Life in Japan related self Q & A no one has asked for - as ofJuly 2022

Mostly food and travel related..

Q1: Best supermarket in Tokyo A: サミット (samitto) for consistency and variety of quality seasonal produces and good prepared food section (mostly tasty too)

Q2: Best food and sweet section in a department store A: Isetan in Shinjuku (the food and sweet on offer are mesmerizing)

Q3: Things I love to eat in Japan A: Bread and sweets with seasonal produces; chestnut for autumn (mont blanc), melon for summer (melon cakes and melon + cream sandwiches) etc. 

Q4: Best places for coffee *For more please go follow #poupeewsfpkdcoffeetime (IG)

• Best place for a latte/ flatwhite A: Sorama Coffee (latte/Harajuku), Mia Mia (faltwhite/Higashi Nagasaki), Cibi (flatwhite/Sendai *not always)
• Best place for cold brew in Tokyo A: Imperfect (Omotesando) 
• Best place for iced drip coffee in Tokyo A: SR Coffee Roaster & Bar
• Coffee shops with best vibes in Tokyo A: Cibi (Sendagi), SR Coffee Roaster & Bar, Brooklyn roasting company (Yurakucho)
• Best iced latte outside of Tokyo A: Hill pine`s espresso (Kawagoe, Saitama)
• Best hot latte outside of Tokyo A: Shikishima Coffee Factory (Maebashi, Gunma)
• Best coffee spot for a latte in Japan A: Stumptown Coffee at Ace hotel in Kyoto

Q5: Best area for a stroll in Tokyo 

A: depending on the feel / vibes

• (with local feel) Around Nippori and Nishi-Nippori station (Yanaka Ginza)
• (with full on city vibes) A: Around Tokyo station then towards Yurakucho station and Ginza area (especially nighttime with all the city lights) 

Q6: Recommened sighseeing activities in Tokyo

A: Riding on Noppori-Toneri liner - to see the Tokyo city view you don`t get to see from elsewhere and it`s fun to ride on a monorail (I`d recommend to ride the monorails in other cities where they`re available too; Naha, Okinawa etc.)

Q7: Best area for shopping (cosmetics & food) A: Around Ikebukuro station 

Q8: Best ice cream place in Japan A: The fruit ice cream at Utopia farm on Miyakojima (island). They blend the ice cream with frozen fruits. 

Q9: Favorite fruit to eat in summer A: Melons, the red meat ones especially. They usually as extremely juicy, mostly very sweet and satifying to eat when chilled.

Q10: Most frequented kaiten sushi A: Katsumidori sushi on 8F of Seibu dept. (go on weekdays for shorter queue) 

Some shops I wish were opened very close to where I live

Where I live in Tokyo is not CBD but within ten minutes walk towards the main train station, there are arrays of shops. Ten minutes walk is easily tackled on a good day but on the day that it is s a chore for me to even try to get dressed..make myself looks more presentable (which is quite too often as I like), ten minutes is pretty much out of a question. I used to love walking though now I have come to realise that I love walking only when I was on a trip..seeing sights.. Walking from point A to point B for an errand in a big city like Tokyo is not as as much fun. In fact, at times, it is just stress/ anxiety inducing. I have come up with a dreamy list of shops, along with their key qualities; the shops that I wish were more easily accessible to me..they do not have to be right at my doorstep per se (the only shop right next door to me right now is a liquor store and I have an alcohol allergy) but I wish they were located within half of the time it takes me now to get to my current shops. 

A cafe - 

• that does excellent lattes with decent latte art - preferably Australian style or ideally if they would do flatwhites 
• with good sandwiches with good bread for them
• that is not too big but has big enough for a couple of table seatings
• that has glass window front and glass window seatings so we can see the outside (people watch)
• that decorates with colors and items of understated sophistication (not so sure what I mean here but I will know when I see it)
• that decorates with some of the owner`s knickknacks but not too much that it feels like we are in an nostalgic shop
• that ideally plays non-mainstream music or mainstream ones that consider to be too mainstream though as long as it is not too loud, I think I can just put on my own music in my ears

A supermarket -

• stocks good and seasonal produces; organic and non-organic
• that must have a section for imported snacks and chocolates
• sells wide selections of freshly made obento 
• has a orange juicing machine like at French supermarkets or a fresh smoothie counter

A bakery - that sells freshly made bread or shokupan and a wide varieties of other flavored bread

A flower shop - This is not a must on my list but I would love to be able to get some peonies easily when they are in season

A farmers` market - This one is probably a bit far off the list and unrealistic as farmers` market is not really a thing here in Tokyo. as far as I know, there is one regularly held on the weekends but it is really far from here

Kao moo krob (Crispy pork with rice)

One big cut of of pork belly with skin; the skin is everything

Seven minute boil egg cut in half

Cooked white rice; preferably long grain such as 

Thai jasmine rice

Cucumbers; peeled and thinly sliced and some 

corianders for garnish 

The crispy pork:

Boil the pork for at least 20 minutes. The boiling time 

will be different depending on the size of the pork. Once the pork off the heat, dry thoroughly with paper towel. Rub the skin with plenty amount of salt. Cook the pork in an air fryer at 200C for at least 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, check to see if the pork is well-cooked and the skin turns golden brown. 

