Golden House Restaurant in San Jose, California

This is one of those everyday Chinese-American retaurants that you find in suburban strip malls across the US, complete with forks on paper placemats, salt and pepper shakers alongside tabletop soy sauce, and fortune cookies to close (7108 Santa Teresa Boulevard, 408-225-8001). The menu consisted of standard-issue items too, like lemon chicken, broccoli beef, and even Singapore Noodles. None of it was anything special, especially with dry slices of pork and those rather tasteless off-menu prawns above. But the fried rice to the right side of the plate carried an impressive amount of wok hei smokiness. I'll stick to the carbs here.

State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria in Los Altos

This place looked promising given its seasonal ingredients from here in California, as well as its World Pizza Championship award (101 Plaza North, 650-383-5210). Now, I am not sure if that "ultimate" pie above was what specifically garnered that accolade, but the toppings on ours were carefully sliced and well distributed.

That said, it ultimately still tasted like a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, which was disappointing given how much bolder things were in Japan last week. The crust here was certainly better than a number of those places, but was borderline dry enough that it couldn't beat places like Trico.

Similarly, those handcut double fried spuds to the left still weren't as greasy and potatoey as I would like. Well, the selection of beer taps is nice enough that I'd be willing to come back to try other items, particularly that limited edition "grandma pie" trays that I saw some tables getting.

Fuuki Seimen Kenkyujo in Roppongi, Tokyo

I am not sure of the background of this place, but its location along a commercialized drag in Roppongi was an unlikely place to find a tsukemen shop that was rather modern and differentiated (3 Chome-13-10, 03-6447-1140). Of course, the noodles were thick and chewy, and the broth was thick and salty with good chunks of pork in there. But if you look closely at the noodles, they sat in a cold kelp water that was mildly savory.

They posted instructions to try the noodles plain before sprinking on a bit of salt, and that was before even dipping into the broth. Later, you could spike the noodles with sudachi citrus juice, as well as add some broth to the water, with the final instructions of "eating everything." I loved both the food and the playful attitude here, and am so glad that I randomly decided to go here instead of the crowded shop down the street.

Echigoya Kihachirō in Ebisu, Tokyo

Our local team knows that I like places where tourists don't venture, so they picked this izakaya that is focused on himono dried fish (1 Chome-20-1, 03-5421-8588). A number of items were grilled on a fire, creating a deliciously tasty skin, with an extra salty squid being so savory that we ordered another plate. They even had a small platter of kushiyaki-skewered fish filets spanning varieties like sanma, aji, sake.

The most unique thing of the night though was that red thing above. Despite looking like negitoro, it was instead something called umesuisho, or plums mixed with shark's cartilage. It was awesome, with the savory yet puckering taste of the plums combined with the firm yet soft crunch of the cartilage. In case you're wondering, we also had an order of namero.

Sushi Hana at Makuhari Bay Hotel

Hana is an upscale restaurant over in the city of Chiba, but they have a few extensions nearby, including this one focused on sushi (2 Chome−7−4, 043-307-3247). And they were doing some pretty good deals for lunch, including one that was even cheaper than Sushidan the other day.

This place was more traditional though, and we went for a more premium ¥5,000 (US$33) version. The quality of the fish, including the chutoro above, was naturally of good quality.

But the thing that I really liked was how nicely everything was seasoned, including not just the mild red vinegar in the rice, but also how some pieces of the fish were accentuated. This was one of the better meals of this trip.

Kisaku at the aune Makuhari Building

I never realized this until now, but just to the east of the Kaihinmakuhari station is a building that is loaded with restaurants that are open late. Most of them are small chains like this izakaya on the fifth floor, but it's what we needed at the end of a long day on our feet (1 Chome−14, 080-9800-6947).

A warm comforting stew in particular sounded great, especially in the cold and damp weather tonight, so we got that jidori nabe in the background, which the menu said was a local speciality. I'm not sure if it was basically Hakata mizutaki (especially since it featured chicken from Kagoshima), but the milky broth was more straighforwardly salty rather than the bright and rounded taste that I was hoping for. Their yaki onigiri was disappointingly soft too.

