Clambon Cafe [クラムボン カフェ]

milk tea, chocolate mousse, strawberry latte

The very same day i chose the hotel cafe over the mall cafe, i ended up visiting the mall cafe too.   There were only a few minutes to spare before my train (i had to take that chocolate mousse home), but it was enough time to form a positive impression.  Here is why:

• I realized i could sit there comfortably by myself.  Although I’d admired their cute “jewel sweets” display before, i was always a little afraid of going inside.
• They have a lot of food.  In fact, their motto is Tea and many foods. Having a variety of foods is not always a positive thing for cafe style, in my opinion.  But after my frustration ordering at Kukka, and since i hadn’t had any real food that day, at the time i thought it was fabulous.  I think they even have french fries…  well, it is in a mall.
• The prices are good.
• My latte had a HUGE RED HEART on it!  Instant rave reviews.

Clambon Cafe
Auga 1F
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青森県青森市新町1-3-7 アウガ　１Ｆ

Kukka

ringo sweets at kukka

The weather delayed the trains, and when we got to town it was already late afternoon. The snow was coming down so heavily, our cafe choice was limited to what was nearby.

The cafe in the hotel, or the cafe in the mall?

Of course i chose the cafe in the hotel. I have grand old fashioned images of having tea in glorious big city hotels. (I have no such images of mall cafes, except related to how cool i thought teenagers were in the 1980s.)

So this teatime may have been sabotaged by my subconscious expectations. Being over-hungry also may have played a part in my impression of the cafe, but the waiter who wouldn’t smile didn’t help either.

The café is bright and open with a big stylized flower on the wall. A couple dressed as wedding guests were having coffee nearby, and two men in jeans were eating lunch.

What i really wanted was something from their “light lunch” menu, a huge parfait, and a cappuccino. But i didn’t really want to spend $20, so i got the cake set. Shuko did too.

orange tart & a glimpse of the weather

I chose a recommended apple pastry, one of those desserts that looks beautiful but is impossible to eat without making a huge mess of it. Shuko got the orange tart (or orange cake?). They were both good. But the atmosphere was just… not interesting to me.

Now that i think about it, “Kukka” sounds kind of Scandinavian, and the style could fit that theory. But something might be off, because as far as my Scandinavian cafe experience goes… i think i prefer the Ikea cafeteria.

Cafe Kukka
Aomori Kokusai Hotel 1F
青森市新町1-6 青森国際ホテル 別館1F
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marron

birthday sweets from Siegfried

Ashley and Sharon wanted to buy me a treat for my birthday… somehow they bought me three!  ありがとう♪

They’re all from the Siegfried Patisserie counter in Lovina next to Aomori station.  Everything is delicious and beautiful!

Ashley also got a pudding that came in a cute bunny dish, but i didn’t think to take a picture of it before it was gone.

apple pie

arabika

cookie chou a la creme

mini melon pan investigation

One Autumn weekend, i thought that going into town and trying melon-pan from a bunch of different places sounded like a good way to spend Saturday morning.

The melonpan on the left is from the Aomori Grand Hotel.   Flavor: plain.  Appearance:  like a dinner roll with cookie dough flopped on top.  Cookie coating: not cookie like at all.  Inside: like a soft white dinner roll.  I expected the hotel melonpan to be the best, but it was actually the worst of the three.

The melonpan in the center is from a bakery in a department store basement.  Flavor: maple (for Fall).  Appearance: sugary coating, yellow inside.  There was also a maple flavored filling.  Cookie coating:  like a sugar cookie, but it wouldn’t be as sweet without the nice crunchy sugar topping.  Inside:  like a butter roll…. not flaky like a croissant, but definitely eggs and butter.  This was my favorite.

The melonpan on the right is from Kudopan, a chain bakery with sort of a smoky donut shop feel…but not enough old men to complete the effect.  Flavor: melon.  Appearance: green and sugared outside, white inside.  Cookie coating: very thin.  You couldn’t really see where the cookie ended and the bread started.  Inside: like a soft white dinner roll.

I was going to get one from the convenience store too, but i felt like i had enough….

Quatre Cafe [カトルカフェ]

masala chai and pumpkin cheesecake

One day in early fall we were all dismissed from work early.  Everyone quietly bowed their thanks and continued working.

