New New York Club Rainbow Bagel with Strawberry Cream Cheese: There's a small bagel shop close to me designed to look like a NYC bagel shop, replete with white and blue tiles, metal shopping baskets filled with Skittles, and a neon Bagel sign in the window. I hadn't considered that bagels were available in Tokyo but I guess why not, so I decided to see how well it stacked up compared to real New York bagels. I got the most NYC and Japanese combination I could imagine: a rainbow bagel, in an intense purple, blue, and red swirled color palette, filled w... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Tsukishimaya Imagawayaki waffle dessert: In my neighborhood in Tokyo, there's a very small to-go stall selling a traditional Japanese dessert called Imagawayaki, which is a wheel-shaped waffle/pancake with red-bean filling. Here, you can purchase a custard version as well, each for just over a dollar, and they're made fresh right in front of you with a heavy-duty cast-iron mold. I really enjoyed the crispy coating and slightly chewy interior. The pancake itself had a nice wheat flavor, which was pleasantly surprising because I e... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Hop Shu-Kuri-Mu Matcha Cream Puff: I randomly passed this pastry shop in Azabu Juban and made a mental note to return based on the quality of bread in their window. I'm glad I did, because their cream puffs are insane. The exterior has a crispy baked texture, similar in some ways to dutch crunch bread from San Francisco, and the filling is of the highest quality I've had in any bakery, with a creamy and not too sweet flavor and ideal matcha bitterness. The most interesting part to me was a bruleed base that resembled a nor... (read more) 5.0/5.0
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