Even that you can find nearly all kinds of cuisine in Hong Kong, Chinese food is still the majority. Of course, there are many kinds of Chinese food characterized by their origins, with Guangzhou cuisine being the most popular since Hong Kong is in Guangzhou.

The second place would no doubt be Shanghai dishes, but good Shanghai restaurants are not common. Ye Shanghai is one of the excellent places with both great food and comfortable environment. I especially like their  booth seatings which are cozy and private.

We started our meal with some alcohol, but no this is not a drink. This is the Marinated Pigeon in Chinese Yellow Wine (花雕醉鴿).

The dish was followed by the Slices Pork in Garlic Soy Sauce (蒜泥白肉).

Usually I am not a fan of this dish because it is quite chilly and I can't take that. However, this one was done with sweet soy sauce (instead of the salty one) and all the chilly thing was only placed in the center. People who cannot stand chilly thing would still be able to enjoy the pork in this way.

The Seafood Soup came before we finished the two starters, and it looked so delicious!

That crab was obviously one Shanghai hairy crab (大閘蟹), and inside you could also find fish and shrimps. The soup tasted so good and you could tell what ingredients the soup contained. All the essences of the seafood flowed within the bowl, superb!

After that, the meat came, which was the WuXi Pork Chop (無錫排骨). The meat was very soft and the sauce was good, but it lacked a little surprise. I guess I was just expecting too much, perhaps.

The vegetable and the famous Shanghai Dumpling followed.

The covering of the dumplings could actually be done better. The thickness was right, but it looked like it was a little too wet. I guess the steamer was too powerful, or this dish was overcooked a little bit. Still, the whole thing was good and over the passing mark.

Then we had this beautiful dessert as the finale, and maybe you can guess what that is?

It was Black Sesame Creme Brulee with Yellow Chinese Wine Ice-cream! This is a perfect mix between Chinese and western cuisines. The creme brulee was excellent, crispy on the top and all smooth underneath. The ice-cream was such an interesting sweetie. It looked like normal ice-cream, but the taste was exactly the Chinese wine used in the first dish! It was not like Bailey's ice-cream, since it was really Chinese wine, and therefore the flavour was...so hard to describe! It really tasted like a kind of traditional Chinese dessert!

When we left, we saw this chocolate counter at the entrance. It was another funny fusion: tea chocolate. These chocolate bars and candies actually had tea flavours blended inside, and just that intrigued me. Let me try that next time and report how surprising that chocolate would be.

We revisited the ramen shop Misocool again this weekend, and this time it was not in Quarry Bay but in the new shopping mall K11. This Misocool branch shop is much bigger and has a more open design. It sounds like the tonkatsu trend has spread quickly in Hong Kong and Misocool also includes it now in their menu. Maybe they have it for a long time already and I missed it before. Anyway, today I was here to test their pork cutlet.

We ordered a Tonkatsu and Egg Rice Bowl, and it looked quite nice. However, the first thing that disappointed me was the onion. It was still raw and immediately prevented me from enjoying the bowl. I had no choice but to pick the onion from the rice.

At least the pork was fine. It was crispy and surprisingly not oily at all. I like the thickness of this, which was thinner than those from Tonkichi or Bairin but more suitable for this size of bowl. The egg part was great too but if it was not fully cooked with the egg yolk soaking into the rice, it would be even more delicious.

We added one more side dish, the Pan-fried Scallops. It was pretty nice too.

The most excellent part was actually the dessert the Hokkaido Yogurt! Unfortunately I didn't have a photo here. It was made with Hokkaido milk and was very light and refreshing. It was smooth like ice-cream but not thick at all, perfect for a little finale for the meal. If you pass by, do grab a cup of yogurt from this shop. You won't be disappointed.

Anyone who knows Central well will know the name Joël Robuchon. His black-and-red L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is located on the 4/F of the Landmark in Central, and their food is superb. I have been there once to try their set lunch, and I must say that is one of the best French food I have ever had. Some of the self-acclaimed French restaurants let me down because of their strange tastes after weird and fancily meticulous preparation, or perhaps the food was just not my cup of tea. I understand that their small portions are their cuisine characteristics, but for a person like me who needs to be full in order to feel happy, French food is never something at the top of my list.

