Delicate and delicious!

Monterosso in Cinque Terre had surprisingly high standard food for being an over-touristic destination (we thought we arrived in Disneyland from the amount of Americans we encountered!).

After a gorgeous day on the beach, we had dinner at a Michelen rated restaurant called Miky. The food was so good that even Kurtan ate the octopus potato salad.



Miky
Address： Via Fegina, 104, 19016 Monterosso al Mare SP, Italy
Phone: +39 0187 81 7608

Albergo Cavallino

We loved this place! They serve hand made pasta with thoughtful appetizers, and super nice atmosphere and service. The peach dessert may have been top 5 desserts in my life (although Kurtan ate most of it). The only thing is that unless you are staying at a hotel nearby this part of Lake Garda, the driving needs care. If you take the wrong road (or the local road through the small old towns), the non-driver will have to stick his/her head out for more than 10 minutes (especially with a German car) - go into the village through the further route aiming for the golf course, and park your car near the big church (if you know which one I mean).

Albergo Cavallino
Address: Via Cecina 10, 25088 Toscolano Maderno BS, Italy
Phone: +39 0365 642072

Perfect cafe break near Nikko Toshogu

 

This Lancatlague Cafe in Nikko was a perfect break from the sightseeing and the sequence of nice Japanese food.

Lancatlgue Cafe Nikko
Address: 4-1 Yasukawacho | 2 Fields, Nikko 321-1432, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Phone: +81 288-53-1193

Kosaku in Yamanashi

I have been the most committed customer to this place Kosaku since childhood. It used to be one of the few options in Isawa Onsen, where we own a hotspring place. Now it's become one of the few more places to go to. They serve hoto, a thicker version of udon noodle in a miso based soup. My favorite is pork hoto, but I also like their ozara, which is a colder version hoto with tempura on the side. Yum!

Kosaku
Address: 73-3 Isawacho Kubonakajima, Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi
Phone: +81-55-263-5421

Fiket in Gränna, Sweden

 

On the way back from Stockholm to Gothenburg, we made a pit stop in Gränna. This is apparently one of Swedish kids' favorite shool trip destinations, as they could visit a candy stick factory. Here, we had lunch at a 50s cafe called Fiket. They had a perfect shrimp salad and very yummy pancakes!

Fiket

Address: Brahegatan 43, 563 32 Gränna, Sweden
Phone:+46 390 100 57

 

Bar Costa in Ibiza

 

This little town called Santa Gertrudis on Ibiza Island has the nicest Spanish toast and ham. The bar has many ham legs hanging and in the back carries lots of paintings by I assume, local artists. The Serrano and Iberico ham on a perfectly toasted tomato bread were so divine...

 

Bar Costa
Address: Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera | Placa de l'Esglesia, 07819 Ibiza Town, Ibiza, Spain
Phone: +34 971 197021

F12 in Stockholm

A lovely birthday dinner in Stockholm. This restaurant named F12 was off of the old city Gamlastan and had a very fresh springy course with maybe 10 or more small dishes. It was perfect for the time of the year. I especially liked the oyster with caviar, the scallop that was sandwiched between some leaves, and the suckling lamb (anything suckling is always nice, why is that). Yum. The dessert was the most unique pot of plant looking thing, with shaven ice in brown liquorice sauce with again some green leaves. Very, very yum.

 

 

F12
Rödbodtorget 2, 111 52 Stockholm
+46 (0) 8505 244 00

Photo credit: F12

Cafe Laumer

I had the most perfect weekend brunch at Cafe Laumer, which is just around the corner from my place in Westend Frankfurt. They have an amazing line-up of cakes (apparently 40+), but their classical brunch menu with a newspaper in one hand, was just out-of-this-world nice! It's a real gem especially when the sky is blue and you can sit outside. Apparently it's the last standing classical cafe in Frankfurt. Such a treat for a neighborhood cafe...

CAFÉ LAUMER
Grand Café Frankfurt
Bockenheimer Landstraße 67
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Telefon +49(69)727912

Night out at the China Club

My old college friend suddenly called me up this evening that he is in town, and we went to the China Club for dinner with another college friend. I had only been here once before but never to the restaurant. When you enter the restaurant, you get this nostalgic (I'm sure, to many) Shanghai atmosphere from pre-war time (like I would know, but I really felt so). On the way back,I bumped into someone I hadn't seen in 10 years from my old job in Tokyo. This was a night of nostalgia...

There's something special about the Hong Kong Peninsula

I don't know why, but there is something about the Peninsula Hotel that puts a smile on one's face. I (self) invited myself to dinner today with my dad's business people, to the Chinese restaurant Spring Moon at the Peninsula. It was not just good food but a really nice ambiance that makes people happy (real fine dining, if anybody still uses that word). The entrance looks a little like Hong Kong's China Club, with old and beautiful Shanghainese style furnishing. I haven't had sparrow's nest in a long time, and the soup was just, beautiful. Apparently their dim sum is really good too, so I shall try one of these weekends...

Spring Moon
The Peninsula Hotel
1st floor, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
+852 2696 6760

Photo credit: The Peninsula

Best food ever at Yoshiya in Kyoto

This is the nicest place I've been to in my life in Kyoto! It's in Pontocho and super hard to find, but really, really worth the trip. They give you so much food at the counter table, and it's all so very Kyoto.

