Tirol Chocolate Flavour #12: Lapoppo Farm Sweet Potato and Apple Pie

12. Lapoppo Farm Satsuma Imo and Apple Pie (2019)

Lapoppo Farm is a company specializing in satsuma imo (sweet potato) products, their main attraction being yaki-imo, or roasted sweet potato. Tirol has collaborated with them to create a sweet potato and apple pie chocolate!

Flavours: Sweet potato, apple, pie crust

With the first bite I immediately got the sweetness from the potato and then the apple came as the aftertaste. Overall this one is fairly sweet. The filling has a mashed potato texture and bits of dried apple in it. They did a really good job of capturing the taste of the pie crust with bits of biscuit and satsuma imo cookie.

Kagawa Ippuku: Udon in the Food Court

This shop is one that is in the food court of La La Port Nagoya. Food courts in Japan are not just for the typical burgers and fries, you can find anything from kaisen don (sashimi rice bowls), beef cutlets and ramen to steaks and italian pasta. It’s always so hard to choose what to go for, but on this day of my visit I decided upon udon from a shop called Kanagawa Ippuku.

The udon noodles were nice and chewy as is always preferred (except in some regions such as Ise where soft is considered better). This udon dish has the tsuyu, or broth separate from the noodles which are meant to be dipped. In this case the broth is called tsukejiru, or a soup dip. It coated the cold noodles well, not being too goopy and thick nor too thin. I found it interesting to have two temperatures in the mouth at the same time, the cold noodles and warm broth. The hint of yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) was a good accent to the whole dish. The duck meat had a char on it, probably from a direct flame, that went really nicely with the broth. The accompanying negi (Japanese leek), myoga (also known as Japanese ginger, but doesn't taste like ginger), and ginger paste was nice for a change of flavour and to lighten the dish overall, but I think that in the end, I'd prefer just the tsukejiru and noodles.

Duck tsukejiru udon

The dish could use a couple more slices of duck though, and it didn’t look like the picture on the menu!

Area: 400m from Tokaidori station (Meiko Line) 東海道駅（名港線）
Shop: Kagawa Ippuku 香川一福
Website and Map: https://kagawa-ippuku.com/shopinfo/#nagoya
Hours: 10am-9pm (LO 8:30pm)

Haagen Daaz: Sunda Mochi

Zunda mochi is mochi that is covered in a sweet edamame bean paste. The way that I've mostly seen it done is with a mochi that is made from lightly pounding the mochi rice, leaving parts of the grains intact such as in ohagi (where the mochi is covered with a red bean paste). It can be done with regular mochi as well though. Haagen Dazs has taken the components of zunda mochi to make it an ice cream flavour.

Upon opening the small cup, you see a blob of mochi with a zunda paste topping covering it. This ice cream is layered with the mochi on top, the ice cream underneath with thin layers of zunda paste running through it as well. The mochi was chewy and had a flavour much like real mochi except sweeter and melts in the mouth after the first few bites. The milky ice cream underneath was sweet and as it melts away, the flavour of the edamame then becomes prevalent. They must have experimented many times to get the mochi just right, so that it doesn't become hard when frozen but isn't too soft that it doesn't feel like mochi. They got it just right and it really does work well with ice cream.

Cup Noodles: Shark's Fin Soup Ramen

For those of you against shark's fin soup, don't worry, there isn't actually any shark's fin in here, so although it sounds expensive, it is actually just the same price as a regular Cup Noodle!
This soup has a Chinese food flavour to it, so the soup itself is a bit thicker, comparable to sweet and sour soup (I've never actually had shark's fin soup before so I can't compare to that). The chicken and pork combination soup gave it plenty of umami, and the threads of fake shark's fin not only soaked up the umami but added an extra interesting texture. The accompanying oyster oil honestly didn't add much to the overall flavour as it was a mild extra.

Oyster flavoured oil

See the strands of fake shark's fin?

Tirol Chocolate Flavour #11: Ruby Chocolate

11. Ruby Chocolate (2020)

Ruby chocolate seems to be the newest trend in the chocolate world. It's a naturally pink variety of cocoa bean. Despite its colour, on its own it just has a regular chocolate flavour, which is why it is often mixed with berry flavours that not only go well with this particular chocolate, it doesn't deceive the palate when the eye sees the pink colour.

Flavours: Strawberry and raspberry

The outer layer tastes like a regular sweet milk chocolate. Inside, the dry strawberries have a slight tartness. To be honest I'm not entirely sure where the raspberry flavour comes from. The soft chocolate filling has a "green" flavour to it, almost like some sort of flower or herb; I can't say I've ever had ruby chocolate on its own so I think maybe it's possible this is a characteristic of it (?).

