Adrift in Japan

Chez Comme Moi

Yesterday we had lunch at Stellar Place's "cuisine chinois" Chinese-style restaurant with an arrogant French name. From the appearance of the outside, I was expecting more. More innovative food, and, frankly, tastier food. Not that it was bad... it just wasn't inspired.

We ordered lunch sets, which rather than being sets were really a choose-your-own first course, second course and dessert, where the prices just happened to add up to the total cost of the set. I had something like sweet and sour pork (with pineapple) and chow mein, and Matt had... um... I can't remember... and fried rice. My pork was tasty, but the sauce was overly heavy. The chow mein was soggy, even the parts that were supposed to be crispy, and the flavor was basically non-existent. I was nostalgic for the seafood noodles at the Chinese restaurant my parents frequent in Wisconsin. Matt's food, both dishes, seemed better, although he still rated the fried rice lower than at a different Chinese restaurant we went to just last week.

Dessert was definitely the highlight of the meal. Matt had almond tofu (or almond jello) which was delicate and tasty. I had the sesame ball with red bean paste. The ball was crispy and hot, with the insides gooey and delicious. Thumbs up on the dessert... but would I really go back just for that?

Verdict: Ehh. I don't think we'll be back, especially not with another (better) Chinese restaurant just down the hall from this one.

[sidenote: yeah, yesterday's food experiences both hit the "eh" category. not too bad, but not deserving of repeat visits.]

Tanghla

Two new restaurants just opened at Parco, Tanghla and La Maison de Curry (or something like that). Last night Matt and I went to Tanghla and ordered the special course they're offering for their opening. When we arrived, we asked what type of cuisine it was and the woman said "simple, with a little Asian."

Ambience -- nice view of the city. In addition to the western style tables there is a pseudo-tatami area with pits under the table for your legs, and there is a "counter" against the big window so some guests can eat looking out directly over the view. Pretty neat.

The menu was 5 courses and a beverage (wine or soft drink). First course: some sort of shell fish, probably hotate (scallop) diced raw with a dressing, on the half shell. Second course: salad of tomato and cucumbers chopped up and dressed with a heavy dairy based sauce, described as a cheese sauce, although it didn't taste much like cheese. Third course: there were two choices, so we had one of each; seasoned hamburger and fish. The hamburger was tasty but the fish was overcooked. Fourth course: rice (not warm) with shredded crab on top. I wasn't a huge fan. Fifth course (dessert): sliced kiwi with a cheese (probably marscapone) dressing. Yep, three of the courses were uncooked (but pretty tasty) and the two cooked courses didn't measure up except for the hamburger patty. They did have a beer called Heartland beer (or the Japanese equivalent -- Haatrando) which was good and a little more bitter than the regular Japanese beer... more like an American beer.

Anyway, for 1500 yen it was a good price. I think they were offering a deal to expose as many people as possible to the new restaurant and their specials. It was fun and interesting... but I don't think we'll be back.

Verdict: Eh...

Beer Garden Smackdown!

A couple of nights ago we went to the Kirin Beer Garden for the first time. Now it's time for a point-by-point comparison between the Kirin Beer Garden and the Sapporo Beer Garden.

Location: the location of the Kirin Beer Garden right next to the Nakajima subway station is a huge plus. The Sapporo Beer Garden is not very close to any subway station. There is a bus that goes there, but I've never actually ridden it. Winner: Kirin.

Appearance: Outside, the Kirin Beer Garden looks kind of boring, just a big tall building, and inside the lobby, it looks sort of like sterile hotel reception area. In contrast, Sapporo Beer Garden has a nice setting. The reception area is in its own building that has character. Winner: Sapporo.

Souvenier Shopping: Kirin Beer Garden's souvenier shopping was sadly lacking. Sapporo's reception area has a full omiyage shop, complete with steins and Hokkaido food specialties. Winner: Sapporo.

Room Atmosphere: We sat in Kirin's Space Craft room which was rather modern, and frankly lacking in a lot of visual interest. It does, however, have a large video screen on one wall where you can watch them BBQ oysters and read the specials (well, if you can read Kanji, which we can't). Sapporo Beer Garden has better tables and more character, and just seems like a more authentic place. Winner: Sapporo.

