I just needed to update this blog once a month but even at that I’ve remiss in updating it. So while we wait for my turn here in the OB (one could now understand why I’ve been pretty neglecting this site the past couple months),I figured it’d be better updating this blog than browsing either Facebook and Twitter.

My last post was back in February. So where were we in March for my goodfoodhunt?

March is a special month for me. It’s my birthday month after all. 🙂 So to celebrate, Hubs and I and a couple of my friends tried one of Ukai’s branches – Azamino Ukai-Tei in Yokohama.

The place was a Dutch guest house in the Meiji era. I just love the house’ charming facade.

It was already a bit late when we settled when to celebrate hence, having had reserved only a week before the supposed lunch, the private rooms weren’t available anymore. Nevertheless, we still had our own chef to grill our food in front of us.

Simple yet elegant setting.

Ukai is famous for their steaks cut from the famous Japanese black cows hence, even when I don’t eat beef, we ordered the ¥8400yen set course with grilled beef on it. My stomach can’t digest regular beef but it sure can digest those oh-so-tender Japanese beef! 🙂

So, for starters.
I’ve no doubt of the freshness of the fish they serve but as I’m expecting, reading all my pregnancy books and references had me so paranoid on eating raw fish.
So whilst my hubs and friends had raw marinated snapper,

I had grilled sea bass.

Each one of us were quite happy with what was served us.

Next up, king crab soup in milk. So creamy. Yummy.

I’m not sure now what our facial expressions were when we saw what the chef was about to grill. But I’m pretty sure our expectations were quite low.

Young bamboo shoots.

Tada! Young bamboo shoots steamed in sparkling water and soy sauce.

If truth be told, it-was-surprisingly-really-delicious! Tasted like succulent, sweet Japanese sweet corn (yes, the redundancy is required). This is actually our group’s collective favorite – next to the beef which was up next.

Those small slices on the side are actually prized beef fat.

Sans service charge and tax, our course cost 8400yen for each of us. Yet we have to share this slab of beef. That’s-how-expensive-Japanese-beef-is.

Click here for a very interesting series of articles about the biggest food scam in the industry. If you’re in the US and you have splurged big bucks on “Kobe beef”, read on to know how you paid big bucks for a counterfeit.

My portion.

Who would have thought that the description “melts in your mouth” would ever be connected with beef?! But unanimously, we all agreed that this is so. It was just so good. And by the way, that toasted garlic by the side is the best garlic I’ve ever had.

And I mentioned prized beef fat earlier, right? If the meat earlier was really excellent, I’d say having these few slices sort of made me forget who I was with for a few minutes. There was just my tongue and the beef fat in the whole wide world. Nothing else existed.

We had a Japanese course. So the rice and miso came last. Garlic fried rice (probably the most oil-less fried rice we’ve ever had), side dishes and miso soup.

Lovely miso soup bowl depicting a weeping sakura.

Dessert was served on the second floor for a more relaxed atmosphere.

Over bottomless coffee and tea.

Satiated. Ukai Tei was also very thoughtful in giving me, the birthday celebrant, three red roses. Each one of us also have a commemorative card with our group photo on it, with mine having birthday greetings.

Ah, excellent food, excellent place, excellent service.
——
Azamino Ukai Tei
Premium Steaks & Grilled Dishes
Lunch/ ￥6,830･￥8,400
Dinner Course/ ￥10,500 – ￥16,800
6-5-2 Tsukimino, Yamato, Kanagawa
TEL.046(276)5252
http://www.ukai.co.jp/english/yokohama/index.html

This Italian restaurant, located in Queens Tower A, has been my favourite recently.

All because of this pasta.

Gnocchi alla Crema Genovese con Capesante. Creamy gnocchi in basil cream sauce with scallops, mushroom, potatoes and broccoli. Truly a healthful meal.

I usually order the whitebite fish in olive oil for appetiser but we tried the marinated fish this evening. Was surprised when this was served.

Fish hunting anyone? ;D Move aside the bell pepper though and you’re sure to find bits of fish. The whitebite is still the favourite.

I previously ordered their fish-for-the-day menu which was quite costly at 2k yen and for only a 6inch fish at that (no side dish or veggies even!). The taste was marvelous!!! But I shan’t order it again. Too expensive for the size of the fish. 😀

But even for the gnocchi and whitebite alone, Pesce de Oro indeed have a regular in me.

This place I’d probably always remember as a “happy news” place. 🙂 And of course IT IS a good food place!

A tempura restaurant, what is probably unique with Ginza Tenkuni is that they have their own (great) tempura recipes that you’d hardly find in any other restaurants.

This kakiage was my first favorite in the restaurant. A tempura of mixed shrimp and scallops flavored with Japanese soy sauce.

The other day though, we tried the Yuki set, which we considered almost a feast.

First came in the sushi with the chawanmushi.

Didn’t realize how much I missed sashimi. It’s been almost two months! The chawanmushi, supposedly an appetizer, I set aside for later. Yes, I’m the type who sets aside their favorites for later. Delaying gratification, yes.

The salad, dressed in a Japanese sauce that was a mixture of sweet, salty and sour was just so light and perfectly blended you’d want to have another serving. This one goes to the favorites column.

The main Yuki meal.

Their miso is not your usual kind of miso. It leans on the soy sauce taste and is a bit bitter-salty. Taste and smell is strong too. The meal also has a cold pork side dish, in sesame and onion.

They had the usual shrimp/fish/vegetable tempura.

But they won me with these two unique tempuras – scallop wrapped in seaweed and shiitake mushroom stuffed with shrimps.

Don’t mind the grease though. Ginza Tenkuni fry their tempura in sesame oil. Sossy.

The chawanmushi served as my dessert. Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) is actually an egg custard usually served as appetizer. Served hot, the custard (which is of course not sweet at all) is stuffed with mushroom, shrimp, chicken, ginna (ginkgo seeds which hubby absolutely loves especially as yakitori) and peppered with some herbs.

I giggled when I saw the saucer they used for the chawanmushi. A definite place for the cup and the convex of the spoon. A place for everything and everything on its place.

Located at Minato Mirai, Landmark Tower, Ground floor, left side if coming from Minato Mirai line.

All photos were taken from my iPhone cam.