The New York Dream - Part 1 - The Flight
Wow. Where do I even start when it comes to recounting this incredible trip? Usually, the "begin and the beginning" is where I'd be... so let's start there. The idea of going to New York probably started almost 10 years ago, though back then I wasn't sure what I actually wanted to do there, so it was a very faint idea. It wasn't until I became an actual coffee and food enthusiast that New York began to look really appealing, and there were restaurant names that started to appear, like Per Se (#6 in 2012), that I noticed once I started paying attention to the World's 50 Best awards. Eleven Madison Park made my list shortly after too (at #4 in 2016). After having travelled for the past several years, and getting a taste for a super hipster lifestyle, my dream holiday to New York was budgeted at a cool $50k, for three months' stay in an apartment overlooking Central Park, and working as a part-time barista to help pay for food.
Well, that didn't quite work out the way I wanted, but I got close! The other title I wanted to call this blog was "The 20k holiday" but I wanted New York in the title. I'm pretty sure that's how much my holiday ended up costing, from start to finish, and it was worth every dollar. Except for maybe my final taxi ride since I bribed a cabbie to take me to their airport lol.
While there wasn't a specific reason to finally go, there were a number of factors that added together that made it worthwhile:
- Singapore airlines just released the world's longest flight from Singapore to New York.
- This flight was fitted with only business and premium economy seats.
- This was my last opportunity to use my existing passport, as the first entry in it was also to USA, so I wanted to bookend my passport with American stamps.
- EMP finally hit #1 a couple of years ago so I really needed to go!
- It's as safe as it ever will be I guess XD
- If I didn't go now, I might never end up going!
And thus, I ended up with my dream holiday. Business class there, on the world's longest flight (SQ22), living in Manhattan for 3 weeks, and splurging on restaurants! Let's get started with recounting my trip!
A business class ticket meant that I could access the SilverKris lounge, so after taking some photos (I can't remember if that was my plane or not), it was time to head over. Having only been to the Virgin lounges before, I thought it would be fun to compare! First thing I noticed, was that the lounge had no windows. The Virgin ones had massive windows that made it feel spacious and bright, whereas the SilverKris in Perth was kind of dark and small, with a small selection of food. The hot food didn't look to great, so I headed toward the chilled cabinet and took a selection of things. It also felt... quiet. I remember the Melbourne and Sydney Virgin lounges feeling busy, because there were so many people moving about, whereas here, everyone was just sitting around. Maybe Singapore's lounge will be different!
An egg sandwich, some beetroot cured salmon on potato salad, a creme caramel and a passionfruit coconut panna cotta. It was a cute and tasty selection!
One funny thing that happened was that I was wearing thongs since they would be the most convenient footwear for the plane, but one of the straps snapped as I was in the lounge! So there goes my footwear... luckily, I had a pair of flats with me, so I managed to change into them.
Ok, time to board the plane. This was gonna be my little taster of my epic flight ahead. The priority queue was so fun to go in, I really did feel special, walking past all the economy peoples! And wow. Business class really is something else. The seat looked like what I expected, but the service was way different! I'd always seen the pre-flight drinks being offered when I used to walk past the business section on domestic flights, but being in a separate section without other classes walking through is an amazing feeling. Plus, the staff greet every passenger by name!!! What!
Look at all that leg space!!! I also had TWO windows!! What I also didn't expect, was the number of compartment and storage space available! I could take out my liquids bag, throw the extra pillow in the corner and still had heaps of space. In fact, there's so much space that there's even a vanity mirror behind one of those compartment doors! And free slippers, socks and eye masks! Instead of having just a USB port, these seats also had powerpoints so that you could plug a laptop in!
The food was impressive too. Not only was there a decent sized mocktail list, but they also had Illy "specialty" coffee! "Mono arabica". Uh what? Do they mean single origin? Single varietal? Robusta free zone? Who knows!
I had come prepared with some Voila instant coffee, just in case, but with that amount of detail, I had to try some!
And now I'm a believer. I chose the Ethiopian as an espresso, and it actually came out quite nice! It tasted GOOD. By good, I mean that it was too thin and one dimensional to resemble actual specialty coffee, but for something coffee flavoured to drink, it was spot on! So smooth with no bitterness. What a life changing flight already!
Meal service time! The first thing I noticed was that they give you tablecloths! They actually laid out white linen on top of the table! Like what! And salt and pepper in little ceramic shakers too. I had no idea this kind of stuff existed on planes! And instead of having everything served at once on a try, this actually came as separate courses, so this was the prawn cocktail entree. Not too bad, but as you can see the lettuce was already getting a bit sad. However, I could definitely taste out some shiso in here, which I didn't expect. I also had a cheeky chardonnay, just because I could!
They even have bread service with butter in a ceramic holder, and the option of olive oil. Look at this cute little mini version! I agonised between keeping this or using it, and ended up using it, so no business class souvenir.
