Pandemic Melon Pan

An acceptable substitute, given the situation

Hello blog, it’s been awhile!

Like most of you, I’ve had little chance to be out and about in town recently, even though I’ve heard about new Japanese restaurants opening up, places closing down, changing hours, etc.

One thing I have noticed, in my neighbourhood at least, is the plethora of options for Japanese food available via delivery services that I had absolutely no idea existed. Normally I’m a bit meh on these apps, because I know a lot of them don’t give a fair cut to the restaurants, and when possible I want to support the restaurant directly. However, in the time of COVID, that’s harder than it used to be. Especially here in Toronto, where we’re under a state of emergency and all dine in options are completely closed.

I want to hope that the restaurants getting on board with DD or UE is helping spread the word that those restaurants exist and therefore are doing them at least a bit of service. I know I’ve found a couple new options in the neighbourhood and beyond that I never knew were even here.

Which brings me to the focus of today’s post!

A couple of weeks ago I started having intense cravings for melon pan. It’s been quite a while since I could get back to my regular source (....Japan), but my baking attempts in the past have also failed. I really just wanted to buy some and be done with it. I used up all my creative cooking/baking karma with the Dalgona phase (and subsequently a lot of Vietnamese egg coffees, steam milks and Thai iced tea batches) back at the beginning of the pandemic.

Muahaha, bring those tasty baked goods right to my door

In Toronto, traditional melon pan is harder to come by, and the only place I could think of that had it was Nakamura Bakery at J-Town in Markham. I thought to myself, well, I’m not willing to drive an hour for melon pan; not today, anyway. But surely something else more local must have popped up in the last 5 years!? Surely someone is making melon pan closer to downtown by this point!?

So I turned to the food delivery apps.

I did a couple of searches for Japanese food, and a couple of searches for melon pan, and I didn’t really find the traditional type that I was looking for, but I found something else of interest. Not too long ago in Baldwin Village (and two other locations), a new shop called Hattendo appeared selling cream pan, originally from Hiroshima. I’d seen their shop in Japan a couple of times; I used to walk by one when I was passing through Yokohama station. But I’d never actually tried their bread. I thought, well, they have cream pan with a melon pan top on it, and black sesame lattes, and they deliver to my house, so let’s give it a go. Ooh! Seasonal flavours!!

Turns out they don't really photograph too well, though

Hattendo’s “melon pan” is a pretty distant cousin of traditional melon pan - what I was really getting was cream pan with a melon pan top, so the interior was unlike melon pan at all. However, it did scratch that itch a little for me. And it definitely opened my eyes to the fact that there are a lot of good Japanese options that have surfaced in Toronto over the past few years.

Since melon pan day, we’ve also ordered in from Little Pebbles, a Japanese bakery in Kensington market, and I have several tasty looking izakaya dinner options marked for the next time we order in. There’s also a new ramen shop in the west end (an area that is sorely lacking in ramen at this point) called Musoshin, and they make shokupan! haven’t tried it yet, but looking forward to getting out there sometime and checking them out. Must be tough to open during this pandemic, so they probably need all the props they can get.

So the next time you’re craving Japanese food in Toronto, even if you want to go pick it up yourself to support the businesses, the delivery apps are actually excellent resources to find out what’s new around town.

In fact, I just discovered that I can get mochi donuts delivered to my house. Be right back...

Santouka Ramen Comes To Toronto

Santouka is doing ramen right in Toronto. Yes!

Things have been busy with NaNoWriMo going on - I apologize for the lack of blog posts this month! I did, however, want to say a few words about Santouka Ramen, the new shop that soft-opened last week on Dundas East. A friend of mine works here and she recommended it very highly, so I made an effort to check the place out before word had gotten around too much. I wasn't even thinking about writing a review on it, so I never stopped to take any photos, but after we walked out of the shop, I began jotting down notes -ah, blogging life! It looks like I was just in time, too - in the week since I visited, at least a dozen food bloggers have gotten to Santouka and the lines are apparently around the block. Their grand opening is today, and I can guarantee that it's going to be quite a lot harder to get in there without a wait after this.

The shop is just a little east of Yonge-Dundas Square, and initially I imagined that it would be competing with Kenzo and possibly Kinton for the customers in the area, but it looks like that isn't the end - buzz is starting to get around for a new shop on Gerrard called Raijin (also specializing in tonkotsu ramen) and of course Sansotei (which I haven't been to yet) is doing quite well for itself. A far cry from when I first moved to Toronto and only had Kenzo and Ajisen to choose between - and that was barely a year and a half ago!

Santouka looks to be a fierce competitor, though - they are a branch of a chain that has been operating in Hokkaido since 1988, whose owner was apparently inspired by the famous ramen film Tampopo. Apparently, there was a branch right in my town in Japan, at a shopping centre I visited often, but I wasn't nearly as much of a ramen fiend then as when I returned to Canada and started missing Japanese food! The fact that Santouka is Japanese-run is really encouraging (not knocking you, Ajisen, but those Chinese chopsticks are awful to eat noodles with) because I know Toronto is inching more and more toward authentic Japanese food. They have the same menu in all their overseas shops - the first Canadian branch was in Vancouver.  

Toronto's version of Santouka appears to be very close to the original as well, of course. My shio ramen (salt-broth) came topped with menma (bamboo shoots), kikurage (jelly ear mushrooms), char-siu pork, naruto, and a single umeboshi - pickled plum. The umeboshi came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I'd never seen one topping off a bowl of ramen before. Many of the "usual" toppings you'll find at local ramen places (corn, egg, etc) should be ordered separately at Santouka, as each type of ramen has its own set toppings. The shio is the only broth that comes with an umeboshi.

