Primavera

This is one of those places that I have been to a few times, but didn't have my camera with me. I know....shocking!

Today I was prepared though. Go me! AND I even remembered to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant. I know. I even surprise myself sometimes.

Primavera is a restaurant that is not too far from the base. It's not a very large restaurant, but I like the atmosphere and I have yet to be disappointed with the food.

I do have to mention that they do not have an English menu, but they do have some pictures. Gosh, if nothing else, go in just for a cappuccino. You'll see why in a little bit.

The item on the upper left is the hamburger set that I got. I'm very curious about the "Pork Ginger" that is right next to it.....I may have to order that next time!

The last time I went, my friend ordered the hamburger steak with Japanese sauce and it looked and smelled amazing! So, I had already decided before I got there that I was going to order the hamburger steak today. With the Japanes sauce ("Wafu sauce").
Then we opened up the menus and they have this wonderful lunch special where you get to choose your pasta and you get garlic bread and a little salad and some dessert. I started to lean a little. One of the pasta choices was a chicken and lotus root pasta. Yep, you know it. My eyes brightened at the sight of "renkon" (lotus root) on the menu. Oh, but I really had my heart set on the hamburger steak. Good thing I went with a group of ladies! Two of them ordered the chicken and renkon pasta! Yay! Two of them ordered a vegetable, garlic pasta. And then one of them ordered a lunch plate. Of course I took pictures of everything!!


Small salad that came with my hamburger steak lunch-

The little salad and soup and ....hmmm..I forgot to ask what that third item was..but this came with the pasta lunch sets -

I also got a little bowl (cute bowls!!) of soup with my lunch -

Then my hamburger steak came out! Yummy!! It had lots of grated daikon (like a radish) mixed into the Japanese sauce on top. There are two other choices for sauce. One is tomato and the other is demi glace. I really like the wafu sauce though! -

Chicken and Lotus Root pasta in Arabiata Sauce. I tried the lotus root and ...Mmmm..tasty! -

Vegetable, garlic pasta. Oh my goodness! LOTS of garlic! I LOVE garlic though so I thought it was pretty fantastic! -

Lunch plate. Sampling of a few different things. Looks yummy!!! -

Then, we got out cappuccinos. OH. MY. GOSH. Could they be any cuter?!

None of us wanted to drink them! But we did, and they make some really good cappuccinos at Primavera!

The ladies who ordered the pasta lunch also got this really cute dessert!

LOVE the presentation!!!! And the ladies said it tasted pretty good too!

To get to this lovely restaurant, go out Main Gate and turn right at the very first light. Follow that road over the bridge and past Mike's TexMex. Go through the intersection and keep going straight. After the next light, you should see a break in the road that allows you to make a right turn. Turn right and you should see a playground/park straight ahead. At the stop sign, turn left and then turn right. The park should be on your right now. Primavera is on the right, right after you pass the park. They have parking. I do recommend that you make reservations. They were completely booked when we went for lunch today. Their number is (0827)22-0566. They also have an ad in the Preview magazine that shows what their hours are.

Trattoria-Pizzeria Polipo

I have been a horrible foodie lately. Not because I haven't been going out to eat. I have. BUT I haven't been blogging about it. I have an excuse. I've been cheating. With another blog. And a camera. I know! It's awful. I thought I could handle both blogs, but it's so hard to split my time up evenly between the two. I'm so enamored with my new camera right now that all I want to do is go out and play with it. I'm realizing that my foodie blog needs some attention too so I'm trying to be better about dividing my attention. Makes me wonder about those people who date more than one person, or those who cheat on their spouses. When and how do they ever find the time?!?! Okay....now I'm getting a little sidetracked.

This post is supposed to be about this wonderful little Italian restaurant that Jason and I went to on Saturday night. It's a little bit of a drive to get to, but it was SO worth it! I heard about this amazing place from Kristen a little while ago and had been wanting to try it out.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the restaurant. The traffic was kind of horrible for most of the drive so keep that in mind if you decide to check this place out. They do have parking in front, but it's only enough for 3 or 4 cars. Luckily, we were able to get a spot.

We were running a little bit late and I was worried they would give our table away so I forgot to get a picture of the front of the restaurant (sorry!!). I didn't take any of the inside either, but not because I forgot. Because it was super packed and it's not a very big place so I didn't feel comfortable shooting while people were eating. Maybe when we go back it won't be so packed.

Unfortunately, they do not have an English menu. They also do not have pictures in the menu. And to top it all off, they don't have anyone on staff who can speak English. That's what makes it so adventurous though! Right?? Lucky for us, I speak Japanese and I can read a little.

After perusing through the menu and kind of sort of checking out what the people around us were eating, we noticed that everyone had what looked like a platter of different little appetizers. So, I looked and saw that they offered an "Antipasto Mist" on the menu. I ordered one of those. I have to apologize about the picture. Um, we were really hungry. Like, stomach talking (and not saying very nice things) hungry when we arrived at the restaurant. It took us a little while to place our order and then a little while for them to bring out the Antipasto platter. AND (this is where it really fell apart for me) everything looked and smelled so amazing when they placed it in the middle of our table. I don't really remember much for about 10 minutes after that. I think there were some noises coming from us. Something like, "Mmmm.....oh my goodness. Did you try any of THAT yet? Ohhh...wow...." You get the idea. Then I kind of sat there in horror, looking at what was left on the platter. I completely forgot to take a picture! So, I grabbed my camera and got this shot of what was left. The mozzarella balls were amazing. The thing to the right is eggplant with something in it (YUMMY!). There were a lot of fish items on the platter so if you don't like fish, this is not for you.

