“Staff Canteen” in Act City

Act City is a landmark of Hamamatsu located adjacent to the train station. It is a group of facilities including Main Hall, Concert Hall, Congress Center, Act Tower, Exhibition and Event Hall, etc. Act Tower is the highest building of the city with a height of 212m. It consists of Act Plaza with restaurants, offices, Okura Act City Hotel Hamamatsu, and Observatory Gallery. There seems to be quite many people working in this building.

On the second floor of Act Tower, there is a restaurant named “Act Shain Shokudo 3-Chome (アクト社員食堂3丁目).” Shain shokudo means a staff canteen, and chome is a unit of address. Despite of its name, the restaurant welcomes everyone, not only those working in the building but also people from outside. Like a real staff canteen, it is a self-service restaurant.

The menu items are Japanese home-style dishes. On the wall outside the restaurant, there was a poster presenting small dishes that cost only 110 yen. The one in the center with tomato slices looked delicious, and I entered the restaurant with some expectation.

Near the entrance, there were sauce and dressing, as well as interesting objects such as the mascot Peko-chan of Fujiya, a popular confectionery company, two river imps called kappa, and a photo of sunset. I thought "3-Chome" of the restaurant name might have come from a Japanese film "Always: Sunset on Third Street (Always Sanchomeno Yuhi)" that depicted people’s lives in Tokyo in 1950’s. It was a nostalgic film and won great popularity.

Since it was a little over 11:00 on Saturday, there were only a few customers inside. I took a tray, half-split chopsticks, and a paper napkin and checked the dishes in cases. Each dish was covered with plastic wrap, and the staff wore masks. I asked one of them about the dish with tomato slices that I saw outside. Unfortunately, the dressing was not animal-free.

I could have four vegan menu items. Since It was Saturday, there were less rice ball options than on weekdays. I chose the one with a pickled plum. Though it wasn’t covered with dried laver, it was tasty with sesame sprinkled on it. The dish on the right of the rice ball is deep-fried tofu. When I brought the tray to the cashier, one of the staff members was going to pour sauce on this tofu. I stopped her immediately because the sauce was very likely to contain dried bonito broth. In supermarkets, deep-fried tofu like this is always flavored with such sauce. What a relief that the sauce was not added from the beginning this time! I ate it with soy sauce on the table. It was warm and seemed to be freshly fried.

The other two were pickles and salad. The pickles were nukazuke or vegetables pickled in salted rice-bran paste. Nukazuke is a common type of pickles, and this dish was not very special. But the salad contains 10 ingredients including lettuce, purple onion, cucumber, corn, green soybeans, paprika, etc. For salad, there were four types of dressing: French, yuzu soy sauce, sesame, and green perilla non-oil dressing. I wasn’t sure if they were animal-free, so I added a little soy sauce to the salad. In Japanese restaurant, vegans have to be always careful about sauce and dressing. The salad itself was satisfactory with a variety of vegetables.

Unlike a real staff canteen, this restaurant has some alcohol beverages. I had a cup of free cold green tea during the lunch and hot green tea after finishing it.

The restaurant was cozy. Even though it was Saturday, some groups of people including families with children came while I was eating. They got dishes to go. Near the pillar, there was a microwave oven so that customers can warm up their dishes. I wondered how crowded this restaurant could be on weekdays. This time, the total of the four dishes I had was 539 yen. It may be a little more expensive than a real staff canteen but was quite reasonable.

Act Shain Shokudo 3-Chome
Address: 111-2 Itaya-machi, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture
Tel: 053-453-1833
Opening hours: 11:00 - 15:00
Closed: Sundays

Kanshirou - Restaurant run by tofu shop

Last Sunday, my mother took me for a drive. This time, we went to Kanshirou (勘四郎), a restaurant specialized in dishes with tofu and other soy products. It is run by a tofu shop Sube Shoten (須部商店) . They have produced tofu for 140 years by using natural ground water in Miyakoda in Kita-ku (North Ward) of Hamamatsu. The restaurant is situated in the rural area near mountains.

As Kanshirou is a popular restaurant, we made a reservation before we left. Until the restaurant was opened at 11:30, we looked around in the store in the same house. They were selling a variety of soy products in addition to this regular tofu seen in many supermarkets in Hamamatsu.

We got interested in these soymilk doughnuts. They are ovo-vegetarian as they contain egg powder. Each bag contained three doughnuts, so I bought one to share with my parents. It looked and tasted delicious.

Another interesting product was tofu croquettes. Croquettes (called “korokke” in Japanese) are sold any supermarket in Japan, but it is very difficult to find vegetarian/vegan ones. According to the description, these tofu croquettes don’t contain meat and egg. The main ingredients are tofu, plant oil, onion, carrot, dried mashed potato, breadcrumbs, granular soybean protein, sugar, salt, etc. They almost seemed to be vegan.

I bought a pack with two croquettes and ate them for dinners. The inside looked like this. They were fluffy with tofu, which may be a little different from croquettes sold in supermarkets.

The store also had tofu skins,

snacks such as soy pulp crackers,

black soybean tea, etc.

These are only a few examples. There were so many interesting foods that I felt like coming again on some other day. The store wasn’t very big and was crowded with people who waited for the restaurant to be opened. At 11:30, each group was told which table they should sit at. Luckily, we could go upstairs as my mother expected.

As soon as we came to the second floor, we noticed that the restaurant limited the number of customers to keep social distance. We saw only two other groups sitting distant from our table. And my mother and I could keep a distance from each other thanks to a big table between us.

Since there was no one by the window,

I could come closer and see rice fields outside.

This was my first time to eat out since the beginning of March, and I was glad that the staff was very careful to avoid a crowd inside the restaurant. It felt spacious and relaxing. As this building was a renovated old Japanese-style house, thick wood was used for the ceiling. Unfortunately, only moon-like lights can be seen in this picture.

Under this corona period, menu was limited to four items. My mother and I ordered “Fresh Yosedofu Set” and “Fresh Deep-fried Tofu Set” respectively. Yosedofu is a kind of tofu that is not formed in a mold to be pressed. I got some of it from my mother. It looked like, and I ate it with sauce, ground sesame, and green onion. Fresh yosedofu was warm and much softer than ordinary square tofu.

And this is my “Fresh Deep-fried Tofu Set.” As side dishes, there were chilled tofu, miso soup, and cooked vegetables.

The main dish was neatly arranged deep-fried tofu. I gave some pieces to my mother. This tofu was supposed to be eaten with sauce, soy sauce rice malt, ginger, and grated daikon radish. Though I often have similar dish at home, this fresh deep-fried tofu felt less oily outside and tasted much better.

Though chilled tofu was just a side dish, it was impressive. It seemed that the green onion sauce contained sesame oil, and I liked such a flavor. After eating soft warm yosedofu, this cold and harder tofu felt different from usual.

This is 16-grain rice, which has been winning popularity in recent years. We could choose between white rice and 16-grain rice, and both of us chose this.

In fact, I can’t remember how the rice tasted because the volume of the tofu dishes was over whelming. Even the miso soup and cooked vegetables contained deep-fried tofu. When I finished, I said to my mother that I wouldn’t need to eat any tofu products throughout the next week.

Finally, we had the dessert and tea that were also included in the set. The dessert was tofu mousse with green tea flavor, and the tea was soy pulp tea. I liked the smooth texture of the dessert and brown sugar syrup on it.

I think Kanshirou’s tofu products are recommendable to vegans and vegetarians. But I have to point out one thing. According to their website, they use broth made from “bonito and other fish” and “kelp” for everything. I suppose this “everything” includes every sauce. When I ate at Kanshirou, I thought fish broth might be used for miso soup and cooked vegetables as in other restaurants but thought somehow that sauces for tofu dishes were animal-free. It may be because I’m used to eating them with soy sauce at home. It’s embarrassing.

This time, the options were limited. But usually they have a menu item “Soy Pulp Pizza with Seasonal Vegetables” that seem to be vegan. It is said clearly on the website that egg, wheat flour, milk, and meat are not used. The ingredients are tofu, soy pulp, corn starch, olive oil, tomato miso, salt, and seasonal vegetables. I have never had such a pizza crust made from tofu, soy pulp, etc. When this corona period is over and normal menu is available, I’d like to try this pizza.

Kanshirou
Address: 5531 Miyakoda-cho, Kita-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-428-7667
Opening hours (as of June 30, 2020): 10:00 – 15:00
                                                Lunch: 11:30 - 13:30 (LO)
Closed: Thursdays

Green Burger has come at last

On March 26, I introduced MOS PLANT-BASED GREEN BURGER of Mos Burger that was released at 9 stores in the metropolitan area. From today, this vegan burger is available at all the stores in Japan, even at the one on the main street of Hamamatsu.

Like other Mos Burger menu items, it took for a while to get Green Burger ready. I took it home with another menu item Onion Potato and was full of expectation.

As in the poster, the buns of Green Burger were pale green.

When I ate it, I found the patty had a beany flavor and was very much like that of Soy Patty Hamburger (containing milk) that has been a regular menu item for some time. The tomato sauce was good. Green Burger tasted sweet as a whole because of the buns containing spinach and the sauce. I ate such buns for the first time. Though Green Burger has been released as a vegan option, it is also oriental vegetarian as it doesn’t contain five spicy foods such as garlic, Chinese chives, onion, Welsh onion, or Chinese scallion. So, it may taste the mildest of all the main menu items.

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.

Togakushi - Vegan-friendly buckwheat noodle restaurant

Buckwheat noodles are one of traditional and popular foods in Japan. In many cases, they are made by adding some wheat flour as a binding agenty. However, there is a restaurant that serves 100% buckwheat noodles near the downtown. Since they have a big sign by their parking space, I had been interested in it for a long time. While checking some websites, I found that this restaurant is suitable for vegans. As in most buckwheat noodle restaurants, they use dried bonito broth for their sauce. But they have also something special.

This is the buckwheat noodle restaurant Togakushi (戸隠). It was named after a place in Nagano Prefecture. In front of the restaurant, they have a comic foreground. Togakushi in Nagano is famous not only for its buckwheat noodles but also for ninja.

