Pure Cafe: Indulge in Vegan Delicatessen! ピュアカフェで、ボリューム満点のビーガンフード！

So, I have been frequenting myself with Omotesando/Aoyama area lately since…you know….there are loads of healthy/organic/vegan/anything-with-a-lot-of-veggies cafes! One of those is called “Pure cafe” that I used to visit once many years back. I went there many times this couple of weeks because I found my new addiction: “Little Bite” cookies. Here’s how they look like! The left is cocoa flavor; the right is cinnamon maple flavor. My first love is cocoa but the cinnamon is not bad at all. Now I’m torn so I bought both.

They are gluten-free and vegan, hence, no egg, white sugar, dairy products. Despite the lack of those traditional ingredients, they are sooooo good! I don’t allow myself to indulge much in desserts, but these little cookies are exceptional! I put myself on thread-mill just to eat them. That’s how bad my addiction is. Someone save me. lol
If you wanna share my love-guilt relationship with the cookies, you can buy online here and suffer with me.

Anyway, apart from a variety of cookies/healthy vegan snacks on sales here, Pure cafe provides amazing lunch! And it’s no girl-eats-salad kinda lunch, there’s a lot of food. I went for lunch with my friend and we were SO full and satisfied. Here’s mine: deep-fried Tempeh and veggies huge sandwich lunch set.

From left to right: small carrot cake (dessert), salad with beets dressing, lentils and veggies tomato stew, my huge sandwich, and minestrone soup. In the end I left the bread out or else I’ll die. lol

Apart from this, other famous lunch menus are different kinds of grain salad, Taco rice, and salad plate. Order anything, you’ll get to eat your veggies and dessert! Price is 1200 + tax.

Check out the menu and access here! Omotesando station, B3 exit

Choose your no-meat day and find an excuse to indulge in amazing food here 😉 
(I’m gonna miss this place so bad…)

Finally I found my way to Daylesford, British organic cafe!「デイルズフォード・オーガニック」青山に行きま～した！

“Daylesfort” : Many of you might have heard of this cafe before as it is actually pretty famous among those who like organic/healthy food. Now that I have all the time for myself to go free around town, I picked this cafe to explore. And it did not disappoint!

Let me share with you my lunch!
Walking in, the first floor on the left would be an eating area, and on the right would be a shop area. Now there is a buffet lunch for 1100 yen (i think lol) for 60 minutes you can eat all the organic/tasty salads plus soup plus drink. I think it’s pretty good a deal considering the quality of food. For the shop, there are homemade jam, spread, olive oil, bread, and super yummy-looking bakeries! There are also some skin care and hair care products.

I could have just settled with a great deal buffet, but NO! I came all the way here, I wanted to taste as many variety of food as possible. So up the second floor I went. The ambiance is so comfy, imagine the kind of birthday party for kids where all the moms gather and chat. lol I secured the sofa table and planted myself there for hours with a book in my hands.

There are many menus to choose from and it was such a difficult choice especially that I went there alone. I could only choose one so I decided to be super picky and greedy. lol In my head, already calculated my daily allowance.

The most famous menu would be a vegetable plate where you can eat all the 6 types of daily salad with 2 pieces of bread and drink. Others would be main dish, chicken curry, burger, quiche… (by the way, the quiche dish has like the hugest quiche i’ve ever seen, bigger than a slice of pizza here in Japan.) And there are courses which give you a combination of those menus. I chose “casual lunch” course, where I could have soup, 2 types of salad to choose from, a main dish, and drink. (1800 yen) My stomach was so heavy at the end of the course but it was happy. 🙂

First came my salads: curried cauliflower and red bell pepper + lentil and blue cheese salad. On the side were 2 slices of bread and really tasty olive oil. I mean it, the oil was really good. The flavor was really refreshing and new to my palette. Nothing like plain salad I normally tasted, so I was quite happy. (though I have to admit i’m not a fan of blue cheese. a bit too powering)

Next came my sweet potato cream soup with a drop of olive oil. I spoiled myself by drowning a piece of bread into the bottom of the soup and let the flavor exploded when I squeezed all the soup out. Ok…no more explanation needed.

Then my main dish came. I think it’s chicken confit with gobo, carrot, and potato. It was quite big for me but probably normal for a general standard. The meat was really tender as well as hard veggies like gobo. I swept the whole bowl up with the fluffy bread. I would say, the dish needed a little more salt just for my personal taste, so I had to drop some olive oil to give it some more depth in the later bites. Overall, the dish tasted really yum and satisfying. I just love chicken – soft chicken thigh, especially. ><

I got iced coffee afterwards. And it wasn’t a small tiny kind but a jar-like container which I liked. I spent the next hour or so finishing “Inferno” by Dan Brown and left the place. Around the area, I discovered so MANY more organic/healthy cafes…I couldn’t believe they are all here in Omotesando!

I am planning to visit these places during my time left in Tokyo. xxx
Find out more about this place here

Newly Opened!「MAX BRENNER CHOCOLATE BAR」at Omotesando Hills! 表参道ヒルズにオープンしたの「マックスブレナー・チョコレート・バー」

Just open in November last year, Max Brenner flied over to Omotesando Hills all the way from Israel, introducing Tokyo to a new way of enjoying chocolate. Haven’t you heard? Now we eat chocolate on Pizza!! 

Chocolate Chunk Pizza
「チョコレートチャンクピザ」(1,800円、1/2サイズ950円、1/6サイズ350円)
source: http://news.mynavi.jp/articles/2013/11/29/maxbrenner/

I saw this on the news this morning and think if any of you is a chocolate addict, then you really really shouldn’t miss this! Using pizza dough as a base, sprinkle some milk chocolate on top, pass it under hot oven til the chocolate melts, then sprinkle with white chocolate and LOADS of mashmellow, pass the whole architecture under the hot oven again to grill the soft white clouds to perfection. Anddddddd…..YES! you have your own “chocolate chunk pizza!” (or maybe you should bring a couple of friends over lol)

Another interesting chocolate treat that I’ve never seen before is this: Chocolate syringe!? 「チョコレートシリンジ」(500円) This is totally a dream come true for children! Think about being able to shoot all that sweet stuff directly into your mouth!

Check out its website here: http://maxbrenner.co.jp/

I found this brand very interesting after reading more into it. It has a very unique principle and business point of view. Max Brenner aims to liberate ways of eating and enjoying chocolate by lifting any boundary of traditional way of thinking about it. There are 4 ethos (written on their website but I’m just gonna give some shortcut here): 

1. Chocolate Without Boundaries (チョコレートには国境も形式もない)
2. Enjoy to The Max（チョコレートを最高に楽しもう！）
3. Chocolate is Good for You（チョコレートは心にも⾝体にもうれしいもの）
4. Itʼs Simple…All You Have To Do is Love Chocolate（シンプルにチョコレートを愛して）

Really interesting way of differentiating itself from other chocolate specialist shops! Of course, apart from the chocolate pizza and chocolate syringe I introduced above, there are more fun menus waiting for you chocolate lovers at the shop! (like chocolate fondue?? ;P)

Don’t hesitate to post some comments if you have gone there!