"Antipasto Mist"

We also ordered a pizza. They will let you do half and half so we ordered half Pizza Margherita and half Pizza Capricciosa Bianca. The pizza was thin and sooooo good. I did remember to take a picture before we demolished it.

"1/2 Margherita and 1/2 Capricciosa Bianca Pizza"

We debated on whether we should order a pasta to share or not, but in the end we decided not to. We were afraid it would be too much since the antipasto platter was pretty big and the pizza was pretty big. It was a good decision. We were both comfortably full afterwards. I did see some delicious looking pasta coming out though so we are definitely going to go back!

I did decide I wanted a little dessert though. So we shared a couple of scoops of Espresso Chocolate Gelato. It was quite tasty and a wonderful way to top of our amazing dinner.

Jason and I also enjoyed a glass of the house wine which was very good. Our bill for the evening came out to less than 5,000yen. I think that's pretty good for great food and great atmosphere. We will definitely be going back!

If you decide to check Polipo out, check their website out at www.polipo-net.com
It is all in Japanese though so you will have to find a nice Japanese person to translate it for you.

Polipo is located near the Miyajima Ferry port. If you are coming off the ferry and you walk to the left, and walk along the seawall, you should see a wooden waterwheel on your right. Keep walking straight and you'll see Polipo straight ahead of you. I strongly recommend making reservations. The place was completely full when we went on Saturday night, and they were turning people away. Of course, if you are in the area you should definitely stop by and see if you can get in. It's all about timing sometimes. I just know the good places usually get booked up on the weekends around here.

Here is their phone number - (0829)56-5308
They are open for lunch from 1130-1500, and then for dinner from 1730-2200.

Oyster Festival in Miyajima

There are a few things I don't like about the winter months, but there are definitely some things I absolutely LOVE about the winter months. Food is a big one. Ummmm......actually, food might be it.....no, wait. I do love the snow. I wish it would snow here, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen this year. I guess I really need to get in my car and drive up to the mountains so I can get some snow pictures. Ah, but I digress. We were talking about food.

Oyster season typically begins in September, but I don't think they really taste good until January/February. I think the colder it is, the better they taste. Miyajima is known for oysters (among many other things), and every year in February they host an Oyster Festival. I have been a few times and it's super crowded, but it's a lot of fun. I went this year with a great group of friends who love to eat and take pictures almost as much as I do.

We went this past Sunday and when we got off of the ferry, we saw the area to the right had been set up with tents and there was a stage. I was told there would be a Taiko Drum show in the afternoon. As I'm looking around, I realize there are long lines of people in the tent area. At the end of each line there is someone holding up a sign. One said, "Fried Oysters 1 for 200yen" I just thought these people were crazy. There are oysters being sold all over the place. Why stand in a really long line if you don't have to? Hmmmm......maybe the fried oysters at that tent were supposed to be amazing? I wasn't going to find out. I did not feel like standing in any really long line for food. So, on we went.

Instead of turning left and walking down the covered area with all of the shops and restaurants, we decided to walk by the water. It was kind of cold, but nothing unbearable. We thought we'd walk a little and keep an eye out for a food stand that had oysters. There was a little white stand on the left that caught our attention.

It looked like a lemonade stand. It wasn't the lemons that caught my eye though. It was the sign that said "oyster chowder" and the fact that he took yen and dollars. I have never seen any place in Miyajima advertise that they take dollars too. Very nice! He also had signs in English! I really wanted to try that oyster chowder so after a couple of other people in my group ordered it, I walked up and ordered one for myself. After a few minutes, he came around with a cup full of chowder. It smelled so good! And it was hot. Perfect for a cold day. We decided to sit down and enjoy our oyster chowder. It tasted really good. There were whole oysters in it and onions and carrots and some potato chunks. Yummy! While we sat there and enjoyed our chowder, the owner of the lemon stand brought us some candied lemon peel that he made himself. OH. MY. GOSH. The lemon peel was very good. I love that he uses all parts of the lemon and doesn't let anything go to waste. He sells fresh squeezed lemon juice and lemon cakes and candied lemon peel. If that wasn't wonderful enough, he sauteed up some oysters with seasoning that he also sells. Wow! Those oysters were the best oysters I have ever had! Seriously! This guy was amazing! I want to go back! Now!

Yummy oysters!!!

As we were sitting there inhaling the sauteed (not sure if I am spelling this right....) oysters, I looked across the way and there was an okonomiyaki stand across from the amazing oyster chowder stand. They were selling fried oysters.......and there wasn't a super long line. My friends went up and ordered some. I kept looking over and wondering if they were selling oyster okonomiyaki. This was an oyster festival after all. So, Danielle and I went over to take pictures of the okonomiyaki cooking on the grill and there were oysters grilling right next to them! Ohhhhhh....if only I weren't so full! I ate so many sauteed oysters.....and I had a whole cup of oyster chowder. I just couldn't eat anything else. I did get some pictures though.

Doesn't that look good?!

And here's a picture of the fried oysters -

Yes, that is a beer next to it. It's Miyajima beer. I got to taste somme orange beer and it was okay. I'm not a beer person though so I'm not really impressed by any beer.


And just because I know you think all I did was eat and take pictures of food -

I took other pictures too!!!

If you missed the oyster festival last weekend, you don't have to wait until next year to get some yummy oysters. Oysters are still being grilled and fried and sold all over the island, and will be for at least the next few weeks. I tried to get pictures of the guys grilling them in front of the restaurants, but there were too many people! Miyajima is easy to get to by the local train. I usually purchase round trip tickets at the window and it includes the ferry ticket. I believe it was 980yen for the round trip train and ferry. Not bad. So, if you like oysters head on over to Miyajima this weekend and check out the many different oyster dishes available!