Food, fun and family

Today we had a bit of mother-daughter time, starting at Mitsuwa Marketplace, where we ate at the food court before doing some shopping.  Megan had a Gabbuto burger of sliced BBQ pork between two rice patties serving as a bun.

I had my usual kariage-don: tempura veggies and shrimp on rice in a bowl (the “don” part.)  Miso soup and some Japanese pickles are included.  The onions are totally scrumptious and I always want more of them.

A bit like Alice’s Restaurant, you can get anything you want…as long as it’s Japanese.

Japanese pastries and desserts are much less sweet than American or European ones.   We chose two to take to our next destination, my favorite tea shop, TeaLula.  The first is called a banana omelet, but the “omelet” is really a light, delicious cake wrapped around a whipped cream filling around a banana.  It is SO good, especially with a cup of either top of the line sencha or coconut pouchong tea.

TeaLula always supplies us with plates, knives and forks for our goodies, this second a light, flavorful and again, not too sweet, piece of green tea sponge cake.  Delicious!!

There were still some beautiful seasonal touches at TeaLula:

We managed to get in a little bit of thrift store shopping before it was time to meet for a family dinner at Fiamme’ Pizzeria in Naperville, http://www.fiammepizza.com/home/, enjoying a roasted vegetable pizza from their wood-fired oven (mushroom, zucchini, eggplant, roasted red pepper, goat cheese, and balsamic reduction) and shrimp pesto linguine (fresh shrimp, pesto, sundried tomato, and fresh goat cheese), along with a couple of local beers for Bill and me.

An excellent day of food, fun, and family.