Keep cooking if need be.

The sauce (for 1 -2 servings):

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon grated ginger

2 tablespoons See ew kao (light soy sauce)

1 tablespoon Chinese black miso

1 tablespoon seasoning sauce

1.5 tablespoons Ketchup

3 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoon granulated sugar 

1/4 cup starch water (potato starch 

mixed with room temperature water)

2 cups boiled pork soup or any type of 

stock cubes with same amount of water

In a low heat pan, lightly fry the garlic. Once the garlic aroma comes out, add the rest of the ingredients except the starch water. Boil for 5 minutes then stir in the starch water before turing off the heat.

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Kao man gai (Thai style chicken rice)

Kao man gai, a dish with three important components and for this version I made, a Thai one, those components are the soup, the rice and the chicken. 

The soup:
From the internet recipe I found, the soup requires only a handful of ingredients; chicken bones, salt, See ew kao (light soy sauce) and some corianders. I only have a couple of chicken wings and two chicken thigh fillets so I used those. Reserve some bits of chicken skin (one tablespoon when chopped or a little more) from the thigh fillets for the rice.

To make the soup, I added chicken wings first and boil them for approx. 10 mins before adding the chicken fillets. After the chicken fillets were cooked, I took them out and set them aside for serving. When it come to how to boiling, I have learnt to boil the soup on very low heat. This is crucial in order to keep the soup clear not cloudy which is the result I was aiming for. Keep fishing out the gunk on the surface while boiling it to keep the soup as clear as possible. Keep the soup pot on low heat until the chicken wings are cooked through.

The rice: 
Cut out some chicken skin from the chicken fillets. Peel two cloves of garlic and smash them lightly for the aroma to come out. Prepare either one teaspoon of chopped ginger or like me, use some readily available grated ginger (mine came in a tube).

In a low heat pan, add about one and half tablespoon of cooking oil then add the chopped chicken skin, the smashed garlic cloves and the grated ginger. Once the oil starts sizzling, add the uncooked rice to the pan and stir well to combine. Take out the garlic before adding the soup. I used the soup to cook two cups of white rice and cook the riceas normal as I would white rice in a rice cooker. I didn`t have any Thai jasmine rice on hand so I just used my staple Japanese white rice.

The chicken:
Cut the cooked chicken fillets into manageable pieces before serving. Garnish with thinly sliced cucumbers and coriander.

The dishing up part is up to you. Either place the rice and the chicken side by side then add some cucumbers and corianders or if you are sharing the dish, dishing up my way; chicken and rice on different plates work as well too.

Notes: I didn`t go extra mile to make my own dipping sauce and used a bottled one bought from the Asian store. 

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Tom Kha Gai

Simple. Soothing. Satisfying.

Khao soi with homemade paste (Northern Thai style curry noodles)

Khao soi or yellow curry noodle soup is one of the popular northern Thai dishes, the region where I spent most of my childhood eating many yummy local food. It's the dish that does sound and look complicated, with long ingredient list, like something that would take hours to make (something I would rather go to eat at a restaurant if I can). 

The idea of making Khao soi started when a Japanese friend who is a big fan of Thai food suggested that we got together to cook; like a lil home-cooking party. When I had a look at the ingredient list for the first time, I did have a second thought. I'm glad I didn't give up straight away and gave it a whirl. After many searches on the internet; looking at recipes here and there, and two not-so-satifying attempts, this was my final version. 

The ingredients:

10 dried chili 

8 slices ginger

1/2 chopped red onion

A few scallion roots

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder 

1 teaspoon coriandar powder

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

1 teaspoon sea salt 

1 tablespoon red curry paste

The curry soup:

Any type of meat - I used chicken drumsticks 

and chicken thighs in this recipe

1 can coconut milk

2 cups water 

1 - 2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cube chicken stock

1 teaspoon sugar

The toppings:

Crispy noodles 

Chopped green onion

Chopped red onion

How to:

1) The paste: Soak the dried chili for at least an hour or until soften. Over low heat, add some oil to the pot. Fry the chili only until the aroma comes out, be careful not to burn them. Remove from the pan. Mix and mash all the ingredients in a mortar and pestle or if you, like me (don't own one), just use the trusty old blender. Add a bit of oil or water to make it easier to blend. 

2) Heat some cooking oil on low heat. Add approx. 1/4 of the paste and stir well. Once the paste starts to seperate from the oil and some little bubbles appear, add some more of the paste. 

Repeat the process until you finish the whole lot. 

3) Over low heat, add the coconut milk to the pot little by little (or coconut cream which will help thicken the broth) to the pan while increasing the heat to medium. Stir well and you will start to see the coconut starts to form bubbles of aromatic oil.

4) Add the meat (I used chicken thighs) and stir well. 

Once the meat starts to change color, add some water to dilute. 

Boil for at least twenty minutes over medium heat. Check the pot from time to time to make sure the bottom of the pot doesn't burn.

5) Deep fry the thin egg noodles until golden and crispy.

6) Boil the egg noodles, preferably thin flat ones until cooked.

7) Cut the limes into little wedges and arrange with the corianders on the side. Pickled cabbages usually added to the dish as well 

but I skip it this time.

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