Naturally a queue in Japan must be for something good.  On our final Sunday in Tokyo we had cycled from our hotel past the Imperial Palace and towards the area around the Tokyo Train Station.  We had read previously of a baker who imported French butter and created amazing pastries…  so we thought we should try them!

We managed to locate the shop (it had only just opened), and naturally a queue had formed outside so we joined.

There was much anticipation standing being in the queue, as you could see inside the shop and the piles of delicate crossiants slowly decreasing. We had read each person is only able to purchase 6 crossiaints each – given our position in the queue we were hopeful. White waiting outside a sign was suddenly put on the door – butter was sold out. Weph. We slowly edged closer to the front as other people emerged from the shop with their large blue Echire shopping bags, then we were allowed to join the queue inside. being inside had a couple of advantages, as we could see what was available, so we could decide before we got to the head of the queue. The second advantage was the strong smell of butter – ah devine.

Here are a few photos from the display inside the shop –

We had decided to purchase 2 croissants, 1 pain du chocolate, and an chausson aux pomme, and a tin of biscuits to take back home.  One we were outside we sat in the near by square and took the following photos:

 

… If you are wondering about the taste – they were fabulous.  The taste of the croissant was great, the pastry wasn’t too flaky but you could really taste the butter.  The pain du chocolat was warm, and the combination of the pastry and the chocolate was perfect.  Ah… Worth the wait!

On previous visits to Japan we had often passed ABC cooking schools, where we had seen people cooking a variety of dishes.  We had always thought would that be a great idea to do on a holiday!  This time we thought given we were in Japan for a week we would attend one, so Kym had our hotel book us in for one in English as the website was only in Japanese.

Our class consisted of three people and our instructor. Around us there were three other classes going on, Thai, bread making, and Chinese.  The instructor was Taiwanese but also had very good English.  All the ingredients were cut up and she told us what to do, and in the order, according to the instructions. 

Here is what we made:

• Gyudon- beef bowl
• Miso soup with wakame and Ofu
• Cucumber with Konbu marinate
• Kochi Dorayaki (sweet filled pancake)

A couple of interesting points we learnt

• Here beef is available sliced very thinly strips from the butcher.  We would never be able to cut it as thin unless it was frozen.  They were as long as your index finger – makes cooking a much quicker!
• We’ve always loved the dorayaki you can buy in Japan.  The pancake mixture featured a couple of different flours, honey, bean paste, and mirin and were very simple to make.  The centre was a candied chestnut!

I’m looking forward to Kym cooking these dishes again when we get home!