Lazy Afternoon At Kushikatsu Daruma

Kushikatsu Daruma

It's always a good time at Kushikatsu Daruma! Ah, as I type this I miss their Chuhai all of a sudden. Everytime thoughts of Kushikatsu Daruma come up, I always associate the place with the words "filling" and "refreshing." It's the ultimate go-to spot if you want Japanese comfort food.

Fun Times at Hanamaruken

Feast at Hanamaruken

There are always very long lines at Hanamaruken, especially at the TriNoma branch. But usually, not a single frown is to be seen amongst those waiting, because they know that heir waiting will bring them to good things. 

To bowls of happiness, to be exact. 

My Kushikatsu Daruma Experience (August 24, 2017)

NOOOO DOUBLEEEEE DIPPINGGGGGGG!!!!! 

If the tissues, wall signages, menu reminders and all that still don't get to you, then wewwww!!! 

The "No Double Dipping" rule is enforced in Kushikatsu Daruma as it's a Japanese chain. In Japan, wherein shared seating is not unusual, sitting with strangers can and will happen. Traditionally, to prevent waste, Kushikatsu Daruma serves one big tub of sauce per table instead of 1 tub of sauce for each diner. One needs quite a big tub of sauce to be able to properly dip and coat the Kushikatsu, so serving one tub per diner is gonna be wasteful. Since there's just 1 tub per table, and in Japan, strangers could get seated together, which is why there is the practice of no double dipping. In Manila, there is no sharing of tables as far as I know, but this is a tradition that the Manila branch wishes to uphold. 

And now, what actually is Kushikatsu? 

Kushikatsu refers to delectable fried foods on sticks. It sounds so simple in theory, but the management of Kushikatsu Daruma had to send their chefs to Japan for a month to make sure they get the technique perfectly! Frying food seems so basic to us non-Japanese people, but to Japanese people, there is a lot of dynamics to frying. Japanese cooking will consider the batter, type of food being fried, type of fryer, and the things together in a fryer at a given time. Adding a new item to the fryer makes the oil a little bit cooler, so in Japanese philosophy, you'll need to know how to readjust the cooking time of all the other things in the oil with respect to the temperature change. AND I am perfectly sure there is still a much, much longer list of complexities I'll never know of hahahaha 

Ippudo Philippines Visit

 

I love ramen. It's no secret. This is why when I was sent by my boss to do fieldwork in SM Megamall, I was motivated to finish everything quickly so I can already have ramen at Ippudo. 

I know, I'm a lagger when it comes to this one. Our family isn't really the 'goes out every Sunday' kind of family, and we don't really make concrete efforts to try new food places. This is why that when it comes to food, unless I make the trip myself or someone invites me, I don't really get to try what's new because of my family's laggard ways.

Ramen Nagi Time (January 17, 2015)

Hooray! It's nice to go back to another favorite after quite some time. If I remember correctly, it was Ramen Nagi that started the boom of ramen specialty houses in the Philippines, and even after trying the house specials of the so many other ramen houses that have popped up, I think it's safe to say that only a few places are at par with Ramen Nagi. 

The first time I visited was sometime early last year, and I went for the Red King ramen. Some other time, I also went for their Green King ramen. Being the squid addict I am, today I decided to get their Black King ramen, paired of course with their tasty egg. 

Yabu Time (December 19, 2014)

It's true what they say that it's the outing that isn't planned that gets pushed through. I actually wasn't planning on going to Yabu, until my friends Earl and Jean (who hitched a ride with me from some other stuff we did) thought the best way to unwind would probably be to go to Yabu. 

I haven't been to Yabu many times as my mother hates the place. If we're going out as a family, Yabu is automatically crossed out of the list. Well, she doesn't really have this hatred toward the place to the point that she wants to nuke it or something, more of she's just not into fried food and a restaurant that banks on how well it fries its pork just doesn't appeal to her. This is why I always associate Yabu with friends, as it's usually when I eat out with friends that Yabu pops up as an option, and more often than not it pops up as the primary choice for dining. 

I also always associate Yabu with its cute manga, which varies per branch. The SM North branch talks about its Menchi Katsu, and if I'm not mistaken, Robinsons Magnolia talks about their fried oyster. I wish I could find the branch that has their Berkshire pigs in the manga. 

And I honestly wished I brought my SLR along because phone photos just do not give justice to how good the food is. (well how was I supposed to know we all came from doing serious stuff and in the first place we weren't even supposed to go to SM). 

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka (December 23, 2014)

I blame my lack of ramen-house savvy to the sheer amount of work I need to do. If I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm busy beauty blogging. If not both, I'm busy cleaning up a mess in the house or busy making stuff for my clay art business or beading. I really like going out and all, but with the kind of schedule I have, I can't afford to live like the people who go out weekly and eat out almost daily. 

So this is why in all the years, months, or whatever time frame Hokkaido Ramen Santouka has been open in TriNoma, I have never gotten to eat at the place yet. 

We spent a good time looking at the set menu and all, but we decided that we'd prolly be better off with the lunch special as these set menus have too much stuff that if we ordered two sets it'd be waaaaayyy too much food for three people. 

My Beloved Choto Stop

Today we paid a visit to one of my most favorite places in the world-- Choto Stop. 

Honestly, had I not gone to Japanese language school I would've never known that such a place existed. I remember it vividly this one summer day five years ago when my foodie prof brought the whole class to a "field trip" as this was just about 6 minutes walking distance from our school. My teacher had been raving and raving about this place to the class as a wonderland with all sorts of fresh and dried/storage friendly Japanese foods at 80 per item that there just had to be a field trip. 

That time, it had been about two days since delivery date (they have deliveries monday, thursday and saturday, not sure now though) so the fresh items were already running low, and I feel guilty up to this day that I took my classmate's (the one who originally kept on bugging our prof to bring us there) Meiji original pudding that she had to settle for Meiji milk pudding. Thankfully, we became good friends after that, and as far as I know, I think (I think???) she took no offense about it hahaha. And I think she also realized that milk pudding tastes better than original custard pudding... 

Right now, there's no more stocks of Meiji pudding coming in, and there's Morinaga brand here. I miss Meiji because they had the largest tubs of pudding, as in you were paying the same price for a tub of pudding about 1.5 times larger than the others. But I do understand that nothing lasts forever and that the luxuries of five years ago cannot be enjoyed today due to inflation. If they brought in Meiji pudding now it'd probably cost Php100-120 and probably turn newbie customers off given that there are Topvalu brand and other budget food brands that sell 3 small tubs of pudding in a pack for Php80. 

Going back to my first field trip, I even remember that I had to borrow money from another classmate as I was soooo unprepared to spend money that day (I don't bring large amounts of money when I am just expecting to go to school then go home, and that I never knew back then that such a wonderland existed). With all of the store's contents, I just came back home with a tub of Meiji pudding and a pack of dango (it was mitarashi flavor). 

More photos after the jump!

Chawanmushi (trial and recipe)

One of the things I actually succeed in making is a nice set of Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し). I know it feels like you're eating tofu, but it's made of eggs. I say this because I did have a friend who thought that this dish was made of tofu, and I can't blame her, it does resemble tofu a lot in terms of texture. 

The process is really simple-- it's just mixing the right ratio of eggs and liquid, then adding dashi and other condiments to flavor it. The steaming process isn't delicate either; you can open the lid of the steamer to check without risking the sinkage of the chawanmushi custard. And I think it really would be a good excuse to buy a set of matching cute teacups, although for this one I just used all the teacup sized cups at home regardless of whether they match or not. 

So here are the photos of the process: