Breakfast baked goods

A couple of different breakfasts for this post. First, on our way to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka we bought some small things at Tokyo station to eat on the way. It was from a counter of Cozy Corner. They offered a variety of western cakes and bakery items, and we got a chocolate eclair (￥116) and a 'little bird' custard filled-waffle (￥116). The 'waffle' was not exactly what you would think of as waffle, a bit soft for that, but very nice and fluffy, almost cake like texture with lots of cool and creamy filling! It even came with a little icepack to keep it cool, impressive attention to detail! Cheap and nice breakfast on the go!





Second, our breakfast on our final day. We made a quick stop at Harajuku again before the weekend mob descended and went to Caffe Solare on Takeshita-dori. We got some (organic but slightly expensive) tea (¥300 each) and some Western style baked goods. They were cream corn bread (¥190), mini pizza bread (¥180) and cream cheese pie (¥170):



I love the cream corn bread! Another slightly Asian fusion creation? They were actually not that small, so not bad value and filled our stomach nicely. There are some similar style bakery goods in the Japan Centre in London, so when I miss my Asian style bread I can get my fix there.

Japanese street crepes

We got back Tokyo this evening on Shinkensan. We had a vague plan for the evening but we changed our minds kind of last minute. So somehow we ended up in Ikebukuro, and by the time we were trying to find something we eat, the shops and restaurants in shopping/entertainment/hotel megaplex Sunshine City were closing (might have been interesting to visit Ice Cream City in Namja Town, one of these Japanese food 'theme park' type place where you could find all sorts of ice-cream/soft serve type creations).

Since we already had quite a sizable lunch in Osaka, we decided to just grab some Japanese street crepes at the Crazy Crepes stall next to the Sega Aracde. As the location of the stall suggests, Japanese street crepes are popular with young people. It's very causal and cheap food that you might eat while standing or walking on the street. Some of you might have managed to try this lovely Japanese interpretion outside Japan, as you can find them in San Francisco, Melbourne or Vancouver. I think the main difference between Japanese and French crepes are the toppings, but also Japanese crepes perhaps have slightly less egg?

Most of the selections at this 'Atlanta Crazy Crepes' were with sweet and cold toppings, but there were also a few savory toppings (tuna, egg salad, teriyaki chicken - the most bizaare combo was cabonara teriyaki chicken!) and also a few combos with chocolate or custard cream served hot. Depends on toppings, they were around ¥400 each. I got one with strawberries, and IF got a chocolate one. They were both quite yummy, but the downside was there was no place to sit down and we weren't too sure if we were allowed to go into the arcade with the crepes! Depends on the type of crepe (how much cream it has!) you get, I'd say it's definitely enough for a snack or light lunch.

If you visit Harajuku in Tokyo, you would see the two famous crepe stands on Takeshita Dori, Marion Crepes and Angels Hearts (which are right across from each other). We didn't manage to try them, but at least I managed to take a photo of what was on offer at Angels Hearts. Oh well, there is always next time!

Tabasa Pasta Viking

Our second Viking buffet experience (after It's Vegetable) was at Tabasa at the bottom of the hill end of Takeshita-dori in Harajuku. The plastic models give a good idea of what was on offer; there were a couple of suitable salad & pasta dishes and we were lucky enough that there was also mushroom/tomato pizza out for most of the time we were there. The different prices seen in the photo depended on whether you were a man (¥1155) or woman (¥1050), although I'm not completely sure I ate that much more to justify the extra. There was also an option including all you can drink beer, but we thought it was a bit pricey and wouldn't get our money worth.

The highlight was definitely the fact that desserts were also on an all you can eat basis (there was a one hour time limit for everything) - green tea ice cream and red bean pancakes were enough to make me wish I left more room for them.



Overall all it was an alright experience, a good place to avoid the pouring rain since we didn't feel like walking around and getting more wet! It was also slightly amusing with all the American hip-hop/rap memorabilia decorating the restaurant - we had a video screen showing the same types of videos right above us on the wall and huge Eminem and 50 Cent posters behind us.


Tabasa
B1F, 1-8-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
東京都渋谷区神宮前1-8-3 石川ビルB1F
Tel: 03-3404-3740.

You'll never go hungry

We know being vegetarians can be a bit tricky in Japan and take a bit of extra effort sometimes, but the truth is with so many food counters, shops and restaurants everywhere, especially in big cities like Tokyo, one can't really go hungry! I thought we should show you the miscellaneous snacks, small treats and lighter meals we've had while in Tokyo.

Starting from our Thursday 'lunch' - we figured we would just have something simple and quick because we wanted to go back to some shops in Shinjuku before meeting a friend somewhere else. First, we found this 'New York style' bagel stand inside Shinjuku station. I'm not sure if they have green tea and white chocolate bagels in NYC, but we couldn't resist trying. The texture was a bit different, but it was a good sweet snack.



We tried to find a spot for some quick lunch but didn't find anything too exciting or offered too many options in the food alley type place inside the station, so we decided to go check out the food hall in Odakyu department store (小田急百貨店). Anyone that has been to any Japanese department store food hall would know how amazing they are (sorry Selfridges food hall just doesn't compare). We found the daily dish/bento (惣菜・弁当) section and thought we should be able to find a few things there. This onigiri counter 味の梅ばち(something about taste of plum) caught our attention because we thought we should be able to get some vegetarian onigiri. I showed the lady behind the counter our 'no meat, no seafood' writing, and she helpful gave me the 'X' singal with her arms when I pointed at a couple items that probably contained fish. In the end, we got some inari sushi, big soy sauce & dry seaweed onigiri, and three smaller onigiri with plum, wakame and hijiki (brown sea vegetable). It's a shame that there was nowhere to sit at the food hall (ended up sitting on a bench on the train platform because we were early for our train), but they were all very tasty, especially the plum one, and pretty cheap.

Sorry for the blurry picture!



After we reached our destination and met a friend in Shimokitazawa, we went to the Deli and Baking co. for tea and sweet treats. It was very welcome to get out of the rain to somewhere homely and welcoming and have some tea - warm on this occasion although cold milk tea (ミルクティ) from vending machines was also surprisingly refreshing once you get past the initial weirdness of its cold and sweetness.

Pictured below: caramel cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake and oreo muffin. Each was ¥900 for a set including the drink, but totally worth it, although the oreo muffin was perhaps a little too much chocolate to take in one go. The caramel cheescake even came with edible ball bearings. Desserts are definitely a very big deal in Japan, often far more eleborate and nicely presented than these as well as not as sweet as Western sweets.



Later on we had bubble tea in Pearl Lady in Harajuku (off Takeshita-dori). For those of you unfamiliar with this Taiwanese speciality (also known as pearl tea), it is cold milk tea (or fruit flavoured milk) with balls of tapioca at the bottom that one sucks through a very wide straw. Fun as well as tasty! The ones we had (green tea and milk tea, below) came without the avalanche of ice that sometimes takes up half the cup, so that was good.



Next on our snack tour, some matcha dorayaki (two small pancake-like patties with sweet red bean paste filling) from Family Mart, one of the many konbinis (コンビニ, convenience store) that offer some much better snack food than you might find in equivalents in the west. Not sure about the 'home made' claim on the bag but the one at the top left is more true.



More sweet snacks at Mister Donut in Akihabara - a custard and whipped cream (カスタード＆ホイップ) filled donut, pictured with hot chocolate. Even the one of us who is not usually much of a fan of custard liked this combination, although the appeal of Mister Donut was more in its convenient location and price (¥115 for the donut) than particular amazing food or drinks. Not a bad place for a pit stop though.



And finally, some manjū (饅頭, made from flour/rice/buckwheat read bean paste filling) souvenir that we didn't actually eat but are worth posting for the novelty factor anyway, spotted on the stalls on Nakamise-Dori, where you can find all your Japanese souvenirs, outside Senso-Ji temple in Asakusa. Now I wish I'd bought some.