Indian restaurant Khana Khana

Six years ago today (21st August) I wrote the first post in this blog. It is hard to believe how fast six years have gone by. To celebrate the sixth anniversary of this blog, I will write about our visit to an Indian restaurant named Khana Khana. It is a small restaurant located in a place called Hiroomote Hirune along Highway 28 in Akita City.

Hubby and I had lunch at Khana Khana restaurant on 2nd August. The restaurant is located about 50 kilometers away from our home and it took us about an hour to reach there by our car. On reaching the restaurant area, we realized that they do not have a parking lot. But a supermarket named Itoku, located diagonally opposite the restaurant, has a huge parking lot that was almost empty at that time. So we parked our car at the supermarket parking lot.

On entering Khana Khana restaurant we realized that it is a very small restaurant with four tables and only ten customers can eat at a time. But it is a cute and extremely clean restaurant managed by Japanese staff. The restaurant serves authentic Indian food cooked by a Japanese chef and his assistants.

We ordered two types of Thali lunch set. Both the set menu lunch were priced at 850 Yen. I ordered red chicken curry (chicken vindaloo) Thali set and hubby ordered shrimp coconut curry (Goan prawn curry) Thali set. In addition to the chicken curry or the shrimp curry, each lunch set consisted of a dry curry, rice, salad, Papad, and mango pickle. Chicken curry and shrimp curry had a lot of curry sauce. The dry curry of that day was potato and cauliflower cooked in curry paste. The vegetable salad was made of shredded cabbage, tomato and crushed Papad, and was topped with a special curry dressing. The rice used was Indica rice grown in Niigata prefecture. Hubby and I shared our food so that we could taste both the lunch sets. The red chicken curry was hot and spicy while the shrimp curry was mild. The taste of the curries was balanced with the right consistency and went fairly well with Indica rice. We relished eating different curries with various levels of spiciness. All the curry dishes of the lunch sets were served in small steel bowls on a round steel main tray, and it was fun to eat from such cute little bowls. We enjoyed eating Thali lunch sets.

Hubby’s Thali lunch set

Dry curry, salad, and shrimp coconut curry (left to right) in hubby’s lunch set

Hubby having lunch

My Thali lunch set

Dry curry, salad, and red chicken curry (left to right) in my lunch set

I am having lunch

Hubby had Lassi and I had Mango Lassi along with the meal. Both the Lassi were so delicious and went quite well with the spicy meal.

Lassi (left) and Mango Lassi (right)

Hubby having Lassi

Hubby and I enjoyed having lunch at Khana Khana restaurant in Akita City. It was the most delicious Indian food we have had in Akita prefecture.

Indian restaurant Lakshmi

On 21st March, hubby and I went for lunch at an Indian restaurant. We tried a new place named Lakshmi located in Akita city. The restaurant was about 50 km away from our home and it took us one hour to reach there by our car.

Indian restaurant Lakshmi

The restaurant was very clean and had eight table seats. The restaurant serves authentic Indian food cooked by an Indian chef and his assistants. There was a semi-open cooking area and we could watch the chef make hot naan breads. There were several choices for lunch and it was challenging for us to decide what to order off the menu as everything sounded good. Finally, hubby ordered a set menu named ‘Lakshmi tandoori lunch set’. I ordered a set menu named ‘A-lunch set’ having chicken curry and saffron rice. We also ordered masala chai. Hubby and I shared our food so that we could taste both the lunch sets.

Lunch menu

Both the lunch sets had salad of shredded cabbage. Chicken curry of ‘A-lunch set’ was delicious and it was fun to eat spicy hot curry. The combination of saffron rice and chicken curry was perfect. I relished eating the food very much. Hubby also tasted it and liked the spiciness of the curry.

Shredded cabbage salad

Chicken curry

Chicken curry and saffron rice set

Hubby tasting chicken curry

The dishes of ‘Lakshmi tandoori lunch set’ were served in small bowls on a round steel main tray. On the main tray there was naan bread, rice, and a piece of tandoori chicken. Palak-paneer (spinach-cheese) and daal (a pulse preparation) curries along with yoghurt were served in smaller bowls. The taste of the curries was balanced with the right consistency and went fairly well with both rice and naan. Naan was soft, chewy, and flavorful. Tandoori chicken and palak-paneer were delicious. Although I am not sure the type of pulse used for making daal curry, a special feature of this daal recipe was that it had asafetida as one of the spice ingredients. Asafetida has a distinctive pungent aroma, which may be unpleasant to some people. It was the first time that hubby had daal curry with asafetida in it and he was rather shocked by the aroma as he is not used to very strong spicy aromatic flavors. So it was very amusing to see his shocked facial expression when he tasted daal curry. Later I ate his entire bowl of daal curry, and found it to be very flavorful and delicious. We finished the meal with a bowl of plain yoghurt topped with mango sauce. Yoghurt is considered to aid in digestion of hot and spicy Indian food.