Woah. I'd used Book the Cook before when I managed to get premium economy a while back, but it was just served in the ordinary foil covered trays of economy class. This time though, wow, it's served in a real bowl! And I was given chopsticks! It actually looked really good! How insane!!! The cutlery was even changed over for ever course! This is the most luxurious plane meal ever! Plus, the flavour of the food matched the presentation, which is always important. I could even smell the sesame oil! This was definitely a good feed!
I skipped the sweet dessert option in favour of the cheeses. They actually had a good selection, but the soft cheese looked a bit sad and dried out lol. It came with quince jelly, crackers and nuts, and I was allowed to pick any fruit of their tray, so I took the biggest strawberry and smallest bunch of grapes. That strawberry was super sweet! The menu also has pralines as petit fours but honestly I can't remember if I took one or not. I probably did and forgot to take a pic!
The other thing that was cool about business class, was the bathrooms. Our plane just happened to have a faulty alarm on my side of the aisle, and the attendants had let us know at the beginning of the flight that the alarm would go off in the bathroom and told us just to ignore it. Good thing we got the heads up, sometimes the alarm triggered a bit late and was actually alarming!
I spent extra time in the bathrooms to snoop around the amenities cabinet, because there was an immediate difference as well. They had Penhaligon toiletries, including a face mist, perfume, and hand lotion! Woah! That's some expensive stuff, and it smelled good! I made sure to use liberally to keep my skin hydrated on the flights :) There was also mouthwash, disposable combs and toothbrush sets. I really felt like I'd entered a different world!
Okay, that's my first 5 hours done. Time to spend 4 hours in Singapore (I deliberately chose a longer stopover because I love the airport so much) - and good thing I did, because my super flight had a gate change and was no longer departing from the same terminal that had a SilverKris lounge.
I can't seem to embed video, but here's the first thing you see when you enter business class! The audio is pretty fitting!
https://www.raining-chaos.net/blog/?attachment_id=4618
Anyways, this SilverKris lounge is huge, but of course! Since this is their home turf. Again, no windows, it was kind of super dark, but there were so many people in it! Yep it was definitely livelier here! It was so packed that it was a small but manageable mission to find a table for myself.
There was a decent buffet selection with mostly Asian cuisines. There was a small stall dedicated to some food I don't know the name of - small cups of biscuit-like consistency, filled with savouries like onion and the like? I'm kind of bad at this lol (Google says it's "top hats" or "pie tee").
I went with some vegetable goop, more vegetable goop, some potato chicken thing, and a fried chicken wing. Most of it tasted quite nice, though the veges were mainly very mushy!
I also found some almond jelly with longan, so I definitely had to have some of that! I've been craving almond jelly for so long, but I don't have a can opener and I can never quite get the feeling that it's completely safe and healthy to eat lol, but when presented with it... yes I love this stuff!
However, it wasn't until I decided to try the fried lentil donut that I realised what actually tastes good here. That fried lentil donut was so amazing, and this picture is actually my second serving! I decided to dunk it in some congee and the whole thing kind of worked! If you're ever in the SilverKris lounge in Singapore... go for the fried lentil donuts!
There are actually also shower facilities here, but I didn't really realise or plan for it, since I'd just had my hair done and didn't want it destroyed, so I skipped the shower, but good to know for next time!
I also took the time to just walk around and take in the sights at the airport. This was my first time exploring the sunflower garden and cactus garden, and I love the koi pond here! I also found myself the I heart SG sign again , and also a cool coffee shop!
Haha. 1800 words and I haven't even gotten to the good bit. Finally, lo and behold, I was ready for this beast. The Airbus A350-900 ULR, fitted with no economy seats. Oh yeah, I was going to enjoy this. Hello, SQ22.
The security checkpoint felt less stringent than my trip from Sydney to LA about 9 years ago, but that's too far of a gap for me to recount accurately. Also, I've been doing a lot more travelling now so maybe it all is normal to me now. Security was quick, I took a sneaky photo of the plane, and then straight to boarding. Wow I love the priority boarding so much!
As soon as I stepped on the plane - BAM! - new plane smell?! Was that even possible?? Absolutely amazing. While the seat format was same-same but different than my Boeing-777 flight from Perth to Singapore, the Airbus had a significantly large screen. In both cases, the screens weren't touchscreens, but had remote controls.
Even the windows were clean and unscratched!
Look at all the fancy powerpoints! Also, that top thing is a backlight for reading!
Even lil' Gilg wanted a piece of the action!
Pre-flight drinks came around, and I didn't want to consume anymore alcohol so I went for their lemon green tea ginger drink. It was super refreshing! I watched only 3 movies total between Perth and New York, but that's because the best bit about business is the sleep, but more about that later.
Because the flight is so long and everyone has a different way of adjusting timezones, meal service could be requested anytime and didn't have any set times, apart from the very general guidelines in the booklet.
I had actually theorised a bunch of different sleeping and eating patterns on the plane to try and figure out which one would work out best, but in the end, I didn't actually care, and chose to have my meal straight after takeoff, which is essentially a very late dinner in Perth time.
