Armitage Alehouse

Armitage Alehouse was one of the only Hogsalt restaurants Dallas hadn’t been to, so while Makai was in Wisconsin for a few days, I surprised him with a reservation. Even getting the reservation is kind of a big deal. I had to set my alarm to 8:55 two weeks out. Spots were sold out by 9:05 each day.
Armitage Alehouse is modeled after an English pub, but the food and decor were really escalated (and the prices too!). We had fish and chips and a curry, of course, but the star was the pot pie that was baked with a bone full of marrow in the middle.

Harajuku and Omotesando, Tokyo

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Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

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Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

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Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

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Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

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So many crepes stands around Harajuku! Soft serve must not be cool enough!

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Harajuku Street

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Harajuku

Harajuku is an area around the Harajuku Station in Tokyo and is the center of Japan’s teenage culture and fashion. Many go so far as to say it’s the fashion capital of the world, since many prominent designers and fashion ideas have sprung out of this area and incorporated themselves into other fashions around the world. The main focus is a 400-meter-long street called Takeshita Dori (dori means street) that is jammed with people and lined with super trendy shops and boutiques, crepe stands and fast food restaurants.

Harajuku is most known for the kids that gather around the station and dress in crazy costumes that are anything from gothic to lolita to cosplay to anime characters. I read a bunch of places online, that the day to go to Harajuku and see this is Sunday, since that’s when kids have off. So, we headed to Harajuku on Sunday, but did not see any of this! Super trendy people, yes, but not dressed in costumes, for sure! We still had fun walking around Harajuku, though. Here is what we were looking for (but did not see).

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Crossing the street on an elevated sidewalk, looking down.

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This is the National Yoyogi Gymnasium, which was built for the 1964 Olympics.

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Omotesando

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We spotted a Garrett popcorn!

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Keeping on the Chicago theme… do they know we don’t have palm trees here!?

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Condomania: It is what you think it is.

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Tokyu Plaza

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These people were all in line for something. Even when we came back another day… still in line!

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We laughed that there was a line at Shakey’s!

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We spent some time at Kiddy Land.

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Not too much, though, or you’ll go crazy. There’s about 6 floors of this!

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Monchichi!!!

Omantesando is the name of 1) a street just south of Harajuku, 2) a subway station, and 3) the surrounding area. It, too, is a famous fashion district, but the stores here are way more high-end than in Harajuku. Harajuku is geared towards teens with not a ton of money and Omantesando is more towards an older crowd with more money to spend. Omantesando Street is sometimes referred to as “Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées.”

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For lunch we went to Spice Curry and Cafe, which turned out to be like Indian curry and not Japanese curry and was only ok.

Curried Cashew, Pear, and Grape Salad


Curried Cashew, Pear & Grape Salad, Roscoe Village, Chicago

I made this salad for a barbecue a few months ago. Jessica, Jen, Chad and Quinn were over and Dallas was out of town. Everyone said they liked it. On AllRecipes, where I got the recipe, 45 people rated this salad an average of 5 out of 5 stars. It’s a great mix of savory – curry, nuts, bacon, rosemary – with sweet – grapes, pears. Give it a try for something new and different!

Curried Cashew, Pear, and Grape Salad

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cashew halves
4 slices bacon, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Dressing:
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Salad:
1 (10 ounce) package mixed salad greens
1/2 medium Bosc pear, thinly sliced
1/2 cup halved seedless red grapes

Directions:
1. In a large, dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast cashews until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove cashews to a dish to cool slightly.

2. Return skillet to medium-high heat, cook bacon strips until crisp on both sides, about 7 minutes. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, and soak up grease with a paper towel. Coarsely chop bacon, and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, stir together butter, rosemary, curry powder, brown sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, and toasted cashews. Set aside.

4. In a small bowl, stir together white wine vinegar, mustard, and honey. Slowly whisk in olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

5. In a large salad bowl, toss dressing with greens, pear slices, grapes, and bacon, and sprinkle with nut mixture.

Japanese Curry

In the wintertime when it’s cold I love to make a pot of chili and let it cook all day. Just as much as Dallas and I like to make chili, a comfort food from my childhood, we also love to make Japanese curry stew, a comfort food from his childhood. It’s just as much a perfect winter comfort food a chili is.

Basically, you just need to buy the curry, which is available in the “ethnic” section of any supermarket, and follow the instructions on the back. We get beef and cut it up, or just buy beef stew meat, carrots, potatoes and maybe some onions.

Adam Kuban wrote a great piece on Japanese curry for Serious Eats. Oh, and remember these photos of the Japanese curry we had in Honolulu?

Back

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Somewhere Between Chicago and Los Angeles

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Somewhere Between Chicago and Los Angeles

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Saimin and Curry bowls, Honolulu

Yeep. I made a pact with myself that while on vacation I wouldn’t check email at all. I didn’t know if there’d be an internet connection on Kauai and when there was, I pretended there wasn’t. I really just needed to get away. But then I get home and have 597 emails. And I don’t think many of them are spam because they’re all through gmail, which is really great at filtering it out. I guess that’s what I get for not keeping up as I went along.

Ugh. It feels weird to be back home. We took red-eye flights last night. I had a layover in San Diego for a while and just got in this afternoon. Last night I was seriously considering canceling my flight and leaving everything behind and just staying in Honolulu. Sounded like a great plan! At least it’s semi-warm here, even if there is still snow on the ground.

The first year I was in Hawaii, it was with a group of all friends. The next time it was all Dallas’ family. This time was a mix. We were with many friends but also Dallas’ sister Caroline and brother Jordan. Like the last time, we did spend a lot of time with family and local friends, too. It was a great time and a great mix of things to do with all different people. Of course I have a ton of photos to get through and lots of stories. It will probably take me some time…

These photos are from our flight out from Chicago to LA. Then when we got to the Honolulu airport we were hungry so we got some saimin and curry in the main terminal.