Yes, we are going to talk about Nagoya breakfast, the Ogura Toast. Interestingly, it originated in 1921 at the Mitsu Ha cafe in the Sakae area of Nagoya. It was created after the shopkeeper of Mitsu Ha noticed his customers dipping their toast in zenzai (sweet red bean soup). Thanks to his keen observation, am glad that we now have this delicious ogura toast in existance.
Komeda's Coffee
morning service
Had woken up early, gotten dressed and went out to hunt for the cafe to enjoy the typical Nagoya-styled breakfast. Alas, the cafe that I wanted was not open yet that day. Hence, I wandered around and found Komeda's Coffee at ESCA underground shopping center.
As with typical Japanese cafés, Komeda's also offers "morning service" (モーニングサービス) or "morning set" (モーニングセット), which is a low-cost breakfast menu available only during selected morning hours and in our case, from 7 till 11am.
The cafe looked pretty packed and was slightly worried if there'll be any seats for me. Waited for about 5 minutes and was greeted by the staff. "Smoking" or "Non-Smoking"? I think that's what she asked. Oh, no wonder I smelled cigarette smoke somehow. "Non-smoking, please." I said.
She acknowledged and asked me to wait. 5 minutes later, a table was available as the previous occupant had finished his breakfast. I was brought to a table big enough for 4 pax. Ooh, such luxury. An oshibori (warm towel) was brought out along with a glass of iced water. Just nice, as it was drizzling earlier.
oshibori (おしぼり) and iced water
Staff was rather nice and let you have your own time before deciding on what to have. It was rather easy for me to decide. Set C of Ogura toast set with hard boiled egg. At Komeda's Coffee, you just need to order a drink and then the breakfast set is free. Coffee was about ¥560.
Set C - Ogura Toast 小倉トースト with coffee
The milk was strong, hence I only dripped a few drops for a taste. Japanese coffee tend to be slightly more acidic.
coffee au lait
The thick toast was awesome. Spread with delicious golden butter (salted, of course), which by then had gently seeped into the toast, so I just needed to top it with a big spoonful of adequately sweet red bean paste before getting a big satisfying bite out of it. Yums.
If one had Googled about what to eat in Nagoya, the results will likely include foods like kishimen, cochin chicken, miso nikomi, tebasaki and ogura toast. Did a two-days stay in Nagoya and managed to try some of the local delicacies. This was my second time in Nagoya and the first was just a one-night stay so this time round, extended to another night.
Was travelling solo as Shermaine decided to do her own route hence, we parted ways in Asakusa. The next morning, I took the Shinkansen from Kinshicho to Nagoya. As with JR-Pass, am able to take Shinkansen Hikari which was about 2+ hours to Nagoya.
Stayed at Nagoya Liberty Hotel this time round. About 10 minutes walk to the train station and a rather old-school hotel.
Nagoya Liberty Hotel
room
Now that am all settled in for the accommodation, next would be food. The ESCA underground shopping is just about 6 minutes walk away hence, that became my favourite food destination in Nagoya. That, or Family-Mart or the train station where there's plenty of food as well.
Here are some that were bought from Nagoya train station. There are many wings with different restaurant and food kiosks.
Minomisho JR Nagoya Station (food kiosk)
tamagoyaki and karaage from Minomisho Nagoya Station
lovely rolled egg omelette
The take-away set of rolled egg and karaage was close to ¥700. The karaage was lacklustre because it was rather hard and cold. While the omelette was also cold, it had a nice flavour which was a good balance of savoury and sweet.
Furaibo ESCA 風来坊 エスカ店
Furaibo Tebasaki (Chicken Wings) @ ¥590
small fried wings with salt, pepper and lemon
Furaibo seemed packed during dinner, so did a takeaway since am dining solo. There are options for half a dozen or a dozen wings. Opted for the former and ate in comfort in the hotel. Picked up an apple sochu from convenience store as accompaniment. The wings were small, cold and lacklustre. Hmm, am I missing something here?
Luckily, I had a packet of strawberries bought from the department store. When in Japan, I'd make sure to buy strawberries. But often times, it was scarce since it was not in season. Happy that I found some and it was so juicy and sweet! Yums. It lasted me two nights.
strawberries
いちご
Next installment, let's checkout some Nagoya restaurant food.