I was actually a little disppointed that my flight was actually going to be fast - the attendant told me that the estimated flight time would be 17 hours 25 minutes. Woah, that's fast! I said. I think he thought I was silly cause he said that was a long time... but I was thinking, relative to the published flight time for this trip haha.
Bye bye Singapore! See you soon, New York.
I took some photos of the outside at some point in the flight, because I knew how different it'd look from all the other environments I've seen, and they were so pretty!!
Choosing the chirashi sushi Book the Cook first paid off. I figured that the order mattered, since whatever I ate last would have been stuck on the plane for almost a day, and probably prepped up to a day before that, so I needed to ensure that my seafood was fresh.
This was so delicious! And unexpectedly good. And I'll tell you why it was good - the rice was warm and the fish was cold! It was actually heated and prepared separately before serving! Wow!! You'd never get anything like this in economy, or even premium economy! No wonder even the Book the Cook selections are separated by class. You really do get your money's worth!
Ok, the toppings on this included salmon roe, tamagoyaki, eel (unagi), smoked tuna, salmon tataki, pickled lotus root, crab meat, and some ridiculously tasty thick chunks of squid sashimi. I really don't like small, thin squid sashimi, but this thick stuff is fantastic! I think it's all about the texture. The rice was also well flavoured with enough vinegar. How perfect, I was so happy!
The in-flight screen! There's no plane-cam anymore though, and even then it would have been pretty boring most of the time since you can't see too much that high, and when it's dark!
Since I can't embed, here's a link to a video that showed the flight path that I was taking:
https://www.raining-chaos.net/blog/?attachment_id=4619
Look at all that space! I estimate the flatlie at about 175cm, if you tuck your feet right into the corner bit. I decided to sleep now as it was about 2AM Singapore time (the plane took off just before 12AM) and see what happens. I've heard the flatbeds really do let you sleep comfortably, but that wasn't quite true for me as I still woke up every few hours because the air flow was drying out my eyes, nose and throat. I guess there's no way to escape that on a plane. I had to keep drinking water before trying to sleep again. It did get easier to stay sleeping once my body settled down though. It kind of felt like a capsule hotel without the capsule, in terms of ambient noise, light and a mighty strong air conditioner. I managed to enjoy sleeping/lying down for so long that by the time I got the urge to check how much time had passed, there were only 8 hours left on the flight! Wow!!
I remained in bed mode, and it kind of felt like an amazing sleep in. It really does make a huge difference that you can lie down and toss and turn (that was my favourite bit haha), rather than sleep-sitting and having a stiff neck.
I found that on this flight, I didn't feel the need to stretch my legs and walk around as much, I think it was because I could stretch them fine on the flatbed, and never felt like I had too much pressure building up anymore, nor did I feel the need to move.
The second meal was served at around 10AM Singapore time, and this time came with entrees.
The satay sticks were tasty as always, but I had a giggle at the ocean trout salad just because salads really don't do well on planes. The leaves are always so sad looking! But the trout was tasty!
And behold the famed lobster thermidor in all its un-photogenic glory! This is where the backlight came in handy, but didn't improve the photo. Sad to say, but it tasted like it looked too. The lobster was definitely over and those asparagus were a bit sad haha. Though, just remember this has probably been sitting around for a day, so I can't really criticise it too much. It was, however, significantly less pleasing than the chirashi, so I was really, really glad that I'd chosen them in this order. Sad sashimi would not have been a safe place!
There was this little cute pastry for the bread selection, and the attendant said that it was cheese flavoured, so I took it. Laminated cheesy goods are delicious, so this made up for the underwhelming lobster.
Given the pedestrian nature of the cheeses in my previous flight, I decided that the sweet desserts this time looked much more appetising. They had petit fours, a chocolate palet, and a creme brulee. I went for the creme brulee, and it tasted good!
Also kids, remember to keep up your fruit and vege intake! Here's the apple for my day.
Once when I was walking back from the bathrooms, I saw the attendants having their meal, which was ungracefully eating in the galley. One of them was eating the chocolate dessert, and noticed me walking past and asked me if I had the chocolate dessert. I told him no, I chose the creme brulee instead, so he asked me if I wanted to try this one! I couldn't say no to another dessert, so I said I'd love to try one! And behold the chocolate palet! He actually wanted to watch me take a bite which was a bit weird but I think it was more to share his joy at how delicious this dessert was. And it wasn't bad! The chocolate moussey thing had a really nice smooth texture and had a good flavour! Hooray for second dessert!
There was now only about 4 hours to go, and I felt relaxed the entire flight (apart from pain of dry eyes and nose and throat lol), and it seriously felt like the shortest flight I've ever had. I opted for a tea after all that food, and chose a TWG specialty tea called "Harmutty" which apparently improves circulation and all that jazz. I just wanted to see how it tasted as a blend, and it wasn't too bad! These teas are quite nice!
And we're finally here. Hello, New York. It was still dark at 6AM in the morning so this is technically a night shot I guess. I remember having no idea what I was actually taking pictures of, but now that I've looked at it after being in New York, I can kind of see one of the bridges right at the back lol. I still don't know what else I'm looking at though haha!