According to Santouka's website, they simmer
their broth for 20 hours!

Notably, Hakodate is famous for its shio ramen (conversely, Hokkaido ramen is usually known for miso-based soups topped with sweetcorn), and usually shio is a clear, light soup that is chicken or vegetable-based, so this is what I originally expected, having not done my research on Santouka before turning up there! However, Santouka's broth most definitely was pork-flavoured, and when I asked, my server told me that all of their broths were actually tonkotsu. Their specialty is a blend of tonkotsu with the other three traditional types - not quite representative of Hakodate ramen, nor Hokkaido ramen, but their own experimentation. The four types of broths available at the Toronto location were shio, shoyu (soy sauce), miso and kara (spicy), which covers all the traditional types of ramen available. (Sadly, tomato ramen doesn't look to be going mainstream anytime soon!)

I found my bowl very hearty, but a tad too salty in comparison to other broths I've enjoyed - even for salt-broth ramen, it was a bit overwhelming for me. I hoped it was an isolated incident, but other reviews seem to indicate that this is characteristic of their recipes. My companion, enjoying the kara miso version, did not have the same complaint. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy it - it was excellent, and the size of the meal was pretty much perfect, but I might go for a different type of broth next time. And definitely their specialty, tokusen toroniku - wish I'd given this a shot the first time!

I also ordered as part of the set menu, which meant that I also received a rice bowl, pickles and egg on the side. The egg is my favourite part of a ramen meal, so this was an obvious choice for me, and I went with the char-siu donburi; succulent char-siu and greens atop a bed of rice. The egg was more hard-boiled than soft - it was even a little bit cold, but after spending a few minutes in my soup, it was delicious. The taste was perfect. Somehow I even ended up with two eggs - I think I have one of the kind serving staff to thank for that!

It's a real relief to see the ramen competition increasing in Toronto, and Santouka is doing it absolutely right. The atmosphere of the shop is perfect - I loved the wooden bench seats. The food was excellent and the staff friendly and prompt. I had a nice conversation with our server, who was from Kyushu - now there's some quality ramen! My only issues were the price (a little steep, but that's my complaint about just about every Japanese restaurant in this city except Okonomi House) and the amount of seating. The capacity is definitely going to be an issue for this shop, as there weren't nearly enough seats, and even though we walked in without a wait at 4:30 on a day before the opening had really been made public, by the time we left the line was out the door. It's going to be awhile before you have any hope of slipping into any downtown core ramen restaurant without a wait, though - be patient, because when that bowl of steaming noodles is set in front of you, it's all going to be worth it!

Mister Donut

A few months ago, I was driving through Vaughan, north of Toronto, on my way to IKEA, when I passed something that took me completely by surprise. It was a sign that had once said 'Master Donut,' in exactly the same font as in the photo here. Seems like that building was once a MisDo location that changed the name and kept most of the sign lettering, and a little thrill went through me to see it.

Mister Donut is by far the most popular donut chain in Japan. Krispy Kreme and Doughnut Plant have given MisDo a little competition in Tokyo, but with over 1,000 stores nationwide, it's unlikely that it's much for them to worry about!

I really liked Mister Donut - as a Canadian, my loyalties do lie with Tim Horton's, but it's hard to argue with an Angel Cream.

Of course, Canada no longer has Mister Donut restaurants, despite Wikipedia's claims - in fact, I haven't had any luck with them outside of Japan, even if I truly expected (and I don't) to find them anything like their branches in Asia. Though the chain was founded in the United States, most of the locations turned into Dunkin' Donuts in the early 90s. (The two franchises were actually created by brothers-in-law who broke off their partnership to begin their own chains of coffee and doughnut shops.)

In Pennsylvania and Ohio, many Mister Donut stores became known as Donut Connection, serving the same menu as Mister Donut once did (and my attempt to visit one of these on the way back to Toronto from Columbus last year failed, too!), and the Godfrey, Illinois location is supposedly still in business under the Mister Donut name, but it is the only one left.

It's a shame, because I found Mister Donut donuts a great deal lighter, fluffier and less greasy/heavy than others, plus I love iconic brands. I collected the MisDo point cards and had traded them in for a bunch of the special coloured coffee cups before I left. I hoped to obtain all six colours. As it turns out, disaster struck my cups one day, and now I only have two remaining!

On a future trip to Japan, I'm hoping to pick those up somehow. I don't think I could possibly eat the hundreds of donuts necessary to get all four via points, but I'll give it my best try, especially since to me, these donuts are head and shoulders above Tim's. Jam-filled and Bavarian cream are not my thing - but give me green tea, dark chocolate pudding, Pon du Lion or sugary, fluffy whip, and I could most certainly make a good effort toward my cups on a month-long trip!

Mister Donut, I miss you! Come back to Canada someday!

Japanese Pizza

Last weekend, in a fit of weakness (spent the entire day practicing either yosakoi or tea ceremony), I ordered myself a pizza. I came home exhausted at 8 PM after three missed meals - I suppose you could count a cookie and a single Scotch Dark from Ambiance as at least 1/8 of one meal, but in general I was pretty close to starving. I had another commitment to attend to right away at home and wouldn't be able to cook anything, and I generally avoid keeping processed food in my kitchen, so there was quite literally nothing to eat.

