Finding the best Strawberry Shortcakes

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me when I run into someone and they tell me that they enjoy my reading this blog! Which is really just me being a glutton and fooling aroud in Tokyo lol.  I get so encouraged keep on updating (more often haha). I ran into Cory the other day during the school festival and she was telling me how she liked seeing the cakes on some of my posts so I was instantly motivated to get writing on this visit to French Pound House. Thanks Cory! hehe.

In my previous post I mentioned that I thought that HARBS had the best strawberry shortcakes I had ever tasted. I still stand by that actually. But when dear Yonghui visited she was that impressed! Which led me to think that maybe there were better shortcakes around waiting for me to find them.

So, I consulted google-sensei again.

I searched for '日本一美味しいショートケーキ' which literally means best shortcakes in Japan.

And I found something really exciting.

The place rumoured to have the best strawberry shortcakes in Japan was only a 5min walk away from my house in 巣鴨 (Sugamo)!!!

So I went to check it out with Fay a while ago before she left to return to Hong Kong (actually this was just a day before I went to HARBS with her but yeah lol we can never have enough strawberry shortcakes!)

The place is called French Pound House and it is located just about 5min walk from Sugamo Station.

Outside. When I got there I realised that I had walked past this place a few times before! lol. So cute and countryish :3

Look at all that cake!! Excited ttm. I want to try every single cake here ;o;

As I read online, there were two types of strawberry shortcakes here. One with liqour and one without. We decided to go with the one without and get one of the other cakes to try. 

We ordered our cakes and took a seat. The place was pretty crowded for a weekday afternoon and... let's just say we were the youngest ones there lololol.

The blue printed table cloth and curtains were so pretty <3 Not to mention it was super photogenic haha. 

I'm not an expert but here's my two-cents on the cake. It's slightly denser in general than the one in HARBS (the cream and the sponge). It was also slightly sweeter I think cos they spread a thin layer of jam on each side of the yummy moist sponge, but still very delicate. I love Japanese cakes because they are all just the right amount of sweetness! Also, this cake is about 600y. It is 200y cheaper than HARB's cake, it is also smaller hahaha. I am a glutton so I love a bigger cake :'D

The other cake we ordered was a mascarpone mousse cake with a pistachio cream filling a few small slices of cake inside. Yummy! And looking at it already made me very happy hahaha. 

The shortcake here was really good but in the end I still prefer HARB's strawberry shortcake, because HARB's cream really is just da best and the satisfaction from eating a huge slice of that delicious cake cannot be beaten haha. But now I want to try to one here that has liqour in it too haha.

People always laugh when I tell them I live in Sugamo because it is also known as the おばちゃんの原宿（obachan no harajuku; Harajuku for old ladies). It's true, because there is this whole street filled with fashion, food, variety goods all for the old ladies. But now it also has super yummy shortcake rumoured to be the best strawberry shortcake in Japan!!! Take that you all!!!

French Pound House
http://www.frenchpoundhouse.com/
〒170-0002　東京都豊島区巣鴨1-4-4
170-0002 Tokyo-to Toshima-ku Sugamo 1-4-4

Ochadzuke in Shinjuku

Gah I was going to blog more in may but I totally got stuck transferring pictures ;x anyway, a couple of weeks back Junjie came to Tokyo for some cool translation job and Yonghui was here for her grad trip so we met up in shinjuku!

Since it was Yonghui's grad trip to Japan I wanted to go for some Japanese-y food. But I didn't know where to eat in Shinjuku so as usual I consulted google sensei and found this place called 出汁茶漬け　えん(Dashichadzuke En) that serves 茶漬け(chadzuke), recommended by people who work in Shinjuku. Must be good! So we decided to check it out.

お茶漬け(Ochadzuke; the O is added just to be kind of polite）is one of my favourite Japanese food after sushi and udon. It is sooo underrated!  Everyone loves ramen (I do too) but most people probably haven't heard of this and I think more people should try it :3

You can probably guess from the name that it's got something to do with tea :D ピンポン！Ochadzuke is basically a rice that served with a pot of tea or 出汁(dashi；soup stock) that you pour over the rice. It usually also served with some fish or chicken. 

En was in B2F of Lumine 1 which is located at the south exit of Shinjuku station. Pretty easy to find. 

  

 

We bought meal tickets from the vending machine and sat at the counter. Felt like a fast-food kind of setting again (reminds me of the gyudon places like sukiya lol) 

There were many things on the menu! Prices ranged from about 800-1000jpy. Even though usually I take forever to choose what to eat, this time I decided really quickly, because there was mentaiko on the menu! I love mentaiko *0* There should be mentaiko-something on every menu then I won't have to be indecisive anymore lol.

We handed our tickets to the waiter and found out that we could upsize our rice for free and have as many servings of soup you want ! Yonghui got a small sized one that is 1.5 times an onigiri, and I got the normal sized portion. Junjie, on the other hand, got a large sized chadzuke that made him so full he didn't want dessert D:

Anyway, I got the Mentaiko Yuba chadzuke (mentaiko with tofu skin)

Yum :9 The set came with tea, pickles, rice/mentaiko, soup and stewed bamboo shoots. The soup was really really good and full of umami. And the mentaiko gave a nice punch to the whole subtle tasting bowl of goodness. Yumyum. I felt so healthy eating this.

