Café #6: Inoda Coffee, Sapporo

I already introduced this Inoda Coffee to you before, but I need to tell you… Their cocoa was amazing! I actually had their cocoa in February, but didn’t take a picture. Therefore, I came back here in August and had a cup of delicious cocoa! The waitress was a bit confused when I ordered cocoa, because cocoa is not a popular item in summer. ha ha. If you have a chance to visit Inoda Coffee, please try a cup of cocoa and enjoy the night view of Sapporo city!

p.s. I am sure you can ask to put the whipped cream on the side.

Total: 630 yen

Inoda Coffee : イノダコーヒー

7F, Daimaru Department Store Sapporo

7, Kita 5-jo Nishi 4-chome, Chuo-ku,

Sapporo

Café #05: Café Kuroshio, Taipei

After my friend and I had great lunch at DongMen Dumpling Restaurant, we found a small café on the way back to the school. The café is called “Kuroshio” (咖啡黑潮) (yes, Japanese)! It seems that they open from 1:30pm.


Inside, there were a few customers, and soft rock music was played. WiFi was available, so some customers brought their laptop and enjoyed the free internet. It was simple, but I liked quiet atmosphere. (It is very hard to find such a quiet café in Taipei city…!)

They offer coffee, tea, some juice, and sweet cakes. Their specialty seems coffee, so I ordered simple Café Latte.

Café Latte

My friend’s choice

At the patio, there are some tables. If you are a smoker, you can enjoy the quiet nice Taiwan atmosphere at the patio. :)

I definitely recommend this place to enjoy good coffee and free quiet time. All workers were friendly.

Café Kuroshio: 咖啡黑潮
No. 9-1, Ln. 141, HePing S. Rd, Da-an Dist.
Taipei, TAIWAN
02-2357-0018

Café #04: Lettre D’Amour, Shirokane

I apologize that I have not updated my food diary for a while, and the article is getting behind…

On the way back to the hotel, my friend and I found a cute dessert shop called “Lettre D’Amour”, located at Shirokane-Dai, Tokyo. They sell sweets at the first floor, and at the second floor, a fashionable cafeteria offers the relaxed place for us to enjoy their desserts. I felt lucky because it is not easy to find such a fancy place at Tokyo, unless you know the area well. So we decided to have a tea in here.


Such a sweet little building. Two workers welcomed us carefully when we opened the door. Then a lady guided us to the upstairs. There were only four or five round-tables in the cafeteria, and well-trained waitress brought us a cute menu. Most of items had pictures so it made us very difficult to pick, because it all looked gorgeous.


My friend chose chocolate cake and hot café au lait. Sorry I forgot the name of the cake. It was too fancy to memorize it. :D It looked gorgeous, and I liked the snowflake on the cake. The red sauce on the plate was raspberry sauce.

Fleur

Beautiful color combination! Creamy, rich flavoured Litchi’s mousse, called "Fleur", was served artistically with the red (pink?) shell. Blueberry on the top nicely provided a slight sour taste. The shell around the mousse was actually a white chocolate! It was amazing. The chocolate was pretty sweet, but it helped to keep the nice balance of the sweetness between the mousse and the chocolate.

Hot Tea with La France flavor

I ordered hot tea with the aroma of La France. La France is the one kind of European pear, and Japan also produces one for picky Japanese customers. The pear itself is pretty expensive, compared to crispy Japanese pear, Nashi (梨). Luckily, my mother bought some La France for me this summer, and it was so fresh and juicy. I still remembered the sweetness of the pear. This hot tea reminded me of that taste. I also liked the cute idea of the sugar stick. While the tea was hot, you put the sugar stick into the tea, and waited for a few minutes. The sugar started melting.

Lettre D’Amour means a love letter. Chef de Patissier, Mr. Katsuhiko Kurashima, won second place for Grand Gateau division at Japan Cake Show Tokyo 2008. If you have a chance to visit Tokyo, it is worth to stop by this shop.