Drinking Experience: Well, I have to hand it to Kirin here. We ordered the Tower of Beer which is really tall and holds 4 liters of beer right at the table (picture coming soon). We drank a whole tower, plus 2 more partial towers. That may very well have been the highlight of the evening. So, even though I think I like Sapporo beer better, the Kirin experience was too good. Winner: Kirin.

Food: The Kirin grill was non-stick, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, that's about the best thing I can say about it. The meat itself... well, the funniest thing I can say about the meat is that they asked us if we wanted "row style" which in the end we figured out was non-marinated and probably was supposed to be "raw." Maybe we should have ordered the marinated meat, because the meat wasn't that tasty. It just didn't have that much flavor, even with the dipping sauce. The pieces were a nice slabby thickness though. In contrast, I really like the meat at the Sapporo place, and the dipping sauce is tastier. And since we're there for the meat... Winner: Sapporo.

Did I have fun at the Kirin Beer Garden? Hell yeah! More fun than I did at the Sapporo Beer Garden? Yep. But, I think it was the good company, the alcohol and the fact that we followed it up with a couple hours of (expensive) karaoke.

Final score: Kirin 2, Sapporo 4.

Matt and I are off for mega-family vacation. Be in touch from Kyoto!

Delhi Restaurant

Or, why not to trust the Lonely Planet's restaurant recommendations.

We have the newest edition of the Lonely Planet Japan guidebook, picked up after it was printed last fall. We like the book and have found it good reading with helpful descriptions of things to see around Japan. Last night, though, was our first time visiting a restaurant recommended by the book -- well, other than the Sapporo Beer Garden, which everyone knows about. After all, we are in Sapporo.

Anyway, we have been several times to an Indian restaurant near the Station area, but we were eager to try another, and the Lonely Planet listen Delhi Restaurant as a good place for an Indian meal. We headed out optimistically and took the subway to Susukino. We walked through the covered arcade to the restaurant at S3W1 just inside the end of the arcade -- there it was, tucked in there just before the road.

We headed inside and were the only customers inside a small restaurant. That in itself wasn't a concern, but the absence of any Indian people working there -- even in the kitchen -- was more of a worry. Although we weren't able to read the menu, the woman did convey to us that there were several different types of curry and meats and you could mix and match, for example chicken, lamb, meatball (?) or vegetables with a 3 different types of curry. We ended up with the lamb curry (kashmiri?) and chicken curry (can't remember what style it was supposed to be). I was definitely disappointed that there was no naan -- in my estimation, any place that doesn't have bread is a let down as far as Indian cuisine is concerned. It doesn't have to have naan, but paratha or poori or roti or whatever else... that would be nice. We did however order 2 papadum, a lassi and a beer.

Oooh, the lassi was a mistake. I'm not sure, but I suspect it was just some sort of off-the-shelf yogurt beverage you can pick up at any supermarket in Japan. It just didn't have quite that lassi flavor. Matt's beer, on the other hand, was a good deal, about 450 yen for a large bottle. The papadum was good, just like all papadum. We probably should have ordered more.

The curries came and were served with large plates of Japanese rice, not basmati rice. The curries themselves were served in Indian style metal dishes, each with 4 pieces of meat swimming in a thin sauce. Matt said his tasted very similar to Japanese curry. Mine was spicy and had a great deal of cardamom (come to think of it, so did his). At any rate, I'm not convinced it was "Indian" but it had some curry flavor. Edible, but not really that great. One of them came with side dishes as a part of the "set" -- some sort of pickle thing and some odd cheese (not paneer). All in all, a strange experience.

Noone else came in while we were there, and we left around the time they would have accepted their last order. We can only assume they have more business at lunch than they do at dinner.

Every time I've written a restaurant review for this site I've always said we'll be going back, but not this time. Thumbs down on this one. As Matt says, it's not that the food was really bad, but it certainly wasn't what we expected, and there are better places to get similar food. If you have Lonely Planet Japan, open up your copy to the section on Where to Eat in Sapporo and cross this one out.

Kushi-ya

When we went to Toppi, we saw there were quite a few other good looking restaurants up there, so last night Matt and I decided to try another restaurant in ESTA's 10th floor "Gourmet Town."