However, the lunch I had in Robuchon amazed me, and it made me so full and contented when I went back to the office. I would certainly expect the same experience from their bakery, a place I went only once when it was still under renovation before the opening.

This weekend I decided to treat myself better, and I finally went to this renowned shop, Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon. I heard that their croissants were exceptional, and that would be my breakfast today. I bought one and went back to the office, and as usual, I was the first one again to be back in the office in my team.

The croissant was smaller than I expected, and also cheaper than I expected. It looked fine and delicate, and later I realized that it was actually extremely delicate. I tried to tear it off into half first instead of being rude and devouring the whole piece of bread, but it just collapsed like a piece of glass shattered on my desk!

That actually revealed how fine this croissant was. The buttery pastry was done in extraordinarily thin layers, so thin that they would break when you touched them. After finally opening up the bread, I was so surprised that it was extremely soft inside. The smell of fine bread just popped out and I couldn't help but started to finish the first half of it.

And I hate it when a croissant was too "stuffed" instead. Hey I am not eating  a peice of bread but pastry! Many of the bakery make this kind of bread, so hard, so stuffedg, no layers and no good taste and smell. And I guess that is why I never fall in love with any kind of bread in Hong Kong (alright except some Japanese ones). However, this croissant completely moved me and it was so delicious that I was hoping that I could get one more. The texture was awesome, crispy on the outside and buttery and soft inside. Each bite was like a taste of heaven!

I am never a bread lover (I know most girls are), but this wonderful pastry simply changed my mind and I will definitely visit this bakery again. They have other outstanding pastry too like the Danish pastry and bagels, and I can't wait to try them all out later. If you love breads, or if you want to have something to change your mind on bread, this is the only choice in the town.

There are many people asking me if I was spoilt, because it seems like I often visit expensive restaurants and try high-class food. That completely baffles me. First, I really don't visit expensive restaurant that often, and second, I don't need good food all over the table to call it a fabulous meal.

To me, a good dinner does not need to have all good food over the table. There should a good balance between average food and very good food, just as roses alone without any leaves won't be beautiful at all. Therefore, just normal dinner with a little excitement is more than enough for me, and so how can I be spoilt?

Tonight, I added dessert to my great dinner at home. The little box was from Mochi Cream, and it was not cheap. As the name says it all, it was a box of mochi, but interesting enough, despite the minimalistic package and branding style, this was not from Japan but from a local Hong Kong shop. Apparently I would not guess it to be as good as the real Japanese mochi, but attracted by the beautiful colors, I decided to try once.

Each mochi was contained by a little paper bag (more like a slot), because otherwise the flavour of each mochi would be all mixed up.

I tried five different flavours this time, and they include chocolate, matcha (green tea), coffee, peach and mango. I wanted to try sakura but it was all sold out. (I miss the sakura stuff in Japan!)

This made-in-Hong Kong dessert surprised me with its quality. This was not the first local mochi I tried in my life, and those I tried before usually disappointed me with their poorly made coating. Indeed, the outer skin layer is not easy to make and it is the key to a delicious mochi. It cannot be too thick, nor can it be too thin to kill the chewy texture. This one from Mochi Cream is just right, and I swear if there is no filling inside but just the skin is yummy enough to make you try a second mochi.

The matcha one tasted very good, while the chocolate one was indeed a signature flavour from this shop. The coffee mochi was okay, but the most impressive one was the peach flavour. Much of the peach-flavour food smells too artificial, but this peach smell was so natural. It was not very overwhelming at all, making this so light and perfect after dinner. I also tried the mango mochi and it was good too, with the mango being fresh inside. Then somehow I believe in what the shopkeeper said to me, "Everything here was made only several days ago and every day we have to get some new mochi directly from the factory. We throw away any mochi older than a week."

