Pablo: Famed Japanese melty cheese tarts

Honestly, I thought it'd be a pretty good experience at Pablo when I arrived at its entrance and saw that it was quiet. But no the line builds up deep inside and I ended up waiting for an hour before I got my cheese tart. They split the cafe into 2 different concepts, and the first floor only offers take-out and mini cheese tarts. If you wanted the medium sized cheese tart, you'll have to wait to be seated on the second floor. 

Nonetheless, not gonna lie the cheese tart was bomb. I had the berry version which was slightly under 1000¥ but it was slightly disappointing that the berry sauce was not inside the tart. My friend had the matcha version, and the azuki red beans were very strong. 

Dinner at Tsukiji: try to make a reservation in advance

I was staying with my uncle throughout my stay in Tokyo, and he brought me out for sashimi dinner at Tsukiji. I was under the impression that Tsukiji only served sashimi in the day, but I guess the restaurants do operate at night for dinner. He made a reservation in advance, which was great because there was a crowd waiting outside in the cold to get a table. Not sure what this restaurant is called but for those of you who can read Japanese, good for you. You can figure it out from the picture below. It is also open till like 3 or 4am for those who are thinking of staying around the area till wee hours of the morning.

So we got a few side orders on top of an omakase sushi set. I don't think the set itself was expensive for its quality but I'm not very sure of the actual price.  The fishcake had a very different texture from the ones we get from Asian supermarkets, because it was not springy since they didn't add extra ingredients. The seafood taste was definitely a lot stronger and I could also feel the bits of octopus in it. I really liked the sweet white shrimp tempura because it was crunchy yet not losing the taste of sweet shrimp. We also had a few other types of sashimi which were all very fresh. The conch and squid were firm, which is not easily found outside of Japan.

Handmade fish cake with real quality ingredients

Fried sweet white shrimp

Sashimi platter

Could have been squid sashimi

The rest of the pictures would be the omakase set. All of us chose the uni set, with the other option being ikura (salmon roe). I guess that's the premium sushi and so you won't get to taste both if you just ordered a set. They served the different types separately and I was cool with that. The table next to us had them all served at one go on a huge platter. 

Toro nigiri was done aburi style, which was great

At the end of the omakase course, you'll be able to pick one of what was served as part of the omakase to have a second serving. You can even pick the uni one, which was what my uncle and I did, while my cousin went for the toro (fatty tuna).

 Please do not repost or re-use my photos without my permission.

Tsukiji Fish Market: value for money fresh sashimi and Japanese streetfood

Tsukiji fish market is actually going to relocate at the end of 2016 to make way for the Olympics, so I'm not sure how relevant this post will be. But I do hope that you guys who are hitting up Tsukiji fish market soon will find this helpful!

I guess this is almost like a guide to Tsukiji street snacks for a cheap meal with a whole lot of different food. Probably great for people traveling on a budget.

Firstly, there's 100¥ tamago on a stick. You can choose between sweet and savory, and you can also choose to have daikon and their special sauce on top as well. 

There's this stall selling grilled eel (unagi) and grilled scallops (hotate) etc on skewers for 200¥ a stick. They grill them only when you pay for them so yes it'll be freshly grilled and do expect to wait for a little while if you do get some.

There are flawless strawberries on mochi sold for 350¥. The mochi have different fillings such as red bean and matcha.

Grilled giant scallops are also available. My favourite was the one in the inner market. You get sea urchin (uni) on a grilled giant scallop (hotate) for 600¥. It was so good. Other toppings include crab leg meat etc. I also saw this other stall selling even larger ones with more a generous portion of uni, but I didn't like the fact that they torched the uni in such a way that it became grey... They probably also used uni of a lower quality as well because it was not as bright as this one.

For those who are more adventurous you can try whale meat for 200¥. It's not that weird, trust me. It's just less firm than I imagined it to be. 

Fresh oysters of various sizes are sold too. I got one for 400¥. There were cheaper options and some going for almost 900¥ too. Look around before deciding which you'd prefer I guess. 

There's a stall selling these large onigiri for 100-200¥. I picked the shrimp tempura with teriyaki sauce which was 190¥ I think. The rice was so fluffy and it was pretty large too. 

You can easily find an assortment of fish cake. I swear they are so different from those sold in supermarkets outside Japan. They use real seafood to make these. 

More sea urchin (uni) for uni fans. Did not get to try these but similar things are often served at high-end restaurants too.

Wasn't a fan of these because the Cantonese version is way better.

You can definitely get to savour the freshest tuna sashimi here. There's definitely the prized fatty tuna (ottoro) as well.

There are also a few ramen stalls available for only 700¥ a bowl. There's always a huge crowd though. 

Please do not repost or re-use my photos without my permission.

Budget Tokyo: under 35,000yen

Have not posted in a long while because of school, and I forgot about this blog too. Anyway, as the winter break comes to an end, so did my 7 day trip to Tokyo. I'm pretty proud to have spent under 35,000yen over 7 days~ However, I did enjoy some privileges such as free accommodation and also a few dinner treats. Airfare is also not included because I don't really know how to total my spending.

My airfare was slightly under HKD$2000 for a round-trip between Hong Kong and Haneda airport, Tokyo. I exchanged HKD$2800 at Haneda airport at a rate of only 12.63, which was terrible and I lost about 7000yen from that. So yes, please do exchange your currencies before flying to Japan. You'll probably get much more because the real time exchange rate was about 16 at that point. So yes I got 35,300yen which covered my expenses over 7 days.

I wouldn't say that I was compromising any of my experience in Tokyo despite spending only SGD$1000 over 7 days, including airfare. I even managed to visit Hakone, with it's day pass priced at 5160yen. I had a lot of good food as well, and I did include 2 trips to Tsukiji fish market for sashimi breakfast/brunch, and also the famed Pablo melty cheesecake too, on top of the usual ichiran and ippudo ramen. 

Here are the most expensive things I spent on:

1. Hakone pass, 5160yen

2. Uni and ikura don at Tsukiji, 2400yen

3. Uni and maguro don at Tsukiji, 1980yen

4. Unagi and ikura don at Hakone, 1944yen

5. Beef katsu, 1490yen

I would probably have spent way less if I wasn't aiming for expensive seafood items like uni and ikura. So I guess for someone who wants to just explore Tokyo without spending too much on food will definitely be able to budget a trip for SGD$1200, with cheap accommodation options such as backpackers' hostels or score a good deal through airbnb.

Oh and just on a side note, I did have 4000yen left for souvenirs by the time I got to the airport to leave for Hong Kong. So I did score 2 boxes of Royce matcha nama chocolate at 720yen each, and also 2 boxes of 白之恋人 chocolate at 1058yen each.

I shall talk more about what I spent on (food mostly) in my next few posts if I do get to them.