I broke. I got on Pizza Pizza's website and ordered myself a buffalo chicken pizza, and, I'm ashamed to say, polished off most of it without even offering my long-suffering roommate a slice. Since I'm not a huge fan of pizza in general, and this particular chain is one of two that I'll willingly eat, I later lamented to some friends what I had just done. Who promptly reminded me, "But you used to do that in Japan."

Ah, Japan. It's true - the other chain I enjoy is Pizza Hut, though you won't find me ordering a Super Supreme here anytime soon. It is Pizza Hut Japan that I yearn for. I gave Domino's Japan a try, but they didn't satisfy me. Unless we're talking about pasta bowls - I ordered a few of them - but that isn't pizza.

Many people who have at least a passing familiarity with Japanese culture are aware of the fundamental differences - and some might say, travesties - separating Western-style pizza with what you might find abroad. 

Just a few examples of Pizza Hut's fabulous Japan-only menu.
When I talk about Japanese pizza, I always mention the "Idaho Special" - parsley, mayonnaise,
black pepper, corn, diced potatos, bacon and onion.

Personally, as a non-fan of the Western version, I took to Japanese pizza right away, especially when our local Pizza Hut plied me with all those flyers in my mailbox. I looked forward to Pizza Hut's monthly, eager to see what they might try next. The first few times, I called them myself (and you know it's serious if I willingly undertake a phone conversation in Japanese with a stranger!), but sometime around 2008 they set up a wonderful online ordering system that became my go-to method. I didn't buy often, because pizza in Japan is an investment - even a medium pie was in the ¥2,000 range, and if you wanted something fancy, you were looking at ¥2,500, which at today's ridiculous exchange rate is $31. $31! For a single medium pizza! You can get a medium "base" for ¥1,100, but the toppings are ¥300 yen each - hardly cheap. It's notable that prices include the delivery charge (you cannot eat in at most pizza places, including Pizza Hut in Japan) and you'll have your price adjusted if you pick it up yourself.

Pizza Hut warns you to be environmentally-conscious!

So, when I did buy pizza, it was usually with the expectation that I would stretch it over at least three meals. With Pizza Hut, I would almost always get the Mayo Q; barbecued chicken, mayonnaise, corn, mushrooms, onion and strips of nori. It came with little packets of green chili pepper sauce and maple syrup for dipping your crust in. Perhaps it was the off-the-beaten path combo of ingredients that made me a fan of the Mayo Q, but the reaction I usually get is "Ewww! Mayo!?" (Note: Japanese mayo is fantastic, especially when it is served warm, à la okonomiyaki.)

I do think that the reason I like Toronto's Pizza Pizza chain so much as well is because it's also a departure from the traditional - dare I say it, cheap and simple - pizza of my childhood. My brothers, both pizza lovers, frequently pushed for takeout on Fridays, and would get pepperoni, slathered in the cheap Italian seasoning-heavy tomato sauce that I hated from our local pizza place. I'm generally a fan of anything tomato, but it turns out that when it comes to pizza, you can just about leave off the sauce - it's the toppings that make it for me!

Bottom line - no matter how alarming it might seem, if you're in Japan or heading there soon, you really need to think about trying pizza there. I promise having sweet corn on your pizza is a mystical experience, even though the opinions I've gotten about it have been highly polarized. Pizza Hut's a good starting point - the online ordering system has made it a snap, especially with the Hut's very useful English ordering guide. Don't forget to get the cheese-stuffed crust. Try it at least once - it's an experience!

Tea and Tsukimi

Photo from Secret Teatime's Facebook Page

This past weekend, I went to a nabe and tsukimi tea party held by friends from my time abroad. At times, I really do regret spending so much time in Japan alone and wrapped up in my hobbies - as much fun as I had trying my hand at aikido, ikebana and others, travelling all over Honshu by local train, and of course wandering everywhere in Kansai on foot and by bicycle, when it came time for JET events, I was so embarrassingly out of the loop that I imagine anyone not from my year would have a hard time remembering my name. My Japanese friends were largely in Tokyo, and many local friends, JET and otherwise, returned to their lives abroad. By my third year I was living the hermit life, and I have come to regret it a little since returning. Where I was antisocial in Japan, I now go out of my way to be social back home, via cultural groups, JETAA events and now, meeting up with a few familiar faces from JET.

I didn't even realize there were so many former Osaka JETs here in Toronto! I attended a dinner last month with a group of six or so and had a great time, though the tsukimi evening eclipsed (see what I did there?)  that by far. The founders of Secret Teatime are tea fanatics and students of the Omotesenke and Youkenryuu schools of tea, respectively, and Helen did her JET tenure in a city very close to mine. In case any of you readers forgot, I am a fan of tea of all kinds, so when she invited me over for nabe and tea ceremony, I could not say 'yes' fast enough.

Friends in Toronto, you absolutely must check out Helen and Sorlie's endeavors with Secret Teatime! They are setting up a studio in Scarborough, and are offering lessons in Japanese tea ceremony in the Youkenryuu style. Watching the ceremony on Saturday was a real treat, and we enjoyed luscious dark chocolates from Ambiance Chocolat. The chocolates were handmade and amazing, and brought me back to my days making trips out to the fabulous chocolatiers and bakeries in Kyoto. I'm really hoping to make it to more of their events in future and perhaps a few lessons as I've only learned the very basics of chanoyu. My roommate is almost certainly sick of hearing me talk about tea (though she graciously supplies me with it at Christmastime!) and I have a lot to learn about it, myself, so I'm looking forward to lots more!

