Ikebukuro Diary

We love icecream!!

Rainy season finally over and hot summer just started!
If it's hot day....icecream is the best to cool down.....hummm
.....Specially Yumi......your face seems to melt away.....

We call 'Tsukemono' for Japanese pickles.
The most common kinds are pickled in salt or brine.
Or sometimes, it mixing with seaweeed and Japanese citrus 'Yuzu'.
These taste are very symple and I like it.

I know there are vegetables pickling with some spice.

How about your country??
Do you have your own recipe of pickles??
I'm really curious about it and I want to try it :D

Do you feel hungry at night because of jetlag or tired of long travel?
If yes, this is for you!

**Midnight snack menu**
Popcorn @350yen
Rice crackers and peanuts @350yen
Curry and Rice @650yen
Stir-fried pork and vegetables on rice @650yen

Dry vegitable is good for health. Because they get many nutrition from the sun while they get dry.
In Japan, we have a variety of dry food.
Dry shitake is famous for DASHI. You can have very good taste from dry shitake.
My favorite is Dry sweet potate. We usually heat it up for a while untill it turns gold color, Then it is time to eat!

Did you know that some store sell the Dry Natto!
It seems that it has good taste if you like Natto. I don't like it so I never try it. But my friend who loves Natto said, it has amazing taste. If you like it, please try Dry Natto.

Did you try yummy yummy roll cake?

"White chocolate roll cake with yellow mango and papaya"

・・・・・・・・・what a long name

Anyway, it's so good. The taste of sweet chocolate and sour fruits match perfectly.
It's available only during May.
Don't miss it!

Sorry everybody, today's topic is about sweets again..

When I was eating chocolatechip cookies, Noriko brought some bananas.
Chocolatechip cookie itself is yummy.
Banana tastes sweets.
Then, I came up with a new idea.
Why don't we eat them together? I thought they match very well. So we tried that.

Delicious!
This is what I thought. They match perfectly.
Noriko said also ice-cream will match them well.
We will try it next time.

If you have any new idea of receipe, please let me know☆

Recently, doughnut is popular sweets for ladies in Japan.
Luckly, we got a box of doughnut from Mr. Shinke.

This donuts are like cream puff. There is cream inside, and dough is like a puff.
And look at this decolation, isn't it so lovely?!
Of course, it was yummy.
Thank you.

Today's sweets is this!!

A big package of cookies from Saori who works at our cafe.
Thank you very much.
We can survive now ;)

hey, Kayoko!
You wrote a lot. I know that you have so many things to write cuz you just came back from long trip.
But I want to something to up, as well. So today is my turn ;)
Today's topic is this!
ORANGE
***********************
Do you know when is the season for Japanese oranges?
The answer is winter!!
Now, oranges are in season.

The Japanese orange is called mikan.
The typical mikan is very small and has sweets taste, not that sour.
I usually eat three of them every after meal. I also eat it at my breaktime of my work.
Once I start eating them, I can not stop ;P
Frozen mikan is also delicious. My favorite is having frozen mikan in a hot bath.
It is a heavenly good ;)

My aunt sent tons of mikans from Ehime prefecture located in a small island in the south of Japan.

Mikan has a lot of vitaminC, so they can protect you from cold.
Have some mikan and get over the winter!

Hot chocolate now (L)

If you are a reader of our blog, you already knew that I love chocolate.
But I didn't really like hot chocolate. Because the hot chocolate which I had drank before was too sweet, but no chocolate taste. I use to think chocolate is for eating, not for drinking. But since I met GODIVA's hot chocolate, I looove hot chocolate.

The GODIVA's hot chocolate is not too sweet, and it really has a taste of chocolate, not too weak, not too dark, it is really perfect for drink. So if you find, GODIVA's stand, please try it!
The nearst one is in Ikebukuro Sunshine city, which is in walking distance from our hotel. You can find GODIVA's stand also at JR Shinjuku station west exit of basement.

It is getting cold now. Why don't you drink hot chocolate to protect your body from the cold wind☆

Have you ever tried Japanese rice cracker called senbei?
Here is it.

They come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors, usually salty and with soy souce taste, but sometimes sweet. Mostly they are made by rice. It is very crunchy.
The picture is senbei with seaweed, sesami, and soy souce flavor (from left to right).
Usually, Senbei is used for small gift or reciprocal gift.
Luckly we got a box of senbei .

When I was a kid, I like senbei more than chocolates and candies.

If you are looking for something for your friend or family, senbei will be nice souvenior. Most of department stores have variety of different senbei.

Chestnuts-bun from our colleague who worked at head office in Shinjuku.
Thank you very much.

