☺︎Restaurant Review 1☺︎

        On December 17th, I went to a Italian restaurant 'GRIP ORGANIC' with my friend. It located in Minato-mirai, the 1st floor in Red Brick. As the outside are popular as its christmas market, the restaurant was also decorated with christmas trees. Actually we had no plan where we ate in, but this restaurant attracted us by its great location and cute sign board. 

           It had its shop for take-out drinks, like smoothie and waffles with cute toppings next to the eat-in restaurant. When we entered into there, a staff came and asked our name without greeting:( We went around 20 o'clock and it was on week day, so probably it was relatively less crowded. There are many tables both inside and outside, we seated outside table, with all transparent wall, after waiting about 15 minutes. There, we could enjoy both interiors of the restaurant and the christmas tree outside. Of course it was kept with comfortable temperature. The atmosphere was so good with christmas songs, but it was a little bit dark for me. Almost all of the tables were for 2 or 3 people, so it was not suit for groups to seat together. 

           The staff who brought us to the table recommended some drink menu, especially wines, just after we seated. He showed us those recommended drink menu (handwritten!) as well as ordinary one. 

      

Drink menu

Recommended drink menu

            But my friend chose Mango juice (¥500), and I choose espresso (¥400) for after the dished. I thought drinks were little bit expensive. After we ordered drinks, a staff brought dinner menu. Both drink and dinner menu are colorful and divided into some categories, so they were easy to see. I thought that it was better to combine drinks and dinners menu so that we could choose drinks suited for dinners. 

Mango juice

          There were no particular recommendation in dinner menu. I chose vongole rosso (¥1,400) as usual, and my friend chose pasta with fully ripe tomato and two kinds of cheese (¥1,500). Dishes were served in about 15 minutes, I didn't think it was too long because we enjoyed talking, so probably it could be felt too long time if I was alone. The dishes looked very delicious! My friend said that they used selected plates which suited for the dishes. For example, my vongole rosso was on the plate that shaped like a shell. The taste was good with the best temperature! But the taste of tomato was too deep, so I wanted to taste clam much more. Overall, both the quality and the quantity were good, and suited for the price. 

Dinner menu

Vongole Rosso 

Tomato and cheese pasta

          This restaurant didn't have bathroom, so I went to that of Red Brick.Unfortunately it was not so clean, but there are many stocks of paper. I hope that was because of the time we went. After 21 o'clock, shops were closed except restaurants in Red Brick. 

 ☺︎GRIP ORGANIC☺︎

 YOKOHAMA RED BRICK Bldg.2 1F

1-1-2 SHINKO NAKA-KU YOKOHAMA KANAGAWA

official site : http://dining-grip.com/griporganic/

Organization to diminish food waste☺︎

　There are many organization against food waste. Today, I compare two of them, Food For All and Second Harvest Japan. Which do you think is better???☺︎

☺︎Main activity

 ☆Food for all

    • Offer dishes for homeless people, disadvantage people, and struggling students

    • Food bank

    • Eco garden

    Their main activity is providing food for those who cannot have enough food like homeless people. 

 ☆Second Harvest Japan

    • Correct foods loss and give them to those who have no food to eat

    • Distribute meals at Ueno park

    • Provide emergency groceries

    • Advocacy and Development

    Second Harvest Japan is the very first organization to start Food Bank activity in Japan. And they develop it.

☺︎How to deal with the problem of food waste

 ☆Food for all

    They makes Food bank activity the solution for food waste. and they give them homeless, disadvantage people and struggling students.

 ⭐︎Second Harvest Japan

    Food bank activity is their solution for food waste.

    

☺︎How to help this org

 ☆Food for all

    monetary donation or donation for their charity shop. We can do both on the website.

 ⭐︎Second Harvest Japan

    • monetary donation

    • volunteer

    • support as a company

    • food donation

☺︎Which is better org?

    I think Second Harvest Japan is better organization because they develop Food bank activity as well as Food bank activity. 

FOOD FOR ALL

　→http://foodforall.org.uk

SECOND HARVEST JAPAN

　→http://2hj.org

News Paper Article about obesity pets☺︎

     Recently, I read an article about pet's obesity.  Pets like dogs and cats have serious problem in eating habits because of their owners. A lot of pets' owners tend to feed their pets human dish, even sweets. Especially on holiday, for instance thanksgiving, owners give them turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes or pumpkin. One of the reason for this is the spread of SNS. Pets' owners take photos of their pet with dishes for twitter or Instagram. Those accounts have followers much more than their owners'. As a solution of this tendency, pets' obesity, there are canine boot camps and website about healthy food for pets. Fortunately, some pets succeed in their diet, so it's not impossible to lose their weight. Almost pets' owners don't know that their pets are obesity. It is important to see their health carefully.

     As the word 'Debuneko' is popular, many people loves overweight animals look cute. I think it is also a kind of reasons for obesity. Like cosmetic surgery for pets, feeding not-for-animal food is not ethical. To keep their pets healthy is owners' obligation. It is necessary to check whether they can take care well or not before have pets.☺︎

'For Pets, It's Fat Thursday With Pies, Dressing Under the Table' from THE WALLSTREET JOURNAL [A7] (Nov 26, 2015)