About food in Japan

Food from a long-life village in China - Bama Lohas Cafe, Ginza

Japan is known as a country of longevity but today's post is about food from a long living village in China. Following my previous post about an interesting cafe FARO Slow_time in Ginza, Bama Lohas Cafe is also situated in Ginza, just a block away from Matsuzakaya (松坂屋) department store.

"Bama" is the name of city in south-west China. As per explantion on the cafe's official website, in Bama there are more than 80 centenarians out of 250,000 residents. It is said that the longest-living rate is the top rank of the world. One reason of the longevity in Bama is assumed that a food called "hima" seeds help ith keeping human's health for antioxidation. 

Well, let's go back to the cafe in Ginza, very central Tokyo. Bama Lohas cafe provides some dishes made with hima seeds as well as peaceful atomosphere like the longest-life village in China. 

From 9am, Chinese breakfast is available in the calm and relaxing space. 

Chinese congee with 3 kinds of ingredients selected from a list.

Small pieces of hima is also mixed in the bowl.

The small brown ball in center is it...what makes my life longer maybe.

 

The cafe also provides dim-sums and other Chinese dishes for lunch and dinner.

Our breakfast was ended with these sweet dumplings are also made with hima. 

I am very curious how long my life has been extended today....

 

Another important point to be noted for Bama Lohas Cafe is the excellent interior design work by Mr. Kengo Kuma. Morning is also the best time to enjoy his great work, during the lunch and dinner time it is busier and could be filled with diners.

 

Restaurant name: Bama Lohas Cafe

Address: 1st floor, 6-11-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 

Website: http://bama-cafe.com

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コートヤード・マリオット　銀座東武ホテル

パークホテル東京

メルキュールホテル銀座東京

ホテル西洋銀座

Let's spend "slow time" in Ginza! - FARO_slow time by Shiseido (資生堂)

You may know Ginza Shiseido (資生堂) building where the best-known prestigeous Japanese cosmetic producer offers various dining choices in the eleven-story builiding facing Ginza Chuo street.

On May 2011, "FARO_slow time" opened on the top floor with the concept of tasting blessing from the sun.

Going up to the top floor from the vibrant main street of Ginza, the top floor is unexpectedly calm and peaceful space. As matched with the concept, the space is filled with brilliant sunlight from a roof window. Wooden decoration and light green color accent also contribute to make the "slow time"atmosphere.

Truely it is a place where we are able to spend "slow time". We found a nice oasis in central Ginza.

The casual restaurant offers several selections of vegetable plates as well as fish and meat as main dish for lunch and dinner. Dessert and tea time are also very attractive due to the imaginative dessert plates with fresh high quality fruits and healthy ingredients such as beans, rice powder.

The narure-friendly concept is spreded into a small piece of items found there.

A "leaf-shape" spoon is put for sugar pot.

In very hot summer day time, let's spend "slow time" and cool down in the central Ginza location.

By the way, we found floor button board  in the lift looks unique, though it confused us a bit to find an appropriate floor button...

 

Restaurant name: FARO_slow time

Address: 11th floor Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Building, 8-8-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://faro.shiseido.co.jp/slowtime/e/

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<Accommodation close to the site>

三井ガーデンホテル銀座プレミア

コートヤード・マリオット　銀座東武ホテル

パークホテル東京

メルキュールホテル銀座東京

ホテル西洋銀座

Chinese - Masa's Kitchen 47 (Michelin 2011 *)

The Chinese restaurant is located less than 10 minutes walk from JR Ebisu (恵比寿) station, Tokyo. In the quiet residential area and on the basement floor, from outside, the presence is so discreet that we missed and passed it over first. 

Unlike the first impression of the modesty presence, inside of the restaurant is sophisticated modern interior with vital open kitchen space in the middle of seats.  From a table close to the kitchen, we saw the chef Masahito Namazue and his staff working and cooking dishes without a break. 

Every food provided there were impressive and as same with the interior design, it is "modern Chinese". All the flavor are surely on the right track of Chinese cuisine but spices and sauce are not too strong as the chef is aming at his dishes having good mariage with wine.

The lunch course Yen 3500 per person is reasonable as a meal at a Michelin star restaurant. It includes several kinds of Chinese delicacies such as dim-sum, noodle, four selected starters and dessert.

Four selected starter plate and spring roll whose salami-filling is unusual and Western style arrangement. 

 

Juicy dim-sum is "must" item at any kind of Chinese restauran

 

 

You can select "how to cook" your dandan noodle (坦々麺)

with thick soup as Japanese style or 

no soup as Chinese origin style (as the photo below)

otherwise it could offer another way of cooking by season.  

