Harajuku & Meiji Temple & Line Friends

HI!

I sincerely apologize for not updating my blog in the past 4 months. Things have been so hectic. So here's what happened for the past 4 months 

-> we opened up the noodle shop. Now we have the outlet and another stall in foodcourt.

-> we opened a different type of restaurant. RABEK BEBEK: Indonesian style duck with rice. yumm

-> Elder brother is getting married this november

-> traveled less

I am back in Los Angeles for a month. Since I have nothing better to do, I should be updating my blog more often. :D 

But anyways, this post is about my never ending trip to Japan in January. 2 things that I will mention here are:

1. Meiji Temple

2. Line friends shop 

MEIJI TEMPLE

Visiting this temple one of the top 10 things to do in Japan. Meiji Temple is located next to Harajuku Train Station. So you can visit this temple before heading to Harajuku. Harajuku is known for being the center of Japan's most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles. 

BARRELS OF SAKE DONATED TO THE SHRINE

HOLY WATER IN FRONT OF THE TEMPLE

WRITTEN PRAYERS LEFT BY VISITORS

LINE FRIENDS STORE

While we were walking around Harajuku, we stumbled upon LINE FRIENDS store. We were quite surprised to find that there's such a shop! Everything just look too cute. We were very tempted to buy something from the store, but it was overpriced. So we decided to just take pictures with all these cute soft toys ;) Visiting this store is a MUST especially if you use the LINE app for messaging. 

With Lots of Love,
Claraaaa <3

MIE HCM

Welcome to the opening of our MIE HCM~

Name: Mie HCM

Specialty: Chicken Noodle (Bakmie Ayam) 

Opening hours: Everyday 10am-10pm

Location: Plaza Semanggi Lantai 3A No 6

We are proud to finally announce that the long awaited Mie HCM is open. YEAY~~!! Well this is more of my sister's big project and I am just helping her out here and there. Mie HCM is a joint venture with Dad's franchisee from Malang. Mie HCM's concept is born in Jakarta but the food originates from Malang. Our partner has been in the FNB business all their lives and they have a total of 7 restaurants back in Malang! We are blessed to be working with them and creating this wonderful Mie HCM. Today is our 3rd day  of opening and it's been going really well. I hope it will continue to be this busy. However, this restaurant is taking away a majority of my sleep and social life. Time has been flying by so so fast. 

Our Concept

This is a self-service dine in restaurant. Mie HCM specializes in Indonesian Chicken Noodle (Bakmie Ayam) with your choice of toppings & side dishes (steamed/fried).  Just like marugame udon, this is a self-service restaurant -> which means that you get to pick and choose your own toppings & side dishes. You pay before you eat or even sit down. We want to have a youthful ambiance, and thus the bright and fun colors.

Anyways, here's a snippets of our restaurant. Be sure to check it out if you are around that area and I guarantee you wont be disappointed with the good quality and low cost food we are serving. ;) 

Food photography is taken by inijie. 

 

 Our Food 

As mentioned earlier, this is a self service restaurant. However, there are 2 noodles that you can order on the side -> SUPPER DUPPER YUMMIE & HOT CUI MIE

Depending on the craving you have, there are 2 specialty noodles:

Hot Cui Mie -> This is a chicken noodle topped with hot sweet sauce, vegetable & small fried chicken pieces. It also comes with fried wonton skin as the 'noodle bowl'. Really good combination and this is more on the sweeter side because of the spicy sweet sauce. 

Supper Dupper Yummie ->  This is a regular chicken noodle (bakmie ayam) with minced meat, fried meatball, fried wonton & fried wonton pieces. This noodle is more savory than Hot Cui Mie. 

Both of these noodles are yummilicious! 

HOT CUI MIE

SUPPER DUPPER YUMMIE

Here's how you order:
1. Choose the type of noodles -> (mie kecil/mie lebar) thin/thick yellow noodle or bihun (vermicille)
2. Choose the toppings -> minced chicken, chicken with mushroom or pop chicken. 
3. Choose steam sides -> steamed siomay/wonton or meatball
4. Choose fried sides -> fried siomay/wonton,/meatball or fried chicken skin (this is the BEST dish ever and yet so unhealthy).
5. Choose drinks.

The best part of this is that this is a really low cost and good quality food! One regular noodle with one topping & a drink will only cost you between 40,000-50,000! 

 

So don't forget to come visit us if you're around this area! Can wait for everyone to try out this awesome chicken noodle! 

