Ox and Finch in Glasgow

Emily and I have just has a mother and daughter day out yesterday in West End of Glasgow.

Our plan was to go for a lunch, visit Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallerty for a bit of culture and then go to Chinese supermarket to buy some Japanese ingredients for dinner.

We had different options to go for lunch and eventually decided to try Ox and Finch (http://www.oxandfinch.com) at 920 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G3 7TF.  I first heard of this place from having read the review by Marina O'Loughlin on The Guardian last October (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/17/ox-and-finch-glasgow-restaurant-review-marina-oloughlin) and have been intrigued about this place but not have got around to try this place until now. Because of its name, Ox and Finch, I thought this must be more meat-focused place but actually it is not necessarily so. This place caters for all taste, they even have a separate vegetarian menu too. There are so many tapas places nowadays and you feel like you are getting the same kind of food everywhere, so just think of a bit up-market tapas place with comtemporary feel, a sort of place you could imagine the West End of Glasgow would have.

It's not cheap (if you think of the concept of tapas for sharing) but the food is fantastic, everything taste fresh with great ingredients. We love this place. We can't wait to go back to this place again and it's not often we say things like this about a restaurant.

We checked the reviews on Tripadvisor beforehand. Everyone is giving great reviews. I did not want to raise my expectation too high as I often get disappointed by it. We did not book tables and were not sure if we could even get it. The place opens at noon so we tried to be there around that time, hoping that we could get seated. We parked just outside of Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. We were lucky to get perfect parking space on Kelvin Way and walked for a few blocks on Sauchiehall Street toward the city centre direction. And here it is, sitting at the corner, we found Ox and Finch.

It did not look too busy so we went in. We were told that no tables were available for another an hour or two but the manager came up and asked if we would not mind sitting at counter tables. Of course not, we don't want to miss this chance. Actually it's not a bad place at all to sit as we could see the kitchen and chefs are in action, and on my left was the wall full of wines, great!

The waiting staff came over with menus and suggested that we try 2 - 3 dishes per person. 

We checked the menu and decided to try four dishes of Buffalo Mozzarella, Fig, Mint and Eight-year-aged Balsamic from the vegetarian menu, Crab and Crayfish with Chilli, Mango and Glass Noodle Salad,  Sea Bream, Shredded Thai Salad, Chilli and Peanuts and Salt and Pepper Squid, Blood Orange, Chilli and Saffron Aioli.  

We also ordered Sourdough Bread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil dipping to nibble whilst waiting for the dishes to arrive.  The bread was really lovely and soft and E.V.O.O. was really good too.

As Emily was driving, I could also order a small glass of sauvignon blanc to go with dishes, hee hee hee. 

We were quite lucky as the place was not too busy yet and our orders arrived one by one but fairly quickly so we did not wait too long.

First arrived was crab and crayfish salad.  This was our favourite. It was really tasty, really refreshing. We tried to dissect what was in this salad so that we could recreate this at home. There are obviously crab meat, crayfish, roasted chopped peanuts, glass noodles (or Vermicelli Noodles?), chopped spring onion, bean sprouts, red and orange peppers, carrots, chilli, fish sauce and lime and coriander.  That's all we figured out so far. Emily thought there might be some lemonglass too. 

Crab and Crayfish with Glass Noodles - really really yummy!

Next arrived was Mozzarella with grilled figs and 8 year aged balsamic vinegar. We never tried figs before so we were delighted to try this. Mozzarella was really soft and almost melt in your mouth and figs were really tasty too.  8 year aged balsamic vinegar .... wow, it sounds delectable already even if we could not tell the difference between 8 year aged one and M&S's one.

Salt and peppered squid and sea bream followed.  To be honest, I did not find salt and peppered squid was particularly special although it was still a good dish - personally I would like to have more blood orange segments.

Sea Bream was really good too, with Thai peanuts salad.

We enjoyed everything. Our favourite is Crab and Crayfish Glass Noodle salad. 

