Live and Let Live!: Japan part 4

The Japanese cuisine

I always love Japanese cuisine, can't say the same for my husband. We tried to eat a variety of Japanese food while in Japan.

BREAKFASTS

Our hotels in Osaka include breakfast. It spared us the trouble of looking for breakfast in the morning. There were a few choices on the breakfast menu. Either japanese style or western style.

Our first breakfast at Remm Shin-Osaka. Both of us chose Japanese style sets.

A seafood rice bowl and a curry chicken rice bowl. The former looks like mui fan.

First breakfast at Fraser. I only manage to eat half because this is too heavy as breakfast. This is the Osaka Special set. Got takoyaki, yakisoba and Okonomiyaki, the 3 representative dishes of Osaka.

There were japanese and western breakfast sets to choose from. Another occasion, we ordered a Japanese rice set.

Soba too.

I guess I'm still more used to western breakfast.

Japanese breakfast sets came with green teas instead of coffees. I prefer western breakfast because of the need for coffee.

There were 2 days when we were in Kyoto when breakfast wasn't part of the hotel package. We had to go search for our breakfasts in the morning.

We tried the 立食 shop which serves noodles (soba or udon). We had to eat standing at the counters so it's not a leisurely meal. It was an experience.

We also tried their fast food breakfast. Interestingly, other than the sandwich and coffee, they gave me an egg.

We cracked it over the salad and it was a perfect medium well egg, with the white completely set, yolk firm but with wetness.

SNACKS/LUNCH

Because we never wake up that early and had a full breakfast to start the day, we had very light lunches or just snacked our way to dinner.

Charcoal grilled mochi at Nishiki market

Chilled cucumbers and brinjals.

We bought a cucumber stick and then realized it is pickled. Not what I expected.

A matcha drink which was so sweet. In Kyoto, matcha is everywhere.

All kinds of daifuku or red bean based snacks available.

Tried an Okonomiyaki at Arashiyama. It was a region specialty as it used only green onions in it. Taste is quite overwhelming.

My husband likes soup noodles so much, he ordered a udon at Arashiyama.

At Himeji, we couldn't find a seat in any restaurants at the touristy area and settled for a simple lunch in a convenience store.

The convenience store has a comfy dining area.

This ice cream which I had in Himeji was surprisingly good.

This is the hiyoko chan cup noodle I had at the ramen museum.

In Nara, we stumbled upon this little restaurant. One of the best meal we had.

We also sat down for coffee and cake after shopping for hours.

DINNERS

Dinners tend to be more indulgent.

All that meat looks scary right? Haha.

Had this in Kyoto.

This was the night before my husband's birthday. So we thought we'll splurge. The 2 photos below is ONE set meal. My favourite - sushi!

This is another set, forgot to wait for beef shabu shabu before taking a photo.

Curry rice at Dotomburi. Unphotogenic but tasted not bad.

Sometimes we ate too much snack that we didn't feel that hungry for a proper dinner. We bought juice, milk, kyoho grapes, riceball from next door Takashimaya. We also bought Okonomiyaki and yakisoba from a seemingly popular stall just beside our hotel. It didn't taste that great and everyday when we passed by the stall, we wondered why it is so popular. Of cos, we never bought from it again.

The cheese tart was from the "famous" Pablo. In inverted commas because I didn't know it was famous, until I heard from 2 friends on separate occasions after I returned to Singapore.

The department stores basement is full of wonderful takeaways. For some evenings when we weren't particularly hungry or specific, we just packed.

Bentos

Salads and vege dishes

Croquettes and tempuras

Other deep fried items

Sweets

When we were in Kobe, we were determined to have Kobe beef. It was hard to choose the right restaurant for such an expensive meal. We didn't do quite well, but it sufficed.

A piping hot sukiyaki.

Lovely omu rice

This is a chain store for dumplings. The first photo showed ONE meal set consisting of a noodle and a fried rice with some deep fried chicken. This was strange for us because it was too much carb. But good because we can share one set.

Added on a plate of gyoza to our meal set.

SUPPER

This is a ramen bought from the convenience store. It's pre-packed with soup in jelly form. There's no need to add water, we just have to put the whole bowl into the microwave oven.