About food in Japan

YEBISU bar - エビスバー

Yebisu beer is one of major Japanese beer brands considered as one of the highest quality beer. To be the proof of that, the beer brand is sold at a bit expensive price at super markets. People are likely to purchase the Yebisu beer cans only for special occasions such as birthday party or any kind of celebrating events. If you prepare Yebisu beer when you invite someone to your home, guests would feel special welcome.

Yebisu beer was born 120 years ago, in 1890. Sapporo Breweries LTD. who produces Yebisu beer, opened "Yebisu bar" in Tokyo by celebrating the 120th anniversary of the brand beer.

I visited the first bar unit in Ginza, where five different versions of "draft" Yebisu beer welcome guests.

Yebisu, Yebisu the black, Kohaku Yebisu (琥珀　amber), Yebisu Staut creamy top and Silk Yebisu...

Only by the fantastic beverage choices, beer fan must be excited. All food menu are also selected and created for the best match with Yebisu beer. I found different icons with each food menu. The icons suggest with which kind of Yebisu beer the food plate has the best "mariage". Food menu is mix of Japanese and Western. Some of them are made by original recipe. Others are cooked with Yebisu beer!

For example, what I ordered....

Kyo(Miyako 京) style Fish and Chips: It looks normal? Sea bream (鯛 tai) is used as ingredient of the British menu. Sea bream is known as fish that Yebisu (God in Japanese local belief) holds. 

A small bowl of pink color sauce made from Shibazuke (しば漬け, Japanese pickeles) is served with it.

Cream cheese: dipped in tamari (thicker) soya sauce and coated with seaweed powder

It can't look like cheese any more...

The amount of bill is not so expensive as much as the beer brand image.

That must be a good experience to enjoy taste of Japanese fine beer together with unique excellent food.

Restaurant name: Yebisu bar

Address: 1st floor Yamashita build. Corridor-gai, 8-2 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Related Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/yebisubar-g/
Sapporo breweries LTD. :  http://www.yebisubar.jp/

SAKURA (さくら) from STARBUCKS COFFEE

In Tokyo, for last several days, we felt Spring just around the corner.

It becomes warmer day by day, little by little... Cherry blossom (さくら, sakura) season is still a month away but at Starbucks coffee shops in Japan, we can feel SAKURA already.

 SAKURA steamer is steamed hot milk with "SAKURA" flavour. It is a pitty that we cannot see milk in subtle pink color in the cup though...

The scent of sakura surely comes from the pink powder on the top.

Other seasonal products, SAKURA cream flappuccino, cakes and special design tumblers are also available at STARBUCKS COFFEE in Japan until mid-March 2010.

Official site: http://www.starbucks.co.jp/sakura/index.html

Hello Kitty bottle water

One day I found...mineral water bottle SHAPED IN "HELLO KITTY" WOW....cute

I bought just one bottle, because it is expensive...Yen368/265ml bottle.

The water source is soft water from Kagoshima prefecture, in Kyushu.

This is the first attempt for Sanrio to produce Kitty shaped bottle. 

I found a sign at the shop to tell us "this product is likely to be run out quickly and we recommend your purchase whenever it is available."

Yes, it must be popular...so sorry if you are not able to find it in Japan.

Maybe it is sold here, Hello Kitty store in Shibuya:

http://shibuya.hellokittystore.sanrio.jp/blog/b/10014194.html

Otherwise on online stores in Japan,

Sanrio official Online shop (Japanese version only...): http://shop.sanrio.jp/cm/cmc-425842/

Otherwise another online store link,

キティ型ボトルウォーター 300ml*24本
その他ミネラルウォーター全部はこちら

Outlet wine?! - Shibuya Wine Sakaba (渋谷 ワヰン酒場)

On a website, it is described ... the European style bar is the first "outlet wine" provider in Japan. It was the first time for me to hear "outlet" wine. It sounds like nice wine offered at very good price. Then I could not wait for visiting the bar. 

The bar is located on the second floor of a building at the end of Meiji street in Shibuya, just a few minutes walk from Shibuya station. On the weekend evening, it was bustling with guests of groups, couples. The wine list on blackboards or glass windows make us exited, telling the price from Yen 310 by a glass, even at the most expensive one less than Yen 1000 among choices of each 10 for red and while wine from France, Italy, Chili, California... Wine-lovers cannot miss it, after once they come to know. I guess that it is a half or even less price compared with ones of similar quality wine at other restaurants in Tokyo.

Why outlet? the bar sources the good selections of wine at reasonable cost exclusively. These bottles are regarded as "not-for-sale" on boutiques because of their etiquette labels being damaged (but the liquid inside not at all).  So the selection must be different each time but always good quality ones at bargain prices.

The bar foods are prepared by chef who has long experience at upscale Japanese restaurants. The wide selections include typical plates at European style bars (olives, lever pate, raw ham) as well as some Japanese flavors (pickles, seafood marine etc).

Today I had a glass of "beaujolai nouveau" at Yen350.

Restaurant name: Shibuya Wine Sakaba

Address: 2nd floor, 3-18-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Japanese tea (日本茶） + English tea (紅茶） = ? Lupicia tea shop, Jiyugaoka (自由が丘）

Japanese people have tea for years and years. Green tea (ryokucha, 緑茶) is the most typical Japanese tea (nihoncha, 日本茶), as many know. In the world, or even in Japan, we have different types of tea; English tea (kocha, 紅茶), Chinese tea (chugokucha, 中国茶), herb tea.

How will it be? if we mix two types of tea... Japanese green tea + English black (? considered as "red" in Japan) tea.
The answer is here.

Tea shop Lupicia created a kind of blend tea from Japanese green and Assam tea. It is named "Jiyugaoka (自由が丘） after its flagship shop's located area, known as quite residential town with sophisticated fashion and interior boutiques in Tokyo.

