My MoVida Experience

My parents visited last month, and I was deciding where to bring them for dinner, and MoVida came across my mind. I've never had Spanish food before, and since I've been reading about the good reviews everywhere including The Age Good Food Guide and from my colleagues, I decided it would be a great opportunity to try it out.

I was really surprised when I called MoVida to make a booking. They had the whole automated answering machine (eg. please press 1 if you want to make a booking/2 if you want to change your booking etc.) system going on, even Flower Drum didn't have that! I called them in early May, and their weekend tables were booked out until mid August, while their weekdays table were booked out til early June. I managed to get a table for 6 in mid June, and with this big group, we were requested to choose the set menu which included chef's selection of '10 best of the best' for $60 each excluding drinks/desserts. That was fine with me since it would be my first time having Spanish food, I would not know what the best dishes are to order anyway, so it was best to leave the selections in the hands of the chef.

After 1.5 month wait, expectations built up! MoVida is tucked away in a little lane called Hosier Lane with Graffitied walls. The restaurant is dark with a buzzling atmosphere. Service was great, the waiter that served us was very polite and attentive.

Complimentary bread to get our digestive system moving while we anxiously wait for the first dish. The white bread was very ordinary, but the sour dough was great.

Hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet

I enjoyed the sorbet, but the anchovy was way too salty for my liking.

A Spanish beer to complement the meals imported by our very own MoVida!

Croqueta: Fried silky croquette flavoured with leek and mahon cheese.

This may seemed like an ordinary dish, but it was done very well. The crouton is nice and crispy on the outside, and rich and creamy on the inside. The outside was not soggy, and did not leave any oily after taste.

Spiced chicken escabache tapa on crisp crouton.

This was a cold dish, creamy yet light. The crouton's crispy texture complemented it very well.

Roasted Spring Bay scallop with jamon and potato foam
This was quite nice, though I'd have preferred it more without the roe.


Tom Cooper's smoked spanish mackerel with pine nut gazpacho sorbet
This was my favorite dish of the night! Lovely texture with beautiful flavors!

Air cured wagyu beef thinly sliced with a truffle foam and poached egg

The egg was perfectly poached with runny center. The waiter demonstrated how the dish was meant to be eaten. Mixed the egg yolk, foam, and the sliced wagyu beef together. The saltiness of the air cured wagyu with the creaminess of the egg yolk turns out to be a perfect combination!

Roasted lamb cutlets

I'm not a fan of lamb, hence this dish did not appeal to me, but my family seemed to enjoy it.

Roasted Veal.
The texture of the veal was very tender

Sauteed spinach with chickpeas & spices

This dish reminds of Indian cuisine. By this dish, we were all extremely full and did not manage to finish it.

I don't remember what this dish was called but it was like fish quiche with goat's cheese on tortilla base. I found this dish to be a bit too rich for the last dish as we were all very full.

Overall, I did enjoy my experience at MoVida, and will definitely miss some of the dishes I've had, but if you ask me whether it was worth the 1.5 month wait, I might have some doubt about that. Do try it for yourself and let me know what you think.

MoVida Melbourne
Open daily, Noon to late.
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne, 3000 (Melways: Map 1, B12)
Phone (03) 9663 3038. Office open 10am- 6pm, Mon-Fri.

Dinner with Thai Food Bloggers @ D.O.C. on Lygon

I've been extremely behind in my blogging, it's time to catch up!

Beansprout's Cafe or Ja dropped by Melbourne during the Easter break, so we all thought it would be a good idea to meet up with other food bloggers as well. We decided to try out D.O.C. Even thought it was a Wednesday night, the place was still packed! Thank god Ja made a reservation, or else it would probably be quite hard to find seats for so many of us.

D.O.C specializes in pizzas so their menu offers a wide range of different types of pizzas. If you are looking forward to eat some pasta then you'd probably be disappointed as the only other things they have other than pizzas are probably cheese tasting plate and salads. We decided to pick a few pizzas with different toppings to share between us.

