Beer Review - Suntory Kin no Biru

For my second beer review, I'm taking a look at, and a swig of, Suntory kin no biru premium all malt. This is a slightly stronger beer at 6.5% and it comes in a glorious gold can with windswept wheat emblazoned on the front. It is pretty nice, malty as you'd expect. Funnily enough it reminds of a luxurious version of special brew. Refreshing, not too challenging and pretty good for a warm Japanese autumn evening.

Like many of the new wave of interesting supermarket beers it does seem as if it has been flavoured rather than having flavor, possibly with an additive or two. Still, I did enjoy it.

Beer Review - Grand Kirin Galaxy Hop

With the craft beer revolution in full swing, the big breweries are trying to cash in on the action. How are they doing? The jury is still out on that one, but it's certainly nice to see a steady stream of new beers appearing in my local convenience store.

For my first beer review, I'm taking a look at Galaxy Hop, which I've tried a few times and is probably the pick of the bunch so far.

As the name suggests it is strongly hoppy, but not overpoweringly so. It has a nice nose, goes down smoothly and has more flavour than the standard Japanese McPint. That being said, it doesn't quite have the depth of flavour or character one expects of craft beer.

A bit of a halfway house really, enjoyable but could be better. A good attempt by one of the big boys at adding a bit of quality to their usual line up and certainly more enjoyable than your typical can of supermarket ale.

Seafood Caravan

Finding fish and chips isn't too hard in Japan. Finding good fish and chips on the other hand, can be more tricky. I was very pleased then to discover Seafood caravan, in Nishinomiya.

It is pretty easy to find, just a couple of minutes southwest of JR Nishinomiya station.

As well as being tasty, the portion size is massive. Most offerings of fish and chips in Japan leave me hungry, but this one I honestly struggled to finish.

You can customize your meal with different types of fish, alternative chip styles and the full range of sauces and condiments.

This is by far the best fish and chip place I've found in Japan, and up there with the best I've had in England too.

Easter Dinner

Here's our Easter roast. Lamb with yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and vegetables:

Sashimi and Miso Dinner

This is a sashimi dinner we had recently with miso soup and salad.

Soccer Bento

Here's another home made bento. This was to take to a kid's soccer tournament.

Home made Bento

This is the bento my wife made for our daughter's first day of elementary school. Not bad, is it?

Sardine Pasta

Here's the sardine pasta I cooked the other day. Sardines raisins and pine nuts are the main ingredients. This was really good, despite just using tinned sardines.

Ham and Cheese Morning Set

Just tried the morning set at a cafe in Umeda. A ham and cheese sandwich with coffee and salad for 410 yen.

The coffee was pretty good, the food average, but can't complain for the price.

Potato Dauphinoise

This is potato dauphinoise. Doesn't look like much but tastes fantastic and is pretty easy to make. It's pretty easy to get right too - you can't really go wrong with cream and butter. Don't let the calories put you off though..

This was based on a Greg Wallace recipe, you can find one version here. My version is based on a slightly different recipe that adds knobs of butter between the layers.

Chicken Meatballs and Vegetables

Here's something my other half made, chicken meatballs with vegetables:

Banana Mystery Solved

So the mystery turned out to be the cooking leftovers for this:

Some cute cakes my daughter made. But where's the banana?

Aha. So that solves that. These were very tasty.

Banana Murder Mystery

I found this in the fridge a few days ago:

Mysterious.

I wasn't sure if it was meant as a gift or as some kind of sinister warning, so I ate a bit.

It was quite tasty, but how did it get here?

To be continued..

Baked Salmon

Here's a bit of tray baked salmon with a few veggies:

Pork and Noodles

Here's a bit more home cooking, just made pork and noodles for lunch. Really enjoyed it!

It was based loosely on this Jamie Oliver recipe: Oriental Pork and Noodles but with fewer ingredients. The veggies I used were spring onion, ginger, garlic and spinach, plus a bit of dried red chilli. I didn't notice I was supposed to add stock, so dry fried the noodles at first and then added a bit of water later. Very happy with the result though!

Chicken and Kidney Beans

Now for some home cooking! Here's the red kidney beans and chicken I cooked yesterday lunchtime:

Doesn't look like much, but it tasted great, especially as I spiced it up a bit! Here's the original recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chicken_with_red_kidney_97909 Though I used chicken breast and put a load of cayenne pepper in it.

Haggis Pizza at Namba Hub

Where better to start a blog on Japanese food than Haggis Pizza? I tried this at the Hub in Osaka's Namba district. The Hub is a chain of British style pubs that serve semi-authentic British dishes and offer decent beer in proper pint glasses!

This is a seasonal menu offering and cost Y550. It was pretty tasty, quite a robust flavour, and used stronger cheese than you would usually find on a Japanese pizza. I enjoyed this but it was a bit on the small side, and so I followed it with Coronation Chicken Salad, for Y600. This was again enjoyable, servicable pub food. Nicely washed down with a couple of pints of Hub Ale.