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Tokyo Guide: Part 2 & What I Cooked Last Week
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Tokyo Guide: Part 2 & What I Cooked Last Week

Tokyo Recap + Recs Cont’d, Peanut Chicken Spring Roll Bowls, Roasted Tomato Pasta Salad, Mom & Dad’s Toasted Veggie Pita

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Maxine Sharf
Apr 18, 2025
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Tokyo Guide: Part 2 & What I Cooked Last Week
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Hi everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful week. My mom was just in town, and as always, we cooked up a storm. We filmed nine recipes in three days (!!) including a Greek chicken meatball bowl, spring veggie baked ziti, and caramelized onion and cheddar crostini. We also managed to squeeze in some fun outside the kitchen… I’ll share a full recap in next week’s newsletter :)

Below you’ll find part two of my Tokyo recs—featuring some amazing vintage shopping, a no-menu cocktail bar where they craft drinks based on what you like, and my favorite meal of the trip (hint: it involves the chewiest, most perfect noodles). I’ve included some photos below, but you can find more in my story highlights!

First, here’s a recipe for peanut chicken spring roll bowls. It’s a bright, refreshing dish made with grilled chicken, vermicelli, and lots of colorful fresh veggies—perfect for a warm spring day.

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What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Peanut Chicken Spring Roll Bowls

This dish tastes like a spring roll in a bowl. Topped with tons of beautiful, crunchy vegetables and a peanut dressing—it’s both hearty and light!

Peanut Chicken Spring Roll Bowls
81.7KB ∙ PDF file
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Download

You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

Roasted Tomato Pasta Salad

Maxine Sharf
·
Apr 16
Roasted Tomato Pasta Salad

Roast the tomatoes until tender and caramelized, then mix in pine nuts, garlic, basil, Parmesan, and pasta. It’s one of my favorite flavor combinations!

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Mom & Dad’s Toasted Veggie Pita

Maxine Sharf
·
Apr 16
Mom & Dad’s Toasted Veggie Pita

My parents have been making this sandwich for over 20 years. I know it looks really simple, but there’s something about this combination of ingredients that’s surprisingly, mind-blowingly good.

Read full story

Tokyo Guide: Part 2

Cherry blossoms in Yoyogi park

Daikanyama & Nakameguro

These are two really cute, hip neighborhoods—and since they’re right next to each other, we did both in one day. Daikanyama has a more upscale, boutique-y vibe but feels less “big city” than Ginza. We started at Tsutaya Books, a massive bookstore spread across three connected buildings. They’ve got everything: books, magazines, pretty stationery, and even some clothes. Doug picked up a cool acid-wash sweatshirt.

For lunch, we went to Yuzutsu Soba, which ended up being my favorite soba spot of the trip. The handmade noodles were super chewy—I got the cold dipping soba (my go-to), where you dip the noodles into a sauce so they keep that great texture. We skipped the tempura, even though it looked amazing, since we had a tempura omakase planned for dinner.

Yuzutsu Soba! I know it looks super simple but it was so fantastic 🤤

After that, we checked out Epulor, a listening bar. It’s a cool concept we’ve seen in other parts of Asia as well—vinyl records playing while you sip a drink. This one doubles as a coffee shop during the day, so we got a matcha and a slice of cheesecake while enjoying the music.

We also popped into Coverchord in Nakameguro, a stylish shop with mostly men’s clothes but a few women’s pieces too. It’s right along the river, which is such a nice spot for a walk—especially in the spring when cherry blossoms are in full bloom. There are tons of cute little stores to explore in that area.

Shopping in Nakameguro!

Shibuya

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