Did someone say horse sashimi?
Sora An restaurant was at the footsteps of our AirBnB. We went in for a bento lunch and ended up being repeat customers.
 Super lean horse sashimi served with grated ginger and minced garlic |
Cocktail tasting at Gen Yamamoto
This is unlike any alcohol flight, the experience is closer to a sushi bar with 8 seats and a chef’s menu.
 Slightly tart ume (plum) juice tart and sparkling sake with superfine cucumber dice |
 Tomato with sanshō pepper based gin, possibly Roku. |
 Unfiltered sake, edamame and milk |
 Finnish gin, Napue, peach and wasabi |
 Yamamoto whiskey on crushed ice and summer pomelo with a few pieces of unsweetened and candied sweet potato. |
 English Vodka, Black Cow brand made from milk, with green tea |
Fruits of Japan
 A single bunch of grapes = $100 USD (approximate) |
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Pierre Hermé’s millefeuille at Isetan
 From Isetan, Shinjuku |
 Millefeuille in Paris in 2010. Thankfully, a few things don’t change. |
Isetan department store in Shinjuku is a delight for food voyeurs. Although the food court has everything, Japanese and western desserts might be the crème de la crème of the court. Weather permitting, the Isetan roof garden is a nice spot to enjoy these good eats.
Deus Ex Machina
The decor of this coffee shop in Harajuku is modern, pour is perfect and barista more hipster than most.
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Craft of food
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This is an ultra realistic hand made plastic food sample from a Harajuku mall. To learn more about the history and fascinating process, check out youtube Japanology episode of Plastic Food Samples. This food aid is particularly useful in Japan where the Google translate application fails on 99.9% of the words.
AFURI ramen in Harajuku
This ramen shop is located close to Harajuku station. It is a kitchen gleaming in steel. You order via a vending machine.
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 AFURI signature “Yuzu Shio Ramen” with chicken & dashi based shio (salt) broth, yuzu (a citrus), half nitamago (boiled egg marinated in soy and spices), chashu (marinated and braised pork belly), mizuna (mustard greens), menma (fermented bamboo shoots), nori (toasted seaweed). |
AFURI website tells us that the shop is named after Mt. Afuri, located at Tanzawa mountains in Kanagawa prefecture. As per legend, Mt. Afuri is father of Mt Fuji. Afuri is known for its sweet water, and used to be considered the sacred mountain for good harvest. And the philosophy of this ramen shop is to bring the sacred of Mt. Afuri to the food and service.
Roof garden of Tokyu Plaza
A couple of adorable little babies running around, falling, crawling, climbing, …
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Street crossing near Tokyu Plaza
 Hall of mirrors at the entrance of Tokyu Plaza by architect Nakamura Hiroshi |
Nature vs nurture
 Curated parks of Tokyo, this one is behind Nezu museum, present a surprising variety of vegetation. At Yoyogi park, there is effort to bring varieties from all over Japan. And any patch of vegetation you look at, you are presented with a mix of textures and forms. Pines intermixed with broad leaf trees, grasses intermixed with ferns, trees mingling with vines. How very poetic. |
 Trees that are closer to walking paths are invariably trimmed to present the natural beauty of shapes. Emphasis is on organic fluidity as opposed to uniformity. Simply delightful. |
Dinnerware at Tamawarai
Tamawarai is one of Harajuku’s best buckwheat noodle spots. With a seating of less than 20, it is quiet dining experience punctuated by sounds of enthusiastic slurping. The otherwise bare space with its small prison like windows was enlivened by eclectic dinnerware.
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Unagi Irokawa in Asakusa
 Irokawa in Asakusa is a two woman operation, one cook and the other for the rest. The restaurant seats five at the bar and eight at the two tables. A backroom with its tatami floor holds waiting patrons. You wait, you eat and you leave. And you thank your stars that you are glad to be alive. |
 Eel, rice and a BBQ sauce ladled on top. This is an eel restaurant, it serves eel and eel parts. Normal portion has two skewers and large has three. You are served a bowl of broth, some pickled vegetables and hot tea with the meal. |
 Optional menu items, eel liver and neck, the former was slightly bitter and the later bony. The liver reminded me of a particularly Bengali dish, my father’s favorite, called “Tele bhaja”, translating to fish gizzard fried in oil. |
Fujimaki, a train station Izakaya
Fujimaki is located next to Yoyogi station, on the top floor of a little nondescript mall. It would have been hard to find if we did not place ourselves in the hands of Google maps. Ten closely placed bar stools around the counter served by an elderly cook, accompanied by second who prepped the food and a third who did the dishwashing. The table fans whirred away but it was muggy and sweaty. It had just rained and it was cooler outside than inside. Jazz played in the background. Patrons were smoking, drinking large volumes of beer and sake and eating through the menu – mostly all parts of chicken – liver, gizzard, fatty tail and everything else in between. An occasional bacon wrapped okra or cherry tomato was a nod to the vegetables.
