About food in Japan

Museum cafe - Cafe Sasyu Kanetanaka

An upscale Japanese traditional restaurant(Ryotei) produced a cafe in Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The terrace is a cozy place to have lunch or tea in Spring, Summer or Autumn after you visit the museum or the garden, when the weather is nice.

The cafe has a few kinds of lunch set menu, a combination of noodles and/or rice bowl with small side dishes. Of course the food quality is surely by the upscale restaurant, while the price is not too expensive as a cafe menu.

    

What I chose is a set of noodle "feicui" color with a piece of canard and a rice bowl with chicken "soboro" and scrambled egg.

The modern interior in the green environment is unique as a place to serve Japanese traditional plates.

The coffee cup was a little surprise for me. The one is normally for matcha(Japanese green tea).

The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum has a nice garden to walk around or to spend a sunny holiday afternoon.

Cafe name: Cafe Sasyu Kanetanaka (茶酒　金田中）
Address: Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum 5-21-9 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo

      

    

Chinese - Denenkyo 田燕居

Denenkyo is a Chinese restaurant located in a residential district of Tokyo, Yoga.
The restaurant's meal concept is mom's cooking from Beijin.
Chinese food is already very well-known in Japan, but the restaurant is aiming to introduce real local home food of China.

In the menu list, we can find many familier menu and ingredients for Chinese and Japanese; gyoza(Chinese dumpling), oyaki (salty round shape cake), kakuni(diced pork stew), mapo-tofu...
What we had are surely slightly different from what we usually know as Chinese food. Cooking way is simple but I believe that selected ingredients, authentic spices and the professional chef from the hometown country make the difference.
Definetely I prefer these dishes to ones available in typical Chinese restaurants.

The port stew(kakuni, 角煮） is its speciality and is served with sauteed vegetables and thin baked rice papers.

Soup and mapo-tofu are provided by thick earthen pot.

Mapo-tofu is the best match with rice!

The restaurant is decorated charmingly with antiques. They are another delight there.
Lunch special course 8 dishes and dessert at 3500yen.

For more photos at the restaurant, please click here.

Restaurant name: Denenkyo (田燕居）
Address:　Pinepalace 1F 4-17-8 Yoga, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Nearest station: Yoga on Tokyu Denentoshi line
Website: http://www.kiwa-group.co.jp/restaurant/a100034.html

Italian - Boschetta

Boschetta is an Italian restaurant in quiete upscale residential area of Shirokane.

Here it is art on plates. It is beautiful but at the same time very tasty as food!
What to be great for us was the lunch course is very reasonable cosindering the quality of food. We had a course of YEN5000.
It includes two starters, two pasta, fish, meat, dessert and coffee.

The restaurant serves all menu beautifully presented on glass plates imported from Greece.
Always food make good matches with artistic plates. They look like an artwork.

Another surprise was the wine list. Wine bottle labels are drawn by hands and painted with color pencils. Even though I looked tousands of wine list at restaurants, I can never find one like that! It is also fantastic work.

Cost around 7000yen for a cozy afternoon. It has value for money.

Restaurant name: Boschetta
Address: 5-13-9 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.boschetta.com/

For full photos at the restaurant, please visit here.

UNIQLO - COMPANY COLLABO T-shirt OXO

Japanese casual ware producer and store chain, UNIQLO launched new design T-shirt, collabolating with American kitchen took producer OXO.

OXO'ｓ symbolic sic kitchen tools are depicted in front.

                              

And the company logo and website address are on top of the back side.   

Size: for women only

Price: YEN1500
About the OXO T-shirt on UNIQLO official website:
http://ut.uniqlo.com/#/id:05200409/

Onigiri/Omusubi - Rice ball

Rice ball is called "onigiri(おにぎり）" or "omusubi（おむすび）" in Japanese.　It may be the simplest Japaense traditional food.

A bowl of rice seasoned with salt is transfered into shape of triangle, round or bale by a pair of human hand. Black thin dried laver seaweed(nori, のり,　海苔）is wrapped around the clot of rice.

Traditionally it is typical lunch box menu for pick-nick or other outdoor events.

In modern days, it can be found at any convenience shops as one of their majour products. They are made not by mother's hands but by indstrial machine at a factory. But they are likely to be a typical lunch menu of business people.

Normally a small piece of filling is inside of rice balls.
Filling is traditionally pickled Japanese apricot or small pieces of fruits of sea, such as grilled salmon, dried bonito, kelp, roasted cod roe.
Newer and modern fillings have tons of variation; tuna mayonnaise, fried chicken, fried shrimp, pickled vegetables, grilled beef etc etc...

It is maybe from 21st century even in Japan, modern onigiri/omusubi cafes or specialized shop opens as a category of first food, while major convenience chains launches higher standard onigiris with selected high quality ingredients but at higher price than normal productes.