Customs was a bit of a pain only because the line was long, but quite painless. And when I collected my bags, I realised that business class also gets a priority tag on checked luggage too! Now time to explore the city....
HELLO NEW YORK
Japan, April 2017
Time to post about my second visit to Japan. While I was still pretty clueless, my brother had been living in Tokyo for a while now, so I pretty much had a guided tour, which was pretty cool. What I didn't expect was for it to still be so cold the first couple of days! That was mainly because it was also rainy; the last few days were nice and warm.I had wanted to book a nice restaurant while I was here, but alas, the ones I wanted were all closed! It wasn't until afterwards that I realised that it was because the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best awards were on. Then I didn't mind so much that I missed out. Maybe next time!
Here's some ramen, because ramen is what you eat when you land in Japan. I always forget what this place is called, I think it's Tokyo Base. They use the same tonkotsu broth as Ippudo and it was delicious! I'd been so ramen deprived (deliberately so, because Perth) so this was fantastic. It's just how I like it!
My first coffee stop, a place called Light Up coffee, with a really pleasant light blue colour scheme and a cute shiba inu theme!!! And the coffee here was great! This was the Ethiopia Guji, and it was roasted lighter than Sydney stuff. It was so delicious! And of course I had to get the lights reflecting in my coffee cause it's the cool thing to do. It kind of looks like a face!
I saw a sign for taiyaki after leaving Light Up, so we had a look around. It was tasty, but I didn't feel it was anything too special.
More ramen, this time at a place called Ichiran, which is really popular and one of my brother's favourite ramen places. The broth was super rich, to the point where it was thicker than what I prefer. I also wish I had ordered extra firm noodles rather than just firm, as it had softened past my liking. I really like that there are so many different kinds of ramen out there!
Isn't this so cool? The only thing I hated about my trip was that I'd overcaffeinated far too early, so by the time I got to Japan, I was very limited with my coffee intake. Luckily, this cafe, called Uni Stand, had a nice selection of green teas, so I wanted to try them. I'd forgotten that Japanese green tea is very savoury, so I was really glad when they asked what kind of tea I usually like. I said I like sweeter teas, so they recommended their tea of the day instead of their single origin teas. I don't actually remember what it was, but I was glad they offered it, because it was really drinkable though still more savoury than what I like.My brother also immediately spotted the nixie tube clock, and when I tried to take a picture of it, I noticed that my camera was seeing the numbers differently! Some were flickering more than others whereas the eye could only see the ones that were fully lit, I thought that was pretty cool!
This tickled my hipster sense a little. A kale juice shop! It's kind of hilarious. I also don't know if it was open when I walked past, as I half expected this to be some kind of hipster magnet with queues of beards and topknots trailing out.
What's a visit to Tokyo without sushi. My brother liked this place, so in we went (after queuing for a while, of course!). I went a bit crazy and chose all the things that I wouldn't be able to obtain easily in Aus. So here are the raw baby sardines. I love that it's just a massive pile of dead creatures! I think the eyes are the cutest bit, though these had the extra appeal of being see through. It didn't taste that great though; for me this had a bit too much bitterness that wasn't smoothed out by any other flavour.
Next up, mounds of raw sakura ebi. More cute eyes of dead things!! These tasted better, though I gotta say, it is still a weird feeling to eat raw dead things whole.
A classic: giant cooked prawns.
Probably a snapper or variation thereof. I love looking at that red skin!
I love shellfish. When I saw all the shellfish available, I had to order some. They were also some of the more expensive items on the menu, but even then, my brother found the bill at the end to not be as high as he thought it'd be. And I'm so glad I got to try all these things! This was whelk. Too bad I'm posting this way later than I wanted, because I can't remember too much about how this tasted.
Akagai!! I love this because it's often presented as a curly thing. I've actually never seen the rest of it being served on sushi, so I have no idea how that tastes. I just know the curly and muscle are super tasty.
And the lovely geoduck! Yeah! Don't ever google this while someone else is looking cause it's so dodgy looking, but it tastes really good!
I've forgotten what this was, though knowing me, it's either sardine or mackerel.
Not quite the hotaru ika I was expecting, but still super adorable! Just look at that eye! Isn't it brilliant? And yes, eating this whole was a really weird experience for me, because I had to concentrate and not think about the fact I was consuming squid guts. It wasn't too bad, actually, I kind of liked it!
What's better than a super baby canele after dinner!
Even though cafes in Japan close late, they still close! After sushi we went to Verve, but they were closing, so we couldn't dine in. I wasn't too fussed. I took the Kenyan filter in a takeaway cup, and while it was quite take-away-y, it still tasted good. I loved the way they attached the information card with a tissue that doubled to soak up any leaks! Not that the coffee leaked. I still found it super cute, as if it was a scarf around my coffee.
Because I wasn't able to book a restaurant, my brother suggested that the budget be allocated to travelling outside of Tokyo instead. So a trip to Osaka it was!
