クロワッサンたい焼

I'm not much for sweets since I'm someone who, 99.9999% of the time, chooses chips over ice cream.

クロワッサンたい焼 (Croissant Taiyaki) is a definite exception though.

I passed by the little shops occasionally at the station, but even so, I never had any cravings except for one random commute. I've been hooked since.

Regular taiyaki has a sweet filling, usually bean paste or custard, baked inside a soft fluffy castella cake-like exterior on cast iron fish-shaped molds.

Croissant taiyaki substitutes the soft exterior with the unexpected surprise of a crunchy puff pastry exterior. The large coarse sugar granules also adds to the texture without making this snack overwhelmingly sweet.

The regular Croissant Taiyaki with a red bean filling.

The added texture actually has made me a bigger fan of Croissant Taiyaki than of regular street-side taiyaki. It feels as if you're eating a proper pastry, but the only downside is that it isn't warm (more on that later, though!)

To further stoke my inner glutton, Croissant Taiyaki also features seasonal flavors.

I've seen the poster for the custard flavor, and Dairy and Cream also featured a matcha/green tea collaboration with the Wicked Musical.

I've yet to get my hands on the custard flavor, but I spotted this poster for the chocolate flavor. The shop had unfortunately sold out for the day though, but I made it my mission the next day to be there early and get my chocolate croissant taiyaki.

Made with couverture chocolate, it certainly was chocolatey. Topped with sliced roasted almonds, this was a great combo. My friend ate hers on the spot, but I actually took it home and did a quick toast to melt the filling a little.

It was delicious, but I was expecting a heavier chocolate flavor (a part of me not so secretly longed for something along the lines of Nutella to gush out). It's certainly still a treat for chocolate lovers though!

My last bit of advice is to get yourself there early. The shops bake only a certain number every day, so once they're sold out, they're out (even if this is 3 in the afternoon, and that particular shopping center doesn't close for another 7 hours!?).

Enjoy!

俺のフレンチ・イタリアン青山

I've been wanting to go to 俺のフレンチ・イタリアン青山 (Ore no French Italian, Aoyama) almost the entire time I've been in Japan.

I was always a bit nervous though, since I had no experience with French food and deciphering what the katakana French menu offered seemed somewhat daunting.

Thanks to the all wonderful internet and even more awesome Dairy and Cream, I managed to compile a list of everything I wanted to try when I finally managed to make a reservation at the restaurant.

The majority of the tables are standing, but because we made a reservation the second time around, we managed to get a seated table.
Definitely much easier on the legs after walking around shopping in Omotesando all day :)

On to the food though.

A must try is the トマトのムース　雲丹とキャビアのジュレ寄せ (tomato mousse, uni and caviar gelee).


My roommate isn't actually a big uni fan, but we both were avid fans of this combo. I have to admit that I had my doubts too, since caviar and uni were such strongly flavored ingredients, but the smooth tomato mousse below really brought everything together in this dish. Plus--there were gold flakes on the caviar! Talk about luxurious!

Another dish we had was the　ズワイガニのフイヤンティーヌ〜ピスタチオとフランボワーズ (Snow crab feuillantine ~ pistachio and raspberry).


The feuillantine was a very interesting combination of tastes and textures. The crab meat and feuillantine complimented each other very well. My palate wasn't sensitive enough to pick up the raspberries though.

One of Ore no French Italian's specialties is the オマールのロースト～貴腐ワインのソース～ (Roasted lobster ~ Wine sauce).


The lobster roasted to perfection. Every bite had a piece of juicy fresh lobster, and the buttery sauce made me wish I could abandon my knife and fork.

Next is another favorite, the サーモンのテリーヌ (salmon terrine).


This one literally had me oohing and aahing. It came covered with a smoke-filled glass lid. When the lid was lifted, I had a slight recoil from the sharpness of the smoke within, but once the fog lifted (quite literally), behold the glory of this beautiful joined terrine. It definitely wasn't just a showy dish though--the taste lived up to its appearance.

The only thing about the terrine is that it's only available from 8pm onwards. The first time we visited Ore no French, many of their specialties were sold out, so we ordered this blessing in disguise.

Last, but not least is one of my Ore no French Italian favorites--the 牛フィレとフォアグラのロッシーニ トリュフソース (the beef filet and foie gras rossini with truffle sauce).


We saw this dish at nearly every table, and when we tasted ours, we knew why.

The smooth foie gras with the lean steak makes a perfect combination. Add that with the earthy truffles, and you have a beautifully composed steak dish on your hands. If it weren't for all the food that we had already stuffed into ourselves, I would have loved to have some bread to finish off the sauce.

Ore no French Italian is a must visit. There are some fees (music and the mandatory cheese price), but for the price that you pay for the food, it is most definitely worth it. If possible, do try and get a reservation, which can be made on the Ore no French Italian Aoyama website. Otherwise, you will probably be looking at around an hour to a two hour wait (still worth it though!).

