Plastic food

In Japan many restaurants show their menu by displaying plastic food in the window. These pics I took today in Chinatown so the food displayed here is not Japanese but Chinese (although often with a Japanese twist).  It's all plastic but looks very real... I'm always amazed with the amount of detail that goes in there. Unfortunately the real dishes served sometimes look less than their plastic examples.

Japanese KitKat

Never knew there are so many different versions of KitKat! In the Netherlands we only have the regular milk chocolate one and sometimes you can find the white chocolate one. In Japan they are a bit more creative and last year I already tried the green tea flavor and strawberry flavor. The green tea version tasted quite good.  Not sure about the strawberry one though...too sweet for my taste.
Today I found citrus flavored kitkat (yumm!) and strawberry tarte (not for me). And I've heard stories about a soy sauce flavored KitKat... 

Chinatown Yokohama

Pictured above is the view from my living room. A modern concrete jungle indeed! But when I turn around the corner I enter Chinatown, which is a whole different world....

There are many old buildings. I wonder if there are people living in this building...it looks like the windows have not been cleaned for quite a while. But looking at the bicycles parked in front I think there are actually people living here. 

Most shops in Chinatown sell food. Especially dumplings and dim sum are very popular. And even if you are not hungry the smell will make you want to buy something. Watch out if you are vegetarian (or muslim) since there is pork meat in almost everything. 

I do a lot of my grocery shopping here since fruit and vegetables are a lot cheaper than in my local Japanese supermarket.

Besides groceries you can also stock up on some weapons. 

And get a new hairdo at the local hair salon. Although I wonder if they are up to date with the latest trends?!

Winter garden

This weekend I visited the Sankeien garden in Yokohama to watch the plume blossoms. Sankeien is a beautiful and tranquil Japanese garden with a lake, traditional Japanese houses and a tree-story pagoda. The plume blossoms made me feel like spring's around the corner...can't wait!

At the entrance of the Sankeien there were some food stalls where I bought a corn. In the garden I warmed my body with a bowl of udon noodles.  In the winter I'm craving food all the time...especially sweets. Last Thursday I met my dear friend Pichu and we enjoyed crepes with chocolate and pear for breakfast. If it were up to me I would have crepes for breakfast every day!

Oreo cupcakes from Annie's eats

When browsing Pinterest I came across a picture of some very attractive cupcakes. They are
Oreo cookie and cream cupcakes from Annie's eats and I really wanted to make these myself. Like with any recipe it was a challenge gathering all the ingredients in the my local supermarket since I can not read any Japanese. But in the end I managed to find all the ingredients and yesterday I spend some time in my kitchen baking these. The bottom of these cupcakes is made from an Oreo cookie and there are chopped Oreos in the batter too, yumm! This recipe is not too hard to make and although my version did not look as good as Annie's, I was still happy with the result and taste (and ate at least 4 of them....).

Cake pops

Cupcakes were a big hit in 2011. I'm predicting 2012 will be the year for cake pops! And Bakerella is the queen of cake pops. She published a book on how to make these 'too cute to eat' cakes on a stick...I'm going to give it a try this weekend!

 

Hakone

 

This weekend we visited Hakone, a place known for the great views of Mount Fuji and many hot springs. For lunch I had the best gyoza so far: herb gyoza at the gyoza center in Gora. We took the rope way to the crater lake Ashi. And that's where I found a bunch of cats all cuddled up on a couch next to the lake. I invited them over to my own couch at home but for some reason they refused...

Cake time!

Yesterday my love turned 32 and I bought him a small birthday cake. I found some cute candles as you can see above. It was a chocolate covered cake with a bottom crust that was filled with sesame seed. This gave it a true Japanese flavour.

Every time I visit one of the food markets I'm always amazed with how much creativity Japanese put into creating food. Not only does it taste good, every meal looks like a piece of art. And cakes are no different. 

Check the velvet red cake I bought for myself, almost too pretty to eat! The decoration on top is made from white chocolate and the inside of the cake was filled with a creamy blueberry mousse, yum!

And off course there are many Christmas cakes for sale now. I loved the cupcake pictured below, there's a Christmas cookie attached to it.