Day 5 - 12th Feb 2013 (Kobe)

Today we go in search of MEAT. I've always wanted to try Kobe beef but it's too far out of our budget and Tobs thinks I can't tell the difference anyways. So we settled for something less posh. The original plan was to go queue for a famous Teppan steak set lunch at Plaisir. Unfortunately, even though we were 1st in queue, when it opened, their Teppan sets were all fully reserved and they only had Shabu-shabu sets left. How can Shabu ever be compared to sinking your teeth into juicy Teppan beef? You probably need 20 slices of Shabu to make 1 slab of Teppan beef ok! Disappointed, we went to try our second choice - Misono.

It was housed on the higher floors of a nondescript building. The sets started at 1,500Y and not wanting to scrimp on this (considering how I was already starving because of the episode at Plaisir), we got 1 set B (4,000Y) and 1 set C (2,500Y).

Seafood starter
(raw)

(cooked) ok, I know the lighting for the cooked version helps in making it look super yummy. I just forgot to change my light settings when indoors for the pictures above.

Our friendly cook, who conversed with us a teeny bit and guided us on when to take pictures of what. Kind of hilarious at times.

THE MEAT
(raw)

Cooking..

Cooked!

Thereafter, we went to walk around in the Kobe Chinatown and found CNY festivities very much alive, complete with the folks from Journey to the West (I wonder whatever for?!)

Enroute back to the station, chanced upon a cute little frog-themed cafe (I know, strange right?!) serving pancakes and chiffon cake. Tempted to try but realised that baking time for the chiffon cake is like 30 mins (!!!) but relented in the end and went in. The owner was very pleased and kept volunteering to take pictures for us, I guess he was secretly hoping that we will do free advertisement for him (and we did!)

Chiffon cake - 1100Y

Pancake set with tower of whipped cream which the Tobs finished up and exclaimed that its so delicious and the first time he ever ate up the whipped! 1000Y

Returned to Shinsaibashi area and queued for Ichiran. It was awesome. Much better than the one we had in Tokyo man. Love love love it.