Kurogoma Smoothie Recipe

Lately I've been craving those black sesame iced lattes from Dotour - so much so that I've even pledged to pick up some kurogoma marshmallows the next time I visit Chinatown or the Pacific Mall. (In case it wasn't obvious, I'm crazy about black sesame!) Well, I've tried the latte version a few times lately and I find that I drink it very quickly, so I decided it was time to try a smoothie recipe instead!

Did you know that black sesame is very nutritious, and supposedly can help you grow strong, glossy hair? It's also delicious - that's good enough for me!

Kurogoma Smoothie - 1 Serving

• 1  1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 tsp black sesame paste 
• I use store-bought nerigoma, or you can make your own!
• 1 tbsp honey (omit this if your store-bought nerigoma contains sugar already)
• 3-4 ice cubes

Mix the nerigoma with a little hot water to help it dissolve, then add it to the blender with the milk and banana. Add the ice cubes and then the honey last - adding the honey first will cause it to stick to the sides of blenders like mine (I actually use a mason jar blender), so it's better if you pour it over the ice and the banana to prevent that.

Blend on high and serve! Garnish with whip cream, black sesame seeds or kurogoma marshmallows, if you're feeling fancy! Omit the banana and add the ice cubes to the glass instead of blending them for a more latte-like experience.

For Toronto buyers, you can pick up Japanese nerigoma at J-Town or Sanko, and T&T sells a Korean-made black sesame paste made with brown sugar that I recommend. If all else fails, go the mortar-and-pestle route. Enjoy!

More on the Zojirushi Sale

I know I've already tweeted about this today, but I'm so pleased to actually see Amazon Canada promoting a rice cooker sale!

I bought my own rice cooker from Amazon U.S. because the price difference was quite severe at the time, but it's much closer with this sale. Finding one locally just wasn't going to happen - after coming back from Japan and going a few months with a $35 Dominion rice cooker, I resolved to buy a proper rice cooker the next time I was in the U.S., and have not been disappointed. My rice cooker sings to me and bakes cakes.

You can also buy electric pots during the sale, which, if you remember my article on tea, I can no longer live more than five minutes without. Electric pots are so expensive to buy no matter whether you're looking local or online, and here in Toronto they're more often than not programmed in Korean or Chinese rather than English/Japanese. If you've been thinking about picking one up, you're probably not going to find one in English for less than $100, and Zojirushi is the best of the best, so why not?

...and now I think I could go for some tea, myself!

Black Sesame Ice Cream

One of my favourite ice cream flavours is the simple and difficult-to-find Black Sesame. If you haven't tried sesame as a dessert then you certainly won't "get it" - I know I didn't, at first. It was the Black Sesame Iced Latte at Dotour (with its adorable little round marshmallows!) that got me going and I've been hooked since on black sesame paste, lattes, gelato and ice cream. You can buy the ice cream in shops in some cities (J-Town, T&T, Btrust and a few others in Toronto), but in most places it's tough to find - and ice cream isn't exactly importable. However, if you've got an ice cream maker at home, you can make your very own black sesame (kurogoma) ice cream using this recipe over at Evan's Kitchen Ramblings. And if black sesame isn't your thing, well, Evan has tons of recipes for Japanese sweets, and beautiful photography of all her work.

Head over there and check it out!

Melon Soda Recipe

Drinking melon soda and feeding my expensive cake habit.

As you might have guessed, I have a penchant for cooking, and recreating food that I loved in Japan is usually my top target. One thing that I've managed to duplicate recently with some success has been melon soda. 

If you've lived in Japan for any amount of time, you understand the ubiquitousness of melon. It's a favourite flavour, and one I think might have even met with more success in the western world if it were properly marketed. Alas, it is not - the amount of hassle I had to go through to make a satisfactory melon soda (and it's far from perfect) from the materials I could find here is proof enough.

But surely, you might say, if this 'melon soda' thing is so popular, it's been imported? Actually, it has. A company called Sangaria markets their aluminum-bottle melon soda in the U.S. and Canada, including, occasionally, select grocery stores here in Toronto. I paid a hefty $5 USD each to buy these at North Market in Columbus, OH last year and came away extremely disappointed. You might recognize Sangaria as the producers of those cheap aluminum-bottle Ramune drinks in Japanese vending machines...and if you've ever drank one of these, you know they do not hold up to the real thing. The soda goes flat within 5-10 minutes, seems to warm abnormally quickly, and has a distinctive tinny taste. I haven't noticed the carbonation or taste issues with Fanta's aluminum bottles, so I can only conclude that it's something about the 'cheap' variety that Sangaria and other 100-yen soda makers provide.

As I've mentioned before, Coca-Cola has importing issues when it comes to their Japanese products, so it's unlikely we'll see Fanta Melon or Fanta Melon Cream over here at any point. So what's a girl to do when she has only sub-par melon soda to tide her over? Well...first, hit eBay, if you value authenticity as I do, and then when the prices scare you away, try your hand at making it yourself. 

As with Italian sodas and any fountain drink, you'll need to start with a concentrated syrup. This was tough, because the big-name brand that's easy to find in Canada, Torani, does not have a melon flavour - only watermelon. Apparently, Starbucks used to sell under their label and use a Torani 'melon' syrup in their matcha drinks (...what?) but it's now discontinued and the only Torani type I can find is watermelon. You're definitely going to need a cantalope or rock melon flavour!

In the end I settled on a Monin syrup because I could net a 1-litre bottle from Amazon for less than $15. The colour is not right - melon syrup is supposed to be green - but the taste is close. I also picked up some kakigoori melon flavouring; that is, the concentrate that is used to flavour shaved ice. If you have access to this from a local Asian grocery, it's a great idea.