Lakshmi tandoori lunch set

Hubby about to eat a piece of naan bread

Hubby busy eating

After the meal, hubby and I had a cup of masala chai. It was sweet milky tea with lot of spices, and a great after-lunch treat.

Masala chai

Hubby enjoying masala chai

Hubby and I enjoyed eating hot and spicy lunch at Indian restaurant Lakshmi. The quality of food at this restaurant was very high. Aroma of various spices and warm rich flavorful Indian food usually lifts my spirit up.

Indian restaurant Nalanda

On June 6th, hubby and I went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant. We tried a new place named Nalanda in Sakata city of Yamagata prefecture. The restaurant was about 70 km away from our home and it took us 1.5 hours to reach there by our car. The road we used ran parallel to Japan Sea and we got a superb view of the Sea many times during our car ride. It was a sunny warm day and we enjoyed the car ride immensely.

Indian restaurant Nalanda

The restaurant was very clean with twelve counter seats and eight table seats. There was an open cooking area behind the counter seats where the chef made all the curries. In addition, there was a specifically built windowed ‘naan room’ for us to watch as the chef made hot naan breads. There were too many choices on the menu and so it was challenging for us to decide what to order off the menu as everything sounded good. Finally, hubby ordered a set menu named ‘Maharaja curry’ with saffron rice. I ordered a set menu named ‘teen curry’ with naan bread. We also ordered Indian drinks lassi and mango juice.

Maharaja curry was basically a chicken korma curry with lots of crushed onion paste. It was delicious but rather oily. Hubby liked the spiciness and hotness of the curry, which was just perfect for his palate. But when I tasted it I started sweating, my mouth was on fire, and my stomach was in pain. It was extremely hot!! I mean the curry was not that spicy but had a lot of chili pepper powder. However after tasting it once, I wanted to eat it again! It was delicious though very hot. Lassi was very effective drink in neutralizing the taste buds gone wild due to the hot curry.

Maharaja curry and saffron rice set

Hubby tasting Maharaja curry

Hubby eating Maharaja curry and saffron rice

‘Teen curry’ means three kinds of curry and not curry meant for teenagers! ‘Teen’ is the Hindi word for three. The three kinds of curry were Maharaja curry, vegetable curry, and mutton curry. Vegetable and mutton curries were milder than Maharaja curry. All the three curries were very delicious and it was fun to eat various curries with different levels of hotness and spiciness. Naan bread was very soft, chewy, and flavorful. This set menu had chicken soup and vegetable salad also. I relished eating the food very much. However, teen curry set had a very large portion of food and I could eat only half of it. Hubby enjoyed eating the rest of it.

Teen curry set

Naan bread of teen curry set

Chicken soup and vegetable salad of teen curry set

Our dinner

Hubby tasting naan bread

After dinner when we came out of the restaurant, I noticed that the restaurant advertisement banner had an image of an elephant as a motif! Nalanda is the name of a place in India and does not mean elephant. In fact, I have noticed and often wondered why the advertisement banners for most of the Indian restaurants in Japan usually features an image of an elephant. It is not a national animal of India. May be it is the effect of the movie ‘Indiana Jones’! Ha ha ha…In fact I have never seen an elephant in my entire life time in India, except once in a zoo and another time in a sightseeing place in Delhi.

Advertisement banner of Nalanda restaurant with an image of elepahant head

Image of an elephant head at the restaurant front (top) and an elephant toy inside the restaurant (bottom)


Spices and fragrance, the essence of Indian food, usually lifts my spirit up. The quality of food in Nalanda restaurant was very high. Hubby and I relished eating the hot and spicy food, which was a fingerlicious experience. We were really full, and I dozed off in the car while returning back home.

Golden week holidays - part 5

On May 02, after enjoying sightseeing in Azuchi town of Shiga prefecture, hubby and I went to my hubby’s ancestral home in Ichinomiya city of Aichi prefecture. The next two days hubby, father-in-law and his wife went for playing golf, while I had a nice time with my sister-in-law and her family. Hubby was kind enough to write about his experience of playing golf in the previous post. Today I will write about my stay in Ichinomiya on May 03-04.

On May 3rd, my hubby, father-in-law, and his wife got up at an unearthly hour of 4.00 am, got ready, and left home at about 4.30 am to go for playing golf. All of them really love the sport. However, I am not much interested in golf, and so I preferred to stay at home and relax. I was going to meet my sister-in-law later in the day. So I spent the entire morning lazing around. I read a few pages of a novel, drank several cups of tea, and watched television.

My sister-in-law and her family live nearby in Ichinomiya city itself. She came home with her kids at about 12 noon. It was fun playing with my nieces. They are so cute. Older niece made a home using building blocks. Kids are so intelligent and innovative. I did not even realize that it was supposed to be her home until she told me. Younger niece jumped and ran around the house for almost half an hour. I played with her and was too tired after 30 minutes of continuous movement! Kids have a lot of energy.

Older niece made a home using building blocks

Younger niece running around the house

While I played around with my nieces, my sister-in-law made okonomiyaki for lunch. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake containing a variety of ingredients like flour batter, water (or dashi-stock), eggs, shredded cabbage, green onion, pork, bacon, squid, shrimp, and many more things. She used the ingredients I have mentioned here. It was a simple but very delicious lunch.