We peered in through the windows of the restaurants and chose one that looked relatively busy (we avoid empty restaurants, assuming they're empty for a reason) and where you cook in your table. After we walked in, we quickly established that the language barrier was going to be something of a problem. It turned out to be an all-you-can eat style restaurant with several different plans, but we couldn't determine what the plans were. I asked the waitress in Japanese if she could speak English and she clearly couldn't. Eventually, she told us to wait and went to the back, returning with an apparently Chinese-Japanese man who proceeded to ask us, in Japanese, if I spoke Chinese. Um, no, that's why I asked if she spoke English, not Chinese.

At this point, the original woman reached into a folder and took out a sheet of paper that explained the restaurant in English. It seems to me this should have been her first instinct when we told her we spoke English, but maybe I'm being unreasonable. Or maybe not. At any rate, we finally figured it out, picked our plan, and were seated.

Even after that it was clear we were the center of attention. The Chinese guy who spoke a little English accompanied us and stood there next to the table while we read our English language instructions. He also asked me several more times if I was Chinese (I'm Chinese-American, which I told him) and whether I spoke Chinese. I answered in Japanese, "amari..." which essentially means, "not so much." I speak less Chinese than I do Japanese at this point, which isn't surprising considering I've lived here since August and I only studied Chinese for 9 weeks 6 years ago. He did ask me something like "susi?" which I didn't understand but turned out to mean he was asking if we wanted sushi. I just didn't catch the sound properly. He brought us a free plate of sushi, most likely because he thought we had never eaten sushi. It was a little uncomfortable at first being the focus of their attention, but finally more customers started showing up, the Chinese guy (a cook) retreated to the kitchen, and we could eat in peace.

About the Restaurant
I'm sorry I don't know the actual name of the restaurant. It's the kushi-ya on the 10th floor of Esta. In a kushi-ya, there is hot oil on your table. You take skewers of meat, vegetables, and seafood, dip them in a batter and then roll them in panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) and fry them in the oil for a few minutes before pulling them out , letting them cool slightly, and then dipping them in a sauce and biting in carefully. Here's a picture of Matt holding two skewers.

<sidebar>I'm not sure why, but Japan seems to have more different types of cooking-food-at-your-table than most other cultures -- shabu shabu, sukiyaki, genghis khan, kushi-age, etc. I'm curious how it evolved; maybe Japanese people just like to control their food.</sidebar>

All-you-can eat for 90 minutes was 1999 yen, and an additional 1000 yen for all-you-can-drink. All people at the table have to get the same plan, and since I wasn't going to drink, we skipped the drink option. Our money bought us unlimited trips up to the buffet, which included salads, edamame, steamed Chinese buns, eggrolls, and more, in additional to the skewers. The skewer selection was extensive, and included chicken, beef, squid, lotus, quail eggs (one of my favorites), small shrimp, octopus balls, egg omelettes, hamburger, green chiles (Matt's favorite), mushrooms, potatoes, gyoza (another favorite of mine), and more. There were also at least 6 different sauces, not including the flavored salts.

Between us, we ate 55 skewers, plus some smaller pre-cooked items from the buffet, and our free plate of sushi. And we only ate for an hour.

The verdict? We had this style of cuisine once before, in Kyoto. This was actually much better, probably because the oil was very hot which cooked the skewers very well. The oil was held in a built-in unit in the table and the built-in seemed to maintain the temperature well. Plus, the batter was very light and the panko gave a great crunchiness. All in all, thumbs up for a fun time. Definitely a great thing to do with a small group (small enough to fit around a table and share one cooker), if not the healthiest. We'll be back. Of course, at this rate we're identifying so many restaurants we like enough to go back to, we might not have time to go back to them all.

Toppi (とっぴ）

Sunday night, we dragged ourselves out of our apartment in the fabulous weather (see previous entry) to check out ideas for a dinner we're cooking tomorrow night for Kato-san and his wife Akiko-san who had us over two weeks ago for sukiyaki.. First we browsed through the imported food sections of Daimaru and Seibu, and then we coveted cameras at Bic Camera, before heading upstairs at Bic/Esta to the 10th floor "Gourmet Town."

The object of our food quest was the restaurant Toppi, which was recommended by someone in my Nihongo Salon class. It's a "conveyor belt" sushi place.