 

Lastly it is rare to find sorbet on Chinese almond jelly, isn't it?

That is another joy to be enjoyed at the end of the meal.

 

 

Restaurant name: Masa's Kitchen 47

Website: http://www.masas-kitchen.com

Address: B1 1-21 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

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Accommodation near to the restaurant:

ウェスティンホテル東京

シェラトン都ホテル東京

Belgian bakery cafe - Le Pain Quotidien

Le Pain Quotidien has been one of my most favourite place in Belgium when I had been there for a few months. The bakery cafe provides simple traditional style breads with high quality ingredients including some organic ones as well as lunch and light meals. Its cafe space is a good option for a short break in a busy day anytime from morning to evening with organic breads and/or tarte cakes, sweets with Belian chocolate.  

Many who know Le Pain Quotidien in Europe have been looking forward to having it in Japan. It was finally arrived in Tokyo last year. The first unit in Japan is located just next to Zojoji temple, Shiba Park area, just a few hundreds meters distance from Tokyo Tower. The single-story pavillion-like building is surrounded by green trees on the site of Tokyo Prince Hotel. 

Let's go through the bakery area and you will find spacious cafe space behind tall shelves. The warm wooden taste furniture, black board with chef's suggestions in handwritting and symbolic  "Communal table" (very large dining space to be shared by more than several diners)...the atomosphere is nothing change from the original ones in Belgium. 

Rather could it be better environment in Tokyo than the ones in Brussels and Paris. As long as ones I visited before, there is no such spacious and high-ceiling space with large windows and natural scene of green over there.

 

 

 

It opens from 7:30am so we cannot miss the best time to enjoy the speciality breads with several selections of fine Le Pain Quotidien original jam. I believe that this is one of the best place to take breakfast in Tokyo, especially when it is sunny day in good season Spring to Summer or Autumn.

 

Not only the traditional style breads, other good breakfast menu are available.

It offers so wide selections for us to be hard to choose just a few of them... 

For lunch and dinner, some dishes mainly in Mediterranian flavour are available.

(description and photo added on August 2014)

 

If you would, Le Pain Quotidien brand seasoning and olive oil are also on sale at the bakery boutique.

 

 

When you would like to have quick lunch and unfortunately no time to be relaxed at the cafe, it is another choice to get pastries, sandwiches, or muffins at the bakery. 

 

Le Pain Quotidien is very close to Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower. It will be a good to visit here before or after the stroll in this area. (description and photo added on August 2014)

 

Restaurant name: Le Pain Quotidien

Address: 3-3-1 Shiba Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Official website: http://www.lepainquotidien.jp 

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<Accommodation close to the site in this article>

セレスティンホテル

芝パークホテル

ザ・プリンス　パークタワー東京

Tharros, Italian restaurant in Shibuya (渋谷) offers Wine Charity plan

Tharros, an Italian restaurant in Shibuya, featuring specifically south Italy and Sardinia food, started Charity Wine plan for their diners. As the charity plan, the first glass wine is offered to guests just at Yen100. If the guests would, they are encouraged to pay more than the price Yen100 and the amount will be contributed as donation to the earthquake and tsunami disaster relief.

The charity plan, named as "Gambari AMO" is offered until the end of July 2011, along with another promotion plan, stamp rally by which 5 stamps out of 10 Italian restaurants in Shibuya becomes a Yen 5000 voucher consumable at Tharros. 

Well, more about Tharros, it is situated a few minutes walk from Shibuya station and the "world-busiest" Shibuya crossing. In the area behind two big commercial complex, Tokyu Plaza and Shibuya Mark City, some interesting small restaurants can be found in addition to Tharros and Cowbelle which was introduced on this blog in the past.

 

South Italian style antipastini dishes

such as tuna, sardine, mushrooms... 

Sardinian pasta "fregula" with pork sausages looks like rice ...

but it is small pieces of pasta

"Pane frattau" Sardinia style lasagna with poached egg

With rich in seafood, olive oil and tomato sauce, their Italian dishes are healthy and good taste of course!

Let's enjoy healthy Italian and contribute to donation at the same time!

About Gambari AMO promotion plan, it is also available in English on eatpia.com.

http://www.eatpia.com/restaurant/tharros-shibuya-italian

Restaurant name: Tharros

Address: SEDE Building 1st floor, 1-5-2 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.tharros.jp

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Daichi no ki (大地の木), Takadanobaba (高田馬場) - Singaporean, Malaysian food

 Many Japanese people, including me who visited South East Asia, like Singapore style chicken rice (海南鶏飯, Hainanese chicken rice ). The typical hawker menu, cooked chicken with rice is available even in Tokyo by Malaysian chef. Daichi no ki (大地の木) is a small casual restaurant located in Takadanobaba (高田馬場), known as a "student town" in Tokyo.  