Sister-in-law making okonomiyaki for lunch

Okonomiyaki

All having lunch

After lunch and a bit of chatting with my sister-in-law, we all went to Omiya Shinmei shrine nearby. The shrine had a lot of trees, cool shade, and open space. So the kids could play around a lot. Older niece found a large black butterfly and ran about merrily trying to catch it. Younger niece is just 1.5 years old, but she usually wishes to do whatever her older sister does. However, startled by the unusually large black butterfly, she just froze in place. It was so funny to watch the surprised expression on her face. We relaxed in the shrine’s premises for an hour or so. After that we went to a convenience store and bought some cold drinks and snacks, and had them after returning home. After a whole afternoon and evening of excitement, the kids were rather tired and sleepy. So my sister-in-law and kids went back to their home at about 6 pm.

Omiya Shinmei shrine

Another building of Omiya Shinmei shrine

Nieces playing in the shrine premises

Younger niece surprised at seeing a large black butterfly (butterfly not in photo)

At about 7.30 pm, my hubby, father-in-law, and his wife returned back home after a long day of playing golf. They already had dinner on the way home. Father-in-law and his wife went to sleep within ten minutes of returning home. Hubby and I went to visit my mother-in-law’s grave to offer our prayers.

Hubby offering prayers at his mother's grave

Later we had dinner at a restaurant named Curry House CoCo Ichibanya. Hubby had already eaten dinner, but seeing the menu he had dinner once again! This restaurant served typical Japanese style curry. We ordered sausage curry and fully-ripened tomato and asari clam curry. The food was simple yet delicious.

Our dinner

We returned back home at about 9.30 pm. Hubby went to sleep and I watched television for some time. One of my favorite television drama (soap opera) was being aired and I enjoyed it very much. Later I read a few pages of a novel and fell asleep while reading it.

Again on May 4th, my hubby, father-in-law, and his wife left home at about 4.45 am to go for playing golf. I got up at 9 am and had several cups of tea. Later I read a few more pages of the novel and watched television until 11.30 am. At about 12 noon, my sister-in-law and her family came home to pick me up for lunch at a nearby restaurant. My sister-in-law’s husband also accompanied us. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant named ‘Bindi’, which served authentic Indian food with too many choices on the menu. So it was challenging to decide what to order off the menu as everything sounded good. Finally, we ended up ordering a lot of food. We all relished our lunch. All the food items were mild in spite of the fact that they were cooked with a lot of spices. That day both my nieces made their debut of eating Indian food. It was nice to see the happy faces of the kids eating Indian food.

My nieces and sister-in-law's hubby eating Indian food

I and sister-in-law eating Indian food

Younger niece very happy to eat Indian food

Older niece surpised but happy with the taste of Indian food

After lunch, we all went to a nearby park named Asano Park. This park was the site of an old royal palace that belonged to the feudal warlord Nagamasa Asano. The park was created in 1916 from the volunteer efforts of local residents. We all had a leisurely walk and chatted a lot in the park. There were more than 1000 azalea (tsutsuji in Japanese) shrubs with red, pink, and white blooms. All the azaleas were in full bloom, which made a wonderful sight. We took several photos of us near the fully bloomed azalea flowers for keepsake. We walked around for about thirty minutes and then sat on two cement park benches under a pergola. As soon as we sat there, we got a whiff of very lovely and superior fragrance. We all looked up and saw many white Chinese wisteria vines (wisteria sinensis Alba; shina-huji in Japanese) with spectacular hanging flowers in full bloom that gave off such lovely smell. Nearby was a small pond full of lotus plants and many blooming lotus flowers. The park was a perfect place to walk, sit, relax, and chitchat. At about 3.30 pm, we all left the park and went back home. It was hubby and my last day in Ichinomiya city and I was a bit sad to say bye to my sister-in-law and her kids.

Asano park

Younger niece in the park

White and pink azalea flowers

Pink azalea flowers

Sister-in-law with azalea flowers

I and azalea flowers

Hanging white Chinese wisteria flowers

Many lotus plants and flowers

Lotus flower

Hubby, father-in-law, and his wife finished playing golf much earlier as compared to the previous day, and they returned back home at about 4 pm. Hubby was too tired due to playing golf on two consecutive days. So he took rest for an hour. I packed our baggage. At about 5.15 pm, my father-in-law gave us a ride by his car to Komaki airport. Hubby and I dozed off on our flight back to Akita. On reaching Akita airport, we took a limousine bus bound for Akita railway station. We had our dinner at a restaurant named ‘Hanamaru udon’ at the station area, and then took a taxi to reach Akita seaport where we had parked our car for the onward journey on April 30. Finally, we reached back our home at about 10 pm. We really enjoyed the golden week holidays this year. Now our life has returned back to normal routine.

Hubby playing with Rubik's cube in the limousine bus bound for Akita railway station