It is a trend back to a good old days, when healthy mom's home-made dish was common everywhere.

Onigiri/omusubi  chains:
Omusubito - http://www.omusubito.co.jp/
Gonbei　－http://www.omusubi-gonbei.com

The oldest onigiri shop:
Yadoroku (in Asakusa) - http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~yosuke/

Onigiri cafe:

Ony - http://www.ony.jp/

Yakatabune - Cruise on Japanese traditional boat

Yakatabune is Japanese traditional style boat where we can enjoy the beauty of season on cruising.
In Tokyo, Tokyo-Bay and Sumida river are typical course of cruising.
This evening I took cruise and dinner course to enjoy cherry blossoms along river side of Sumida.

The boat departed from the pier in Shinagawa after welcome greeting by the hostess.
Two staff are in service for us as well as almost 40 other guests. All drink is included so we can drink alcohol such as beer, Japanese sake, wine etc as much as we want.
But what we need to keep in mind is that alcohol affects stronger on the human body when we are on swinging boat than at normal restaurant...

After we passed narrow canal, the boad proceeds to Tokyo-Bay.
Night illuminations of Tokyo tower, the Bay Bridge and unique shape buildings in Odaiba are the first attraction.

Dinner is typical Japanese "party" menu.
Sashimi boat is one of the main dish. That makes us delighted to the eyes even for Japanese locals.

Tempura(deep oil fry) is another attraction.
It is served just after freshly taken up from the oil.
That is what we can rarely expect at Japanese casual restaurant in town.
The host never forget that we are takings this cruise to enjoy Spring season. So we can find a piece of cherry flower on plates!
It is even fried in oil and we can eat it!

The half way point is Asakusa, where cherry trees in a row on both river sides. The boat stopped at the point for a while so we could enjoy watching full blossom of the trees from the surface of the river.
We have to accept the situation that it is not only us who would like to enjoy the beautiful spring scene. Many other boats are there and many people are on the river side as well.
Nobody can miss this opportunity!

The boat comes back to the pier after two hours cruise with a nice dinner and drinks.
What a fantastic evening to have a pleasure of Spring season in traditional way!

*More photos are uploaded here.

Restaurant(Cruise boat) name:　Funasei
Website: http://www.funasei.com/

Torindo - Traditional Japanese sweets

During a stoll in Yanaka area, I found amazing sweets.
Torindo is a small sweets shop which is selling traditional Japanese sweets, using natural blessings. Obviously they are a kind of traditional Japanese sweets but are unique and witty, while kept as high quality products.

I got two of their specialities.

Kotaiyaki: Taiyaki(like me!) is very popular Japanese traditional casual sweets, fish-shape cake or sandwitch, filled with bean-paste. Torindo makes it smaller and converted it to more sphisticated product. "Ko" on top of Taiyaki means "small" in Japanese.

From left:
Japanese traditional sweets shops always wrap their products in elegant manner.
A piece of fresh green cedar leaf is the shop master's tender solicitude to remind us four seasons.
Like Taiyaki, Kotaiyaki is filled with bean-paste(anko).

        

                

Gochikoa: The name is original of the shop. As per the shop's introduction, the name inspired by five gods' wisdom. There are three box of Gochika, each different colors, yellow, red and green. Each box contains sugaring five kinds of dried fruits and vegetable. For example...

Above is Red box; orange, pear, lotus roots, fig and Japanese butterbur（fuki)

Other two boxes contain such as carrott, celery, eggplant, bamboo shoots...

I ever saw very similar one, dried and suguring fruits in Provence, south France. But pieces of vegetable processed in same way are the first experience here.
It is surely sweets and good match with a cup of green tea.

They are very good as souvenir of old Japanese, Yanaka.

The sweets shops has a small tea corner, where visitor can order green tea and their unique products on site.

Shop: Torindo
Address: 1-5-7 Ueno Sakuragi, Taito-ku, Tokyo
*Located in front of Tokyo University of the Arts
Website: http://www.torindo.co.jp

Kushiage(skewered and fried) - Hantei

"Kushiage" means food skewered then fried.
"Kushikatsu", skewered and pan-fried pork or beef is the most popular kind of Kushiage. Not only meat but fish, shrimps, vegetables are often used as ingredient of Kushiage.

Today I visited kushiage restaurant in Nezu, Bunkyo-ku.
Now it is rare to find a restaurant specialized in kushiage menu.