Montpar: High Quality Patisserie At Reasonable Prices

I first discovered this quaint patisserie a couple of years ago, in a residential but quite travelled street.
They have wonderful sweets, a bit pricier than the standard convenience store desserts but definitely worth it. I'd say they are the same level, but not not as expensive as the high end department store patisseries. And the good thing is that you can have a seat and take your time to enjoy your dessert (department stores are usually take-out only)!

Montpar

Dessert showcase

I tried the satsuma imo, or sweet potato tart since it seemed a bit rare for me. It looks like an apple crumble tart at first but then you can see chunks of yellow sweet potato with its purple skin layered underneath the crumble. Because there are chunks of potato it has quite a densness to it, which is not a bad thing. I like that they chose to keep the texture of potato instead of mashing it all. Much of the natural sweetness of the potato was used here, and I think I tasted a hint of apple. The crust was a biscuit type crust which is perfect to standup to the density of the potato. The crust was flavourful and not doughy or bland like many of the convenience store tart crusts. The hints of salt here were a nice touch to bring out the sweetness. It was served on a plate with creme anglaise made with real vanilla beans. This was quite nice, along with the orange jelly which gave a bit of tang. Adding each accompaniment ever so lightly changed the overall flavour of the tart, making each bite more fun and interesting to eat.  I didn’t imagine sweet potato would work so well as a tart!

Satsuma imo tart

Area: about a 10 min. walk southeast of Nakamura Nisseki Station (Higashiyama Line) 中村日赤駅（東山線）

Shop: Montpar モンパル

Map and Info: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230113/23026161/

Hours: Patisserie 10am-8pm, Eat-in area 10am-6pm, closed Mondays

Masa Cafe: A Different Type of Sandwich Bread

In the midst of a shoku pan boom, I was excited to have lunch at a shoku pan specialty bakery. Shoku pan is the Japanese for a loaf of bread, the kind that is square or rectangular shaped when sliced and is often used for a sandwich, or toasted and buttered in the morning. This trend has been going on strong for a couple of years now with new shops opening around the country still. The price of one loaf could be at least 3-4 times more than that of the loaf you can get in a regular grocery store. Here, at Masa the price of half a loaf is ¥400. These specialty shops put a lot of time into trial and error when creating their signature bread and mostly always claim to use only the best of ingredients in the best way possible to bake the kind of bread the creator had in mind. Here they claim to use ingredients only from Japan. The flour is from Hokkaido, the milk from Hakodate (a slightly richer milk than the regular 3.0% milk, this one being 4.0%). The honey comes from bees that feed on Japanese lotus, rapeseed and other flowers, and the butter is also from the large dairy producers, Hokkaido.

I decided to try the Running Egg open sandwich ¥580 (¥638 with tax).  I first pushed away the toppings of the toast so that I could try the bread on its own. It was generously buttered and just by pulling it apart I could tell the inside was soft and moist. Upon first bite I could taste something flowery and it hit me that it must be a special kind of honey (I only found out later that they use a particular honey). The crust of the bread, although crispy, I could tell that it is the soft type when not toasted, something that many people here like.

Running Egg open sandwich

The bacon was soft and wasn’t overly salty. It had a good amount of fat streaked through it. Running Egg is a brand of egg where the eggs have been laid less than 3 days ago and is supposedly higher in nutrients than a regular one. I liked the crispy edges, and the yolk was nice and runny. The yolk itself was mild but that perfectly brought out the honey flavor and buttery bread. Using this bread gives egg toast a whole new flavour. The egg, in combination with the shoku pan and the bacon makes it have a sweet and savoury flavour because of the prevalence of the honey used in the bread.

The accompanying salad of mixed greens and a cherry tomato was dressed with a light, peppery olive oil vinaigrette.

The eat-in area has a comfortable atmosphere that is not too busy. Although simple, they do put some time and care into making their dishes, so be prepared to wait. You can fill your own cup with the orange water they provide and sip on it while you wait. On this day Christmas music was playing in the background. I noticed that they have a pianist come in and perform every Thurs .

On the way out, I picked up a peanut cream bread that was being sold on the table near the register. It had the same honey aftertaste as the shoku pan which went well with the sweetened peanut butter. The bread was very soft, but had a denseness to it that made it a bit chewier than the shoku pan.

Peanut cream bread

I just had to come back to try their number one recommended open sandwich (I saw it on tv), the gratin open sandwich (¥580 plus tax). Their signature bread is covered in bechamel sauce and baked with bacon and cheese on top. Course black pepper is sprinkled for accent. This time the salad included a cabbage coleslaw, nice for some sweetness to go with the bitterness of greens and olive oil. I didn’t particularly care for the black pepper because it overpowered the sweetness of the cheese and mild honey flavor of the bread (which is what makes this bread unique). The thick small strips of bacon on the other hand was a good addition with the mild saltiness bringing out all the other flavours. I thought the bread would get quite soggy from the toppings, but it was still palatable and the crust remained chewy.

