Sunday, March 31, 2013

Spring is coming.

Today's tale begins on an incredibly windy day in the Boso. Other than the crazy winds, the clouds were gorgeous clear...at least for the first half of the day. So off our merry little crew went to check out Mother Farm (マザー牧場) down south. It was a pleasant hour or so drive from Chiba City.

Spring has come!!
Our main mission was to see the nanohana (Chiba Prefecture's official flower!). We were actually a bit too early - the hills pictured in the top two photos of the above collage are actually the smaller locations for prime nanohana (rape blossoms) viewing. There's another hill which hadn't bloomed at all when we went, but we were able to catch the last of the plum blossoms and daffodils!

On the bright side, it looks like right now (this week?) might be prime season for the nanohana. Mother Farm updates their website every 1-2 weeks with the conditions of the flowers in season. You can check out the nanohana here (unfortunately, this info is only available on the Japanese version of the site though): http://www.motherfarm.co.jp/location/flower/rape-blossoms.php

Mr. fluffy sheep! You can kind of tell just how windy it is by how our hair and his wool are getting tousled around.
These fellows were waiting just by the entrance to welcome visitors...and there was a pretty good crowd despite the terrible winds!

A jumble of fun.
This is just a quick intro to the many different activities you can enjoy at Mother Farm. To be totally honest, we couldn't enjoy a lot of it because the wind was so strong we were dying to run inside for cover for every 10 minutes we walked outside.

Starting from the top left, counterclockwise:  (1) feeding baby sheep, (2) rows of jizo statues at a temple onsite, (3) more feeding baby sheep, (4) sheepdogs decidedly hanging out on top of their sheep buddies, (5) baby pig race, (6) horse sign.

One of my favorite parts of visiting a new place...new NOMS.
For some reason or another, I hadn't been able to eat breakfast that day, so I was starving rather early on in our visit (I'll blame part of it on the energy needed to battle the winds). Thankfully there are yummy cafes strewn all throughout the park. I had a yogurt drink and lamb hamburger sandwich, both of which were absolutely fantastic.

For the record, there are Mother Farm Cafes outside of the park - I've previously been to ones at the Mitsui Outlet Park in Kisarazu and Lalaport Tokyo Bay shopping mall in Funabashi. I know they offer a similar selection in drinks and soft serve ice cream, but I don't remember what they have in terms of actual food.

I partook in this beauty later on in the day - strawberry cheesecake parfait soft serve ice cream! It is as epic as it sounds.
After our energy levels were restored, we continued our trek through the park and stumbled on a small building offering a variety of hands-on activities:

Pretty paints!
Take a dish of your choice and create your own unique masterpiece!
...and that is indeed exactly what we did. You'll receive a...half-baked dish (need to be careful because apparently if you grip it too hard, it'll shatter!). You paint on the design of your choice, hand it back to be glazed and fired, and voila! Your masterpiece is complete. The 7 paints picture above are available, but you can't overlap/mix colors because they won't set correctly.

Carefully planning the design...
...and leaving it to artistic genius!
Thus new treasures is born.
It only takes about 30 minutes for them to have your work glazed and fired. They'll also nicely wrap up your work to lessen the danger of being harmed along the way home. Hurray!

What a haul! (props if you can guess what anime that's from)
Various things I picked up at Mother Farm, including a block of black pepper cheese (top center), a bin of cheese and shio-koji in olive oil (top right), and a giant half loaf of fresh bread from the rest area on the way home! Most notable is the candied salted tomatoes pictured in the forefront...which oddly enough, taste quite similar to raisins.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Too good to be kept a secret.

Diamond in the rough.
Last summer, a friend and I were wandering the streets of Chiba, looking for somewhere to go for dinner. It must have been fate when we came across Borracho, quite potentially my favorite restaurant here in Chiba City. (The photos for this post are from my 4th or 5th visit though...cause this place is awesome!)

This lovely Spanish tapa and wine bar is hidden along one of the side roads behind the Parco parking garage (right next to Yoshikawa Koen station on the Chiba Urban Monorail).

