2016 Japan & HK - ANA (HKG-NRT-YVR)

Time flies by so quickly when you're having fun. Sadly, it was time go back home :(

Leaving Hong Kong International Airport, we boarded ANA to Haneda Airport for our connecting flight back to YVR. On this short flight, we were served one hot meal, being our dinner.

Appetizers: (L-R) Japanese buckwheat noodles with Nameko mushrooms, nori, noodle sauce; Pork ham and pastrami beef with potato salad; Pickled diced veggies; Dinner roll

Entree: Seafood Creamy Pasta

Dessert: Mini Crunch Bar

Drink: Kayanoya vegetable soup

ANA had 2 unique drinks on board. One of them was the "Aromatic Kabosu", a green citrus fruit drink (sort of like lemonade). The other was the Kayanoya vegetable soup. For my dinner meal, I tried the vegetable soup as my drink of choice. It was a delicious savoury broth (reminiscent of a consomme), but a little on the salty side.

Entree: Simmered Beef in soy-based sauce over steamed rice

W opted for the Japanese meal. I think it was a sukiyaki style beef served with rice. Naturally, I had to eat all the peas for him LOL...

Same as when we flew to Japan, we were served one hot meal and one cold breakfast box as we made our way back to North America.

Appetizers: (L-R) Potato salad; mixed leaves with creamy French dressing; Noodles with minced meat and miso sauce

Entree: Seafood, Chicken and Simmered vegetables over steamed mixed rice

Dessert: (not pictured) Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream cup

Drink: Coffee

For the last leg of the flight, I chose the Japanese meal. It certainly looked yummy! Unfortunately, I was feeling tired and cranky so I wasn't very into the food at that time.

I loved the variety in this plate though. The bamboo shoots were marinated well and surprisingly the shrimp and the egg was not that overcooked!

Entree: Tandoori Chicken with Saffron Rice

W had the Indian-influenced rice dish. Not sure of the flavours though since I didn't try it...but with ANA's quality of food, I'm sure it was tasty.

Finger sandwiches (L-R): Egg salad with cucumbers and deli meat; Smoked salmon with cream cheese; Ham and cheese with tomato and lettuce

Sides: Kabocha pumpkin mash paired with cocktail fruit; Bacon and cherry tomato

Dessert: Lightly sweetened plain yogurt, Mini Kit Kat bar

Finally, breakfast was served, which meant only a couple more hours until we land!

I was absolutely enamored with this breakfast box! The little pieces of crustless sandwiches were so dainty and cute! This time, a Japanese-branded yogurt was served alongside instead of the North American produced yogurt cup we had on our first flight. It was just lightly sweetened (no vanilla flavour) but I enjoyed it a lot.

Well, that's the end of my very first Japan trip! I've had a taste of the amazing city and experienced a tid-bit of the culturally-rich country. It has definitely left me yearning for many more return visits!

2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Dinner)

This segment of Notable Mentions is dedicated to dinner. On our last night in Tokyo, my family and I headed over to Lumine Ikebukuro in search of good eats.

Lumine Ikebukuro is a large department store within the Metropolitan Plaza Building. There are 2 whole floors just for restaurants alone and many more cafes and eateries dispersed throughout the multi-floor department store!

We headed up to the 8th floor, restaurant level, to look around for interesting places. There were so many options but a lot of them had long line-ups already. We decided to try Keisho-An, a restaurant specializing in Japanese-style chicken dishes.

Hiyashi Tofu

We ordered a bunch of items to share and the first to arrive was the chilled tofu. The fresh and soft tofu came with the cutest, smallest bottle of sweet soya sauce! Eaten by itself, the tofu was super creamy and soft, with a mild yet sweet soy bean flavour. A little drop of the sauce turned the dish into a savoury appetizer.

Karaage

The deep fried chicken pieces were so yummy, we ordered it twice! They were seriously juicy inside, and salty and crispy on the outside. It's a glass of ice-cold beer's best friend!

Agedashi Tofu with Chicken

To mellow out the crunchy goodness, we had a dish of fried soft tofu sitting in a savoury broth. Usually, the agedashi tofu back at home just has tofu and sauce. However, at Keisho-An, their version had pieces of simmered chicken and oyster mushrooms. If there was a bowl of rice, this could have been a full meal by itself!

Chicken skewers - Tsukune Set (top) and Yakitori Set (bottom)

Next up, 2 sets of chicken skewers!

