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

Three Soy milk alternatives you should buy! :買いたい豆乳のトップ3位！

Have you ever stood in front of the milk aisle in the supermarket, staring, thinking, contemplating, and still couldn’t figure out which soy milk is the best one to bring back home? I’m here to help! 

After spending hours after hours in many different supermarkets and tasting soy milk from different brands, I have finally found a few of my favorites. By the way, I’m pretty a picky buyer. I don’t buy soy milk just because it is purely made of soy. I focus on taste and how easy it is to drink and to mix with other food, e.g. my beloved cereals, soup, coffee.

I know this might sound a little bit subjective, but I believe my choices are good for everyone in general. Here are the top THREE soy milk brands that I highly recommend! 🙂

1. AEON’s organic soy milk. (‘Topvalu’ is the brand) As you seen in the photo, it receives many certifications, confirming its quality despite the price. Clocks in at 50 kcal per 100 ml with 4.5 g. of protein, 3.1 g. of fat, and merely 1.3 g. of sugar. Considering protein and sugar content, it is the best choice! Moreover, the flavor is not too “soy”-milky, if you know what I mean. Very smooth texture, no strong smell, not overly sweet nor bitter, easily goes with my cereals and coffee. I’m not saying you won’t taste any soy in it; the delicious flavor is still there! And it’s UNSWEETENED, meaning low in sugar and carbs while it’s high in protein. Don’t get confused with other flavored soy milk products out there. You won’t wanna be drinking sugar.

Where to get this? Look for any supermarket with AEON sign as it has many sub-brands. I bought this at 198 yen (1000 ml carton) at the nearest super called “My Basket”, where everything is sooo cheap! (Cheaper than convenience stores!) Please check it out! More here: Top Valu information page (spelled correctly)

2. Provamel’s Unsweetened Soya milk. This soy milk is imported and thus the price is kinda high. However, once I tasted it, it’s so hard to switch to other brands. The flavor is sooo good on its own. You don’t need to add more sugar nor cocoa powder to cover the soy smell or flavor. it’s so refreshing and delicious I could just drink it as my treat.

Anddddd per 100 ml, it has:
Energy 45 kcal, Protein 3.7 g, Fat 2.2 g, Carbohydrates 2.4 g
Calorie and nutrients wise, it is not a bad choice at all. I just love this cuz of the taste and the lightness of it. Recommended!

But it can be difficult to buy. As far as I know, I found it in Meidi-ya supermarket Roppongi store (Click here for website), Precce supermarket Tokyo Midtown store, and LIMA cafe south Shinjuku store (LIMA cafe website). The latter is just behind my office tower. hehe

3. Otsuka’s Miruku no youni yasashii daizu. It’s a pretty long name. No, actually, it has the longest name ever! It literally means “soy milk that is as smooth as milk” (as in cow milk). I used to be addicted to this as well! Like, I HAD TO drink this and this only cuz I wasn’t well adjusted to the taste of soymilk yet. And this is precisely the main selling point of this soy milk. Its texture is so smooth, the flavor so sweet and tasty and refreshing. You can just drink it on its own. On the package, the brand emphasizes high content of calcium, isoflavone, and protein. 

Per 100 ml, it contains…
Energy 47.5 kcal, Protein 3.2 g., Fat 2.35 g., Carbohydrates 2.8 g.
Not bad for a tasty non-soy-milky choice! It comes with 2 sizes: 950 ml and 200 ml. 
Can be found easiest in most of the convenient stores and supermarkets, especially for the smaller alternative (which is usually seen in many other flavors such as strawberry, green tea, banana, grape,…but I do not recommend the flavor types).

However, when I looked closely at its label, I got discouraged a little bit when the second ingredient on the ingredients list following “soy” is “mizu ame” (syrup) and then sugar. This made me feel a bit like I was taking unnecessary sugar so I switched to other alternatives after.

Hope you all get some good ideas of what to grab next time! In the end, I encourage you to try for yourself if you find any brand interesting! How to choose from this list: Price and quality wise, choose the first one. Self-reward/high quality, go for the second one. Not so familiar with soy milk? go for the third one. 

My favorite organic restaurant&cafe “From Hand to Mouth” : 「フロハン」というオーガニックのカフェ

Soooooo THIS IS MY NUMBER ONE CAFE OF ALL TIME IN TOKYO!
Whenever I had to go back home for a couple of months, the place I missed the most is this cafe with a funny name “From Hand to Mouth”. In Japanese, this would be soooo long that people shorten it to “Fu-ro-ha-n” or 「フロハン」(for From Hand..).

It’s located a few steps away to Nishi-waseda bus stop (if going by Toei Bus 学02), just at the corner to the west gate of Waseda campus of Waseda University (Yes my own uni!). If you go at lunch time, you might find it hard to find places to sit sometimes as this is one of the most popular hang-out, chatting, afternoon-tea-ing, catch-up-with-old-friend, spending-quality-time-alone place of girls! I hang out here nights and days during my time in uni, brought sooo many friends, ate almost all the dishes on the menu. I went there so much that I am currently at my THIRD membership card. If you are a member, you’ll get 50 yen discount for lunch time and after you complete one line on the card, you either get discount or exchange with something on the menu.

Enough for the advertising (actually no, but I guess you guys want to know now what’s amazing about it), let us go see what food it offers! First up, Lunch….3 main menus. (all for 880 yen – 830 yen for members)
A. Soup lunch: a daily soup filled with veggies and good-for-you protein, a BIG heap of fresh salad and original olive oil dressing, freshly baked on the day bread (which is different daily) and scrambled eggs. Oops! I forgot a piece of fruit (either apple or orange). Can’t ask for more. HEALTHY. CHOICE!

B. Curry lunch: Behold, this is NOT the typical Japanese curry since this is filled with beans and veggies on top of brown rice (with a mix of seeds and different kinds of wheat). A little portion of mango chutney is also placed neatly on one corner. A piece of fruit has its own place to wrap up the meal. This is very suitable for those who are extremely hungry and want something filling but good and hearty for the stomach.

C. Crape lunch: Maybe the most popular of all menus. Made to order crape (buckwheat flour) with 2 different fillings (changed daily too), topped with creamy yogurt dressing and black pepper. One would be Japanese filling and the other is a bit more Western which would definitely incorporate CHEESE!! A big heap of salad!!! and a piece of fruit. Oh goshhh sooooo amazing!

I can’t begin to say…Lunches here are equally tasty and nutritious so it really depends on your mood on the day. The dinner time also has sooo many more menus. My favorite is “Locomoco-don”（ロコモコ丼）890 yen. Two burger pieces made with different kinds of wheat and seeds mixed with minced beef (1/4 of the burger) topped with sweet-sour-tangy sauce (which…I’m telling you…is extremely addictive) together with big heaps of salad and small half-done sunny side-up egg. Nothing will ever win over this dish. I even dreamed about it once. Lol I went there and ordered this menu so often that the owner (who I frequented with) already knew what I were to order. I also changed the menu a little bit by asking for less portion of rice and volume up the salad with balsamic dressing instead of the yogurt dressing.

Check it out here! http://www.cafe-fhtm.com/index.html

This is the Lunch set B: Crape lunch

And….as you can see the bottom left and top right are the curry set, the bottom right is the soup set.

Give this place a try!!! AND YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! EVER!
PS: it is closed on sundays.

Love it!