Cozy interior. I love this place!
For the record, the wall...to what would be the right side of this photo is really cool too, because it's made of wooden wine boxes.

Anyway, Borracho is a pretty small place - only fits about 20 people (and only has table seating for 14). I'd say it's perfect for a gathering with 1-3 other friends. Anymore than that...well, I suppose it's alright if you don't mind getting cozy. That and I would highly recommend that you make reservations in advance!

Sangria and otooshi (mini appetizer that's often served when you order an alcoholic drink)
Of course, it's not just all about looks though! But hands down no worries here. This place had me before our food orders came out. The sangria here - both red and white - is absolutely genius.

My friend decided our meal would look more appealing if her hand was positioned in front of it.
I think we had (from top left, clockwise) fish carpaccio, some kind of quiche, and French fries. Sounds simple...til you eat it. AMAZING. Also not pictured (because they were devoured before I got the chance to take a photo): Spanish omelette, paella, prosciutto ham, and then crema catalana for dessert! NOMNOMS.

More lovely interior. Perhaps I'm that much more biased because my favorite color is red...
Doesn't look like the bar has a website of it's own, so here's a link to reviews, etc. of Borracho on the Japanese website Tabelog: http://tabelog.com/chiba/A1201/A120101/12019767/

I must admit that this place is on the pricier side - especially if you consider the chain izakaya concentrated in this area. And I don't know what lunch is like here. But I think the food, drink, and service here totally makes it justifiable. Or maybe I'm that much more of a sucker for these quaint, cozy places.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Gone to foodie heaven.

Back in Makuhari Messe! I was here for the Tokyo Game Show in 2011, as well as a private tour.
A couple of weeks ago, I got to go to FOODEX JAPAN 2013, the biggest international food and beverage exhibition in Asia. Held annually since 1976, the exhibition is renowned amongst food industry professionals a fantastic opportunity for business expansion. Over 7,300 exhibitors from 70 different countries and 75,000 visitors participated came this year.

Unfortunately, this event isn't open to the general public...but I was allowed to go for work. :3

FOODEX was spread out over the entire 54,000 square meters of the International Exhibition Hall.
To say the event was HUGE is still an understatement. We spent a good two hours here, and still probably only saw - or rushed through - one fifth of everything this event had to offer.

Just a peek into the venue.
So much delicious food and drink to be had!
Since I couldn't really take photos inside, I collected pamphlets and flyers of all the food I'd seen (and perhaps also sampled?!). I didn't actually get to try that tomato makgeolli, but I did have a giant serving of Dippin' Dots (honey cotton candy flavor? I don't think we have that back home!), chocolate wafers, fresh beef and pork, picked veggies, dried fruit, fresh juice...the list goes on and on.

Makes me seriously want to consider a career in the food industry.

World Sushi Cup Japan 2013!
But there was still our other target for the day - the World Sushi Cup!

Organized by the prefecture and other related organizations, the World Sushi Cup Japan 2013 comprised of two events: the individual competition on March 6, and the restaurant competition on March 7-8.

Chefs competing in World Sushi Cup Japan 2013
We attended the Original Sushi Restaurant Competition. Top sushi restaurants from Belgium, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Singapore, the U.S., Sweden, and Uruguay selected by the All Japan Sushi Association (AJSA) competed on sushi cooking techniques, creativity, and flavor at this event. Each of the chefs from these restaurants have outstanding careers, such as possessing a Michelin-star rating or having won famous sushi competitions abroad.  

The restaurant competition was held over 2 days, with 2 rounds each day. Participants compete by creating 4 original sushi (one for each round) using fresh Japanese ingredients provided by the organizer. Contestants were also allowed to use their own ingredients.