Sidebar: Before I moved to Japan, I thought conveyor belt sushi was a kitschy American idea. Of course, I thought that the yelling every time a customer came and went at Miyake's in Palo Alto was fakey too, and then I moved here. Now I know that everyone shouts in Japan, or, more correctly, all salespeople shout here. Cries of "Irashaimase!" (welcome) and "Ikagadesuka" (would you like...) and various other things bombard you whereever you walk. And every time you leave a store or a restaurant you hear, "Arigato gozaimashita!" (thank you). Turns out the Miyake's experience was fairly genuine. And now I know that conveyor belt sushi is very popular in Japan, if only because it's more affordable than going to any other kind of sushi restaurant.

If you don't know how conveyor belt sushi works, basically you sit down, and the sushi goes by in front of you on, yes, a kind of conveyor belt. It's convenient because even if you don't know the names of all of the types of sushi, you can still pick them up and eat them without the difficulty of trying to order. Of course, you sometimes have to watch that thing you've been waiting for get swiped just before it comes into your reach. You can also order directly from the sushi chefs if something you like isn't coming by, but we usually don't. After you're done, they count up your plates, usually color coded by price, and that's it. Toppi was actually the first one we've been to in Japan that provided us with an English menu of the sushi, although the seasonal specials weren't on it. Still, it was the most foreigner friendly of all the places, and even included an English-language "How to Eat Conveyor Belt Sushi" instruction sheet.

Of the three conveyor belt sushi places we've been to since we got here, Toppi is definitely the best. The fish was very fresh, and each piece of sushi had a very generously sized portion of fish. They have two different priced plates: 120 yen and 220 yen. Eaten at various points in the evening by the two of us: salmon, more expensive salmon, scallops, shrimps in mayonnaise, tuna, tuna with green onions, medium-fatty tuna, hamachi, salmon roe, a roll with tonkatsu inside, tamago, and various other things, include chawan mushi (egg custard, not raw). Also available were things like oysters, clams, crab, some other unidentifiable shellfish, and basics like french fries and desserts. We ate all we wanted, and in the end, including one Yebisu beer, it worked out to less than 3000 yen (less than 30 dollars). Not bad for such a good meal. We'll definitely be back.

Verdict: Tasty and affordable. Highly recommended.

CAMCAM（カムカム）

People have perhaps been wondering when I'm going to stop talking about travel to other places and start talking about where to go and what to do in Sapporo. Ostensibly this blog could be a resource for other people moving here or living here - if we'd actually talk about places we go. So in light of that...

Yesterday, the masters degree students in Matt's lab presented their theses (the academic year is ending soon) and in the evening, we went out to celebrate. Let's forget the fact that I don't really know many people in the lab and that it's difficult for Matt and I to communicate even with the people who speak English the best and instead focus on how much fun it was!

We went to Cam Cam, which is at M's Space, S2, W7, Chuo-ku, close to the covered arcade between Odori and Susukino. It's a Southeast Asian-type restaurant with sort of thematic decor and a few small tables crowding the floor.

But, we didn't see much of the downstairs as we slipped directly into the upstairs - a loft type area with tables and a bar - that was reserved for our party, in total about 16 people. (I'll admit to feeling a little bad when we first came in. The students and post-docs had to look at each other to decide who was going to move to the third table and sit with us. Thanks to them for putting in the big effort to talk to us and letting us practice our limited Japanese.)

Cam Cam offers some different "party plans," which is a common offering at bars and restaurants in Japan. While my guidebook says Cam Cam's is all-you-can-drink for 2 hours for 1700 yen, last night's drink menu said all-you-can-drink for 2 hours for 1500 yen. Deflation? I'm not sure. But it seems like a good deal to me. On the list of included drinks was beer (Sapporo, of course), but also shouchu, some Chinese alcohols including plum wine, and a variety of cocktails from Gin Tonic to the ever-popular-here Moscow Mule. We drank beers, and some unidentifiable but refreshing lemon thing, and I finished up with a Malibu Milk, which, in my second try, I find is growing on me. At any rate, considering alcohol can be expensive here, the party plan was worth the money, and there was no shortage of drink options. And part of the fun is deciphering the katakana to figure out exactly what those options are.