I am not really sure about the price as each mochi costs nearly the same as the smallest value meal in McDonald's, but after knowing the quality of this traditional Japanese dessert, I must say that it is worth a try. However, tonight my main course in the dessert part was not these mochi, but my favourite, custard puff!!!!

That made my day!

Right before Christmas I went to this nice Japanese place with my friend, and yes this is quite late but I finally got time to write it up.

Sushi Dokoro Matsudo is located on the 8th floor of an office tower, which is the same place where you can find the famous tonkatsu shop Tonkichi. More and more people come to this tower to look for good food but for now you won't be seeing any queues. The day we came here was the night before Christmas Eve and it was already 1930, but the shop was pretty empty with less than 10 people. It is indeed a quiet place for some wonderful Japanese food.

This restaurant gets most of the food directly from Japan, and with more than 20 kinds of Japanese wines, it is not surprising to see quite some Japanese customers here.

Even more, if you come here early in the evening, you can enjoy their sushi buffet set. For $298 a person, you can eat as much as you want, choosing from more than 30 types of sushi, together with tempura and dessert which comes with the set. Amazing!

This time we didn't do buffet since we didn't really want to stuff ourselves. Finally we settled down with one sushi set to share, adding some side dishes to complete the whole course. When we were still reading the menu, the starter was already on the table. Don't miss this very first dish of the mushroom starter. It costs HK$25! Holy! Thank God I finished off the whole thing.

The sashimi came first, and it was very fresh. We were lucky because they just had a half-price discount on this big sashimi sets. It was of medium size and already got quite some different kinds for you to have a taste of everything.

The fish sashimi was very fresh like just cut from the fish. There was no awful smell that was signature from the refrigerator. Some people did not like the fat in the sashimi but for me, that is the key thing to show how good that the sashimi is. Here, the amount of fat is just right, not too much to make you throw up and just enough to add some soft texture to the slices.

The uni (sea urchin) was remarkably good, because for many times the uni you get from other Japanese restaurants has that unpleasant fishy smell. That is the reason why I seldom have it in Hong Kong except when I am in Japan especially in Tsikiji. This time the little bowl of uni surprised me. It was just sweet and...sweet! So delicious, and the ikura creates a funny yet enjoyable mixture of tastes with the uni, since the former is salty while the latter is sweet. Wonderful.

The other non-fish sashimi was all good, and I must say that the sashimi set was a really awesome bargain. Right after finishing off the whole plate in 15 minutes, we started the hot dishes. First it was the ox tongue skewers.

To me it had a bit too much black pepper on it, overwhelming the flavour of the meat. Still it was nicely prepared and grilled to the right point. Sometimes you can get really dry skewers due to overcooking, and you can see it is not easy to do quality skewers because the chef has to constantly keep an eye on it.

Another big hot dish came, the big scallops served in butter sauce! They were HUGE!

The final dish came and it was Fried Rice with Shrimp Eggs.

This fried rice was amazingly delicious, because it looked like typical fried rice with some asparagus slices but turned out to be an extremely tasty light course in the meal! As you may know, Japanese rice is round and sticky, and it is not easy to make fried rice with it. Adding oil may help but you will need quite a lot of oil, and most importantly no one will find shiny rice appealing and delicious. This fried rice however isn't oily at all, and the combination of asparagus and shrimp eggs is very interesting. The dish is light and refreshing, but not too light that bores your taste buds. The shrimp eggs act like salt in here but tastes more than just saltiness. This is extremely well done, and is a perfect finale for this pre-Christmas dinner.

The quality of food no doubt confirms my next visit to this place, and with the quiet and relaxing ambience, this is a perfect restaurant for anyone who wants to get away from the busy city life and has some undisturbed private time for fine Japanese dining experience.

One of the best restaurants has come from Japan to Hong Kong, and it specializes in pork cutlet. This kind of food was introduced in Japan during the Meiji Period, and now it has its own style, with even better texture and quality. In Japan, pork cutlet is called tonkatsu.

