Tokyo Banana

A best friend just came back from Japan and got this signature gift of Japan, a box of Tokyo Banana

Tokyo Banana is a kind of sponge cake stuffed with banana flavoured custard, sweet and soft texture. This sweet reminds me of Banana in pyjamas from  Bread Top in Sydney, which has a fresh banana filling instead of banana custard. 

Thanks to my best friend I finally taste this famous 'omiyage' from Tokyo.. 

Luxurious bread from Pan-Ya

Check this out! a one-hundred-rupiah-bread from Pan-Ya! I got a message and these photos from my best friend in Jakarta. What's so special about this bread? It's a bread with full of milk and butter, that's what it says about a bread from Pan-Ya bakery originated from Okayama, Japan.

It might not be a luxury in some countries like Japan or Australia, one loaf of bread priced around AUD 10-11, yes it's still a top premium bread though, but in Indonesia it's a real luxurious bread! In Indonesia you could get a  loaf of good bread around Rp 20.000, so this premium Gion Danish Bread is about five times  the normal   price tag, so yes it's a luxurious bread!

I couldn't give any review, neither did my friend since we haven't tried it yet, but if I happen to visit one of their shop in Jakarta, I may choose their Macha Shokupan or green tea bread since it's more affordable, anyhow their 'luxurious bread' with rich buttery milk sounds so tempting though... but would you spend $10 for just a loaf of bread?

(Rich milk toast from Pan-Ya Jakarta)

Fuji Pan

Pan in Japanese means 'bread', this Fuji Pan and Fujiya restaurant  are under the same management and they are located in the same building just on the corner of Goulburn and George street in Sydney CBD. I tried the crab and cheese, chocolate and melon, and chocolate croissant and love them all! This Japanese bread has a smooth texture but much firmer than the typical Asian bread.

I didn't get the chance to take picture of each breads since I finished them all on my way home.. Yakitate! :)

updated with new photos:

(I love this Snow white choco..)

iCookie

For Apple's mania, you may love this iCookie, it's an 'iPhone cookie' from Green Gables in Tokushima prefecture, Japan.

(picture courtesy of AFP, via Google news)

Green Gables in Tokushima prefecture pioneered the tasty treat in 2008 as a special birthday gift for customer's husband, said Kumiko Kudo, the 44 year-old owner. The biscuit gained nationwide fame after a photo of it made the rounds via Twitter posted by economic writer Kazuyo Katsuma and pop singer Komi Hirose. Since then Kudo has sold hundreds of the cookies.

The hand-made iCookie doesn't come cheap at 2,730 yen, and it's only available by order and inside Japan, where the waiting time to snap up one of the biscuits has been as long as two months.

(source: AFP via Google news)

Only in Japan..

Eating is fun!

My love for Japanese food is not merely for their great taste, freshness and healthiness but also for their creativity in decorating and presenting the food which makes eating is more fun. I am always fascinated with any Japanese food, not only sushi and sashimi or bento box, but also the light meal such as Japanese-style sandwich or burger. One day we found a book about decorating bread meal including burger or sandwich style on the shelf in Kinokuniya, actually they call it 'mook', between magazine and book. This 'mook' is in Japanese with no english at all but it's very easy to understand and follow the steps in creating delightful light meals made from bread, sausage, ham etc. One thing is I don't know the title nor the author but I found this mook sold on rakuten for 980 yen and it's called 'Heart for sand painting and set pretty big pan', not sure whether it's a proper translation since I only use google translate :) After browsing around, found two cool foodie blogs that may belong to the authors, Momoka and Ichigo.

Here is the mook:

One of the funny birthday breads on the book

And here is one of our creations , well I should say my wife's creation, she did the best for this :)

I call it 'tanning crab', copied from the book

Fuji Bakery

Looking for Japanese food in Sydney? You would find plenty of Japanese restaurants across the city, from an affordable Kura to the most expensive one like Tetsuya , but should you look for Japanese bakery, there is only one Japanese Bakery (as far as I know) located in Killarney Heights, north of the city. As an adventurous foodie, I didn't mind to take 20 minutes train-ride to Chatswood station and changed for another 15 minutes ride by Forest bus to find this Fuji Japanese Bakery nestled in a relatively quite suburb away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Once I stepped in the shop, looked around the range of breads, cakes, puddings, twisted doughnuts and other yummy looking desert. As I picked almost one of each from the display, the lady offered the Rum and Raisin roll, a rum flavoured chocolate cake with raisins, definitely it was an offer I couldn't refuse. The Chocolate mouse and Rum and raisin roll cost me $ 2.50 each.

Chocolate mouse & Rum raisin roll

The fruit bread like walnut bread with raisin costs $1.30, while another range of bread like ham and potato salad, ham and egg, tuna pan, mayonaise and cheese, and bacon roll cost around $2.70. These additive-free breads are really yummy, I would comeback again for some daifuku next time since it was sold out already.