Not the healthiest option
snack at the V&A.
I had a healthy wrap with salad before this, I promise.
food
Foodie report…
Went to St John Restaurant last night!
The restaurant was quite noisy with a couple of large parties. Service was generally good, with a few long waits tarnishing the experience a bit. The food however is absolutely wonderful. It is a clean, minimal and traditional. Nothing over complicated. It highlights the best of British food.
He had potted pork with pickled cabbage, saddle of rabbit with courgettes with sides of spring vegetables and potatoes. Followed by shared Chocloate Cake and course of freshly backed Madeleines (awesome!!). She had brown shrimp and cabbage salad, pigeon and radishses.
I’d recommend everyone visit. It is a good contrast to the more complicated French food and it shows that the British traditions certainly have much to offer.
No person need go hungry on tour
The caravan is an amazing temple to consumerism. Like a Christmas Pageant on steroids a very long cavalcade of vehicles with pretty young things gyrating to pulsating dance music travel for the length of each stage. Alternating between taunting and delighting the crowd. The objective is to get the spectators to worship the products. This year a sausage maker is celebrating 40 years – the crowd sings its Happy Birthday in French. The sweet manufacturer has the crowd chanting its name. The bottled water supplier sprays the crowds with water while conducting acrobatic contortions from a slow moving truck. There are banks, newspapers, betting operators, television channels, the police and fireman are represented.
The photo is some of the stuff we have collected in two days. We need buy no more water, madeleines, sweets, snack foods while in France. I have a hat for every occasion, a baguette back (one of the best), pens, bottle openers, washing detergent (yes, that’s right we can wash our clothes), hand clappers, and to Helen’s delight three massive PMU hands.
After 5 Panches (A no alcohol beer freely served to the crowd), Helen was a convert. Oh did I mention the fresh bread and Nutella! If only I were a kid!
If only it passed through poor districts or visited the homeless!
Here are the Noodles in Narita
Noodles in Narita
Like Close Encounters of The Third Kind there has been one though that has dominated Helen since Australia.
Noodles in Narita!
Noodles in Narita!
Noodles in Narita!
Well we are in Narita. So where are the noodles?
We could have got some at the Hotel Nikko, but no… We have to be authentic.
So it was on to the Shuttle Bus to the old town centre. We walked to the shrine and back, saw competing groups preparing for next weeks star festival. We looked for plastic noodles, we could have gone in to the Barge Inn (english pub) or the Jetlag Club (same time zone, thus no jet lag) or the friendly Japanese restaurant with Engrish menus.
But no…. We went for the upstairs smoky bar with no English menus. Somehow with a combination of very bad fooood japanese and bad English we muddle our way through. Had very nice soba, grilled pork, omlette and tempura. The complimentary fried tuna was scrumptious. Beer and plum wine the perfect accompainent.
So it’s good to be singular in your thought, sometimes!
Pop cakes by request
Last night in Japan…
Okonomiyaki, originally uploaded by Helen K.
The last night of our holiday was spent having dinner at our favourite Okonomiyaki place in Osaka. We discovered it last year, when we were in search of somewhere to eat. At the time we saw a long queue of Japanese people outside, we thought it must be good, so we joined the end. We ended up going back the next night, as the food was so good.
This year, when planning the flights we had to fly back via China, and thought leaving from Osaka was the ideal opportunity for us to re-visit.
We managed to locate the place without too much trouble. As it was our last night we went for the set of five different okonomiyaki’s. Each one is made up of different ingredients and held together by egg. The picture is just one of the five we ate – and just as good as we remembered.
Morning tea
Morning tea, originally uploaded by Helen K.
On shinkasen. Yummy cheescake and canned coffee.Helen has best cannediced chocolate.
Vegetarians stop reading now!
Sapporo Beer garden, originally uploaded by Helen K.
While in Sapporo, there are 4 top tourist places to visit. The Mt Moiwa ropeway, the Clock Tower, the TV Tower, and the Sapporo Beer museum.
Like any good museum it is well designed on the inside, and has good explanations about the origins of Sapporo beer. Then there is the tasting bar on the ground floor – which was full when we turned up (close to 4:45pm), yes we did try the beer. However, on the way out we began to smell lamb… and followed our noses and sampled the famous beer garden. Here you can have beer and cook your own lamb and vegetables in the jingus kan style. If you are really hungry you can go for the all you can eat and drink in one and a half hours option. Thankfully we went for the sensible option of a plate of lamb and vegetables, with a dish of potatoes on the side.
It was great fun… and the food in the picture was very tasty once cooked!
Challenge achieved!
Club / coffee, originally uploaded by Helen K.
Before we left on holiday a friend set us a challenge to locate and have a drink at a trendy bar, called Office, above the Gaienmae train station in Tokyo. What else would we do on our last night in Tokyo, but visit!
We got off the right station, located the building, and climbed the stairs to the 4th floor. However it was closed for the Obon festival. Thankfully, the owners also run the bar on the first and second floor called Sign. It is a very cool place, with lounge music, good food and drink. I enjoyed a fruit tart and two glasses of plum wine with a rock (ball of ice big enough for the glass) and a fruit tart, and Kym had a burger and a couple of beers. It was a great challenge, and we enjoyed the ambiance and view – Thanks!
Next time you’re in Tokyo, I suggest you try it… or the Office on the fourth floor, so you can let us know what it is like!
