Just a minute walk away from Aomori station, A-FACTORY houses various eateries, a local produce market, as well as a small cider factory where you can watch the production of hard cider made from apples produced from Aomori.
A-FACTORY stands out with it's bright lights at night.
The first thing you will see is the Food Marche, selling a variety of fresh produces and Aomori processed foods.
A variety of juices and dressings, naturally made from Aomori local produces such as tomatoes, grapes and of course Apples!
Not to forget Jams! also made from Aomori apples.
Aomori produces a huge variety of apples, which are also made into apple juices.
These are not wine, but apple cider. Cider is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from fruit juice, most commonly and traditionally made from apple juice.
A-FACTORY also has a brewery producing a variety of apple ciders.
This must be my no. 1 favourite dessert / omiyage during my Northern Japan trip. Called "Asa no Hakkoda" (朝の八甲田) it's a smooth and creamy cheese cake found only in Aomori.
As it had to be refrigerated, I couldn't buy it back home (╯︵╰,) but I sure did try a few of the samples provided. Sure enough, the smooth and creamy cheesecake really melts in your mouth, making you longing for more!
Here's another french patisserie selling a variety of tarts. Ranging from fruit tarts such as cherries, prunes, bananas, apples, to sweet potato tarts, and even an all nut tart, there is definitely one which is your suits your palette.
Not able to buy the Asa no Hakkoda, my consolation is the apple tarte (Tarte Aux Pommes) for dessert. Selling at JPY380 (SGD5), the tart was filled with loads of apples, not too sweet with a tint of sourness. A refreshing tart, but could be even better if toasted hot.
Aomori A-FACTORY
青森県青森市柳川1-4-2
Yanakawa 1-4-2 Aomori Shi, Aomori
Open daily: 9am - 8pm
5 mins walk from Aomori station
www.jre-abc.com (japanese only)
Asa no Hakkoda (朝の八甲田)
www.arpajon.co.jp
The popularity of Korean food has risen these few years, with the influence from the assortment of Korean dramas and variety shows you see on TV. Korean BBQ is one of the more popular items when going for Korean food.
We happened to come across a promotional leaflet at City Square Mall, promoting their BBQ buffet. Let's go and have a look, since we are there - was our thinking. Their BBQ buffet is a bit different from the conventional Korean BBQ, as their meats were all bulgolgi style - Pork bulgolgi, Beef bulgolgi and Chicken bulgolgi. But with a price tag of $15.90 for lunch, inclusive of all you can eat side dishes, soup and bibimbap, it's a pricetag worth giving a try.
Side dishes were buffet style, you can get as much as you want. The kimchi was our hot favourite. Not too spicy and just done right! There are also kimchi pancake and vegetable pancake, but those were a bit too oily.
Spicy rice cake. I felt the rice cake was a tad too hard, but the brown fishcake which came with it was tasty.
We also ordered both the Kimchi stew and soyabean soup, which was inclusive in the buffet. Nothing special about these 2 soups. You can get much better ones in the Korean restaurants.
Finally came the main star- assortment of meats on a BBQ plate. There were (from top clockwise - beef bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, spicy chicken bulgogi, spicky pork bulgogi and pork bulgogi). I liked the addition of vegetables in the middle - shitake mushroom, enoki mushrooms and onions below.
Finally the meats are done!
Lettuce was also served for you to wrap the meats to eat together. Very fresh greens too!
One more round of meat order.
When you are finished with the meats, the staff will change your bbq plate for a new one, for the bibimbap. The bibimbap provided was one bbq plate full, but as we were too full, we asked for only 1 person portion.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and totally value for money lunch bbq buffet. Although the quality of the side dishes can be improved, their meats were marinated very nicely. But as with all bbq restaurants - you will leave with a stench of bbq smell on your clothes and hair!
Korean BBQ
Lunch Buffet - $15.90+
Dinner Buffet - $25.90+
80 Kitchener Road
#02-21/22 City Square Mall
Open daily: 11am - 11pm
