Ramen Parlor in San Mateo

I like ramen, of course. Who wouldn't?
However, the thick ramen soup is sometimes too heavy for me so I was looking for ramen with good flavor but not greasy soup.

JC found a place in San Mateo called Ramen Parlor.
They have seafood base soup and this sounded promising.
Actually, we tried to go this place last year but gave up because the line was huge, so this was our second try.

The storefront looks more like pancake house than ramen shop.
They open at 5:30 for dinner. When we got there around 5:34, there was already a line.
We waited for 30 minutes, but they took our order while we were waiting so we got the bowl of ramen only 5 minutes after we sat down.

I ordered Lobster Soy Sauce Flavor.

The soup definitely had good lobster flavor.
It was deep, flavorful but not greasy. Noodle had good texture. Chashu was good, too.
...Unfortunately, it was too salty for me.

JC ordered Lobster Pork Flavor. He would have liked Soy Sauce flavor better because the rich pork flavor covered up the more delicate lobster flavor.
You can choose the level of spiciness here but I would say to choose Mild with the same reason.

It was good ramen. I was full but didn't feel too heavy or sick. I wish it could have been less salty.

Quintarelli Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2007

Valpolicella is in Veneto, Italy.
The area is mostly known for the red wine made from the grapes Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara.

The simple Valpolicella is fruity, light red wine, like Beaujolais.

If you dry the grapes after harvest, they become more concentrated and would give the wine fuller body, deeper flavor and higher alcohol. This is Amarone della Valpolicella.

Save the left over grape skins from the Amarone production and use them to re-ferment wine. This is Valpolicella Ripasso. This process is done to give more body to usually light Valpolicella wine.

Make wine with dried grapes but stop fermentation when there is still enough residual sugar, then you will have sweet wine Recioto della Valpolicella.

These methods were originally started to give more body and flavor to the wine made from the grapes that are grown under the cold weather of Northern Italy.
Necessity is the mother of invention.

Giuseppe Quintarelli Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2007

Giuseppe Quintarelli,  Maestro del Veneto, is a known producer from Veneto.
He was a perfectionist who handled every step of wine making meticulously from grape selection to the presentation of the final product.
He passed away in 2012, but his children and grandchildren manage the winery and keep his legacy alive.

This wine is ripasso.
It had medium ruby color with garnet hue.
Fresh and ripe black cherry, plum and cassis, rose, and refreshing mint.
I tasted toast or coffee beans from oak, but they were well integrated into wine.
Good flavor and structure.
I had this wine the second and third day after opening. I liked the flavor of the second day the best.

Every time I drink wine like this, I feel glad that I'm a wine lover.

Tsukiji curry at home

You can buy everything at the supermarket, but I still choose to do shopping at smaller stores.
The biggest reason is that their products are usually more fresh, and it's nice to meet people who are proud of the products they carry.
They like to share information about the products, sometimes recipe.
It's shame that I forget these information without trying, so I made curry from the recipe which I was taught at the spice store Karaimonoya in Tsukiji before I would lose it.

First, saute shrimp with butter, and set aside.
Saute onion until it becomes brown, and add other vegetable.
Cook the vegetables with Karaimonoya original curry powder (half a Table spoon per serving)
then add whole tomato, seafood base (I used this instead of bouillon), and a little bit of salt.
When the vegetables are cooked, add shrimp and mix in plain yogurt. Done.

I found the texture a little watery so thickened it with flour, but flavor was good!
I think this recipe would work even better with meat than seafood.
Using ground meat to make Keema curry with this curry spice...would be nice.

Next day, we had this curry as curry udon.
The day was the Winter solstice so JC made Pumpkin Tempra.
It's said that you won't get sick if you eat pumpkin on the Winter solstice in Japan.

Sake we had with Tempra was GingaShizuku from Takasago shuzo.
It had sweet and clean aroma.
The refreshingness and soft texture went good with Tempra.

This is an interesting sake: after cold fermentation, it's hanged, not pressed, to squeeze out the liquid.
This process is done inside an ice dome.
The dome is made of ice and snow, and the condition (minus 2℃ and 90％ humidity) is kept naturally stable inside.
This condition is ideal to prevent bacteria growth and keep fresh aroma.

Unfortunately, due to the global warming, they had to discontinue this product.
It's becoming too warm to built and maintain the ice dome.

They will announce a new product line next March, and I'm sure it will be good Sake, but if you are interested in GingaShizuku, now is the last chance.

Harlan Estate 2001

There is a category called cult wine.
These wines are in limited production and expensive.
They are extremely hard to obtain, and enthusiastic followers are willing to pay a lot of money for them.
Many of them are ripe, oaky, big wine which, fortunately, I'm not a very big fan of (the wine must be made of sour grapes); however, if I ever have a chance to try, I'm more than happy!