The waitress that served us that night was very friendly and enthusiastic which adds to the nice and cozy atmosphere.

The first dish that arrived was the tasting plate of 3 different Mozzarella: Australian Fior Di Latte, Italian Buffalo Mozzarella, and Australian Scamoza (lightly smoked). I'm not a gourmet cheese fan, and hence these did not really appeal to me. They tasted slightly lighter than I'd expected.

Pizza San Daniele with Buffalo mozzarella, tomato, and San Daniele Prosciutto.
I enjoyed this as it was very refreshing and lighter than the other pizzas.

I don't recall what this pizza was anymore, so Ja, feel free to help me out :)
From memory though, it tasted a bit like Italian sausage.

Pizza Tiger Prawns C/ tomato, mozarella, endive, and fresh chilli
This is slightly on the spicy side, which added another dimension to the meal.

Pizza al Porcini C/ wild mushrooms, truffle oil, and morzarella in bianco
I think this is one of my favorite pizzas compared to the rest as I could really taste the truffle oil.

Pizza Capricciosa Nuova C/tomato, leg ham, mushroom, artichoke, and olives.

Rich Tiramusu!

Gelato, these were nice!

My favorite dessert for the night! The chocolate pizza!

I think it's a pizza dough topped with caramelized white chocolate, strawberries, and vanilla icecream drizzled with chocolate if I remembered correctly. This was simple, yet tasty. Definitely better than Max Brenner's Chocolate Pizza.

Overall, it was a great night to catch up with other fellow food bloggers, try new dishes, discuss about food, and take pictures of food as if there were no tomorrow! Their pizzas were not bad, however they did not give me the 'wow' factor. Their desserts, on the other hand, would probably be bringing me back!

Dinner @ Melbourne Hwaro Korean BBQ

After my friend asked me if I were interested in this Korean BBQ restaurant that's supposedly the best in Melbourne, I did not hesitate to join! When I arrive there, the atmosphere just screamed 'authentic Korean food' to me, and judging by the amount of Koreans queuing up for the seats, I'm sure they would also agree.

I was quite fascinated by the whole BBQ with the top ventilator set up. I have seen them in Bangkok and Korea, but not many Korean BBQ restaurant in Melbourne offered these things (Well, at least not the ones I've been to). The waiters were quite friendly, but the service was quite slow as the whole restaurant was extremely packed. Booking is definitely a must if you want to try this place out!

Eating at Melbourne Hwaro Korean BBQ gave me a slightly different touch to the whole Korean food experience as this restaurant offers slightly different side dishes. I do recommend their Seafood Pancake which my friends and I demolished in 30 seconds of it landing on the table. Do not forget to dip it into the accompanying dipping sauce when eating!

They also have this button for customers to press if they need assistance from the waiters/waitresses but I did not end up trying it. If anyone has tried it, you can tell me whether it really works.

Spicy Kimchi soup with Tofu

They also offered lettuce to eat with the Bulgogi which some other Korean restaurants in Melbourne lacked of! The rice was slightly different as well as it was a mixture of unbleached /bleached rice which made me feel less guilty

one of the many interesting side dishes

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Melbourne Hwaro Korean BBQ and would definitely go back again!

My First attempt at Hot Cross Bun

It's Easter holiday here in Melbourne and I always see advertisements for hot cross buns in almost all bakeries which inspired me to try my hands on hot cross buns. I got my recipe from taste.com.au but modified the recipe to use chocolate chips instead of the currants to suit my friends' taste buds.

I was not that satisfied with the results of my hot cross buns as I thought it tasted a bit bland even though I've added extra spices that asked for in the original recipe. If anyone else have a really good recipe for Hot Cross Bun, please do share them with me :)

A fulfilling Dinner @ Hanabishi, Melbourne

After reading a lot of good reviews from the press and ravings from friends who have been to Hanabishi, I decided to try it out with three other friends on Monday. One of them have previously been to Hanabishi and was one of the reason why I wanted to try it out, so we let him have the honor of ordering the meal .