First stop, Nara park for the deer. It was so cool seeing all the deer just chilling and unafraid of humans! My brother found that they were surprisingly not aggressive for food, probably because we were in holiday season so all the tourists had fattened up the deer already. So many uneaten biscuits were all over the ground!Also, taking a selfie with a deer is an incredibly difficult task. I couldn't manage to do it with my phone! But that's okay, because taking pictures of just the deer was enough! I love taking pictures of things.
Yes, that's not a deer. But look how adorable he is!
And the great deer exodus of 6pm, where they somehow just know to cross the road and to what was presumably their sleeping area.
The next day, Kyoto, where pigeons are real creatures that know how to perch on branches.
It's actually a really pretty view here.
Yeah gogo pigeons! Chase that food!
And one of the reasons we were here. % Arabica, and yes, their decor is as gorgeos as the pictures show. What I didn't realise was that it was an espresso based, takeaway only cafe. Of course, I was in the mood for dine in filter. Oh well, coffee is still coffee! There was a pretty long queue here, and the only inefficiency that I found really odd was that they used 1L milk cartons... for a predominantly milk coffee based customer base. That was really confusing, because I would figure that a juggler system with large volume milk bladders would have been more efficient!Apparently %Arabica's selling point is their latte art, which threw me off a bit, but I decided I may as well check it out. And yes, it's nice! But it's not why I drink coffee....As we were sipping away, my brother was rather bemused because passers by would often wonder aloud what the place was and why there was a queue.
What a cool picture. This is the bamboo forest, and I had a stroke of genius by realising I can do a panoramic shot upwards! It makes the bamboo look about as tall as it really is in real life.
Anyone up for tofu? My brother found this place on a previous visit, and it's easily recognisable because there's a little steam spout at the front. It made it a very inviting and homely kind of place. And it specialises in all things tofu. I love tofu, so I was definitely very interested in what this place had to offer.So many different textures here!!! My favourite was the teoke yuba, which is apparently soy milk skin. By name, it didn't sound particularly appetising, but once I had it, I realised it was pure genius - it was just like eating mozarella curds! Think of it like the outside of burrata. It was so delicious because the texture was spot on! Oh man, it was so good. This was a really satisfying lunch!
The warabi mochi. Oh wow. Yeah. This place knows how to make warabi mochi too. This was my first time having it, and even though I'd seen it before, I was always hesitant to try some in case the texture didn't match what I imagined in my head. But this, this impressed me so much! I imagine this is similar to how a water mochi cake is like. This was soft, and pretty much like... solid water. Sounds weird, but basically, it didn't have an obviously jelly like texture. It had a very melt in the mouth feeling, and "wet" but in the way that makes sense and is amazing.I like to think that I've eaten enough that I can sometimes recognise when something is incredibly good even though I've never had it before. Sometimes you can simply benchmark the first sample to be the best. This was such a thing, and it was confirmed when I sampled some warabi mochi later on somewhere else - it just wasn't as good, and was closer to the texture of jelly, which is not what I like from my warabi mochi. It has to feel like it's *just* bound together and simply "flows" apart in the mouth.
Next up, the Silver Temple. My brother had asked me the night before which of the two temples I wanted to visit, gold or silver, and after reading up the descriptions of both, I opted for silver. It was less glamorous, but boasted a better garden - one with many varieties of moss. Because lil' Gilg was on this trip with me, and he likes moss, I opted for Silver. It was a good choice, though the way the garden was designed meant that I couldn't have lil' Gilg taking a stroll through the greenery.
And of course, the famous Fushimi Inari shrine. Given that it was bustling with tourists, it was hard to get a shot of the orange pillar things without having people in it. Oh well! I love all the fox statues around, and the food offerings here were pretty hilarious. It's a wonderful and massive place and lovely to walk through!
With Kyoto done in a day, it was time to return to Osaka. So here is the obligatory shot of the most famous picture of Osaka!
And some late night coffee at Lilo Coffee Roasters. Here we met another Australian and had a great chat, though my brother and I aren't really stellar conversationalists. This Colombia Las Brisas was super tasty, though I noticed a lot of fines at the bottom of my cup. Luckily the fellow Australian offered to pass on my compliments, and managed to find out that they use a metal filter here for their pourovers, which explains how the fines got through.
Next day, more coffee! This time from Streamer Coffee Company. My brother said that this place was also famous for their latte art. What?! I was getting a little perplexed. How can you have a cafe that is famous for latte art? Isn't the quality of the coffee more important and a better indicator of the quality of the cafe? Maybe that's just my inner pretentious hipster though.It didn't get any better after I ordered the standard "Streamer Latte". They had nice La Marzoccos, but the normal advantages of showing off naked portafilters and having the extraction visible from across the counter meant that I saw the super dark, slow drips of espresso coming out. Um, where is my lovely smooth golden extraction that has a well defined stopping point? I was getting a little worried. That being said, I knew that the milk going in would probably smooth out some of the not so great bits of the espresso.Then came the shocker. A 12oz cup. Wow, that's a lot of milk. Why would you use that much milk? You only need 5.5 oz.... And sure, a complex pattern might justify the increased volume, but all I got was a swan, and even then I've had much better swans in smaller cups. My brother got a triple rosetta which was slightly nicer, but again, totally doable in a 5.5 oz cup. I was a little traumatised now, since my coffee was mediocre tasting with a mediocre latte art.