Harlan Estate Napa Valley 2001

Harlan Estate was started in 1984 by William Harlan.
Impressed by the great wines he had in France with Robert Mondavi, his aim was to create First Growth California wine.
Now Harlan Estate is one of the most sought after cult wines from Napa Valley.

Bordeaux-Style blend from Oakville, Napa Valley.
The wine had concentrated ripe fruit flavor and refreshing menthol quality at the same time.
Then bacon-like gamey taste and coffee and hazelnut came up.
Tannin was high but soft. Complex wine.

I still don't know if this quality justifies its price, but this is a great wine.

As for pairing, I don't know what to have with such a big wine...

Japan Trip - Tsukiji Fish Market

We couldn't leave Japan without breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market, so we made a quick trip to Tsukiji on our last day in Japan.

First, we went to the Tsukiji Namiyoke Shrine.
This shrine is just outside the Tsukiji Fish market.

In this shrine, there are monuments to thank for the giving from the nature.

These made us realize that as foodies, we should never take this giving for granted.

Then we went inside Tsukiji market (Jyonai).
We didn't have time to wait for Sushi, so we just did shopping here.

Spice store, Karaimonoya.
They proudly sell Curry Powder which was made by Indian.

The guy said that once I ate curry made with this spice, I would never go back to other curry spice.
The people in Tsukiji possess some kind of convincing aura, so I bought two of them.
The store wasn't busy at that time so he wrote me a recipe for this Curry powder. How nice!
I have to try this recipe sometime soon.


This is Fish Market so there are full of foods and restaurants.
But don't forget to buy other food-related items.

Where else can you find Sazae key chain?

Outside the Tsukiji market (Jyogai).

You find many small stores here. The atmosphere is so lively that I enjoy coming this area as much as inside the market.

I love these tiny alleys, too.

JC bought a pair of scissors to cut chicken.
Made in Tsubamesanjo, Niigata. This area is known to produce great stainless steel products.

This is very sharp and can be taken apart for easy and thorough cleaning.

Our breakfast was Grilled Scallop, Oyster (both of them were HUGE!), Onigiri (rice ball), and Makizushi (rolled Sushi).

I bought a lot of dried foods. Mission completed.

Tsukiji Fish Market is planned to move to another location sometime soon.
I understand that the facilities are becoming too old to deal with perishable foods, but Tsukiji Fish Market has this special feel which you can't recreate by just bringing in the same stores.
It's shame that I will never experience the same atmosphere again.
I will miss this place greatly.

Japan Trip - Edo Komon Dyeing Factory

One very cold day, I visited Tomita Some Kougei near Takadanobaba, Tokyo.

Snowing in November: quite unusual site for Tokyo.

Tomita Some Kougei is a Edo Komon Dyeing Factory.
They welcome visitors at their work place.

Edo Komon is a dyeing technique using stencil templates.
The designs are usually consist of tiny dots and it looks almost plane from distance.

Ise Stencil Template

Hariita boards hanging from the ceiling

First, place fabric (Kimono fabric is about 12 meters) on the long, straight Hariita board: it's essential that the fabric is straight and there are no wrinkles.
Hariita board is about 7meters long so place the fabric on the front and back side of the board.

Set the stencil template on the fabric, place resist paste with a paddle.
When you finish pasting one area, move the template to the next but you have to be extra cautious so that the design looks flawless.
After placing the resist paste to the entire fabric, dry the fabric.
This process is called Katatsuke.

The stencil template is made of multiple Japanese papers pasted together with Persimmon juice.
These templates are cleaned and dried before storing.
The templates withstand about 200 times use.

resist paste placed on the white fabric

With a paddle, dye the fabric with the base color: make sure that there is no irregularity of color.
This process is called Jiirosome.
Steam to set the color on the fabric.

Wash off the resist paste from the fabric, then dry.
You will see the white design emerging from the background base color.


This is a sample of designs.

They use black base color to make the design clear.
When you order, you can of course choose whatever color you want.

This is Edo Sarasa. Multiple templates are used for the multiple colors.

Before I visited here, I thought this place would be some kind of museum, didn't expect to see people actually working.
They were happy to answer to my question, but seeing them working seriously on this quiet, snowing day, I hesitated to make any noise (I still asked questions, though).

When craftsmen work sincerely, even their simple tools are beautiful.
These are brushes for Bokashi, the shading effect.

Next day, it was still cold but sunny.

A view from Shinjuku Takashimaya's roof garden.

Japan Trip - Kappabashi and Oden

We love food and we (or JC) love cooking, so our shopping destination in Japan is always Kappabashi.

Kappabashi is 800 m long street near Asakusa, which is filled with about 170 kitchenware stores.
It was a holiday so many of the stores were closed, but it wasn't a problem because each store had this wide variety of kitchen goods.