The restaurant offers wide selections of Asian food, Chinese small starter dishes, Korean hot pepper soup, Thai style salad etc. The atmosphere and the price are casual but the taste is authentic and appreciated by Asian food lovers in Tokyo. 

One of the speciality Singapore style chicken rice set menu, I had. Yes the spicy sauce and rice are similar to what I had in South East Asia. 

Another speciality of Daichi no ki is Penang style shrimp noodle. The noodle soup in red looks very hot and it is made with stock (bouillon) from lobster's head, which is very rate to find in Japan and also what I would like to try on my next visit.

By the way, the retsuarant name "Daichi no ki" is purely in Japanese, "tree on the land".

  

With the decoration and non-Japanese staff on the floor as well as the plates provided, I felt as if I were travelling in Singapore or  somewhere else in South East Asia. I enjoyed a very short "escape" to the south from Tokyo there.

By the way, related to Singapore, a travel seller group is sending a delegation team to Japan during this week. The team is reporting what's going on in Japan at this moment through their own eyes on facebook.

Please also check their facebook page liked to know how they see in Japan, if you would.

http://www.facebook.com/ChanBrothersTravelSG

 

Restaurant name: Daichi no ki (大地の木)

Address: Meiho Building 1st floor, 2-14-9 Shinjuku-ku, Takadanobaba, Tokyo

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French - Ogino (オギノ)

In Tokyo, we still feel, a few times or more in a day, aftershock of the huge natural disaster happened 2 weeks ago. We have another concern about radioactive contamination as my previous posts. However we cannot turn down a chance to visit this restaurant, Ogino. The French restaurant with 20 seats is often featured on gourmet page of magazines and it is so popular that we rarely can find a vacant table even if we try to call for a reservation many times.

Fortunately a few months ago a friend succeeded in making a reservation for dinner on a weekday evening of March. We had been looking forward to being at Ogino since that time. That has not changed for us even after the unexpected very sad event. For all of us, it was the first pleasant gathering or dining out with good friends since 11^th of March. On the way to the restaurant, we found the town of Shibuya seemed to be back to normal and streets were filled with young people as we saw before.

Ogino is located in Ikejiri Ohashi (池尻大橋), just a stop from Shibuya. The owner chef, Mr. Ogino mentions about the restaurant’s concept on its official homepage. It is “bistronomy” (bistro + gastronomy) or a mixture of different category of French dining, bistro, brasserie and gastronomy (luxury). It allows diners to visist the restaurant in different occasions. The quality of meal is as high as like upscale restaurans but the atomosphere is rather casual like bistro. That is what the owner wants himself and he made it in reality.

 

Yes, I agree that Ogino is such a place, as the chef aims, bistronomy.

Let’s see some of what we had that eveinig.

First of all, it was really hard to select one or two plate from the very attractive a la carte menu...

 

Starter

Left: broccoli mouse, scallop and club, jelly of beef consomme

Right: white asparagus orange hollandaise sauce

 

Soup of fish

 

Main dish

Rabit from France, onion confit stuffed

 

The restaurant Ogino offers selection of wine not so much expensive, mainly made after year 2000 but they are interesting ones. 

 

It worth waiting for a few months and I hope that I can visit there again near future.

 

Restaurant name: Ogino

Address: 2-20-9 Ikejiri, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://french-ogino.com

 

 

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French - Brasserie Paul Bocuse Daimaru Tokyo (大丸東京)

Mr. Paul Bocuse is one of the legends in French cuisine. His restaurant in Lyon, France, has been awarded as 3 stars for decades by Michelin guide book. Hoping that his French cooking is expanded to the world, the master of French cuisine also produces French brasserie style restaurants which serve at reasonable prices in casual atmosphere.

Brasserie Paul Bocuse at Daimaru Tokyo (大丸東京) is one of the units by the master French chef. As its named, the restaurant is located in Daimaru Department store, just off from JR Tokyo station. Why not to try the authentic French menu before or after your excursion to Kyoto, Kansai or Tohoku. It is less than 10 minutes to get out from crowds in the railway station and to go up to the 12th floor of the major department store adjucent to JR Tokyo Yaesu exit. 

  My case, it wa an event of wine tasting with special menu though. The weekday lunch course starts from Yen1200 and dinner course from Yen3500 to enjoy fine sesonal French cuisine. What's a resonable fare considering the quality of food and central location. It will be a good opportunity to pop in for lunch and to take a peaceful break during shopping at Daimaru Tokyo Department store. 