 Chicken liver |
 Grated daikon/radish and pickled vegetables |
 Chicken skin |
 Cartilage of chicken breast |
 Eggplant with grated ginger |
 Okra wrapped in bacon |
 Chicken with roe and seaweed |
 Chicken with umeboshi paste and shiso leaves |
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Onden Ippo in Harajuku
 Smooth jazz and eclectic “bar meet spa” decor are what you notice when you climb down to this basement restaurant. |
 Pickled cucumbers, and pickled bamboo shoots as appetizers. |
 Salad of cabbage, bitter greens, and a pretty little cherry tomato in a tangy mayo sauce. |
 Grilled mackerel. |
 Sashimi with sisho buds |
The grilled mackerel is where my chopstick skills met its match. The fish was grilled crisp. If I were a cat, I could have just picked it up with my paws and munched it down head, spine and tail! I asked for a fork. To assemble, I picked up some of the grated daikon on my rice bowl and topped with some of the mackerel flakes before adding a dash of soy. Oh, it made me want grilled eel.
The customer next to me had ordered the mackerel as well. He was a dapper looking gentleman, and carried with him at least seventy five years of chopstick wielding experience. I was just a little embarrassed eating mackerel with fork, chopsticks and fingers. But I shouldn’t have been. The demolished mackerel on our respective plates looked nearly identical. And I noted that both of us used fingers in coordination with our implements.
Sound of summer at the Yoyogi park
 Trees of Yoyogi park |
 Ikebana at Meiji Shrine |
Jetlag in tokyo – Tsukiji market or Yoyogi park. In the end, the park won. It was closer. We headed out from our temporary home in Harujuku towards Meiji shrine. Tokyo has a delightful gadget called pocket wi-fi. So you can boldly go walkabout through narrow lanes without worrying about not leaving breadcrumb trails for the journey back home.
Tokyo is quiet for a big city. Early mornings should have been delightfully devoid of sound except for an occasional cat prowling about. Instead, we were immersed in an inorganic buzzing sound. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was, the sound was localized around trees. Yet, no number of birds can create that racket. And when the sound got amplified in Yoyogi park, I remembered the cicadas. We were indeed hearing the sound of Japanese summer, the cacophony of cicadas. Early in the summer morning, the park wraps you in a wet warm blanket. You notice your breathing because it takes a tad extra effort in that viscous air. The lack of sunlight on the wet musty ground lends a sense of suspense. The wide variety of vegetation brings a wondrous quality to the perambulation. Yoyogi park casts a spell like Hayao Miyazaki’s world aided by the cicadas who drown out all thoughts with their cacophony.
Joshua Tree in Bloom
You go for a blast of flowers and colors and stay for the details.
Near the Cottonwood region of Joshua Tree – purple chia and yellow desert sunflowers.
I am a little sad
Our pineapple guava tree died this winter. We had it for the last three years of its long life (judging by the rings, 40-50 at least). In its last few years, it put up with California’s once in a lifetime drought. It also saw a rapid recovery from drought the last two years.
Our tree was the highlight of the patio. It stood alone in rain.
It mingled with our guests when we had parties.
It stood by when a friend knit us a minion.
It gave us a season of fruit
It gave the bees couple of years of nectar (and many decades more when it wasn’t ours).
Our wee little fig tree, that our neighbor gave us when we moved in 3 years ago, is taller than me now. Cycle of life goes on.
Benu in San Francisco
San Franciscans are smitten by Benu. Multiple Michelin stars decorate Benu’s crown. When we went to Restaurant Sant Pau a few years ago, Carme Ruscadella said good things about Benu. So we decided to make this the celebration spot for the 25th year of our partnership. It turned out to be a 20 course meal with 23 independent plates – almost one for every year!
