I know what you’re thinking: pizza in Tokyo? Get out of here. I was thinking it too, but I dare you to watch this video and then not immediately want to check this place out.
When you think about it, it’s odd that we consider pancakes to be breakfast when really, they’re obviously dessert. I mean, “cake” is right there in the name. They’re doused in syrup. They’re dessert.
In the episode where Kantaro goes to Minimal, a high-end chocolate shop, he gets a chocolate bar and a chocolate fondant tart. I was really hoping to get that tart, but apparently they only serve one type of dessert per month (it’s a very small shop) and this month it was a chocolate parfait.
You may have noticed that I’ve been in Tokyo for a while, but I haven’t written about ramen yet (no? Nobody noticed or cares? Yeah, that sounds about right).
Chestnut desserts don’t really get the respect they deserve back home. They basically don’t exist unless you really seek them out (and even then they’re difficult to find), and I don’t understand why. They’re quite tasty.
Add this to the always-growing list of line-based discoveries. The line-up at Yanagiya Taiyaki is pretty intense, even by Tokyo’s line-loving standards.
If you haven’t seen Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman on Netflix, you need to rectify that immediately. It’s basically a sitcom crossed with a food/travel show, all filtered through a lens of grade-A Japanese weirdness. It’s delightful.
I’ll admit that I wound up eating at Hinoya Curry almost entirely due to its proximity to my Airbnb on the outskirts of Tokyo. I walked by it a few times, and eventually the delicious-looking photos posted outside of the restaurant wore me down.
This isn’t going to be the longest post ever, but there are a couple of facts that I need to point out.
Hui Wing Kee was probably my biggest surprise in quite a while. I hadn’t heard much about this place, other than a reference on a blog to the oyster congee being good (which I didn’t even see on the menu). Other than that, I could barely even find it online.