you don"t need to save the crystal for a special day, even water tastes better in a "Fancy Glass"

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Modest fun and delicious…



The photos did not come out well. I was in too big a hurry to eat. But the food was yummy and it made for a very nice evening with my Hubby.

We were facing our usual dilemma of trying to figure out what to have for dinner after a long day at work. For foodies, I must say, our evening fare is not all that inspiring during the week nights. But we had the idea as we stood near the crossing in Shibuya to do a “Tokyo Department Store Picnic.”

Let me explain… The first floor or often Basement floor of most department stores in Japan and also many train stations, is a food floor. Not a food court like they have in the USA/ fast food and all that… but a food floor of small booths of different kinds of prepared and unprepared / gourmet/ and down home foods. From 60$ Melons (OUTRAGEOUS) to humble rice balls to imported chocolates/ you can find it all. It is my theory that the outdoor markets of Japan moved inside because of all the rain. So it is a lot like being in a very clean, bright, chic inside version of an outdoor Asian market.

I will follow up with more food-floor posts in the near future. But for this outing we were focused on some quick take out dinner fare.

A bit of this and that, with some coins and a few bills in my pocket and we had a lovely dinner. Some of the features were a miso-basted fish / crab fried rice / steamed Chinese Shumai dumplings/ and a very yummy simple tuna rice ball (Onigiri) This was from the Tokyu Food Floor at Shibuya Station.

By the way… at this spot you can also buy from Dean and DeLuca / Starbucks / Godiva and other world wide well known shops.

Lots of fun. And the best is, if you go just before closing time at 8pm, you can get discounts on a lot of the fresh prepared foods. Posted by Picasa

Friday, December 16, 2005

still no time .... argh

well, this end of year season has just been crazy at Fujimamas. No time to think. and I keep losing my camera charger in various black holes around my desk at work and our tokyo tiny apartment... so even when I have had some good holiday food experiences I've had no camera to capture it... very frustrating. Anyway the restaurant is doing well. Lots of company parties booked for christmas and the end of the year. good catering schedule, lots going on. So many foodbloggers are writing great holiday posts though, I am jealous.

I had a day off today, even though it was a friday. I was a bit selfish, but then I had not taken any time off for 13 days, so it was time. I was getting cranky, never a good sign.

I bought some great teas today from a gorgeous little shop. Cha No Yu in the Hiroo neighborhood of Tokyo. This was after going to the popular foriegn foods supermarket National Azabu. I got some tasty holiday treats, including cookies, egg nog and some bagels for breakfast tomorrow morning before I head back in to do the opening shift at the restaurant. I also stocked up on food magazines and wrapping paper, since they have a sort of book-store-card-shop upstairs.

Anyway, not much going on except work work work. But hopefully i will save up some good stories and get back into posting here as soon as we finish up this big holiday rush.

Oh and in other news, I will be headed over to work for a couple of weeks in Hawaii, in Fujimamas new restaurant in Kona, on the Big Island. We were already written about over on chowhound So I will have some new hawaii adventures to relate I hope.

ok, bed time.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

ben and jerry's blogthing personality quiz

You Are In a Crunch Ice Cream

The perfect combo: a completely nuts person who likes to be touched