It didn't get much better when I decided that getting fluffy pancakes would be a novel experience. These were from a chain called Gram. They look super fluffy and light (though stacking them three high is not really a great idea since they fall rather quickly), but they were actually rather heavy. Maybe I shouldn't try these things from chains, but I hadn't done prior research (especially not for anything outside Tokyo; I didn't even have an Osaka/Kyoto coffee list because I never actually anticipated that I'd end up visiting) so this was as good as I was going to get on a whim.
Next up, Mel Coffee Roasters. They looked nice enough in the tiniest space, and advertised both light and dark roasts. I gotta say, light and dark roasts are really confusing. I know exactly what I want, but it's hard to gauge what a roaster means by dark and light unless you really know your coffee. I didn't think to check the colour of the beans to decide how I wanted my drink. All I know is that I preferred light roasts, and that they can display some amazing nuances of flavour when extracted properly, and that dark was the simpler of the two roasts for extracting as espresso. So I went for a light roast espresso. Guatemala was what they had (or recommended, I don't really remember). I would have probably chosen a Kenyan or Ethiopian since they're the ones that are the easiest to assess for flavour, but I don't mind trying to assess coffees from other regions.This was far to bright and lacked the body that I figure you can even extract from light roasts (think Seven Seeds, who roast far lighter than my liking but the flavours are technically still probably good). I definitely wanted more chocolate notes in this.
"Enlightened" by my morning cafe adventures, it was time to take in the street scenes. Like these lamps, which were really awesome looking and all had individual personalities, expressed by the different colours and styles.
I love seeing all the restaurants here with constructs of their food on display!
One of the specialties here is kushikatsu, basically, fried things on sticks. I'm so glad my brother took me here! Finally, Osaka redeemed itself! My brother and I ordered one of the sets, and the appetiser was this thing called a doteyaki, which had beef bits and konnyaku and was so flavoursome! I need to learn how to make this!
I actually took pictures of each individual stick before and after biting into them, but that would have been too spammy! While they don't look like much, they were really nicely fried with thin, not too oily batters and great quality ingredients inside. This was the Classic Soohonten with beef, prawn, scallops, lotus root, ginger, chicken meatball, whiting, rice cake, sausage.
And what do we find after lunch? What I believe to be some sort of psychological experiment to see what people do when they come across this poster.
Our visit to Osaka Castle Park resulted in many sakura pictures, but here are a couple of the animals that also enjoy this place.
After two jam packed days in Osaka, it was finally time to return to Tokyo. I really wanted a cool bento for the ride home, but it turns out all the ones with lots of raw seafood sell out really quickly. So the best I got was this crab meat, herring roe and salmon roe box. Turns out herring roe is actually really delicious!The specialty tea that Starbucks was offering however, was not as enjoyable as I wanted - the mango and mandarin tea frappe was far to sweet and artificial tasting!
I forgot exactly when I took this picture, especially because I'm too lazy to look up the metadata. But these were some tiny strawberries that tasted so sweet and amazing! I love the strawberries in Japan because the ones in Aus are always too sour! It was funny though, I ate them but couldn't find a bin to dispose of the green bits. It was then that my brother explained there were no "general rubbish" bins. That made it really awkward to eat things on the go. So I gave up and started eating all of the strawberry instead!
Yeah Shake Shack time! In the trendy suburb of Ebisu. I didn't know what to expect except that Shake Shack is very popular. There was a small line when we went, and they had a pretty interesting menu. Something about a grape shake?Anyway, I went for the classic burger, and decided the dessert of "e-bean-su" was also worth trying. We also got a side of normal and cheesy fries.I gotta say, that burger does not disappoint! I was very impressed by it! Not only was it cheap, it was also delicious! It reminded me a lot of Burger Project. In a blind taste test, I don't think I'd be able to pick out which was which... except that Burger Project's patty is better. I was seriously enjoying this!The E-bean-su concrete was also really tasty! Containing vanilla custard, red bean caramel sauce, marshmallow sauce, salted shortbread cookie, soy bean powder. Given my last taste of frozen custard was at Gojima and it was a hard block of frozen stuff, this was so much better, and felt like it was a really well made dessert. I didn't really enjoy the ice cream at Burger Project either. That being said, having a burger, chips and dessert is a bit much so I'd be happy with just the burger and chips. Or two burgers, or something.The chips didn't stand out as much as the burger so I don't remember exactly what they were like. All I know is that the cheesy fries were really heavy, so just the normal ones are a better choice.