Yonghui got a Tai sashimi chadzuke (forgot to take picture >_<) and Junjie got 大盛り鶏飯! (Oomori Keihan　=big serving of chicken chadzuke)

Look at all that chicken and mushroom and eggs! So healthy lah omg.

And while we were happily slurping sipping up the soup, there was a small accident... be careful when you pour your soup into the rice. Or you will end up like this hahahahaha. 

ahahahaha junjie failz.

When we first got there before lunch time the place was pretty empty, but as we started eating the whole place filled up and there was a pretty long queue outside!

10 minutes later....

Anyway, ochadzuke is a very simple dish but it is soooo delicious and hearty. There aren't many shops that serve chadzuke because it is too simple a dish to serve in a restaurant I guess. But like what many people in Japan like to say シンプルイズベスト simple is best!

Polished everything off cleanly nomnom

Fun fact: according to wiki (I looked it up! so hardworking right), in the past, people including warriors and royalties ate ochadzuke. Especially in winter, because rice turned cold and dry after being left out for a while, pouring hot soup/tea over it was a quick and easy way to have a yummy warm meal again. They had different reasons for eating it though. Poor people ate it because it was cheap and warmed their bellies, but for the rich it was more like a kind of diet food after eating too much. :'D

For anyone who wants to find out more here's the website of this chain. It's Japanese only though ;(

Dashichadzuke En

http://dashichazuke-en.com/about/

Addresss

1-1-5 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0023 Lumine 1 B2F

Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Tie Up in Hikarie!

Olivia and I decided to head down to Shibuya today for some 麻辣烫 after work. I was sooo hungry I ordered damn a lot and ate everything and felt super full after that lol.

 

Then we decided to walk around Shibuya for a while after that because we were so stuffed. 

So we went to Hikarie. Because it is the shiniest newest shopping centre in Shibuya that everyone is (was) talking about and while it has been open for a while already I still hadn't had the time to go look at it properly yet. I've been going to Shibuya so much recently it's starting to lose it's exciting-ness D; if anyone knows any exciting place in Shibuya please leave a comment!!

Anyway, when we got to Hikarie, we saw that they were having a tie up with the country's favourite kitty! 

There was a whole series of events lined up for this tie-up but sadly none of them were today so we had to be content with just walking around Hikarie and spotting the Hello Kitty tie-up items. Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of Hello Kitty, and neither is Olivia, but anything Hello Kitty-editioned is always super duper cute! 

Okay I'm just going to stick photos of some of the super cute tie-up items here and let them do the talking.

Nina Mew's Hello Kitty tshirts, folders, totes etc. Even the display shelf had was Hello Kittied! 

Be Fabulous' items. I like how subtle the Hello Kitty motif was here :3

U.Q's Hello Kitty Sangria D.I.Y Kit! Pour wine into this bottle, set it in the fridge for 4 hours and you have a bottle of yummy Apple & Cranberry Sangria. What a handy idea. I loved browsing this shop, it had everything from hats, spices, message cards, to even arm massagers! haha.

Hello Kitty Sweet Cherry Vinegar. Apparently a dessert drink!

And then of course there were the Hello Kitty Sweets!!!!! Omg all of them were so cute.

Olivia and I were like "ah ok quite cute" when we were browsing clothes/accessories etc. but when we got to B2 where all the sweets were I got super excited hahahaha. Too bad we went at like almost 9pm and most of the other stuff were sold out already.

(excessive use of exclamation marks ahead)

Hello Kitty cakes!!! Omg why isn't my birthday in May!?!??!? I need an excuse for someone to buy these for me!

Handmade oven-baked donuts for the diet-conscious Hello Kitty Lover. I was soooo tempted >o<

Hard Candy!

Hello Kitty Eiffel Tower!! I don't really get why Eiffel Tower instead of Tokyo Tower but omg pretty!!!

And lastly... Hello Kitty manju, and mousse and doughnuts!!!

Super cute!!  There is also going to be a Hello Kitty art exhibition near the station that I am totally intending to check out if I happen to go to Shibuya again (probably will lol). 

After browsing Hikarie, I have concluded that it is a pretty interesting place that was probably designed with tourists in mind. Lots of stuff with motifs of things that represent Japan (Mount Fuji, Taiyaki, Tokyo Tower etc.). The first couple of floors has makeup like M.A.C/Clinique/Estee Lauder like most department stores, and then there are also Japanese brands like Yojiya Cosmetics from Kyoto, Hakuhodo, THREE (organic cosmetics). And then besides brands like Marc by Marc Jacobs, See by Chloe etc., as you go up the floors there are also stores selling accessories/clothes by Japanese designers. 

There were also lots of shops selling various knick knacks that were very interesting to browse even if I didn't exactly have the budget to buy any of the designer stuff haha. I especially enjoyed looking at the shops that had lifestyle goods like U.Q hahaha. Very おしゃれ (Oh-sha-re; I have probably used this word a lot of times lol it is like my favourite Japanese word because I like how it sounds and writes haha. It means stylish/cool/fashionable) 

And then the basement has lots of food, sweets and everything that will make your eyes pop and your mouth water :3 Overall if you are shopping on a budget you probably won't buy much here, but I'm sure people who value quality and design will most probably love this place.

Anyway! This Hello Kitty event will be on until 5/6 so if you're in Tokyo during this period of time and you love Hello Kitty, you know where to go!

Hikarie: http://www.hikarie.jp/