 Just as well we only ordered four dishes to share between us (and sourdough bread). We managed to scoff everything except one bit of fried squid tentacles. By that time we were too full to try desserts.  Well, we just need to come back again to try them next time.

We then ordered coffees to finish off our meal. My macchiatto was excellent.

Whilst having coffees, us 'ladies do lunches'  also posted some picture from this restaurant on Instagram.  We decided to go to Kelvingrove Museum for a bit of culture after this and thought of having some tea with desserts later on.  Emily treated me for this lovely lunch. Thank you very much, Emily. It was really really fab!  We would love to go back but next time we need to make sure we book in advance. Whilst we were eating, quite a many people came and could not get in.  We were really lucky that we could get in. I have just found out on the web that this is a restaurant by Jonathan MacDonald who was a former head chef with the McLaren formula one racing team and apparently you would need to book a month in advance if you want to eat there on a Saturday night! Wow, I can't wait that long, I want to eat it there now!

Feeling great about having managed to get in and tried lovely dishes, we felt really good for the rest of the day.  If I get a terrible food at a restaurant, I feel as if my whole day is ruined. Emily laughs about this statement but it's true.

It was a fabulaous dining experience. We also had a fabulous time at Kelvingrove Museum too, which I shall talk about another day.

That's all forks!

What you can eat in Kyobashi, Osaka - Hot Dog

It was my sister who told us about Kyobashi's Hot Dog or 'furankufuruto' in Japanese (or Frankfurter in German?).  She told us that it is really famous but does not know why, other than it is often mentioned on TV or magazines in Japan.

My sister and her husband live in a town on Keihan-Line, the railway network linking between Kyoto and Osaka, so we often change trains at Kyobashi train station to get to downtown Osaka.

The shop that sells famous Hot Dogs is actually a kiosk, on one of Kyobashi Station platform for Keihan-line. They are selling them for 110 yen (including tax) per stick, which was about 60p in UK at the time of the exchange rate when we were in Japan. I heard that commuters are cueing up to buy it, hop on and eat it on the train going home or some salaried-men eat it with a can of beer on the platform waiting for their train to arrive on their way home. Sounds like a good plan, except I don't eat meat so I don't eat this famous hot dog. Emily and Maria did though, on the New Year's Day this year, after we came back from Osaka Castle for new year blessing.  Imagine, the first snack you eat to start off a new year is a hot dog on Kyobashi train station!

Well, I have done some research.  Apparently the shop sells 700 sticks a day on average! It is 13cm long, 2cm diameter and weighs 60g.  The shop started selling hot dogs almost 40 years ago. It is seasoned really well so that you do not need to put ketchup or mustard and eat it on the go.

It is meant to be smoky and crunchy...

Ever since my sister mentioned about the hot dog, Emily and Maria were wanting to try this, especially Maria as she thought it was actually a corn dog, only to discover it wasn't though...
However, I think they enjoyed it. At least they can say they tried this famous Kyobashi's hot dog, on the New Year's Day in Japan!

Our train arrived. We hurried to get on the train and sat down. Maria was wondering if they were allowed to eat it on the train. I said, just do it, so they did. The smell of smoky hot dog started permeating within the train carriage, but before you know it, the hot dogs disappeared into their stomachs.

It is rather eclectic to eat a German frankfurter on a train on the New Year's Day in Japan, isn't it.  There are many many such eclectic things you can eat or do in Japan.  Japan is an interesting country.

That's all forks!

What you can eat in Japan - Okonomi-yaki (Japanese savoury pancake)

If you are in Japan, especially in Osaka, you got to eat Okonomi-yaki. This is a Japanese savoury pancake, literally meaning 'cooked what you like' and is made of batter with flour, grated yam, dashi (Japanese soup stock), eggs and shredded cabbage, and you add extra ingredients such as meat, seafood, vegetables or cheese. Most of Okonomi-yaki restaurant has a cook who prepares the dish in front of you on a hot plate. Once ready, you eat it with Okonomi-yaki sauce (a bit like brown sauce but more sweater, saltier and thicker), green seaweed flakes, bonito flakes and Japanese mayonnaise.