With Lots of Love,
Claraaaa <3

Kobe Beef

Kobe cattle originates from herds in the Kobe area of Japan. It is a type of Wagyu cattle but if it originates from the town of Kobe, then the meat will be called Kobe Beef instead of Wagyu beef. According to Wikipedia, here are the conditions for a meat to be called Kobe Beef:

"Kobe beef in Japan is a registered trademark of the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association .It must fulfill all the following conditions:

Tajima cattle born in Hyōgo Prefecture

Farm feeding in Hyōgo Prefecture

Bullock (steer) or castrated bull, to purify the beef

Processed at slaughterhouses in Kobe, Nishinomiya, Sanda, Kakogawa and Himeji in Hyōgo Prefecture.

Marbling ratio, called BMS, of level 6 and above.[10]

Meat quality Score of 4 or 5[10]

Gross weight of beef from one animal is 470 kg or less."

This goes without saying that you have to try out Kobe Beef in Japan. Prices on these meat can be insane - a good quality can cost up to USD$500 for a 100 gram meat. Fear not, you will not regret the amount you are paying for this extremely high quality meat. 

We did not visit the town of Kobe, but managed to find a restaurant that specialize in Kobe Beef. In fact, this is my third time eating at this restaurant. I've got to try out different kobe beef restaurants. So here it is:

Restaurant Name: Gyu An 

Location: 6-13-6 Ginza | B1F Kakyoshokokai Bldg., Chuo 104-0061, Tokyo Prefecture (walking distance from Ginza station)

Telephone: +81 3335420226 (reservation is recommended and they can speak english)

Opening hours: 5:30 pm - 10:00 pm

We decided on 2 course meals:
- 200 grams Kobe Beef Sirloin Steak Course Meals (11,800YEN/USD$100)&
-  Kobe Beef - 3 large strips- Sukiyaki Course Meal (8,900YEN/USD$75)

Both course meals include: 
- Soy sauce seasoned beef
- That day's appetizer
- your choice of beef appetizer (grilled beef sushi, smoked beef or roast beef)
- Assorted vegetables,
- Dessert & Coffee

Soy sauce seasoned beef - this tasted okay. I guess the starter is to get us prepare for what's coming up ahead..

One of that day's appetizer - I believe this is grilled octopus/squid

Another one of that day's appetizer - swordfidh

Grilled beef sushi - the type of beef that literally melts in your mouth. But is not Kobe beef yet. 

The hostess recommended that we should eat the steak before sukiyaki since the steak will have a stronger flavor. 

This is our 200g Premium Sirloin Kobe Steak. We asked for medium rare since it's still gonna be cooking in the hot pan. 200 grams is a good enough portion for us as the Kobe beef flavor is so rich and fatty that you can get sick from eating those. This is the BEEF that melts in your mouth because the meat contain mostly fats = oil. hahah. Consuming such unhealthy goodness can be justified if you eat it once a year. :P 

Doesn't this make you want to eat it?

Our next course is the sukiyaki style kobe beef. We ordered 2 sukiyaki and it came only with 6 strips. So this meant that per order is only 3 large strips. Thankfully the steak got us feeling half full. We were excited in trying out this sukiyaki style. Look at how marbled the meats are. To top it up, the hostess first smeared the pan with Kobe fats before making the sukiyaki. Can you believe it?! 

Kobe Fats

Once half cooked, you dip the beef into raw egg as a source of sauce and you eat it with the cooked onions. The taste is out of this world. THIS IS THE BEST SUKIYAKI I'VE EVER TASTED. Again, the beef melts in your mouth and the sweetness of the sukiyaki and raw egg complements it so well. I am positively certain that I prefer the sukiyaki than the steak kobe beef. Less flavorful that makes you less 'sick' of eating it. 

They served us vegertables in sukiyaki as well

Even though the portion seems little. We were extremely full from it. Our final dessert is strawberries. However, it was not strawberry season and the strawberries weren't as sweet and as big as it could have been. But still, refreshing to eat after the flavorful kobe meal. 

This is our final bill .. 23,473Yen is equivalent to USD$200  for two. Worth the price for such good quality meat.

To sum it up, everyone who goes to Japan have to try eating Kobe Beef. It will be once in a lifetime experience. My brother even said that he could no longer eat any type of beef unless it's Kobe because it is that good. No other type of beef can beat such high quality. 

With Lots of Love,
Claraaaa <3