The Tsukune Set consisted of 5 skewers of minced chicken meat balls, all with different sauces on top. From left to right, there was teriyaki, umeshiso (pickled plum and a type of Perilla leaf), Nagoya miso, mentaiko (salted pollock roe), and teri-mayo.

The little meatballs were great for sharing but because of its size, the meat was not as juicy as I expected.

The Yakitori Set had 5 skewers of different parts of the chicken: the gizzard, thigh, skin, thigh with leeks and another that I can't remember (sorry!). These were simply grilled over charcoal and brushed with a sweet soya sauce. These went well with beer too! Yum!

Oyako-don

For our starch dish, we chose the chicken and egg rice bowl. Typically, the chicken would be simmered with onion in sweet dashi broth and then topped with soft scrambled eggs. This version actually had a raw egg on top instead of the chicken! This lent a different kind of silkiness to the rice and chicken.

Caprese Salad

Our lone veggie dish of the night was the Caprese salad...though technically, this did not actually have any vegetables in it! LOL... We originally wanted to order a green salad with lotus root but they ran out of lotus root :( Caprese became our second choice. It was a small portion but the ingredients were fresh and helped lighten up the chicken-heavy dishes on our table.

Even though we had to wait a while for a table, all those yummy chicken-centric dishes were well worth the time!

2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Dessert)

One of the places that I had to go to, no matter what, was Pablo to have their ooey-gooey cheese tarts! My friend, K-chan, kept raving about Pablo to me non-stop so I had to check it out myself to see if it really lives up to the hype.

I took the whole group to the Omotesando location because it was just a short walk away from Meiji Shrine (which we had just finished visiting in the afternoon). I also chose this location because it had a full-service cafe (some other locations of Pablo were take-out only). This cafe had 2 floors. The bottom floor had a take-out counter with a self-serve sitting area while the top floor was a dedicated full-service cafe space.

We went upstairs to the cafe to rest our weary feet and enjoy a late afternoon snack.

Pablo Cheese Tart (Original Flavour) served with apricot honey sauce and vanilla ice cream

We chose 3 different kinds of cheese tarts to share amongst our group. Of course, we had to get the original cheese tart so we could compare it with the other flavours! The filling was lightly sweet, creamy with a soft cheese aroma while the crust was thin and flaky. No wonder they're famous for their cheese tarts!

Camembert & Quattro Fromage Cheese Tart

The second flavour we chose was the Camembert and "four cheese" cheese tart, only available at the Omotesando location. As expected from the name, this tart had a more intense cheese aroma and flavour. This one had more of a sweet and savoury thing going on due to the different cheeses used.

Chestnut Cheese Tart served with chestnut ice cream, walnuts, cashews and chestnut pieces on the side

For our third cheese tart, we went for the limited edition Chestnut flavour. As chestnuts are typically associated with the autumn season, this one was limited for a short period of time at the shop. The cheese tart had a light chestnut flavour while the top and sides were garnished with candied chestnut pieces. This had an earthy and warm feeling to the cheese tart.

Matcha Latte

Since it was a chilly and rainy day, I had the matcha latte to warm up. It was ok...the milky foam was not fine enough for me =P

Here's what the cheese tart looks when cut. Apparently, one can order the "doneness" of the cheese tart! You could either have it soft (so it looks oozy and gooey, and a bit under baked), or you could have it regular (which is the doneness pictured above). Darn it, if I had known earlier, I would have chosen the ooey gooey version!

I think Pablo was one of the best places we have visited on our entire Japan trip. Our entire group agreed that the cafe was comfy, quiet, warm and relaxing, while the cheese tarts were delicious and indulgent! So glad that we came here!!

2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Lunch)

In this segment of "Notable Mentions", lunch time is the topic! One of the must-do items on my list is to have a meal of premium beef. My friend, K-chan, recommended Rokkasen, a pretty popular restaurant specializing in top-quality cuts of Wagyu and Matsuzaka beef.

Fortunately, the concierge at our hotel was able to make a lunch-time reservation for our party of 10 and we ended up having a spacious private room to ourselves!

The combination sets were pretty affordable for the quantity and quality of the food. For around $55 CDN, W and I shared the Japanese Black Cattle Sukiyaki set.

Appetizers: Jelly fish in vinaigrette, Marinated mixed veggies (spinach, bean sprouts, carrot, cloud ear mushroom)

To begin, we had little dishes of cold appetizers - marinated jelly fish, and marinated veggies.

