Banana Juice, the Next Trend in Drinks?

 The past couple of years have seen the surge of "tapioca tea", or bubble tea in Japan. Perhaps not as popular but still trendy is the banana juice. The most basic ones being just a blend of real banana and milk. Since they can be so easily made, you can see them on menus of many cafes as well, but one thing that confirms their trendiness is the emerge of banana juice specialty shops. These places search for the sweetest bananas and most suitable ingredients for their drinks. 

Just recently a new specialty banana cafe has opened in Nagoya called Banana O-Koku バナナ王国, 0-koku meaning kingdom. The menu consists of banana juice with a choice of milk, almond milk, amazake (a fermented rice drink), soy milk and banana mixed with other fruits such as berry. Food items include banana curry, banana pie, banana waffle, cheesecake, pancakes and fried banana.

This is the banana juice made with almond milk. If you like almonds, this one might be for you as the flavour of almonds is very prominent. I think next time I'll go for the regular milk so the milk isn't clashing with the banana.

Before opening in the morning

Area: a couple blocks east of Honjin Station, 本陣駅（東山線)
Shop: Banana O-Koku バナナ王国
Map and Info: https://jouhou.nagoya/banana-oukoku/
Hours: 11am-6pm, closed Mondays

Cafe & Meal Muji: Not All Muji's Have Cafes, But You Can Visit One in Nagoya

Mujirushi Ryohin, or Muji as it is known in countries outside of Japan is now widely known throughout the world, but did you know that some Muji stores in Japan have cafes?

Before the Covid outbreak, I was able to visit one Muji Cafe at Nagoya Station located in the Meitetsu department store. It is a deli-style cafe where you pick 3 or 4 hot or cold dishes to make up a one-plate meal. I ordered the 4-choice meal (1000 yen) which came with miso soup and a choice of white or 10-grain rice. They used to have bread as an option, but not anymore it seems.

Here are the 4 dishes I chose (starting at the top and going clockwise on the plate):
1. Mayonnaise curry cauliflower and chicken: Large pieces of chicken breast and cauliflower covered in a mild mayonnaise and curry powder sauce. All the components went well together.

2. Chicken and apple cream: I could definitely taste butter and white wine in this dish. It was sweet from the natural flavour of the apples, but this sweetness was a nice change from the other 3 dishes.

3. Liver and konnyaku with a mustard sesame dressing: The often-seen sesame dressing was brought one step up with a touch of mustard. This dish was heavily seasoned, but that made sure the originally flavourless konnyaku absorbed all the flavours.

4. Spicy buri (yellowtail) daikon: The traditional buri daikon dish uses a soy sauce based sweet and savoury broth, so this spicy doubanjiang (Chinese salty broad bean chili sauce) was an interesting change from the normal. I feel like maybe there was some yuzu kosho in this dish, but I could be mistaken. The daikon had some crunch still which is also a change from the usual where it is often very soft.

Although the yellowtail and cream chicken dishes were chosen from the hot deli section, there all seemed the same room temperature to me. The miso soup, being Nagoya, used a red miso, and a niboshi (dried sardines) dashi broth. Abura age, or fried tofu and wakame were also in this soup.

This location is a large open space with a cooking class right next to it, so it's not the quietest place, but the noises are all somehow dampened, perhaps by the low ceiling. There is music, but can't really be heard over the other noises, and the music playing in the cooking class area. There is booth seating in the back, a big communal table in the middle and tables for 2 that can be moved around in case you have a party of 3 or more.

Area: Meitestu Department Store, Men's Wing 6F, Nagoya Station 名駅、名鉄百貨店メンズ館６F
Restaurant: Cafe & Meal Muji  無印良品
Map and Website: https://www.muji.com/jp/ja/shop/detail/045196
Hours: 10am-10pm

Cafe Grace: A Simple Morning Service As a Satisfying Breakfast

Here's another little kissaten, or Japanese cafe, in the middle of a residential zone. This one might be a little easier to come across since it is near a main road and across from a post office.

Today I came for the “morning service”. This is when you order a drink, and a small breakfast comes included in the price of that drink.

Banana juice and "morning"

Since banana juice is still so popular and I’m still liking it, I ordered that as my beverage of choice. Here they use real banana blended with milk. The drink came refreshingly cold but smooth with no chunks of ice. It was very sweet. I suppose they used really ripe bananas because it didn’t feel like added sugar to me. The yogurt was plain with no added sweetener, and on the thicker side of Japanese yogurts which is what I like (often cafe’s serve a sweetened yogurt). Here the only sweetener was a dollop of strawberry jam. The white bread toast is great on its own. Milky and with a light buttering bringing out the perfectly toasted flavour, almost like a shortbread cookie. It wasn't sweet like many Japanese bread can be. I also like the denseness of the bread, being not too light and fluffy. This bread went nicely with the ogura (red bean paste), which looked and tasted homemade to me, chunky and less sweet compared to store-bought.