And trying some woodberry coffee roasters. It was the second time (though apparently an earlier recount of this says I'd seen it multiple times?) I'd seen this roaster featured at a cafe, and my gut was telling me to visit, so in I went. They were actually really tasty and I enjoyed the Guatemalan as a filter!
And while walking around taking pictures of sakura, I also managed to find this dog in her majestic glory.
So when this sign is outside a shop... what do you think the inside features?
The ultimate mirror selfie stick... for whatever reason.
So after my disastrous coffee attempt at Streamer Coffee Company, and even my surprise about %Arabica being espresso and milk based, I wanted a tiny little milk coffee done properly. So here we were at Onibus, and I pointed to their piccolo glass and wanted a milk coffee rather than chance a massive latte if I just ordered from the menu. And so here it was! It still wasn't the same as getting a milk coffee from Aus though. This was a tad too light and the milk wasn't creamy or sweet enough for my liking. So I think I'll stick to filter coffees in Japan, cause they are really good at brewing that stuff.
Also, look what I found at Switch Coffee! My brother was pretty amazing and managed to end up back here from pure memory whereas I had no clue where I was. The coffee was OK, but the real excitement was seeing this scribble on the wall! I'm sure I saw this at the time Rene posted about it, but it must have been so long ago! So here's me taking a picture because then it's "proof" that I saw this for myself, right?
Dinner was a pretty long queue at a place that one of the baristas that I stalk, posted about a while back. It was a really interesting tonkatsu restaurant that only had two things on the menu: pork, and pork. The difference was the cut, with one being loin and one being fillet or something? Because my brother ordered for the both of us (I think it was just the "standard' order or something), I didn't have to agonise over anything and enjoyed watching all the staff in action.They had one person who kept track of everyone who came in, took orders and then called you when a seat was ready. Everyone else also had very specialised roles - one person to dip the pork in batter and fry it, another to simply cut the pork. And there were other people involved for all the sides - there must have been one person slaving away shredding a kazillion cabbages!I'm not sure exactly how juicy these fillets can get, but I was hoping for them to be slightly less cooked and more juicy than what I actually tasted. Or it could just be my imagination not matching what's possible in real life. Who knows, maybe one day I'll find out!
The next day, it was time to test out another burger joint. This time it was a place called The Great Burger, apparently one of the places that Ume burger/restaurant mentioned. It had a short line in the morning, and it was very American style. They had large plastic covered menus with just about every diner item you could think of. All I wanted was to try the burger, though one thing that caught my eye was the "hot pineapple juice", so I had to get that too. It turns out that really is hot pineapple juice, with a stick of cinnamon and some butter! It reminded me a lot of grilled pineapple, so I enjoyed it as a novelty drink.The burger, on the other hand... ugh. Like all burgers, it looked ok. But tastewise, it was awful. The beef patty had lots of chewy bits in it (and considering I like chewy bits and didn't like this, that's saying something) but was also flavourless. I don't understand. I've never had a flavourless beef patty before. Maybe McDonald's? But I haven't had a burger from there recently enough to actually confirm; and even then their condiments have flavour (even if its just cheap simple flavour like sweet tomato sauce and sour pickles). I could taste the salt and pepper around the patty, but not the patty itself. It was really, really disappointing.The chips were great though, so I ate all of that.If you need a burger, go Shake Shack.
Next up, Dominique Ansel, since it was on the list and we were in the area. Surprisingly, there wasn't a queue, so we could look at all the pastries on display and order at our leisure. I really loved the look of the bunny religeuse, so I definitely had to order that. It reminded me of the days when I studied French and we learned what a religeuse was.And of course, I had to get the cronut. Cause who doesn't order a cronut at Dominique Ansel! This time it was the violet lychee flavour. And my brother wasn't kidding when he said it was large and filling.I also got a tomato bread (which had to be eaten same day), which I ate the day after and it was so-so; not what I was expecting. It was bread with tomato filling rather than what I thought would be tomato flavoured bread.They had a large cute bun called "Mr. Roboto" which basically to me, looked like the face of a cyberman, so I had to get it. That was delicious even though I don't remember the filling! It had a really nice sugary crust, too.
And finally we ducked into one of the Blue Bottles, just cause. I was super seriously overcaffeinated, to the point where I couldn't actually finish my coffee here. But it was nice to have tasted some!!I still feel the smaller chains do coffee better. I guess I'm just a hole in the wall person than one who enjoys a large flashy joint.
And finally, white strawberries! That was quite a quest! Basically, I'd been wanting to eat a white strawberry on this visit, but at first, the ones I saw were too expensive for my liking so I didn't buy them, and then afterwards, I stopped seeing them/they were always sold out, so I was getting more and more prepared to fork out money for these.Luckily, on my second last night, I finally found some at a reasonable price! Though they weren't as white as I what I was hoping for. Are they worth it? They taste "white" in the same way that white peaches and nectarines compare to their yellow counterparts. It's the same kind of difference in flavour, if that makes sense. Basically, I still like the red ones better as I feel they pack stronger, bolder flavours.
