SALVATORE CUOMO - Neapolitan vegan pizza + surprises

SALVATORE CUOMO is a big Italian restaurant chain in Japan. When a new restaurant was opened in the shopping mall ZAZA CITY two years ago, I became curious, reading about their traditional pizza-making technique from Naples.

For vegetarians, it isn't very difficult to find something to eat in Italian restaurants. They often have pizza margherita and quattro formaggi (four cheese), as well as spaghetti genovese and other pasta with vegetable sauce. Previously, when I had to eat out, I chose such vegetarian dishes at Italian restaurants because I could hardly find vegan options.

But today, I was going to have a substantial lunch with buffet + vegan pizza. SALVATORE CUOMO had two options: buffet, or buffet + pizza (whole). I intended to choose pizza marinara, which is usually a vegan pizza.

When I came to the restaurant, I found that they serve pizza marinara with whitebait (shirasu) for lunch. I asked them not to add whitebait and explained that I couldn’t eat any kind of animal ingredient. When I took some vegetables from the buffet and asked about dressing, one of the staff members gave me soy source with yuzu (a citrus fruit) flavor. How kind, I thought.

The pizza came soon. This was the first pizza marinara I tried in my life.

I thought it was quite ok with these vegetables and the whole pizza. So, I was very surprised when one of the chefs came to the table and asked me if I wanted some vegetable spaghetti. “Because you can’t eat much of the buffet” he said. I hesitated but answered finally “Yes.” When I was going to take another helping of vegetables, the kind staff member came to me with a dish in hand.

She explained that this spaghetti had mushroom, shimeji mushroom, lettuce, and tomato and was seasoned with salt and pepper. I was surprised again because it was much more than I expected. They made this just for me! The spaghetti was cooked to al dente and delicious. When I was busy eating it and the pizza, another surprise came.

Three kinds of beautiful salad: carottes râpées with dried figs, radish salad, and tomato salad with onions and olives. It was amazing! The staff member explained one by one what they contained. I was impressed by their creativity and sincerity. She said that they also tried to meet the needs of customers with allergies, for example.

In addition to these dishes, I took acerola juice and peach flavored herb tea. The buffet included many kinds of drinks, and there was a chocolate fountain with several kinds of desserts around it, including fruit cocktail.

I really enjoyed the lunch. All the dishes were very good but what struck me most was their professionalism to satisfy customers. I got full and was also filled with thankfulness to the staff of the restaurant.

*This resraurant no longer exists. At the same place, a new restaurant Italian Kitchen VANSAN was opened in June 2020.

Holiday at art museum

Today I went to Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art to see an exhibition titled “Dramatic! Western Painting World – Steps toward Barbizon.” It was about the history of 250 years of western painting, from the baroque period to the age of Barbizon school.

I like to see European realistic oil paintings. In Japan, it was often prohibited to take pictures in art museums. But this time, the museum allowed visitors to take pictures in two sections of the exhibition. They even encouraged us to upload the pictures to SNS, saying that we could get a can badge if we did so. Promotion through SNS has become so popular even among art museums.

The exhibition was divided into four sections, and there were about 80 paintings in total. The first section showed paintings of myth, Bible, and literature. I was impressed to see paintings of King Lear and Cordelia, and Desdemona, well-known characters from Shakespeare's plays. 

The second section had many portraits. This lovely girl caught my eyes.

Dear Bird by William-Adolphe Bouguereau 

The third section was on the second floor and consisted of still-life paintings. I liked paintings of fruits and flowers, however, it was impossible to take pictures in this section as in the first section.

I had especially looked forward to seeing the fourth section, which showed paintings of sceneries and rural life. I was glad to see a work of my favorite painter.

In the Garden by Jean-François Millet

Millet is famous for his paintings of peasant farmers. But in this work, he painted his children. I had never thought of his family life before, so it was very interesting.

This is another painting that I liked.

Saint-Nicolas-Lez-Arras, au bord de la riviere (on the riverside? English title unknown) by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

There were many other impressive paintings, and I enjoyed them very much. On the second floor of the art museum, there was a sitting area by the window to have a rest.  

Through the window, you can see a park that is located immediately behind the museum. I’ll tell you about this park at the beginning of December when it will look more beautiful than now.

Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art
Address: 100-1 Matsushiro-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-454-6801 
Open hours: 9:30- 17:00
Closed: Mondays (if a national holiday falls on Monday, it is closed the next day instead), New Year holidays, between exhibitions

Admission: Varies depending on the exhibition
Access: You can take any bus from Stop #1 in the bus terminal located outside the north exit of JR Hamamatsu Station to “Bijyutsukan” (7-minute ride).

At JR Hamamatsu Station

Hi! Welcome to my blog. As Hamamatsu is not a major tourist destination, you may wonder where it is located exactly. It is halfway between Tokyo and Osaka, and it takes about two hours to come here by Tokaido Shinkansen (Kodama) from both cities.

On the way to the ticket gate from the Shinkansen platform, you can see exhibit spaces of two companies whose headquarters are located in this city.

One is an automobile manufacturer Suzuki.

And the other is a musical instrument manufacturer Yamaha.

When I was in elementary school, my classmates and I took a tour of the grand piano factory of Yamaha. It was very interesting, and each of us got a nice souvenir from the factory; a palm-sized grand piano-shaped pencil sharpener. Though the factory has been moved to Kakegawa, which is also located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, you can learn about the history of Japanese organs and pianos at Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments, which is just a 7-minute walk from the station.

After you pass through the ticket gate, you’ll see the tourist information center across the floor, near the south exit. Some brochures and maps in English are available. The area of the city is the second largest in Japan. There are many things to see and places to visit in downtown and rural areas.

Hamamatsu is one of the sunniest cities in Japan, with many mandarin orange trees on the north side of Lake Hamana. From October to December, you can participate in mandarin orange picking. The most famous brand is Mikkabi (a district’s name). They are very sweet. On the same side as the tourist information center, there is EKIMACHI WEST that consists of souvenir shops. In GIFT KIOSK, you can find sweets such as cheese tarts and gaufrettes made with Mikkabi mandarin oranges.

For vegans, I’d like to recommend orange-flavored potato chips. I don’t know why, but in Japan, there are many kinds of potato chips flavored with local specialties. GIFT KIOSK has also wasabi-flavored ones, and Sagamien, a tea shop, has green tea-flavored ones. Wasabi is hot horseradish paste added to sushi. I can imagine how they taste!