Has anybody else been there before? What other dishes should I try?

An Expat's Christmas in Japan

I think one of the sure signs of the holiday seasons rolling around is Christmas Lights.

Christmas in Japan is a bit of a novelty. It's less about the Christian undertones and more about pretty lights and spending time with your significant other.

I fulfilled the first part about pretty lights by going with my usual group to Tokyo Dome. I was pushing for Shiodome because that was rumored to have some of the best lights, but the group decided for Tokyo Dome in the end.

I'm not sure if it was Tokyo Dome, but the lights were mediocre in person but came out rather nicely in photos. Talk about deceptive, haha.

Tokyo Dome also had a tunnel of lights. It was pretty and you would think that being surrounded by lights would provide you with the best photo opp ever, but the lights, being colored, made my photos sometimes look washed out and instagramed.

I wish I had a few more hours to sit there and experiment, but oh well :| Guess I'll just have to wait till next Christmas!

I also stumbled across a lights display in Shinjuku, which I felt were much more festive and impressive. I think that was because there was less space between the lights so it didn't feel like we had to walk a couple meters before actually spotting another display.

All in all, I think Japan does a better job at making Christmas lights, but for some reason they still felt so...Japanese. The subtleties in design and the way things are set up made me think that this was much better than things I had seen in the States, but still so cute.

The holiday season is also party season! And, more so than presents and enjoying the company of friends, food comes first!

The big food highlight of this month involved Marumi. So basically, I've come to the conclusion that where Marumi様 is involved, there will be good food.

The event was a Lion's Club end of the year dinner, which was hosted at Disney Resort Hotel.

I've been wanting to go to Disneyland for ages, especially since I can take one train straight there without transferring, so I was pretty excited for this dinner.

The decor inside of the hotel was beautiful. The attention to detail to the lighting and the Disney princess' theme was everywhere.

Japan also has a particular obsession with Alice in Wonderland. There are so many spin off stories and themes in any given situation that it's given that there was a Wonderland-themed garden at the hotel.

The party had delicious foods, and I almost felt like I was in a Disney movie by being served with the cutlery they used.

Andddd, to wrap up, here are more pictures of food!

Next up is New Years!! Till next time!

October Wrap Up

My updates seem to have gone from once a week (once upon a time, right? haha) to once a month......

Which means there's a lot of catching up to do!

First things first was the long weekend a few weeks ago. It was great as I got to see Kara, who I haven't seen since graduation in 2010.

Our original plan was to visit an onsen I've been looking forward to for a while, but I figured that since onsen were plenty around Japan, it would've been better to take Kara out to a more special place.

You guessed it!

Nikko.

You might be wondering why the heck I'm always visiting Nikko, but it's pretty hard to say no to scenery like this.

My past two visits to Nikko were concentrated around the temples, so this time, we took the opportunity to visit the famous Kegon waterfalls and Lake Chuzenji.

The main point of the visit was to see the kouyou (紅葉, red autumn leaves), but unfortunately we were still too early to see many red leaves.

We were still lucky to have great weather on our trip up to Nikko though, as it wasn't raining and the weather was cool enough for a long sleeved tshirt and an optional jacket. Many other tourists were also enjoying the weather in boats all over Lake Chuzenji--Kara included.

We also left Nikko after having some delicious yuba-based foods.

During the trip, I also learned that apparently monkey poop is a "famous" product of Nikko (don't ask me why...)

The next big event was a fabulous fireworks exhibition in Tokyo. This was my last event with Bong before she moved to Gifu, so it was a bit of a bittersweet moment.

After fireworks, we ended up going to a yakitori place and then a Matsuya for some post fireworks, pre-moving food.

Following Bong's move was a week of reunions though. I got to see the mother of the family I stayed with in Akita during Golden Week.

And, as usual, I got to try delicious Japanese food in the presence of great company.

Following this reunion, I actually got to meet Seiko again and finally meet Sze Yen in person. Sze Yen and I were actually in the same department and had similar classes, but never actually met while in college despite the relative smallness of our departments.

It was also my first time having monajayaki, which was delicious--especially the cheese flavor!

The most recent major event was actually in Saitama--the annual Kawagoe festival.

I had been warned of the sheer size of the festival, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for the Kawagoe matsuri.

This festival is one of the largest festivals in Saitama and spanned several streets and blocks within a quick walking distance from the Kawagoe station, which meant tons of food stalls as people pushed their way through to see the beautiful floats that make the Kawagoe matsuri so famous.

The floats were beautifully made with plenty of beautiful colorful fabrics and gilded polished wood. I feel like one float would've been exciting enough on its own, but there were at least 15 floats all over the area as they moved about to represent their particular district.

I think this properly wraps up most of my October, and hopefully my next update won't be a month away....

Till next time!