Gratin open sandwich

I really liked the Butter Rusk (150g  for ¥150) sold at the entrance. It was the perfect amount of crispness, toastiness and sweetness. 

Butter rusk

Butter rusk

Area: a couple of blocks northwest of Nakamura Nisseki Station (Higashiyama Line) 中村日赤駅（東山線）

Restaurant: Masa cafe マサカフェ

Website and Map: http://masacafe.nagoya/shopinfo/

Hours: 8am-4pm

Nakamura: Udon for a Cold Winter Night

A bowl of warm udon is great for a cold day, but even better is nabeyaki udon. Nabe is the word for a pot in Japanese and when it comes to nabeyaki udon, it refers to a specific type of clay pot. This pot heats up slowly making it ideal to cook rice in. For udon, it is ideal because it keeps its contents warm for a long time.

At Nakamura (中むら) there is a large variety of udon to choose from, and one of them is the nabeyaki. I like nabeyaki because it often comes with a lot of toppings making it a complete meal and very filling. At Nakamura these toppings include abura-age (fried tofu), chicken, egg, Japanese leeks, shiitake and fu (dried wheat gluten). The dashi broth was delicious making the abura-age and fu burst with flavour as they soak up the broth. The chicken added another level to the broth as well. And best of all, it stayed hot all throughout the whole meal.

Area: about 600m southwest of Kamejima Station (Higashiyama Line) 亀島駅（東山線）
Restaurant: Nakamura 中むら
Map and Info: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230113/23034833/dtlmap/
Hours: Lunch 11:15am-3pm, Dinner 5-10pm

Tully's Coffee Cheese Tea

Cheese tea became a trend last year. It's basically tea topped with a light cheese cream. Tully's, a big Japanese cafe chain, came up with a version for their winter season. It was royal milk tea (a sweetened milk tea) with mascarpone cheese and strawberry.

I was expecting the royal milk tea to be very sweet, but to my happy surprise it was actually only mildly so. The sweetness in this drink came mostly from the strawberry jam and the whipped cream. I suspect the mascarpone was blended in with the whipped cream giving it some richness. Mixing the jam with the cream gave the drink a strawberry milk flavour. Overall, a good combination.

For spring, it seems they have a peach confiture and whipped cream royal milk tea drink. There's no cheese in this one though...perhaps the cheese tea trend has died.

Yakiniku Gyujin: Some Things Stand Out Here

There are so many yakiniku or BBQ restaurants in Japan, and many of them seem to be quite similar. Afterall, it consists of just meat, dipping sauce and the grill. Where they differ are in the quality of meat, flavours of the tare (the sauce or marinade) and seasonings. The side dishes available may also differ widely.

At Gyujin, the beef tongue on the menu caught my eye. Normally it is cut in thin rounds, but here they had a dish where it was cut in strips lengthwise. To be honest the texture and flavour were not all that different compared to the rounds. While the larger size made it slightly harder to eat, the umami does last longer in the mouth and increases as you continue to chew.

Two cuts of beef tongue

Overall, the tare and seasoning at this restaurant are mild, and on the sweeter side of things. This was actually one thing that I enjoyed about this yakiniku. So many restaurants boldly season their meats and often the flavour of the meat is lost. At Gyujin, I really got the sense of the meat was what was most predominent, as it good quality meat should be.

Area: about a 2-minute walk southwest of Ozone station 大曾根駅
Restaurant: 焼肉 Gyujin
Map: https://www.hotpepper.jp/strJ001119383/map/
Hours: 5-12pm (LO 11:30pm)

Beard Papa's: Probably the Freshest Cream Puff You Can Find

Shu-cream, or choux a la creme in French, is a dessert you can find almost anywhere in Japan, including convenience stores. One popular shu-cream take-out specialty shop is Beard Papa. They not only have stores all over Japan, but also overseas as far as the US and Canada. For fresh shu-cream this is the place to go. Most shu-creams are filled with custard and packaged or put into display cases so the outer pastry absorbs the moisture and is soft. However at Beard Papa, they fill the pastry shell with cream upon ordering so you can experience a fresh one. The difference is that the shell stays flaky, or crisp in the case of their cookie shu.

Regular shu (left) and cookie shu (right)

This time I wanted to take advantage of the freshness and ordered a cookie shu-cream filled with the original plain custard. The shell had bits of crunchy caramelized cookie bits that added a great texture and extra sweetness to the mildly sweetened custard. The plain pastry shell itself is not that sweet and has that characteristic eggy flavour. Look at the amount of cream they put in there! ...it's great for people who like that silky light texture in sweets.

