For the past few years, I have been visiting Shizuoka City, where my late parents' hometown is, once a year. I have never lived in Shizuoka because of my father's work, so I think I have a certain longing for Shizuoka. After going to my parents' house to offer incense for my grandparents, it is a great pleasure to stroll around the city of Shizuoka, which I had never known before, for a short time. However, I always worry about where to stay. Apart from the large hotels of famous hotel chains in front of the station, there are only business hotels, and there are almost no designer hotels that I like. Last year, I stayed at a "building stay" that was a vacant room in a building on a shopping street that was renovated into a lodging facility. This was interesting in its own way, and I could watch people walking through the shopping street from the window, and when I went out to the terrace, I was surrounded by buildings all around, which was an interesting experience that is not found in ordinary hotel life. This year, I wanted to stay in a quieter place, so I stayed at a residence-type hotel in Takajo-cho near Sunpu Castle Park. It is a town that is basically a residential area with many schools. However, in recent years, the number of restaurants, including hidden restaurants, has increased, and on the same street as the residence where I stayed, there was a pizza house in a quaint building covered in ivy.
The problem with staying in this kind of building is breakfast, because there is no restaurant. When I stayed in a building, there was a coffee shop nearby that was open early in the morning, and I took out a sandwich and ate it on the terrace of my room. There was no coffee shop that served breakfast near the residence this time, so I had no choice but to look for a bakery. In Paris, bakeries open early in the morning so that you can have freshly baked baguettes for breakfast. When I searched, I found two or three, but most of them open at 9:00, and since I had made a reservation at Yoshikawa in Shimizu at 12:00 to eat eel that day, I wondered if there was a place that opened a little earlier. Then I found a place called Monte Rosa that opens at 8:30. However, when I looked at the picture, it only had animal-shaped cookies and birthday cakes. The exterior of the store was completely Showa retro, with the words "Bread, Western Confectionery" fading from the red vinyl eaves. It was not a bread specialty store, but a store that was often called a "bakery" in the old days. I was a little worried about whether it would be okay, but my companion found a review that said "bread made by grandma" and told me about it, so I suddenly wanted to try it.
We looked it up and found out it was right around the corner from the residence, so we decided to go to "Monterosa" no matter what. The next morning we both got up early and decided to take a walk around the area until it opened. We had about an hour, so we also went to Sunpu Castle Park. We timed it to open and headed to "Monterosa", which was right next to the girls' school my mother attended. It has now become a co-ed school, and the name of the school has changed. However, the attached kindergarten opposite "Monterosa" is still the same old "Seika Kindergarten", and in front of the store an old lady was saying "good morning" to children who had just arrived by bus. Ah, there was the old lady.
"Good morning," the old lady said as I was ushered into the small shop, and she replied, "We only have bread now." It seems her father makes the sweets, and the pastry display case was indeed empty. As for the bread itself, there were over ten varieties, but for some reason there were only one or two of each. Even though the shop had only just opened. Do they sell them wholesale somewhere? I was skeptical, but the loaves in front of me were small but all looked delicious. My companion, despite being young, was a coffee shop lover and seemed to be attracted to the bread. We decided on Monte Rosa bread for breakfast.
So, which one should I get? My eyes fell on the sausage donut. It's a long sausage wrapped in doughnut dough and deep-fried. How nostalgic. And there was only one. I asked my companion which one he wanted, and he immediately pointed to the sausage donut. What a thing. However, as an older person, I couldn't act childishly, so I decided to get the curry bread. Although it was a classic, there were only two of these. I thought I could get one or two more, so when I asked my companion what he wanted, he showed interest in the pizza-style bread. This was also a one-of-a-kind item. The old lady perfectly chimed in, saying, "That's mushroom pizza, it's delicious." My companion replied, "Okay, I'll have this one," and the two types of one-of-a-kind item were immediately sold out. I have a daily habit of eating something sweet in the morning, so I got a sweet bread. There was bread with apple compote and custard cream on it, so I decided on that. This was enough for me, but what about the young people? Considering the eel for lunch, she said two would be enough, so I said "C'est fini (that's it)." (In Paris, when buying groceries, if you ask for this and that, the store clerk will prepare them and ask "C'est fini?"). When I got the bill, it was just over 600 yen for four pieces. This is Shizuoka, but even the prices have remnants of the Showa era. With the lady's warm words of "Thank you," my morning errand was finished.
We went back to the room and ate in the living room. We were both hungry after the walk. I started eating the curry bread while my companion was eating the sausage donut with relish. It was amazing. I was worried that the curry would be too little because it was small, but the doughnut dough was thin and had plenty of curry. Moreover, it was freshly made, so the fried aroma was appetizing and it was still warm. The sweet curry was also delicious. I deeply regretted how I had gotten used to supermarket and convenience store bread without realizing it. It's not the morning baguette in Paris, but it reminded me of when I was in the upper grades of elementary school and lived in Higashinada, Kobe, and I would go shopping with my mother at the nearby Kobeya when the bread was baked. I spread butter or margarine on freshly baked thick French bread and eat it. It's ordinary, but somehow delicious. Apple and custard bread is ordinary and delicious in that sense. However, I felt a little lonely when I thought that I couldn't enjoy such ordinary deliciousness in my current life.
No matter how expensive and delicious the French cuisine is, there are some dishes my mother made that I would like to eat again. Now that my mother has passed away, I can never eat them again. I wonder how long I can eat "Grandma's curry bread". I vowed to go to Shizuoka again next year and to go to "Monterosa" first thing in the morning.
This month's recommended wine: "Loire, France's third largest white wine producing region"
"Bastangage Blanc 2018 AOP Anjou Domaine du Clos de Léru" 4,600 yen (excluding tax)
We have already introduced Burgundy and Alsace as French white wines. Burgundy produces wine from a variety of grapes, such as Chardonnay, and Alsace produces wine from Riesling. There is another representative white wine producing region in France. For now, you only need to remember these three. It is the basin of the Loire River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the northwest. The characteristic of white wines from this region is that the grapes used to make white wine change depending on the region from the mouth of the river. Muscadet wine is produced near Nantes, the closest to the mouth of the river. Muscadet is the name of the place, and in fact the original name of the grape was Melon de Bourgogne. This grape, which originates from Burgundy, showed its true potential in Muscadet and became the region's specialty.
If you go a little further upstream, you will encounter white wines made from Chenin Blanc. This region produces other representative wines of the Loire besides white wines, such as Anjou rosé made from Grollo grapes and the red wine "Chinon" made from Cabernet Franc. If you go further upstream, you will reach an area called "Centre", which is the eastern edge of Loire wine. In this region, white wines are made from Sauvignon Blanc. Famous brands include "Pouilly-Fumé" and "Sancer", and the Pouilly-Fumé "Silex" made by the late Didier Dagueneau became famous for its intense minerality, as its name "flint" suggests.
Sauvignon Blanc is also blended with Semillon in Bordeaux to make white wine. So this time, I would like to introduce wines made from Chenin Blanc, a grape variety that represents the Loire. Chenin Blanc produces a wide variety of wines, from sweet to dry. The best of them is Nicolas Joly's "Savenières". The wine I would like to introduce this time is a dry white wine made in the Anjou appellation, famous for its rosé. The winemakers are Thomas and Charlotte Carsan, a married couple who fell in love with Chenin Blanc and opened their domaine in 2008. They currently own 20 hectares and make wine biodynamically. In addition to the citrus aroma, the wine has an oily flavor such as butter, which I think is a good representation of the characteristics of Chenin Blanc. It is also rich in minerals, making it a full-bodied and satisfying white wine. Please give it a try.