And finally, I was left to my own devices on my last day in Japan, as my brother had work. He recommended an itinerary that took me through Ginza and headed towards Skytree, and I was actually impressed that I managed to get around, considering I took some detours, walked half of it, and then doubled back!Breakfast was at Tsukiji fish markets, where I got some tuna, uni and salmon roe on rice. It was the food I wanted for the shinkansen. Luckily it was a ticket dispensing machine, so I managed to obtain food without too much issue.
From there, I then trekked to Glitch, which was very high on my list because it's popped up on a few of my barista's lists. Oh man, they had a geisha, and it was an amazing one! Panama Esmerelda, can't go wrong. It was NICE after having so many full bodied Kenyans, this one was just so light and fruity and floral! Wow. Yay. I would have loved to try more coffee here and buy their tote bag too! But I wanted to make sure I didn't run out of money. So maybe next time!
I managed to end up in Akihabara halfway through the day, even though it wasn't the next step in my itinerary. Oh well! I spotted some magikarp taiyaki so I had to buy one!!! It was tastier than the taiyaki I had at the beginning of this trip.
I then remembered that I also had to visit the Tokyu Food Show, which was a massive food hall. They had so many delicious looking things!!!I bought a chirashi for breakfast the next morning since I had an early departure, but also spotted some pretty sakura jellies and desserts that I had to resist buying too many of.Then there was the wagashi!! I was hoping to get one of these in Kyoto, but didn't see any (though I didn't look particularly hard), and so I had to buy one here! It's softer than it looks and has sweet bean paste inside.
I was pretty much doing everything out of order now, but I wanted to make sure I got to About Life Coffee Brewers too. It's funny, from the pictures, I always imagined this being on the corner of a busy street, rather than facing a little side street! I enjoyed a tasty Ethiopian here, though I think they got my order mixed up or something and so apologised for the delay. There were some other coffee enthusiasts there and we had a chat about coffee in Australia, which was pretty fun.
I don't remember exactly how I ended up here again (same place as when I first visited Tokyo), all I know is that somewhere here I visited Asakusa to see the street full of kitchenware and plastic food supplies, which was pretty cool. Then I figure it was Skytree time, since I'd be able to catch the sunset.What I didn't know was how to get there... so I pretty much walked all the way! And even then I was confused as to how to enter into the actual Skytree ticket line so I had to do a few rounds before I finally got there.
That being said, I timed it pretty much perfectly since it would have been enough time for sunset. This was the shot looking up in the elevator :D
What a cool picture of the sun! It was hiding behind a light cloud hiding behind a dark cloud!I wasn't able to take very good pictures of the actual sunset though since there was far too much glass everywhere. I'd gotten so used to being on open air observation decks that I couldn't get a good shot through glass.I also couldn't be bothered waiting for the lights to go on for night time, so I left and headed towards Akihabara.
I pretty much spent the night oggling at pretty figurines because that's what Akihabara is amazing for. Saber on a bike didn't look as amazing as it did the first time I saw it, which was a good thing. I still wanted to spend stupid amounts of money on it and all the other figurines though!After shops began to close, I decided dinner was a good idea because I was starving. I hadn't actually eaten anything substantial since morning. My brother said there was a hokkaido ramen place, and I remembered walking past it, so I decided to take his recommendation. The problem was, I didn't remember exactly where I saw it, except that my brother's description of being near a kebab place made sense, but I couldn't even remember where the kebab place was!!! It was all good though, because I eventually did manage to find it (I couldn't find it on google probably because it wasn't listed as "hokkaido ramen").It was another ticket dispensing machine place, which was great, except I'd somehow forgotten how these things worked, possibly because this also had different sized buttons and I was totally missing the fact that the ramen options were the massive buttons - I thought they were simply pictures! It took me at least 5 minutes, asking the staff twice because I couldn't figure it out. Finally, I figured that the staff were pointing at the big buttons so I got my ticket for shio ramen and some gyoza.Oh man, this was delicious. I'm glad I came here! I found that Tokyo Base, Ichiran and this place were all good, but I don't have a preference for Ichiran's style of soup base. I didn't actually know that shio ramen could be this good until I tried it here! Definitely a place worth going back to.The gyoza were great, too. Not as good as the ones I remember my brother once making, but still super delicious!
And finally, passing the night in Shibuya. I spent ages agonising on whether I should go into the Starbucks or not, but I decided not to because there simply wasn't anything I wanted from there. Being on street level had its benefits though, because there was a photoshoot going on! That pretty red dress caught my eye so I joined in with all the other people who started taking photos.The couple were rushing out every time the lights turned green, and there'd be lots of shooting, then they'd have to run back as soon as the lights turned red again. This happened several times and was fun to watch, though very hard to capture a shot for - mainly because I wanted to showcase them in the crowd rather than isolation, so not getting heads in the way while keeping them in the spotlight and also showing the location was a challenge.It was a nice ending to my stay! I actually had such a blast exploring by myself that I kind of wish I had more days like that because I really started to take everything in rather than just follow my brother around blindly. Who knows, there might still be a next time!