Cookie shu

Packed with custard

Area: Sunroad (underground shopping at Nagoya Station), サンロード（名古屋駅）
Shop: Beard Papa's ビアードパパ
Website and Map: https://www.beardpapa.jp/shop/detail/D397/
Hours: 10am-9pm

La Soeur aux Bacchanales: Very Reasonable French Fare

This is one restaurant I keep coming back to for a leisurely lunch when dining alone. Although busy, it has a nice, relaxing atmosphere, with comfortable plush seats, jazz music playing lightly over the speakers and all of the sounds are muffled by the low ceiling and carpeting.

Interior

Another reason I like this place is for the reasonable lunches (¥1000) that sometimes use ingredients or cooking techniques that are a bit different than you may normally see. There is always a choice of 3 lunches, a meat, fish, and other dish. Today’s specials included a grilled pork tenderloin, salmon saute with couscous, or a deer meat tartine. I had to go with the tartine because I rarely get to eat deer, and because what better place to order a tartine at a French bistro style restaurant.

The meal started with a salad that was lightly dressed with a simple vinaigrette. It also came with 2 slices of baguette (I had to ask for it because the server didn't bring it, perhaps because my meal included toasted bread). The tartine looked much like the salad, using the same types of greens. It  was a toasted slice of boule bread with a sour cream spread, a sunny lettuce and watercress topping, finished with an onsen tamago (much like a poached egg). I found the slices of bread to be charred a bit too much leading to a very bitter overpowering taste. Good thing I asked for the baguette! The entire dish was not seasoned very much but I think that’s because the deer meat was prepared like bacon providing the dishes’ seasoning. The deer meet was the best part, not too salty and with streaks of fat running through it giving the well cooked meat some juiciness, while retaining its gamey flavour.

Starter salad (top left) and deer tartine (centre)

On a different occasion, the main was a very tender and rare roast beef.

Area: Midland Square, on the east side of Nagoya Station ミッドランドスクエア（名古屋駅）
Restaurant: La Soeur aux Bacchanales ラスールオーバカナル
Website and Map: https://lasoeurauxbacchanales.dino.vc/wf/shop/17142839
Hours: 8am-10pm

Bronco Billy Steakhouse: Affordable Family Restaurant

While wagyu is so delicious with all its fatty marbling, sometimes you just feel like a big hunk of leaner, meaty steak. With wagyu, you can only eat so much because it is so rich, not to mention pricey. For a thick slab of good ol' steak, try heading over to the well known casual steakhouse in Japan, Bronco Billy (there are various locations all around Japan).

It's a brightly lit family restaurant with an American lodge feel, meant to keep everyone happy with a few different cuts of steak, hamburger patties, a dessert, salad and drink bar. The restaurant was highly advertising their Uruguay aged sirloin, so I went for that (1628 yen including tax for 150g). For this cut they could cook it rare or medium rare, so I went for the medium rare. Here all the steaks are cooked over charcoal and it really showed in the overall flavour of the meat. The sirloin was pretty much a lean hunk of meat, and was tender, but not as tender as the rib-eye (2178 yen for 150g) of course which does have a bit more fat. I'm not sure why the sirloin had more of a smokey or burnt flavour to it, but I'm not so sure I fancied that.

If you order the salad bar set (an additional 500 yen), you have a choice of steamed white rice or bread. I highly recommend the bread, it's an individual mini boule that comes warmed and is so soft with a bit of sweetness that makes it easy to devour the whole thing. Also recommended in the salad bar is the mentaiko creamy dressing, puts a Japanese twist to a regular salad. The only thing I have to say I did not enjoy was the accompanying corn potage. It was so powdery that I felt like I was drinking a bowl of soupy flour.

I've been back once more since the last time for lunch. This time I ordered the signature all beef hamburger patty and kaki furai (fried oyster) combo. The clear consomme soup was much better than the corn potage that was served last time. I think I preferred the patty compared to my steak previously because it wasn't burnt and was actually surprisingly juicy; I thought that there might be fillers such as bread crumbs in it, but there was nothing added!

Area: a few blocks east of Iwatsuka Station (Higashiyama Line) 岩塚駅（東山線）
Restaurant: Bronco Billy ブロンコビリー岩塚店
Map and Website: https://www.bronco.co.jp/shop/nagoya/iwatsuka/
Hours: 11am-11pm (LO 10:30pm), Lunch 11am-4pm

Super Cup Sweets: Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream

A couple of years ago this brand came out with a slightly different type of ice cream, flavours of cakes and pies turned into the cold treat. When they first became popular it was with this strawberry shortcake flavour.

The bottom layer tastes a bit like there's coconut in it to me, or like a thin biscuit covered in sugar that I remember often eating as a child but don't remember the name of it. The middle layer is plain ice cream, perhaps to look like whipped cream and between the two layers is cookie, with the texture of a not so flakey pie crust and the flavour of a butter cookie. The top layer is a strawberry flavoured frozen compote. For me, it is a bit too thick and concentrated; it seems to overpower all the other layers when eaten together.