Homemade cookies and cake options to go with your coffee or tea

There are a also a variety of homemade pastries that I would like to try next time. These are to be eaten in the cafe, not for take away.

There was no music playing, but a big screen tv showed the news for all the customers to watch. Most of the patrons seemed to come solo in the morning with coffee tickets, a sign of being a regular (usually 11 coffee tickets for the price of 10 coffees). There is no smoking allowed in this kissaten.

Interior

Area: about an 8-minute walk southwest of Kamejima Station (Higashiyama Line) 亀島駅（東山線）

Shop: Cafe Grace カフェグレース

Map and Info: https://retty.me/area/PRE23/ARE61/SUB6102/100001424081/map/

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

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.

Cafe Tera: A Cafe and Kissaten Meld

Cafe Tera is a rather new, quaint little restaurant in the middle of a residential area that serves up kissaten (Japanese coffee house) style food in a bright cafe setting. It's clean, not too crowded, and the food is tasteful so I have been back several times.

Cafe Tera

First let's talk about lunch. The weekday lunch menu consists of standard kissaten fare such as tonkatsu (panko fried pork cutlet), hamburger patty, shoga-yaki (ginger pork saute) and kara-age (fried chicken). I ordered the teriyaki chicken lunch. It came with a salad, Japanese pickles, miso soup and a scoop of potato salad. The chicken was very tender and juicy with a teriyaki sauce not too sweet nor too salty. The sauciness was great to eat with the bed of cabbage it lay on and with the steaming white rice. The pickled gobo (burdock root) was soft, but did not lose its characteristic texture, and the sweetness was perfect to eat with rice. The salad had a nice mix of vegetables; okra, carrot, nagaimo (a type of potato), fresh peas, mizuna (a salad green), and was topped with a creamy french dressing. The miso soup contained abura age (fried tofu), wakame, koya doufu (dried tofu), green onion, and was pretty standard in flavour. The potato salad was the chunky type and was season simply, but nicely with salt and pepper.

Weekday lunch menu

Teriyaki chicken lunch

At any time during the day one can order from a variety of sandwiches. If ordered in the lunch hours (11:30am-1:30pm), drinks are discounted 200 yen. I went with the egg sandwich; a thick, 3-egg tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) with a layer of cucumber mayonnaise salad, sandwiched between thin white bread. The tamagoyaki was made well, with a softness and lightness to it. The accent of mustard and black pepper in the sandwich was nice, and the ketchup added a bit of sweetness. The bread was slightly sweet and was probably made with margarine, making a great match with the lightly seasoned egg. I think I would have preferred a slightly denser or thicker bread to stand up to the thick tamagoyaki though.

Drink and food menu

Egg sandwich

"Morning service" is part of Nagoya culture and this cafe is not missing it. It's basically a free breakfast when you order a drink. Here, the basic Morning includes toast, a hard-boiled egg, and yogurt. There are also options with different toasts such as red bean paste, egg salad, or cinnamon. They all use half slices of white bread, but they are thick enough that it is a satisfying breakfast.

Egg salad toast with yogurt

Toast with hard-boiled egg and yogurt

Red bean paste toast with hard-boiled egg

Cinnamon toast and yogurt

For a slightly extra fee, there is also the bread salad available during morning hours.

Bread salad

At one visit, I had the fruit herb tea. It was actually quite nice with a good blend of apple, mango, hibiscus, rosehip to name a few. 

There is always an explanation about the featured coffee of the day (where it's from and it's flavour profile).

On weekends and holidays, the lunchtime menu changes to pasta options. One unique thing about this cafe is that it has seating outside on turf if you wish to bring along a furry friend.

Interior

Area: about 100m from Honjin Station (Higashiyama Line) 本陣駅（東山線）
Restaurant: Cafe Tera カフェテラ
Map: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230113/23068560/dtlmap/
Hours: 7am-6pm, closed Wednesdays

Kissa Tsudzuki: A Quaint Cafe With Quite a Reputation

This cafe gained quite a big reputation in the past years as serving the world’s tallest latte. The owner of the shop would stand on top of a step ladder and pour milk and coffee simultaneously into a cup on the table. The popularity made this a go-to cafe in this rather retro area of this city. I’m not sure they still do the “tall” latte but they are now known for serving a tasty ‘morning’, elaborate fruit parfaits and their hot pressed sandwiches (namely the one filled with beef stew).

