Mein Schloss - Craft brewery & Beer hall restaurant

As I wrote before in this blog, I can’t drink alcohol. On the contrary, my sister loves drinking and has never got drunken. Since she will soon hit the big ?-oh, I wanted to send something special for her birthday. So, I went to Mein Schloss (My Castle) near JR Hamamatsu Station.

Mein Schloss is a beer hall restaurant with a brewery and a courtyard. I have once had a pizza that was like Pizza Margherita in the restaurant. The interior and atmosphere were very much like those in German beer halls I had seen on TV and more impressive than the pizza itself. Other people were eating sausages that also looked very German. You can feel as if you were in Germany. Under this corona period, the restaurant seems to take more strict measures than other places in Hamamatsu. They take customers’ temperatures and request customers to wear a mask when they walk around in the building.

This time, I just visited their shop on the left to buy the present. Behind the counter, there was a series of beer. I chose a set of four types of beer Schwarz, Alt, Helles, and Weisen. They were made in the brewery of Mein Schloss and labeled as “HAMAMATSU BEER.” According to the website, their products are made according to German Reinheitsgebot (purity order). This law was originally established by Wilhelm IV in Bavaria in 1516 and limited the ingredients of beer to just water, barley, and hops (yeast was added later). It is interesting to know that all these different types of beer are made from the same simple ingredients.

The shop of Mein Schloss has also some food from abroad such as pickles, cookies and gummi candies and souvenirs of Hamamatsu. I bought bottles of cucumber pickles and olives home.

In addition, I found some beautiful Christmas ornaments from Germany. It was funny to see snowmen in the middle of summer.

These wooden ornaments somehow reminded me of German bread Brezel. You can eat one in the restaurant.

In the Christmas season, the courtyard will have gorgeous illumination at night. Even in summer, it was nice to see with parasols and flowers.

Now it is almost impossible to go overseas because of covid-19. But even if you are in Hamamatsu, you can see something German in Mein Schloss, and there is also Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments that presents musical instruments from all over the world. It is just a few minutes walk from Mein Schloss.

Yesterday, my sister sent me a mail to inform that she received the beer. She said she would have it for dinner with steak and tortilla chips. I wished I could drink beer because tortilla chips surely go well with beer and the temperature was 40 degrees here, which I had never experienced before.

Mein Schloss
Address:  8-1 Chuo 3-chome, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-452-1146
Opening hours: Weekdays 11:00 - 14:30, 17:00 - 23:00
                       Saturday 11:00 - 23:00
                       Sunday and holidays 11:00 - 22:00
Closed: Monday, December 31 and January 1
Access: 8-minute walk from JR Hamamatsu Station

Usuchatoh - Beloved drink in Shizuoka Prefecture

As I told before in this blog, Shizuoka Prefecture is known for its tea cultivation. Many local people drink green tea five times a day or more. In summer, cold barley tea may be preferred sometimes as in other regions in Japan, but we have also unique summer drink. It is called Usuchatoh (ウス茶糖) and produced by a tea shop Chikumeido (竹茗堂). Two yeas ago, it was introduced in a local TV show and was called “soul drink” by one of the local people.

Chikumeido is an old-established shop founded in the downtown of the present Shizuoka City, the capital of Shizuoka Prefecture, in 1781. Usuchatoh was invented in 1933 by the seventh-generation owner. It is powdered green tea with sugar and cinnamon added. I’ve heard there is a similar product called “Green Tea” made by other company, but the taste seems to be different. Anyway, the names Chikumeido and Usuchatoh are so famous in Hamamatsu that I had thought for a long time that it was drunk all over Japan. In fact, it is a local drink and difficult to get outside Shizuoka Prefecture.

Chikumeido has three shops in Hamamatsu: in the basement of Entetsu Department Store, the first floor of AEON Hamamatsu Ichino and AEON Hamamatsu Nishi. I got this pack of Usuchatoh in Entetsu Department Store. It contained five stick-type packs. There is also a bag containing 300g of Usuchatoh sold in the shop.

The powder looked like this.