Chestnuts is one of the famous Autumn flavor.
This chestnuts bun has really good taste of chestnuts jam inside.
hmmmmm...very creamy..

It is good to have with green tea. It makes me relax.
If you would like to try, ask Mr. ONO.
I am sure that he still has some chesnuts-bun in his bag ;P

Yey!
We got fresh baked croissants!
Thank yooooooooooou.

Croissant is one of my favorite bread.
I like its cranchy texture and smell of butter...
hmmmmmmmmmmm... yummy.

It makes me happy (L)

Sorry, Kayoko... They will be gone by the time you come back.

Because I went to Berlin (?), my pockets are hit...
Then here is my good lunch.
SUSHI (L)

From 12:00 to 14:00, it is available only for 500yen!! You can choose Ehika Nigiri set OR a set of some sushi rolls and a bowl of rice topped with sashimi
This Sushi store is called Midori-zushi and it is pretty famous among the people in Tokyo.
If you don't have enought money but want to try sushi, you really should go to Midori-zushi.
**P.S........Midori-zushi at Echika does't have the space to eat there.That's why it's take-out only.

Wow, it's just like a 'sweets paradise' here!!
Well, now we would like to deeply say 'THANK YOU SO MUCH' to all the guests......!!
We have got a lots of sweets from the guests and actually we all love it!
But.......
We really do appeiciate your kindness....................................

We are all smiling (^^) (^^) (^^)
Thank you and Arigatou again!!

When I'm hung over, Miso soup helps me to feel better, really.....

Since long time ago, we have been having 'Miso soup' everyday,
and it might be also Japanese soul food,I think.

Miso is made from soy beans.
And it's easy to make soup with it!
I like 'Tofu (soybean curd)' and 'Vegetables' or 'Seaweed' in it ;)

Let me teach you how to make it!

1.Boil some water.
2.Add some soup stock made from fish and diced Tofu in there.
3, Lastly add some Miso and stir until dissolved in the soup.

That's all !!

I sometimes make it in the dormitory kitchen for my lunch.
If you are interested in, I can make it for you and you can taste it ;)
...........................if you have courage to taste it....haha!

Are you hungry?
We are hungry!

We hungry men working here bring snacks or sweets ourselves
to survive ;)

One day the snacks got together to satisfy us :)

Specially Mr.PRETZ looks so cute and he got into my bag.
And he ask me 'please bring me!'

If you passed Ikebukuro station on the way to come to our hotel,
you might be aware that people make a long line for parchase something.
That is for a Rusk covered with white chocolate and named GOUTER de ROI.

Luckily, we got it from cleaning stuff.
Thank you very much Ms. Aihara!!

Finally, we have beautiful sky, and bliliant sunshine today.
hmmmmmmmmmm, how nice....
What I can not wait for this season is , having a beer after work at open air cafe. It makes me refresh and stress free.

Here is the my BEST 5.

No.5
Tsunami.(U.S Hawaii)☆
Most popular Hawaian beer. Sweet taste.

No.4 Haineken (Holland)☆☆
I guess most famous beer in the world.

No.3 The Premium Malts. (Japan!!)☆☆☆
Prize for the taste. My favorite one!

No.2 Becks (Germany)☆☆☆☆
Clear taste!　

No.1 Draft Beer☆☆☆☆☆
Available only at Restaurant or Izakaya. Served from Barrel.
Sorry this is my favorite one and it has not available at our Cafe yet....
So I will ask my manager to serve draft beer. Then we can drink Draft Beer at Sakura Cafe :D

We have many different kind of beer at our cafe.
All world beer is available at 450yen now.
Don't miss it☆

Yey!
We got chocolate from Agata san from Poland☆
They knew that we love chocolate because they read this blog
before come to Japan.
Thank you soooo much Agata san, very nice of you !!

Bonjour☆
greeting from Tokyo!!
Did you get home safety?
Merci for chocolate. It was yummy. We ate it up on one day ;)

↓ Switzerland chocolate (they got it when they visit there)

Again, Thank you for visiting us.
We hope to serve you when you come back next time in Tokyo.

P.S ...Madame, did you get cooking tool that you were looking for?

We say, 'Yatta-!!' when something happy happen!
They are saying 'Yatta-!!' and please look at their happy faces...
what happened with them?

Answer is....one of our guests,　Jablonski-san gave us cookies as present !
It was from Paris and I have already tasted it, so yummy...!! Merci! C'est trop bon!!

'Thank you so much' from all of our staffs here :D

Wonder how cookies taste in your country...??
Oops, I don't mean "please present it for us!!!".....may...be? :p