Coffee and cafes in Tokyo

I love coffee like most people do. Having a cup of coffee in the morning is a daily ritual for me.

In London, I used to buy a bag of coffee from various cafes. Mommouth Coffee is one of my favorites. There was always a long line in front of the shop in Borough market and I enjoyed both the feeling and taste of their coffee.

There are so many good cafes in London. I was really fascinated by the coffee culture which eventually led me to focus on coffee as my dissertation topic.  My paper did not get a good score, but I think it was an accessible topic for me back then. I needed to do some kind of field work so I chose to do it in the Japanese specialty coffee sector. From my conclusion,I do not think many specialty coffee companies in Japan embrace or accept the alternative movements much, instead they try to focus on the quality of products more even fiercely. And also I do not think the alternative trade movements will catch on in this country any time soon since the development of those initiatives needs a certain cultural or historical prerequisite. I did survey among coffee consumers but only about less than 20  % of the people recognized the mark and system of fairtrede, for example. It was expected but for me it was also shocking back then.  When I started the paper, I was really optimistic about those movements and consumerism. But lately, after reading a book called Weighing in and academic papers written by Julie Guthman and related articles, I have really complex feeling toward them, to be honest.

Anyway!

Only 10 specialty coffee companies accepted to take part in the survey. But I think it was enough to see how the specialty coffee retailers perceive the concept of `ethical' or alternative trade movements in their business settings.

The Coffee Shop in Daikanyama is one of them. I heard that the company is run by a design firm. So they are trying to produce really stylish goods selling at the store. I tried their coffee twice. and the iced coffee was shockingly good. I remember the coffee was from Ethiopia. I think they know how to make a good iced coffee to catch my heart.

The person from Horiguch Coffee gave me the most detailed answer to my questions. I think the owner Horiguch is a kind of pioneer of Japanese specialty coffee industry. I took his brewing seminar and in the session he was saying that he learnt a lot about the concept of specialty products in the course of his wine tasting study. He then introduced the very idea of single origin or other important concepts of specialty coffee seen today. I was actually surprised by their professionalism and saw sort of artisan mind from the coffee shop.

Lately, I like Sarutahiko Coffee quite a lot. Its location is really good－ Ebisu and it opens until midnight. Just simply brewed coffee is the best I think. Although the shop is tiny, I could get a comfortable feeling there. And also I like Omotesando Coffee in Omotesando. The cafe was originally just an old house but it turned into a really stylish and fun place to have a coffee. I remember it has a small gallery next to the coffee counter.

Japanese people consume a lot of coffee, but I think many working guys like canned coffee and I guess the popularity is only seen in Japan. I never like the taste of canned coffee.... It tastes like coffee flavored drink which has a good amount of sugar and milk. My brothers drink them a lot at work although they are self proclaimed coffee snobs!

In this time of the year, I have to have a glass of iced coffee often to survive humid and hot rainy season and harsh summer. We can make `Japanese style iced coffee' at home according to this video.

This article is good to understand the method and other things more. Seems strange to have `Japanese way' to brew iced coffee though.

Need to have a cup of coffee now, it seems.

Things I want to eat NOW!

Drinking and eating after work is something necessary for me.

There are several izakaya I am always tempted to go with my friends. 

Since I will meet my friend in Ginza tomorrow, I remember the popular izakaya in the center of the busy city. It is called Sanshu-ya　三州屋.

The reason why this izakaya is famous is partly because of their fried oysters. Customers always order it whenever they find the dish on the menu, If you happen to be in Ginza, I think it is worth paying a visit to the restaurant for this dish. ( My gourmet professor took me to this place for the oysters.)

They are even adorable!

I love mackerel sashimi. We need sake for this.

In Shinjuku, I often go to Ucchan うっちゃん　on Omoide-Yokocho street. (frequent visitors call the street Shonyoko which means peeing street!)

Ucchan is always busy like this......

One thing I was surprised in London is that people there do not eat guts of pigs or cows so often although they eat quite a lot of meat. Here we enjoy yakitori-style grilled guts with shochu. I love this izakaya's special spicy miso.

And I love liver sashimi with this leek and sesame oil source.

My imaginary drinking has started.......

thinking various things AT WORK (with guilty)

It's raining outside. We have not been getting enough rain although it is supposed to be a rainy season. People hate it but once weather forecasts start mentioning a lack of rain in this time of year, they suddenly become worried about it. I hope a decent amount of rain is coming in this month although i also hate this season!


Lately, i have been reading articles on Byliner. It is good that I can read my favorite writers on the website. Sometimes I feel some writings are difficult to understand or take time to comprehend what they are trying to say because of my poor English. But I still enjoy reading especially things about food.