The term Konbini/Conbini/Combini コンビニ means convenience. Hence, konbini food simply means convenience store foods. Yes, food/snacks from stores such as 7-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart, amongst others. Japan's combini culture is attractive as everything is so convenient. We all know that convenience stores in Japan has everything. Well, almost. But it does have things that most travellers would want/need in some point in time.
For me, that'll be foood~ and yeah, an umbrella too.
Family Mart @ Kinshicho
I bet you have heard about their fried chicken. And, you'd probably had eaten them too but pardon me for being late into the game. Haven't been visiting Japan for the longest time.
fried food counter at Family Mart
Nope, does not know what those words are but I knew what I wanted. A piece of that golden fried chicken square. Of course, I didn't know which was which because there were two that looked similar. So I just pointed to the one at the top tray.
Family Mart Chicken @ ¥180
Ate this baby as soon as I bought it. And, it was still piping hot! Of course, I was a tad famished by that time, which was close to 1pm. Oh boy, it was an amazing first bite. So juicy, tender and tasty! There were some fair amount of fats surrounding those meat, hence it could get oily. But so good eating it at 22 degrees celcius. Yums!
love at first bite
Also tried Lawson's version of the fried chicken (I got the spicy version) when I was in Nagoya but Famichiki was the better version, hands down. Reason being Lawson's version had slightly drier meat and slightly dough-y taste of the flour. Oily-ness level was almost the same for both.
Lawson's Spicy Fried Chicken @ ¥150
Having a Family Mart so close to the hotel (5 minutes walk) that I was staying in Kinshicho, meant I could do breakfast or a light dinner or midnight snack on a whim. Another combini food that got me intrigued, is the tamago sando (egg sandwich). I just got to try it myself.
I was at the store around 8am and bought an egg sandwich a cup of Family Mart's latte. The store has a small section where customers could sit and eat their food. The seats are facing the outside of the store, so one could watch the world go by while sipping coffee.
たまごサンド とコーヒー Egg sandwich and coffee
egg mayo sandwich on fluffy white bread
Lovely taste from the egg sandwich and loved the fluffy bread. Not too heavy but enough to fuel the first few hours of the day.
Another must-buy from the konbini would be the oden. Oden is a one-pot dish consisting of several ingredients, much like our yong tau foo. The oden in convenience store can be easily found at the front of the cashier counter. The styrofoam bowl (of two different sizes) and tongs to pickup the ingredients and ladle for the soup are all there. Self-service.
Let's take a look of what I had for dinner. It was my first time having oden so I think I was a tad excited to try. Went for 5 items and placed them all in the large bowl. Put in the soup and go to the counter to pay. They'd put on the cover for you and pack the sauce, if you need. There's hoisin sauce and yellow mustard in tiny packs.
Oden おでん
Had picked out daikon (because I heard that this is a must-have ingredient for oden), the tamago (hard boiled egg), two Nerimono (some kind of fish paste/meat paste item), and the Kinchaku (the one that looks like a fried beancurd pouch).
The daikon was expectantly soft and had absorbed the flavours of the dashi. Juicy and easy to eat. It was kind of hard to stop myself from drinking up all the dashi. It just tasted so flavourful.
I think I got a deep fried hanpen which is a type of fishcake but I was also confused because of the airy and fluffy texture that it has. It has seaweed in it, and everything about this piece was just so intriguing! Amazing. Oooh, the pockets of air in that piece was good to bring up more dashi with each bite. Just dip and bite. So goood!
半片 so good!
Here's a video of the oden feast.
Was kind of surprised when the weight of kinchaku was felt when I tried to pick it up with the chopsticks. Why was it so heavy? Took a bite and there was mochi in there! Wow. Unexpected but it was still a good combo, surprisingly.
Another surprise was the meatball piece. It had a cheesy center. So cool!
The only not surprising item was the egg. It was a regular hardboiled egg. I thought it was going to be a lava egg.
cheesy meatball
To end the meal, wash it off with with a Chu-Hi which is a shochu based cocktail. When drinking, might as well get a snack to go along with it. All in all, a very filling and satisfying meal, complete with an alcoholic drink and a 'dessert' of sorts. About $10 for dinner.
Horoyoi ほろよい
seasonal snack of butter sweet potato crackers
I love konbini foods so much, I got to have it again and this time with onigiri.
breakfast in bed - oden, onigiri, juice and coffee
Being a noob in onigiri unwrapping, it was a mess once I got it wrong. Amazing how the seaweed stayed crispy. Lovely flavours and good for breakfast.
mentaiko onigiri
Yes, I love my convenience store foods and drinks for its adequate selections, affordable pricing and fuss free.
