Monaco - Le Casino, Jardin Japonais, & Palais du Prince

I will never mistake Poland and Monaco's flags: Poland has the vertically inverted Indonesian flag, and Monaco has... the exact same flag design as our flag. It led me to cheering for the wrong country during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

This was my first trip ever to Monaco, and I was excited, especially to see Monte Carlo simply because that name appeared once (or maybe more than once) in stories of Uncle Scrooge (or in Indonesian version, Paman Gober) and Donald Duck. It's scarily amazing (or amazingly scary) how I can still remember a foreign name that has not been mentioned often enough to stay at the back of my mind. 

Monte Carlo, the most populous Quartier of Monaco, is famous for its casino and it's not just any casino; it's The Casino (Le Casino). 

Taking pictures with my smartphone was not the smartest thing I could do. If I could zoom in without making blurry pictures, I would zoom in at the parabolic metal structure in the middle of the little garden in front of the casino. When taken from the right angle, you could see the entire casino building in that structure, including the sky and the features surrounding it.

Unfortunately, taking pictures inside the casino is prohibited. Although the casino is not as large as other casinos I have visited (Las Vegas and Macau), the interior design was just absolutely stunning and grandiose. I did not play any games when I was inside the casino (although I'd normally try the roulette with minimum bets). I was sitting at the corner, gazing at the gorgeous dome of the casino.

When we went there during the weekdays, the casino was pretty empty. Perhaps you would find more people in the private rooms, but you'll have to pay extra to enter the private rooms. And I believe that the minimum bets in those rooms are higher than the ones outside.

We also explored Jardin Japonais de Monaco, or the Japanese Garden of Monaco. To be honest, this was my favourite place in Monaco. I'm not so much into casinos. And this garden just reminded me of my days in Tokyo last year. It was a serene garden that somehow exists harmoniously with man-made features of civilization. What's even better: there is no entrance fee :)

The journey to Palais du Prince (The Prince's Palace) was a little difficult to figure out since there was no clear sign on the road. You could see the palace from below, since it is located on a cliff. We had quite a difficult time trying to figure out the way, although eventually we managed to find our way up to the palace.

You have to climb up quite a flight of stairs up the hill, but there are plenty of spaces to rest since the steps are wide. It takes about 10-15 minutes to climb up at a moderate pace.

And again, I regretted not bringing my camera with me because it's annoying to bring a bulky camera (it's not even an SLR - it's a compact Sony camera) on a 7-day trip.

Oh well, photos can be ugly as long as your eyes enjoyed it when you were there, right?

Once again, no photos are allowed inside the palace (although I've seen quite a number of people sneakily taking pictures with their mobiles phones).

By the way, the view from the hilltop is worth the effort to hike.

We went down the alleys close to the palace after the short tour around the palace. You can buy nice postcards here, and if you're a fan of Movenpick ice cream, you can get one here, too :)

For dinner, I had a nice bowl of fish soup from the restaurant next to Le Casino.

And the Monaco beer was pretty refreshing. It's not very bitter and it's pretty smooth. I'm not an expert in beers, but everyone has a different preference and this is one of the beers I would love to drink casually.

Read More

France - Japan Town in Paris

While in Paris, I met my online friend who was travelling there for a few days. Thanks to that, I discovered the "Japan Town" of Paris. I don't know if this area is officially a Japan Town, but the streets around this area are filled with Japanese restaurants, shops, hair dressers and even a convenience store. There is also a supermarket that sells mostly Japanese and Korean foods.

Take the Metro on Line number 14 and stop at the station called Pyramides. Take the left staircase of exit number 1, and once you're up, turn back. You'll see a Japanese shop that sells clothes for puppies (if I'm not wrong it's called Wan Wan). Walk straight until you see a diagonal sharp turn to the left called Rue St Anne. The street is a bit small, but you will not be disappointed.

