Best you ever ate.

This sign does not lie.

I write this from the land of hamburgers - yes, none other than the lovely U.S. of A.

And yet I still can't forget this place. Why?

Witness it in all its juicy, foodful glory.

I don't think I have to add much more to that.

This beauty here - is the Baked Apple Hamburger. This tag team is so divine, I can't even describe how epic it was. You'll just have to taste it yourself. They've got a fair selection of different burgers (weekly special!! I'm a sucker for limited time edition stuff) as well as a decent range of non-Japanese beers, for those interested.

You can even check out their Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/pantrycoyote

Pantry Coyote - I can't wait to see you again.

Romantic pigs and other fun with food (and drink).

Today I'd like to present a jumble of photos representing my food adventures in Chiba. Without further ado:

Entry #1: "Romantic pig lab" roast ham. Okay, so I made up a translation for the "koisuru" part on my own. This brand name floored me when I first saw it. A colleague in a different department gave this to me as thanks for helping out with some translation work. The meat was incredibly high quality, and apparently really expensive too (somewhere around $1.50-2.00 per slice of ham?). Apparently it's still an up-and-coming brand, but there may come a day when you spot it in the store!

Entry #2: Onion ice cream. I kid you not. Shirako, a little town on the eastern coast of Chiba, is a huge producer of onions...so in typical Japanese branding fashion, I suppose they decided to make this outrageously flavored ice cream. It did not betray...it tasted like sour cream and onion flavoring mixed with vanilla ice cream. Not for the weak of heart.

Entry #3: Soy sauce-flavored cider. The "BO-SO TV" logo signifies that it was created for the local variety show of the same name. A friend gave me a heads-up about it, and then I found it being sold at the convenience store at my work. Not too bad, not that great either - I suppose it tasted like a weak caramel-flavored soda?

Entry #4: Hijiki ice cream. Previously shown in the post here, this is hijiki (brownish-blackish colored seaweed) flavored ice cream. I love hijiki and I love ice cream, but we just weren't meant to be...

Perhaps the oddest combination I've encountered aside from onion...and natto (although that was of course in the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki).

Entry #5: Sweet potato ice cream. Certainly not as strange as the previous entries, I thought sweet potato was a unique flavor for ice cream nonetheless. Good stuff. Apparently Chiba is the largest national producer of sweet potato in Japan - it produces even more thank Kagoshima, the present-day Satsuma region (and sweet potato in Japanese is satsumaimo)!

Entry #6: Bamboo shoot wine. Although it sounds crazy, it tastes just as it appears - like good ol' white wine! Or perhaps I am not enough of a wine connoisseur to tell the difference? This was again in exchange for some translation work - brought back from the Chiba's little mountain town of Otaki.

Entry #7: I hail from the world's capital of hamburgers...but that did not prepare me for this monster - a 6 full-size burger menace. You can experience "leaning tower of burgers" (my personal pet name for this) at Village Vanguard in Chiba City, previously reviewed here.

Entry #8: Sky Anpan. Anpan is Japanese sweet bread, most commonly filled with red bean paste. This product was developed by Narita (home to the international airport of the same name) - I believe it's mainly sold at stores within the city itself. I have yet to actually find it at the airport, but I bought this particular one at the Lawson convenience store near my work. This anpan is filled with sweet potato paste (again with Chiba sweet potatoes!)...and was quite tasty.

Entry #9: Tasty local products. Last but not least...these examples are tamest of the entire post, but I just wanted to remind myself of all the yummy snacks I got at work - usually complements of visitors, or colleagues who brought something back from business trips around the prefecture. Inside the white paper bag is biwa - or a fruit named loquat that I didn't even know existed until I moved to Japan. It tastes like nothing else I've had - but generally it has very low-key sweetness with perhaps a texture a bit firmer than a peach? And pictured in the cup to the upper left is none other than Chiba-grown peanuts! They were covered with some sort of sweet coating - can't remember anything but that they were delicious, because they were gone in no time.

What do you think? Have you run into any interesting foods in Chiba before?

Once every 60 years: the Honkaicho.

Time travel back to 3 months ago.

Bridge of fishing boats!

I headed back down to my 2nd hometown, Kamogawa, for the Honkaicho - to make a complex introduction short - a local festival held once every 60 years.

The main point is that can only go to the shrine located on a tiny island off of Kamogawa's coast during this festival (pictured in the far right of the above photo).

Apparently back in the day these boats were actually used to cross over to the island.

To be quite honest, I've forgotten a good amount of background info on the festival. You can find a slightly longer description here though.

Point is, it was amazing to be there for such a momentous occasion. And apparently much of the townspeople (and other people from the surrounding areas) felt the same way too, looking at the photo below. This is by far the largest crowd I've seen in Kamogawa, and I am unsure I will ever see one of its size again.

Mayor being interviewed by the media (somewhere around the center-right?) 

Braving the epic queue.

It was still relatively early in the day, but an acquaintance was kind enough to let me and my friend know that the line to get into the shrine was growing by the minute! It stretched all around the pier.

Thankfully, I'd bought some snacks for the wait.