As soon as we ordered lunch course menu, the table was set
by a waitress. A small dish of starter,  a glass filled with stick-shaped vegetables(carrot, cucumber and Japanese radish), a bowl  stuffed with pieces of cabbage and three kinds of spices plate(miso, salt and sauce for fry)...made us excited for what we were going to have.
                                           

The first dish is shrimp and ginger. Pan-fried shrimp is not rare in Japane but we can never see the one wrapped with "shiso"(Japanese basil). It is a good idea! We can imitate the way in home cooking... A stick ginger fry cannot be found any other place, maybe... Actually ginger was a speciality of this area long ago as the name shown.(Yanaka ginger)

Even though it was lunch time, I could not stop ordering alcohol drink with this nice pan-fried food. What is wonderful at kushiage restaurant is that all fried food were fresh and just taken out from a fryer by the skillful chef. Finally we had 8 kinds of kushiage and a bowl of rice followed.
At the end of the course, seasonal flavored ice cream is served. This time, it was sakura"cherry flower" flavor! It was the last surprise for us. It is difficult to find sakura flavor ice cream even in this country!

Restaurant name: Hantei (はん亭）

Address: 2-12-15 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo　
Website: http://www.hantei.co.jp
*The restaurant's building is registered as a cultural heritage.

French - La Matiere

Kagurazaka area is known for the good blend of old Japan and French atmosphere. Japanese traditional restaurants and French ones are scattered on sides of narrow winding streets in the small town. It is said, because of a major French school and some French organizations in the area, we can find several restaurants which provide authentic French cuisine there.

La Matiere is one of them. The small French restaurant has attractted a lot of groumets since its openning in 2006. Tables for weekends are often fully booked a month prior, even though the restaurant does not have an official website.

As shown on the first photo above, I found the tower like, stereoscopic presentation is chef's style. Even fish is served in this style, like this....    

The cuisine is of course fantastic experience!

Seasonal vegetables are all carefully finished and the restaurant's speciality, pork grill is unforgettable for the spicy flavour. The wine list would never disappoint guests.

Definitely I will be back here to try other dishes.

The restaurant is suitable even for special occasions such as birthday, anniversary etc etc.

Restaurant name: La Matiere

Address: 6-29 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Izakaya Top10 by British newspaper

Izakaya is a category of the food service industry in Japan.

It is a type of restaruant but in between a restaurant and a bar.
It is a place where we can enjoy eating and drinking at the same time.
Izakaya has casual atmosphere like "pub" in England but it has not only wide selections of alcohol drinks but also variety in food. 

It is where ordinary people  are likely to go with their colleagues  after  a long day of work to  chill out. Welcome or farewell party for peers in office are likely to held in Izakaya.
Another occasion at Izakaya is relaxing time with an intimate partner.

It is everywhere in Japan, particulaly in live downtown area. It is not hard to find one around a terminal station.
There are some chains of Izakaya, while some independent Izakayas try to differenciate themselves from the biggers by offering innovative original dishes.
The reasonable ones charges around YEN2000 per person. On the other hand, others could charge four to five times as much  in turn of high quality food, nice presentation of dishes, rare cups of Sake and their attentive services.

A writer of a newspaper in UK picked up his Top 10 Izakaya in Tokyo.
The list called attention of Japanese people in the food service industry and it is regarded as a discerning choice and good observation by local specialists.

Here are full list of Top 10.
Just to remind you, I have never visited either. I hope that I can go to some of them and report the experience on this blog...

1. Teyandei (てやん亭） in Nishiazabu - Horse meat is one of its speciality.
http://www.teyandei.com (site Japanese only)

2. Buri in Ebisu - The most casual style! "cup SAKE at standing bar"
http://www.takewaka.co.jp/buri/   (site Japanese only)

3. Aburiya Fu-do(炙家　風土） in Aoyama - Selected fresh ingredients are carefully roasted
http://www.wid.co.jp/tenpo/fudo-aoyama/

4. Bistrot 35 steps（三十五段屋） in Shibuya - To be in the bustle space, has to down 34 steps from ground then go one step up.

No official website found.

5. Yui-an （結庵） in Shinjuku - Enjoy breathtaking night illumination  from the 52th floor
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/fl/en/g002213/

6. Ikkon (いっこん） in Akasaka - Traditional Japanese in modern Japanese interior

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/fl/en/g079202/

7. Tsuki no shizuku(月の雫）  in  Ginza - Tofu is its speciality, a major chain Izakaya
http://www.tsukino-shizuku.com/tsuki_shop02.html  (site Japanese only)

8. Seigetsu (霽月) in Kagurazaka - Typical cozy Izakaya in warm folk wooden decoration
http://www.teshigotoya.net/seigetsu/index.html

9. Gonpachi (権八） in Nishi-Asabu - Well-known for casual dinner for which President Clinton was invited by Mr. Koizumi, Japanese Prime Minister at that time
http://www.gonpachi.jp/en/nishi_azabu/home/location

10. Galali (がらり） in Omotesando - Modern Izakaya in former folk dwelling
http://www.gala-e.com/galali.html

The original article : http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/feb/26/tokyo.food