We also got food - but while the food was good, the fact that their menu isn't in English means we might have trouble ordering when we go back. We weren't responsible for selecting the food this time. I liked almost everything we had, though, so hopefully just pointing and guessing will be alright. Things we liked:

• Salad - basically just a mixed salad, but with some meat we didn't really identify but that was tasty and tender. Westernized salads aren't that common here so this was a nice change.
• Siu Mai - big juicy ones
• Chicken Wings
• Rice Noodles - nicely seasoned
• Fried Rice

We also had two other dishes - a chicken dish with some sort of sauce, which I thought was pretty good but Matt didn't go for. The last dish looked like sweet and sour shrimp (not deep fried shrimp), but by the time it showed up I was too full to think about eating more.

All in all, a thumbs up for Cam Cam. I think we'll be back.

Untangling My Chopsticks

If you know me at all, you know that food is an important part of my life. And you may also know that I love books (although a lot of my book "reading" has been through Audible.com). I love Amazon.com and visit the site frequently to browse through books and add and remove things from my wishlist. A combination of clicking on books on Japan and on cooking eventually led the website to suggest I might be interested in Untangling My Chopsticks, which just so happens to also be on my cousin's wishlist. I ordered it, shipped it to my parents, and they brought it with them on their recent visit.

I devoured it. Victoria Abbott Riccardi tells the tale of the memorable year she spent in Kyoto, leaving her American life behind for her dream of learning tea kaiseki, the stylized cooking that accompanies the Japanese tea ceremony. The book gives a glimpse of the beauty of both the ceremony itself and the meaning behind all the elements of presentation, which lend their own grace to the book. She presents the history and evolution of tea ceremony and its cuisine, but weaves it together with her own tale. In addition, Riccardi shares the Japanese challenges, customs and traditions she lived through, from her first visit to a nice sushi restaurant, to making homemade mochi with the neighbors.

For anyone interested in Japan and in Japanese food, it's a worthwhile book. It's a quick read, in part because some of the pages are taken up by the recipes she's included for things like dashi and chawan mushi. But for me, myself stumbling through learning Japanese, struggling to figure out what to buy at the grocery store and trying to remember not to blow my nose in public, it was like reading about life through the window of someone who's been there too, if, it seems, slightly more gracefully that I am going through it now.

Riccardi learned tea kaiseki from a famous tea school in Kyoto. She made friends with fellow gaijin interested in tea, taught English in schools and to business people, and became close with a Japanese family. Throughout the book, she reveals some things I wondered about (Why are people eating sushi with their hands? Why do Japanese women constantly cover their mouths?) as well as some things I did know (such as that Japanese people generally look down on used items - one reason used cars are so cheap here). And, of course, tales of food permeate the text. Her extensive descriptions of the presentation of Japanese and the motivations behind it, have awakened me to things to be looking for in every meal. And, of course, what I needed was another reason to look forward to my next meal.

Recovery

There's so much to write about, it's almost overwhelming. But we're going to condense and just try to go with the highlights here. My parents were here for about 9 fun-filled days and this is what we learned:

• Ramen comes at a variety of prices levels and qualities. And the best one we found is somewhere in APIA. Sure, we went to Ramen Alley and it was good for the fun. But it was expensive (I can't remember but, maybe 1100 yen?) since it's such a tourist haven. Give me a bowl of good, less expensive ramen in a much more convenient location any time.
• The JR Hotel Nikko in the tower has a good all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at not-that-steep-of-a-price 2000 yen, plus a good view. My parents thought the desserts were really good, and probably ate the equivalent of 2000 yen just in the little mini-cakes.
• How to use a load-it-yourself soft serve ice cream machine. Of course, I didn't learn how to identify the flavors right away. Ok, I thought, I've had the strawberry already. This one looks like it might be cookies and cream. Silly me. I took a bite and instantly wanted to spit it out. Not that it tasted bad, actually, but when you're hoping for Oreo and you get... black sesame... well, aack. But in the end we ate it all up; I liked it, and my mom loved it.
• All-you-can-eat lamb + all-you-can-drink beer at the Sapporo Beer Garden = a good time. We did it twice. Okay, the second time we only did all-you-can-eat, but I had two beers, so it was the same for me.
• Mom likes Japanese beer. This is remarkable only because of how much she hates all other beer.
• There's nothing much happening around Urasando nowadays, at least during the day, no matter what the tourist map says.
• Don't trust those green signs with the yellow "i"s in circles that are supposed to give tourists info about where things are in the city.
• Driving on the expressway in Japan is really, really expensive.
• White Illumination is pretty, but still seems to have fewer total number of lights than Vail does on pretty much any day of the year.
• Hell Valley (Noboribetsu) is a fun visit in the winter, and more people speak English there than in Sapporo. Maybe it's because they expect so many tourists.
• Dai-Ichi Takamotokan's Onsen is awesome. The seven different types of water... the different pools... the dinner in our room. Ahh, how relaxing. I even liked living in a tatami-style room -- although after a while perhaps the perpetual smell of straw would start to get to me.
• At the Dai-Ichi, women can look down from their spa area and see the naked men walking around in theirs. Men can look up, but they can't see the women's body's, just their heads poking over the walls.
• Otaru is much, much snowier than Sapporo. And colder. But, it also has a lot more touristy things to do, although going to a Venetian museum in Japan may strike you as odd.
• Chanko Nabe is really tasty - and now I can understand why Japanese people like to eat it in the winter. Bring it on.
• It's possible for Sapporo to go in less than 2 days from a place that looks like a dried-out husk to one covered in a layer of snow over a layer of ice that screams "shovel me" or "put some salt or dirt on me," neither of which anyone will do. Stay tuned for a report on an upcoming trial run of my Yak Traks