As I was strolling around the festival, I had run into another acquaintance (perhaps how I most enjoy such events - seeing how many friends/acquaintances I can run into) - a warm couple who run my favorite sushi place in the city. I bought this, a dish I think they especially thought up for the day! It was roll sushi with sangayaki (fried minced fish burger?) inside. Noms.

But I also got to enjoy some lovely scenery during the wait (despite the excruciating heat):

Satisfying my usual obsession for signs.

Kamogawa from an angle I may never have the chance to capture again!

Entry to the shrine.

And so finally, after a 3 hour wait...we were almost there - the elusive Itsukushima Shrine (not to be confused with the one in Hiroshima).

Tiny main hall.

Photos weren't allowed within the main hall itself, so we'll just have to make due with this. The sacred sculpture that is only viewable to shrine visitors during the Honkaicho was displayed at the alter.

Mission complete!

Since we'd accomplished our main goal - getting to the shrine - we set off for a bit more adventure. Who knows if we'd be able to withstand the 3 hour wait to get to the shrine in another 60 years (or if we'd even be around to take the chance in the first place).

...and for the record, the wait had apparently swelled to 5 hours by the time we left the shrine. Eep.

Katsugi-yatai between the vivid fishing boat banners!

After that, we managed to witness the festivities - basically a more extravagant affair than the annual Godosai in September. "Extravagant" in that the festival participants paraded up and down the pier without taking any or very few breaks.

And my favorite - the mikoshi! (although this is a different one than the one I usually help carry).

After all that excitement, finally my friend and I were starved and exhausted. We headed over to our mutual love, the spectacular Rosso Bianco! (Again I think I've potstd about this multiple times, but just in case here is a past post with some content about Rosso.)

Hamburger steak topped with bamboo shoots! Mmmmmm.

As a special treat, cheese cake and coffee jelly - on the house!

 DROOL. Oh Rosso, how I miss thee already!

Home sweet home.

I just returned from a lovely weekend in my beloved, wonderful Kamogawa. Basically, I was there to help out my old employer welcome a music delegation from Kamogawa's sister city, Manitowoc, WI, USA! Not only do I love work like this, but it was also great to see so many Kamogawa friends. I am feeling a bit weary physically, but mentally/emotionally recharged!

Anyway, a quick peek into my weekend through photos:

The cute frog/heart thing was engraved into all the clothes hangers! Looks like it's the inn's logo.

I've reviewed the fantastic Hidamari Inn before, so I won't delve too far into it, but I just wanna say that they finished adding an additional building, so now they've gone from just 4 rooms to 12! Still nice and cozy, but now a bit easier to book. (Although all the rooms were filled over this weekend! :D)

Rehearsal at Kamogawa Civic Hall.

The music delegation is 35 members from Manitowoc's Lakeshore Wind Ensemble! During their one week stay in Kamogawa, they performed at Nanso Bunka Hall in Tateyama and Kamogawa Civic Hall over the weekend, and they'll be playing at Tokyo Disney Land on Tuesday (wish I could go)!
Watching their performances made me remember how nice live music is.

Food hunting, and my haul!

(starting from top right, clockwise):

(1) Awajiya, a cozy little Japanese restaurant right near Maebara beach in Kamogawa. It's run by a husband and wife. The wife, who usually handles taking orders and bringing the food, can seem a little...cold? At times, but I think it actually makes you like her for some reason.

(2) Maebara Beach. Gorgeous even during the rainy season!

(3) Kamogawa Energy. It was originally a fictional item from Lagrange no Rinne, an anime that takes place in Kamogawa. They made it real, and apparently it's surprisingly good?! These guys are currently chilling in the fridge, but I'll let you know how it goes.

(4) Su-namero! SO GOOD. I walked all the way down to Awajiya during my lunch break because I've been craving namero for aaaaaaages. I've previously posted about what namero (and su-namero!) is here.

(5) Summer veggies. I make a point to pick up locally grown produce whenever I'm back in town! Today I scored zucchini (80 yen...and it even included recipes!) and cucumbers (88 yen for 4). The supermarket I went to only sells produce from local farmers who bring in the veggies themselves every 1-3 days! The labels are marked with the name of the farmers too. It is oddly reassuring to have those names on there! Anyway, I'll be sauteing the zucchini, and the cucumbers are already pickling.

Many more adventures to come - stay tuned!

Lunch Adventures: Rokuro Cafe & Gallery.

Today I'm here to share a recent favorite lunch spot: the lovely Rokuro Cafe & Gallery!

Tucked in amongst the row of shops. You'll find it right next to the Windsor Tennis Shop.

I'd tried to come here before, but my first attempt ended in failure because the cafe was totally full. Because my area is chock full of government offices, there aren't so many places to eat until you go closer to Chiba Station...which would cut down on precious lunch time. So for popular places like Rokuro, the key is to...run, and try to secure your seats ASAP.

Mmmmmm. Happiness = beef stew.

So my first "real" (as in successful) visit to Rokuro was during the winter season. Somehow some of the ladies and I got onto the topic of beef stew - maybe because it was freezing and we were discussing foods that help warm you up?

