New Tea shop

I planned to have a lunch with my friend at "Joe Shanghai New York" this afternoon, and I met her in front of the restrurant 13:30 PM. Since the resturant has opened, I have been thinking to have a meal there. We thought we could have a lunch there without waiting in a line, but a woman at the resturant told us we have to wait at least 40 min. I really don't like to waste my time for waiting something.
We gave up to eat there and left. We had "Omu-rice(Omelet Rice) instead.

Few weeks ago, I could know the new tea shop "Betjeman & Barton" opened at Marunouchi, Tokyo while I was reading the magazine. It's from France. The magazine says " At last, No.1 French tea shop openes in Japan!" I just feel Japanse likes the words, "No.1 in XXX county", "Famous", " So popular/boom in XXX country" I guess I'm one of them. I usually doubt the words, but I still wanna try the thing at least one time.

I asked her to go to the shop after the lunch. The magazine says the shop has a "Salon de thé", so we thought we could drink a tea there....... Yes, there is the table and chairs...but there is no space for drinking a tea inside. Well, we found three tables outside... Outdide?!!  Fortunately, the weather was really nice today, so we decided to take a rest at outside "Salon de thé" (hahaha...) Tea was OK, but I don't think I will go back there just for drinking a (paper)cup of tea.

After we had the lunch and tea, we went to shopping and walked a lot. Before we go home, we took a rest again. I tooke her to "Joël Durand." She, of course, ordered a chocolate parfait, and I ordered the orange chocolate ice cream this time. The ice cream was good, but I like the parfait more. :)

My first visit to Kappabashi-dori

I noticed my espresso maker needs to be replaced the gasket when I make an espresso. I looked for a shop which sells a gasket, and I found the one in Kappabashi-dori.

Since I moved to Tokyo, I wanted to visit Kappabashi-dori, and today is the first time to visit there . Kappabashi-dori is a kitchen street and I can find every types of kitchen supplies there. I love cooking and also love just the kitchen supplies. It was so much fun to walk on this street.

I brought the old gasket to the coffee supply stor. But the shop staff told me he needs to see the espresso maker, not only gasket. They don't sell the same espresso maker that I have, so he can't say the gasket they sell can be used to mine or not. If it will not fit mine, I can't use it and waste of my money. 

After I came back home, I found a stamp" TRACANZAN" at the bottom of my espresso maker. My espresso maker is from Italy.(I didn't know it...) Anyway I will bring my espresso maker and go back to the store again.

Again, it was so much fun to be there and I stayed there more than two hours. I stopped many shops and got some at a few shops.

Hand Coffee Grinder - I have an electric grinder, but I wanted to get a hand coffee grinder when I want to drink a fresh coffee.
Also, I got a butter knife, glass canister and the Cassis(black currant) flavor essence. 
Cassis essence was on sale, because it was expired the expiration date. :P  Original price was 495 JPY, but it is sold for 100 JPY now.

I added the Cassis essence to Pepsi. It tastes like Cherry Coke.

After I left Kappabashi-dori, I hang around near there. I noticed the "SKY TREE"(It's a world's tallest tower) near the station while I was walking. It's so BIG!

Baby Shower

                  

One of my co-worker will be in maternity leave from next week. Our company allows a woman having a baby to take one year off, so she will not be back to the office until next May. She is a good friend of mine at my company, so I definately gonna miss her a lot.

Yesterday, my team had a sort of farewell party and baby shower party for her. I arranged the restaurant. It seems everybody liked the resturant a lot.

"37 Steakhouse & Bar"

It is located Roppongi Hills, Tokyo.

The big wall art is welcoming us when we entered the building.

I made a course dinner reservation for the night.

First, chips came our table. I wanted to take a photo before eat it. But...Minako-san was hungry(today's party girl) , and she wanted to eat it...Please wait for a second. :)

Sorry, Minako-san! :P

I took a photo without her hand, again.

 Onion ring was also an appetizer.

 Shrimp cactail.

 Tuna cake and sausage with sauerkraut. 

Ceaser salad with creamy parmesan dressing.

Pasta with Gorgonzola sauce.

Grilled Pork Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatos.

