Category Archives: Japanese

Sears Fine Foods, Hello Kitty at H&M, Asuka Ramen

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Our Singapore roomie Justine is visiting so we met up for lunch at Sears Fine Foods. None of us have ever tried this restaurant but I’d heard plenty about their famous Swedish pancakes. They don’t take reservations for lunch and they won’t seat your party until everyone is there. The line wasn’t long except that they did ignore us for about 10 minutes when we were the only remaining people in line and there were plenty of open tables. Otherwise service at that the table was great.

I ordered one of their combination meals that comes with 9 pancakes, hash browns, 2 eggs, and corned beef hash. I ordered scrambled eggs. I liked the corned beef hash and the hash browns were nicely crisped. The pancakes were okay, nothing spectacular but they were really cute because of their size and easy to eat.

Ron ordered the Sloppy Joe.

Later in the afternoon, I went walking around the mall and checked out H&M and was pleasantly surprised they sell Hello Kitty clothes for little girls. So cute!

For dinner, Ron and I went to Asuka Ramen which is close to where we live. We tried some new things this time (since the first time I ate there, I got a stomach ache).

I tried the jajamen, noodles with sauce, some cucumbers and fish cake (no broth). It was pretty good, a Chinese style jajamen but I prefer the Korean style.

Ron had the curry over rice with tonkatsu. I didn’t try it but I assume it was pretty good since Ron ate it all without complaint.

We shared the agedashi tofu. Came out piping hot so that was great. The sauce was a bit oily but had good flavor.

I wish I got more Christmas shopping done today but I seem to get more tired easily so have to sit and rest. So I think I’d better start working on a list so I don’t waste so much time with browsing. Time is flying by, it’s almost Thanksgiving!

Sears Fine Foods
439 Powell Street

Asuka Ramen
883 Bush St

Miette, Arty Salon (a 12 inch hair cut!), and Iroha

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On my long Saturday walk I stopped by Miette to check out their pastries. I decided on a rose macaroon and a box of ginger snaps. I had the macaroon as my breakfast this morning. The macaroon was $1.50 and a bit small, the circumference about the size of a silver dollar. The rose flavor was very light but fragrant, the cookie nice and nutty.

This evening I had my big haircut. Every 2 years or so, I usually will cut the length of my hair for donation to Locks of Love. This will be my third donation. Your hair donation must be at least 10 inches so if you’re interested in donating, check out their website. It’s always a good excuse for me to get a new hairstyle and my hair grows pretty fast.

So my length before haircut:

My friend Susan recommended ARTY Salon in Japantown and their stylist Kumi. She’s a busy girl so I wasn’t able to get an appointment during my vacation so had to wait until tonight. She did a really great job with my hair consultation and gave me a lot of options. Eventually I just asked her to do what she thought would be best for my face shape and my style of hair. She took a lot of time putting the finishing touches on my cut. My haircut took almost 90 minutes but my hair feels really nice and light, it just is taking some getting used to. Wait until I wash it and then I’ll have an opinion on how I really like it.

So ta-dah! At dinner:

My 12 inch ponytail:

After my cut, we went to Iroha for dinner. I had bought a gift certificate from Restaurant.com so it was a good time to use it. It was a $25 off a $45 minimum purchase, the gift certificate only cost me $5. We ended up ordering quite a bit of food.

Seaweed salad, a bit too much dressing.

Mushroom stuffed with pork, oversauced with teriyaki sauce.

Beef wrapped around green bell peppers. Again, too much teriyaki sauce.

Vegetable tempura. Great vegetables: mushrooms, bell pepper, eggplant, carrot, yam, zucchini, and some sort of pumpkin or gourd.

Tonkatsu curry. Curry was piping hot, a bit spicy which was good. The rice not very good but tonkatsu well fried.

Ron ordered the beef teriyaki + tonkatsu combo (not on the menu but they said they would make it).

It was quite a bit meal, needless to say, we were stuffed. I’ve been drinking lots of water since dinner since I feel parched, too much protein and saltiness.

Miette
2109 Chestnut St

ARTY
1680 Post St #G (2nd floor)

Iroha
1728 Buchannan St (2nd floor) between Post St & Sutter St

Asuka Ramen

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/asuka-ramen-san-francisco

Tried another new place in SF: Asuka Ramen.

Seaweed salad, a good portion.

I tried the tonkotsu ramen, the pork bone broth with pork, bamboo shoots, and a boiled egg. The broth was fragrant and tasty. The noodles were al dente but seemed like instant. The pork was nicely grilled but a bit fatty.

I had Ron order the katsudon since I was in the mood for that too. There wasn’t enough sauce and the breading on the katsu was a bit thick but I like what there was of the egg & onions with saucy rice.

Unfortunately, this place gave me an upset stomach after eating so don’t think we’ll be back anytime soon.

Asuka Ramen
883 Bush Street

IHOP, Tal-y-Tara, Kushi Tsuru & Joyce’s Visit

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A relaxing and beautiful San Francisco day. Ron & I started out early in the morning with breakfast at IHOP. We had a very filling breakfast.