Green salad

There was also a small bowl of salad with radish sprouts, peanuts, and sesame tossed in a tangy vinaigrette.

Japanese Black Cattle Sukiyaki Course

The cast iron pot was filled with the sweet and savoury sukiyaki sauce. The rest of the ingredients were placed on top. There was onion, carrot, tofu, konyaku noodles, veggies, shiitake mushrooms, and of course, the star of the show... slices of beautifully marbled Japanese Black Cattle beef!

Aside from the items in the cast iron pot, we were given extra slices of beef on the side!

Extra veggies (mushrooms, leeks, tofu, onion slices, vermicelli, Tong Ho veggies) were also provided. The combo also came with snow crab legs!!

Left: Matsuzaka boneless short rib; Right: Black Cattle galbi short rib

We also wanted to try out the grill on our table so we ordered a plate of the premium Matsuzaka short rib and the lesser, but still amazingly delicious, Black Cattle short rib for a comparison tasting.

After our comparison tasting, it was a no-brainer! The Matzuzaka beef was the winner! There really was no denying that the highest quality Matzusaka beef was the most tender and juiciest piece of meat out there.

Ice cream mochi with strawberry sauce and cookie stick covered with nuts and chocolate

At the end of the meal, we were all served a cup of hot tea and a bowl of ice cream mochi. 

All those Japan travel trips are true; if you want to have a meal at a higher-end restaurant, it is best to visit them during lunch as the prices are lower yet the portions and quality are just about the same as dinner. For a first time Japan traveler, Rokkasen hit the spot!

2016 Japan - Tsukiji Fish Market

My ideal plan in visiting the infamous Tsukiji Fish Market would consist of waking up at 5 AM and heading over there to try at least 3 different places for breakfast inside the actual fish market area. Then I would walk over to the outer market and sample maybe half a dozen different snacks sold on the streets.

Alas....that is just a dream. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for me, sleeping trumps eating. In reality, we arrived at Tsukiji Fish Market at 9 AM to find long queues already formed at all the famous shops.

Luckily, we were able to snag seats for our party of 10 inside the tiny Aiyo Coffee Shop.

Aiyo Coffee Shop is located right next door to Sushi Dai, one of the most well-known spots for sushi within the market. 

There are only a handful of small tables and seats at the counter for maybe half a dozen people or so. Our group of 10 nearly filled up the whole shop!

Plain black brewed coffee

I originally wanted to have their Milk Coffee (brewed coffee with milk stirred in) but W accidentally ordered plain black coffee for us. That was ok though because the milk served on the side was super creamy and aromatic! It definitely "leveled-up" the plain brewed coffee!

Toast with butter and jam, coffee with milk added in afterwards

My mom and I also shared an order of their toast. I loved how they put strawberry jam on one half and plain butter on the other half, and then cut them into tiny bite-sized pieces! They do this for all their orders but I just think it's very thoughtful of them.

Nakaya Seafood Don

After coffee, our group split into two as some of us like to eat raw fish while the others do not. I was part of the raw fish-eating group haha.... Since all the popular shops still had really long line-ups, I recommended Nakaya as the line-up was not too bad. This shop specializes in rice bowls topped with various fresh raw fish.

Part of the menu (they have about 40 different combinations!)

#20 - Toro with Snow Crab Rice Bowl

W chose the #20. On top of sushi rice were slices of tuna, whole pieces of snow crab leg, and shredded snow crab meat. The menu said the tuna was toro, but it didn't look like the typical fatty pieces of tuna belly... The ample crab meat was sweet and succulent though.

#3 - Uni and Seafood Rice Bowl - served with miso soup, pickled radish and marinated baby clams on the side

The #3 was my choice. All donburi (rice bowls) came with tea, miso soup, and dishes of pickles and marinated baby clams.

Along with uni, my bowl also had sweet shrimp, scallop, salmon, toro (tuna belly), octopus, tuna, salmon roe, tobiko (flying fish roe), and shredded crab meat. I loved all the variety in my bowl but I would have loved it even more if there were more uni pieces in this namesake bowl :(

Grilled scallops with uni on top, doused with a sweet soy sauce

Afterwards, we walked out to the outer market for some street food! Immediately, the grilled scallops topped with uni caught my eye!! Creamy pieces of fresh uni were placed on top of 2 whole grilled scallops, then squirted with a sweet soya sauce. This was definitely a real treat to eat on the street (LOL rhyming much?).