We made a reservation and arrived around 6:30pm at the restaurant where we were the first customer. The decoration of the restaurant was very simple, but I guess its main focus is on its food, not the atmosphere. Though I've heard quite a bit of complaints about their service being slow, I was quite happy with the level of service I've received as the waitress was friendly and attentive. This may be due to the fact that it was a Monday night and the restaurant was not that busy, but I would certainly hope to see more waitresses if the restaurant gets more crowded.

The first dish that arrived was a complimentary appetizer, which was a mini meatball soaked in slightly sweet soy based sauce. The meatball was a mixture of beef and pork, it was flavorful and moist.

Mini Appetizer, Meat ball, Japanese style.

Our next dish was Scampi Sashimi with Yuzu Sauce. This was probably the first time I've had raw scampi as I'm not a big fan of raw food, but since we were at a restaurant so famous for its raw fish, I decided to give it a go. It was very refreshing indeed! Almost as good as the Scallop Sashimi I had at Gunther's in Singapore.

Scampi Sashimi with Yuzu Sauce (Japanese citrus) topped with Japanese herbs.

The freshness of the scampi was outstanding, the Yuzu sauce also gave an interesting flavor to it.

Quick Seared Tuna With Onion Sauce

This arrived right after the Scampi Sashimi and at the same time as the Scampi Mino Age, so I decided to leave it until the end and go for the hot Scampi Mino Age before it turns soggy. I think I left it too long that the seared part of it became a bit dry. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually preferred the fresh one!

Scampi Mino Age

This dish was scampi wrapped in shredded potato and deep fried until crisp, it was very light and crispy.

The next dish was a small size of Chef's choice assorted Sashimi which was served on bamboo boats over ice dish. The presentation was beautiful, but the portion was quite small so we ordered a Moriawase to satisfy our cravings.

The Sashimi consisted of Salmon, Kingfish, Tuna and was amazingly fresh. I'm not normally a fan of raw fish either but the quality of the fish here was so outstanding that I actually enjoyed eating it!

Next up was the deep-fried soft shell crab which I was not as good as I'd expected. I'm quite particular about my soft shell crab and the best one I've had so far was in Singapore. I did not like the taste of the internal cavity of the soft shell crab here but my friends loved it.

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab


Moriawase

This dish consisted of assorted sashimi, nigiri and sushi rolls. The sushi rolls were spicy tuna maki and spanner crab maki. Despite the amazingly fresh fish slices, I was slightly disappointed with the makis. The rice was too mushy was for my liking and did not hold together as well. I wasn't sure if this was on purpose.

Black cod is probably one my favorite fish ever and one restaurant that cooks it very well is Shin Taro in Bangkok. The Black cod with Miso sauce here was decent, it was not as good as I'd hope as the miso sauce gave the fish a slightly fishy after taste.

Black Cod with Miso


Gyu Sashimi or Beef Sashimi

I did not find this dish particularly special, especially after being spoiled by the Kobe Sashimi in Japan.

Awabi Croquette (Abalone croquette)

We underestimated the size of this dish and ordered four portions! We were shocked when the waitress delivered it to our table and I had trouble finishing it as it was so rich. The abalone croquette was served with Tonkatsu sauce to help tone down the richneess of the croquette. The presentation was beautiful but I would've preferred it if it were served in smaller portion so that there is a higher crispy crust vs rich filling ratio.

After the heavy meal, we decided to try out the Hanabishi signature assorted desserts.

Hanabishi Deluxe

9 assorted desserts served on top of a beautiful serving plate filled with ice.

The deluxe plate consisted of Creme Brulee, Mango Pudding, Almond Jelly, Chocolate Cake, fruit salad, kiwi jelly, vanilla custard, and assorted ice cream and sorbet. The desserts were refreshing, but wasn't mind blowing for me. The chocolate cake was very normal for me.

Green Tea Ice cream, Coconut Sorbet and Calpis Sorbet.