After we were done with the sightseeing at Asakusa, we actually walked back and forth for about, I think at least 2 km before deciding on the place to rest our legs and to appease our growling tummies. Reason being, we wanted to check out the stretch of restaurants and to have our own top pick before putting it to vote. Yeah, just 3 of us in the party and already it was complicated. Oops.
Sensō-ji 浅草寺 at night
Kaminarimon 雷門
Ok, so what did the long walks yielded? Shermaine's friend Johan decided to try Tendon Tenya. Yass to fried tempura rice bowl!
Tendon Tenya looks like a fast food joint and it has upstairs seats as well. Often times, the ground floor would be filled up hence, the staff would try to usher the guests to the upper floor. We got ourselves a table downstairs because too tired to climb up and down the stairs. The wait for a table was about 10 minutes.
shopfront
drinks menu
We ordered more or less the same thing. The basic tendon has prawn, okra, pumpkin, squid and white fish for just ¥540. Additional toppings like scallop cost about ¥130 each. The scallop was pretty small hence, may be more worth it to add white fish meat for just ¥100 per piece.
delicious tendon 天丼 with miso soup
Tendon with maitake mushrooms, okra, prawn, and squid with additional scallop @ ¥720
The food was delicious, the sauce was minimal but I think it was adequate to flavour the rice. The deep fried tempura was not the crispy crispy type but overall it was still delicious. Loved the maitake mushroom!
For drinks, we drank up the complimentary cold roasted tea that's available on the table. Self-service ya.
This shop was really an unexpected find that is of a hidden gem that we chanced upon at random. Shermaine (@littletinysun) and I were on a vacation in Japan during autumn last year. I stayed in Kinschicho for the first two nights and Edogawa Ward Natural Zoo was nearby. Visited the small attraction (which by the way is worth visiting) and after which, we went around looking for lunch. Wandered into a nearby mall (AEON) and almost settled for lunch there but it was a tad too crowded during the peak lunch hour.
As we were walking back towards the Nishi-Kasai train station, we saw a few restaurants and decided on this small shokudo. The shop is nearby Sunny Mall, which is right across the street.
Sunny Mall Nishi Kasai
directions from Nishi-Kasai station (credit to Google Map)
The shop serves set meals (teishoku) and the menu looked simple enough with a few rice and noodles items. I had the set meal of the day which happen to be the current shop favourite; the buta shogayaki (豚の生姜焼き) rice set with stir-fried ginger pork while Shermaine ordered oyakodon.
Observed that the other diners are locals. While the menu only consists of Japanese words, the shop itself has pictorial menu at the counter as well as on the glass at the back wall.
interior
There is one lady staff that would take orders from the table where you are seated and will bring the food to the diners. Payment is made after the meal at the cashier counter. Cold water is complimentary and the flask with cold water is already at the table so help yourself. The kitchen seemed to have 3 staff working and hence, we got our food rather quickly. Very efficient.
buta shogayaki set 豚の生姜焼き @ ¥750
tangy pickles
onsen tamago
delicious stir-fried ginger pork
My set meal came with rice, stir-fried pork with shredded cabbages and potato salad, pickles, onsen egg and miso soup. All these for just ¥750 (~SGD9.50). Wow, that's value for money!
I was also quite impressed when Shermaine's oyakodon arrived. Served piping hot with steam coming out and all, the egg was cooked to a nice smooth golden yellow wobbly but not watery. My goodness, don't get me started on the generous chunky pieces of chicken in that bowl. Super worth it!
oyakodon set 親子丼 @ ¥700
closer view
Here is a video of the food (sorry that it was vertical):
There are condiments placed on the table and one of it was the spicy garlic chili oil. It is very flavourful and good to eat with the rice. Very appetising.
garlic chili oil
Overall, we were more than satisfied with the experience at 定食 稲 for its value and tasty food with generous portions.
定食 稲
Address: 5 Chome-8-16 Nishikasai, Edogawa-ku, Tōkyō-to 134-0088, Japan Nearest station: Nishi-Kasai Station (28 mins from Tokyo) Contact: +81 3-3680-4034 Business Hours:
Daily: 11:30～15:00. Closed on Wednesdays.
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