As I walked through Rue St Anne, I saw several ramen shops, and one of them is called Sapporo Ramen 2 (サッポロ　ラーメン２）as you see in the picture. A while ago I tried to look up for restaurant recommendations in a Japanese website called OvniNavi. The Japanese are normally very passionate about foods, so I trust their reviews. And they probably have more similar taste buds as mine. 

First, I tried the miso ramen at Sapporo 2. 

Since I was alone, I sat at the bar just in front of where they prepare the noodles. I had expected the restaurant workers to be Japanese, but I think all of them were Chinese. They were speaking Mandarin and another Chinese dialect I was not sure which one it was. I was a little disappointed because I was eager to practice speaking Japanese again. But again, I came here for food.

The ramen looked delicious, although its toppings are a little bit simple: chashu (pork belly slices), bamboo shoots and beansprouts. I wanted some ajitsuke tamago (soft boiled egg braised in soy sauce) but none of the menu offers those eggs. The portion was a little big, but it is the typical portion size for ramen.

And actually... 

I had a very huge appetite on that day. I ordered a lunch set, which I believe was around 14 euros. I get one bowl of miso ramen with chashu, and a mini katsudon. 

The katsudon (deep fried breaded chicken) was not very appetizing, and it was a little bit too salty for me. I couldn't finish the rice. Well, part of it was because I was on the verge of food coma after a big bowl of chashu ramen.

After a huge meal, I decided to walk further along Rue St Anne and found a convenience store called Juji-Ya (十時や).

Here, the workers speak Japanese ^_^

You can buy bento boxes, onigiri (a little too expensive: 2.30 euros each!) and Japanese food products. This shop is not the most complete shop you can find, but they sell interesting ingredients that are not commonly found in Asian shops in China Town. By the way, China Town in Paris is located in Porte de Choisy. I normally take the tram from Cite Universitaire metro station towards the direction of Porte de Vincennes, and it's only about 15 minutes by tram.

You can find other restaurants along the Rue St Anne including sushi, okonomiyaki and even takoyaki. By the way, when I say sushi, it doesn't mean only raw salmon and raw tuna. Sushi shops are everywhere, but most of them don't have other nice fish cuts like toro, tai and hamachi. I don't blame them because we're in Europe and from my understanding, my non-Asian friends refer to sushi as anything with raw salmon or raw tuna. No other options. Not even ikura or unagi. It's probably the same for me: there are many types of sausages, but sausages are just... sausages.

After walking through Rue St Anne from one end to another, I decided to make little detours. If you take left or right turns along Rue St Anne, you will still find plenty of Japanese shops and restaurants. What's crazy was that I found BOOK-OFF, a second-hand book store that is famous in Japan.

There are two BOOK-OFF shops there. One is dedicated for Western books (mainly French; I hardly saw any books in English), and the other one is dedicated for Japanese books and products like CDs, DVDs, and game consoles.

What's cool about BOOK-OFF is that the price for second hand books are cheap. Here, they sell them for 2 euros, which is DIRT CHEAP, taking into account that things in Paris are generally pretty expensive.

For those who are excited about manga, there are plenty of those translated in French.

If I were to stay in France for more than a year, I will definitely learn French from reading manga :P

Oh, and (not too) surprisingly, Rose of Versailles (VerBara) series is famous in France.

Oh, and I tried looking for a book to practice Japanese. I found them. Quite pricey (>20 euros)...

But the main problem is that the explanations are in French. Which makes them pretty much useless to me. Even on this book, I can understand all things written in Japanese but absolutely nothing in French.

Aside fromt the second hand books, BOOK-OFF also sells up-to-date books and DVDs.

My exploration around Japan Town ended by drinking a glass of bubble green tea latte at Zen Zoo.

I'm almost 100% sure that the owners are Taiwanese who can speak Japanese. I would say this place has the best bubble tea in Europe that I tried so far: perfect chewiness and sweetness of the tapioca pearl, good tea and reasonable price.

