Sakura flower tea

This is the best non-cafein tea I've ever had: sakura flower tea. You can get it from Japanese super market, about $8 for a small bag like this:

Because there is a lot of salt used to preserve the flowers, I use a tea strainer to remove the salt first, then use water to clean it. I let water from tap run through the flowers for several seconds.

After lightly shaking the drainer, you can see how much salt was removed!

Then I use hot water (90 C degree) to  brew it. Watching the flowers blooming inside a transparent cup is every relaxing!

Lunch at sushi Koto

This is the best lunch I have: fresh sushi, hand roll sushi, udon with mountain vegetable, and shrimp tempura. All for just $11.50. I will be back again for only this combination

18225 Brookhurst St., Suite #7

Fountain Valley, CA 92708

Meiji Seimen

http://www.yelp.com/biz/meiji-seimen-costa-mesa-2

Potato salad

Tonkatsu

Curry udon

Udon with bean curd

Tempura

Marinated octopus 

Seaweed

Soba with wild duck

Tempura with rice

Fried chicken rice

Red bean soup with mochi

The healthiest fry chicken

Sometime I miss fried-chicken flavor, but living in a closed house with very poor kitchen fan, I can not fry chicken everyday. Here is my solution, and it works well for me, it both time consuming and oil consuming (too much oil is not good, right?, but too few you can not fry chicken).

1. Ingredients:
- 1 pound of cut boneless chicken thigh (I bought a box from Mitsuwa)
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour
- salt and pepper (1/2 tea spoon each)
- Oil: I don't use high heat, so any oil is fine, today I use sesame oil. I don't use a lot of oil, just enough to cover every corner of a pan, may be 3 to 5 spoons.

2. Method:
- Mix meat with salt and pepper, marinate for 5 to 10 minutes if you have time or while you preheat the oil at medium heat

- In a plastic box, put the chicken and flour together

- Shake it well

- Place the chicken 

- Turn each side after 5 minutes, do it twice, after 20 minutes, your chicken dish is ready! You can use paper tower or Japanese oil removing paper before serve.

Robata JINYA @ LA

8050 W 3rd St Los Angeles, CA 90048 Neighborhood: Mid-City West

Because the Jinya store in Orange County was closed, we had to go to LA for our favorite organic tofu. They made it right infront of you.

You can eat the tofu with the salt, ginger, green onion, bonio flake they provide in the small dishes next to tofu bowl, or mix with this spicy vegetable 

Tea for summer: Adagio from Lupicia

This non-caffein tea you can find at Mitsuwa Torrance. 

This is how I brew it

Mochilato sweet shaved ice

If you visit Daiso in Irvine, you should also visit this store, especially in a hot summer day!, It locates right next to Daiso store. The restaurant is bigger than it looks from outside. They sell not only ice-cream but also tea, cake, food, and even more than that.

Fresh vanilla puff

I bought single size for 3 people. That was BIG enough! It had ice-cream in the middle of this bowl. The store even gave us an extra bowl of sweet red bean, because he thought there was not enough red bean in the top of shaved ice ~~~~~