One teacher had enough seniority to act on the thought that it’s silly to stay at work on a beautiful day when your boss tells you to go home, and she offered to drive me into town.  (Not to disregard cultural conventions, but i almost always leave shortly after the boss looks at me and says “Melissa-san.  Finished.  Goodbye.”)  I hadn’t planned on going to town that day, but i accepted her offer, and also her invitation to coffee.

She took me Cafe Quatre, my first Aomori cafe and maybe my favorite so far.  Simple style, on the second floor with counter seating along the window overlooking the streets.  Baked goods stored in jars… a little vintage fridge… old things being used, not just as decoration.

We got Masala chai and dessert, a pattern i’ve yet to break there.   Their specialty seems to be a fancy tea with a French name, and they also serve food.

But, i really like chai and dessert.

Quatre Cafe (カトルカフェ)
青森市古川1-16-2 2F
The building says “Quadrille” on it in blue letters.   There’s a stylish stationary shop on the first floor.  The cafe is upstairs, connected to a cute boutique.
Quadrille Blog (Cafe Quatre and the other shops in the building)
Map

Marron [マロン]

I first compared Aomori with Anchorage in a second floor cafe called Marron.  Only that night, I was calling it Ahn-ka-re-ji, because my friend didn’t know what city i meant until i said it that way.  Now, she thinks maybe she’s been there.

Our school festival had just ended and we had a staff dinner party that night to celebrate.  Shabu shabu.  It was fun but I could tell how tired everyone was.  Most of the teachers cried while giving speeches, and when we finished dinner shortly after nine, they all just wanted to go home.  The home ec teacher, who lives near the station, offered to walk back with me.

We passed an old building, apparently unusued now, like a lot of shops in town.  I felt affection for it right away.  The streets were dark and i’d been drinking, so the image in my memory is dreamlike, but i think it’s quite simple.  I remember Greek style columns — nothing magnificent, just familiar — like a bank building in a small town that grew up around a railroad station in the American midwest.   “This is old Aomori,” my teacher friend said.  Last time we had tea, she told me that “Aomori was broken” during WWII.  She told me again.  But this building here was not destroyed.  It was a bank.

I said it looked like the bank in the town I lived in when I was a child.  She told me a word that meant what i was trying to say — it’s familiar, like home; it’s relaxing.  I can’t remember the word.

At the next turn, a shop was glowing on the second floor accross the street.  I thought about asking what it was, but I didn’t say anything.

My friend gestured to it and said “I like this shop.”   We crossed the street.  ”Marron.  Do you drink coffee?”

“Yes.”  I thought she knew that.  She sits at the desk next to me in the teachers’ room, where I drink coffee all day long.  She started up the stairs.  Now, i think she was asking if I wanted to drink coffee, right then.  This particular grammar/translation misunderstanding is a reoccurring theme in my life.  It generally only leads to me eating more food than planned.

We took a table by the window.  The floor was felty green, just like a pool table surface.  There were antique lamps hanging from the ceiling, coffee grinders of all types, and pastel dishes in an illuminated case.  The wall was full of old clocks.  At the time, with a train to catch, I was annoyed that they didn’t tell the correct time.  Now I think the ticking would have been maddening.

A boy at a booth was looking at me when we sat down.  I was sure it was because i’m foreign, but it felt nice anyway.

I said that my parents owned an antique store when I was little.  We lived on the second floor.  So this place, with all its old things, felt familiar too.  She said that word again.

She asked some questions about the building we lived in, trying to fit it into her image of Detroit, but her image of Detroit was incorrect.  Also, we didn’t live in Detroit then.

We talked about hot cities and cold cities.  She liked cold cities much better.  Although I don’t like the cold itself, I feel the same.   This brings us to Anchorage.

“Aomori is a walking city,” she said.  And I remembered something I wrote in Anchorage — about how it wasn’t, although a lot of people walked anyway.

“Detroit is not a walking city” — that’s not quite accurate but I said it.

“Where do you want to live?” she asked.  So I told her.  I can’t say it without saying things like “oh well” and shrugging, like I spilled my Coke or something.  This could not be farther from how I really feel, but when i start talking i’m held back by this compulsion not to burden anyone.

She was sympathetic.  She’s fifteen years older than I am.   She did say, gently, what she thought must be true.  I didn’t believe it, but now, i guess she was right.

And yet somehow, i still can’t believe it.

