Although it tends to cater to the upper-middle class housewife crowd, Jiyuugaoka is full of those delicious little nooks and crannies that make exploring Tokyo so fun. Which is why, after a recent pizza dinner, I was not terribly surprised to stumble upon San Francisco Cable Car Coffee, a cafe I’d never noticed in the area before.

Cable car.. coffee? Perhaps a misinterpretation of local specialties, but I was up for anything after the less than satisfying dinner. Much to my pleasure, the cafe had an excellent selection of sweet goodies to sate the gluttonous American within me.

My eyes immediately drifted towards the brownies, but as many jaded foreigners know, the Japanese interpretation of baked goods often results in something airy and soft, just a little too easy on the sugar. The waitress assured me, however, that these brownies had volume. When the small pyramid of brownie cubes arrived decorated with powdered sugar and a bit of whipped creme, they did not disappoint. Firm, chewy and chocolaty, they were a bit more sophisticated than their crumbly home-made American cousins, but they were also perhaps some of the best I’ve ever had in Tokyo.

The coffees were relatively large and tasty, and although the cafe had plenty of seating open inside, we sat on their patio under the night sky and watched the trains whiz by. Definitely a place I’m interested in going back to!

Pizza in Tokyo tends to be on the slightly expensive side, which makes a great excuse to indulge in one of my favorite foods for lunch (as well as dinner!). Located in a small and slightly run-down looking plaza in Gaienmae, Pizzeria Ghitaro is both a reasonable and convenient place to take a lunch break.

I had been here once before for lunch on a weekend, and was unforunately greeted by the sound of crying children echoing around the spacious and airy space. Pizzeria Ghitaro is sadly one of those fine restaurants where wealthy parents in the area feel justified bringing their little ones, letting them free to roam about and shout while Mom and Dad dine on delicious crispy pizza.

It was much to my pleasure, then, to find the restaurant nearly empty around 2pm on a weekday, and we were able to relax with only the sound of music drifting in the background. The lunch special offers a simple but satisfying meal of any pizza or pasta from the menu as well as an appetizer or salad and beverage. The appetizers change regularly, and we calmed our rumbling stomaches with four little works of art while waiting for our pizzas to arrive.

The pizzas here are large and crispy, with an extremely thin crust that may look meager to fans of Naples or American-style pizza. The amazing circumfrence of each pie takes care of any doubts, however, and we were pretty stuffed by the end. A warning about any pizza with egg on top: the egg does its best to soak into the entire crust, and after a few minutes you’ll be mopping up soggy pizza bread trying to contain the mess as it dribbles down your chin.

Pizzeria GHITARO
1F, 1-3-2 Kita Aoyama , Minato-ku
Tel: 03-5770-3738

Iranian food isn’t exactly the type of thing most people get a sudden craving for, and the scarcity of Persian restaurants in Tokyo are a representation of such. But after passing the same red, white and green signboard so many times you begin to become curious, and it’s this curiosity that brought us to Aladdin in Roppongi.

No need to worry about crowds on a Tuesday night, and when we arrived there was only another table of boisterous salary men, though it later got quite a bit more crowded. The menu was short and simple, and our extremely attentive waiter didn’t give us much time to review the contents before he came over to make recommendations about what we should eat. Granted I think a few minutes were lost in our search for the alcohol on the drinks menu (and there is none! All the food is halal and nothing but non-alcoholic beer, safe for any Muslim).

We ordered hummus (and a salad that never came!) and real Iranian pita bread, which was a delight for someone who was raised on pita bread and goat cheese breakfasts up until junior high school. Then out came our kebabs, four different kinds, served along with plates of hot buttery rice. The rice smelled fantastic, and the meat was wonderfully juicy, especially the chicken and lamb. We could have actually done with less meat and another dish–perhaps a stew, or a salad!!!–but we were definitely stuffed by the time the plates were cleared.

Searching the menu for dessert, however, left us at a loss as there was nothing written but “Dessert - 600 yen.” The waiter told us that this was ice cream, terribly disappointing for someone who was waiting excitedly for baklava or some other Iranian treats.

Stuffed to the brim but still hungry after an alcohol and dessert free dinner, we headed over to nearby Coldstone Creamery to listen to a few jingles and indulge in some ice cream. Aladdin is a place I’d like to try out again, after I brush up on my Farsi and find a few more people to go with me.

Aladdin
Fuji Bldg 2F, 3-2-6 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku
Tel: 03-3401-8851
Across the street from the Hyatt Hotel

A well-known spot to satisfy those Thai food cravings when in the Shinjuku area, Ban Thai is mildly expensive and boasts a huge menu of over 100 dishes, but isn’t really different from a lot of other Thai places except for the line that forms at the door. With that said though, it is delicious and a great place for large groups if you don’t mind being en caged in the wooden thrones that they use as dining room seating. Not recommended for couples, however, unless you enjoy shouting at each other over dinner.

Unfortunately no connoisseur of Thai food, Ban Thai tastes just as good to me as almost any other place. Two things do stand out, though. Once is the spiciness of their food. Little red circles on the menu indicate spice level, and although all of their salads were decorated profusely, I thought that by choosing a harmless looking beef salad with only two circles I would remain safely outside of the lip burning zone.