We went to Botejyu in Umeda, which is a chain Okonomi-yaki restaurant.

Customers sit at counters watching a cook preparing Okonomi-yaki on hot plate.

In Japan most of restaurants have show-windows displaying plastic models of foods they serve, which look real, and inside of the restaurant menus often have pictures of foods they serve too, so if you don't understand Japanese, all you got to do is to point at a picture of what you fancy and you never go starve, ha ha ha!

So we sat at the counter. Wow, it was really hot sitting there as you got the heat off the hot plate right in front of you.

As we were taking pictures, the cook was busily preparing out food, mumbling to himself in Japanese, "Oh no, I am feeling pressure here ....".

The cook mixing all the ingredients throughly before pouring onto the hot plate.

Okonomi-yaki mix with lots of vegetables...

Checking orders for other customers too.

Preparing fried noodles to add to Okonomi-yaki for other customers....

He then put whatever extra ingredients you want from the menu. Emily, Maria and my sister opted for pork and bacon whilst I decided to try oysters as they were in the season in winter. and it was on their special menu.

Three Okonomi-yaki with pork and bacon in the front
and my oyster one is in the back being cooked on the hot plate.

Whilst we were waiting we had grilled aubergine slices with say sauce and mustard.

As Okonomi-yaki was getting ready, the cook put a lid over the okonomi-yaki to trap the heat and to ensure it would cook thoroughly, not just the top and bottom but middle too.
They were almost ready!  He then clean the hot plate to get ready for more orders for other customers.

Bowls of Okonomi-yaki mix are waiting to be grilled on the hot plate....

Once ready, you then add tasty Okonomi-yaki sauce, mayonnaise, green seaweed flakes and bonito flakes.

You then eat it with this steel spatula to slice the Okonomi-yaki in bite sizes.

If you wish to recreate this dish (but it would not be the same as you can't get the suitable type of potato here such as yama-imo, a bit like yam), you can try using the following ingredients for mix and cook it using a frying pan.

1 egg
50g plain flour
50g stock, cooled (or ideally Japanese dashi stock if you can buy it)
125g cabbage, thinly shredded
15g grated raw potato (though you could cook them to mash to give a softer consistency)
spring onions, chopped

You can go to a Chinese supermarket (unless you can go to a Japanese store) and buy okonomi-yaki sauce, if not you may try HP sauce mixing with Japanese soy sauce. Some Chinese shops may also sell Okonomi-yaki mix too if you want just adding extra ingredients to it.

Mmmmm, I may go to a Chinese supermarket this afternoon to see if I could buy some mix and make this at home for dinner.

That's all forks.

What you can eat in Kyobashi, Osaka, Japan

Toward the end of December is always the busy month for Japanese pubs and restaurants where many  workers go out for 'Bo-Nenkai' (literally meaning forgetting-the-year party) with their co-workers or friends to forget the woes and troubles of the past year to end the year with high notes (with lots of drinks involved!) whilst looking forward to the new year.

One evening, my sister's husband, Kenji, was away for one of his many such Bo-Nenkais so Emily, Maria, myself and my sister decided to go for a quick bite to eat on our way home from downtown Osaka for shopping.  We were originally looking for some restaurants in Umeda, Osaka but every place we tried was fully booked for Bo-Nenkai groups, so we gave up and decided to head home to my sister's house in a suburbs of Osaka. We changed our train at Kyobashi Station to get on Kyobashi Line and thought why not try if we could find somewhere for a bite to eat in Kyobashi.

We walked through some arcades and alleys with lots of restaurants and pubs, tried couple of places and eventually found a place called Ponpokorin.

Walking through alleys with lots of restaurants and pubs in Kyobashi

Ponpokorin serves drinks and traditional Japanese foods.

The ground floor was busy but we managed to get a table upstairs. I forgot that people can smoke everywhere in Japan including restaurants and pubs. As we were seated, smell of cigarette smoke from nearby table hit you for the realisation but we did not care as we were too hungry and thirsty.