Lettre D’Amour
on Platinum Street
5-17-1, Shirokane-dai, Minato-ku
Tokyo
03-5488-5051
10:30-20:00
http://www.okasix.com/

Café #03: Starbucks, Sapporo

Filone Holiday Chicken Sandwich and Assam Black Tea Latte

I do not need to write about Starbucks, because it is in everywhere! I want to know some countries that do not have Starbucks these days. Most of their items are the same. Do you like Starbucks, or are you anti-Starbucks? I personally like them, because their coffee is in reasonable price. I cannot believe, however, how terrible their foods are… Sorry if you like it, but hey… I tried sandwiches and some sweets, but I don’t think those were tasty.

Starbucks Japan has similar menu as American ones. Their original menu that I like is “Assam Black Tea Latte” (short: 370 yen). As a tea lover, this is very tasty and they use enough tea leave. It is a royal milk tea. If you pay extra, you can change milk to soy milk, which is even healthier.

I also tried one sandwich this time, called "Filone Holiday Chicken Sandwich" (420 yen). This sandwich was the first one so far that I liked. Thick-sliced roasted chicken came with grilled potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes over meat sauce and parmesan cheese. It was nicely toasted. I really liked the grilled potatoes; it matched with the tomato sauce.

Sapporo’s Starbucks seem a popular place to hang out with friends. There are always packed and noisy. I sometimes go there to enjoy black tea latte, but not an appropriate place, at least for me, to read some serious books.

Total: 790 yen

Starbucks Japan
http://starbucks.co.jp/

Café #02: Mister Donut, Sapporo

Hamburger Pie and a cup of Tea

Mister Donut is a popular donut chain, like Krispy Kreme in the U.S.A.. Their donut menu is amazingly various! Once you enter the store, you need time to think which donut you would choose. All kinds of donuts ask you “pick me, pick me” but you can’t eat everything!!! In November, they just released 13 new donuts, plus some stores have several types of Chinese noodles. Welcome to the paradise!

The ones I ordered this time were a pot of tea (262 yen) and a hamburger pie (168 yen). They made the pie warm for me. I like their pie menu and this would be one of them.

The only thing I don’t like is that the branch that I usually go in Sapporo train station is not completely non smoking. People still smoke in the back of the store, and without any partitions. Therefore, I still smell a cigarette and feel allergic. Otherwise, Mister Donut is a pretty good place to meet up with friends or reading books with tasty snacks and refillable coffee or tea.

Total: 430 yen

Mister Donut
http://www.misterdonut.jp/index.html

Café #01: Inoda Coffee, Sapporo

After the lunch at The Buffet, my friend and I enjoyed window shopping at the department store for a while. I found some beautiful plates and tea cups. I often appreciate dinnerware and pottery. Japanese and European style… Beautiful pottery makes the food delicious. I like enjoying the meal by stimulating all my five senses; taste, smell, sound, firmness of the food and beauty of the food’s layout.

We stopped by at small old café at Daimaru, called Inoda Coffee. This café, since 1940, is originally from Kyoto. The interior reminds me of old fashioned café from Showa period (Dec 1926 to Jan 1989). They have variety of coffee menu, plus some popular café dishes, such as sandwiches and spaghetti. Of course, they prepare some dessert menu, including Japanese sweets! Wonderful! I tried Iced Café au Lait (560 yen), and my friend ordered regular Iced Coffee (530 yen).

Iced Café au Lait and Iced Caffee

Both items came with crystal glasses, beautifully poured. Let’s take a look how much they poured the coffee. Maybe some people think they should put more Iced Café au Lait. Yet, I feel the beauty that they don’t pour too much or too less. The quantity of ice was perfectly controlled. It was beautiful. I asked them to put a bit of syrup, so that the taste of café au lait became rich and creamy. The evening view of Sapporo downtown from the window was stunning… Time passed very slowly, and we enjoyed our conversation for another two hours.

Total: 1090 yen (for 2 people)

Inoda Coffee
7F, Daimaru Department Store Sapporo
7, Kita 5-jo Nishi 4-chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo
10:00-20:00 (non smoking)
011-271-7712
http://www.inoda-coffee.co.jp/index.html