Cooked burgers

It is getting cold outside and it was a right time for cooked burgers (煮込みハンバーグ). It is quite thick and heavy in taste but sometimes it is good to eat such a meal. 
 

Pottoka: Paris, France

A friend of mine and I went to Paris with the train. We were lucky that the sky was beautiful blue for three days and had a nice time there. Since my friend lived there for a while before, she knew a lot of great places to eat out. One of the restaurant she took me was Pottoka. It is a very cozy place and a bit hidden, so you need to be careful not to pass. People there were very friendly and nice. The meal was very unique in taste and color, which I really enjoyed. This is definitely one of the places that I want to go again.

Misoga: Zurich, Switzerland

When I miss Korean food, I go to this place called “Misoga” which is close to Kunsthause in Zurich.  One of my favorite dishes is Yukkejian. It is a bit spicy but when it’s snowing outside like now, it is a perfect dish to keep you warm. Normally they bring you some side dishes such as lotus roots and kimchi as a starter so you can try different tastes.

 

Pasta Bolognese

Sometime it is nice to eat outside on the balcony. On this day, fortunately it was not cold but beautiful weather.

 

Kaisendon, chazuke Isoragi, Fukuoka, Japan

When I went back to Fukuoka, I realized that Hakata station looked so different from what I have remembered. The building was renovated inside and outside. What I most liked about was that there are so many different kinds of restaurants at the top two floors of the building. We went to one of the restaurants in JR Hakata City, Amu plaza (in English, Chinese, and Korean). It is called Kaisendon, chazuke Isoragi. We were very hungry and craving for Japanese food, so we decided to try this restaurant.

Donburi izakaya Kisui: Fukuoka, Japan

Once we were out for shopping at Marinoa city (in English, Chinese, and Korean), in Fukuoka, Japan, we went to this Japanese restaurant called Donburi izakaya Kisui. On the menu, there are many different kinds of “donburi”, which is a dish with rice and topping such as sashimi on the rice in a bowl. The price for one bowl is pretty reasonable and you get quite a lot for the price. During the lunch hours, there are many people lining, so it’s better to go earlier or later. If there are people waiting, there is a waiting list outside of the restaurant. You can write your name and how many people for seating. When it’s your turn, they will call your name.

Kisuitei (only in Japanese)

Restaurant Kaiser’s Reblaube_Goethe-Stübli: Zurich, Switzerland

On our anniversary, my husband took me to this place in Zurich. This restaurant is called “Restaurant Kaiser’s Reblaube_Goethe-Stübli“. It has seats on the ground and the second floor. We made a reservation at early time, so there were not so many guests arrived yet and could choose our seats. We decided to go for upstairs.

From a starter to a dessert, they were amazingly tasty and looked good. I would like to go there again for another occasion.

Dinner

 

 

Mini Green Tea Gugelhupf & Green Tea Cookies

Often I make cookies and cakes with green tea. It is because I like the taste of it and also because I have a lot of green tea powder that I buy every time I go back to Japan. Today I decided to make a mini green tea gugelhupf. Gugelhupf is a kind of shaped baked cake seen in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and so on. According to Wikipedia, the name comes from gugel (hood) hupf (yeast). So it is a yeast hood.

Another dessert I made today were the checkerboard patterned cookies. Compared to normal cookies, this checkerboard patterned cookies takes longer preparation time since it requires two different colors of dough and needs to be built up the patterns. But it is worth making. You can change to different patterns, color, and  you can enjoy different tastes in one!

One of the restaurants: Zurich, Switzerland

Lunch 1

Lunch 2

Rice Ball Wrapped with Soy Beans Curd

This is a light dinner when we don’t feel like eating too much and heavy foods. The meal for today is a vegetable rice ball wrapped with soy beans curd and a thick soy sauce base dip sauce. Rice is seasoned with soy sauce, sake, mirin, and mixed with small diced carrots, shitake, and bamboo. If you have burdock, it also takes good to include. A soy beans curd is also called “Yuba” in Japanese. When I visited Kyoto this March/April, I bought some dried ones, which can be stored for long time. It is a kind of specialty from there.

As a side dish, some small fish, shrimps, shells and beans, which are seasoned quite salty (soy sauce base) give a punch to relatively soft taste rice ball with soy beans curd.