Cold starter – chicken jelly (at the bottom) with lime peels in whipped cream layer served with pine-y mountain caviar (cypress pods braised in pork broth)
Strandbeest and Theo
My first experience with Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest, aside from youtube videos and his TED talk, was a model kit. This is a 3d printed kit of Animaris Ordis Parvus that we bought from his website. It’s very sight gives joy. Yesterday, I noticed that the elastic holding the backbone had disintegrated, my poor strandbeest with a broken back and in captivity and it made me a touch sad.
In Theo’s words:
“Since 1990, I have been engaged in creating new forms of life. These forms are not made of protein like the existing life-forms. Theirs is another basic stuff: yellow plastic tubing. Skeletons made from these tubes are able to walk and get their energy from the wind, so they don’t have to eat. Their habitat is the beach where I was born. They evolved gradually, over several generations. As they developed, they became more adept at weathering storms and coping with the sea. My ultimate wish is to release herds of these beach animals on the shore to make their own way through life. By redoing the Creation, so to speak, I hope to become wiser in my dealings with nature that is already there. It presents me with the same problems the Real Creator must have come up against. Strandbeest is a testimonial to my experiences as God. I can assure you that it’s not easy being God, there are plenty of disappointments along the way. But, on the few occasions that things work out, being God is the most wonderful thing in the world.”
A few scattered moments …
Life in Centro Historico.
A clockwork of traffic crossing opposite Bellas Artes – the traffic lights are like dams and when they burst at their seams, a turbulent river of people make across the road.
Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the flyers) in Chapultapec park, opposite Museum of Anthropology – one playing the flute. An incredible ceremonial performance.
A walk down La Condesa neighborhood.
Tianguis Condesa (Tuesday Condesa Market) on Calle Pachuca.
A lazy afternoon watching bubbles
In search of grasshopper salt
We knew we would be able to source good Mezcal (e.g. Amaras Espadin) in California. But we were also certain that there would be no easy access to grasshopper salt. We were lucky to be living right opposite, Tlapaleria Gastronomica in Roma neighborhood, that sold artisanal food products made in Mexico. And what respectable gourmet shop in Mexico City won’t have grasshopper salt amongst its wares!
Tlapaleria Gastronomica, a gastronomic hardware show in Roma, right next door to El Parnita.
Various varieties of Mexican chili in oil.
More combinations of various chillies.
Finally, chapulin (grasshopper) salt.
View of a rooftop
Following murals are from rooftop of Museo Del Juguete Antiguo. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise, no one had really mentioned that the local artists had adopted the rooftop. We just noticed someone walking up, above the topmost floor of the museum, followed them and found the collection.
View from a rooftop
Following picture are from rooftop of Museo Del Juguete Antiguo. Some of these photos are reminiscent of rooftop views in Old Delhi.
Bugs? yum!
Limosneros in Centro Historico that serves ant pupae and beetles among other non-insect-y traditional cuisine.
Upscale bar with some lovely selection of mezcal.
Hmmm….lunch time mezcal. Served in a traditional dried hull of a fruit (calabash).
Salt with toasted ground grasshoppers and sweet lemon to cleanse your palate in between the mezcal sips. A friend had mentioned that toasted grasshopper legs scratch your throat going down! But in ground form, I could not taste anything aside from a spicy salt.
Escamoles – smoked ant pupae with epazote (a very distinctive herb), ayocote (a specific variety of ayocote bean, originally from oaxaca), humo de canela (cinnamon smoke). Escamole was served in a glass container with smoke inside.
Make yourself a taco (these were homemade) with the escamoles and add some spicy salsa. The escamoles look a little like plump version of rolled oats, a little sticky, somewhat chewy, a little funky tasting. It can be acquired taste like blue cheese.
Roasted beetles on top of cheese blocks wrapped in squash blossoms served with a couple of difference sauces. The beetles looked a little scary and I remembered my friend’s warning about legs scratching your throat going down. And I was worried about any goo-y secretion in my mouth once I bit down. But in reality, it was hollow and crispy and tasted like a mild nut. Overall, both thumbs up!
Locomotoring 