Joe's Shanghai New York

Since this restaurant opened in Ginza, I have wanted to have a lunch or dinner there. It's from New York, and it is famous for soup dumpling in New York according to their website. This is from their website "Over the years, we have been named as Best Restaurant and awarded recognition by New York Times Restaurant Guide; Gourmet Magazine; Travel and Leisure; New York Magazine and Zagat Survey." It's sounds yummy. I tried to make a reservation for a dinner few times, but I could not make it the night I wanted to have a dinner.

I asked my friend to have a lunch last Saturday. I took her to this restaurant. It was really hot and humid outside on Saturday afternoon. When my friend and I arrived the restaurant, it was already full. We had to wait for a table for 20 - 30 minutes, but we didn't want to go outside...we knew it takes time to find the restaurant. Luckily, there is a waiting room, so we could stay in cool.

We ordered lunch special, and I ordered soup noodle and my friend ordered fried noodle. Spring roll and the meat dumpling and crab meat dumpling come with lunch special.

These are their original soup dumplings

I prefer the crab meat dumpling. It was soooo good!

I ordered the Szechuan style soup noodle.

My friend ordered Shanghai style fried noodle.

The style of the restaurant is luxury, but the price of the dishes are reasonable.

We were too full with dumplings and the noodle...but the dessert was brought to our table. Did I say "too full"? Well,  I ate it. There is always room for dessert :)

I wanna have a dinner there next time.

Pierre Marcolini

Another chocolate shop in Ginza. The shop is next next door to Joël Durand where I had the parfait twice. I see people wait in line to get in this shop on weekend everytime I walk by. I asked my co-worker to have a parfait after work on Friday.

We both ordered the Chocolate parfait. Chocolate cream,whipped cream, banana, and a piece of chocolate are on the top of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. The taste was really rich and it was pretty good!

The atmosphere is pretty good, too.

It's nice to go there at night during the weekday. I don't need to wait in line for a long time.

New Tea Shop

 I saw my friend for the first time in two weeks on Saturday and had the lunch. She was in England a week before, and I asked her to get me several things at London before she left. She showed me a lots of pics while we were eating, but we wanted to chat more even we finished our drinks after the lunch. And we decided to have another drinks after we left the restaurant. It was too hot and humid to walk, and we found the tea shop we haven't been there across the restaurant we left. It could be the new one in Ginza. The name of the cafe is " Mitas Cafe." I had the coffee at the restaurant, so I ordered the lychee flavored Chinese tea. Dry fruits were came with the tea.

The cafe was very cozy to stay for chatting( Once we started chatting, we keep talking, and talking... you know, women is... :P) This cafe will be one of my favorite cafe in Ginza. I wanna have a lunch here next time.

These are the things my friend brought me back from London. The other day, I watched "The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant " on TV and I wanted to have something from this anniversary. She got me the coffee with the anniversary tin at Fotnum & Mason.

This is the chocolate from "Prestat." I saw this chocolate on this year's Valentines day at the department store. I wanted to buy this chocolate, but I could not afford it because of the price... It was sold ¥3,990 yen. I was too surprised when I checked the price on their web site. It is sold at  £10.50 at the store in London(It could be ¥1,400)
I can't go to London to buy only for chocolate, but I don't think I can buy it in Japan either. Thanks to my friend! The taste is pretty good.  

Tasting Event at Joël Durand

The shop invited few customers for the new taste of parfait " Violet" yesterday. Reservations were taken on a first come, first served basis. The next morning I received the invitation email from them, I called to the store right after they opens and made the reservation. They told me they will call me or email me back if the seats are available. 

Luckily, I could join the event on last Friday night, and the event was started after the shop was closed. I took my friend to the event. First, they brought us a coffee and two pieces of chocolates.

Later, the parfait "Liegeois" were brought our table. (They call their parfait "Liegeois," and it means parfait in French.) It was sooooooo good! I felt like I was in heaven while I was eating it and I could get rid of my tiredness :) You can see the violet jello on the top of the parfait and the glazed violet at the bottom of the glass.

It was the excellent event! I hope I join the event again if they have it. :)

Japanese Tea Shop "CHA GINZA"

It was hot and humid last Sunday. I saw the sign of the Japanese tea shop " 10th Anniversary: Summer Festa" while I was walking on the street. My friend and I decided to take a rest at this Japanese tea shop. 

The building has three floors , and they serve us a different tea and small portion of sweets if we buy a ticket. We paid 700JPY at the first floor and got a ticket. First, we went up to the 2nd floor as they said.

We sat on the chair and waited for the first one on the menu.

Jello with seasonal vegetables(2nd Floor)

Limited first tea of the season. (2nd Floor)

Espresso Savarin Cake with Another tea of the season.(2nd Floor)


 Then, we went up to the third floor to drink cold tea and shaved ice. It was really hot on the third floor and I was too uncomfortable to be there, so I left the third floor right after I drank the cold green tea. I missed the shaved ice!!! After my friend came down to the first floor , we had the last green tea before we left the tea shop.





Each floor has different atmosphere, so they may try to provide us some entertainment during the stay there. Mmm...It was sort of OK, but I want to sit on the same place and relax when I have a tea or coffee. 

HYDRANGEA

On the way to the shopping yesterday, I found the beautiful hydrangea flowers near my apt. I guess the flowers were there last year, too, but I didn't notice it... For me, the image of hydrangea is always associate with snails. I could not find any yesterday, so I draw the snail and hid it in the flowers:)

Vegitable Cakes

I found the cake shop "Potagie" in Haneda airport on my way back to my home town last Friday. The shop sells the cakes which uses many different kind of vegetables. I got burdock roots chocolate cake and green tomatoes cake. The taste was, of course, chocolate, and I found the burdocks while I was eating it. My father ate tomato's one, so I don't know how it tastes like. I wanna try it next time.