"Cream" soda - melon soda
with vanilla soft serve

That's enough rambling - on to the proportions!

Homemade Melon Soda - 1 Serving

• 500 ml club soda/soda water
• 2 tbsp melon syrup
• 5-6 ice cubes
• Muddler (chopstick or a long spoon will do)
• A few drops of green food colouring (optional)

Pour the soda water into your glass and add the syrup, stirring gently to mix well. You can add a few drops of food colouring (2 is often enough) to get the authentic colour. Add ice until your glass is full. 

For a cocktail look, add the syrup first and do not stir until serving - this recipe can be used with melon liqueur as well. Prefer melon cream soda to the original? Just add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and enjoy!

Automatic Takoyaki Maker

I cannot believe this is a real thing!

Perfectly cooked!

If you remember my post from a few weeks ago about my undying love for takoyaki, you'll likely remember that I mentioned making it from scratch can be a little tedious, unless you have the patience to sit and watch the grill and turn each takoyaki on time. (This is likely why most people have takoyaki parties, so that they can enjoy themselves  together and divide up the work!) 

However, a website called JapanTrendShop apparently sells automatically rotating grills to help you with the difficult parts! The Takoyaki Factory Ton Ton has a motor that flips the takoyaki over as it cooks to make perfectly-shaped balls at home. A little expensive, but the kit even includes a long-stemmed pot for easy batter pouring, the special brush to oil the grill, and the skewers. If I did not already have the electric takoyaki grill I brought home from Japan, I would be all over this!

Photo of the Day - Dinner is Served

Sometimes you have a picture that just cannot be added to an article. It needs an article to itself.
This is one of those pictures (taken by Alec).

Dinner for four at Wakakusa no Yado Maruei, the inn where we spent the
night after our failed first trip up Mount Fuji.

CoCo Ichiban Curry Recipe

My favourite combo - curry topped with cheese
and a crab cream croquette.

Ever since I returned from Japan, I've been striving to perfect a curry recipe that lives up to CoCo Ichiban, a famous chain restaurant with locations all over the country.

If you're not familiar with Japanese curry, the first thing I need to point out is that it's very different from Indian curry. The flavour was introduced to Japan by the British in the 1800s, and continued evolving to suit the Japanese palette. The standard Japanese-style curry is a thick sauce created from curry powder and usually flavoured with pork or beef, and served over short-grain Japonica rice. Onions, potatoes and carrots are often used in homemade Japanese curry, but you can add whatever you like, or keep it smooth, restaurant-style. 

Curry rice is usually considered a comfort food, and it is so popular (especially with children) that it's offered at many restaurants and cafes. None, however, take it to the level that CoCo Ichiban does. They are a curry-only restaurant that offers scaling levels of heat and a myriad of toppings for your dish; things that you may not have ever considered adding to curry rice. Chopped tomato, spinach, asparagus, fried quail eggs...if they think it'll sell as a savoury topping, you'll find it at CoCo Ichiban.

CoCo Ichiban serves a liquidy curry with a yellowish tint, and it's my understanding that the broth is pork-based. Even the lowest spice levels have a kick to them! I found that it was not as sweet as some other curries I'd tried, and I really liked that it was served so basic, without the onion-potato-carrot combination, unless requested.

While I'd made and enjoyed curry before, I found myself craving CoCo Ichiban specifically - something about their curry was just fantastic. When I stayed overnight in Shibuya over winter break one year, I've find myself emerging from my capsule at 7 A.M. and starving. CoCo Ichiban for breakfast? Yes ma'am! A half-plate of cheese curry with a mango lassi to drink set me back just ¥400. Four hundred yen! Seriously! I suspect it was these early-morning curry runs that got me hook, line and sinker - usually I'm so queasy in the mornings that there are only a small handful of foods that I can safely eat. Curry is definitely the strangest.

After coming home to Canada, I started experimenting with various recipes to recreate the CoCo Ichiban taste. As you might guess, this was a tough prospect - a Google search turned up plenty of people, mostly Americans stationed in Okinawa, who had tried and offered their recipes, but none were quite right. The following is the closest I've been able to get:

CoCo Ichiban Cheese Curry - A Work In Progress

• 4 servings cooked Japonica rice
• 3 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1/2 box or 1 small* package S&B Golden curry sauce mix (medium-hot)
• 2 1/2 cups water (reserve an additional 1/2 cup water for the end of the cooking process)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 cups shredded Monterey, cheddar or mozzarella cheese
• salt, pepper and crushed red chili peppers or cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 thinly sliced onion (optional - tasty, but CoCo's curry is smooth and onion-free)
• Any other toppings you like - why not check out CoCo Ichiban's bilingual menu for ideas?

In a pot or frying pan, cook the bacon through, and sauté the onion, if using.

Add water and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the curry sauce mix. You can use other brands of curry sauce if your selection is limited, though S&B Golden is the closest to the real thing. You can also experiment by using 1/2 a package of one brand and 1/2 a package of the other. This post on Serious Eats is a great primer! Nowadays, I almost always do a blend of Kokumaro and Golden.

*Note that many stores in the U.S. and Canada carry smaller packs of curry roux - the net weight of these is in the 125 gram/4.4 oz range. In Japan, you will get two "blocks" of roux per 240-gram box. Please check your box to make sure you have the correct amount! If you want to use a large box or two small boxes of different brands, remember to double the amount of water, bacon and sugar written above.

