The weather was dull and rainy again today, so no lazing in the park for us.Luckily I came across an old post on my favorite design blog redsil a few days ago, that reminded me we hadn’t yet been to see Chocolate at 21_21 Design Sight.
The Tadao Ando designed building housing the exhibition is itself worth a mention, as only the reception area sits above ground. The two gallery spaces are underground, meaning little more than the the sloped steel roof is visible from the surrounding area.
A display of dancing Pocky stick-men, a credit card made from chocolate and the larger than life size portraits of the cocoa bean farmers stuck in my mind.
A weird combination of beauty, excess, cute and the uncomfortable realisation that the people who harvested the cocoa beans can’t afford to eat the chocolate their backbreaking work has produced.
The yummy chocolates we were given upon presenting our tickets made the visit that much better.
After the exhibition, Patrick headed straight for his favourite handmade noodle shop inside Tokyo Midtown. The noodles are traditional Chinese style, shaved instead of stretched or chopped. I found them a little too rubbery, but Patrick can’t get enough. The store is in the row of underground stalls that run along the outside of the Midtown food court and is called “Men”, I am assuming that is the Japanese reading of “Mien” the Chinese word for noodles.
I was happy to discover the Sour Cream Apple Crumble at Dean & Deluca around the corner. The best piece of apple crumble I have ever eaten. It was served by itself, with no cream or ice-cream, but was not at all dry and wasn’t too sweet. Patrick thought the coffee was the best he has had in a while too, so it will be no trouble getting him to go back again.
We discovered some yellow watermelons in the grocery store this evening, really very odd looking things.