Marron
青森県青森市安方２丁目６−７
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208 209

A pretty girl, all dressed up for a night out, sat alone at a nearby table.  She sipped coffee and stared at her phone.

I was tucked away at a corner table with a stack of pillows.  I stared at my new haircut in the window reflection.  Second floor cafes have a nice feel to them.  I like to sit near the front windows, looking down on the city street.  I watched the people working at the contact lens shop across the street as they put up Christmas decorations.

The café’s décor is simple, lots of plywood and a few record posters.  It felt quiet, but they were actually playing music, sixties-feeling poppy indie rock I couldn’t decide if I loved or hated.  I got the cake set with milk tea.  The cake was dry but the sugar bowl was cute.

208 209
青森県青森市新町２丁目５−３ 千成ビル ２Ｆ
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eco-bento

“Food Coordinator SHIORI” published a week of lunch box (bento) recipes in the September 2010 issue of steady. magazine.  She called it an “eco-bento,” and the article is sprinkled with the words “reduce, reuse, recycle.”  I don’t know if it’s really that much more eco-friendly than any other homemade bento, but it is economical, and designed to be very time-saving during the week.  I do love menus that make a week’s worth of meals using one short grocery list.

Here’s my interpretation of her plan.  I translated most of the ingredients, but my method is more loosely based on what little i could read of the original directions, guided heavily by the pictures.

SUNDAY - shopping and preparations.

Step 1: Go Shopping.

Shopping List:

• mini tomatoes – 1 pack
• bacon* – five slices
• carrot – 1
• broccoli – 1
• eggs – you’ll need four
• onion – 1
• ground chicken* – 200 grams
• salmon – 2 small steaks
• bread* – you’ll need two slices

Total (according to the magazine): 932 yen (roughly $10)

*”Bacon” in Japan is not quite the same as bacon in the US.  I think Canadian bacon might be closer to what’s used in these recipes… but i really don’t think it would matter that much.  Sliced ham would work.

*I’ve never noticed ground chicken the US but it might be there — i just never spent much time exploring the meat department.  It’s really cheap here!  It’s the only thing on this list that was under “budget.”  Everything else was about twice as much as the magazine said it would be.

*Later on, she specifies RYE bread, but whatever you like.  I used poppyseed.

It’s assumed that you have a well-stocked Japanese pantry.  These are all of the additional ingredients you are expected to have.  Some of it’s essential (like rice!) but other things are only called for in very tiny amounts which could easily be omitted or substituted.

• rice
• white sesame seeds
• sake
• mirin
• some kind of dashi soup stock (to be honest i didn’t look up what kind; i just used what i had on hand, which was kombu dashi)
• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• powdered red pepper spice (shichimitougarashi)
• yuzu koshou (if you can find it)
• curry roux
• Chinese “sauce” (a little like BBQ sauce? or okonomiyaki sauce?)
• nori seaweed
• mayonnaise
• butter
• vinegar
• garlic
• noodle dipping sauce (men tsuyu)
• 1 dried? chile pepper (i did not use this)
• katsuobushi fish flakes

and of course salt, pepper, sugar, vegetable oil, and flour.

Step 2: Make Carrot Peel Salad and Samon Flakes

Carrot Peel Salad (2 servings)
*I think using the peel is to stress how “eco” this bento is.  My carrot was rather old and the peel did not look very appetizing so i cheated a little and removed most of the ugly peel before i officially peeled it for this recipe.  I’m not clear on whether the carrot is meant to be cooked or not but that’s how i did it and it was delicious, so that’s how i’ll write it.

Ingredients:

• soy sauce – 1 Tbsp.
• sake – 1/2 Tbsp.
• sugar – 1/2 Tbsp.
• the peel of one carrot
• sesame oil – 2 tsp.
• “shichimitougarashi” hot pepper powder

Directions:

1. Cut the peels into nice skinny little strips.  Mix the soy sauce, sake, and sugar together.

2. Heat a skillet and add the sesame oil.  Add the carrot and soy sauce mixture to the pan.  Cook until most of the liquid is gone then shake a little of the hot pepper powder on it.

Keeps one week in the fridge.