Let the curry simmer for about 5-10 minutes. (Use this time to prepare your toppings! Another favourite of mine is tonkatsu!)

How's the consistency? CoCo's curry isn't as thick as most homemade curries tend to be. Thin it out with the reserved water if you need to. (If you've thinned it too much, add a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in cold water.) Finally, add the brown sugar and stir it in. If you've added onions, but you still want that smooth CoCo Ichiban texture, strain out the onions with a sieve.

Warm your plates in the microwave - this is really important, or the curry will cool down too fast and congeal! Then dish out the rice, top with 1/2 cup shredded cheese and 3/4 cup or so of the sauce. Sprinkle on a bit of salt, pepper and chili peppers/cayenne pepper to taste.

Eat! Enjoy!

Photo of the Day - Chocolate Sushi

Delicious!

These brownies from last weekend's Natsu Matsuri at the JCCC in Toronto were shaped like maki sushi rolls. So cute!

A Baking Story

Not cookie ingredients.

After about a month in Japan, the glamour of eating milk cakes, Meltykiss and Pocky all the time was starting to wear off and I began craving the kinds of sweets I enjoyed back home. I was starting to get a little homesick, too, so thought maybe I'd bake the chocolate chip cookies that my cousin used to make for us.

I was out at the time and knew I wouldn't be able to get many baking supplies at the convenience store, so I tried to recall exactly what was in her recipe from memory as I hopped into a grocery store, well past 9:30 in the evening. (Before smartphones, of course.) I was VERY short on cash and the ATMs in that shopping centre were closed for the evening. (Ah, mid-2000s Japan!) I decided to use what little money I had to get the rarer items, and if I missed anything, head to Family Mart after picking up more cash from my apartment. "Hmm...chocolate chips...brown sugar...uh..."

I went to the aisle that had sugar, and I found something that was the correct consistency and colour to be brown sugar, and got it. Then I found the baking aisle and picked up the most expensive bag of mini chocolate chips in existence (500 yen for about a cup and a half). I bought these items knowing I was still missing stuff, then, as I went to leave, thought... "Oh. Vanilla."

So I went back to grab a little bottle of vanilla. While paying for that (I was down to 400 yen now) I remembered, "Butter."

I bought "cake margarine" from the dairy aisle. 206 yen. My train fare home was 200 yen. Then, on the train, I remembered a missing item.

..."Flour. Damn."

I went home for money, then to the conbini at the train station, bought flour. Returned home and dug out my cousin's beloved recipe using the power of the Internet. Which, of course, called for eggs...and baking soda...and salt. Oh. Went back to the conbini, but they didn't have baking soda. I figured I'd do without. I was pretty sure there had to be salt somewhere in my kitchen; I'd gotten a reasonable amount of pantry supplies, but hadn't actually done any baking at all since I arrived. I bought eggs, went home, started to mix it up...

And realized I also needed white sugar in addition to brown. Also, I didn't actually have salt. So, missing 3 ingredients, past midnight...I had to give up.

The next day I went out and found white sugar and something that was probably table salt and bought them. Then I went to look for baking soda. I knew it existed because I confirmed with a co-worker. However, I didn't think to ask her if the name of the item was different in Japanese. I picked up the item in the aisle that most closely resembled what I wanted, brought it to an employee, and asked, "Is this baking soda?" using the katakana version, ベーキングソーダ.

Well, he didn't know what baking soda was, and whatever I was holding was used for bamboo....something. So we went through everything in the baking aisle while I tried to describe in Japanese, the various functions of baking soda. "You put it in cookies," resulted in him producing baking powder, then I said "it takes away bad smells," and "when you put it in vinegar, it explodes." None of this helped. In the end the employee used his cell phone to look it up. Surprise, the first thing I'd picked out was baking soda after all. Amazing. The Japanese term I was missing in translation was重曹 (juusou).

Baking in Japan: always an adventure.

Back home, I mixed everything up and it seemed to smell and look like the items I'd found really were sugar, brown sugar, salt and baking soda. However...most Japanese don't have ovens, and do their baking in toaster ovens or microwave-oven combos. Unfortunately, my toaster oven didn't have a temperature gauge. I was stuck staring at my bowl full of cookie dough and an oven that only had a single setting: 1000W. I assumed the W was for watts.

My predecessor didn't use the toaster oven much. Turned out, she hadn't left me a cookie sheet or pan of any other sort. I put the cookies on aluminum foil and laid them on the oven rack. This is the point where I discovered that cheap tinfoil from the 100-yen shop is flimsy and useless.

Moments later, I discovered the rack placed the cookies an inch and a half from the top element, and as a result, they began to burn. I tried to use the drip pan as a makeshift cookie sheet, but they were still burned too severely to eat. Batch one was undercooked on the bottom, overcooked on the top. And super-greasy; I suspect my Internet conversion of cups to grams for the butter wasn't completely accurate.

The second batch sat on the drip pan for just five minutes before they started to scorch on the top. 1000W was too much for them, no matter how far from the heating element they were.

At this point I gave up; I put the dough for the third batch right in the fridge to eat raw.

Cooking in a tiny kitchen is certainly an adventure. I don't know how Emily managed, but I think she bought her countertop oven within the first month!

Photo of the Day - Tajima Beef

I love this description.
Taken at a restaurant in Rokko, Hyogo Prefecture, near Kobe.

Okonomi House

Osaka-style okonomiyaki at Okonomi House in Toronto!

