Koots Green Tea - Roppongi

Tonight we set out to look at the some of the cool new buildings and the famous nightlife in the Roppongi district. After our huge lunch, we figured we didn't need a big meal and would just grab whatever looked good along the way. We started out at Tokyo Midtown, a 6-buidling (including the tallest building in Tokyo) mixed-use development that opened in 2007. It houses a number of fancy shops and restaurants, but we decided to get something cheap and small in the Plaza/B1F level to exercise some money saving measures when coming near the end of our trip/ assaults on our bank accounts. We figured that most of the fancy stuff would not have been vegetarian anyway!

We decided to give Koots Green Tea a try because it has something a bit more substantial than Starbucks or cakes on offer, and their menu with English in front of the shop made it easier as well.



I guess they get quite a lot of foreign visitors at Tokyo Midtown, since a number of international companies like Xerox and Cisco have their offices in this building, and the server spoke some English. We ordered some onigiri (around ¥200 each and much larger than you get for a similar price in the UK) and were told we had to wait a few minutes for them.



From right to left, the onigiri were perilla and hijiki, green perilla and leaf mustard, and edam and olive. All were good but it was the edam and olive was the best and most interesting, with slightly melted cheese working surprisingly well with the rice. Definitely worth the (short) wait and not something you're likely to get anywhere else than Japan.

We also had ice tea and a green tea cream an-mitsu, green tea soft cream with red beans (¥790 as a 'dessert set' together).




Tasty but we had better green tea parfaits! The place was not somewhere you would go and sit to eat for too long but for a quick stop and some interesting onigiri it might be worth a go if you are in the area and want some comparatively cheap eats.


Koots Green Tea (Tokyo Midtown branch)
東京都港区赤坂9-7-2 B-B101
TEL： 03-5413-7131

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!

Tsujiri (Gion)

Thanks to our massive tofu meal in the afternoon, we didn't really need a full meal that evening. We wandered the streets of Gion to see a bit of this historical district of Kyoto and also because we were told the Ebisu Matsuri/Festival (Ebisu Shrines are dedicated to Ebisu, the patron deity of business) was happening in the area. We were hoping to try another Kyoto favourite, green tea desserts and sweets and came across a few restaurants and cafes exhibiting green tea dessert models along Shijo-dori . We knew we came to the mecca of green tea dessert heaven when we saw Tsujiri (茶寮都路里) and a massive queue. When you see people queuing for a place down the stairs and out along the street, it's probably a good sign:



We really wanted to try this place but were a bit deterred by the queue. We decided to check out the festival first and ate some yummy street food at there to hold us over. We returned to Tsujiri and found the queue luckily got a bit shorter. We joined the wait on the street, and turned out it was moving quite quickly. We later spoke to a Japanese friend about this, and apparently there is always a wait there! While you are waiting, you can see what is in store from the food models:



We got seated after 15 minutes. You could find all sort of green tea food items including assorted types of hot or cold drinks, shaved ice, anmitsu, dessert sets and even green tea udon! We eventually settled for some green tea parfaits (抹茶 パフェ). For those who haven't tried green tea icecream it may seem a slightly odd idea, but the sweetness and creaminess mixed with a hint of bitterness from the tea is a delicious combination. And for anyone who has tried and loved it, Tsujiri is the place to go. The enormous parfaits are not cheap (the pictured below were ¥880 and ¥1,200 respectively), but seriously, we can almost let the picture speak for itself here:



That's orange pieces, cream, sponge cake, mochi, grass jelly and azuki beans mixed in there, and it was every bit as delicious and luxurious as it looks. The one on the left was the 'basic' Tea & Parfait (茶々パフェ) and the one on the right was the 'greedy' monthly special parfait.

There are 2 other branches of Tsujiri in Kyoto and 2 branches in Tokyo.

〒605-0073 京都市東山区祇園町北側275倭美坐（わびざ）祇園くろちくビル2F
Kyoto City, Gionmachi-Minamigawa 573-3