About food in Japan

Begian beer bar - Delirium cafe Tokyo, Japan vs Belgium food, not football, match

Celebrating the friendship football match between Japanese and Belgian international teams, a Belgian beer bar in Tokyo planed "food battle Japan - Belgium", while the sports match was taken place by the same two countries in the same city.

Traditional food from both countries lined up on the special menu list.

The 1st round - Potato
Japanese style fries...? never head about it.

The answer is sweet potato fries

It is rather sweet than salty.
This is neither a traditional nor typical bar snack, but is familier for Japanese as hand-made mum's snack for kids.

I guess, at least, high-fiber sweet potato is healthier food than the traditional Belgium speciality.

The 2nd round - Clam cooked with alcohol

Hamaguri with sake, mussels with beer both are very traditional food.
Mussels should never be missed at Belgian bars.

Please do not leave the soup at the end.
After having all the mussels, clear soup left in the bowl is the second delight from the food. Enjoy the juice from mussels.

The 3rd round - traditional meat dishes
We could not reach to the stage, to be honest...

At the end of the intersting match, Belgian food goes well with Belgian beer not surprisingly, while Japanese food does with sake. I recommend for the next match, when we have, the bar brings sake in order fairly to verify which one is better...

By the way, as for the football game, Japan won against Belgium; the score 4 - 0.

The bar provides selected Belgian beer including 50 kinds of draft brands imported directly from breweries in the origin country.

Restaurant name: Delirium cafe Tokyo
Address: Tokyo Club Kasumi Dining 1st floor, 3-2-6 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.deliriumcafe.jp

Normally it closes on Sunday.

Tempura (天ぷら） - Ginza Shinohalu （銀座 しのはる）

Tempura is "deep-fried food" in Japanese style. It is one of the most recommendable Japanese food for non-Japanese people. I believe that many people like it, as long as you do not mind food with oil and flour.

If you would like to have tempura food in the least expensive way, it is to get them at supermarkets. They could be also available at any kind of Japanese restaurants. If you want the best and fresh ones prepared by specialists of tempura, it is better to go to a "tempura restaurant".

Typical ingredients for tempura cooking are shrimp, fish, vegetable such as eggplant, Shitake Japanese mushroom, sweet-potato, pumpkin.

Shinohalu in east Ginza, just a block away from famous Kabuki theatre, is a Japanese upscale restaurant specialized in tempura cooking.

It is often featured by TV programe and magazines because of the high reputation for carefylly selected fresh seasonal ingredients cooked by professionals. However the lunch time, it is available at reasonable cost from Yen 1000 to Yen 2000. That is definetly value for money.

One day my lunch was "Zeitaku(lavish) Tendon" (tempura on top of a bowl of rice). It costs less than Yen2000 even with two big pieces of shrimp, a piece of fish, some vegetable tempuras, all freshly-fried in front of me at the counter table.

Restaurant name: Ginza Shinohalu

Address: B1 floor, M & S building 4-13-11 Ginza, Chuo-ku Tokyo

Website: http://www.ginza-shinohalu.com

Related story: Kakiage (かきあげ）

http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/08/kakiage-9483.html

Belgium chocolate - Galler CHOCOLATE - THE

It is not easy to find a cozy table for a cup of tea or coffee in Ginza without making a que on weekend afternoon. Galler CHOCOLATE - THE is my favourite place in Ginza to forget the bustle of the shopping and entertaining town.

The cafe-restaurant by the established Belgian chocolate house, Galler, is located on the second floor of Seibu department store, just a hundred meter away from busy Yurakucho station.

What should not be missed iteam is of course sweets with Galler chocolate.

A great pair of Belgian speciality - chocolate and waffles is a recommendable menu.

Chocolate and sweets are not a single feature of the cafe. Flower decoration and piano playing music at the cafe are also by Belgian famouse professionals.

While taking a rest from hassle of shopping in Ginza, enjoy Belgian specialities at the cozy tea room.

Cafe name: Galler CHOCOLATE - THE
Address: Yurakucho Seibu Department store Fasion-kan (pavillion) 2nd floor, 2-5-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Website: Galler Japan (Japanese)
            http://www.galler.co.jp

Omiyage (お土産) - Rokkatei (六花亭） from Hokkaido

In Japan we have a long bank holiday weekend on May, called Golden Week.
This year 2009, I had 5 days off in a row from 2nd to 6th of May. Some other people had longer one adjoining another weekend or another bank holiday 29th of April.

Anyway after the long holiday, it is likely that Japanese people exchange a box of sweets from their holiday destination each other. That is called "Omiyage"(お土産, souvenir). Therefore everywhere in major tourist sites when we travel across Japan, we are able to find box of local sweets suit for Omiyage at hotels airports and souvenir shops etc.

Rokkatei (六花亭) is one of the most popular sweets house in Hokkaido （北海道), the north land. Dairy products are specialities of the region and sweets with cream, butter from Hokkaido must be good quality ones.

The most-well-known product by Rokkatei , I believe, is "Marusei butter sand"(マルセイバターサンド).
The name "Marusei" came from the butter producer name used for the sweet. Rich butter cream mixed with dried raisin is sandwiched with two pieces of biscuit.

If you have one, you must become a fan of it!

White chocolate made from fresh milk of Hokkaido is another speciality of the house.
According to the company, they are the first producer of white chocolate in Japan from 1968.

Not only the tasty chocolate is, the package is also the reason why this is highly appreciated as Omiyage from Hokkaido. Each flavour chocolate has different illutst of local spieces of flowers.   

Another choice for Omiyage could be this box with two flavours mixed; white and strawberry. Two kinds of flower are depicted on the wrapping paper and each piece of chocolate is shaped in the flower petals.

Rokkatei shops are located only in Hokkaido region. In Tokyo occasionally the productes are available at major department stores and supermarkets, otherwiese it is sold through online shop. We do not have many chances to get the good chocolate products. That is why we are very happy when we get Rokkatei products as Omiyage from Hokkaido.

Rokkatei website: http://www.rokkatei.co.jp  

六花亭マルセイバターサンド【10個入】 【0428_GWレビュー】 

六花亭の人気チョコレート！六花亭 ストロベリーチョコ ホワイト【0428_GWレビュー】

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Wagyu (和牛 Japanese beef) - Meat Yazawa

Hamberg and steak...it is not really considered as Japanese food. The menu is still quite familier for Japanese nationals and what is provided at the restaurant Meat Yazawa is surely Japanese food.

Beef cattle raised in Japan is called "wagyu(和牛, Japanese beef)" and among Japanese it is considered as the highest quality of beef. At restaurants or supermarkets, if you have choices in origin of beef, you will find that the Japanese beef is the most expensive. Even among wagyu, it is also categorized by quality and the price differs by the quality. Needless to say, famous brand beef such as Kobe, Matsuzaka is the highest quality among wagyu brands but Japanese beef even from other parts of Japan is still expensive compared with imported ones for example from Austraila and United States.

Meat Yazawa is originally a meat packing wholeseller and it runs a restaurant on the Meguro riverside in Gotanda. The restaurant is proud of serving only the highest quality (A5) beef there. However the price is surprisingly inexpensive and that attracts a lot of people enough to make a que line in front of the restaurant.

At a corner of the restaurant, trophies and plaques, as the proof of high quality beef breeded, are displayed.

According to the information at the restaurant, they recommend medium-rare cooked hamberg, because it is the best way to taste the high-grade meat.

With the egg york, it was an unforgettable plate...

Restaurant name: Meat Yazawa
Address: 2-15-13 Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagwa-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.kuroge-wagyu.com/my/