As instructed on the backside of the pack, I added cold water of 140 cc and stirred well. It became dark green tea.

I expected it would be very sweet because of my memory of childhood. But it was not so sweet as before. It was moderately sweet and surely had the refreshing flavor of green tea but felt rather weak.
I wasn’t satisfied and immediately made another cup of tea, with about soymilk of 125 cc instead of water of 140 cc.

It tasted much better than the previous tea. In fact, there were some people on the Internet who said that they preferred making it with milk. Even with soymilk, it tasted richer, and I really thought it was good. According to the staff on the shop, Usuchatoh can be added to a shaved ice dessert. I don’t have an ice shaver at home, but Usuchatoh + soymilk would add a delicious flavor to the dessert.

At the cashier, he gave me a little present.

It’s a green tea candy. As soon as I put it in my mouth, I felt the distinctive flavor of tea that was very similar to Usuchatoh. It became increasingly stronger and bitter as I ate the candy. It’s surprising that a candy can be so alike to real tea.

If you search with the shop name “竹茗堂” on Amazon Japan, you can find their products including Usuchatoh, regardless the language you select. It seemed impossible to search with “Chikumeido” or “Usuchatoh” as no result appeared.

Fresh green leaves & tea leaves

May is the season of newly harvested tea. Last year, my mother, sister, and I went to Mori-machi, a town about 30 km from Hamamatsu and visited a tea shop Ishikawaen (石川園). In April this year, we got a brochure of their products including new tea leaves and a tea bag by post.

When I visited my parents’ house on May 5, my mother took me for a drive to Mori-machi as it was the last day of the annual sale of newly harvested tea. I got out of Hamamatsu for the first time in more than two months and had a feeling of freedom in the nature. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of mountains with fresh green leaves. There weren’t many cars running on the road in front of Ishikawaen.

Last year, they had a tent in front of the shop and offered a cup of free green tea and Ochabatake (tea garden) Yokan (thick jelly made from adzuki beans, agar, sugar, etc.) containing green tea to each visitor. But this year, they didn’t do that

and had a disinfectant at the entrance.

My mother bought some tea leaves and a box of Ochabatake Yokan.

I ate one piece of yokan at home with the tea sent from Ishikawaen in April. The yokan (5 cm x 3 cm) was dark green and had a rich flavor of green tea.

The contents of the tea bag consisted of green tea, Gyokuro (玉露), and powdered green tea. Gyokuro is the highest quality green tea. Before harvesting, its tea plants are covered to be protected from sunlight for three weeks to increase sweetness and decrease bitterness. The tea bag is intended to make tea with 400 cc of cold water. The pale green color of tea was beautiful, and the tea had a mild refreshing flavor.

Ishikawaen is a generous tea shop. Before we left, they gave another tea bag of this tea and a small bag of newly harvested tea to each of us. I think I’ll send them to my sister who has stayed in Tokyo all the time.

In Mori-machi, we also visited Daitoin Temple,

where we found thistles that can be rarely seen in the area where we live,

and went to FamilyMart. Though it is a convenience store chain, this store has a corner of locally produced vegetables and fruits.

I bought a pack of strawberries at a reasonable price. Though they were small, they tasted very good. Such simple local products always give me energy.

Healthy fermented foods (4) - Amazake nicknamed “drinkable IV shot”

Amazake literally means sweet sake, but it is a low or non-alcohol fermented rice drink. You can drink hot amazake at some sightseeing spots and events, and it tastes especially good in winter. However, cold amazake is available at any supermarkets all year round. It is often packed in a bag, but some products are packed in cartons. This one is available in Seijo Ishii in the basement of the station building.

Amazake has two types with different ingredients. This non-alcohol type is made from rice, rice malt, and salt. Though it doesn’t contain sugar, it is sweet. It is high in nutrition containing vitamins B1, B2, B6, folic acid, fiber, oligosaccharide, essential amino acids, glucose, etc. and is called drinkable IV shot. I heard people used to drink amazake to prevent summer heat fatigue during the Edo period. Nowadays amazake is often considered to be a drink in winter, and I seldom drink it in summer. But I found this amazake delicious whether it is cold or warm. Maybe I’ll continue to drink it even in summer.

