Stomachs on legs are proud to present

I've already documented my devotion to heavenly Japanese sponge cakes. I didn't think it could get any better - but it just did.

We had colleagues (or should I say 'alcoholleagues') visit from Japan, and they brought with them a bottle of sake and this wonderful alcohol-infused sponge as souvenirs. How could the sponge retain that dense, yet very fine and soft melt-in-your-mouth texture while stored indefinitely in foil, stewing in its own tipsy juices?

The taste was, like any good castella: lovely, light and a little eggy, with only a yeasty hint of methylated spirits from the booze.
(Note: I think the soaking alcohol may have been shochu, but would love if Nalika can provide insight here).

Each square of this palm-sized cake really packed a punch. I wish there was a way to mail-order it from Japan.

We're nearly at the end of recounting meals eaten in New York. So hold tight. WD50 is the last on the list I think, but I'm leaving the interpretation of that astonishing meal to Hock.

So...a night out close to our last days in New York.

My restaurant of choice was Kyotofu.

I had read about it somewhere and thought rhetorically, what's not to like? I like tofu, I like sake.

It was my choice given that I had willingly sacrificed all my hard work at the gym to follow Hock on his burger/ pizza tour of NYC. And despite the fact that we were leaving to Tokyo within a matter of hours, I felt my digestion system couldn't wait for healthy pan-Asian treats.

We arrived and ordered a sample plate of the mains on offer and a sake sampler.





And a large quivering mass of tofu.


We then ordered a huge bottle of sake and silliness and hunger ensued.

The sampler and tofu weren't enough for four people so we decided to order extra of the samples which everyone liked. Unexpectedly, it wasn't tofu.

At this point tofu ceased to suffice as a drinking snack. We gave up and ordered full portions of the sausages and eel.



My stomach groaned. I'd promised it tofu and spring water and instead showered it with sausages and sake.

Things only got worse after an outrageous kareoke evening, and a taco truck on the upper west side at 2 am.

My digestive system and I are slowly regaining trust in one another, but its a relationship that may take some time to mend

On two occasions now I have been corrected on my pronunciation of Asakusa, both times by white guys who giggle at me and then say something along the lines of "don't you mean Aaahhh-saak-saa". So I asked my friend Kumiko who comes from Japan...."how do you say Asakusa?" and she looked at me blankly and said "Asakusa, just how you said it". I said "are you sure" and she said "of course I'm sure I'm Japanese"

Which made me giggle, cause I've always just pronounced Japanese words in the same way that I learnt how to pronounce Maori words at primary school and it seems the two languages have a lot in common in terms of their use of vowels.

Anyway, we had a lovely time when we stayed in ASAKUSA.



As warned by Nalika, yes it's a bit old and a bit touristy and that suited us down to the ground

I couldn't be bothered being yelled at by grumpy old ryokan owners this time like we were last when we stayed further out in cheaper areas. And being very jetlagged neither could we be assed catching trains for hours to go anywhere. Instead we just hired little bikes and rode around the neighbourhood and Ueno park with all the other little old Japanese people who seem to inhabit ASAKUSA.

ASAKUSA was also right next door to a very festive looking temple with a lot of touristy street vendors, convenient for gift purchasing and sampling



We found this man who makes fresh and slightly overpriced shichimi out of the seven original spices: dried chilli, orange peel; sesame seed; poppy seed; hemp seed; nori and ground sansho



I've only ever tasted the mass produced togarashi shichimi, never freshly made. Needless to say when all the flavours are fresh the spice mix tastes incredible.

There are other vendors in the area too selling local specialities like mochi balls and tempura, all who are equally willing to pose enthusiastically for tourists.







Since discussing the idea of finding one's spiritual home with Ms Q the week earlier in NYC and pondering where mine is, I decided after another thoroughly enjoyable and successful stay in Japan, and since I'm not very spiritual, that on an extremely superficial level I love Japan!!!! For starters there are clean toilets everywhere, I never worry about having to crack a squat in a dirty or compromising place in Japan, the toilet seats often even open themselves and play pleasant flushing noises. There are cheap and yummy noodles and pork buns and tofu everywhere.





A seven eleven can quite easily provide me with over an hour's browsing and entertainment, not to mention a nutritious low fat and yummy meal. People are generally polite and gracious and I loose all fear of being mugged or loosing my wallet. Crime is low. I love a good scolding hot Japanese bath. The shopping is excellent and they have restaurants solely dedicated to crab, or eel or whatever your present seafood fixation happens to be. The public transport is easily navigatable and if it isn't some kind stranger will usually come to your rescue

I explained this to Kumiko and she shook her head, noting how difficult and oppressive Japan is if you live there, and I'm sure Japan is, should you happen to live there or in some way be embroiled in Japanese daily life. But for the tourist it really does provide the perfect hassle-free experience. I love Japan, or should I say Nihon? Naahhhhh.....Japan.

...is what I wandered around Shinjuku saying to perplexed looking Japanese policemen....(something about my squashed kiwi vowels just doesn't translate well in Japanese)

We were looking for a Japanese restaurant that specialises in crab done several ways. Ever since our last trip to Japan where I spotted several of these restaurants (they are a chain) but never managed to indulge my crab fetish its been on the list of "to eats"

Although we wandered around for nearly an hour looking for it, it wasn't until I decided to go into Zara to check out clothing that we spotted that it was in the same building, 4th floor.