Green Tea Ice cream with Red bean and jelly in sweet syrup

My friends still had more room for more desserts and since we did not enjoy all the desserts, we decided to order the green tea ice cream with red bean and jelly in sweet syrup which was a good pick.

Overall it was a beautiful dinner, though the price is definitely on the high side. Do try out Hanabishi for a special occasion or when you are craving quality, authentic Japanese food!

Ants Bistro Vol II

Sorry for being MIA for a long long time. I've recently bought a new laptop and started a new journey of my life, that's why I've been missing from the whole blogging society. I still do take pictures of food, cook, bake and eat out a lot, but just less blogging, hence I have tons of photos in my hard disk waiting to be published.

Lately, Ants Bistro is probably the first restaurant on the top of my head when someone asks me for a decent, reasonably priced Chinese restaurant. I felt it offers a slightly different taste to the usual Chinese/Cantonese food we are used to. Here are several dishes I had on my last visit to Ants Bistro.

Light and refreshing cold entree--"Tasty Chicken", pieces of chicken with peanuts and coriander.
I really enjoyed this dish and had to order two as one just was not enough!

Mapo Dofu, one of my favourite!

I think this is probably the best Mapo Dofu I've had so far, in my opinion that is. The flavor was just perfect without being too spicy or salty!

Minister Chicken--Deep fried battered chicken wings with slightly tangy and spicy sauce.

Stir Fried Snow pea sprouts in garlic sauce

This was better than other Chinese restaurants I've tried so far as it was comparatively less oily.

Braised pork knuckle

This was huge, so make sure you have big eaters with you! The pork knuckle was so tender that it almost fell off the bone. The sauce also went perfectly with a bowl hot steaming rice! It's a perfect winter dish, even though it's not even winter yet in Melbourne. The braised pork knuckle was served with steamed quartered bok choy, which I would have preferred if they were cut into smaller pieces as they were pretty hard to eat without looking greedy and messy. Be mindful that you have to order this atleast 20 min advance as the pork knuckle needs time to braise.

There goes my first post in 3 months, I will try to update this blog as much as possible, and thanks to all my faithful reader who are still reading! :)

First Kobe Beef Experience in Japan

After some researching on the Internet, my dad decided to try out Kobe beef at Akasaka Ajitetsu in the Akasaka district in Tokyo. We made a booking over the phone with the manager, Fumitaka Kumashiro, who gave us a warm welcome when we arrived at the restaurant.

The restaurant itself was a lot smaller than I'd expected, with only 3 staff. One being Kumashiro himself, who was also the head chef at the restaurant. As there were only 3 staff in the shop, the service was slightly slow but still very attentive and enthusiastic.

We were introduced this special set menu where we get to try different cuts of Kobe beef using different styles of Japanese cooking to allow us to sample the different texture of the beef. The first style was Kobe Beef Sashimi where top grade Kobe beef was selected, thinly sliced, and served raw. The thought of having raw beef put me off slightly in the beginning, but how often do I get to eat raw Kobe beef in my life? I decided to try it anyway, and I totally love it! There was no fishy/slimy smell/texture I was expecting at all.

'Beef Sashimi' according to the Chef

This was beautiful! The fat literally melts in your tongue with a slightly sweet flavor

The condiments eg finely mashed ginger

The beef sashimi was excellent by itself that I did not need to add any extra flavor to it.

The next style of Kobe beef we were having was the grilling method. The pan was heated on low heat with a piece of fat on top until the fat started to bubble. The staff had helped us grill the beef to ensure that it was cooked to perfection.

Cast iron pan for grilling


Dipping sauce for the grilled beef


Refreshing salad, the toasted sesame gave it a nice crunch.


A thin slice of Kobe beef

I'm ashamed to say that I do not remember which cut the beef was. I actually made notes while I was at the restaurant, but unfortunately I lost my little notebook.

Premium Japanese beer only sold in Japan!