I ordered the strawberry stuffed French toast combination with bacon, eggs, and hash. The filling was a bit like a Toaster Strudel that you can toast at home and it wasn’t really like French toast, more like a donut, but not bad overall. I love bacon and eggs over-easy.

Ron ordered the Colorado omelette with a side of Butterscotch Rocks pancakes. The Colorado omlette has bacon, pork sausage, shredded beef, ham, onions, green peppers, and cheddar cheese. It’s supposed to be served with salsa but I just realized they probably forgot.

Later in the afternoon, I had tea at Tal-y-Tara Tea & Polo Shoppe. Joyce is visiting from Singapore and we needed to catch up! Lisa & Patsy came to join in the fun.

The front of the shoppe sells things for horse riding including saddles and clothing. We were seated right away and had a few moments to look at the menu. We were seated inside but they do have a small patio in the back which would have been nice if it wasn’t so windy, great for a small party.

We decided to order the Classic Motorloaf which is a variety of tea sandwiches that include cream cheese and cucumber, egg salad and capers, cheese and chutney, smoked turkey and watercress, black forest ham with mustard, and lox, cream cheese and capers. The center of the bread is cut out and made into sandwiches then put back into the bread. The bread was a little sweet and nutty.

We also ordered the motorload bread with fruit and cheese, served with cream cheese and chutney.

We ordered two types of tea, each of these large pots serve two. The tea pot cozies were really cute. We tried the English Breakfast and Rhumba Rooibos Chai. I liked the spiciness of the Chai.

After the sandwiches, we tried their blueberry scones and the crumpet. The blueberry scones were served with blueberry preserves and cream cheese. The scones were a bit bready for my taste.

The crumpet came out nice and toasty but I still don’t really care for it much.

I was surprisingly full and was ready for a nap but ended up going to buy Misu some new cat food and some groceries. I hope he’ll eat the chicken wet food.

Ron and I then met up with Joyce for dinner in Japantown. We ended up at Kushi Tsuru.

We ordered the Pink Lady roll, agedashi tofu, the large sashimi plate, and tempura appetizer. Plus I ordered the katsu-don and Joyce had the oyako-don.

I would say the sashimi was good while eating but left a strange aftertaste. It was probably the squid with shiso that left the aftertaste rather than the fish. Overall the rest was pretty standard and this restaurant is a bit cheaper than the rest in Japantown. Too bad they don’t have ramen, only soba and udon.

So it’s been a full day of eating and it was good to catch up with Joyce, I’m hoping we can go to Singapore to visit soon!

IHOP
2398 Junipero Sterra Blvd
Daly City, CA

Tal-y-Tara Tea & Polo Shoppe
6439 California Street

Kushi Tsuru
1737 Post St (in Japantown)

Visit to Colma and Katana-ya Ramen

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/katana-ya-san-francisco

Earlier this month was the Chinese celebration of tomb sweeping day. It usually falls the week before Easter and we visit the graves of our dearly departed family members to clean their grave sites, leave some flowers, and pay our respects. I missed the celebration last year because we were in Singapore. Today I decided I’d visit my grandparents’ grave site in Colma to leave some flowers and clean up if necessary. My father’s parents passed away before my brother and I were born. When I was in junior high school, we did autobiographies and through this I learned about my grandparents and how hard they struggled to get here and how my dad almost wasn’t able to come to the US with the rest of his family. Sometimes when I whine and complain, I just have to remind myself how easy we actually have it now compared to when my family first arrived in the 1960s. It was a beautiful day to visit, the sun was shining high in the sky while I planted some flowers in the vases and scrubbed some of the dirt off their stone. I wish I could have known them, I’m sure they were wonderful people, look how great my dad turned out!

It was a beautiful day but I spent most of it inside. I had the windows wide open and was enjoying the warmth but it also made me really sleepy. I napped for a bit before heading out to meet up with Ron and friends for dinner. We ended up at Katana-ya for ramen. The restaurant is kind of small, maybe seats 25 people max. We had a group of 5 and the wait was about 30 minutes.

We ordered ramen since our friend said it was the best. They have a selection of about 15 types of ramen then you can choose from three types of broth (soy, miso, or salt) and if you want it light or strong, and if you want it spicy, the degree of spiceness. Actually quite a lot of choices.

Ron had the Katanya Ramen which is basically the kitchen sink, includes gyoza, pork, corn, and egg… this is with soy broth.

I had the BBQ pork ramen with light miso broth. The pork was good, maybe a little bit tough, not quite as good as Tanpopo. Although I asked for light miso, it was still a bit salty for me but overall, I liked the amount of green onions and bamboo shoots.

Service was decent, everything served pretty quickly. But there was an automatic 18% service charge included for our party of 5… seemed a bit much since usually places don’t start automatically added tip unless you have 6 or more… but I guess since we took up like 1/5 of their restaurant, they’d better make it worth their while.

They open until 1:15am per their window sign, good for late night munchies.

Katana-ya
430 Geary Blvd (at Mason)