Salmon Flakes (3 servings)
Ingredients:

• sake – 2 tsp
• mirin – 2 tsp
• salt – a little
• dashi – a very little
• salmon steaks – 2
• oil – 1 tsp
• white sesame seeds – 1 Tbsp

Directions:

1. Add the oil to a skillet and cook the fish on medium heat.  When both sides of the fish have nice “grilled color,” turn the heat low until they cook through.  Mix the sake, mirin, salt, and dashi together.

2. When you’ve turned the heat off, remove the skin and bones and discard.  Then break the salmon into little peices.  Turn the heat on again and add “A”.  Cook till the liquid is gone and then sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

Keeps three weeks in the fridge.

Step 3: wrap things up so they’ll last…

1.  Cut the broccoli.  Boil it 2-3 minutes, then rinse under cold water.  Split it into two zipper bags.  Put one in the fridge, and one the freezer.  Put most of the stems in the bag destined for the freezer.

2. Wrap your peeled carrot in plastic and stand it up in a clean milk carton in the fridge. (???)

3. I think she says to store your eggs pointy side down, but i am not at all sure.

Step 4: More Cooking in Advance

RICE

1. Prepare 2 cups of uncooked rice according to package/rice cooker directions.

2. Wrap the hot rice in plastic wrap, in three separate portions, and then put them into a freezer bag and freeze.  Keeps 4 weeks.

DRY CURRY (1 serving)
Ingredients:

• 1/4 onion
• 1/3 carrot
• 2 slices bacon
• 1 block curry roux
• 1 tsp “Chinese sauce”
• 1 teaspoon oil
• a little salt
• a little black pepper

1. Finely chop the onion, carrot, and bacon.  Chop the block of curry roux into small pieces.

2. Add the oil to a hot fry pan; cook the onion, carrot, and bacon.  Add salt and pepper.

3. Add 60 ml. of water and the curry roux.  Cook, stirring a lot, then add “Chinese sauce” to taste.  When it’s done, let cool and wrap the curry in plastic and freeze.  Keeps 3 weeks in the freezer.
CHICKEN TSUKUNE

• 200 grams ground chicken
• 1/4 onion, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon potato starch (katakuriko), which i didn’t use
• 1/2 egg, beaten (you’ll use the other half tomorrow)
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon yuzu koshou
• 1/2 tablespoon salad oil

1. Put all of the ingredients except for the yuzu koshou and oil in a bowl and mix.  Divide the mixture into two separate bowls.  Add the yuzu koshou to one bowl.

2. Make three balls from each bowl (six total).

3. Add oil to a hot fry pan, then cook the tsukune till grilled on both sides.  Lower the heat and cook three more minutes until done.  Wrap the three yuzu tsukune together and refrigerate.  Wrap the three without yuzu together and freeze.
MONDAY

Yuzu Tsukune Bento

Yuzu Tsukune Bento

Ingredients:

• 3 yuzu tsukune from the fridge
• 1 serving carrot peel salad
• 2 broccoli florets from the fridge
• salmon flakes
• egg soboro (recipe follows)
• 1 mini tomato
• 1 serving of rice

Serve the salmon flakes and egg soboro on top of the rice.  Arrange everything else stylishly.

Egg Soboro
Ingredients:

• 1/2 egg (leftover from tsukune)
• 1/2 teaspooon sugar
• a pinch of salt

Mix the salt and sugar with the egg.  Add 1/2 teaspoon oil to a hot fry pan.  Add the egg and stir quickly using four chopsticks.  You can turn the heat off while it cooks.

TUESDAY
Egg Sandwich Lunch

Egg Sandwich
Ingredients:

• 2 eggs (one’s for Thursday)
• mayonnaise
• a little salt and pepper
• 2 slices bacon
• 2 slices rye bread
• a little butter

Boil the eggs.  Put one in the fridge for Thursday.  Peel the other and mash it with a fork; mix in the mayonnaise (original recipe called for 2 Tablespoons, so this depends on how much you love mayonnaise), salt, and pepper.

Cook the bacon in a hot fry pan.

Butter one slice of bread, and make a sandwich with the bacon and egg salad.  Cut in half.

Carrot Salad
Ingredients:

• 1/3 carrot
• 1 tablespoon salmon flakes
• mayonnaise
• a little salt and pepper
• a bit of broccoli (from the fridge)

Cut the carrot into skinny little sticks.  Add the salmon flakes, mayo, salt and pepper.  Top with a sprinkling of broccoli.