I recognized that taste of baguette (French bread) served there reminds me ones in France. I found the reason when I asked to a waiter. The bread is "made in France" and brought to Japan. Then the baguette is baked after arrived. Amaging logistic and technology...

 

For the French made bread, the restaurant offers butter by "Echire" which is known for the highest quality and is rare to find in Japan.

 

 

 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These plates were for the event of wine tasting, rather than regular one on the list.

Starter - Cheese mouse

Fish - Cod Bouillabaisse soup and safran risotto

Main dish - grilled Magret duck and duck confit (both on a plate!)

with dessert

Defenitely I hope to come back here for nice wine and French cuisine at reasonable price.

 

Related post, about another Brasserie Paul Bocuse unit in Tokyo:

Brasserie by Grand Chef at National Art Center Tokyo

 

Restaurant name: Brasserie Paul Bocuse Daimaru Tokyo (大丸東京)

Address: 12th floor Grand Tokyo North Tower, 1-9-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.paulbocuse.jp/eng/daimarutokyo/

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Goku Tea House (悟空茶荘), oasis in Yokohama China Town (横浜中華街)

Chinese New Year celebrating weeks is almost ended for 2011. But the one of the biggest China Towns in Japan can never be a quite place. Whether it is Summer or Winter, weekend or weekdays Yokohama China Town is always filled with tourists and local diners. 

Goku Tea House is peaceful oasis amid the busy streets of Yokohama China Town. It is just a stone throw from one of the most popular tourist spots, Kantei (Guan Di) byo (関帝廟). The tea house has two floors; tea making tools and leaf shop on the ground floor and the cozy tea salon on the upper floor. Goku Tea House is far away from bustle of the exitotic town and is filled with Chinese folk arts and objects. 

 

Needless to say, the Chinese tea house offers really wide selections of every kinds of Chinese tea, categorized by color, blue (example: popular oolong), green, red (like Engish tea), flower tea etc. It is fun to choose one from the list but it can never be done within a short time...

 

Finally I took Longjing tea in a glass cup and speciality "parfait" called "Tonkou" (敦煌, Dunhuang), named after the major city on the Silk Road in China. 

Tonkou Parfait: Tapioca pearls, Chinese herb jelly and a piece of cherry wrapped by litchee on top of ice cream.  

Boild water is available from an electric kettle on table. That makes us stay in Goku Tea House for long time. Enjoy having Chinese dessert, chatting or reading as your peaceful tea time with cups of tea in the Asian atmosphere, as long as you can or want...

 

During lunch time, it also offers lunch set such as Chinese noodle, pork rice bowl at reasonable price.

Of course the cozy tea house attracts many of local people and it might be fully occupied for a while of mid-day. Goku Tea House has two more units in Yokohama China Town; one Tea tools boutique and another Tea Salon.

 

Cafe name: Goku Tea House (悟空茶荘) 

Address: 130 Yamashitacho, Naka-Ku, Yokohama-city

Website (Japanese) : http://www.goku-teahouse.com/index.php?page=shop02

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Cowbell Gyuniku Shokudo (カウベル 牛肉食堂 Beef Dining), Shibuya (渋谷)

I had never known the restraunt category, Gyuniku Shokudo (牛肉食堂). It is "Beef dining room", if I translate the name into English. I guess that no restaurant might be called so, apart from Cowbell (カウベル) in Shibuya. 

It is a casual French restaurant but specialized in beef (牛肉) dishes, located close to Shibuya Mark City, a major shopping complex adjucent to Shibuya station which is globally known for the busiest diagonal crossing.

The restaurant proposes beef plates in different styles, with various parts of beef, from tartar steak, grilled steak, liver mousse etc. They know how to cook beef for the best taste. Not all the beef is Japanese but all are high quality ones such as Australian or Mexican.  

Lunch sets are reasonable prices from Yen1000 to Yen 1500 with soup, bread, coffee and a small piece of cake. 

Miched steak mustart sauce with creamy mushed potato

All are on a clasic silver plate

 

The small restaurant had been full for the weekend lunch.

From the counter table, you can enjoy watching the chef preparing your plate just in front of you. I was not bothered while I was waiting for my lunch plate.

Looking at the menu list, that reminded me bistro style restaurants in France. They are casual, not expensive, nor sophisticated French restaurant but cozy warm atomosphere where people go in their daily life.

 

Restaurant name: Cowbell

Address: 1st floor, 1-5-9 Dogenzaka, Shibuya, Tokyo

 

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