Sukiyaki on paella pan.

 Sometimes I eager to eat Sukiyaki. With boiled sweet sauce based on soy-sauce and sugar, I can eat enormous amounts of vegetables. Mushrooms, tofu, sliced onions.... It's so easy to make it, and you can take many kinds of ingredients in it. The only problem was a pan for Sukiyaki: they usually use unique cast-iron pan, and I didn't have it. What should I do? I took paella pan instead, and it worked quite well :) Thanks to it, I enjoyed my homemade sukiyaki!

 In other news, I had had a lot of eating out these days, invited by my friend, or simply got together in a restaurant or cafe. Chatting and eating, they always make the special moments for me ;)

Visiting an udon restaurant named "Shin", in Shinjuku.

Standing along a narrow street in south Shinjuku, the handmade Udon restaurant Shin (うどん 慎 in Japanese) is one of the best wheat noodle shops in this district. I visited there a few weeks ago, and found a wonderful food :) Let me show what it was like.

 Like many other popular yet budget-friendly (you can be full around $10) restaurant in Tokyo, you can see people queued in front of it. I was lucky I found only two people waited inside it, and took only a few minutes to sit a counter to eat. While waiting for clerks to take my order, I took a glance at a menu they passed. There are hot and cold Udon, as well as set menu come along with tempura and so forth. The price range is fairly good: the price of the normal Udon started from 650yen, around $7, and you can ask the bigger amount of Udon for free. I ordered a Udon with chicken tempure called "kashiwa-ten", a popular one in this restaurant (It was 950yen, about $10 for the record)
 Looking into the kitchen, a young man making Udon with his hands and a long wooden stick. Next to him, another man cooking tempura in a pot filled with oil. I noticed almost a half of customers are foreign people: someone from Taiwan and Asian countries, others from Europe and The U.S.  One of clerk explained about reasonings and the ingredients they use in English. "Wow, what a wonderful place to enjoy meals" I thought.

Because my Udon is cold one, they served a set of  black cups of soup. Once I remove the upper, which we pour the soup to dip Udon, nice flavor of dashi and soy sauce breathe around me. It looked I could expect a quality lunch.

 About 5 minutes later, it came in front of me. Everytime I eat Udon, I carefully sense its texture as well as the taste itself. Does it have a texture? If so, isn't it too soft? These questions always make me feel happy, and sometimes I take a memo to remember the details of what I eat. I felt satisfied when I finished eating it. The soup and the texture of the noodle is indeed well-balanced. I'm sure I'll be back soon :)


Restaurant Information
Udon Shin (うどん慎)

http://www.udonshin.com/
Phone: 03-6276-7816

〒151-0053 Tokyo, Shibuya
Yoyogi, 2-20-16

Sunday-Thursday: 11:00-23:00 (L.O.22:00)
Friday-Saturday:11:00-24:00 (L.O.23:00)

Although the nearest station is Minami-Shinjuku, I recommend you to drop off at Shinjuku Station when you visit by train. It's more convenient, and only 5-10 minutes walk :)

A short walk around Tokyo Station in the evening.

 Walking around the Station of Tokyo is fantastic, especially at the Gate of Marunouchi, where sophisticated retro-look buildings and shops stood. Last weekend, I visited there to shoot some photos. As I arrived, I found many people gathered at the station building that is also available as a hotel. It seemed the emperor was about to show up to come back to his palace (It's right near the station by the way). Fancy black vehicles are lined along its entrance to wait for him. "Well, it might be nice to see him from the distance, but I prefer to do my job!" I  opened my shoulder bag up to take pictures.

 One reason I was always amazed is its harmonized atmosphere. Despite it has both modern and retro-look architectures in one place, it doesn't look planless at all. On the contrary, they actually represent more than 100-year history of Tokyo Station. I just heard of the news they build the tallest building in this area by 2017. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing its gradual change :)