“Koko de mo Eco!!” Shiori suggests reusing the container the mini tomatoes came in as a serving vessel for your carrot salad.  I used a clean yogurt container.

WEDNESDAY
Colorful Tamagoyaki and Salmon Rice Bento

Salmon Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 serving frozen rice
• 1-2 tablespoons salmon flakes
• a little nori seaweed

Heat up the rice in the microwave.  Mix in the salmon flakes. Put it in your bento container and top with little pieces of nori.

Broccoli Tamagoyaki

Ingredients:

• 1 floret broccoli (from the fridge)
• 1 egg
• two pinches dashi
• one pinch of salt
• a little oil

1. Cut the broccoli in tiny pieces.  Beat the egg in a bowl; add the broccoli, dashi, and salt.

2. Add a little oil to a hot tamagoyaki pan (i just used a regular fry pan).  Add half of the egg mixture and cook a thin omelet.  When it’s set, roll it up towards you, and then roll the whole thing to the back of the pan.  Add the rest of the egg, making sure some of it goes under the cooked egg.  When that’s set, roll it towards you again.  Take it out of the pan and cut into bite sized pieces.

Bacon and Tomato Butter Sautee

Ingredients:

• 2 mini tomatoes
• 1 slice of bacon
• 3 g. butter
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

Slice the bacon in half lengthwise.  Wrap the slices around the mini tomatoes and secure with a toothpick.  Add the butter to a hot fry pan and cook the bacon-tomatoes.  When the bacon is grilled-color, add the soysauce and cook a little longer.

Serve with the remaining carrot peel salad.

Prep for Tomorrow (to be done Wednesday night):

Take the tsukune out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to defrost.

Move the frozen broccoli to the fridge.

Make Marinated Egg

• 1 boiled egg (from Tuesday)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons “men tsuyu” noodle dipping sauce (i bet you could use soy sauce)
• 1 1/2 tablspoons water
• 1/2 clove chopped garlic

Put the peeled egg in a plastic bag. Add the other ingredients and seal with a rubber band.  Leave in the fridge until time to assemble Thursday’s bento.

THURSDAY

Teriyaki Tsukune Bowl Bento

Teriyaki Tsukune Bowl

• 3 chicken tsukune
• 1 tablsepoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 serving of rice (from the freezer)
• a little nori
• white sesame seeds

1. Heat the rice up in the microwave.

2. Mix the soy sauce, sake, and sugar together.  Put the tsukune in a fry pan with the soysauce mix and heat until hot and teriyaki-like.

3. Put the rice in the bento box and sprinkle bits of nori on it.  Add the teriyaki tsukune and sprinkle white sesame on top.

Marinated Egg

(prepared Wednesday night)

Broccoli

• 2-3 small broccoli florets
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon katsuobushi fish flakes

Cut the broccoli in half, and dress with the soysauce and katsuobushi.

Mini Tomato
Cut in half and put on a toothpick.

***to save time, you can make tomorrow’s “broccoli stem pickles” on Thursday night.

FRIDAY

Dry Curry Bento

Dry Curry

(As you can see, my curry somehow did not turn out very “dry.”  It’s just regular kind.)

Ingredients:

• 1 serving dry curry (from the freezer)
• 1 serving rice (from the freezer)
• 1 small broccoli floret (from the freezer)

Heat the frozen curry and frozen rice in the microwave.  Put them in the bento, and sprinkle bits of broccoli floret over the curry.

Broccoli Stem Pickles

Ingredients:

• Broccoli stems
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• a little pepper
• 1 little red hot pepper
• a little garlic

Cut the broccoli stems into thin slices.

Mix all the ingredients except for the broccoli together and microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir it really well.  Pour it over the broccoli and let it sit for at least half an hour.

quick-bread in the rice cooker

This was my first attempt at making anything besides rice in the rice cooker.  It was surprisingly successful.

Sweet Quick-Bread with Oats and Raisins

1 cup flour

1/2 cup oats

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

a little salt

some cinnamon and nutmeg

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup milk

1 mashed banana

1 Tbsp oil

1 egg

raisins

Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in a bigger bowl.  Add the wet to the dry and mix just till blended.  Add raisins if you like.  Put in a lightly oiled rice cooker pan.  Press the start button.  This was done exactly when my rice cooker said it was.

(i originally posted this here)