the picture menu we were given looked fantastic. By the time we sat down I had settled on the above chocolate tart with an espresso (I'd forgotten that espressos at fancy cafes come with a little chocolate or two, so I got a bit of a chocolate overdose). It was so, so good that I won't even bother describing it, because I know I won't do justice to it. Suffice to say that whoever this Jean-Paul guy is, he knows his chocolate. It cost me 1200 yen, which could got me a lavish meal for two at any of the fast food joints above, but as special treat it was completely worth it.

medewo & dine (webpage in Japanese only)
0422-23-8208
2-13-6 Kichijoji Hocho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo
Open daily, 11:30 to 11:30 (last order 10:30)

Tenya (webpage in Japanese only)
Locations throughout the Kanto area, shop list here (in Japanese)

Ringer Hut (webpage in Japanese only)
Locations throughout the Kanto area and western Japan, shop list here (in Japanese)

MOS Burger (webpage in Japanese only, but corporate site and Singapore site in English)
Locations throughout Japan, shop list here (in Japanese)

Jean-Paul Hevin Tokyo Midtown
03-5413-3676
Tokyo Midtown Galleria 1st Floor, 9-7-4 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open daily 11:00 to 9:00
Other locations in Japan listed here

Comments

[Ms J]

Hi Amy!!

Yes, those coffees were good. Very glad that we found Medewo & Dine. Coming from the coffee-proud city of Melbourne, a city where Starbucks really struggles to compete with independent cafes, I am extremely fussy about my latte!!

Looking forward to catching up again sometime in the future!

[Su-Lin]

Ah - twice in recent years have I been to Singapore and twice I haven't taken the chance to try Mos Burger! Next time!

[kat]

oh, I love Mos Burger, how I wish they have one here in LA. I love all their rice burgers, especially their pork rice burger which we had when we were in Hiroshima. My niece got me addicted to their spicy hot dog! For some reason I like the Japanese hot dog, maybe its because of the snap when biting into the doggie.

[Anne]

Those lattes are so....Japanese kawaeeeeeeeee! I really miss the Japanese fast food chains- Mos was really great and I also loved Freshness Burger too.

Love your blog:).

[Lori]

All of that food looks so good! And the latte art...so cute and detailed!

[Carlyn]

Amy;
Everything looks so good....the lattes especially....But....my favorite, OCHAZUKE!!! Ahhhhhh, yummmmmmm ( I'm easily pleased, neh?)