A beautiful piece of top grade Kobe Steak


Sliced into pieces and grilled


Seared on both sides while the center is still pink and juicy


Vegetables ready for grilling


Some lovely warm beef consomme to warm your stomach through the course


Different cuts of Kobe beef, each with different texture and flavor.


Aged beef

The beef was aged to improve its texture and flavor.
They texture of the Kobe beef became extremely soft after aging, perhaps even too soft for my liking.

Our third style of cooking for the Kobe beef was Shabu Shabu. According to the chef, "This is not traditional Shabu Shabu, but an original one", which I'm not exactly sure what the difference was, but it surely was different from the usual Shabu Shabu I was used to.

Paper thin sliced beef for shabu shabu


Add the beansprouts to the soup base

Swirl the beef inside the boiling soup base for 5 seconds, and voila, a perfectly cooked shabu shabu beef! This shabu shabu style was quite interesting for me as the soup base was slightly spicy, yet salty and sweet at the same time, hence adding different dimensions to my taste bud.

The Shabu Shabu was served with a bowl of perfectly cooked Japanese rice, however, you can also enjoy the shabu shabu with some homemade udon.

Sesame ice cream to finish off the night

For me this is probably one of the best dinner I've had. With good company, amazingly tasty beef, friendly restaurant staff, and a good atmosphere in a foreign country, it was definitely one of my most memorable experience!

Kobe Beef Restaurant Akasaka Ajitetsu
0335881651
http://www.ajitetsu.com/

Japanese Eating Trip Vol V

After a good night's rest, we were ready for our journey to Asakusa Temple and Tokyo Disneyland, but I did not forget to fill myself up with the good old Japanese breakfast.

Asakusa Temple

More Obanyaki in different shapes to symbolizes the Asakusa Temple.

These can be a good gift/souvenirs--that is if they last that long!

These ones have red bean fillings.


Deep fried Buns in different flavor such as sweet potatoes, red bean, sesame


Our tour guide told me that this shop is supposedly very famous for their deep fried bun, but I did not find these particularly special

Sembei making demonstration

A fresh glass of green tea to cleanse the palate after the greasy snack.
This was very refreshing and surprisingly sweet as most of the tea sold in Japan are unsweetened (relatively to the ones sold in Bangkok).

Soba Onigiri

I bought these at the convenience shop below my hotel. This one is a mixture of Yakisoba and rice, they were surprisingly delicious for a 'take away' food, and I wouldn't mind trying out the rest of the flavors.

Another Onigiri I bought.

Did I mention that I love Japanese packaging? The design is always very carefully thought out such as the little onigiri in the above picture. The onigiri came with a plastic covering to separate the seaweed (nori) from the rice to prevent the seaweed from turning soggy from the moisture in the rice. The little onigiri came with an instruction on how to open it!

We arrived at Tokyo Disneyland after around 40 minutes drive. The place was really packed even though it was a weekday, both with tourists and locals. There were also troops of primary school students whom were there on their school field trip. I did not particularly enjoy my day at Disneyland though as the weather was horrible and there were too many people at each ride. I had to wait 1.5 hour in the rain just to get in the Haunted Mansion which was not even scary!

The famous Disney monorail

Tokyo Disneyland staff selling Disneyland balloons

Lunch at Disneyland

Ebi Tempura Burger.
This was the best one out of the burgers we've tried.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger


Disney Characters parade!


Japanese girls enjoying themselves at Disneyland


Night scene of the famous Tokyo Disneyland Castle

This shot was slightly hard to take as it was raining, so I had hold the umbrella with my neck in order to take the picture. Thank god it was so crowded that everyone was too busy to notice me.

For dinner, we went back to Tokyo and took the Subway to the Akasaka district. Tokyo Subway and JR system is probably the largest, and most crowded one I've experienced so far. Just walking from one end to the other took quite a bit of energy! I wonder how senior citizen in Tokyo does it!

Dinner was a full course Kobe steak cooked in different styles which I will write about in my next post as there are lots of photos to accompany it! Dinner took quite a few hours and by the time we finished it, we had to rush back to take the Subway before it closes, which was quite an adventure!