Look at the tea leaf, surely it includes both green and black ones mixed together.

The taste and flavour also has recognizably different types of tea. First the fresh green tea comes into the mouth. Then it remains flavour of English tea in the mouth.

Can you imagine it ?

Surely it is tasty, recommendable and interesting tea, truely a good "East meets West" product.

The tea house Lupicia offers wide selections of tea from across Japan and world. Tea leaf or bags are displayed by type of tea in the large space. Try different types of interesting unique tea selections. On the upper floor, the tea salon is located.

What I got there;

Original blend tea Jiyugaoka (自由が丘) as described above, Apricot Barley (あんず麦茶） and Grapefruit Green (グレープフルーツ緑茶）.

 

Shop name: Lupicia

Address: 1-25-17 Jiyugaoka Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.lupicia.co.jp/

 

Tea or free gift? what you buy...

We are not able to imagine how many kinds of ready-made drinks available in Japan, whether in can or in PET bottle. Beverage makers face severe competition to get space on the shelfs of convenience shops across this country.

To attract both consumers and convenience shop owners, major soft drink producers are likely to attach a packet of small gift to their bottled drink products.

You will find something like this on a shelf of PET bottle drinks. A small plastic bag is hang from a bottle-neck.

The free small gift depends on the target of the drink.

Recently launched the promotion by Lipton must keep attention of Japanese girls and sweets-lovers. It offers original mobile phone charms collaborated with Belgium high-end chocolate shop, Pierre Marcolini. The charmes are in shape of miniature sweets by the chocolate brand; tablet, colourfull ice cream or biscuit..

They really look like real sweets apart from the size.

Yes, the size, as they are to be "a charm for mobile-phone", they are so small to eat

At least they are enough attractive to entertain people who find it with your mobile phone.

 

Related website

Lipton Sweets Collection : http://www.lipton-sweets.jp/

 

Japanese tea cafe(日本茶cafe) - Suruga

Japanese tea(日本茶) is one of the most popular drink in Japan. We often make it at home with a tea pot and leaf or have it through a pet bottle at office and outside. But it is not so many cafes feature Japanese tea at their shops.

The Japanese cafe Suruga is run by a Japanese green tea producer "Surugaen" in Tokyo. So they are specialists of Japanese tea. At the small cafe in Daikanyama, a popular fasion town where small boutiques stand around, some selections of Japanese tea and Japanese traditional sweets are available.

My order, a Japanese tea is served by cup with leaf dipped in hot water. A sand clock tells me how long I have to wait for the hot drink.

Of course, some pieces of sweets, rice cakes in my case, cannot be missed along with the fresh tea.

 

Cafe name: Suruga

Address: Daikanyama Plaza 2E 24-7, Sarugakucho, Shibuya, Tokyo

Starbucks coffee at convenience shops

The international coffee shop chain collaborated with a Japanese major beverage company for the brand's first canned coffee. The new products, called "STARBUCKS DOUBLE SHOT" are available at major convenience stores in Tokyo and surrounding regions.

This is the second attempt of collaboration between Starbucks and Suntry for develpping "ready to drink" coffee available not at the coffee shops but at other retail stores, after the first work on cupped coffee. Canned coffee is quite popular especially among Japanese businessmen and is often taken as breakfast or in office. It is much less expensive than a cup of coffee available at Starbucks stores but the quality also matches with the price. I believe that is the opinions of majority.

STARBUCKS DOUBLE SHOT costs Yen170 for 140g. It is much expensive compared with other canned coffee(average price Yen100-Yen120 for around 200ml) but much cheaper than normal Starbucks coffee(starts from around Yen300).

It offers two kinds of taste, Expresso Doppio and Expresso Con Panna.
As per the press release, like ones at the coffee shops, high quality coffee beans "Expresso roast" are used for the production. I tried both taste and felt that they are stronger coffee than other brands canned coffee and that they succeeded in produce something brought the Starbucks's brand image appropriately. The size is small like an expresso cup and it does not take long to finish a can. It is good to have it just for a short time of refreshment.

When you do not have time to drop by a Starbucks shop and cannot wait for a cup of coffee prepaired or when you do not have enough coins...the canned Starbucks at convenience shop could be an alternative option.

Related Website(Japanese version only):
http://www.starbucks.co.jp/doubleshot/

 

STARBUCKS new style shop opened

STARBUCKS Japan opened a new style unit in Tokyo.

Majority of total 27 seats are cozy sofa or arm chairs. The concept image is a relaxing space like a lounge in hotels or airports.
The shop is located next to the taxi hall of Roppongi Hills, a newly developped complex building. Unlike other commercial area of the building, the floor is very quiet and not so many people are walking around. Without asking a staff on the floor, I could not have found the store.

It is a hideaway in Roppongi Hills! (To be honest, I did not want to tell to anybody...)

The uniqueness of the new STARBUCKS is not only the seating.
The shop can offer coffee by a pressing pot.
As per STARBUCKS, the serving way extracts full flavor of coffee beans.
Coffee by a pressing pot is available at  some of other STARBUCKS units.
But time available and beans for the serving way are limited.
Here you can choose one from a wide selection list at any time.

After several minutes from my order at the counter, my coffee was brought to my seat by a pressing pot with a cream pot, sugar pot and a sand clock on a tray.  It requires four minutes to wait after a boild water is poured in the pot.
The sand clock tells us when the coffee is ready.
The smaller cup with the logo mark is another offer from the shop. A sample menu dripped in normal STARBUCKS way. Then I could compare how different these two coffee tasts were.
The longer I had to wait to get a cup of coffee but the better one I could get.

Cafe name: STARBUCKS Roppongi Hills WEST WALK Lounge

Address: 1st floor, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo