City Bakery @ Hiroo

City Bakery from NYC opened Tokyo branch in Nov, 2013, and it is located in Hiroo region. Until my friend told me about this bakery, I didn't know it and even never heard of it. Couple weeks ago, I had the chance to go near this bakery and stopped there. 

The smell of butter was wafting from the bakery. Once I opened the door, variety of fresh bakeries such as pretzel croissant, breads, muffins, cookies and much more captured my heart! 

My friend kept talking how good pretzel croissant is, so I got one pretzel croissant for 
myself, and one for my friend.  I also got Baker's muffin(small raisins and chunks of walnut inside) double chocolate cookie for myself and coconut cookie for her.The muffin was totally different from the one I imagine. It's more like bread and not moist and fluff, but I really liked this new and unique texture. I didn't have time for having a drink this time, but I want to try hot coco next time. 

Open Only on Weekend :)

Bagel is one of my favorite bread. It was boomed in Japan during late 1990's and early 2000 as a healthy food, and people care about body shape jumped at the chance for to a slim down at that time. I was also captivated by the chewy and soft bagel, and I even baked them by myself,too.

My friend took me to a cafe when I went back to my home town in August, but the owner was taking the summer vacation and the cafe was closed. She told me the bagel she had there could be the one I like. I missed it in August, but the day we re-visit was the day the owner reopened the cafe, and I could have it this time:) 

The cafe opens only on weekend, and the owner handles everything by herself. The maximum capacity of seating would be 10 or so. The 5 or 6 kinds were available, and I ordered the pesto-genovese. It comes with today's soup. 

I had "Pest-Genovese Bagel."

It was truly chewy and I become a fan of their bagels at one. The bagels were limited, but we can buy it if there are extra that she can sell. I got two, "Homemade Bacon Bagel" and "Miso Bagel" :)

 "Homemade Bacon Bagel" was my friend choice for the day.

Happy Birthday to me♪

Won't tell my age... I had my birthday few days ago. My friend lives in the same building brought me a surprise. She got me three different eclairs from "La Maison Du Chocolat" which I usually don't shop! 

Eclair Café
An eclair of pure refinement. The best of great classic. A mélange of intense, flavourful coffee with rich, silky cream.(Cite it from "La Maison Du Chocolat" shop web site)

Eclair Caramel
The most astonishing of the eclairs - the caramel surprises with notes of amber vanilla. Revisit the wonders and savours of childhood.(Cite it from "La Maison Du Chocolat" shop web site)

Eclair chocolat
The best of both worlds: chocolates and pastry creeam nestled in a delicate choux pastry dressed with chocolate fondunt. The sweerness of the ingredients comes alive with the flavours of the fondant trés chocolat.(Cite it from "La Maison Du Chocolat" shop web site)

It looked too good to eat! I decorated it and celebrated my birthday with the Eclair :P

mAAch ecute

mAAch ecute

-KANDA MANSEIBASHI-

Refreshing from the daily work, shopping is one of the best thing to do! The day I visited Kanda Manseibashi for shopping and having the lunch was bit cold,but sunny. Kanda is well known for second hand book and historical restaurants. 

It seems the theme of each store is Scandinavian countries and Hokuriku region(northern part of Japan) Inside the building is pretty lovely. Small shops are located inside, and there are cafe, sweets shop, flower shop and restaurants outside of the building, too. Even you don't buy anything, you can kill your time for just checking the shops. 

Shops share the space on the same floor.

Time was almost noon we got there, and we had the lunch at one of the restaurant. The foods are local dishes from Akita(Akita is also located in northern part of Japan.)

My friend ordered the fried "Fu" set. Fu is made by flour. It's fried, but I guess it's healthier than the fried chicken. We amazed its texture, it's soft and juicy!

Mine was Yonezawa beef (one of the Japanese brand beef like Kobe- beef) humburg. 

Soon we finished our lunch, we moved to coffee shop to get coffee and sweets shop for a pound cake as a dessert.

TORO at Ginza

My friend and I tried to find a place where we could have a lunch on weekend, and she suggested me "TORO". I remembered the coupon from this restaurant I found in my mail box, but it was last December and I totally forgot about it for a while.   

It just opened last December near Yurakucho-station, and it is not far from my place.

I grabbed the coupon and we walked to the restaurant for a lunch.

