Breakfast - Tokyo

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Breakfast - Tokyo

Found a random restaurant to eat at while surfing around Tokyo Station. This place is huge if you've ever been. Not sure the name of this restaurant, but it's close to the North Gate of Tokyo Station. It's on the main level, not downstairs where the restaurant rows are.

I eat soba here like no other. It's so common to find like any other noodle dish. It's just so comfortable to dip the noodles in tsuyu mixed with wasabi and green onions. This is one of those dishes that disappears. It's common during a meal that people don't really talk. Since everyone is in a hurry, all you hear is slurping. This goes down quick. Before you know it, your plate is empty.

Chicken Katsu with curry udon. Perfectly fried katsu in a rich luscious curry broth. Udon noodles were perfectly al dente. Slivers of onions are topped to cut the richness.

Combinations come with sushi. Here you have bonito, aji, and tamago. Flavors are very traditional. If you've had bonito, you can imagine the flavor to be very rich in fishiness with a meatlike aftertaste. The aji itself has a slight brine with the typical grated ginger to mellow it out. I eat the tamago at the end for sweetness.

I ate this kind of stuff a lot. I do wish we had more restaurants like this, within reach, which caters a lot to the "Salaryman". What a treat this was.

Explore your way. As zimmern would say "If it looks good, eat it".

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Sarabeth's - Japan

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Sarabeth's - Japan

Sarabeth's first opened their doors in 1981 in New York. It makes perfect sense that they are now in Japan if you understand how the restaurant culture is now. There are 5 locations now: Tokyo, Lumine Shinjuku, Nagoya, Shinagawa, and Osaka. People love cafes in Japan. There are so many French and German inspired ones more so now than I remembered 5 years ago when I visited Tokyo. Maybe 10 years ago, we can agree that Japanese food is better in Japan. Even though I'm sure in some cases, that is still true, we can certainly agree to those that have explored Southern California enough to confidently say our Japanese cuisines (sushi, izakaya, yakiniku, etc) is comparable. 

This time around, I wanted to check out more cafes and unique spots. Honestly, it's inspiring to be at these restaurants than to hit up all the sushi joints. That's not what Tokyo is about. You will soon realize that your journey begins once you start exploring without the restriction of places you should be eating at. To me, that defeats the purpose of finding little gems that gets outshined by word of mouth publicity. I'm not about that. 

And even though Sarabeth's is a chain, my experience was by accident. This restaurant was stumbled upon as we were headed to Tokyo Station. This experience however, is still my first.

We were probably the 3rd group to arrive at around 10. By 11, the cafe was pretty much 75% full. 

Cappuccino 

Cappuccino 

Lemon pancakes. Slightly dense, but the lemon flavor was nice. It's one of my favorite flavored pancakes so I wanted to see how this was done.

Classic eggs benedict. I would say this is one of the best if not the best, eggs benedict I've ever had. Simple, but the execution is always important. The hollandaise sauce was rich and lusciously wrapped over the shall I say, perfectly poached egg. They used British muffins instead of English which changed my whole view on making these. So much better as the egg yolk seeps in. Yeah try and picture that. The ham is slightly charred to bring out a slight smokiness from the ham. 

1-8-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo TEKKO BUILDING. 2,3F

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Kotohira Restaurant

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Kotohira Restaurant

I'm not in this area often, but was attending an audiophile event in the area. What I love about traveling a few 10-30 miles outside of my neighborhood is that it really pushed me to find a new restaurant to try. Being at the event, walking up and down stairs, visiting rooms by rooms filled with amazing HiFi can really stir up an appetite. It can also make me very hangry. 

What sucks about being a nowaday foodie is no matter what, you are in charge of picking a place. Even if that baton has passed... it always comes back.

Kotohira was discovered by the love Yelp app. I'm not a fan of the reviews people leave, but I use it just to know what there is around me. I've been to this plaza before where Kotohira is located. I've eaten at Furaibo a few times mainly for their tebasaki karaage. 

I wanted something warm, hearty, and comforting. Kotohira was a perfect choice. It had the traditional Japanese lunch combos available with sizeable bowls that will make you take a nap. Here are a few things I was able to snap.

Side udon that comes with a combo. Slurp away.

Pan fried gyoza. Dip this in a mixture of vinegar and hot chili oil.

Chicken Karaage. Another one of my favorite dishes as mentioned before somewhere in this blog. I love extra lemons. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

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Bento combination with tuna sashimi, chicken karaage, grilled saba, tempura, and Japanese root vegetable. When I went to Japan a few years ago, I ate a lot of combinations like this. It's really comforting and brings back a nostalgic memory.

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unagi over hot rice. 

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Subtle scoop of Neapolitan ice cream.

Edit 1747 W Redondo Beach Blvd Gardena, CA 90247

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Tasty Duck - San Gabriel

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Tasty Duck - San Gabriel

I grew up on a lot of food now that I think about it. Roast duck with a few bowls of steamy white rice is one of my top comfort foods. The way the fat drips into the rice with all the natural flavors just makes my feet tap. Peking duck is kind of like that in a different way. It's sophisticated and more refined. There's more technique to get peking duck perfect. With that said, there isn't anything sadder than a peking duck with saggy skin. No one wants a saggy skin.

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There are different combos you can order here aside from ordering dishes individually. This combo comes with the Peking duck 3 ways. The classic Peking duck comes with thin pancakes, hoisin, cucumber, and scallions.

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I find it truly amazing. I haven't had enough Peking duck in my life, but many to roast duck that I can say this is delicious. Skin is crispy, meat is tender. The pancake wraps had nice flavor. This is a must.

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Soup is also made as part of the 3 way duck combo. 

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Sprout stir fry with duck. Not a huge fan of this. Mainly because my mom made me pluck the end of these sprouts growing up.

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Happy Family. Wine chicken, beef, and jelly fish salad.

Filet mignon cubes with black pepper sauce. Always a favorite.

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Scallop and veggies served over a crispy noodle basket. One of my favorites as well. 

Not in the combo. Sticky rice with BBQ Eel. I highly recommend this. I'm a huge fan of sticky rice. Eel has a natural fat that renders through the rice. There's something absolutely heavenly about this dish. Remember to pace yourself.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Momed - Atwater Village

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Momed - Atwater Village

Momed is one of my favorite casual spots to hit up. It's tucked away the residential area within Atwater Village. You would really need to want to come here in order to find it. I've had a few items from the countless times I've been here. Here's what I tried that I haven't introduced before.

Duck Shawarma

Blistered cherry tomatoes, black mission figs, garlic aioli, arugula, onions, rolled in house-made lavash. Hearty and definitely amazing. I absolutely loved these momo chips. You get a choice of salad or these chips. I highly recommend the chips... I mean... there's already arugula in the wrap. I loved the black mission figs in this wrap. It added another level of texture and sweetness that complimented this succulent duck.

SHORT RIB FRICASSÉE

braised short rib, roasted fingerling potatoes, caramelized onions, applewood smoked cheddar, arugula, 2-sunny organic eggs, ciabatta.

Short ribs were tender. Nothing beats a runny egg yolk with a nice hearty bread to scoop it all up. A great fuel starter before hitting the gym or to recover from a hangover. My stomach is grumbling all over again.

3245 Casitas Ave Los Angeles, CA 90039

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