I prepared a very small event for her. I made a cartoon callout and pasted on her belly. It says " Mammy" and " Can't wait to see you!"

Also, I ordered the message dessert plate when I made a reservation to the restaurnat.

I hope she liked it. 

Well, rest of us got a very simple dessart, but the taste of the ice cream was excellent. I felt like I am eating a chocolate.

The restaurant atomosphere and thier service was very satisfactory.

 We could see th kitchen when we entered the resturant.

 The bar is near the entrance.

We all felt full and got back home right after the party. :) 

Joël Durand

SOOOOO GOOD!

AMAZING!

BREATHTAKING!

and so on♥

These are the first impression when I ate it. I think I kept saying "So Good!" for 3 to 5 min every time I eat it. It was the best parfait I ever had. 

I wrote about the new chocolate shop "Blondel"opened near my apt this year. Today I went to the another chocolate shop with my friend after work. "Joël Durand" is from France. It also opened in Ginza this year. The first floor is the chocolate shop and the second floor is a cafe. Their offical website introduces the chocolate parfait, and it looked really good when I saw the pic on the website.(I decided to order it before I go.)

Obviously, we ordered the parfait. Our parfait is dark chocolate, but they also have seasonal taste, too. According to the shop staff, it's orange now.

The parfait made me happy and I could get rid of all my stress.

"Hirsinger" is the chocolate shop next to Joël Durand which opened in Ginza this year on the same day as Joël Durand. Unfortunately, they only has the boutique.If they open a cafe, I wanna try something there, too.

Amayuba

A few months ago, I met "Amayuba(Sweet Bean Curd Skin)" at the department store(Left one in the photo). A Tofu shop from Kyoto was selling Tofu, Yuba, Amayuba at the department store as a temporally shop. I really like Tofu and Yuba(Bean Curd Skin), but I never had "Amayuba" before. It is known Yuba is highly nutritious food and Amayuba is more. 

I almost finished the one I got at the deparment store, so I was looking for an online shop which sells "Amayuba." Luckily, my friend told me she would travel to Kyoto, so I asked her to get me one if she could find it at the Tofu Shop. She was back in Tokyo last Sunday and she got it for me(Right one in the above photo)! It looks a little bit different from the one I got. 

Also, she got me Japanese confectionary "Shiborimame" (black bean) which is cooked with sugar. It is sweet but not too sweet. I think it is very Japanese. It was really good and I've already finished them all...

Fun Lunch

I am back in my home town during the Golden week(It is a collection of four national holidays within a week). I saw couple old friends during my stay. Yesterday, my friend took me to Galette restaurant "Creprie Klesalart" for lunch.

They have four types of lunch special. We ordered "Galette lunch with desert crape" (It comes with small salad, small bowl of fruit yorgurt and drink).Here is my freind's galette "Complete"

I ordered "Salmon Galette"

Before we ordered our lunch, waitress explained us the lunch special we ordered. She said the dessert crape comes with the special and its size is sort of small.

Here is our dessert crapes...Do you think the size is small? I was a bit surprised when she brought my crape...I didn't expect I could get this size as a dessert...big!

After the lunch, my friend drove me to the shop "Cuoca" where sells the confectionery supplies as my request.

↑Someday I wanna buy a stand mixer．

Madeleine!

It was from my friend. I like the package. Cute, isn't it?

"Sunny Madeleine(おひさまマドレーヌ)"

Thank you, Mika!

Blondel

New Chocolate shop " Blondel" has opened near my apt this year. It's from Switzerland. I visited the shop with my friend who lives in the same buliding as me. First floor is the chocolate shop, and second floor is a cafe. They have many variety chocolate drinks, and I had the Wiskey chocolate drink and Hezelnut Cake. The taste of the drink was amazing. It's wiskey! I thought I'll get drank after I finish it... Here is my drink and the cake.

I hesitated to eat chocolate cake with chocolate drink, because it might be too sweet. But the drink was not too sweet, and I could finished them all. :)

My friend ordered Ginger chocolate drink and Kouglof. The Kouglof is covered by the chocolate.

Another chocolate shop has opened in Ginza this year, too. They also have a cafe. I wanna try to have a drink there, too.