noodle Archives - The Wifey's Corner

March 31, 2018March 30, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 11

On day 11, we would be travelling out from Takayama to Tokyo. We used the free shuttle bus facility by Takayama Kanko Hotel that morning and waited only about 20 minutes or so for our train. The journey consisted of a train ride to Nagoya and another train to Tokyo station. Note: when reserving a shinkansen train from Kyoto or Nagoya towards Tokyo, remember to request seat on the left side. That is because Mount Fuji will be on the left side, and vice versa get seats on the right side when travelling out from Tokyo to Kyoto. This time we actually forgot to ask that when made the reservation, but thankfully the kind officer gave us seats on the left side 🙂

Day 11

Again, do not fall asleep on the train from Takayama to Nagoya. I only managed to take some footage from about half way through the ride. We were so grateful for able to see Mount Fuji with its snowy cap clearly on the ride to Tokyo. Before our trip, I have read many people say that often it’d be too cloudy to see that snowy cap. So, I kind of not letting myself too hopeful about seeing it, but there it was! 🙂 When we first got a glimpse of a mountain with white tip from far distance amongst many other mountains, hubby commented: “Are you sure that one is Mount Fuji? “. And, I had to admit he was correct, I wouldn’t know for sure. But as we got closer and it came to full view, everyone started to take pictures then you know it is indeed the majestic Mount Fuji. We also got another glimpse of it on our way to Haneda Airport before departing the country, truly grateful for these chances.

Mount Fuji viewed from the train to Tokyo

Anyway, our plan today was to get to Tokyo around 1 pm then went straight to Disney check in counter at Maihama Bay. The first things we noticed as we got to Tokyo were it was noticeably warmer and huge crowds in the station. Because it would be too early to check in to the hotel, but we could leave our luggage there and have them delivered to our hotel later. We were super excited to spend the night at Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta that night. We had left it until too late to book accommodation here and I had to literally monitor the web everyday to finally be able to get a room. So, we had our expectation up high on this – but anyway, I’ll do another post just for the accommodation next.

Once we left our luggage, we went back to Tokyo Station then to Asakusa. Our mistake was we used the JR to get to Asakusa-bashi instead of taking the subway to Asakusa which is closer to Sensoji Temple. Oh boy, that was a long walk from Asakusa-bashi to the temple, in which half way through I almost wanted to walk back and gave up. But, in the end we persistently walked to Sensoji Temple. And to make thing worse, we did not have pocket WiFi to access Google Maps. A really big thank you to all the convenience store chains in Japan where they provide free WiFi connection. We stopped at couple of convenience stores to get drink, access to Google Maps, and screen shot our walking journey 😀

asakusa tokyo skytree — Spotted Tokyo Skytree on the way to Sensoji Temple

Some streets in Asakusa near Sensoji Temple

What a relief to finally get to Sensoji Temple, but we actually did not spend long time here. Took a few pictures, walked around the market stalls then headed back towards subway station. On the way to the subway station, we stopped by a ramen shop for quick dinner. Then we made a quick stop at Akihabara, where hubby browsed some shops quickly before headed back to theDisneySea MiraCosta Hotel.

What we ate on Day 11

We had our big breakfast at Takayama Kanko Hotel, as can been on the previous post. When we got to Nagoya, we bought these ekiben for lunch – total ¥2,474. Hubby said his unagi bento was the least delicious unagi he had in Japan. My karaage chicken was delicious and generous portion as well. We also bought a pack of chocolate Pocky for ¥162 for dessert 🙂

ekiben unagi bowl — Unagi rice bowl with (what we think as) shredded fried eggs topping

ekiben special karaage set — Special karaage chicken set

While exploring the market outside of Sensoji Temple, we bought one rice cracker with seaweed ¥120 – but totally forgot to take picture of it 😅

And, these were our delicious warming dinner. The broth was such a delight and the owner was very friendly. The gyoza were delicious with crispy skin. The restaurant detail can be found below and we recommend this ramen place if you are nearby.

Ramen Asakusatai

2 Chome-19-12 Kaminarimon, Taitō-ku, Tōkyō-to 111-0034, Japan

I could not find their website, but this page have a great reference on the restaurant. They even have details on how to put your order through the vending machine. I wished we had learned about this before we came to Japan 🙂

Lastly, we bought this from a vending machine at Maihama Station before proceeding to the monorail to our hotel. I thought this was melon juice, turned out it’s soft drink with melon flavor 😅 Actually we also bought some bread in the convenience store at the station for breakfast the next day, but forgot to take pictures also.

March 12, 2018March 11, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 8

Day 8 is another day when we plan to maximise our JR Pass and we have planned to visit Hiroshima and Miyajima. I added these two places in our itinerary not only for its distance, also we wanted to try Hiroshima’s style okonomiyaki. And while there, we might as well visit The Great Torii at Miyajima. Initially, we had planned to spend a night at one of the ryokan in Miyajima; however it just didn’t work out with our overall itinerary. So, it would just be a day trip then.