"Morning" Menu

Lunch Menu

Drink Menu

On the day I visited I was hoping to get a bite of the beef stew sandwich but unfortunately they were all sold out (I was afraid of this since when it appeared on a tv program they said it was limited in quantity).  I went for the half lunch and ordered the egg salad hot pressed sandwich. When I say half lunch  (¥550) it still comes with one full sandwich! The full lunch actually comes with 2 different flavours of sandwiches. The half lunch still comes with a drink and mini dessert.

Half hot pressed sandwich lunch

The egg salad was mildy but perfectly seasoned. I think they used salted butter on the outside of the bread so that itself added some flavour. It tasted like only a minimal amount of mayonnaise was used in the egg salad which was great to enhance the natural flavour of the egg. The edges of the bread were crisp (no crusts) from the magic of the butter and sandwich maker. I’m surprised by the amount of egg salad they fit in there without the sandwich getting soggy or breaking apart!

Of the drinks that come with the set are milk, melon soda, coffee or tea. But you can order any of the drinks and pay the difference from ¥400. So I ordered the fresh banana juice. It was simple, using fresh banana in milk and was very refreshing as well as filling.

I didn’t quite like the dessert though, it tasted like watered down McDonald’s drink (the ones that you can rent the huge tub of it for events...do they still even do that?🤷‍♀️).

Cafe Tsudzuki is spacious and bright, a great place to go for a hearty breakfast or lunch.

Area: about 8 min walk west of Nakamura Kuyakusho station (Sakuradori Line), 中村区役所駅（桜通線）

Restaurant: Kissa Tsudzuki 喫茶ツヅキ

Map: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23016117/dtlmap/

Hours: 7:30am-7pm (Breakfast 7:30-11am, Lunch 11am-2pm)

Fukurou: A Hidden Chic Old-fashioned Cafe in Nagoya

In the middle of a residential area, this cafe would be hard to stumble upon if you were exploring only the busy city life. From the outside, it looks almost like a modern Japanese restaurant with it's minimalist appearance. However when you walk inside, there is no mistake that this is a cafe. The interior is designed like an old-fashioned shop, but this in itself if what makes it chic this day in age.

The lunch menu is small, with only 4 types of sandwiches, but you can tell that the owner puts a lot of time into making them. I decided on the chicken teriyaki sandwich. When it was brought to my table, I was surprised to see how volumy it was (volumy is a word they use in Japan to describe a dish that looks like it will fill you up).

The sweet and savory sauce on the teriyaki chicken was subtle, unlike many teriyaki sandwiches you will find, especially those at convenience stores which are sometimes too overpowering. It was very juicy and because of subtle sauce, the flavour of chicken itself and the other ingredients were not lost. The egg salad layer was likewise seasoned mildly and was a good match for this sandwich. Although a warm sandwich, the lettuce stayed crispy. The bread was toasted just enough, and best of all had the crust left on giving a pleasant crunchy and buttery bite in the end. Thick slices of juicy, fresh tomato were refreshing and with the accompanying carrot salad made this a balanced meal. Butter and mayonnaise were the only spreads I could taste...simple is best. The carrots in the side salad were julienned so thinly it was easy to eat, and was topped with a caesar dressing.

I was here at noon and there weren’t any customers. I supposed because that is because this is mainly a coffee and sweets cafe and lunchtime isn't their busiest hour. The atmosphere is quiet and pleasant with its fairytale house decor and orchestral music playing over the speakers.

They also serve "morning", which means for the price of a drink you get a small plate of food. Her the plate consists of toast, fruit and a choice of either egg salad or yogurt. I made another visit one day to experience this breakfast menu. I ordered the banana juice and morning B, the one that comes with yogurt. I saw part of the drink being made; it’s more like a smoothie with ice cream. I have a feeling it’s not made with real banana since I didn’t find any pulp or banana bits in the drink. It was sweet with a mild taste of banana, not thick like a milkshake sometimes is. The yogurt was sour but the topping of blueberry jam balanced it out. I had asked for kokutou bread because I saw that other customers were ordering it. Kokutou is a type of brown suger. The bread was slightly sweet, toasting it brought out the molasses type flavour of the kokutou, and went well with the generous spread of butter. The plate also came with a package of red bean paste, which generally goes really well with buttered toast. I found the contents sweeter than a homemade version might be, but it still was a good accompaniment to the dense, moist and thick toast.

Area: about a 5-min walk north of Honjin Station 本陣駅 (Higashiyama Line 東山線)
Shop: Fukurou 梟
Map: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230113/23035526/dtlmap/
Hours: 7:30am-4pm, closed Mondays and the 3rd Tues of the month