Wrong! Wow, was this salad spicy. It came in a sour dressing with hot pepper seeds swimming about, just waiting to heat things up. It was too much for my dining partner, and being forced to finish the salad off at the end of the meal, my lips were burning and I had a mild stomach ache for quite a while after the meal.

The other particular point of Ban Thai that sets it apart from other places is the absolute best curry in the world.

The menu describes it as “crab in curry,” but it’s actually a concoction of your typical Thai coconut curry and savory crab juices, done up with egg and a few veggies. The end result is a delicious sauce just right for spooning over rice, and when you’ve eaten all the rice you’ll then proceed just to spoon it into your mouth, then suck it off the crab itself. The crab meat is a bit difficult to pry out without the correct tools, but given a few minutes and chopsticks and a fork to work with we were soon able to rob the shellfish of all it’s fleshy white meat. Beware, however, that your fingers will smell like curry at least until the next day.

Bonus: a picture of fried spring rolls

Ban Thai
Dai-ichi Metro Bldg 3F, 1-23-14 Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku
Tel: 03-3207-0068
Down the street from Don Quixote

There’s never a shortage of new flavors here in Japan, especially when it comes to candy and ice cream. To start off summer, Häagen-Dazs has released a line of two sorbets,  Alphonso Mango and Wild Apple. Not being a mangoey kind of girl, I went straight for the apple.

Those hoping for, expecting a tart or sour flavor, usually an assumption that could be made with any product decorated with a bright green apple, will be a bit disappointed. If you can get over that fact, however, this less-than-wild sorbet is actually quite cool and refreshing. It’s light and perfect for Tokyo’s steamy hot summer days, although it does melt extremely quickly. The flavor is something comparable to apple sauce, minus the cinnamon. Not bad, and much more flavorful than much of what Häagen-Dazs usually has to offer.

Earlier this year I was supposed to take a trip to Turkey, but unfortunately my hectic work schedule kept me far away from that ancient land, instead riding a ferry for 10 hours to do an article about scuba diving (I suppose it wasn’t all bad..). Missing out on all that fantastic food was a bit of a downer, and I was over-delighted when a friend invited me to dinner with two of her colleagues at one of Tokyo’s many Turkish restaurants

Nestled somewhere near Shinjuku’s East exit, Pumukkale makes no qualms about this fact and doesn’t attempt to spice things up with exotic lighting and atmosphere. No belly dances to be found, and the wide windows pull in light from the neon jungle as rather loud Turkish pop drifts down from overhead, giving the whole restaurant a rather “diner” like feel.

We left the ordering up to the Turkish member of the party, and the food arrived with almost lightning speed. With our gunluk ekmek warm and toasty in our hands, we dug into the three meze that had been ordered. The acili meze was described as a hot tomato paste, and although it did provide a bit of a spicy bite the flavor of tomato was deliciously sweet. As a huge fan of humus I was a bit disappointed with what was offered, and although the texture was excellent it was quite lacking in both lemon juice and garlic. The haydari meze made up for it though, and was so good I probably could have eaten two or three plates of yogurty creaminess. But for ¥680 a plate, I was willing to pass.

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After indulging in some chickpea curry at the Bangladesh Festival in Yoyogi Park, I was hankering for something sweet, but not heavy and syrupy like a lot of Middle Eastern desserts. There wasn’t a lot of variety in the booths offering up something along those lines, so I approached the stall with the largest selection and asked them which was the lightest dessert. After a bit of debate, they pointed me to Kaju Burfi.

Five little diamonds stacked atop one another greeted me when I opened the lid. Each one was delicately topped with a thin piece of silver foil, and it looked more artistic than anything else. Slightly sweet with a nutty taste thanks to the cashew paste it’s made from, the texture was a little grainy yet creamy and smooth. Probably not everyone’s “piece of cake,” but definitely an unusual and interesting treat.

One of the girls I used to work with quit her job in sales to chase her dream of becoming a professional patissier. She often brings in cakes and sweets and brings in per “practice pieces” for us to gobble up, as well as takes orders for cakes and breads.

This is one of her creations, a delicate little carrot cake that was so moist and delicious, with thick creme cheese frosting. Dense without being heavy and full of plump raisins, even as an American who has grown up on carrot cake it was one of the best I’ve ever had. Thanks goes to friendly co-workers who are willing to share their blessings!

It was with a hankering for some hot doughy pizza that we made our way into Naka Meguro’s Seirinkan one evening, and although it was still a decent hour of eight the restaurant was just moving past its busy period into a more relaxed slow swing. We weren’t really looking at much at the amount of people in the restaurant, however, as we were the amazing interior (and exterior) of the place. Sculpted out of wrought iron with hardwood floors and stone and stainless steel walls, the place would make a factory blush with its cold early twentieth-century industrial-ness. (See photos here)

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Jagariko is a potato-based snack that I can’t really describe but the taste and texture are easily imaginable by looking at the photos. They typically come in basic flavors like cheese, butter and the mysterious ’salad,’ but similar to all Japanese snacks you’ll get these random limited time flavors.

The basil flavor is subtle, and doesn’t really hit you until after popping the entire crunchy stick into your mouth. Pretty good! But makes me hanker for a really awesome pizza.