I briefly mentioned Okonomi House last week in my post about Tokyo Grill's hiyashi chuka, but I didn't imagine I'd have a chance to get out there and take photographs for a proper review anytime soon. Somehow, though, whenever I get within three blocks of Bay and Charles, the craving for okonomiyaki grows too strong to resist!

Entrance - the sign to the left, of
course, reads okonomiyaki!

Okonomiyaki, for those unfamiliar, is a speciality dish that both Osaka and Hiroshima lay claim to. Okonomi House serves the Osakan version - a savoury pancake filled with shredded cabbage; grilled and topped with a Worcestershire-like sauce and a dot of mayonnaise. In Japan, the mayo - Kewpie mayo, of course - is often laid out in stripes and then topped with shaved bonito and aonori, seaweed flakes. 

This may sound like a lot to handle for those inexperienced with the Japanese palette (says my roommate: "I hate cabbage!" yet she loves okonomiyaki!), but I've actually found this dish to be a fabulous gateway to the land of non-sushi Japanese food. It's most often described as a "Japanese pancake" or "Japanese pizza" - neither of these are even close to accurate - and is one of the two 'safe' foods I've introduced to friends and family that everyone has liked. (The other being tonkatsu.) Even though it contains cabbage and has fish flakes and mayonnaise on top, which are all warning signs, the combination always works out - many times, I depended on that little mom and pop shop next to my apartment to start off someone's visit to Osaka with some real okonomiyaki or takoyaki.

Okonomi House - Fine Japanese Cuisine

Toronto's Okonomi House is not exactly next door, and it isn't quite that same fluffy, airy style that I came to expect in Osaka, but it's the closest one could ever hope to get without actually hopping on a flight to KIX. The restaurant has been a fixture at Bay and Charles since 1978, and it's not hard to see why - every time I go there, day or night, the place always has customers. I love the 70s decor, and the fact that even though you don't cook the okonomiyaki yourself (a popular choice at Osaka restaurants), you can still watch it being made through the glass wall by sitting at the bar. The interior of this place is not so different from the izakayas I used to visit with JET friends, and the iconic chochin lanterns are very like the ones that hang outside of restaurants in Japan.

The food, of course, is fabulous. While the other dishes as all right, if a little on the Westernized side (teriyaki and yakisoba, and I still haven't found anyplace in Toronto to get the perfect yakisoba), it's the okonomiyaki that is the superstar here. I've tried a few versions, but I keep coming back to the pork okonomiyaki, which is considered the 'standard' type in Japan. I cannot say I recommend the chicken - the texture and way it is cut just doesn't lend itself well to this style of dish. Thin strips of pork or beef, though, nice and browned on the edges, are perfect. The scallop version is supposed to be very popular as well. 

Okonomi House's cute chochin, paper lanterns

You can tell that Okonomi House has adapted its own style over the years, whether to better suit the clientele of Toronto or the owner's preference, so it's sometimes a not quite what former expats or Japanese nationals living in Canada would expect. The first time I ordered, I was shocked to see that the bonito and aonori were extras that you had to request, but Canadian diners might have initially shied away from them. The size of the portions are also smaller than standard, and it's almost certain that I will leave a little bit hungry - or eat half of my dining companion's entrée. An exchange student friend was aghast to see the heavy irons used to press the pancakes into dense discs - in the town where she grew up, she had never eaten an okonomiyaki that wasn't fuwa-fuwa; 'fluffy,' and the outside of Okonomi House's okonomiyaki are also softer and less crunchy than she was used to. I heard somewhere that this technique is more common in southwestern Japan, as well as the placement of the mayo in a dollop in the centre of the pancake, unlike the usual striping you'd find in Osaka. Chicken wasn't something either of us ever saw in Japan, either, but the whole design is supposed to be 'as you like it'! If Canadians like chicken in their okonomiyaki and would prefer to skip the extras, so be it. It may not be 100% perfect and authentic, but I'd wager a guess that the cook probably knows his clientele better than I do.

Myself, I'd be thrilled to see a mochi-and-cheese option, and maybe a modan-yaki; a popular variant made with yakisoba noodles on the bottom - but I doubt the menu here is changing anytime soon, and we certainly don't want to risk the prices going up! Okonomi House is the best deal in town when it comes to Japanese food; my usual lunch of a pork okonomiyaki with aonori and bonito, with a cup of green tea (sadly, the teabag version), is well under $10. It's also a place I don't feel uncomfortable coming to alone when I need to, which is always a plus for a downtown core restaurant, and they offer their food to-go.

Another great thing about Okonomi House is the service. Every time I've gone, the servers have been friendly and super-attentive, checking on you just the right amount. Once or twice, the servers have picked out something in my pronunciation of words and asked if I spoke Japanese, leading to a conversation, which is something I can safely say has never happened dining anywhere else in Toronto and always makes me happy. The friendly atmosphere is (well, besides the okonomiyaki!) is what keeps me coming back every time!

Yum!

Quest for Kochakaden: Kirin Healthy Milk Tea

I visited T&T Supermarket recently after I found myself up at Promenade Circle, a fair way's out of my usual neighbourhoods. Promenade is close enough to us, but it's past Steeles Avenue, so anyone in the Toronto area will know that it therefore costs twice as much each way to get there on the bus. If you're feeling energetic, though, you can walk from Steeles, and that's just what we did.

At T&T, I discovered something unexpected and amazing:

Healthy!?

!

!!

Admittedly, I've been burned by Kirin before. As I mentioned in in my previous post about milk tea, I find Kirin's traditional blend to be overly cloying. Other people frequently say it is the perfect sweetness level, but I can't handle it, and I didn't have any better luck with Kirin Afternoon Tea Milk Tea Special, the only other version sold here in Toronto. That one is made from Assam tea, but still no dice. The 1/2 calorie Kirin might work for me, but I haven't found it here.