I am following Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman and other writers who write things about food. I have read several articles from Pollan's page and Bittman's page. When I was reading Cooking solves everything by Bittman, I started to remember farmers' markets in London and other cities outside Japan. I used to go to Borough Market in London almost every weekend to get some fresh fish and interesting vegetables there. Occasionally, I ate raw oysters and enjoyed coffee from Monmoth coffee. Although the market is a kind of tourist attraction, it is really enjoyable and it can be easily the most memorable place for many who visited or lived in London. I happened to find a description about the market when I was reading a book Hungry city How food shapes our lives. As long as I can remember, the book is kind mentioning that renovating the market was a part of a vigorous city planning of London. I think the Borough market is now a good example for many cities, showing the importance of power of food to gather people and liven a city through it. When I went to Copenhagen I went to a kind of similar market which contains many shops specialized in danish pastries, smoked fish, and so on. I always love to go to a market in a new town and even a supermarket since they can show me a good deal of real status of people and life.

After I came back from London, I tried to find good food markets in Tokyo and found a few options. First, I went to a farmers' market in Aoyama with my mother. I found products like homemade pickled, vegetables, fruits, and kind of interesting homemade stuff. But at the end, I found myself hugely disappointed by the fact that I never felt `farmer' at the market and displays were just sooo clean! It was just like a concept of farmers' market and I could see people's attempt to imitate `farmers markets' seen all over the market.

And then I paid a visit to Tokyo Earth Day market a few weeks after. I also did not like it somehow. I felt that in Japan a concept or purpose comes first before actual demand or desire catches on among people. It seems to me that people engaging in the movement are trying to persuade us to be `eco-friendly' or conscious consumers at the end of the day. I think this is the most evident and unique difference between markets in many western places and markets in Japan.

However, I have my favorite markets actually.  One of them is Chisan-marche　地産マルシェ. The shop has several brunches in  tokyo and it is getting popular among middle－aged housewives or more older people. The shop sells various kinds of vegetables from  many small scale farmers around Tokyo year around. Chisan literally means locally produced, so each product has a grower's name and place where it is produced on a label. I always love to go there since it's cheap and vegetables taste really good. So I guess people's desire to eat fresh and safe vegetable can be seen at the shop and it gives me a kind of similar feeling as I was at a market in other countries. The alternative food movement is, I think, universal but it emerges in varied styles or ways. This kind of thing really fascinates me.

Oh it's lunch time.

something about japanese food

I just finished Micheal Pollan's new book, Cooked; a natural history of trasnsformation. I thought it was boring at the beginning, but as usual with his books i found myself quite satisfied by the book at the end.

The final chapter is about fermentation. It reminded me of a famous japanese prof specializing in fermentation. I think he still has a column in Nikkei. He always talks about funny cooking stories including his experimental dishes. His name is Takeo Koizumi, and i used to read his books with much passion.



I remember Pollan is not fond of natto which is all time favorite for japanese people

I think many non- japanese people think it is revolting food is that .sticky like this.

 I think to like something like natto one also needs to like the smell of freshly cooked (boiled or steamed) japanese rice. Koizumi writes in a book that the smell of cooking rice contains kind of sulfureous smell which goes well with a certain type of fermented foods like natto, miso soup and soy source. for instance, i think western people cant handle the taste or smell of japanese pickled radish called takuan because of its sulfur rich smell!

On the other hand, he continues, people in the west prefer smoky smell since they eat baked stuff like bread or grilled meat. So i think the smell of cheese is  good much for baked stuff, i mean bread. it is interesting how our perception towards good smell or bad smell depends on cultures in which we live.

And Koizumi also said japanese people like slimy food including natto, raw yum potato, seaweed, raw egg and so on. they all go well with short grain rice cooked simply in a pot. I think it is related to the content of starch in a grain. As many japanese, eating hot rice with slimy food is such a confortable moment especially after drinking!(i think this is my personal opinion?!) I remember when my father made a special yum potato liquid which had soy source and some doshi for lunch after schoon on a Saturday. He then said " as long as we have this, we can eat rice forever!"

In the course of reading Pollan's new book, i was much inspired and I tried to make own yogurt. It was a pleasant taste although I don't like dairy products in general. Fermentation is just like a magic. How fascinating microbes are! Our food or food culture owes much to the invisible guys. wish we can have actual conversation with them.

And I am also interested in home brewing. Here in Japan, home brewing is strictly prohibited by law. I think it is just out of date and absurd to sustain such an old law from the Meiji period. We are deprived of brewing homemade beers no matter how we love beer. Industrially made beers tastes so general and I miss the taste of beers I had outside of Japan.

After having some shochu (it is also a gift from microbes), I am bit tipsy so I should finish my meal with a cup of rice with some natto (product of fermentation) with say source (you know, fermented product!).

it's just heavenly......