Osaka: Aka-Oni Takoyaki

02 March 2009 20:00 (Monday)

When in Osaka, you MUST try the Octopus Balls, otherwise known as Takoyaki. It's a city specialty and it certainly taste fantastic!!! It was so good we had it every single day that we were in Osaka.

Aka-Oni Takoyaki is located along the main strip of Dotonbori. With a stall decor like that, you can't possibly miss it. Along Dotonbori there were way too many Takoyaki stalls but we settled on Aka-Oni simply cos it had the longest queue. Ah yes.... we adopted the Herd Mentality and this time round, the Herd proved right :)

There were a few choices of how you would like your Octopus Balls done, we went for the spicy sauce and ...... Yuuuuuummmmmm......


Bad picture cos it was close to 0 degrees outside and we were freezing our a$es off and the moment I removed my hands from my gloves to take a camera shot, my fingers would freeze up. It was a street brawl between good picture of food vs hands need for warmth..... hands won...


Aka-oni Takoyaki
Somewhere along Dotonbori...
Can't miss it, the stall with the red devils is way too prominent...

Dining in Japan - An Introductory Video

Here's a really funny clip i found on YouTube about dining in Japan. It seriously cracked me up and we figured we would have some fun in Japan by following exactly how they drink in this video clip. Enjoy!

Ramen @ Omotesando

01 March 2009 11:30 (Sunday)

Right... Sometime during my holiday in Japan, i figured i would have a problem with my blog due to the eatery names being in Japanese. This would be the first of my problems. The Japanese character is rather similar to Chinese and i figured the words at the end are Fire and Mountain but i cannot figure out what's the word in the middle. As such, i shall henceforth call this Ramen Eatery the Mountain Fire Ramen Stall.

Now, the Mountain Fire Ramen Stall is located along Omotesando which is near Harajuku. If you were to stand at the opposite side of the road from the Omotesando Hills Shopping Mall and face the mall, you should then turn left, walk about 134 paces then turn left again, you should face an alley, walk another 23 paces and the below scene should greet you....


At this point, i certainly hope you did not stop at the earlier paragraph, hopped on a plane to Japan and followed my instructions cause i doubt that was correct. General directions are correct, just not too sure about the number of paces....

Again, it was Kevin and Pauline that brought us to this relatively obscure ramen eatery but boy was the ramen good! The weather outside was about 4 degrees and it was drizzling and that Oh so tasty Soup ramen certainly helped warm up the body in the most wonderful way...


Just look at the soup..... yes, it's as tasty as it looks! Mountain Fire Ramen stall serves their pork separate from the soup rather than dumping everything in. Idea is for you to decide how much and when you want to mix the pork into the soup. I'm sure there's a highly logical explanation as to why this is so but i decided i would leave the chefs to serve the long queue of people in and outside the eatery rather than have him figure out what i am trying to say to them...


The bowl with the green stuff is actually Dou Miao vegetable with rice below. No sauce, no condiments.... just Dou Miao, Seaweed and Japanese rice. So simple yet so nice. The Gyoza was to die for! Skin was super crispy and the meat was awesomely tasty!


Another shot of the ramen.... u can't possibly tell me u aren't salivating yet....


Looking at these pictures certainly bring back wonderful memories. If only i could have this for dinner tonight.....

Mountain Fire Ramen
Somewhere in Omotesando

Gonpachi - Nishi Azabu

28 February 2009 19:30 (Saturday)

Gonpachi is a bit of a legend over in Japan. When the former US president, George Bush, came over to Tokyo, the former Japanese prime minister apparently brought him here for some bites. For those of you who are into Quentin Tarantino films, you will find this restaurant highly familiar.... yes, that's cause the set for the scene in which Uma Thurman decapitates Lucy Liu and her Crazy 88 gang was based on this restaurant. Have i gotten you a little excited yet? :)


This is a view from our table on the 2nd storey of the restaurant. Doesn't the restaurant look so cool! It's always packed so reservations are a must! Gonpachi is a bit of an Izakaya, where people have small bites, drink huge amounts of alcohol and talk as loud as they can. And to reciprocate, the waiting stuff are always shouting some greeting whenever someone walks into the restaurant. The Chefs will then reciprocate with more shouting.... It's noisy, but it's oh so cool!


What's a good meal without sake right? Isn't this Sake pot so cool!


Starters to stimulate the stomach....


Errr.... i think this is the pork belly with a dose of Wasabi... Yuuummmm.


Grilled Beef... Mmmmmm....


Can't remember what fish this is but trust me, it taste better than it looks!


Black Miso Cod fish..... Meat so soft, Meat so smooth, Meat so tasty......


This one was our favourite of the night.... grilled Foie Gras with Strawberry. The liver melts the moment you pop it into your mouth. WHOA... i think i just fell into a 10 second trance just writing this bit about the Foie Gras....


More grilled meat.... too much alcohol to remember what is what....

Ok, i'll be honest. Gonpachi is a restaurant you gotta visit when you go to Japan.... but just once will suffice. It's a must in my books only because of it's decor and the electrifying atmosphere. You cannot find anything remotely close over here in Singapore. The food is great but it isn't fantastic... Don't get me wrong, it's very nice but you can have the same quality of food here in one of the better Yakitori restaurants in Singapore. We were looking for uniquely good in which we found in the atmosphere.... food was good, just wasn't unique. Still it's a must go... and you can quote me on that!

Gonpachi
1F,2F
1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku,
Tokyo 106-0031
Tel: 03-5771-0170