Giant Mechanical Crab


From the moment you enter this place it is made perfectly clear that they are serious about crab

Live Crabs






We choose a set menu which appeared to be huge and plenty for two, plus a cloudy sake.....purely through a series of pointing at photos and elaborate hand gestures an flailing of hands. God I love the freedom of being a tourist for four days, not having to learn the language and reverting back to universals such as pointing and nodding. Communication was a success and a series of trays began to arrive at our table.

Place setting including crab scrapper


Crab egg pate


Steamed crab


Crab Sashimi


This was unbelievable, fresh, sweet and almost creamy

Table top charcoal grilled crab


Simple and gave off that irresistible smell of seafood shells being roasted

Crab Nabe (Hotpot)




Rice Soup






Green Tea Icecream


Mildly helpful link in Japanese

Spotted in Dusseldorf this afternoon (at Takumi
ramen shop): Paikumen. Fried breaded pork cutlet on top of ramen soup? That has got to be good. And surely the Germans are gonna love that schnitzel-with-a-twist.
"Surprise..... it's soggy!"

We spent last night in Dusseldorf because it was my birthday. Since we stayed over, we were able to fit in 2 & 1/2 eating opportunities.
So we munched through:
- matcha-white-chocolate mousse
-black vinegar sour cocktail
-cha-shu kimchi salad
-goya champuru with pig's ears
- small Iberico spare ribs cooked on the yakitori grill and served with lemon and baby wipes
- yaki-onigiri
- sasami salad with renkon chips
-pork bibimba with nori flakes and rocket/rucola/arugula.
- ramen

Who let the pigs outs, huh?

We also bought some more Japanese cookbooks (including one with Japanese renditions of healthy indian food, and one with Japanese interpretations of Vietnamese and Korean dishes), Japanese/Korean groceries (just some rice, shiso, kimchi etc), went disco dancing, and went to an exhibition.

It's nice to have a feeling of being somewhere different - just a 25 minute train ride from Cologne. Germany in general does not have so many big enclaves of other nationalities, except Turkish. The Turkish street in Mulheim is our other nearby option for a quick and cheap 'escape from Germany'.

My lunch today was the Orochon Ramen (see below).



This was really delicious.

I tried to look up 'orochon': apparently it is the name of a Northern Manchurian swamp-dwelling people who live entirely off reindeer.

"The greater part of northern and central Siberia is swamp taiga. The largest marshy area in the world, it stretches for hundreds of miles and consists of stagnant lakes and boggy pools of glistening green water interspersed with myriad tufts of grass. The whole culture of the Orochi, everything they own or do, stems from or refers to the reindeer."
(Lissner - Man, God and Magic)







One website claims that 'orochon' is also Ainu (native Hokkaido people) for 'bravery'. A little more digging reveals that there is a 'fire festival' called Orochon, in a town called Abashiri, famous for its prison that housed Meji-era political prisoners. The Orochon fire festival consists of a memorial service and fertility rituals that commemorate the Moyoros (predecessors) of the Ainu people.

I'm still not sure what the connection between Manchurian swamp-dwellers, the Ainu people and chilli ramen is.

In any case, the ramen wasn't so spicy it required bravery. Nicely hot and swimming in beautiful orange oil, topped with some hand made prawn wontons. Could be good combined with soggy schnitzel too.

Now...........................Does anyone know where the word 'paiku' comes from?

Thai's love branding and packaging more than most I've decided... and Vanilla Industries hits the brand loving spot. Vanilla Industries is the brainchild of the children of mega food conglomerate, S&P. S&P make pretty bad and pretty low grade bakery items for the large scale Thai market. Their children make marginally better bistro food at higher prices and better packaging.

First came the bistro and creperie...now comes dim sum and "japanese cafe" (whatever that is supposed to be)

On Ekkamai soi 12, in one of the many very cool old 1970s era houses that dominate the tree lined back sois of Sukhumvit is Vanilla Royal and Vanilla Garden.




Vanilla Royal is a dim sum...fairly bad, gluggy dim sum....edible mind you. The decor is, staff uniforms and overall presentation is, as to be expected great. So people come and they eat. Note the mercedes and bmw's in the car park. It's not that pricy by western standards but very pricy by Thai standards so its strictly high so in there.




Further down the garden path you can wash down your gluggy dim sum and fishy prawn flavour down with some decent coffee...or choose from their Western-inspired Japanese food at their Japanese Cafe...and try to remember you're in Thailand...





We went back for a second try, after the dim sum to try the cafe. Hock had the katsu pork bun, not quite what he had in mind, but tasty apparently


I had a somewhat comforting prawn and avocado sandwich drowned with seafood mayo wedged on pillowy soft white bread



It wasn't terrible but it was far from memorable.....I like a good garden, especially in Bangkok but there really is little reason food wise to visit this place

Update: well maybe I was wrong....we went back there again and had a coffee and sandwiches. The coffee is decent and the sandwiches were sandwiches of my childhood. Egg and mayo on crustless white bread and ham cheese and mushroom toasted on crustless white bread. Terribly trashy by western standards but decidedly Japanese and hi society by Thai ones. There is something strangely comforting about a well made egg sandwich that takes me and Hock back to our 1970s childhoods, vegemite and cheese sandwiches, cheese and Piccadilly sandwiches, vegemite and chip sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, those strange salad rolls that always had grated carrot in them, lamingtons and custard pies....they probably just need to put asparagus rolls and some curried egg on the menu and it could quite easily be renamed the New Zealand Edmond's Cookbook Cafe. But then probably no one would go