The breakfast queen of NY is coming to Japan

 It's been 4 years since Bills aka "The Best Breakfast in the World" opened in Japan; its first restaurant outside Australia. I haven't tried the well-known scrambled eggs or ricotta hotcakes yet. When the restaurant first opened, tons of people went crazy about it. It's kind of funny people had to wait for hours and when they finally got seats and were ready for the breakfast, it was already afternoon. I hope it's not like that now if I happen to go there. I'm a bit tired of hearing about "the best breakfast in the world" thing because there are already 4 branches in Japan, which are all located in Tokyo and Yokohama. I feel it has less rarity than before. But I admit I'm still eager to try it.

 And it's been 2 years since Eggs 'n Things aka "The Must Go Restaurant in Hawaii" came to Japan. It was 2010 when I went to Hawaii with a friend of mine and had pancakes with super tall whipped cream. (BTW, what is the difference between hotcakes and pancakes? It's the same, right?) And these are the pancakes...

 It was...yeah it was quite sweet but I liked it especially when I ate it with an omelet with salted potatoes, you know, sweet and salty are always a good combination. I also liked sour blueberries, which refreshed my tongue.

 Exactly right after I came back from Hawaii, I heard the restaurant coming to Japan. I was partly happy and partly disappointed. I felt happy because I could eat it again in Japan and I felt disappointed because I could no longer say I exclusively tried it in HAWAII. Despite nagging that there's no point to travel and eat at famous restaurants abroad because most of them have branches in Japan today, I went straight to Eggs 'n things when I went to Tokyo. Of course, it was good. But it's better to go there in summer so at least you could recall how hot it was in Hawaii. Oh and I forgot to add...it's the must go restaurant in Hawaii...FOR JAPANESE! Because you will see few other nationalities in there!! maybe only the staff there?

 And finally...I got this news a couple of days ago. Sarabeth's aka "The Breakfast Queen of NY" will open its first branch in Japan. The restaurant is famous for brunch meals. The brunch there is quite simple; eggs with bread that you can choose from several kinds of muffins, scorn, croissant, or toast. You can also enjoy pancakes, french toasts and waffles. Sarabeth's is also known for supervising the movie "It's complicated" starring Meryl Streep. I remember I woke up early and walked to the restaurant alone when I traveled to NY. I felt like "OMG, I'm like a new yorker!!" HAHAHA, I was young. I think I looked weird back then. Anyway, the dish was really good but what I loved more is their other specialty; preserves. It's quite sad that I didn't take any picture of it (or maybe I did but I don't know where they are.) Their brunch was served with confiture and the confiture was just amazing. I think I had orange-apricot marmalade.

Orange-Apricot Marmalade $10

 The balance between sweetness and bitterness was perfect. I did like it so much that I brought two jars to Canada with me where I was staying at that time.

 And It's coming to Tokyo this November...I don't think the location is very Sarabeth's-like and I can easily imagine the restaurant would be packed with so many people. Let's wait and see...

 So now if I feel like having the world's best, then I can go to Bills. If I feel like Hawaiian, there's  Eggs 'n Things and I feel like some posh NY style, then there's nowhere but Sarabeth's!! What's next?? and When is Jamba Juice's turn??

More information

Bills:http://www.bills.com.au/

Eggs 'n Things:http://www.eggsnthings.com/

Sarabeth's:http://www.sarabeth.com/

Chicken wings

 When I was in the Philippines, I was able to try BonChon Chicken for the first time. There is no BonChon in Japan yet. I like the skin of their chicken wings, which is very crispy and has a soy garlic taste. It seems that BonChon Chicken is the best chicken ever. BonChon started in Busan, South Korea, then opened the first branch in New Jersey, US. Their chicken is fried twice so the skin becomes crunchier and less greasy.

 However, I highly recommend one restaurant that serves, in my opinion, tastier chicken. "Yama-chan of the world" was established in Nagoya, the middle part of Japan. Nagoya is famous for chicken wings and this restaurant (or you can say Japanese style bar) is the most popular chicken-wing restaurant.  Their chicken wings are made spicy not by chili pepper but by black pepper.

 A friend of mine and I went to a branch in Kyoto at 6:15 but it was already full of reservation. Only seats at the counter were available. We didn't have choice so we sat there. You can see staff woking so hard.

 It costs 400 yen for 5 wings. This is 5 wings but my friend and I already ate 20 wings. Hehehehe.

 I must say that these chicken wings are perfect with beer!! We drank three pitchers of beer. That was too much, though!!

 One thing that made me a bit scared there was that the restaurant had special menus which were cooked with ingredients from Tohoku region(northeast Japan). Hmmm, of course they use uncontaminated ingredients but still we have to be conscious about food to keep away from radiation, right?

beef carnival

 A couple of days ago, we heard the news that the Korean BBQ restaurant, which my family and relatives often used to go, would be closed today so we decided to be one of their last guests. So my mom's older brother and sister, her younger brother's family and my family gathered at the restaurant. It's been years since the last time my family had dinner there as we had found another restaurant to go.

 Anyway, the fiesta started. The first dish was sliced tongue, just like as we always do. Beef tongue is one of my favorite parts of the beef. I was kinda sad though some were a bit too salty and were not at all. Inconsistent seasoning: minus1point. Fortunately, I had sliced leeks and lemon.

 Then the next was rumen. Have you tried it? It tastes light and chunky but usually marinated with garlic so you can imagine the taste, right? It's surprising cows have four stomachs, isn't it!! And all of them are edible!! We also had intestines. It was slimy and had the unique taste. I don't know how I can define this taste.

 We also enjoyed cheek part and loin part. Then I ordered a hot stone-bowl rice a.k.a pibimpap as my last dish. I forgot to take a photo before mixing. It was so steaming hot that I was able to hear the sound of rice being fried. The amount of rice was disappointingly less and there wasn't a spinach in the bowl, though it was okay after all since I had been already stuffed.

 However, I thought they could've done something more for their clients and set aside their earnings considering it was their last day.

 Anyway, we gave bouquets to the owner then we left the restaurant. Congratulations for their over 10 years of good food and happy memories.