Asahi Beer Factory in Nagoya!

 Tomoyo (our designated driver), Minako and Greg arriving at the beer factory. Greg is pondering how the beer will taste fresh from the factory.

 All the beer factories that Asahi has. They have 9 beer factories, 2 whiskey factories and one soft drink factory...or was it 2? I can't remember about the soft drink factory, but at least I remembered the important part!

 One of the factories is...or was in Fukushima. I wonder if it is still there?

 Let the tour begin!

 Here is the beer fermenting and maturation tanks. They have enough beer in one tank that if you were to drink one beer a day it would take 300,000 days to empty the tank.....of course, the beer would have gone bad before you could finish it but still, 300,000 days.

 The lobby of the factory. The wall was decorated with how beer used to be made!

 Amazing!

 Unfortunately, this is the most of the inside of the factory that I can show you. They don't allow pictures to be taken inside the factory. I think they want people to go to their factories to get people to buy more Asahi beer!

 Okay, the tour offically ended so I was able to resume taking pictures!

 Did you know that it takes 2 months for the beer to mature? The beer that was in those tanks when I visited will be available in August!

 Just in case you were wondering if people could fit in between those humongous tanks....yes, you can and then some.

 Let's let the professionals pour us a glass of beer, shall we? Thank you ladies! It was the best beer that I have EVER tasted!

 Just in case you don't have your own professional beer pourer here is a how to on pouring beer into your glass the PROPER way. Have you been pouring your beer correctly?

 Someone's grandma going for seconds. Go grandma! Yes, the beer is so good that even your grandmother will want a second glass.

 I must thank our guide for taking our picture along with the rest of our tour group. We only had 25 minutes to drink or beers or to go for refills. I had to focus on drinking so I didn't go home just having had one beer. Yes, I managed to drink 2 versus Greg's 3 and a half?

 Beer snacks! Who knew that ottoto went so well with beer? Plus, smoked cheese. Us girls didn't eat any, but Greg on the other hand.....

 Ate the entire stock on our table! I think he was hungry..

 Thank you Tomoyo for driving! She couldn't drink beer, but she was able to enjoy a Mitsui Cider which is Asahi made!

 Tomoyo's pass showing that she is NOT allowed to drink. Appartently, if you came to the tour on a bicycle you are not allowed to drink either. Only in Japan are they so responsible.

 Greg trying to get to his next glass of beer before our time is up. Me....already buzzed and only halfway through my first glass.

 Greg savoring the awesome beer that he was able to drink. Me feeling great from my beers. Minako....apparently was sleepy from her beers, haha!

 Some souvenirs that I bought at the gift shop! I also bought a Asahi Brewries Limited glass, but it just has their label and has that saying on it in a regular beer glass. I figured once you have seen a beer glass you have seen them all....unless it is really unusual. But, the postcards were amazing!

 I bought a pack and they are of Asahi's beer ads from back in the day! They are awesome and I am in love with them!

 All of these came in one pack for 300 yen! Yay! Can you tell that I really love postcards? I tend to collect them, especially if they are artistic like these.

If you like Asahi beer and factory tours I highly recommend that you go to an Asahi brewery! It is very interesting and you learn some interesting facts. Did you know that the beer is cold when it is finally ready to be packed into the cans? I thought it was warm, but that is only when it is in it's fermentation stage. Who knew? Well, maybe you did.

The tour is FREE and it lasts for about 40 minutes and then you have 25 minutes to drink as much Asahi beer as you would like for, again, FREE!! Who can resist that? Just make sure that you make a reservation ahead of time! Here is a link:

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/factory/brewery/nagoya/

Unfortunately, they only have a Japanese website, but if you can speak Japanese or know someone who is Japanese you can call and make the reservation! The phone I believe is in huge numbers on the mainpage.

Happy beer drinking!

I love Pasta Piccola!

Sato and I took my mom to Pasta Piccola since they have amazing Italian food! They didn't disappoint and my mom loved their food! Of course, since we went to Pasta Piccola we couldn't resist stopping by Vincennes Cafe! Pasta Piccola is located in Chikusa and they have 2 restaurants. Vincennes Cafe is located across the street from the JR Line Chikusa station. Pasta Piccola is owned by the same owner of the Vincennes Cafe, so if you would like directions to Pasta Piccola you can ask the wait staff or see some reviews and directions (in Japanese) here:

http://4travel.jp/domestic/area/toukai/aichi/nagoya/imaike/restaurant/10199086/

Happy eating!

