Organic Restaurants
ORGANIC CAFE: GIONO
Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Very fresh local ingredients extensively used. Seasonal ingredients only. All organic.
If you have the chance to visit Mishima City at the foot ofmount Fuji, there is a place where to enjoy a full day in art-filled park of the highest level: Clematis no Okka/Clematis Hill.
A free shuttle bus will take you from Mishima JR Station all the way to Nagaizumi Cho past vegetable farms and resort villas up to this grand art complex in the middle of a forest.
It comprises two main parts:
-The Clematis Garden Area with an enormous (by Japanese standards) park with an infinite amount of flowers and a Museum/Park concept called the Vangi Statues Garden Art Museum, enough of a venue bu itself.
-Buffet Area: not a diner-Buffet but the Bernard Buffet Museum you can either acceed to by shuttle or by walking across from the Vangi Park and a exquisite suspended bridge.
The Bernard Buffet is a major Museum in Japan with regular visiting exhibitions such as Leonard Foujita.
Check their great Homepage!
Right in front of the Museum entrance stands an inviting cafe/restaurant/boutique.
You can choose a seat either inside the cafe or at one of the three parasol tables (choose the latter if possible).
Open only for lunch in accordance to the Musuem business hours it offers an exclusively organic menu, be it vegan, vegetarian or omnivore.
Almost all vegetables are grown in neighbourhood gardens and farms.
Mishima City and its surroundings are a reference in Shizuoka Prefecture when it comes to agricultural produce of any kind, including organic and biological growing and raising.
The menu is purely seasonal, and where not available locally the ingredients, such as olive oil, are carefully chosen among products from France, Italy and other countries.
The Missus and I on that days opted for two different set-courses.
Both courses come with an appetizer. In this case, chilled vychissoise soup with olive oil and a sprinkle of fresh herbs and a pot of organic vegetables salad.
The Dragon had a delicious mushroom and potato quiche. I managed to steal half of it! Beautifully light but satisfying, I must emulate it as soon as possible!
The Rabbit (me!) opted for the deep-fried chicken in a batter containg 14 spices and garnished with organic fried potatoes. A lunch to convince you away from those famed/notorious diners (can you guess?)
We were also offered a complimentary drink with the course.
Note: Lunches are served with a big bottle of water coming directly from the streams flowing down Mount Fuji!
GIONO
411-0931, Mshima City, Nagaizumi-Cho, Clematis Garden (Suruga Oka), 347-1, Bernard Buffet Museum
Tel.: 055-980-5856
Opening hours: 10:00~17:30 (lunches until 15:00). Time will change in winter.
Closed on Tuesdays or on Wednesdays if Tuesday is a National Holiday.
HOMEPAGE (English)
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VEGETABLE SASHIMI AT YASAITEI
Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Very fresh local ingredients extensively used. Seasonal ingredients only. All-ladies staff.
I’ve been an unconditional fan of Yasatei in Shizuoka City for quite a while.
Some might say I’m attracted to the all-female staff, but they would be sorely mistaken as I take my Missus there from time to time!
The reasons are very simple:
Yasaitei (The Vegetables Inn in Japanese) makes the extra effort(s) to serve whenever possible produce from Shizuoka Prefecture, including sake and shochu! The only place, as far as I know, which offers shochu from three different Shizuoka breweries/distilleries!
Vegan and vegetarian friends have complained to me unaccountable times that they would not be able to survive in Japan. How far the truth they are!
Vegetables, including organic and biologically-grown, are plentiful in this country. I must admit we are blessed with a very special situation here in Shizuoka Prefecture as this is the mildest region in Japan in spite of the snow falling around mount Fuji. Our Prefecture has become a national reference when it comes to vegetable and fruit agricultural research (omnivores will be glad to hear that it is also at the forefront of marine life sustainibility!), notably in natural environment.
The staff at Yasaitei always keep an extra eye and ear open for any new information concerning vegetables. Many a time I have brought them heirloom tomatoes, burdock roots, potimarrons and what else grown by lady farmers up Abe River just for the fun of it. On such occasions some surprised patrons find themselves served with an extra “service morsel” (meaning free of charge)!
Yesterday evening, I needed a “quick fix” in between two work sessions and pedaled to their restaurant only five minutes away.
I just said, “Yasai sashimi no moriawase/Plate of vegetables sashimi, please!”
Written or not on the day’s menu, it will always be prepared with an extra care.
The set I was served consisted of the following (See above pic):
-Cucumber (kyuuri/胡瓜)-the Japanese like them young, narrow and crunchy!
-Japanese long radish (daikon/大根)-Juicy, crunchy, almost sweet (bear in mind that the extremity is astringent!).
-Perilla leaf (shiso/紫蘇) behing the daikon and sitting on a bed of onion (tamanegei/たまねぎ). The onion were thinly sliced and left in cold water for a while to take away the astringency.
-Guapara leaves (grapara/グラパラ) in the middle. I will talk about this later!
-Sweet Ameera tomatoes (ameera tomato/アメーラトマト). These tomatoes were originally grown in Shizuoka Prefecture, but are slowly expanding all over Japan. They are so sweet that they almsot taste like strawberries!
-Celery (serori/セロリー). Shizuoka Prefecture grows half of them in Japan! Fresh, juicy and crunchy!
-Myoga ginger sprouts (myouga/茗荷) just behind the celery.
These grapara leaves are gron in Chiba Prefecture, north of Tokyo.
For people who can read Japanes, check their homepage!
Crunchy but with a juicy and tender inside, they are sweet and taste somewhat like pineapple!
Vegans and Vegetarians, do not worry!
Yasaitei does not serve mayonnaise with such beauties.
They will accompany this plate of super fresh vegetables with a small saucer containing sesame oil (goma abura/ゴマ油), dark miso (kuro miso/黒味噌) and natural salt (shio/塩)!
Expect more reports!
YASAITEI
Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Tokiwa-Cho, 1-6-2 Green Heights Wamon 1-C
Tel.: 054-2543277
Business hours: 17:30~22:00
Closed on Sundays
Reservations highly recommended
Seating: 6 at counter + 20 at tables
Set Courses: 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 yen
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)