The other type of amazake is made from sake lees, sugar, and salt. So, it contains a little alcohol. Though you can drink this type in some events at a reasonable price, you can make it easily by melting sake lees in hot water and adding some sugar and a little salt. This type of amazake warms you up in winter.

Amazake can be used also for cooking. The other day, I mixed it with miso with a ratio of 1:1 to make sauce. Miso is paste made from fermented soybeans, to which rice or barley is added sometimes. Different regions have different kinds of miso, and this time I used one from Niigata Prefecture famous for its rice cultivation. It contained soybeans, rice, salt, and alcohol. It smelled nice and was salty. Even after mixed with amazake, it didn’t become very sweet.

Then, I soaked a piece of tempeh or fermented soybeans into it.

After grilling, I ate it with German rye bread and sauerkraut. This open sandwich has four kinds of fermented foods: sauerkraut, tempeh, amazake, and miso.

I found this combination was not so good as I had expected because the bread, sauerkraut, and sauce had a distinctive taste respectively. It’s better to eat the tempeh separately. However, the sauce matched the grilled tempeh, and it may be suitable for many other foods with a mild taste.

Peppermint tea and camomile tea

As Shizuoka Prefecture is famous for its tea production, many people in Hamamatsu drink several cups of green tea in a day. It’s good to consume local products, but I mostly drink herb tea at home because I’m sensitive to caffeine and want to sleep well at night. According to data from Food Safety Commission of Japan, 100 ml of middle-grade green tea contains about 20 mg caffeine (100 ml of coffee contains about 60 mg of caffeine).

In the morning, I usually drink peppermint tea of POMPADOUR. Products of this German brand are found in Seijo Ishii in the basement of the station building and some other places such as the basement of Zaza City West.

Some people think tea is tasteless, but peppermint tea wakes you up with its refreshing flavor of mint. It also soothes headache, upset stomach, etc. A few years ago, I used to go to yoga lessons at night. One of the instructors diffused peppermint essential oil in the studio, saying that the scent of peppermint relieves a blocked nose and is good for hay fever. According to some websites, peppermint tea has the same effect. You can inhale the steam from hot tea and then drink it.

At night, I usually drink camomile tea. It has a scent that slightly reminds you of an apple. This tea makes you relax and sleep well.

Several years ago, a friend of mine sent me a pack of Chinese chrysanthemum flowers for tea. When seeing the dried flowers and tasting tea, I found it resembles camomile tea. Later, I learned both chrysanthemum and camomile are in the same plant family. Like camomile tea, chrysanthemum flower tea also helped me sleep well. It is a popular drink in China and one of their traditional herbal remedies but is difficult to find in ordinary food stores in Japan. I wonder if there are some other kinds of tea in Asia that correspond to European herb tea. In Japan (at least in Shizuoka Prefecture), green tea and its variations are so dominating that I can hardly remember any other kinds of traditional tea.

Mobile café in Hamamatsu Castle Park

I have already introduced some autumn leave viewing spots in Kyoto and Mori-mochi. So, I wondered if it was necessary to write about Hamamatsu Castle Park. However, it is the most convenient place to see autumn leaves if you live or come to the downtown. I went there today, wondering how they look like now. There were many people taking pictures here and there in the Japanese garden. It was very difficult to take pictures without including people. I almost gave up writing an article this time and finally came to a mobile café near the central lawn area. Its name is Tatazumi Coffee.

This café used high-quality coffee beans, however, I wondered if they had something without caffeine. According to their menu, they had decaf coffee, kuromoji tea, milk, apple juice and many other items in addition to ordinary coffee.

I asked the master what kuromoji tea was and if it was good because all I knew was the tea was from Tenryu, the mountain area in Hamamatsu. He showed me tea bags and let me smell at kuromoji. He explained that the tree of kuromoji is used for toothpicks served with traditional Japanese sweets to cut them. In English, it is called spicebush. I thought the smell of it was refreshing and ordered a cup of tea.

