About food in Japan

Kakigori （かき氷） - Chimoto

The summer in Japan still continues.
It is hard to be outside for long time during day...

Kakigori(かき氷）cannot be missed as sweets and as one to cool us down during this hot summer.

Kakigori is shredded ice with sweet syrup.
It is available at some cafe especially featuring Japanese sweets or food stall at summer festivals.

For the syrup, strawberry, melon, milk and green tea flavours are typical ones.

Chimoto, a traditional sweets house in Toritsu-Daigaku, a residential area inTokyo provides incredibly big moutain of Kakigori during summer. The volume of heaped ice is double or triple as much as normal Kakigori dish. In the photo, the tea spoon is normal size...

The size makes every guest amazed Can we finish it? Don't worry, the shredded pieces of ice are very light and quickly melted in the mouth. It is not a difficult task to finishe a bowl, although it is not easy...
Two flavours of syrup are on top; milk and green tea.
The green tea is high quality, real tea but not tea flavoured syrup.

At the bottom of the bowl, we find "shiratama" (白玉、white dumplings） and "an" (餡, Japanese beans paste).
They are the joy at the end of the dish and are unique point of Kakigori at Chimoto.

The tea room is very small and has only 10 seats. You might have to wait for a hour until getting the big mountain Kakigori. It could be worth waiting so long. But please be careful, not to dry up yourself...

Another specialty of Chimoto is Yagumo mochi (八雲もち）, rice cakes made of cane sugar and walnuts and wrapped by bamboo skin. This is available throughout a year and do not have to make a que to get some pieces...

 

 

 

 

 

Sweets shop name: Chimoto
Address: 1-4-6 Yagumo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Depachika (デパチカ） - Avocado shrimps don (丼） from AOcafe

Depa-chika (デパチカ） is a kind of Japanese slang but it is important for food lovers in this country. It is abbreviation of "デパート地下食品売り場"(depart chika shokuhin uriba = food corner on underground floors in major department stores). In order to attract store visitors as many as possible, major department stores in Japan compete in the selection of food stands on their underground floors. Some can be one from other regions in Japan such as cake shops from Kobe, Sapporo or from other parts of the world; France, Italy, Korea or China. Others would be from traditional grocery or upscale restaurants in Tokyo.
Anyway, if we go to food corners in the major department stores, we are surely able to find something high quality and rate to find in any other place.

Today I found very unique and could-be strange food at "Tokyu Foodshow"(food corner of Tokyu department store) in Shibuya.

 

It is called "Avocado shrimp don"(アボカド・シュリンプ丼）. Avocado is not traditional food in Japan. I wondered how the fresh product can go with rice
It is packed in a paper box with a handle like this so we can bring the lunch box everywhere we want.

The avocado shrimp don comes from a tea house AOcafe in Aoyama.

Rice is on the bottom of the box and it is cooked with Hojicha (Japanese grilled tea). So the rice is not white color.

The first step to prepare the meal is put avocado, shrinps and vegerables onto the cooked rice.

Then mix all of them well... until pieces of avocado are crushed into very small pieces.

Following advices by the food corner staff, I put the sauce at the last of mixing process.

The tast is never bad rather I like it. Surely I will buy it again.
But I have no idea about this food origin...

It cannot be Japanese traditional food at least.
Is it modern Japanese food ?
Can anybody answer to my question?

    

To enjoy more variations of Avocado shrimps don, as my original version, for the second half, I added nori (海苔、dried seaweed), sesame and wasabi. That was also tasty and maybe better for health.

At AOcafe food stands in Tokyu Foodshow, some more don(丼）menu are available such as Avocado salmon, Natto and minched meat. All are innovative food but surely healthy ones.
Let's try the new world of taste

Shop name: AOcafe Tokyu Foodshow, Tokyu Department store Shibuya Toyoko

Address: 2-24-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Website: Tokyu Foodshow http://www.tokyu-dept.co.jp/foodshow/

Other foods I already introduced are also available at "Depachika" in Tokyo.

Les MIGNARDISES at Daimaru Tokyo

Linked page: http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2009/03/les-mignardises.html

 

Mamegen at Tokyu Foodshow

Linked page: http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/05/mame--mamegen-d.html

 

French - Les Creations de NARISAWA (Michelin *)

Les Creations de Narisawa; we cannot miss the name of this restaurant, when we talk about the best French restaurants in Tokyo or in Japan.

The restaurant is awarded 1 star by Michelin guide and on this April, it was elected  to"The best restaurant in Asia" as well as the top 20th of The S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants 2009.

This is the second time for me to have lunch here and is the first time in last one and a half years. Some of my friends have a passion for having meals at Les Creations de Narisawa.

The menu list reminds me the chef, Mr. Yoshihiro Narisawa's creativity.

Let's see with my photos.

One of Amuse- bouche very fresh radish with soil? No it looks like soil but not real soil.

The first plate: Natsu no hatake (夏の畑, Summer fields)

He often uses fresh vegetable for his cooking but I cannot count how many kinds of vegetable are on the plate

Everyone is fresh and surely has pure strong flavour of vegetables.

The second plate: Shiohigari (潮干狩り, shellfish gathering)

Shellfish gathering on beach is one of seasonal events in Japan. The plate reminds everyone the exciting events in childhood.

Thirdplate: Green bed

The green bed is made of sprouts or choux de Bruxelles. Not only the presentation but also the quality of ingredients, pork and sprounts made us very satisfied.

Another fantastic imagination is this "flower pot" served with

pieces of bread.

Yes It looks like a pot with soil and small sprouts and no one would try to eat

This is actually a kind of spread to be put on a piece of bread.

Stiring it for a while, it became surely something to eat...

 

Our surprises continued to the two dessert plates.

What the restaurant is pushed to The World's 50 Best Restaurants must be his creativitiy. Every time we go, we encounter new surprises time by time and season by season.

I am looking forward to being astonished again by his "creations."

Restaurant name: Les Creations de NARISAWA

Address: 2-6-15 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.narisawa-yoshihiro.com

Related website: The World's 50 Best Restaurants  http://www.theworlds50best.com