Shibuya and food!

Still waking at 2 a.m., but at least eventually returning to sleep…

So, yes it does work boiling eggs in a kettle. Just in case you wondered. Good protein for breakfast; combined with yoghurt and fruit, a decent start out the door.

Fairly long commute to Shibuya, on the other side of Tokyo and involving an interesting walk after being spit out of the subway through alleys and paths (and some main roads) to the Tokyo Cooking Studio. Shibuya is a lovely district, quiet, tidy and green. Found my first daifuku at a 7/11 enroute and yes, Moira, the coffee is drinkable! Thanks for the tip, I’d never have tried it otherwise. They have machines that make lattes and their universality makes them valuable. Alas, no chestnut daifuku but… see later.

As I’d left extra time in case of getting lost I was able to explore the nearby park, and part of the University campus, being enjoyed by a few dogs and some civilians. An aggressive cyclist went through a red light and nearly took me out as I started to cross, wouldn’t that have been ironic. Note to self, look right for cyclists as well as cars before crossing….

The class comprised 5 Canadians and two Yanks, one of whom turned out to be a resident doing ER medicine in LA. She was travelling with her Chicago companion who’s a stage hand. There was a mother and daughter from Maniwaki, Québec, and another young couple from Kitchener. The Québecers were living in Tokyo on a work contract – husband at work, and the parents were on a two week visit. Sounds like a good company to work for, they have already spent two years in Australia but are looking forward to moving home with their young child at the end of this posting. We learned about ingredients for Ramen (which has elevated a lot since its’ invention – I learned from my brother that were devised by the Americans as instant noodles after WW2 to stave off starvation in the Japanese population) and put together a vegetarian version. It uses eggs for protein, and they are very neatly pierced with a tiny hole to keep the yolks soft and prevent cracking during boiling (coolest kitchen gadget ever does that), then marinated in soy sauce, mirin and spices. The gyoza was fun to put together; the wrappings were thicker than ones I’ve been using but learned some good techniques for making them pretty. After concoction was complete we sat down with yuzu sake, my new favourite drink!!!! and ate. Very filling, and finished off with black sesame ice cream (vanilla ice cream mixed with black tahini). Yummm. A new flavour for my ice cream cakes…

Yukari, our teacher, lived and worked as a chef after schooling in New Orleans, then a few years in San Francisco before returning to Japan.

Assiduously chopping the vegetables for the gyoza filling.

Working on the gyoza filling.

Finished gyoza before cooking. I got the job of inverting a panful onto a plate, but unfortunately it’s a video which won’t upload on this site. Came out well!

Finished Ramen. Delicious!

Group photo after class

After pictures we dispersed, but I chummed up with the Americans to visit Meiji temple, the youngest temple in Tokyo and next to the Olympic Park. A good hike there from our class site but needed after all the food!

More people than I’d seen yet making the pilgrimage to the temple; the forest and birds sounded subtropical on the approach walk. Still shorts and t-shirt weather, a little warmer than yesterday and more humid as rain is forecast this evening and tomorrow, the tail end of the Taiwan typhoon.

Shinto gate

Something was going on in the shrine as there were gongs ringing, but maybe it was the equivalent of church bells ringing on the hour? Hard to tell. Lots of devout attendees, and a long line up for Goshen (stamp to verify visit to the shrine).

After the temple we went our separate ways and I navigated back to Shibuya to visit a food store recommended by our teacher. Another long hike, with a short stop for coffee and then a couple of crossings at the famous Shibuya crossing as I got my directions wrong the first time. Almost getting the hang of the map app…. that cone isn’t always truthful, esp. in crossing pedestrian bridges and of course within areas with lots of skyscrapers. Perhaps it just thinks I need more exercise as it made me go up and down one pedestrian bridge twice before it settled on a direction… As in all large cities, people keep fit without a stairmaster just commuting on transit and walking around! The Shibuya crossing was fun, densely populated as forecast and the numbers buffed up by tourists taking selfies of themselves crossing…

The foodstore, Tokyu Food Show, was AMAZING. What a collection of culinary delights. Like a museum, I could spend days in there…. The first floor was made up of different sections of patisseries – managed to get away only with a chestnut daifaku, a croissant and a matcha entremet from Antonér. Good thing I’m going cycling… but it’s all research 🙂. The choices on display were absolutely stunning though, each section from a different patisserier and very different.

The basement floor was the ingredients/grocery section and included some rare mushrooms at about $200/lb. as well as truffles. And about everything else you could think of, from all over the world. Banana powder from Ecuador. Shredded chili from India. Every type of seaweed you could imagine. And on and on. Fascinating, and a lot of fun to browse! Good thing I haven’t much room left in the suitcase. Did manage to find the yuzu chili in the spice section… and silver leaf for cake and chocolate decorating to complement my gold leaf.

Anténor pastry below – the packing of the pastries for takeout is very precise, always accompanied by a mini ice bag, the pastry packed tight with cardboard around to prevent movement, and instructions given of expiry date and the amount of time it can be out and about before storage in the fridge. The white “do not eat” strip was a frozen strip just for the cream… It made an excellent dinner. 9.0/10. I docked half a point as the layers weren’t perfectly even and another .5 for the cream piping which was a bit rough, but the taste was amazing.

There is a statue of Hachiko, the faithful Akita dog that spurred the movie “Hachi – a dog’s tale” outside the Shibuya station. Yukari was telling us that it was covered with a bag last night for Hallowe’en and a strong police presence was in Shibuya crossing, which tends apparently to get “interesting” during festivals. But she also noted that it was the first time the statue had been covered, and that the crossing is only policed heavily during “foreign” celebrations which she felt was a demonstration of the government’s conservatism and fear of foreign celebrations as there are much bigger crowds and rowdy behaviour for Japanese festivals. Interesting.

After tearing myself away from there it was time to hop on the Ginza line, which took a bit of finding, and happily no changes going home from the start of the line to the second last stop on the other end. People watching on trains is fun – amazing how some can sleep standing up. Once back, a session in the hotel communal hot bath helped the weary bones. The hip and knee are not so happy at all this city walking.

Today’s highlight – Tokyu Food Show tied with the cooking class which was a blast!