All Things Sweet and Sakura

My husband and I are in Japan to celebrate my birthday. What better way to celebrate than a foodie trip to Tokyo! It's only day two, and I've already discovered a number of great food experiences.

We're very fortunate that our trip coincides with the cherry blossom season, known as hanami. Whilst I was expecting to see all of Tokyo awash with the pink and white water colours of the sakura, I wasn't prepared to also find them in my tea cup and on my plate. The first experience was at a bakery in Ginza, where we were handed samples of sakura tea in small paper cups whilst we browsed the fragrant breads and cookies. The next was at lunch at a well-known soba (thin buckwheat noodle) restaurant, where we found sakura-flavoured soba as a seasonal special. I'd describe the taste as subtle bitter candy (without the sweetness). It was interesting, but I preferred the normal zaru soba, which was perfectly al dente and delicious dipped cold into a soba sauce.

Today was also a day for sweets! It started off with matcha (green tea powder) cookies that we bought in the bakery. These were crunchy and yet so creamy somehow! I imagine it's the result of just the right amount of butter and the fact that green tea powder is so fine. Later, at lunch, we had matcha ice cream with shirata masendai (a ball of rice pastry) and red bean. At dinner, although we didn't have dessert, the sweetness managed to sneak in early, in the form of sukiyaki (thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked in sweet soy sauce on a hot plate) and shabu shabu (beef and vegetables again, but boiled in a hot clear broth, and dipped in a sweet sesame sauce). Where do I even start?! The sesame dipping sauce contained two kinds of sesame (I imagine black and white), peanuts, sake, ponzu soy sauce and milk. I was previously familiar with beef paired with peanuts, as in beef satay with peanut sauce, a Singaporean/Malaysian staple. But what surprised me was how much sesame complemented beef. Maybe Cinnamon (when she next makes her famous satay sauce for me) might add a little sesame paste in the mix? :)

Love

Truffle (happily munching on matcha cookies)

Bento Box

When I think Bento Box, I think back to my Tokyo days. There was a good bento take-out on the way from the subway station back to my apartment near Koishikawa Park. That was a typical dinner for me. Boxed food with a compartment for meat, one for rice, one for a veg and a small one for pickle. 9 PM on a typical evening would usually find me looking up the board, reading the hiragana and katakana slowly, trying to figure out the special of the day. When my mother visited, she was shocked that I had bento dinners five days a week. Not so shocking for a single gal working long hours at an investment bank, right?

Anyway, last week in DC (warning to readers, please expect at least three more posts on my trip to DC), we discovered Teaism, a bento-box restaurant in Penn Quarter. We had just finished the Museum of Modern Art, and my husband was reading a list of restaurants from his iPhone. There was no doubt in my mind where I wanted to go for lunch.

My heart sank when I saw the line spilling out the door. It was 12:30 in the afternoon and I thought that there was no way we were going to get a table for the four of us. Thankfully, the line moved quickly, and many were actually ordering takeout. Thank goodness Americans eat lunch at their desks! We found a nice table in the basement next to the koi pond. If this had been Paris, no chance.

Everyone was happy with their bento. Mine had seared tuna with a liquid, yet still potent, wasabi sauce and a to-die-for sweet potato smothered in a sesame sauce. I will never forget this sweet potato, or maybe it was the sauce that dressed it that made it so irresistible. The sauce was creamy, smooth and yet nutty and the sweet potato was warm and delectable. I was glad I was my mother's daughter who also knew how to enjoy the simple things in life.

Ja ne!
Cinnamon