Well, the chicken in that hotpot was tender at least. And everything here still did the job, including that daikon salad above, not to mention the chicken nanban and some meaty oysters that we had. It's only now though that I realized that we should've ordered their "gout nabe," which is named for all the oysters and roe used.

Kishu Karaage from Manpukutei in Wakayama, Japan

No, I'm not in Wakayama. This chain just happened to have a stall nearby. The karaage was supposed to have been some fried chicken Grand Prix Gold winner, but I couldn't really detect much given that these pieces were not fried to order and had been sitting around for a while. The thing I did like though was in the black bag underneath: giant sheets of fried chicken skin. They were crispy and delicious.

Nodoka Kaihin Makuhari in Chiba, Japan

The shop on the third floor of the SU:K building specializes in food from Kyushu (1 Chome−9, 03-6380-4289). So we got things like mentaiko as well as basashi, the latter of which is losing its appeal to me now after eating so many lean cuts.

What I really wanted to get though was that odd-looking brown lump above. See we're out here in Chiba this weekend, and namero is a local fisherman's dish of minced raw fish with aromatics, not unlike a tartare.

We had it straight with raw onions to start, while I also closed my meal with a lump of it adorning my ochazuke above, the hot broth of which cooked it slightly. Apparently the type of fish can vary depending on what's available, so namero could be other colors depending on the fish used.

Sushidan at Eat Play Works in Hiroo, Tokyo

This little sushi counter is kinda cool in that it was started by a Michelin-starred chef for his team to run (5 Chome−4−16, 050-3171-8112). It was casual: a nine-piece lunch omakase started at just ¥3,500 (US$23), featuring quality products including some rather boldly-seasoned rice. Everything they delivered was of good quality, but it all came at a pretty fast pace, as they would typically deliver two pieces at a time, sometimes even before we had even finished the previous one. At that rate, we were done with our nine pieces in less than half an hour.

Pizzeria Doro in Shimbashi, Tokyo

Time for another Japanese pizza shop (5 Chome−18−1, 03-3432-8222). This was another brightly colored place like Vomero, but the menu had toppings like onion and shirasu, so we still wanted to try it. The onion one in front was a little sweet, which I think was partly from all of the sliced onions on top, but also a green basil sauce. The one behind it featured whitebait that was punchier than the one at Vomero. But both pies were rather underseasoned, while the crust was on the soft side. Trico has still been the best one on this trip, although we should get out to Okei or PST again.

La Bombance in Nishiazabu, Tokyo

A friend arranged dinner for us at this former Micheiln-starred restaurant tonight (2 Chome−26−21, 03-5778-6511). It's pitched as a bit of a modern Japanese fusion, but what I wasn't expecting was for it to be so kaiseki-like, with tons of effort put into the endless varieties of porcelainware and floral garnishes.

The good thing was that the ingredients were all of high quality, with a savory firefly squid on a rich brioche being one of my favorites, not to mention a fun sakura ebi rice. Underneath all of those flowers above were pieces of foie gras and eggplant that sat in a crisp vegetable sauce, and fortunately the rice in the tuna nigiri were neither overvinegared nor overcooked, staying nice and firm.

There was definitely attention to detail and care used in the kitchen. This place put high priority on appearances though, and I'm not going to get cravings for the food itself. The dated decor and occasionally spotty service didn't make it more appealing either.

Pizzeria Trattoria Vomero Higashi-Ginza in Tokyo

I wasn't entirely sure about this place at first (3 Chome−12−8, 03-6278-8984), especially since it was decorated like a colorful Italian restaurant rather than one of those progressive Japanese pizza places. The starter plate included in the lunch set wasn't too encouraging either given its odd mix of potato salad, omelette, and soft bread.

Fortunately, the pizza pulled through, including that one above with shirasu whitebait on it, as the light aroma from the garlic was balanced with the delicately savory taste of the fish. We had another anchovy-based one that was decent too. The crust wasn't as good as Trico though, which means that this won't be my preferred choice. But I'm really liking how pizzas can be done here.