About food in Japan

Delicatessen (デリカテッセン) - Gourmet cafe and grocery shop

Delicatessen is a part of a luxury hotel, Park Hyatt Tokyo known for scenes in the American film "Lost in translation." Some people might hesitate to step into one of the best hotels in Tokyo. The hotel main part is on the 39th or above floors, while Delicatessen is situated far low on the ground floor. It is easily accessible from public space of the building even without going through the hotel's main entrance. The cafe is not a place where we have to mind casual appearance so much. We are rather able to visit it more freely as ordinary casual cafes in town.

At Delicatessen, fine international deli food are available with high quality beverage menu. Not only pasta, pate, sandwiches, salad, Japanese sushi rolls also can be found.  (Photo: Sushi roll with cucumber and fish eggs) Peaceful time will be guaranteed for a break or lunch in the middle of Shinjuku, at the foot of skyscrapers.

Selected grocery foods from the world fill all dimensions walls of Delicatessen. After taking a rest with a cup of fresh aroma cappuccino, let's shop around the space!

Cafe name: Delicatessen

Address: 1st floor Park Hyatt Tokyo, 3-7-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo

Boutique's direct link : http://tokyo.park.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/services/shops/index.jsp

   

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Japanese or European style curry rice - Bondy (ボンディ)

It is still in rainy season in Tokyo and the summer is almost coming here. The temperature is around 30C degree everyday and it is unavoidable to get sweat outside during day. When the hot and humid summer comes with tons of sweat, we feel more times like having hot and spicy food to have more sweat ...I do not know why though. Curry rice (カレーライス) is one of the typical dishes in such a situation. 

 

Curry-rice is originally from India of course but the Japanese version is a bit different. The curry sauce in Japan is less spicy and could be sweeter than the original one. It is always served with Japanese rice. Surely it is one of the most favorite dishes among kids, young boys and gentlemen. They are likely to request the dish whether it is for lunch or dinner and never mind even if he had same menu a day before.

Curry restaurant Bondy in Jinbocho (神保町) is known as one of the best curry shops in Tokyo. The chef got the idea of his own curry recipe from French cuisine, as he called it European style carry. As ingredient, daily product, apple, onion and other vegetables, red wine, butter, pepper are included. It cooked for hours and becomes fine curry sauce, sweet but spicy. Cheese on top of rice also cannot be found at any other curry restaurant in Japan.

   

Side dish baked potato is also the unique point of Bondy.

Jimbocho is a town of second-hand book stores and is not far from Akihabara, where boys and gentlemen are walking around for shopping. It is may be natural that we are able to find curry rice restaurants more often in Jimbocho than in other towns. Among these restaurant, Bondy is one of the most popular and for which people are likely to make a queue. 

Several choices of main ingredient; beef, pork, chicken, sea food, vegetable are available at each same price. It might be a bit expensive for a plate of curry rice during lunch time. However it worth trying the carefully prepared one. The quality rarely can be found and is obviously much better than same menu at ordinary restaurants or cafeteria.

Restaurant name: Bondy

Address: 2nd floor Kanda Kosho center building, 2-3 Kanda-Jinbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website: (Japanese only): http://www.bondy.co.jp

   

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French - Quand l'appetit va tout va

  The French restaurant "Quand l'appetit va tout va" is one of those restaurants for which we are not able to book seats so easily in Tokyo at this moment. And we are not able to remember the full name, even though I spoke French language a little The restaurant name or the sentence can be translated to English "When appetite goes all go"(When you have an appetite, everything is OK.) By knowing the meaning, we become more comfortable and ready to enjoy the meal....

It is located along a street in Azabu Juban (麻布十番), a　residential area in central. The majority of seats are along a plain wood long counter. It can be used as a dining bar on late evening with nice selection of glass + bottle wines.

The menu list in Japanese and French are well-thought and very attractive by the chef experienced at some top French restaurants in Japan and in France. It is hard to choose, even though only up to 6-7 dishes for each section; starter, fish, meat and dessert. The restaurant staff are happy to make a plate share between two accompanied guests. Then it will give us a chance to take one to two more plates...

Here is finally what we had,

Starter

Gazpacho fresh orange and tomato

(with cucumber jelly)

Croquette pork toes with salad

*creamy pork toes (pied de porc) stew inside of the crispy pan-fried coating

 

Kinmedai(金目鯛 alfonsino) in cabbage soup

Melting chocolate with pistachio sherbet

 

Cherry and cream cheese tarte

Every plates were unforgettable. We surely would like to come back in next season autumn for finding different fantastic dishes. Our appetite never go away here.

Restaurant name: Quand l'appetit va tout va

Address: 2nd floor Visco Building, 2-3-12 Azabu-Juban Minato-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~quand/

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