W and I also ate freshly made tamago-yaki (sweet thick egg omelet), and for dessert, I ate a large strawberry wrapped with red bean paste and mochi (strawberry daifuku). Unfortunately, I did not take any standalone photos of these deletable eats...

One could seriously have a ball eating all the things the outer market has to offer! There were so many good eats but my tummy did not have enough room T___T 

2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Breakfast)

Even though we were only in Tokyo for 4 days, there were eateries that were very memorable to me. In this segment of "Notable Mentions", I will highlight such place(s) for the breakfast category.

On our first morning, W and I left breakfast up to fate. We randomly walked around inside the Ikebukuro subway station and chanced upon Ooedo Soba. This was a tiny shop serving plain soba and udon noodles in soup. This was one of those quintessential shops that salarymen stop by for breakfast before heading down to the subway and off to work! 

Mixed tempura and raw egg with soba in soup かき揚げ天玉そば (450 Yen)

Before finding a place to sit (or stand!), we had to order from the ticket machine. Perusing the menu, both W and I decided to have soba noodles with fried shredded veggies and a raw egg in soup. This was simple and affordable. Not only was it yummy but we experienced a typical breakfast time of the local working class.

On another morning, our group of 10 headed to R-Beckers, a quick-serve eatery located near a ground level entrance to the Ikebukuro subway station. This placed served Western-style breakfast plates.

Morning Plate Set (450 Yen) - Buttered toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, coffee

I had the Morning Plate Set. The portion was just right for me for a quick breakfast. The thick slices of toast had a buttery, crispy exterior and a pillowy soft center! Yum!

Special Morning Set (560 Yen) - Croissant, lettuce salad, sausages, scrambled eggs, coffee

For an additional 110 yen, W had the Special Morning Set which came with a croissant and a side "salad" of iceberg lettuce. W opted for sausages instead of bacon. 

Although the food was really nothing that incredible, we thought the value was there and the atmosphere of the eatery was relaxing and quiet. The coffee was not bad either!

I wish there were more of these places back at home. Whether Asian or Western, this is my kind of "fast-food"!

2016 Japan & HK - All Nippon Airways (YVR-HND-HKG)

The biggest highlight of the year 2016 was our family trip to Japan and Hong Kong. Can you imagine coordinating 10 family members for a 4 day trip in Tokyo and then another 7 days in Hong Kong?! For some of us, it was our very first time to Japan (*cough* me *cough*), so it was natural to jam-pack EVERYTHING that we wanted to see, eat, buy and do all within those 4 short days. 

For me, the eating part was the most important aspect of the trip. Sure, sightseeing and shopping was something a first-time tourist like me would want to do too, but I was excited to experience their cuisine, their culture, and the Japanese's dedication towards excelling their food.

Even their airline food is one-step above other airline carriers. We flew on All Nippon Airways (ANA) which I was very excited about. Not because of their great service, but because many years ago I watched a Japanese drama, "Good Luck" starring Kimura Takuya, with the storyline about ANA's flight personnel and its premises taking place at ANA's facilities. I just sort of developed an affinity with this airline LOL... Anyway, I digress...

During our flight to Tokyo, we were served one hot meal and one breakfast box. In between, we were also provided with liquid refreshments and rice crackers.

Miso-grilled Spanish Mackerel with Rice

Beef Hamburger Steak with Onion Sauce and Potatoes

Left: Macaroni salad with a slice of smoked salmon, olive, and lemon wedge

Right: Pickled veggies (carrot, cauliflower, celery) and gherkin

Japanese omelet, simmered daikon radish in soy-based sauce, edamame

After our hot meal, we were served Mario's vanilla gelato cup for dessert!

Beef pastrami sandwich with cheese and tomato, vanilla yogurt, apple slices

On our flight to Hong Kong, we had one hot meal for dinner.

Appetizers: Noodles with minced meat and miso sauce, mixed leaves with creamy red French dressing

Entree: Beef short ribs and beef tongue over steamed rice, Japanese omelet, mixed veggies

Dessert: Mango Mousse over Chocolate Cake

Even in economy class, I thought the hot meals were delicious. Aside from the cold breakfast box, all meals displayed homey and warm Japanese flavours. It definitely made the long flight a lot more comfortable!