The new arrival is Ginza Bairin and as the name suggests, it is from Ginza, Japan. It's quite famous in that area, and considered one of the best in pork cutlets. This time it comes to Hong Kong and we are to see if the same good taste also comes.

Unfortunately, I have not been to the Ginza one, and so I can only compare it with another cutlet place which has been established in Hong Kong for quite some time and has its own fame in this city, called Tonkichi. With its main branch set up in Causeway, you can always see a queue outside the door, and with the food gourmet Choi Lan recommending the restaurant some time ago, its booking is all full for reservation till 6 months later.

Let's start with Ginza Bairin.

This place was designed with all wood pattern and light color scheme, and was probably trying to bring back the feel of its Ginza branch. It was comfortable but I am not a fan of all those little curtains which separate the restaurant into different zones. However, they do add a little privacy to each table.

I ordered the typical tonkatsu set, which is perhaps the easiest way to know if it is really that good.

The pork was from the big black pig (黑豚) and was pretty well done. I found the texture a little rough, but the smell of pork was strong and actually quite attractive. The outer fried breaded layer was not oily, and complementing the meat inside well.

However, there was some fat in the pork and I believe it is intentional. The chef cuts each slice of meat with a little fat on one edge, where the meat is the softest with the strongest pork smell. Some people may find that unattractive, while I don't really have a problem with it since the fat area was not very big, as shown in the picture above.

One major component of the tonkatsu set is the shredded cabbage. The cabbage here was fresh but not sweet enough, and thank God the delicious plum sauce helped to bring back the good taste of the vegetable.

Then we jumped to Tonkichi. What is different here is the first dish, which is not a dish really but a bowl of sesame.

You need to pestle it into powder and add the special pork sauce. This is extremely tasty to go with the tonkatsu. Before the main course we added a little bit more, the deep-fried soft-shell crab.

Not oily at all, this crab was cooked just right. The outside was crispy with the inner being so soft and juicy. Sometimes I needed to add lemon sauce to ease the oily feeling if the crab was cooked too long, but this time I didn't need to add anything. The cutlet then followed.

Here the pork was a little thinner, but the texture much softer than the Bairin to me. While the smell of pork was a bit weaker, I found this more delicious because the thickness was just right and better to handle. The outer was also crispy and I believe both restaurants used similar breadcrumbs for the breading.

The part that made this set stand out more is the shredded cabbage. It was fresh AND very sweet, and that added an unique touch to the whole dish. Deep-fried food can be heavy if eaten too much, but with the sweet vegetable, the meal will be more well balanced and more enjoyable.

And it is amazing that even when the cutlet is just a little bit better in Tonkichi, the main reason for the win is the side dish vegetable. The wonderful tonkatsu set ended with a dish of sliced water melon, adding one more reason for our higher score on this restaurant.

It is quite obvious that the best pork cutlet from Ginza Bairin has not arrived yet from Japan, but one has to note that the win does not just come from the good tonkatsu. Good complements are always the part that qualify the meal as a complete one. That actually makes me learn something. If you need to perfect something, always look at the big picture first instead of just dwelling into details. Both the big picture and the small details count for something good. That is why a good seat, good lighting or even good service always counts for the success of a restaurant. Now I understand why someone told me this, "If you want to know how good the food is, check how the waiter serves your food first."

I finally have time to compile this list of good restaurants I went to during my trip to Japan in late October. What I have here is only good food, and while they may not be the best (since I don't know everything and there must be better stuff around), I would say that they are places worth visiting. This time I will just keep it short and quick, and include links and information for your easy reference. Enjoy!

1st November - Tokyo Korakuen 東京 後楽園
 尾道ラーメン麺一筋東口店
 東京都千代田区三崎町２丁目１−１６[ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

It is not a high-class ramen shop, but it still has a name of its own. The noodle is definitely good, and the dumplings are nice too. For those who love spicy stuff should try their famous red ramen. It is going to burn your tongue, perfect for cold winter time.