After I arrived back at the hotel, I decided to try out the famous Pierre Herme Macarons that I bought the day before at Isetan. I was quite excited when I saw the shop as I've heard ravings from other bloggers before.

Pierre Herme Macarons. Rose, Vanilla, and Chocolate flavor.

They were so much better than what I'd expected. The first time I had macarons was at Four Seasons Hotel's bakery shop, and it gave me a bad impression of macarons as the ones I had were disturbingly sweet! These ones however gave me a whole new perspective to macarons. The texture was just right, crisp on the outside, but soft on the inside.The flavor was prominent but not overly sweet at all! Wish I could get these in Thailand or Melbourne too!

Japan Trip Vol IV

I always feel that my days are maximized whenever I join tours, I think this is because they force us to get up bright and early in order to enjoy what the tour has to offer, and to be able to finish the tour's itinerary in time. This morning was no different, although the previous night's sleep on the traditional Japanese mattress was not as comfortable as I'd expected, nevertheless I had a pretty good rest.

A very Japanese Breakfast. The takoyaki was surprisingly really yummy!

Our first destination for the day was the Hakone National park where we visited Sulphurous spring and its famous Black eggs. There's a belief that each Black egg you eat will add 7 years to your life!

A man cooking the eggs in the Sulphurous spring water

Black egg!

Looked and tasted like an ordinary hard-boiled egg

After we were done enjoying the interesting Sulphurous scenary and odd smell of the Hakone Mountain, we took a cruise through the Ashi lake with a Pirate ship which added a very touristy touch.

Lunch for the day was Ebi Tempura and Ramen set. The tempura prawn was good, the batter was slightly different as it was breaded with crumbs instead of the usual tempura batter.

Ebi Tempura

The ramen at this shop, however, was disappointing as it was on the salty side. I couldn't really taste any other flavors other than the saltiness from Shoyu.

Wasabi flavored Softcream to cleanse the palate after lunch

After lunch, we headed to Tokyo city and were dropped off at the shopping area for some free time shopping. I love looking at the colorful/wide varieties of fashion Tokyo has to offer. One of my favorite place in Tokyo was the Isetan basement where there were countless numbers of beautiful pastries/cakes shop. I was so fascinated by all the beautiful creations, it was a shame I wasn't allow to take photos or else I would be able to show you guys how amazing it was on this blog.

After a few hours of strolling, and some window and real shopping,we decided to take a break and stopped by at this little Coffee shop around the Shinjuku area.

Apple and Custard Crepe with vanilla ice-cream

Vanilla Crepe Cake


traditional coffee maker


Cappuccino

Despite having the traditional type of coffee machine, the coffee itself was not up to my parents' standards. They thought Melbourne's Koko Black's Cappuccino was a lot better.

Another interesting experience about my Japan trip is trying to communicate with the waiters/waitresses in sign language as they do not understand English nor can I speak Japanese. When we were finished with the meal, I tried to signal to the waiter for the bill buy doing a 'signing (credit card)' movement with my hand. The waiter looked at me puzzled for 3 seconds then smiled with a nod and took off. I thought he understood what I was asking for, however my parents burst out laughing when the waiter handed me with a pen with no bill. It took me a while to indicate the the waiter that I was asking for the bill before I actually receive one. One thing that I really like about Japanese is that they are so polite and yet enthusiastic to help you even though it was hard for them to communicate! Keep that up all that Japanese out there! :)

After our little coffee break, we continued on to do more shopping until dinner time. For dinner, our tour guide took us to the Ginza area which supposedly has one of the world's most expensive properties.

For dinner, we had a buffet BBQ so everything was free-flow. There were sliced beef, pork, chicken, marinated and unmarinated, varieties of seafood eg. scallops, prawns, squids, lots of vegetables and mushrooms, with different dipping sauces. Miso soup, rice, garlic rice, yakisoba, and over 10 differnt types of soft drinks were also available. There was even a soft serve icecream machine with different flavors and a waffle machine for you to DIY! It was probably one of the most interesting buffet experience I've had so far.