Crispy potatoes, Man Tofu, and Ebi Chili

 I found this awesome recipe for crispy potatoes! It, originally, was a casserole, but I don't have an oven. I have a toaster oven so I made it smaller and baked it for about an hour and a half! It tasted amazing if I do say so myself!

 I made enough for two and then had some potatoes and shallots left over to make them again the next night! I got the recipe from a blog called "Smitten Kitchen" if you are interested in making these. Here is the link:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/04/crispy-potato-roast/

All you need is potatoes, shallots, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper, a mandolin, ramekins, and at least an oven toaster, if not an oven! Slice the potatoes and shallots on the mandolin. Melt the butter and mix with some olive oil and then coat the bottom of the ramekin, but save some for the top part! Put some salt and pepper on the bottom of the ramekin after coating with the butter and oil mixture. Then, line the ramekins with the potatoes and stuff the shallots in between some slices. You can put as much or as little as you want. Next, use the rest of the butter and oil mixture to coat the top of the potatoes and put some salt and pepper on top. I covered the potatoes with tin foil for about an hour while baking. The last 15 minutes I took the foil off so that the top would become crispy. I did most of this while watching and seeing when the potatoes become crispy. You have to be careful or the potatoes will burn on the top!

 I bought tofu at my local supermarket and it came in this fancy package! I thought the package was pretty interesting. The tofu was actually in individual sized packs. Also, when you take the tofu out of the package the kanji for "Man" is visible. See below.

 Can you see it? If not I have a close up below!

 Don't worry even though it has the Kanji character for man, women can eat it and enjoy it, too! In fact, I really enjoyed this tofu! Since it is in individual packs it's very easy to take with me to work for lunch!

I made Ebi Chili, or chili shrimp, one night. It was the first time I made it, but it turned out well! It took me a little bit to de-vein the shrimp, but it wasn't too bad. The de-veining part and getting all the ingredients together took the longest amount of time. The actual cooking of the shrimp and making the chili sauce was very quick! It went pretty successfully and Sato enjoyed it very much! In fact, before he even finished eating it he asked me to make this again soon. I think I will be making this again! (^-^)y

Bloglovin!

So I just added my blog to bloglovin! We will see how well my blog does. Maybe now I will have to update my blog more often!! I figured I wouldn't bore you with just text so here is a recent picture of Monta! He has found a new location! Since I won't allow him on my windowsills he found this fake windowsill that looks over my front door. There's no window and nothing to look at below except my shoes, but hey if this will keep him quiet and it satisfies his kitty needs for height, I'm not going to stop him!

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Yoshito! よしと

 Welcome to Nagoya Mom! So, last month my mother came to visit me in Nagoya! It was here first visit to Nagoya so Sato and I decided to show her what we do best in Nagoya......of course, eating!

 We took her to our favorite restaurant her first night here. This Yoshito and they have amazing food! They only have fresh seafood very day!

 The sashimi platter....if you like sashimi I recommend that you have the chef choose for you, because he knows what is best!

 We ordered unagi no dashimaki, which is eel grilled and then wrapped into the dashimaki tamago. Dashimaki tamago is like a scrambled egg omelet, but it tastes so much better! If you like eel and Japanese style omelets then try this dashimaki tamago, you just might like it as much as I do!

 We ordered the fish tempura! It tasted just as good as it looks!! The outside was nice and crispy, but the inside was very soft! Just be careful when eating it, because it is hot, straight from the kitchen to your table!

 We ordered raw shrimp! I would say this was my favorite dish, but that be unfair to the other dishes since I loved all of them fairly equally! If you enjoy sashimi you definitely will want to try this dish. You eat just the body part and it's kind of fun eating this since you have to slurp it like a noodle!

 Say hello to my little friends! It's like they are saying "please don't eat me!" of course me being the big meanie that I am, I did eat them. Well, I ate one of them and Sato and my mom ate the other two. Don't worry we didn't let them go to waste! We had the head part deep fried to a crisp and it was delicious!!! There was no part left for waste, except for maybe the tail which was too small to deep fry.

Next was the tomato. It was a whole tomato, but it had some dashi poured over it and it was excellent! It was fairly soft and easy to eat once we broke up the whole tomato! Considering how simple this dish was it was really good. It brought out the natural flavors of the tomato.

Now, if there was one thing that I HAD to say was my favorite I would have to say this soup. It was a tofu soup, but it was very creamy and it down very quickly. Almost too quickly, I would love to drink this soup again!

If you are interested in visiting this restaurant please do! It is called Yoshito and they have a second restaurant right next door called Hanare for the times that Yoshito is completely full. I highly recommend that you make a reservation, because the restaurants are small even if there are two of them (with the same menu). Here is their phone number to make a reservation 052-761-2111 for Yoshito or 052-761-3555 for Hanare. It is very close to the Ikeshita station in Nagoya, but it is on a side street. If you can ask them for directions when you make a reservation! Happy eating!

A Little Piece of Heaven

 My friend and I were walking around Osu Kannon and decided to take a coffee break. Well, Osu Kannon isn't the cleanest or the prettiest place. So we were pleasantly surprised when we randomly selected this coffee shop and went upstairs and found how different it was from the atmosphere just outside the cafe.

 I loved the lighting and how from the second floor you could look over the first floor. I'm sure the customers downstairs really appreciated having their photo taken from the second floor.

 This was my iced coffee that I ordered and it was pretty good. It was a simple flavor and good for a warm day walking around.

I had this lovely view leaving the second floor. It's a very calming atmosphere, don't you think? If I can find this cafe again I will definitely be stopping here for a coffee break!

Il Vecchio and Vincennes Cafe

 Sato and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary at a very nice Italian restaurant called Il Vecchio. It's really close to where Sato works and apparently he had been here a few times with his boss and coworkers. It was an expensive restaurant,　but it was definitely worth the price!

 The bread was delicious! I believe they make it themselves and they would offer extra bread if we wanted it. We would have kept accepting except we wanted to be able to eat what we ordered.

 First we had tomatoes and mozzarella with olive oil and basil. Oh, this was delicious and only the beginning!

 Bagna Caude (I'm probably spelling that wrong) base I belive is sardines? It's hard to say because you really don't taste fish or even think "fish" when you eat this. Sato kept trying to think of what their secret ingredient is. The waitress told us the base of it, but of course they add their own personal touches.

 This was the seasonal vegetables that came with the Bagna Caude for dipping. They were very fresh and matched the Bagna Caude perfectly!

 I have to admit I can't remember what kind of fish eggs were sliced and placed atop the pasta, but it had a salty flavor and went very nicely with the spaghetti!

 This pasta had zucchini, red cabbage and squid. Oh so good!

 Sato trying to tell me to stop taking pictures and eat my pasta or he was going to steal my portion....Ha! Good luck!

 Ahhh the roast chicken and asparagus! I'm sure the chicken had a basic seasoning and then roasted.....and yet it was better than any chicken I have tried cooking so far!

 I just ordered the house wine and it was bold and had a hit of spicy-ness to the flavor. I probably should have ordered white since I was having chicken, but it had been a long time since I had wine and I wanted RED! This was a great restaurant for our anniversary and it was quiet and there were only two other couples there so it was fairly quiet. The restaurant is small to keep their quality up and it is noticeable! Also, this keeps the atmosphere cozy and relaxing. (^-^)y

 How could Sato and I not end our night without a nice cup of coffee? Of course, we set off for our favorite cafe, Vincennes! (This is the cinnamon cafe)

 Sato enjoying his cup of coffee and newspaper. You can see the front door area behind Sato on the left.

On Sato's right is the other part of the cafe. My favorite place is the back room that you can see in the background. It's like sitting in your own private room while enjoying coffee. It's especially nice when you don't smoke and everyone else who visits the cafe does. (-_-;)

Oh this was part of the Italian restaurant. The decor was beautiful! That piece in the middle is actually a sink, although I think it's only decorative. Then there is the doorway. I'm not sure what was exactly on the wood pieces, but it went with the restaurant very nicely!