2nd November - Tokyo Omotesando 東京表参道
とんかつ まい泉
東京渋谷区神宮前４丁目−８−５[ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

Probably one of the best deep-fried pork cutlet shops in Japan. They have all kinds of pork for you to choose, from the typical but most delicious deep-fried pork set to rice with pork cutlet and egg on top, to pork cutlet sandwiches. The cutlet is crispy on the outside but not oily at all. With refillable rice and salad, you can be sure that you won't be able to move after the meal. A must-try for everyone, because once you try, you won't like other pork cutlets anymore.

牛タン
道玄坂センタービル Basement

I don't know the exact name for this, but this chain restaurant is specialized in beef tongue food. Their beef tongue has two sizes, thick and thin, and be sure to try the thick one. It is not expensive, but very tasty. If you need a quick but high-quality lunch, this can be your choice.

4th November - Tokyo Tsukiji
大和壽司 [ Google Map ]

There are many sushi shops in the Tsukiji Market, and everything inside is fresh and delicious. You may choose those with insanely long queues, but I think any one can do. This shop is popular but not always blocked by a huge crowd outside, and the shop is split into two rooms. Be sure to get uni (sea urchin) sushi and toro (tuna) sushi. No fishy taste but only sweet and slightly salty taste of the ocean. You won't regret it.

4th November - Tokyo Shinjuku
和幸 (新宿ミロード店)
東京都新宿区西新宿1-1-3小田急新宿ミロード8F [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

This chain restaurant is not extremely prestigious, and compared to Mai Sen, this is only 75/100 at most. However, the pork cutlet is still quite well done and the new pork cutlet from large black pigs is soft and very delicious. There are many branches and the one we went to is at the top floor of a department store, which is quite big and comfortable.

7th November - Tokyo Shinjuku
博多天神 (歌舞伎町一番街通り店)
新宿区歌舞伎町1-23-12 [ Google Map ]

There are many good ramen shops in Japan, and which one is good depends on your own taste. This one is famous because of their nearly white soup, which is prepared continuously for more than 40 hours. They said they never turned off the soup boiler and so you can be sure all the essence and taste are well kept in the soup. You can refill your bowl with their noodles for free if you want more, making this place the best value ramen shop in the center of Tokyo.

7th November - Tokyo Ikebukuro
麺創房無敵家
東京都豊島区南池袋1-17-1崎本ビル1F [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

Yes, it sounds like many ramen shops are already very good in Japan, but after trying this one, you will know what is the best. This place is considered as one of the rare 9-star holder in the country (10 is the full score), and their noodle, I must say, is exceptional. You can smell the egg flavour from the noodle of the person next to you, isn't that a bit crazy? Yes, it is. A must-go place for anyone who loves ramen, and no worry, there is always a queue outside their shops, so just line up and enjoy it.

7th November - Tokyo Shibuya
鳥良 手羽先唐揚専門店
東京都渋谷区道玄坂2-29-8道玄坂センタービル6F [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

One of the famous places in Japan which specializes in chicken wings. This is not just typical chicken wings like you can eat from your own kitchen, but BBQ skewer type. I tried and I must say I never had such good wings before. They have more than just wings, like what I showed here in the photos (yeah, we ate a lot!!!) From left to right: 1) starter, which is assorted mushroom slices; 2) dark sugar apple vinegar drink; 3) smooth tofu: extremely delicious tofu that you cannot taste the tofu but soy beans! That means it is so raw and so natural, and smooth like silk!); 4) chicken wings, the key of the whole meal; 5) chicken cartilage skewers; 6) chicken ramen; 7) chicken kidney skewers (not sliced up but whole ones); 8) chicken rice bowl with egg. Reservation is preferred or else you will need to wait for at least 2 hours for dinner.

8th November - Tokyo Shinjuku
MUJI Cafe [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

We tried this cafe on the last day of our trip, and they have the most declious light meals I have ever had. This MUJI place is decorated in their own style, no doubt, and all the food advocates a healthy and light lifestyle. What we had includes red rice with Japanese curry, assorted food lunch set and one caramel cappuccino. If you had too much calory in your trip, try this place to balace off your diet a little bit. If you want to bring some of their food home, no problem, just visit their shop above the cafe, and you will see all the food and drinks packaged nicely in minimistic design. Then you can replicate the food yourself and enjoy the same taste at your own place.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next blog on desserts and cakes!

