About food in Japan

French café – AUX BACCHANALES

AUX BACCHANALES is a real French style café in Tokyo.

We can enjoy only café au lait or French cuisine lunch, dinner, a grass of Perrier, French style sandwiches, whatever with a fresh breeze at the open-air terrace seats. It opens from morning to late evening without a break. So it will be ideal place for late lunch time after shopping or early dinner before going to theaters.

My favorite menu there is “Steak tartare”(raw beef steak) with fried potato. Japanese people are familiar with raw fish but not with raw meat. Because of that, the menu is hardly found at other restaurants in Japan, even if they are called French café, restaurant or brasseries. So the café staff always ask the client who orders Steak Tartare “Raw meat of beef will be served. Is that ok for you?” Then I reply “Yes, of course!”

I can never miss the good combination between soft fresh meat and spices mixed with French fries.

 

AUX BACCANALES is located in Ginza and other major spots in Tokyo; Shinagawa, Akasaka.

Restaurant name: AUX BACCHANALES (Ginza)

Address: Gallery Center build. 1F 6-3-2 Ginza, Chu--ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.auxbacchanales.com

 

Unagi(うなぎ、鰻） eel - Matsukawa

The rainy season was ended in Japan and now hot summer has arrived!

It is very important to take care of what we eat and drink during summer in order to keep the best health condition through this hard season, because the heat and humidity of Japanese summer are likely to make us have littele appetite.

Unagi(eel, うなぎ、鰻）is traditionally known to be one of the foods that make people more energetic by taking.
"Doyo no ushinohi" is set on the last half of July according to Japanese old almanac and the date has been recognized for hundreds years in Japan on which people take Unagi menu to be ready for comming hot summer. In 2008, it is the 24th of July.

I enjoyed the menu a little bit earlier than the tradition at a restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Unajyu(うな重）is a typical and traditional menu of Unagi. A few pieces of grilled eel dipped in special sweet sauce are on rice and they are neatly put on a square box.

Not only the quality of eel(some are from Japanese ports and others are from Chinese or farm-raised), but also the special sauce are keys to be a good plate(or box?) or not. Traditional Unagi restaurants have each own receipe for the sauce inheritated generation by generation.

A clear soup with a small piece of eel liver is likely to be served with Unajyu.

Unagi restaurant Matsukawa is located very closed to Shibuya station. It is even surprising that we can find such a traditional dinning just a few seconds after going through the most busiest and noiziest intersection in the world(I guess), Shibuya Hachiko Crossing.

Restaurant name: Matsukawa
Website: http://www.unagi-matsukawa.co.jp
Address: 22-1 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Edamame(枝豆） - a good nibble in summer

The green soybean, called "edamame"(枝豆）, is one of the most popular nibbles in summer for Japanese. No one can deny the perfect combination with a plate of edamame and a glass of cool beer.

Hulled beans are cooked for several minutes in salted boild water.
It is quite simple serving way but that is enough to enjoy it.
The typical beer snack can be seen at home every evening during summer as well as at every casual Japanese restaurants or izakayas in this country. In most cases, it would be a starter menu with the first glass of beer to chill out and to recover from a sweltering summer day.

The beans are served with the hulls on a plate. Diners have to take them out from the hulls by pushing a side of the hull body. Before a bean drops, you have to bring it to  your mouth quietly.  Is it a hard job? Tens of beans are on a plate. So you will have  a lot of  chances for the training there!

Japanese flavor ice cream from Haagen-Dazs

Summer is just around the corner in Tokyo.

To cool down, eating a cup of ice cream is an good idea here too.
The global ice cream maker, Haagen-Dazs produces Japanese flavor ones as well as standard taste such as Vanilla, Chocolate.

*KOKUTOU & KUROMITSU
Brown sugar and brown syrup.
What is intresting is that it is expressed as "brown" in English but is done as "black" in Japanese. "KOKU" and "KURO" both represents black color(黒）.
"Kokutou", the Japanese traditional edulcorant, has become more popular ingredient and has been paid more attentions for a few years, since it was found by health consious people that Kokutou contains minerals such as calcium and iron.
"Kuromitsu" has taste like honey or maple syrup, but it is made of sugar and water.
It is often used for making Japanese traditional sweets.

*GREEN TEA
Needless to say, green tea is one of the best-known Japanese traditional drink.
It is not only the big ice cream maker which offers green tea flavor.
Personally I could not distinguish ice cream flavor of green tea from one of pistachio...

It will be a nice experience to try Japanese flavor ice cream with Japanese traditional hot tea in Summer