We ordered the lunch buffet "Churrasco lunch." Buffet can be ordered only on the second floor of the restaurant, and the set menu is served on the first floor during the lunch time.

Buffet consists of the followings:

TODAY'S CEVICHE

freshly prepared

QUINUA SALAD

red onion / roasted corn / mint

BUILD YOUR OWN SALAD

mixed greens / assorted / condiments / dressings

TOMATO MOZZARELLA SALAD

hearts of palm / basil / chipotle dressing

DAILY SOUP

freshly prepared

MEXICAN RICE

TODAY'S DESSERT

～　DRINK　～

SOFT DRINK, COFFEE OR TEA

 In addition to the above menu, we could chose two items from the main menu,

"PICANHA(Beef), CHORIZO,CHICKEN,PORK,SHRIMP and Fish."

 
We both ordered the beef for our first choice, and shrimp was my choice for the second, and fish was my friend's choice for the second.

 I also got small Enchilada and it made my stomach satisfied :P

Of course, I had the desserts, too! 

I often evereat at buffets...

How to not overeat???

Yuki no shita(Cafe)

Pancakes captured the hearts of Japanese women couple years ago. I believe Hawaiian pancakes was trigger to the boom. Since then, pancakes are often introducing in magazines on TV program. 

I was back from my trip to Europe two weeks ago and I went back to my home town last week with the teas which my friend asked me to get in London.

I met her at "Yuki no shita" where I have been wanted to have pancakes and

 shaved ice. 

"

"Yuki no shita" is located many places, and there is a one near my house in Ginza, Tokyo. But it's hard to have it because of long wait for a table, so I gave up to have it.

Just went back to my home town, I found the one opened in Takamatsu in January.

I thought we should be there before the cafe opens, but we didn't see people were waiting for a table when we arrived there... 

It's good, we could get a table without waiting. 

Kochi　Ginger　Shaved Ice was the one my friend had.

I had "Kokuto Kinako" (Brown suger and toasted soybean flour) Shved Ice. 

The ice is pretty fluffy and melt right away.The taste was so good, too!!!

We both ordered the fine butter pancake,too. It's really simple, but we thought this is the one we can enjoy pancake itself.

It comes with butter and Japanese orange honey. The size is small but it's quite thick. We had to wait for 20 mins for cook. The outside is nicely crunchy, but the inside is really moist and soft. 

We enjoyed both shaved ice and pancakes and spent more than 2 hours for chatting!

Only few people came into cafe while we were there. 

Wondered...why it's not popular inTakamatsu...???

I already decided I will go back there and try other flavored shaved ice next time!

KITOKURASU

It's time for cherry blossam in Japan, and I found the nice one in my hometown before the real one bloom. The whole tree is made by woods and it is displayed on the wall of Yamaichi Mokuzai.

Since I saw the pics of the cafe "KITOKURASU" (means life with trees) on the magazine, I have been asking my friend to visit there with me. The time has come! :P

My friend took me to there last time I went back to my home town. It took about 40 mins from Takamatsu city. We drove along a country load and it was very nice to time for chatting for us. 

The owner of the cafe is Yamaichi Mokuzai (lumber dealer) which is located across the cafe.We arrived there a bit earlier than the cafe's opening hour, so we were the first customers on that day.

We supposed to have lunch there, but they don't serve any foods in the morning...

The day was pretty cold inside even in the cafe, and we just had the coffee and left the cafe.

There is the lake just behind the cafe, and it seems like customers can bring their coffee and drink it on the benches besides the lake. It could be nice in spring and fall.

 

People can go inside the tree,but the space was small for me... it could be fun if I was a kid. 

Few other buildings are in the same property as cafe. It seems like multipurpose space is used by neighbors for some events. All the furniture is of course made by Yamaichi Mokuai(maybe...) The elephant slope is maybe for kids. :) 

You can find the small shop next to cafe,too.

I guess we enjoyed our stay for an hour and moved to another cafe for lunch.

 Cafe Asile

The time we arrived there was just right after noon. Few groups were waited for a table and we did, too.

Very Japanese style cafe was packed with many people, and funny thing is most of them were eating the same thing　”Today's Lunch Special.” :)

Off course we ordered the same one as others. Lunch menu should be different everyday, and the cost is 1,100 JPN.