Read More

Instant Noodle around the World 14 - Ajinomoto Oyakata Noodle

Dusseldorf, Germany, is well known for its Japan Center. When I went to Dusseldorf's Christmas Market early this December I decided to visit one of the Japanese supermarkets there called Shochiku. I went there to satisfy my sudden craving for nattou, but I didn't forget to check out the instant noodle aisle, and I found Ajinomoto Oyakata Ramen series. And I have to say that this was the most amazing instant noodle I've ever found. Reasons for it? Read till the end.

Oyakata （親方）means "master", so in a way this noodle is marketed as something made by a noodle master. I bought pork bone (tonkotsu) flavor and curry flavor. I haven't tried the pork bone one yet but let me tell you, this noodle is super amazing.

The contents of the package doesn't look unusual except for the fact that the seasonings are packaged in a very high quality film. Inside the small package is purely fats, and the bigger package is the dry seasonings.

The noodle is very thin, and when I picked some strings of noodles up with my chopsticks I was about to get disappointed, but the moment I put it in my mouth, I realized that the texture was superbly complex. It was thin and smooth, yet chewy and bulky. It's not the same kind of chewiness you'd normally get from Korean noodles like Shin Ramyun. It's hard to explain, but this texture was definitely unique and interesting.

And when you think of Japanese curry, you'd expected something not spicy. Actually, the soup is far from thick and starchy, and it is very flavorful and at the same time spicy. It's close to what you would call an Indian curry (although I'm aware that there are lots of different types of Indian curry), but far less oily. With so little oils/fats, I'm surprised that the flavor delivery was done very well.

What caught me by surprise was the energy content: 63 kcal per package (100g). That is extremely low for instant noodles of this portion size. Most instant noodles will give you 350~400 kcal per 70g, if you translate it to 100g, that's going to be about 550~600 kcal per 100 g of the instant noodle.

This instant noodle is almost 10 times lower in calories than normal instant noodle. Did this make me feel full? Yes.

This is simply brilliant. I'm just curious how much salt is in there. It's never mentioned in the packaging. But if eating 9 packages of this instant noodle still gives you less calories, than 1 package of other instant noodles, I don't see why this Oyakata Ramen is not awesome. I wonder what kind of technology/strategy they used to make this noodle.

Simply. Brilliant.

Read More

Instant Noodles: around the world 3

More instant noodles!! (read Part 1 here and Part 2 here if interested)

After getting an oil change for my car last Saturday I decided to drive down Route 70 without using a map or GPS at all and stop by any places I see interesting.

One of them was the Asian Food Market. The sign was red and huge, pretty easy to notice. I stopped by and checked around. They have a huge variety of Chinese goods (and from their language, it seems that the store is Chinese-owned, as compared to the Vietnamese Sun Seng on Route 38). They also have a wide variety of authentic Chinese dishes for to go. Oh, and they also sell fresh soy milk!

And then I went on, and found H Mart. It's a Korean supermarket chain. At first I didn't have a good impression; I've been to H Mart in Manhattan and it was crowded and messy and unpleasant. The H Mart here is pretty huge, and all the ahjumma there are really nice.

I checked out the instant noodle aisle and bought these Chukazanmai. It's made by Myojo, and it's imported from Japan, so I'm not too worried about the ingredients. After all, as far as I remember Japan has one of the strictest regulations on food.

I'm not sure what Oriental Flavor really means, so I decided to get try it. There might be a specific concept of "Oriental Flavor" in Japan, just like how Americans in general think that anything with sesame seed or dressing is "Asian". You know, like "Asian Salad" (even though back in Asia the term 'salad' generally implies that it's a dish introduced or influenced by the West).

The noodle is really thin and randomly arranged. Most instant noodles strings I've seen are packed straight; this one goes haywire in almost every direction but formed into a square shape. I wonder how these noodles were processed.