It was my first time to drink kuromoji tea, and I could hardly explain how it tasted. It wasn’t strong nor tasted bad, but I couldn’t find a word to describe it. The master said that it was like herb tea. Maybe he had also difficulty explaining the taste.

Before I left the place, I tried to take a picture of the café as the master allowed me to do so. But it seemed to be very popular, and many people were standing in a queue then. So, I took a picture just from this angle. According to their website, Tatazumi Coffee is open in the same place basically from Thursday to Monday.

After drinking tea, I felt refreshed and returned to the Japanese Garden to see if there were less people than before.

This place with a waterfall is a popular spot to take pictures.

As in the mountain areas, some maple leaves turned glowing red.

I went through bamboo trees

to go out of the gate.

When looking back, I found the sunlight on the hedge looked beautiful.

Though Hamamatsu Castle Park is just a city park and is not a real forest, you can still enjoy changing seasons and nature in it. While taking this picture, I heard some children shouting as they found squirrels. In this park, you can easily see them as they come closer to people. It’s a pity that it was impossible to take pictures of them as they moved so quickly on branches and jump between trees.

Japanese tea time at Saryo Itoen

The other day, I heard that many tourists from abroad have difficulty finding a café where they can drink Japanese tea. I had never thought of that before as Shizuoka Prefecture is a big production area of tea and we daily drink our tea, especially middle-grade green tea, at home and working places. It may be difficult to find Japanese tea on the menu of an ordinary western-style café, however, there are also Japanese style cafés where you can eat traditional sweets with Japanese tea. They are called “amamidokoro” or “kanmidokoro” (there are two ways to read Chinese characters 甘味処). I can’t remember if there are any such cafés in the downtown, but there is a convenient place to drink tea near JR Hamamatsu Station. It is Saryo Itoen in the basement of the main building of Entetsu Department Store.

Itoen is a shop selling tea leaves, and Saryo Itoen is its eating area. They have a variety of tea, soft-serve ice cream and some Japanese sweets in their menu. The food samples looked delicious!

Among the sweets, there are two vegan options: Shiratama Zenzai and Matcha Shiratama Zentzai. Shiratama Zenzai is adzuki bean soup with rice flour dumplings. When I went there today, I chose the one with matcha or powdered green tea. It didn’t take long before it was served.

In fact, I was disappointed to see this because it looked very different from the food sample. After stirring it with the spoon, however, I found many adzuki beans hidden under the surface.

The adzuki bean soup is hot and the dumplings melted in my mouth. As it was very sweet, I couldn’t feel the taste of tea very well. However, I thought it very good to have when you are tired or on a cold day. When I ate it up, I felt slight bitterness of powdered green tea. It was surely different from ordinary adzuki soup.

As zenzai was so sweet, I felt like drinking tea additionally. I went to the counter again and ordered hot hojicha or roasted green tea. As for tea, you can choose hot or cold tea. When it was served, I felt the excellent aroma of the tea immediately. This is one of the reasons why I like roasted green tea.

It had a mild flavor. I noticed that it wasn’t too hot and easy to drink. Maybe they control its temperature carefully to extract its flavor well. I was very impressed by that. By using this tea, they provide a seasonal menu item Hojicha Shiruko or adzuki bean soup with roasted green tea. Both hojicha and adzuki beans have an effect to warm up you body. I think I’ll come back on a cold day in December.

Now is the season of autumn leaves, and Itoen has other seasonal products such as green tea flavored with yuzu, a citrus fruit that also warm up your body. There were also chocolate flavored three kinds of tea and wasanbon or Japanese refined sugar.

Regardless the season, deep-steamed green tea in Shizuoka Prefecture is a popular product, I guess.

In addition to Itoen, there are some other places in the department store and the train station where local tea leaves are sold. Some shops let you taste tea.

This is the 200th article of this blog. At first, I didn’t intend to continue so long, but I found it interesting to introduce our local products and traditional food and enjoyed writing. Now, I’ll take a rest for a while. I’m not sure if I'll restart writing or not. I’d like to thank you all and hope you will enjoy your stay in Hamamatsu if you live in/have a chance to come to Hamamatsu.