I went there for lunch today. First, I explained the staff member who came to the table that I was a vegetarian and would like to eat buckwheat noodles with salt as described on websites. When I asked about tempura, which were included in their set menu, she said that they could make them only with vegetables. So, I ordered a set with buckwheat noodles and tempura.

The menu item was called Tebikizaru. It was noodles made from buckwheat hand ground by the master of the restaurant and served in a draining basket.

And this is rock salt from the Andes. It is pale-pink and put on each table. The restaurant recommends eating buckwheat noodles and tempura with it instead of sauce to enjoy the flavors of the ingredients better. I sprinkled salt onto the noodles by rotating the salt grinder.

Since buckwheat was hand ground with a stone mill, ground grains were seen in noodles. I found they were quite tasty just with rock salt. In addition, the noodles were easy to eat because they were much shorter than ordinary buckwheat noodles.

The noodles were accompanied with sauce, grated white radish, wasabi, and cut leak. Later, I added these vegetables to the noodles and found that they tasted better just with rock salt.

At the same time, tempura were served (it contained egg). Usually, they seemed to serve some pieces of vegetable tempura and one piece of shrimp tempura. This time, I got six pieces of vegetable tempura (eggplant, baby corn, sweet potato, broccoli, shiitake mushroom, maitake mushroom). It was very kind of them to arrange these! Though tempura were accompanied with sauce, I ate them with rock salt. They were freshly fried and very good. Especially, I liked the thick shiitake mushroom that had a chicken-like texture.

I was full, but I felt like trying their dessert. This is sobagaki with brown sugar syrup and soybean flour.

Sobagaki is buckwheat flour kneaded with hot water. It was fluffy and good. I thought it would be a nice dessert to eat on a cold winter day. With this, I got the last helping of buckwheat tea. Though it looked like ordinary green tea, it was made by boiling buckwheat and extracting the flavor. It was aromatic and cotained no caffeine.

In this restaurant, you can enjoy the real taste of buckwheat with simple dishes. I was very impressed.

Sobadokoro Togakushi
Address: 3-24-18, Hirosawa, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Open hours: 11:00 - 14.45 (only lunch on Monday)
                     16:30 - 20:30 (16:30 - 20:30 on Thursday)
Closed: Tuesday, the first Monday of the month
Access: Take Bus #0 from the bus terminal and get off at Akiha-Sakashita (about 10-minute ride).
              It’s only a few minutes walk from there.

Naan Center - Indian restaurant with Dal Bhat

Today is the last day of August, and it’s still hot. I felt like eating curry again and went to Nan Center for the first time. As the name implies, this restaurant features various kinds of naan bread. In addition, they provide a free refill of plain naan bread and rice during the lunch time.

As I like naan bread, I intended to have a lunch set with naan bread. But I changed my mind when I saw the menu in the restaurant. I became interested in a set called Dal Bhat. It seemed to be a special menu item as it requires reservation, and only six portions are provided in a day. I asked a staff member if it was impossible to order it on the spot. Luckily, it was ok, and she let me choose one option from several kinds of vegetarian curry (some of them might be vegan) as I said I’m a vegetarian. It was very kind of them.

Whenever I come to an Indian restaurant, I can’t help but choose hot chai for drink. It was served first with salad, but I could have chai later If I had requested. The salad had orange-colored dressing. It was the same as in other Indian restaurants, but the volume seemed to be a little larger.

I was very excited when the main dishes of the set were served. As the curry option, I chose Kwati or curry with seven kinds of beans. In addition, there were Fry, Dal, Achar, Papad,

and a large portion of Basmati rice.

In this restaurant, you can choose the level of hotness of the curry, and I chose medium from six levels. But separate spice was also served to add to curry in case it wasn’t hot enough.

I was curious about it and add some to Kwati before tasting it. It was hot, and I ate it with rice, sweating. My tongue was tingling, however, I was very glad to have a substantial meal. Seven kinds of beans surely gave me much protein. The other curry Dal also contained many beans. It was as mild as similar curry in other Indian restaurants, but I noticed the distinctive flavor of ginger that stimulated appetite.

I’m not sure, but Fry seemed to be stir-fry mizuna or potherb mustard. It was simply seasoned with salt and some kind of spice that was relatively mild. On the contrary, Achar, the red pickles, had a strong flavor of chilli pepper. Papad, the little cracker, was thin and crispy. Maybe it goes well with beer.

According to some websites, Dal Bhat is a traditional Nepali meal. I liked it very much. The staff member was kind and asked me if the curry was too hot as I poured additional water into the glass from a pitcher on the table. I needed to drink much water, but the curry was so good that I’d like to try some other kinds as well, with the same hotness. I have also come to like Basmati rice. To my mind, rice goes better with bean curry than naan bread.

Naan Center
Address: 2-25-25, Mukojuku-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-462-2277
Open hours: 11:00 – 15:00 (L.O. 14:30)
                     17:00 – 22:00 (L.O. 21:30)
Closed: Thursdays
Access: Take Bus #6 from the bus terminal and get off at Mukojuku-cho (4-minute ride)