Last year when Michelin unleashed its stars on the selected Hong Kong restuarants, much controversy prevailed in the town criticizing the fact that most of the awarded places were either western restaurants or expensive hotel places. Of course, not many people can spend a lot on one dish, but the truth is that Hong Kong is filled with so many international cuisines and seriously, some small and traditional shops do much better food.

Lung King Heen is located at Four Seasons, and it was the only restaurant awarded three stars in the Michelin food guide in 2009, and it still keeps the three stars for 2010 (while the other of the two three-star awards is Caprice, which is the French restaurant in Four Seasons). There is no doubt that this is an expensive Chinese restaurant, but I read reviews that the food is good too. I am testing it myself today.

The place was really beautiful, and all the details were taken with good care. The menu, the little flower pot and even the teapot were specially designed.

We started the lunch, or yumcha in precise terms, with this dimsum, steamed rice rolls. But instead of the typical beef or roasted pork or shrimp filling, this one had lobster meat inside.

I would not say that this was good just because it used some high-class ingredients, but this was quite nice. The roll was not thick but very chewy, and the lobster was nicely prepared too. However, I still prefer the original beef or roasted pork rice rolls because those are paste-like meat or very thin slices, and that actually fits better inside the roll. The lobster here are big chops and when you eat it, it moves inside the roll and finally falls apart.

Then it was the Tarts with Salmon and Cheese. Yeah, it was a strange dish.

It was clearly a fusion type of food, and if it was not my friend, I would not pick this one. The tarts were just so-so, probably because the salmon and cheese just didn't go well with the tart outer. After that one typical dim sum came, the shui mai.

There couldn't be any surprise from this dish I guess, and yes it was typical but at least it was well done and had real shrimps inside. There are many other restaurants only using pork and shrimp paste to make shui mai, but original shui mai actually has real and whole shrimps inside, and is always the best.

This looked very ordinary too, but turned out to be a little sweet surprise. This was the Mini Pineapple Buns with Roasted Pork Filling. The top was crispy and there were quite some filling inside instead of big empty space. Tasty.

This is the Shrimp Dumplings. I love the wrapper which was so thin as you can see from the photo. You may not know but the wrapper is actually the part that decides whether the dumpling is good or not. It should not be too thick and it should be translucent. It is thin but should not break easily, and should be chewy too.

The Vegetarian Buns came, which was pretty ordinary.

The most special dim sum came last, and it was the Baked Whole Abalone Puffs with Diced Chicken.

The "abalone" tasted really good and it was a real abalone on top! I don't know whether it was only illusion to say it was good, because everyone would agree that anything with things like abalone or shark fins would become high-class delicious food. In any case, just talking about the texture and taste, this puff was very well done. Nothing was overcooked and each ingredient did not overwhelm each other in the taste.

The dessert was a complimentary item, and it turned out to be a little disappointing. The two kinds of desserts were small sachima and coconut cakes. They were both tasty but not special at all, more like just up to typical standard.

The second dish of dessert was a complete letdown, because it was Sweet Osmanthus Cakes (or Guihua Cake), but the flower flavour was not strong at all. It tasted more like mango jelly, and even the colors suggested that. It was really poor to me, as I don't think such Chinese dessert could go wrong in such a prestigious Chinese restaurant.

In general, the food is above average, but is not extremely good and memorable like Michelin would say about it. The service is the key to its success. When I just walked in, several waiters came and served me, putting our bags and coats into place. They were more than happy to explain each item in the menu for you, and if you wanted to change a dish after ordering, the staff wouldn't complain at all. I believe that is the major reason why it was awarded three stars in the Michelin guide, and why it can keep it for two years.

If you wanted some extraordinary Chinese food, you might find some here in the menu but don't expect everything to be good. There are other places I would recommend you instead. if you want unbeatable service and beautifully decorated modern place on a relaxing weekend day, then this is a good choice. You know what I mean.

