the small one

Torsion has been staying with us (while Joyce is back in Taiwan) for a couple of weeks now, and everyone knows he's tiny compared to Nuki and Yama.


Torsion and Nuki.

But then Nuki is big anyhow, so in order to see how tiny Torsion really is, I have to compare him to Jasper.


Jasper and Torsion both in stretched-out position.


Just hanging out in the kitchen.


Jasper is not a big cat, mind you.

Torsion is really, REALLY tiny, Joyce!

[Tokyo Fall 2008] Short night visit to Daikanyama

It was still raining when we left Harajuku, but I was determined to make the best use of my JR Day Pass, and decided to drag John to Daikanyama.

We got on the train from Shibuya and arrived at Daikanyama Station. I've long heard the wonderful little stores and pastry shops at Daikanyama, and I was really excited to visit the area.


We were there.


The station was fairly quiet and lovely.


We took the North Exit and saw this bridge that connects the Station and high end apartments "Daikanyama Address."

It was wet and dark, so we didn't go into many of the shops... but we did manage to find a couple of Daikanyama's little "landmarks":






THE VW coffee van.

We saw a few lovely little shops, but we were too wet and a little bit awkward to go in, so we just enjoyed the pretty window displays in the rain.

We walked around for a while, and returned to near the train station. We saw the front of the Daikanyama Address buildings and its signature stairway that's shown in a couple of my favorite Japanese dramas. It was too dark and wet for me to take any decent photos, so I just enjoyed being there.

We saw a little sign across street indicating there's Pancake Cafe up a stairway, so off we went.



It was a lovely little cafe, with cute and frienly staff. A girl lead us to a couple of window seats:



John and I each ordered a small meal and a pot of tea.


The "Hamburger Set." Soft and delicious beef. Served with a cup of flavorful clear soup.


The "Omlette Set." What's with the tiny but super delish sausage?!. Served with a cup of soup.

The server girl was so cute and nice. The cafe was so lovely and warm. We were so relaxed and happy... like all the customers at the cafe.



Daikanyama will be one of the first places I want to visit when I'm in Tokyo next time. I'll arrive dry and early.

wiggly latte art

I think I need to be practicing pouring latte art more often. Sometimes for customers I want to be creative and pour something other than rosettas, hearts, or tulips, but then I don't want to mess things up and have to re-do it, so I'd "play safe" and still pour a rosetta, a heart, or a tulip. I just gave it "an extra wiggle" so they look different... for example the stem on the rosetta in the photo would look a bit "wiggly."

I'm going to practice pouring something different.

rainbow

It's a really nice day out there... clear blue sky, no clouds, and no wind.

But I'm sort of missing the rain, and the rainbows I saw last week:





Ahh the spring just went...

holding gilligan

Joyce told me she went to see Elizabeth yesterday and "successfully" held Gilligan!

Gilligan is a shy boy, so we were all really happy when he trusts someone enough to let them hold him.

With that being said, both John and I were able to hold him for a while, too!


umm...


smiles!

Apparently everyone wants to pose with Gilligan!

not small after all

We always call Yama "our small dog." He is... especially when compared to Nuki (100 lbs) and Naicha (140 lbs.)

Torsion has been staying with us for a few days, and he enjoys hanging out with Yama. After seeing them together I've realized Yama is not small after all.


Yama and Torsion "forced" to pose for a picture while watching John prepare food. I had to take the picture from this angle so both of the dogs could fit in the photo!

almond espresso sugar crisps

So I saw this wonderful recipe for espresso macarons and wanted to give it a try. I totally screwed it up. When the baking sheet went into the oven each individual pieces all got together, and I was pretty much baking a sheet of almond-espresso-eggwhite-sugar mixture.

No espresso macarons, just almond-espresso-sugar crisp when the baking sheet came out of the oven.

At least the crisps were yummy. I'll give the recipe another try, but I'm going to grind my own almonds instead of using almond meal this time.

cover it up

I put up the little curtain/shelf cover I made for the caffe today.


Now nobody would know what I hide behind the cover.



I love the fabric. I got it at a fabric store in Shinsaibashi, Osaka.

yay!

super cheesy enchiladas

John made us enchiladas for dinner.


How cheesy is this!

It was possibly the most delicious enchiladas I've had. They were soft, cheesy, moist, and very favorful. Yummy!

party with les and friends

Les and Victor invited us to their party yesterday. It was fun, and of course the food was fabulous:



Oh my. I didn't know "cold foods" could be so delicious. Les is so talented.



After dinner came the entertainment!


Victor doing "Rock Lobster." It was AWESOME.

I danced with him briefly, and we'll just leave it here.


My caneles for dessert. These are the prettiest ones I had made so far.

It was so much fun, and great to see our new friends. Thanks to Les and Victor for inviting us!

brown sugar will do

I was making a batch of canele batter at home and realized I had run out of white sugar. I used brown sugar instead.


This is possibly the prettiest canele I've made so far.

What do you know. Brown sugar worked well, too! The differences are that the inside of the canele was tan instead cream-colored, and the vanilla and rum flavors was covered up a bit.

But I'm glad they turn out fairly pretty and delicious anyhow. :)

lazy me

I haven't been blogging for several days. So many things to write about, yet so little time. I'm not that busy, though. I guess I'm just lazy.

Haven't been doing that much, either, but in case you're interested, I still twitter. Thank goodness for micro blogs.

I shall resume(!) blogging fairly soon.

jasper nudge

This is what I have to deal with almost every time I'm trying to read in bed or going to sleep.

Jasper likes to hop onto the bed and nudge me with his head!


He'd purr, and nudge me, and purr, and nudge me, and purr, and nudge me.

He pretty much just wants me to pet him. I know. If I do start petting him, then he'd purr, and nudge me, and purr, and nudge me, and purr, and nudge me... endlessly! So I usually pet him for a couple minutes, and then hide my hands and arms in the blanket and pretend I'm asleep.

Then he'd lie down by me and starts "massaging" the side of my legs.

i *heart* the rotisserie

John and I have been enjoying cooking with the little rotisserie. I think it's like our way of compensating not using the outdoor grill these days.


John cooked up a seasoned pork tenderloin in the rotisserie... in the metal basket attachment... hence the cross marks. Awesome.


Someone likes to watch the pork being prepared... a lot.

And yes, the dogs get to have some, too.