For a dinner we're busy organising for this coming Sunday we are giving cakes to some of our guests, and as a sample of what we'll be giving of course it stands to reason we should try the cake ourselves to be sure of its quality and taste (ahem).

So today we visited Casamingo, a fantastic cake shop which I've written about before, to confirm the order and to receive our own sample.

As you can see by the label that came with the box, this is the shop owner's son's creation because, as I wrote about previously, he trained in Vienna, so his cakes are more Austrian in nature (as opposed to his father's which are apparently more German).

The cake itself is reasonably small - we went for the smallest 12cm size which costs ¥2600 (about £17) - but they sell larger sizes too. It looks the business and cutting into it reveals the marmalade-like jam in between the two sandwiched halfs and also under the icing at the top. This jam adds a really nice flavour to the cake and also makes it less dry, so it becomes very easy to eat it without any cream or anything extra.

Very delicious indeed. Hopefully the guests who receive these on Sunday will be happy with them. I might also take my brother to the shop next week if we get a chance, as he's visiting me from the UK, and he like me is a real cake fan.

       

Finally then, after enjoying one average ramen and one horrendous ramen at the two previous places, we thought that we should finish the day on a positive by visiting a place in Togura (戸倉) on the way home, which Master has been to before and knows is good.

Here there was no bad smell, no dirty bowls, just tasty ramen. The lady there was pleasant, and there were some hairy potato heads on the window ledge beside our table which she assured us had had their hair trimmed recently.

We all ordered the standard (醤油) ramen and left very satisfied. My only slight negative was the thin noodles which, despite eating as fast as I could, quickly went softer than I ideally like. Still, everybody else there prefers thin noodles so I didn't say anything. Master wouldn't take any money from us again though - ごちそう様でした！

When we left we drove back separately; a good end to a nice long (and interesting) lunch trip. Lets hope we can do it again soon! I do love my ramen, and I'm going to miss it while we're in the UK.

     

After the first ramen place we rushed to get to the second, Rikimaru (力丸), before our stomachs told us we were full. Or that was the logic anyway. I'll prefix the rest of the post by stating that the reason for choosing this restaurant was that this follows the last place we went as the second most popular ramen place in Saku.

We took the last two parking spaces out the front and went in. My god what a stench! It was pretty awful, sitting somewhere between mouldy parmesan cheese and feet that haven't been washed in three months, at least to my nose. The others were also really surprised, with Master describing the smell as similar to an old dishcloth that has been left to get damp and fester for a long period of time.

So while holding our noses we checked the menu and ordered:

- two fish-and-pork-flavour soup (豚と魚介の醤油) - photo 1
- one pork-flavour soup (豚醤油) - photo 2
- one fish-and-pork miso-flavour soup (豚と魚介の味噌) - photo 3

Ten minutes later they came, and my word did they look unappetising. I think we were all pretty taken-aback by the dirtiness of the bowls - they looked like they hadn't been washed for ages, as they had what looked like old soup marks on both the inside and outside - and the scum on the surface of the soup. According to Master, who himself has cooked ramen in his restaurants for years, it means he just doesn't take care to scoop out the natural residue left by the meat when cooking the soup.

Of course that was before we'd even tasted them. Absolutely disgusting! And it wasn't just me (who had one of the two 豚と魚介の醤油) but everybody. Everybody agreed though that the worst tasting was Master's pork-flavoured one; hideous! Not one of us could finish our ramen, even Master who is a seasoned ramen eater.

Needless to say we all left as silently as possible, and Master ended up paying for the lot, apologising for his choice of restaurant. To be fair though looking some other reviews of the place they're all reasonably positive. How?!

Outside we all decided to go and look for somewhere where we could wash the taste out of our mouths with some coffee or tea. There is a Starbucks in Saku inside the JUSCO, so I bought us all a coffee and we all laughed about our experience of the number two ramen restaurant in Saku.

         

We arrived at the first restaurant Bunzoh (文蔵) at about 11.40 and there were 3 or 4 people already eating. Apparently it's rated the most popular ramen restaurant in Saku. The walls were covered with posters making it look a bit like a 'Yankee' diner inside. We each ordered a different ramen:

- one with pork-flavour soup (豚骨醤油) - photo 1
- one fish-and-pork-flavour soup (豚骨魚介) - photo 2
- one pork-flavour soup with extra pork meat and an egg (文蔵ラーメン) - photo 3
- one miso-flavour soup (味噌豚骨) - photo 4

Mine was the 豚骨魚介 - the fish and pork one - and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's quite a thick soup, pretty fishy in taste, and the noodles were fat ones which I prefer as they take longer to become soft (I *hate* soft noodles) so I don't have to rush so much to eat it. It was 750 yen (about 5 pounds) and I'd definitely go back for another. Everybody was quite surprised I enjoyed it so much actually, as they all tried the soup and thought it was pretty darn fishy.

Of all of them the miso-flavoured ramen was my least favourite; in fact I'm pretty sure if I'd have ordered it I couldn't have finished it. Master, who ordered it, thought it was 'average', but the rest of us thought it was a pretty weird taste and not really very miso-like. I guess we were all reasonably happy with the place overall, but it's a little hard to believe this is the number one ramen place in Saku.

         

At 10am this morning we met up with the owner of our favourite local eaterie Ichibun - which I've written about several times before. He and his wife had suggested that on their one day off (Tuesday) we go with them on a trip to eat a ramen or two out of town. Because their car is quite a small one, we took two cars, which meant we could play our own music on the iPod (with iTrip) and perhaps come back separately. They invited us last Tuesday as well, as they were going to Omachi (大町) for ramen, but unfortunately we couldn't make it due to prior commitments. 

The owner (whom we call 'Master', out of respect for him being the owner of the restaurant) uses a blog called ラーメン夫婦坂 as a guide to which ramen restaurants are popular and tasty in Nagano prefecture. It's written by a Japanese married couple who love ramen.

So anyway off we went to Sakudaira (佐久平), located about 70km south-east of Nagano city.

Here are links to the later posts about the ramen restaurants we visited:

- Ramen one (Sakudaira)
- Ramen two (Sakudaira)
- Ramen three (Togura)