The noodle is thin and chewy - I hardly see any thin noodles as chewy as this. I love it! I'm not a big fan of soft, soggy noodles. The soup is pretty much soy sauce based. It's delicious and very savory. After looking at the ingredients list of the dry seasoning and liquid soup base, guess what's in there:

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG - YUMM), yeast extract, Chinese cabbage extract, soy sauce, bonito extract. All of them provide umami / savory component. Yeast extract and Chinese cabbage are natural sources of glutamate (the family of MSG, yes). I'm not familiar with disodium inosinate but I would assume it is some sort of flavor enhancer that works similarly to MSG as well. Oh guess what, I was right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disodium_inosinate

FYI, if you're interested in umami-rich foods (in other words, food with naturally high MSG content), you should check this Umami Information Center website out: http://www.umamiinfo.com/2011/03/umami-rich-food-vegetables.php/

Now you know why in steamboat/hotpot/shabu shabu or whatever you call it, they always put Chinese cabbage / sawi putih / Napa cabbage. BECAUSE IT'S A NATURAL SOURCE OF MSG! Chinese people are so clever. And my mom knows Chinese cabbage makes soups taste so good without knowing about this fact. I told this to her about half a month ago, though. So now she knows!


Alright, moving on to the next one!

This one seems very interesting: curry flavor. I know it's probably not Indian curry but somewhere close to sweet, thick Japanese curry.

The noodle is pretty thick, close to instant u-dong/ udon. The surface is a little rough, so my guess is that this noodle is most likely processed by deep frying, just like most noodles out there. Some noodles, especially the "premium quality" noodles, are hot air dried. It's slower but I guess from nutrition standpoint it's healthier. I'm not exactly sure about textural differences, though.

Another thing I'd like to mention: nutrition facts label. Yes, if you are not familiar with it, you probably will take quite some time to figure out what is telling you what. And it's really deceptive primarily because there is no standard for serving size. Like this one:

The first thing that you have to read, and you definitely must read, is the Serving per Container. Why? Because like this instant noodle, it actually contains TWO servings per container. That means you will have to multiply all the values listed by two, unless you're the kind of person who would break instant noodle into half, use only half of the seasoning, and use only half of the condiment, and save the rest for later. No, I don't see a lot of people doing that because it defeats the purpose of making individual packets: convenience.

At a glance, you'd think that this instant noodle is healthy because it only has 210 Calories while in general most instant noodles have around 300-400 Calories. This noodle is no different than the majority: multiply the Calorie content by 2 and you'll get 420 Calories. Is it their fault for tricking you into thinking that this noodle is healthy? No, because by putting the label it is now YOUR responsibility to check the label.

(And oh, beware of the sodium level. It's 40% of the recommended amount you can take in a day; multiply it by 2 and you'll get 80%!! The upper limit is 2300mg, so that leaves you 460 mg of sodium which is equivalent to less than 1/4 teaspoon of salt!)

Here, they don't use straight MSG. I see that they include mushroom powder (HINT: mushroom is a good source of MSG and I don't think they add this powder for flavor in this case, just because people don't really make Japanese curry with mushroom bits at all), yeast extract powder, kelp extract powder and disodium inosinate. Again, kelp is another good source of natural MSG.

Something a little extra about cooking directions: I can't read Korean but apparently they put an exclamation mark on the 450cc (of water, I'm going to assume). Seems like it's an important step or amount of water. Not that important but maybe there are consumers who use too much water and ended up not getting the right end product.

As I expected, it's chewy, somewhat close to Shin Ramyun noodle but somewhat not as chewy as Shin Ramyun. The curry is not as thick as I thought it would be but it's pretty decent. It's pretty spicy for this type of curry but I love spicy foods and I can handle them. I'm a little disappointed at the dried vegetables included; it needs more carrot. There were only 2 pieces of carrot in mine, and they're like super tiny. The rest of the dry condiment package was just dried green onions.

Will post more stuffs next time. I've been busy with graduate school applications and other stuffs. And when I got back from work I just feel tired, not excited to do anything much. I haven't been cooking anything fancy lately, too.

But work is fun, so I've been feeling hyped up every day!

Read More