Charity Event on 24 June 2011

Introducing another cake event by one of our friends:

Hiroo Ichie in Tokyo

Back in Tokyo, we dined at Hiroo-Ichie.

For further detail of the restaurant, please see the article on FT

Nakaminato fish market

Nakaminato - a local fish market in Ibaraki

And this is what we had for supper - a head!

Breakfast at Ryokan

The breakfast at Ryokan is not every Westerner's favourite, I'm afraid, unless you love to eat rice and grilled fish first thing in the morning, or you are my husband, who loves this 8 course meal. His favourite is Onsen tamago, an egg slowly cooked in Hot spa water.

We don't eat all these at home, in case you're wondering. Not at mine, at least.

A Ryokan dinner

We stayed in a traditional Ryokan inn for a night - with Onsen hotspring spa!

This stay was a present from my friends - for our wedding and a baby.

If you stay in a traditional ryokan, this is what you get for supper...

I always find it a way too many dishes (more came after these...)

but my British husband loves it.

Picnic in Kiyosumi Garden

This is Kiyosumi-Garden in Tokyo, which I visited for the first time.

Sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in my hometown.

Our picnic! Take-away dishes which my friend bought at a department store food hall.

There are numerous high-quality take-away shops in Tokyo - it is difficult to starve there.

Korokke

Not that we eat sushi all the time. Here are Japanese potato croquettes - Korokke.

It may look a western dish but we Japanese have been eating it since the 19th century.

There are a lot of very 'Japanised' Western dishes called 'Yo-shoku' (洋食),

while traditional Japanese dishes are called 'Wa-shoku'　(和食)

Home made salads

More of what we eat at home...some ideas for salad.

This is 'Shabu-shabu salad' - Salad with lightly boiled shredded pork.

Daikon raddish and scallop salad and

Chinese meat balls...

Another salad with Myoga herb - which I miss in the UK.

Back to Tokyo

Let me start this blog with some food images from Tokyo.

...and it starts from home.

After a long flight from London, a home-made 'Chirashi-sushi' was waiting for us.

It's called sushi, but there is no raw fish - More like a rice salad, with rice and picked veg.

Garnished with thin strips of egg...

I can't remember if I'd ever had a home-made chirashi-sushi by mum before...

This is a special treat to welcome her first grandson!

onigiri in the guardian

Read my 'We love to eat' piece in the Guardian today!

More food to come...