Eats around A2, part 3

And the final installment of my eating adventures in Ann Arbor!

R, C, and I had a farewell brunch at Cafe Zola which was amazingly delicious. I believe R said she liked both Cafe Zola as well as Angelo's and C and I hadn't tried Cafe Zola before we marked that as our destination for the day :) R and C both had the strawberry and banana crepe and I had the Istanbul omelette. The crepes sounded so tempting but savory wins over sweet for me when it comes down to brunch. The omelette was delicious, there was eggplant and other vegetables inside the fluffy egg, topped with a chunk of feta cheese. mmm...so good! Needless to say, if I were still in A2, I'd be going back there :)


Istanbul Omelette


Inside the omelette!


Strawberry and Banana Crepe

The RF research team and I had a farewell lunch at Sadako during my last week in A2. It was somewhat fitting since I think the first time I visited A2, my cousin and her family took me out there for dinner! I had the U of M lunch set which was 3 pieces of salmon nigiri and 6 pieces of California rolls topped with salmon. Mm I love salmon.. it was decent and pretty good for the price, also much more filling than it looks, as sushi always is. Sadako is definitely a decent alternative from Za's, Jimmy John's, and other places around S. University, and E. University.



On my very last night in A2, E was kind enough to respond to my distress call and come over after lab to help me clean my apt. We were at it for a good 2-3 hours! Thank goodness for friends is all I have to say :) To close out the night, at 11pm we ordered a bacon, chicken, and pineapple Sicilian deep dish pizza with a cajun butter crust from Cottage Inn. I couldn't leave A2 without trying pizza from the chain that first opened there! Pizza after working hard at scrubbing the bathroom, kitchen, floors, etc tastes divine... We had great fun sitting on the floor of my kitchen/dining room, using the pizza box and paper towels as plates, huddled around my comp listening to music and looking at my old photos. I like that when I have pizza, it usually comes with that laid back and relaxing atmosphere :)



I must say, looking back on it, I had a pretty good time in Ann Arbor, despite many stressed-filled nights and the incredibly long winter. I only wish I got to explore more of the eats while I was there!

Pastry House Hippo

Last weekend I went here with a couple of friends to get our Japanese bakery fix :D
I bought a bunch and they were all quite good. But sadly, it just made me more nostalgic for the bakeries I frequented back in Japan..;_;


Yakisoba pan


Takoyaki pan


Takoyaki pan - inside

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Tsubuan pan


Melon Cream pan


Melon Cream pan - inside


Corn Mayo pan


Corn Mayo pan - inside


Curry pan

Rolled Cabbage

I made this a couple of weeks back and never got around to posting it :X Anyway, I was feeling a little nostalgic for Japan (again) and busted out my DS Oryouri Navi and looked for something to make. Since I had both cabbage and ground pork in the fridge, I settled on rolled cabbage! I didn't have this too often in Japan, but it seemed popular and I'd had seen it on tv as well so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I rather enjoyed my rolls lol. I ended up freezing the extra ones and then cooked them without the addition of ketchup the second time and I think I prefer that version, but I'll have to give them both a second try.



Rolled Cabbage, Japanese style

Ingredients

For the filling:
120g ground beef and pork mix
1/4 onion
4g butter
1/2 egg
1/4c panko
1/4c milk
pinch nutmeg
pinch salt
pinch pepper

4 Cabbage leaves, boiled
1 strip bacon, sliced
2g bouillon
2c water
1/2tbsp flour
1tbsp oil
3tbsp ketchup
pinch salt
pinch pepper

1. Mix the panko and the milk together and let the panko soak up the liquid.
2. Dice the onion.
3. Fry the onion in the butter until lightly browned.
4. Beat the egg in a medium bowl and then add the panko and milk mixture as well as the rest of the filling ingredients. Mix well and then divide into 4 portions.
5. Sprinkle a little salt on the cabbage leaves and then wrap the filling in each leaf. Use a toothpick to keep the rolls closed.
6. Heat a frying pan on medium heat and add the oil. Fry the bacon until cooked.
7. Dissolve the bouillon in the 2 cups of water. Add the cabbage rolls into the pan and then the water and bouillon mix. Simmer the rolls on low for about 30 minutes, while removing any scum that forms.
8. Add a little salt, pepper, and the ketchup to the pan and mix well.

Ajishin

To commemorate the end of our spring break, I went out with some friends to Novi for dinner at what can probably be considered one of the best Japanese restaurants in the area. We went to Ajishin, which apparently serves very good udon and sushi. I ordered the ikura and sake chirashi and it was quite good. I haven't had Japanese in a while so it was a welcome change from my usual dinner fare and the ikura and sake were pretty fresh and tasty :D

Izakaya Sanpei

It was C's birthday today so 4 of us went all the way out to Canton for Japanese to celebrate her big 2-3 (so young!) Anyway, so this was the first time I've had Japanese out here in the midwest and I have to say it was better than I expected lol.

We started out with a chicken teriyaki + tempura combination dinner. This was pretty standard, not blow-me-away amazing but not bleck terrible. I liked how the teriyaki sauce they used on the chicken wasn't your standard sticky teriyaki. Tempura is always great...who can say no to deep fried shrimp and vegetables? :)


chicken teriyaki with potatoes and green beans on the side


tempura

We also ordered a red dragon roll (basically a dragon roll but with tuna instead of eel), a sumo roll (it had eel and other fish), and a 007 roll (it had shrimp tempura, eel, some other stuff...topped with unagi sauce it seemed like) as our rolls. They were..ok. I think the best of the three was probably the 007 roll.


red dragon roll


sumo roll + 007 roll

The highlight of the night though was the kamonabe (duck hot pot). Mmm the broth was delicious. C said they probably used duck broth and we all tasted some mushroom in it too but it was very flavorful and K wanted to drink all of it lol. I'm coming to love hot pot lol. There's no photo of it but we topped off the hotpot with 2 servings of udon, just like the Japanese do :) It was yummy!



For dessert, (of course we couldn't say no to dessert!) we got the 4 flavors of ice cream they had to offer. We also asked them to do a happy birthday thing for C, which they happily agreed to do :) So we had a plate of grapes and oranges, green tea, red bean, and vanilla ice cream, and a scoop of orange sherbet to bring us into food coma bliss.



I have to say it was an enjoyable night out with great company, good service, and decent food :)