Yoshiya / 余志屋
Kyoto Pontocho / 京都府京都市中京区先斗町通三条下る材木町188
+81-75-221-5115

YOKU MOKU in Omotesando

I am happy to have finally managed to go to the YOKU MOKU cafe in Omotesando. It was a beautiful day with clear blue sky, perfect for a sunny day cafe chat. It's always nice to see people wearing kimono having a nice afternoon tea next to you. YOKU MOKU as famous as it has become today, started from a tiny shop in front of my mom's house in Kanda back in the day. And then they invented the cigar cookie! Now it is sold everywhere except for Hong Kong (so good thing to pick up). Try to stop by before going to the Nezu Museum...

YOKU MOKU
5-3-3 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062
+81 3 5485 3330

Free flowing champagne brunch in HK

Back in HK, I went to Aberdeen, to a restaurant at the top of this very Chinese looking touristy spot called Jumbo Restaurant. It is a little reminiscent of the hot bath complex from Spirited Away, because you take a boat from where the taxi will drop you off. The top floor has an open air restaurant that has free flowing champagne and with a great weather, a nice view of the water. It gives you a nice feel of stepping out of the city on a mini journey!



Top Deck
Top Floor Jumbo Kingdom, Shum Wan Pier Drive, Wong Chuk Hang, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2552 3331

Pear & rosemary salt martini from Orgo

Brilliant drinks (I had pear & rosemary salt martini, mmmmm) and super nice view! Talk to the bartender (mixologist) Satoshi Iwai from Ginza, and he'll make you the perfect drink.



Orgo
1 Esplanade Drive, The Esplanade Singapore 038981
+65 9680 4520

Mori Ogai's house in Ueno

Mori Ogai wrote The Dancing Girl and many other very well known novels in the 19th century. After his marriage, he lived in this house in Ueno, where it's now a very nice Kyoto kaiseki restaurant and has the only natural hotspring in Tokyo (I need to look up the definition of natural hotspring, as there are at least a few others in Tokyo that I've been to!). It was a very peaceful afternoon with mom and dad.



The kaiseki course was an array of really nice, very gentle Kyoto type dishes. I particularly liked the yuzu lime mochi dessert at the end. The sake was nice too.

Happy thanksgiving!

I found another very nice restaurant in HK, and it's on the 49th floor. Very fun, and located inside the Upper House Hotel. Happy Turkey Day!

Cafe Gray
Level 49, The Upper House,
88 Pacific Place, Hong Kong
+82 3698 1106

An open air backstreet bar in HK

Who would've known so many people gather in the back street, in this little alley in Hong Kong's SOHO. The other day, we discovered this completely hidden place that is accessible from how you go to SONG, a very cozy Vietnamese restaurant that is another backstreet restaurant (I like their softshell crab spring rolls).

It's a nice space adjacent to a construction site, and barely visible from Peel Street and Hollywood Road. The crowd (there must've been 50 people sitting outside) was a very nice mix of HKies and expats, and because the neighbor had complained before, the loudness was just about the right level for me.

It was a lovely evening with two Swedes talking about potato farming...

Adour at the St. Regis Hotel in DC

My freind Catherine and I with a few other girl friends, make it a point to visit expensive restaurants in DC whenever I'm in town. It's always the loveliest occasion, and our choice this time was Alain Ducasse's Adour at the St. Regis Washington.

We ordered the 5-course tasting menu with wine. While the food was nice too, the dessert and the selection of wine that accompanied was really, really incredibly memorable. The dessert with rasberry sorbet and verbena was some light macaroon like thing surrounding the sorbet with a big drop of cream on top. It was so nice I felt like I was in France in the summer!

While this is DC and people have to dress and/or bring their bodyguard to feel important, this is a very relaxing atmosphere. The furnishing is modern but done in a really old school place (the ceiling looked really middle ages). I could imagine there were lots of happy excitement at each table.

Adour
The St. Regis Washington, D.C.
923 16th and K Streets, N.W
20006 Washington, DC, Etats-Unis
(202) 509 8000

Moroccan dinner in the Nolita District

My friend Hiroko and I were very lucky to find a perfect little table by the window as we entered Cafe Gitane. This is a small Moroccan restaurant located in the Nolita District in NY. Apparently, you are usually expected to wait for an hour for dinner, so we were very lucky.

We ordered cous cous, some eggplant dish, carrot salad, and an avocado toast that I hear everyone raving about... All very nice dishes that went perfecty with the fruity red wine that we had, to catch up on the last few years of our life. It was a lovely start of my NY trip!




Cafe Gitane
242 Mott St., New York, NY 10012
212-334-9552

Brief dining stop in Tokyo, at Restorante-mondo

Today I made another brief stop in Tokyo, for a very nice Italian dinner in Jiyugaoka at Ristorante Mondo.

My childhood friend Junko’s brother’s friend’s mother’s friend’s etc etc owns the restaurant. The chef has been very well trained in Italy having been with 3-star restaurants, as well as a very well known Italian in Omotesando, thereafter to start his own place.

The food was a combination of very amazing and delicately prepared dishes and traditional home cooked Italian (Japan portion), all served in a course for US$80. I can’t forget the beef carpaccio that melts in your mouth and the dessert made of watermelon bits and yogurt ice cream (photo above). Mmmmmm…



Everything about this restaurant was very, extremely carefully planned. The plates, the windows opening into the different parts of the artistic garden, and the art work scattered there around were so intricate, including this glass object made for the restaurant by a special artisan to warmly welcome guests.



Restorante-mondo
3-13-11 Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
+81-3-3725-6292