Matt and I have settled in for what remains of our time in Sapporo this year. We're taking off soon for Kyoto and visits to both of our families for the holidays. In the meantime, we put up our stockings, a small Xmas wreath, and some Xmas lights to give our place a little holiday cheer. Happy Holiday Season to you all!

Earthquake, Smirthquake

Last week, there was an 8.0 earthquake off the coast of Hokkaido, as well as a 7+ aftershock. In Sapporo, it was somewhere around a 5 on the Richter scale (give or take). For us, it was just something we saw on the news from the comfort of our living room at the MiCasa Hotel Apartments in Kuala Lumpur. Of course, Matt's first reaction was to be miffed that he missed the earthquake. We did have some friends write e-mails hastily to ask how we weathered the earthquake. Obviously they're not keeping up with us on our blog! (Still nice to hear from them, naturally). It did make us realize we should definitely register with the US Consulate now that we're back in Sapporo.

That's right, we're back. We had a pleasantly smooth trip, actually. Check in in Singapore was a breeze. They actually have a new special premier/first/business class check in "lounge" where you don't seem to have your luggage weighed and they remember to put all kinds of tags on your luggage that say "priority" and "first class" even when you're not flying first class and really just have a United Mileage Plus Gold card. And ANA is good at paying attention to the tags and getting your luggage to pop out of the plane quickly (even if they're not good about giving you miles... we accidentally got gypped on miles due a promotional fare). Immigration in Narita was so much faster since we could go through the Japanese Passports & Those with Re-Entry Permits lines. I actually got a real kick out of it because we were lined up and the Japanese woman in front of us turned around and said, "This is the line for Japanese." I showed her my Alien Registration Card and she said, "Oh!", nodded and turned away. She was just being nice, but it was still funny. Matt's convinced no Japanese can believe a white person, or even a Chinese-American, could be a resident of Japan.

Other memorable food experiences from our vacation: roti and dosa (love that so much), suckling pig (great) and abalone & goose feet (not my favorite) at my dad's b-day bash , fresh young coconut for only 3 RM from Jusco (wish we had it at our Jusco here), durian (slightly out of season but still good), mangosteens (my favorite fruit), spicy Thai food, homecooked Chicken Rendang & Gula Melaka (one of my favorite desserts). All in all it was the food vacation I was looking for.

Last night we went to a restaurant owned by friends - everything from the regular menu, such as the suckling pig (yum) and the Brazilian dish with the endless parades of meat, was really good. I ordered from the special menu prepared by a visiting Mexican chef, and unfortunately, I didn't think it shined the way the rest of the food did. Maybe it's just because I am from San Francisco and spent time in San Diego, where Mexican food abounds. Maybe she couldn't find the ingredients she needed, or maybe she was trying too hard to make it nuevo. Whatever the reason, I felt I'd had better lobster tacos at Rubio's, and that's not something a chef would want to hear. All the same, I thought Matt's food was excellent - keep those sides of meat coming all night long, I say. And, yum, sangria! And good company. What more could someone ask for in their send off at the end of their vacation?