Day 8

We started today early again hoping to have enough time at Hiroshima and Miyajima since the last ferry service from Miyajimaguchi is 4.10 pm. We took the shinkansen from Shin-Osaka and the ride was about one and an half hour to Hiroshima. Hiroshima itself is a fairly big station, and once we exited the ticketing gates there are many “Hello Hiroshima” volunteers. These people will help tourists for directions and how to get to points of interest. As we must have been so easily identified as tourist, one of these volunteers helped us out with directions to go to city centre and recommended an okonomiyaki restaurant in the area.

We took an electric railway ride as per our guide to Hatchobori and from there we walked around the area using the Google map. We could not find the recommended restaurant, so we ended up going into one restaurant that seemed pretty busy with locals. Must be a good sign, right? We tried two types of okonomiyaki here and both were really good. They were different to the Osaka style, in which they have loads more vegetable here plus they are not served with mayonnaise although you can always ask for it if you want to.

From here, we walked to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996. It was a nice park as are many other parks in Japan, but seeing the Atomic Bomb Dome was really something. How the whole city was completely destroyed during WW II and look how advanced it is now, is amazing. Gotta admire the dedication and discipline of the Japanese! The park covers massive ground and it will easily take hours to wholly explore the area, which we didn’t have such time for. So, we took the free bus back to the station (note it is not free per se, but is covered by JR Pass).

From there, we took a train ride to get to Miyajimaguchi station and headed to the ferry wharf. The ferry services between Miyajimaguchi and Miyajima is frequent and served by two ferry companies, namely JR and Matsudai. The ferry ride was only 10 minutes each way and here we are at Miyajima. You would be able to see the Great Torii from the ferry ride towards Miyajima.

We happened to have only about 2 hours in Miyajima to make it to our reserved shinkansen back to Osaka. In that short span of time, we could not possibly able to do much in Miyajima. I had wanted to take to cable car to the top of the hill but that would not be enough time for this. So we only explored the market and walked to the beach nearby The Great Torii. It was low tide while we were there so the base of the six pillars of the torii are visible. Had we spend the night at Miyajima, I’d love to come by early in the morning during high tide to see it floating on the sea.

Anyway the market were busy, there are a lot of stalls selling Miyajima’s most popular snack: momiji manju and oyster. Momiji manju is maple leaf-shaped cake with various fillings, such as red bean paste, matcha, blueberry, cheese, custard and few others. Some stalls even sell deep-fried version of this cake, which we didn’t get due to the long queue. Oh, you will not miss a giant wooden rice paddle in the market as well. At first, I wasn’t sure what is the paddle supposed to be, was it an oar or something else. Then when I read some travel stories about Miyajima that the city is well-known for its rice paddle. So, you’ll see many stalls selling mini rice paddles souvenirs here as well.

What we ate on Day 8

Because it’s going to be a fairly long ride to Hiroshima, we got some ekiben for breakfast in the shinkansen. Shin Osaka has massive options of ekiben and all them looks delightful! I can happily buy one each day and will never get the same one for maybe few months or even a year. I find the kids ekiben more interesting for the packaging and had hoped to get the Hello Kitty one, but sadly they were not ready yet.

pork cutlet sandwich — Pork Cutlet Sandwich – ¥842 (with a oack of Matcha Pocky that forgot to take picture of)

What else to have than the famous Hiroshima style okonomiyaki while in town? We forgot the name of that famous okonomiyaki place in Hiroshima and for some reasons just Google search just failed us. In the midst of all confusion, we saw this restaurant that many locals went right in. So, we gave up on going to Okonomi-mura and instead came here.

We tried one of the original and the other with udon, both with pork. The udon one is a little too heavy and for that we prefer the original one better. In general, okonomiyaki here is really loaded with vegetables as you can see in the video below – it’s quite different to Osaka style. Our okonomiyaki was tasty and full of flavour, it is already rich without having to add mayonnaise. Although if you prefer it with mayonnaise, they can also accommodate the request. Total spent for lunch was ¥2,400 and that was super filling!

These are what we bought at Miyajima market:

grilled oyster — Grilled oyster skewer – ¥300

miyajima maple cake — We bought eight of these momiji manju with different fillings: matcha, custard, and chocolate. Custard is definitely the best despite we both love matcha generally. These taste best when they are hot and the soft custard is still gooey – delish! Total spent ¥720

As for dinner, I was still aiming to get the Hello Kitty ekiben, and thankfully when we got there, I got one of the last two left! Mission accomplished, yay 🙂

And hubby got another okonomiyaki from a shop close to our AirBnb.

Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki from Jazz & BLues Octopus Cafe – ¥1,300

May 22, 2017May 21, 2017

Mr Stonebowl Restaurant, Burwood

A few weekends ago we finally paid visit to Mr Stonebowl restaurant that many has people raved about, including my brother and cousins. Their first comment aside from being served delicious food was that it is always packed! And because it does not take reservation, your best bet would be to come a little early for your meal, or a little later. Good thing is the dishes came out quick hence diners turnover are good as well. Bottom line is this restaurant is not a place for diners who want to have long chat while eating. That Saturday, we came at 11 for lunch, just on its opening time. And yes, many tables were already taken then.

Apart from the crowded issue, the dishes are excellent. There was nothing we would complain about the dishes, everything we ordered were delicious. Oh by the way, I guess because of the name, they use many unique crockery (you’ll see in photos below).

Garlic Prawn with Stir Fried Rice in Squid Ink ($18.80) – this is soo delicious!

Crab Meat with Tofu ($16.80) – love that crockery as much as the dish! Very subtle flavour with creamy garlicky and gingery gravy.

Deep Fried Eggplant in Bread Crumb ($13.80) – this is probably everyone’s favorite, those soft eggplants coated in flavorsome bread crumb, yummy. I think most people actually come to Mr Stonebowl for this dish!

Shandong Style Chicken ($15.80) – nothing negative to say about this dish either. Deep fried chicken in tangy, salty and spicy broth, yummy!

Pan Fried Pork Bun ($8.80) – not much to rave about, but not a bad dish either. The skin is not too thick, the meat filling is juicy and burst with flavor and broth once bite into it. It probably just overshadowed by all other super delicious dishes.

Mushroom Stir Fried with Vege ($11.80) – who knows a vege dish can be sooo delicious. The various mushrooms used in this meal add different texture and taste, definitely a winner for stir fried bakchoy dish.

Seafood Fried Vermicelli ($10.80) – generous with seafood and that tasty thick gravy over pan fried vermicelli.

We most definitely had a super satisfying meal at Mr Stonebowl, in fact I already want to go back there while doing this post. Oh by the way, those meals above were for 6 people! Good thing about eating out in groups is you get to try so many dishes at once 🙂

Mr Stonebowl

185C Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Phone: (02) 8970 9605

www.aozhoureview.com/business/mr-stonebow

February 10, 2017

Manmaruya, Ashfield

We still experience the worst of summer here in Sydney, where temperature reached up to 43 degrees in the west. Last weekend was no exception, it was really hot while we were out here and there mostly all day on Saturday. We spent first half of Saturday looking at property inspections around Ashfield and decided we should grab quick lunch in the area. After all there are plenty of choices to choose from at Ashfield, but we ended up at Manmaruya. Also on the note of Sydney heat, I think I will not do any more baking or much cooking indeed until it is cooler again 😛 So stay tune for more recipe posts probably in a little while…

We got to the restaurant around quarter past twelve and there were still plenty tables available. We ordered the special lunch bento boxes whereas hubby tried their cold ramen.

Those lunch bento boxes are really good value for your money no doubt, huge portion of rice and generous amount of delicious meat with salad and some small side items. As for the cold ramen, it really came like the normal ramen but with cold broth. The broth is so refreshing, it is a little bit tangy but very tasty, just perfect for a hot day. By the way, you can always upgrade your ramen portion to a bigger size if you feel super hungry 😀

Manmaruya Japanese Noodle Bar

217 Liverpool Rd., Ashfield NSW 2131

Phone: (02) 9799 6889

manmaruya.com.au

December 24, 2016

Ceci Korean Restaurant, Strathfield, Sydney

This is a very late post, never quite finished it all this time and while cleaning up my drafts saw it again. Anyway, we went here in June while mom visited us – in fact, this was the last dinner before mom went back to Indonesia again. We chose Ceci based on Zomato reviews and to tried a new restaurant in the area as well. Also mom loved the Korean black bean noodle (Jajangmyeon), but since not many Korean restaurants in Strathfield does it. Those reasons were what bring us to this restaurant.

We didn’t take many pictures here but here are the food we ordered:

Pork, Sausage, Vegie & Tofu Soup with Noodle – $38

The food were not bad, but not outstanding that made us want t0 go back again either. Jajangmyeon was a let down, too greasy and not tasty, the noddle was cooked a tad too long. Then the crispy chicken with spicy sauce, I guess would have been a better choice if we ordered just fried chicken without any sauce whatsoever. Seafood pancake was nice, tasty and not too floury. The noodle soup was also good with generous pork and sausages.

All in all, we had a decent meal, it was not really that horrible but may be just not to our liking. There are plenty of positive reviews on Zomato of this place, but maybe it was not our lucky day or what not. But considering there are many more Korean restaurants around, we would try many others than coming back here.

Ceci Korean Restaurant

37 The Boulevarde, Strathfield, Sydney

Phone: (02) 8084 3171