Sushi from our session! The two photos in the middle were made by the winning chefs:
(center left) Sweden, (center right) Belgium
 The U.S. competitor smoked red sea bream fish from Chiba for a more traditional taste, while the representative from Uruguay went for a Western take on sushi by topping it with avocado and cream sauces. Many of the participants chose to combine Chiba’s ingredients with flavors from their home countries, such as the Ukrainian restaurant which accented their sushi with soba (buckwheat) seeds from Ukraine to symbolize the friendship between their country and Japan.

Boxes for tasters to put their votes in for the tastiest sushi
After tasting all of the sushi for that session, attendees were given 3 slips of paper – one for each of the following qualities: deliciousness, appearance/cooking technique, and originality. It was certainly difficult to decide which sushi was the “best.” The winner was chosen by a panel of judges and the votes of attendees.

And the winner is...SAIKO!
We chose the final session so that we would be able to attend the awards ceremony directly afterwards! The winner was the representative from Sweden, a restaurant called "SAIKO" (literally, "the best"). And their sushi was indeed saiko - they made a nigiri sushi toped with salmon - and on top of that a minced, fried fish ball rolled in gold flakes, almonds, and a homemade mayonnaise using fresh Chiba eggs. Nomnom! Apparently their theme was fusing traditional sushi with Scandinavian flavors, which I thought was really cool. They certainly had gotten my vote :)

Check out the special edition Kewpie doll - sushi chef style!
As my coworkers called it, this trip was "おいしい仕事” - which would literally translate as "tasty work," but would probably be better translated as "appealing work" and usually refers to fun and/or chill work. Tasty work or not, we are always very serious about our jobs...but this day, we got to go home with very (overly?) full tummies. Mission success!

Monday, March 11, 2013

A Tale of Pizza.

Another adventure begins...
Today's tale begins with me mindlessly flipping through the (seemingly) millions of letters, notifications, newspapers, books, and magazines that get circulated through my office each day. There're so many that you can't possibly hope to actually read all of them - so you just skim to see if there's anything relevant to you. Usually I am searching for events/places of interest to use in my newsletter and/or this blog.

It was fairly early in the day, and I'm pretty sure I'd had a decent breakfast that morning, but this magazine certainly captured my attention.

As the cover might hint, at least 10, if not more, pages were dedicated to glorious PIZZA! Or rather, establishments throughout Chiba that specialize in pizza. I think there were around 20 places covered, and I am sorely disappointed to say that I'd only been to one of them so far. I'll need to uh, permanently borrow this magazine from my office so I can remedy this problem...

Still, this reminded me that I had yet to take my dear friend to that one restaurant I'd gone to. We were due for a dinner date that weekend, so now we knew where to go!

Ninja shot of the restaurant entrance.
Yep, you guessed right - the wonderful I Love Pizza. Since I was introduced this place last fall, I've managed to come here 3-4 times. Which is fairly impressive for me since I don't think I'm one to eat out that often. I also never really suffered from the "omg I miss real pizza" syndrome that many others do - I actually really like the thin crust pizza that's more common/popular here in Japan (although I must agree that teriyaki chicken, corn, and mayonnaise are not my favorite choice for pizza toppings).

Salsa Caliente Pizza. Just the right punch of spiciness if you like spicy but not intensely painful spicy.
To be totally honest, as a kid I used to hate pizza crust. It was dry, tough, and bland. Maybe I only had crummy pizza in the US up until now? But I Love Pizza...is totally different. You can see (who I assume is) the owner/chef hand-tossing the pizza in the kitchen after you've placed your order. When it comes out, the pizza crust is fresh, perfectly crispy on the outside and wonderfully fluffy on the inside.

You can order pizzas in small, medium, or large sizes - beware, the larges are actually pretty big, comparable to a pizza you'd get back home. We ordered 2 larges, and while we didn't regret it, it was like fighting a losing battle. The pizza got the better of us, and we had to take the leftovers home.

The Love's Special...aka a Supreme Pizza.
When you're living in Japan (or abroad for that matter), every once in awhile you get struck by the "gaaaaaah I want to eat (insert name of food from back home)" panic attack. If you have an uncontrollable urge to eat good, authentic American pizza, I Love Pizza might just be the cure.