Takashimaya Singapore

We're spending the week in Singapore and KL, hanging out with family for my dad's 60th birthday. Singapore is a welcome change from Sapporo (although a little too hot outside, but who goes outside in Singapore?) because we can communicate with everyone and Matt's not the only gaijin when we walk down the street. Plus, the food is the type of food I love... the hawker stalls, the ice kachang, the porridge with hundred year old eggs... (ooh... and tonight, the famous Singaporean Chili Crab!)

Today we went to Takashimaya Singapore, which I suppose is funny that we chose to come to a Japanese department store, but, hey, there's no Takashimaya in Sapporo. The basement is just like the basements in the department stores in Japan except that all of the writing is in English - which means it's comprehensible - and there's a much greater variety of types of cuisine available. Of course there is ramen and sushi, but it's next to Thai, Nonya, Vietnamese... Yum. We picked up some Kueh Lapis (a type of Chinese cake) and some steamed pandan cakes, as well as a number of the sticky-gooey treats that are specialities here. And then I think, gosh, I really wish they had those things at Daimaru in Sapporo.

We had already gorged ourselves silly at Crystal Jade (Or something like that) just outside Takashimaya on roast duck, suckling pig, porridge, noodles and dimsum. That's what coming to Singapore is all about. Yesterday it was fishball noodle soup and goreng pisang (deep fried bananas). Today, chili crab. Right now, I'm off to go eat my Kueh Lapis. Catch you later.

Hangin' At Starbucks

Back in SF, I didn't go to Starbucks much, since I'm not really a coffee drinker. I really dropped in only now and then for the calorie-packed Caramel Frappucino. But I'm already on my third Starbucks visit since we arrived, and it's not just because the people behind the counter speak better English than most other Japanese people. I'm looking forward to lounging in my local Starbucks, studying Japanese or getting a little knitting done, breathing clean air (they are non-smoking) and relaxing to a little music.

It turns out the first Starbucks Coffee Japan opened in 1996 and the first Starbucks in Sapporo opened in April 2001. Apparently lately Starbucks profits have been suffering in Japan due to competition with its own stores and increasing competition from other American coffee brands like Tully's and domestic coffee shops that have adopted Starbucks-like stores. But, Starbucks in Japan is still growing and adding stores all the time. From my brief experiences so far, I've made a few observations about why Starbucks is successful here (at least in Hokkaido):

• The coffee is not expensive compared to other shops. At 250 yen for a short coffee and 290 for a tall, it's comparable to the 280 yen for coffee at Mr. Donut (which, come to think of it, is labeled American Coffee)
  
• The coffee tastes good.
  
• It's a nice environment; the one close to our place has armchairs and everything, and the two at Sapporo Station are enclosed and air-conditioned.
  
• They let you sit there pretty much as long as you want. That's great, because so far I haven't noticed too many places where you'd be welcome to just kind of sit around and chill out, unless you pick a chair somewhere inside a shopping center.
  
• It has good brand cachet.
  

I wish I had my mobile phone already (which I'm planning to use as a moblogging device). I love to see how foreign businesses adapt to local interests. For example, to match the somewhat smaller scale of Japanese culture, the sizes start with Short instead of Tall (I always wondered why the first size in the US is called "Tall"), and go up to Grande instead of Venti. I mean, I think Shorts are available in the US, and Ventis are available here, but they're not on the menus on the boards. Today I picked up my Sapporo Starbucks insulated beverage container (840 yen, plus a free beverage and a 20 yen discount). But the what I really want to try (and also get pictures of) are things like "Curry Bean Snack," which looks like lima beans or maybe fava beans dried or roasted and then covered in a brown curry powder. They also offer things like kari-donut, which seems to be similar to what you'd suspect, a donut with a dark, squishy (non-chunky) curry sauce inside.

By the way, thank God Starbucks plays music from their own-branded CDs inside their stores rather than some bastardized Japanese corporate theme song. On my way back to Matt's office I had to walk past Matt's favorite store, Yodobashi Camera, and about half a block later I suddenly found myself whistling something. What is that? Oh... it's "Battle Hymn of the Republic." "Dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum, dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum..." Come on, sing along, you know the tune! Oh wait, it's "Yo-do-ba-shi-Ca-me-ra!"