We ordered drinks for 'Kampai' (or Cheers) literally meaning bottoms up.  We were getting to feel like having a nice girls' night out alternative to the Bo-Nenkai that Kenji was having elsewhere.

When you order drinks in Japan, you are always served with a small dish of accompaniment to alcohol to start with.

A wee vegetable dish with a beer.
Chopstick bearing the name of the restaurant.

We then perused the menu. There were so many choices and things we wanted to eat.  We ordered Tuna sashimi. As this restaurant serves fresh fish and sushi, the sashimi was really delectable. A slice of sashimi was really fresh and almost as if it really melted in your mouth, and nothing fishy in taste at all.  I am blogging this in early hours of Saturday morning yet I am already salivating for the mere thought of this sashimi!  I wish I could eat it right now!

My sister ordered Mozuku, a type of stringy seaweed in a Japanese style sweet and sour broth sauce. It was an interesting dish.

We like unagi (eel) sushi so we ordered these too. Freshwater eel was grilled and served brushed with tasty sweet eel barbecue like sauce. It was soft, fluffy and flaky. This was really yummy.

We should feel guilty about eating freshwater eels however as I have now discovered that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment has officially added Japanese eel to the endangered category of the country's Red List of animals ranging from threatened to extinct!

We also ordered Age dashi -dofu (or Fried Tofu with tasty sauce).  I love tofu.

Agedashi tofu garnished with grated ginger, horse radish, chopped spring onions and bonito flakes.

Also ordered mixed tempura that came with huge king prawns! Yum.

Also ordered fried potato - why not, everyone loves fries!

Emily and Maria were intrigued with this crab croquette so this was ordered too. It came as creamy mushed potato with lots of crab meat encased in a crab shell and enveloped in fried breadcrumbs. Yummy too.

My sister earlier ordered a glass of Umeshu (a Japanese liqueur made from steeping plum in alcohol and sugar) on the rocks.  Emily and Maria tried and liked it too.

We further ordered Tekka-maki, sushi roll with tuna and Asari (clam) miso soup to finish off our meals!

It was such a great night to the extent that we forgot some people at other tables were smoking.  There are hundreds and thousands of restaurants like this in Japan. With all these dishes and drinks, it only came to just under 10,000 yen which is probably equivalent to £50ish in Sterling Pound at the time of this blog being done. Such a great value when Sterling is strong against Japan!

As I type this, our cat Yuki, decides to sit on my lap, blocking my view to the keyboard on my laptop. I hope you can make out what I am typing. I also notice Yuki is eyeing up at the picture of tekka-maki.  I'd better go now before she manages to move her bottom onto the laptop or she may demand feeding her a plate of sushi. She really loves food...

That's all forks.

What you can eat in Osaka, Japan - Floating Garden in Umeda Sky Building

We have just been to the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka which is 173m high and was completed in 1993. It is described as "a pair of skyscrapers connected in mid-air built in an unusual architectural form not often encountered anywhere in the world." It is earthquake-proof with disaster protection.

The two 40-story skyscrapers are connected at their top floors with a huge atrium that extends about 150 meters and Sky Walk at the very top where visitors can feel the fresh air and enjoy 360-degree panoramic views of Osaka city. The idea of the building is that it is covered with the half-mirror glass that reflects the sky so that it seems to become 'one with the firmament' (according to their website information and not my own word obviously!), giving the appearance as if the garden is alone and floating there in the blue sky.

Architectural model of the building and its surrounding area

Looking up to the floating garden

You use this escalator to get to the floating garden and to the Sky Walk.

There is a small snack bar in the observation deck. We bought an ice cream corn, hot dogs and ice coffee float and consumed these whilst looking out the city of Osaka.

 The views from the top are interesting.

And it was rather apt to have an ice coffee float up in the floating garden and chill.  You also get a free wifi and catch up with your friends whilst having some snack up there.

Floating coffee float....

That's all forks!