In any case, one of the ladies suggested two nearby restaurants that had great beef stew. One of course was Rokuro, the other one I can't remember at all - perhaps because Rokuro was that much better. :)

Cheese curry toast lunch set!

Since then, I've been to Rokuro quite a few times. One day I was in a curry-ish mood, so I ordered this! Think soup bread bowls...except an entire half of a loaf of bread. Seriously. I am sorry that the photo doesn't do it justice. (Perhaps that's a sign I should go back for another round so I can take a better photo...)

When I first tried to dig in, I was really confused because they had only given me a fork to eat with. I asked for a spoon, and then the waitress kindly explained that the inside of the bread "bowl" (cube?) was still quite in tact, so you just stab your fork in, and you'll pull out a delightful combination of fluffy bread and curry. It was like fondue without the dipping part?!

In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger... I'll be back.

Apparently, Rokuro has recently started to serve dinner! So I've got a new mission...checking out Rokuro in the evening/at night. 

On a final random note...Rokuro is also a "gallery" because the cafe is located on the 1st floor, and I think there may be a gallery space on the 3rd floor. But handmade pottery is displayed all over the cafe area, and all of the dishes they serve with are unique and adorable. I was particularly attracted to this ashtray (pictured at the top of the above photo). It's almost a waste to use it as an ashtray!

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.

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.

Earth Tree Cafe.

It's been almost four months since my last post, and I only have six months left here in Chiba - only time will tell where I'll end up next. But before my time's up, I need to make the most of my remaining time here. Or so went a recent conversation with a close friend.

Earthy, natural, and gorgeous.

It took place here, at the magical Earth Tree Cafe.

A couple weeks back, I took a day trip to the lovely Kamogawa, my previous home of 3 years, to join a seminar. Before I went back to home, my friend and I played catch up at this fabulous cafe, which opened up along the road last summer, right between Kamogawa Sea World and Kamogawa Grand Hotel.

With my handsome friend~.

I failed at properly taking photos of the interior, which has a very natural feel to it and was extremely charming. It's hard to tell, but there's a little loft on the second floor - there was a table up there, so I think guests can eat up there too.

Other photos of the cafe can be found here (which I found randomly through Google search):
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/d_toshizou_b/29778419.html

Also, while this might be really awkward to say - their restroom was particularly gorgeous. You can tell a lot of thought was put into the interior detailing. For one, apparently the flooring is made up of beach glass that the owners' daughter collected: http://halekaira.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2012/04/post-ebef.html

They have a stock of books and magazines, as well as... FREE WI-FI! Yes, you read that correctly. It's a freaking miracle, considering that the concept of free wi-fi is practically nonexistent in Japan, even in the middle of Tokyo. To encounter it in the inaka...woah.

If I still lived in Kamogawa, I'd be here everyday, warming up with my iPad and eating delicious foods (apparently that's what my friend does).  Speaking of delicious foods....

Here we go again with my fetish for signs (especially chalkboard ones)

Full of natural, organic goodness!

Most unfortunately, they ran out of the daily special zakkoku (grain) plate meal - or rather, they ran out of rice, which knocked out any items with rice. Sad face.

Nomnoms.

So instead, I opted for the grilled veggie burger, which comes with a side of salad and curry...as well as some kind of tea I can't recall - all super yummy! We also had chai tea, a mutual favorite.


The cafe is open from 11:00-20:00, Wednesday to Sunday. If you're ever in Kamogawa and looking for a nice place to chill - look no further!

Earth tree cafe, I'll be back!

Hideaway cafe.

A little light hidden in the darkness of the Chiba Minato warehouse district.

It began on a lazy Sunday night...my dear friend and I were looking for a place to eat. We wanted to eat at a nice cafe, but the only place open so late was here....the elusive Mother Moon Cafe!

I say elusive because it is literally hidden in an unlit alley of the warehouse district in between Inage Kaigan and Chiba Minato Stations on the JR Keiyo Line. We drove by the street it was on 2-3? times before saying, screw it! I think it's this street!! ...and that's where it was hiding.

Perfect for relaxing with friends and loved ones.

Take a step inside, and you'll find a comfy cafe restaurant. The seating is a strategically placed to create little intimate pockets and let you forget everyone else around you.

Also, the food was amazing. Sadly, I don't remember the names of what we ate anymore, but I do remember that they were mind-blowingly delicious :) So I'll let the photos do the talking.

Prosciutto ham with cheese? on bread, with olive oil and honey. Mmmm it just melted away in our mouths!

Oven-baked chicken steak with lots of pepper and some sort of vinegar sauce I think? And tons of yummy veggies!

It looks kind of gross here, but it was a very very amazing berry tart!

Might I randomly mention that I think all of their cakes/tarts come with a scoop of drool-worthy almond ice cream. Soooo good. So good that we wound up coming back for dessert at some point during the week after.

Outdoor seating, perfect for t

Simply amazing. Chiba might seem like it doesn't have any exciting/fancy places, but it does!!! They are just in hiding. If you're looking for a nice place to chill, and perhaps slightly prepared to get lost along the way....definitely try out the Mother Moon Cafe!

Here's the cafe website:
http://www.mothermoon.co.jp/mihama/index.html