So I wasn't getting my hopes too high for "Healthy Milk Tea, Yasuragu Earl Grey," but the promise on the bottle of lavender and earl grey (this was my favourite Starbucks latte flavour in Japan) wooed me. At $2.99, much cheaper than my imported Kochakaden, I took home a bottle and hoped for the best.

I took it home and kept it in the fridge for a few days, waiting for the right time. Per 100ml, this stuff is just 12 calories and no sugar - I supposed that would be why it's marketed as 'healthy.' Sweeteners abound! This Earl Grey/lavender variant is obviously based on the regular Kirin Healthy no-sugar version that I have yet to see around Toronto, and is imported by Uncle T Food in Richmond.

The ingredients list seemed standard enough. Milk, skim milk powder, black tea, whole milk powder, salt, artificial flavour (I suppose that'd be the lavender), lecithin, ascorbic acid, acesulfame K, sucralose, stevia. With that combination I was at a loss what to expect. After a good chilling, though, I opened it up and tried it...

Fantastic.

It is almost as good as Kochakaden and much better than Kirin's standard blend! I am very pleased. And given how ridiculously fattening standard milk tea is, I think this is a very acceptable substitute while I am hoarding my limited stash of Kocha. Sadly, with my luck, it's not going to stay on the shelves for long...special-flavour products fly off the shelves in Japan. Soon, I'm sure I'll be mourning Kirin Healthy Milk Tea Lavender Earl Grey alongside all those other wonderful seasonal flavours.

Until then...I think I need another trip to T&T.

Tokyo Grill's Hiyashi Chuka

Last week I was in downtown Toronto for some errand-ing and I thought I'd pop over to Tokyo Grill and grab something quick to eat. This homestyle restaurant is a great, authentic little spot, that I don't eat at often enough because it's just too close to my favourite Japanese restaurant, Okonomi House. (Should probably write up a review of them sometime!) But in the blistering heat, it really wasn't an okonomiyaki kind of day, so off to Tokyo Grill I went, in search of something lighter.

And I was not disappointed.

Hiyashi chuka! Yes!

I don't think I've mentioned before how indispensable hiyashi chuka was in getting me through those hot Osaka summers. When it was pushing 30 degrees Celsius for days on end, I had no motivation whatsoever to eat. Cooking in my tiny, un-air-conditioned kitchen was a nightmare and while I did occasionally put my poor bentou-making skills to use, lunches were very often forfeited on the worst days. Until I discovered hiyashi chuka, that is - a lovely Chinese-style cold noodle dish, with strips of ham or chicken, bean sprouts, slices of egg and julienned cucumber mixed together with a sweet vinegar-sesame dressing. There were times when I ate hiyashi chuka at lunch for days on end. I craved it.

And now, here it is, at Tokyo Grill in Toronto!

I'll admit, the price was a huge turnoff. $11.99 is on the expensive side when you've been kicking ¥400 Lawson lunches for as long as I had. When the dish came, I immediately knew why the price was so high - this plate of noodles was enormous. It was certainly more than I could finish myself, even after an afternoon yoga class and walking all the way to their location near Wellesley from Broadview Station. On top of that, it was too much food to be comfortable for a summer lunch - one of the things I loved this dish for. If it were up to me, a half-plate at half the price would have been perfect.

I'm told that Ajisen Ramen also does hiyashi chuka, though I haven't tried their version yet. I'll be sure to do that soon. As to whether I would recommend this, I would - the ingredients were great, the dressing tasted perfect, and the noodles (while I was surprised to find them white) were just the right consistency. My only advice to you would be to come with a very big appetite, or bring a friend!

"Kobe" Beef

Food's Biggest Scam: The Great Kobe Beef Lie

This is a fantastic article on Forbes on the reality of "Kobe" beef. Not the usual fare that I post on Tadaimatte, but it's something that bugs me frequently in restaurants, as I value authenticity. Think that pricey Kobe beef you've been enjoying is the real deal? Think again.

Crazy About Takoyaki

Takoyaki and other delights in the foodcourt of the Hanshin Umeda building

As someone who called Osaka home and considers themselves to be as Osakan as a foreigner can get both in manner and speech, I have of course been instilled with a love of takoyaki, those delectable fried doughy balls filled with octopus and topped with shaved bonito flakes. (Not everyone gets it - ex-boyfriend referred to this favourite as "tako-yucky.") It didn't help much that there was a tiny mom-and-pop shop 15 seconds from my front door, and the very first thing my co-workers did when they brought me to my apartment was set me up with ice cream and takoyaki from this place.

Luckily, there are decent octopi offerings to be had here in Toronto, but I know I'm very lucky to have it.  I'll almost always buy fresh takoyaki made from a restaurant before making it myself, since it's a lot of work! Just in case, though, I brought home my own takoyaki and okonomiyaki kits when I left Osaka, including picks, spatulas, mayonnaise container and even the electric grill. 

The Tako King is famous in Amemura, "American Village" in Osaka.

Not everyone is so fortunate, of course, and at some point I'll have to replace some of my supplies. Locally, you can buy takoyaki and taiyaki grills and the flour at J-Town, but with none of the frills, of course. For those wanting something more high-tech, or living outside of the city, you may want to check out J-List's products for making affordable at-home takoyaki. Seriously, everyone - takoyaki party. You won't regret it.