After dinner, the bus drove back to Ikebukuro area where our Sunshine City Prince Hotel was located. After checking in, I decided to check out the Hotel's convenience store. While I was browsing around, I spotted this custard or creme caramel and decided to try it.

I remembered having these when I was younger in Bangkok, however the quality deteriorated over the years. This one really brought back my good old memories of the first few times I've had it in Bangkok--smooth, creamy,and not overly sweet!

The upcoming post would be my very first trip to Tokyo Disneyland and my very first Kobe beef experience in Japan, so do come back and enjoy more food pictures!

Japan Eating Trip Vol III

Welcome back to my Japan Eating Trip. Breakfast today was buffet at the hotel again but I decided to try out the famous Japanese fermented soy beans or Natto! I remembered my friend used to love it. I did not enjoy it though, the smell was too strong for me.

Natto aka smelly beans :)
It was so sticky and slimy! Definitely not my type of food!

After our fulfilling breakfast, we headed off to the train station to try out the Shinkansen or the Japanese Bullet Train.

Shinkansen!

The journey on the Shinkansen was more stable than I'd expected given its speed! We traveled during the peak hour so the whole train was packed! The train itself was really clean and the seat seemed really comfortable as most of its Japanese passengers were pretty much asleep.

I spotted a Beard Papa shop at the train station. I wanted to try it out to compare it to the ones I've had in Bangkok and Melbourne, but unfortunately it was closed. I was still craving for something sweet so I decided to try out the custard in the shop opposite from Beard Papa.

The beautifully packaged custard with its accompanying caramel sauce

This custard was very very creamy. The texture was soft and smooth, almost like eating heavy cream. It did not taste like there was any stabilizing agent such as gelatin at all.

After our short trip on the Shinkansen, we had a long bus ride to Oshino Hakai which had supposedly the best view for the Fuji Mountain. However, it was pretty foggy that day, so we were only able to spot the Fuji Mountain for a very brief time. I was told that we were considered pretty lucky as some tourists never get the chance to see the Fuji Mountain despite visiting several times as a result of the unpredictable weather.

I thought lunch was pretty interesting at first as I was told we were having BBQ on blocks of hot stone (or was it hot iron-cast plate). However, my excitement did not last long as I started getting pins and needles after around 15 min on the traditional Japanese seats.

The meat and vegetables ready for some BBQing action

After lunch, we went to a village which sells souvenirs and traditional Japanese food.

Grilled fish

Pre-grilled red bean mochi

Grilled Red Bean Mochi

Matarashi Dango

Japanese dumpling made out of rice flour, grilled and served with sauce made out of sugar, soy sauce, and starch. This was one of my favorite as the dango was crispy on the outside with a slight charred taste, but it appeared that I was the only one who enjoyed it in my family.

We spotted more soft serve ice cream with different flavors!

I decided to add 50 yen and tried one with different flavors. The one I had was vanilla, peach, and grape. I was very satisfied with the soft cream here as it's one of the better ones I've had!

After some snacks shopping, we proceeded to Gogeon rest house to enjoy more of the scenery.

A famous snack at Mt. Fuji

It's basically a green colored bun baked into little Fuji Mountain shape decorated with cocoa powder and icing sugar. It came fresh and warm out of the oven which was perfect for the cool weather at the Fuji Mountain.

We finally checked in at our hotel which was a Japanese spa resort with Onsen. The rooms were the traditional Japanese type with the Tatami flooring and the sliding door. We were also provided Yukata to wear around the hotel which I was pretty excited about.

For dinner, we had the Taraba Crab Buffet, which tasted even better as our tour guide also brought some Thai seafood sauce. I know it's not exactly traditional Japanese, but it doesn't hurt to spice up the meal, does it? :)

Taraba Crab legs!

We are finally at the end of my Japan Eating Trip Vol III, I will try to get the next one up as soon as possible! Hope you guys enjoy reading about my Japan Eating Trip so far.