More SF Goodbyes

Days till Departure: 11
Days till Movers Empty Condo: 7

Our boxes were delivered yesterday, and we started packing up our books today. In the meantime, things we've done, places we've gone and restaurants we've hit in the last week or so:

• Hulu House Vegetarian Restaurant - Vegan Chinese/Singaporean/Malaysian food in the Inner Sunset. Pretty good, and a great bargain. Always fun to eat vegan BBQ pork, fake fish, and good old regular veggie food. Lots of food for the money.
  
• Luna Park - Good deal for the money too. Tasty & fun. Thank goodness we had a reservation; otherwise the wait would have been too long. Got to see one of Matt's good friends who's in town for about 10 days, which was cool.
  
• L'amour Dans le Four - Neighboorhood French Bistro close to the house, at Lombard and Gough. Good food, friendly service, reasonable prices. Saw it listed at SF Bay Guardian.
  
• Gary Danko - What can I say? What a great way to spend our anniversary. We sat at the bar, where you can sit without a reservation. We ate and drank and celebrated.
  
• Extreme Pizza - Maybe it's not gourmet, but it's a great SF place to get a pizza. I like their slices, personally.
  
• Local Burrito Place - I'm thinking burritos won't be available in Japan. Matt had the Chile Verde burrito, and I had a Carnitas burrito. Both "Super"-ized.
  
• Chrissy Field - A nice walk on the beach watching the dogs run, play, swim and catch.
  
• SFMOMA's Chagall Exhibit - The headset audio tour is a must-get. Plus we did a quick walk through the rest of the exhibits as well. I always love the design exhibits.
  
• Kate's Kitchen - Huge huge huge breakfasts.
  

We're off to Thirsty Bear now to eat, drink and be merry with Kaetchen, and then we'll have dinner tomorrow night at Suppenkuche and dinner Thursday night at Delfina. I love San Francisco's abundance of good restaurants.

Food, Food and More Food

Matt's still trying to work out the details of our visas and our travels, and I've recently started to organize in preparation for our move (more about that later). In the meantime, we tried to spend the weekend taking advantage of our time in San Francisco.

Friday evening after yoga, we cleaned up and headed out to the Marina, where we ate at Mezes. It was without a doubt the best Greek meal I have had in San Francisco. We didn't have dessert there though - afterwards we walked down to Ben & Jerry's where I ate Brownie Batter ice cream on a cone (my favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor).

On Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Plaza on the Embarcadero. It was our first time there, but it was a blast. Matt was a little startled that it was kind of a "designer" farmer's market, but once he got over the shock, we were both able to relax and have a good time. I got to knock a few more things off of my SF list (some of which I didn't type in the other day), such as to try Recchiuti chocolates (scrumptious) and hang out at the market. We picked up an assortment of great things, including very good fruit and cheese. We also noticed a stall selling raw food - raw sushi and raw soups, but we didn't buy anything because it seemed over-priced. Later in the afternoon, we headed out to a yarn store I like, although I didn't really buy anything, and to Comix Experience where we picked up the comic "Y: The Last Man," which I've been dying to read since I read a review of it at Salon.com. We cooked dinner with the great ingredients we picked up at the fair - duck breast with fingerling potatoes and broccoli rabe.

Today, after morning yoga, we knocked another "must-eat" restaurant off the list by going to Zuni Cafe and scarfing down (among other things) what really was the best burger I've had in recent memory. The bottom piece of foccacia could have been a little more toasty as it got a slightly soggy due to the juicy burger but overall I was left with a big "yum" feeling. We followed up the restaurant visit with a trip to the Container Store for some boxes and then saw Tombraider 2 (much better than the original) at The Metreon. On the way home, we made quick pitstops at Urban Knitting and Whole Foods. The weekend was capped off with a home-made tomato tart (delicious, despite worry it might not turn out) and an evening watching a little TV (lots of HGTV and a little Queer Eye for the Straight Guy). That's right, I'm catching up on my TV watching now since we probably won't watch much in Japan!

We thought we might go to a museum this weekend, but we decided not to. We're thinking that as a break from packing, we'll go to the museums, which means we'll probably be able to go during the week at a much less busy time. Crowd avoidance!

- Michelle