Spaetzle For Lunch

During the second week of the break after Miss K and I got back from Perth and Japan respectively, we made spaetzle at home for lunch. We ate it with our Mushroom sauce and grated parmagiano.

Bye Osaka!

Time to leave Osaka! The bridge is the one that link the city to the Kansai International Airport.

Jean-Paul Hiven Chocolatier, Osaka

 

We were down in the basement of JR Osaka Mitsukoshi Isetan and we found the cafe of Jean-Paul Hiven, a high-end chocolate manufacturer from Paris. DH, who is a big chocolate lover, just could not resist and had to stop and taste.

 

Their shop next door, where people can buy different chocolate products to take away, shows many scrumptious-fantastic-tempting looking chocolate products.

I selected their special above, Longchamp Chocolait Lait and a macaron. They came with a cup of chocolate for a total of 1575 Yen. I finished all to the last bit. (This is how I gain weight during the holiday, despite lots of walking. My waist expanded and my legs were so worn out. Makes sense, doesn't it?? - mmm)

 

  

For his drink, DH asked me to help him pick and I went for Brazilian chocolate. It tasted better than what I had actually. He also had a slice of Caracas from the menu. All, everything in there, including their water, are so heavenly! Love to go back there again one day!

Cocktail Time At The Lounge

Cocktail time when we go on holiday, for us, is not about the drink. It's always about the food. We tasted a few that were served at the Hyatt lounge in Osaka. That's the glory of holiday!

Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins

Today's breakfast at home!

Look! No Lock!

I was waiting for DH who was picking up our big luggage from The Ritz Carlton Hotel, at the bus bay at Osaka Station. I got two smaller bags with me, we just got back from Kyoto and were going to stay in Osaka again for two more nights. We were going to take the shuttle bus provided by the Hyatt Regency in Osaka. I saw a young woman came on a bike and left her bike by the fence and went away.Just like that. Without locking up the bike. Another bike was also parked nearby, without lock. Amazing! It must have been safe to leave them there!

Shopping Arcades In Kyoto

We find Japan to be a nice place to shop, not that we shop that much when we go there. We love the products and excellent services they offer and their sales people are just some of the nicest ones in the world! They smile, they bow to you, they thank you and they also carry the bags up to the door and open the for you. And more bowing. I really want to pack them and bring these people here. We could use more nicer people in this country. So lovely! 

Japan has many large department stores around, smaller shops that offer various goods and Shopping Arcades that also seem to be wonderful places to go to. In Kyoto, we found these two Shopping Arcades when we walked from Daimaru to Takashimaya to find a place for lunch.

These are the Teramachi and Shin Kyogoku Shopping Arcades. They are covered pedestrian streets located next to each other with shops selling just about everything and restaurants of all kind. We found some temples there too.

Dinner At Trattoria Sette, Kyoto

The hotel where we stayed in Kyoto is not exactly within walking distance to the city. Of course transports are available easily too. You can take bus, train or taxi, but for dinner, we opted to stay in the hotel and have dinner there. We saw what we wanted anyway, Italian cuisine in the house! The hotel has a nice Italian Trattoria in their second storey called Sette. 

I felt like I had been deprived from eating leaves for a long time, when in fact it was just days. We ordered a plate of salad to share. Originally, that's about all that I wanted to eat, because I thought I had eaten way too much in the past days. I, however, could not resist to try their Roast Chicken. It was delicious especially its crispy skins. The portion? Aw, yum, it's big! There were two boneless breast and two legs. I had to share them for sure!

As we all can always guess, DH went for Fettuccine with Seafood. He cleaned up the plate, it was spotless. The food must have been superb! All were good and the service was outstanding. What else could we ask?

 

Pictures From Jiuzhaigou, China

DH with Miss P, who is on the break, were in Jiuzhaigou, in the north of Sichuan Province which is up in the northern part of China. The place is so beautiful, I wish I could be there. Here are some pictures that DH sent me yesterday and today. They are lovely but I am certain the real things are so much more gorgeous than these pictures show.

Thanks DH for the pictures!

A Kimono Clad Colonel Sanders

.... was happily found in Kyoto!