Mai Kuraki is on this issue of ME magazine, and I fall in love completely with the shots of hers inside.

And I love the first dress, a black dress by Marc Jacobs.

Her charisma is deadly. OMG...

It has been some time to update my blog and yes, work is killing me while I am preparing for my exam too. I just have so much to do! Well, I have been to some cool places and I only stop writing about them because of my work. Now I got a little time and so here we go.

Inaniwa udon is one of the most high-class udon in Japan, and it is different from the typical udon you may see in supermarkets or restaurants. Inaniwa udon is thin noodle and a little translucent (not completely translucent but a little more than the typical thick udon). It can be served both hot and cold, and when it is served cold, the sauce becomes very important because while it has to be good flavour, it cannot be too overwhelming to cover up the wheat smell of the udon.

We went to this restaurant which was recently opened in Elements. Even the name suggests that it is a place for good Inaniwa udon. This time we tried both the hot and cold udon and also some of the popular Japanese snacks, and perhaps we could go straight to the food. The first dish was Cold Duck Breast Slices.

I couldn't guess how good this dish was. It looked so ordinary to me, like only slices of meat with soy sauce, but I was wrong. It turned out to be very delicious. It was very light, both the meat and sauce. I never like mustard and so I skipped it and only ate the slices with the spring onion on the top. Surprisingly they actually went well with each other!

The thrill didn't last long though. The tempura came and it was really ordinary.

At least it was not very oily, and thank God the shrimps were big and very fresh, or else I would just leave the whole thing aside. It didn't surprise me at all except the size.

The octopus cake soon arrived, which turned out to be another delicious dish instead of another letdown. There were tiny slices of octopus inside instead of pulverized octopus meat, and it didn't have the disturbing fishy smell, very well done I must say!

And remember to have it with the ginger in the dish.

The dishes were served quite fast, and when we just went halfway on the small starters, the udon came in. First it was my sister's BBQ smoked eel on Inaniwa udon in soup.

Just the look of it made people drool. The eel was fat and good, but I wasn't sure if it went well with soup udon as I thought it was best with rice. Anyway, my sister didn't stop eating once she started, and I guess that was a sign of approval. Then, the cold udon with American Angus beef and salad arrived.

It looked very much like a western dish, like a bowl of salad. I though expected that because that was what the menu said! Perhaps you can already guess right about the taste of this one, and it is only so-so. Of course, not all fusion stuff can be done properly and well besides inspiring others.

And beware, there was a huge block of wasabi on the top, and you may miss it as it hides in the green vegetable. If you accidentally mix everything so well, you're done.

Then, the best of the meal was here. It was the signature cold Inaniwa udon served with three sauces. The middle one is actually the key of the whole set, which is hot Iwate duck sauce.

And it was extremely delicious! It didn't have toppings or meat or vegetable on it, but it allowed you to enjoy the true and pure taste of the udon. You don't pour the sauce into the noodle, but instead, you pick a little udon and dip it into the sauce and eat it.

The sauce was prepared from duck meat from Iwate, Japan. The meat was fried and then allowed to cool for several hours before being cooked into sauce. You could smell the wonderful duck meat from the sauce and it went so well with the udon.

The udon was superb too. It was not thick like the typical udon, and perhaps even thinner than the typical ramen. The texture was very special, like it was very brittle but also very chewy once in your mouth. The noodle was shiny and translucent, and just that appearance you could guess this was high-quality food. It amazes me to realize that all Inaniwa udon is prepared with hands instead of machine-made, and you can imagine the great effort and skills of the chefs.

This was a very good dinner and I would definitely come back again later. There are some other dishes like the famous teriyaki and egg blocks, but still the udon is the main reason for my revisit. I actually knew about Inaniwa udon already during my trip to Japan in late October, and when I was in Akita, I bought some Inaniwa udon already. This was what it was like, all made in Japan, haha:

And I prepared a quick meal with it one day, with some tasty scallops from Japan too:

That made my day, really.