If all the stores were open, I don't know what to do!

We were like kids in a toy store but I knew that excitement would cloud my judgement, so tried to purchase only necessities.

These are the things we bought:
Durable stainless steel baking sheet × 2
Durable hand-made strainer × 2
Moomin cup
Stainless steel grill net for BBQ
Small stainless steel net (as soap dish)

JC wanted to buy Hario's heat-resistant glass cup but he couldn't find it.



Then we walked a little toward Asakusa, and went to Otafuku, 101 year old Oden restaurant.

Oden is fishcakes and vegetables cooked in Dashi-based soup.

They had a menu in English but we luckily sat in front of this big pot, so we just pointed at the ingredients we wanted to try. It was fun!

All of them were cooked in the same soup, but none of them were samey.
Very good flavor of Dashi and warmed me up on that cold day.

JC had Ebisu Beer and I had Umeshu (plum liquor).
Umeshu somehow went very good with Oden.

Good food and good, friendly service. Very Shitamachi (unpretentious downtown feel).

Then we walked to Asakusa. There is always festive atmosphere here.

We enjoyed the beautiful autumn color.

JC had endless appetite in Japan. Another snack: Beef Tongue stick and Sake.

And...

...Tattooed Kewpie!?

Japan Trip - under the railway

There are many eateries under the railway in Tokyo.
They are known for its fun, unpretentious feel.
Yurakucho Sanchoku Inshokugai is one of them.

There are seven restaurants in this area. What makes this Inshokugai unique is that these seven restaurants represent certain areas of Japan and use ingredients from there (Sanchoku means transported directly from the local farm).

We chose the one called Kaimaru, a shellfish specialty restaurant.
Their ingredients come from western part of Japan.

We started with shellfish salad. I chose Chuhai and JC chose highball for drink.

Then Scallop with butter. Gooood!!

Five kinds of steamed shellfish came in tin can. I liked that.
Each of them were huge and meaty!

It was busy, noisy, typical under the railway pub.
The food was good: they use fresh ingredients and cook to maximize the goodness of it. However, the distinct atmosphere definitely added to the flavor.

Japan Trip - Bar Radio

I love cocktails.
There are numerous bars in the world which serve cocktails. Many of them are fun and busy.
However, I like to have carefully crafted cocktail in calm, quiet atmosphere.

Bar Radio is in Aoyama, Tokyo. About 5 min. walk from Omotesando station.

Inside is dark and quiet.
People come here to appreciate the craftsmanship of the bartenders, not to get drunk.

My first cocktail was Blood and Sand. Classic cocktail.

We'd been drinking cocktails with fruit juice in Japan and experienced hit and miss (this Blood and Sand was a big hit!).
JC learned the difficulties of making well-balanced fruits-based cocktail from the recent Tiki cocktail craze, so we asked the bartender if there were any tips to reach the perfect balance.
It was a cold night and we were the only customers there at that time, so he explained in detail why it was difficult, why the use of lemon and lime was critical, and, after all, only the experience would teach you.
This advise encouraged JC (or gave him an excuse to restart the Tiki craze).

Then we started to talk about antique glasses.
The owner Mr. Ozaki has an impressive collection of antique glasses and he uses them at the bar.
They choose a glass which suits for the cocktail and for the guest.

One sharp, stylish flute glass got my attention and I asked the bartender to make something for the glass.

I forgot to ask the name of this cocktail but it was a great cocktail. Sharp and delicate, just like its vessel.
It was like that he knew exactly what I wanted when I saw the glass.

All the bartenders were humble: they like to talk to you but never become overly friendly.

Many stores, not just bars, when I feel welcomed, it's because people there are very friendly and try to communicate.
However, at Bar Radio, they are more quiet than talkative, more polite than friendly, yet I still felt very welcomed.
Wondered why.

Then I found out that they adapt the concept of tea ceremony to entertain the guests.
Their service is calculated to play the background role, and they believe that there ought to be some kind of tension involved in the space.
I like that.

Japan Trip - Shopping

One of the things I wanted to buy during this Japan trip was a broom.
Broom is just a cleaning tool, but when it's carefully made by craftsmen, it's beautiful.
And the idea to clean the room with a beautiful piece of art made me excited.

Shirakiya Denbe has been making hand-made broom since 1830.

They made me try several brooms because each hand-made broom has slight difference and they wanted me to chose the one with right feel for me.

The one I liked the most was very light and moved smoothly. Unfortunately, it was too long to fit inside JC's trunk.
So I bought the one which was 60 cm long, a little bit heavier but felt smooth.

This broom catches every bit of dust, and small enough to clean the tiny space where vacuum can't reach.
When this broom becomes old, you can trim the edge and keep using until it becomes too short. Eco!