Tokyo departmental store food hall

In almost every Japanese departmental store has a basement food hall, which goes by the name "Depachika" which is a combination of 2 words - "Depato" meaning departmental store and "chika" meaning basement. 


These food halls are like a food theme park where you can find almost every kind of food, ranging from cakes, desserts, breads, bentos, snacks, food souvenirs, even to fresh seafood, sushi and sashimi. And if you're lucky, you can have a free meal there, by trying out all the free food samples provided. 


Cooked food section 

Contrary to the belief that Japanese food is expensive, you can buy some cheap croquettes here, starting for a potato croquette at JPY49 (SGD0.80) to the more luxurious wagyu beef croquette at JPY138 (SGD2) a piece. Even the fried fish sells at only JPY105 (SGD1.50) only!

Being a bit greedy at these food halls, I bought a crab cream croquette (JPY98) to try. If i could oven toast it, the crab cream would be flowing out of the croquette! 

This stall also sells fried stuff, but at a pricer side. I believe their quality is better than the previous. 

Chinese food anyone? This stall sells chinese dishes, something like our local "菜饭" stall. But they go by weight, and costs average about JPY300-400 per 100 gram. Not cheap for simple chinese food.
Japanese also like to promote their food by ranking the top 3 best selling items. They are termed as "人気" (ninki), also the same meaning in Chinese as "popularity".
And the top 3 popular dishes are: No. 1 - fried prawns in chilli sauce; No. 2 - stir fried beef with green capsicum; No. 3 - sweet and sour pork. 

There is even a special limited period dish - Guilin special meat balls (JPY 399 for 5). 

Care for some western bento? This number 1 best seller is called the "Loco Moco don". Loco Moco is a hawaiian dish, which includes rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg and brown sauce.

They even have instructions on how to heat it up: put in the microwave at 500W for 1min 40 sec and your food will be ready!

Besides western bento, this stall also sells Japanese bentos and different types of salads and pastas.   


Baumkuchen
Baumkuchen, which is a layered cake is a traditional dessert in Europe is getting very popular in Japan. They can now be found in almost every big departmental store food halls.


The characteristic rings that appear when sliced resembles tree rings, hence given it's name in German - Baumkuchen (pronounced as Bumkuhen). "Baum" means tree and "kuchen" means cake which literally gives the meaning as "tree cake". 



Nenrinya is a popular brand of Baumkuchen in Japan. 

This is their special Spring new item, also created for Mother's day as well. It is made from Sakura buds which gives it the pastel pink colour. 

This is another brand of Baumkuchen called Juchheim.
Unlike Nenrinya which is a Japanese local brand, Juchheim originated from Germany and was first introduced to Japan in 1919 during the world war I period. 




Their baumkuchen has received the DLG (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft) gold award for many years, including 2012. 
Every year, onver 27,000 foods from all countries are tested in DLG Quality tests. Only foods that satisfy the DLG's stringent quality criteria are awarded DLG awards in Bronze, Silver or Gold.


Other Snacks 

Came across this popular stall called Sugar-Fer's selling waffles. 

Sugar Fer's actually only sells 3 types of waffles - Chocolate, Plain or Between. 



As usual, they have their No. 1 best selling item - Between, which is the waffle with white chocolate in between. 

They also have gift boxes in very nice packaging. Thumbs up!


Tokyo Banana! 

It's banana crazy at this Tokyo banana store. You can find almost every type of banana related cakes here!


Yoku Moku

Yoku Moku is a popular brand selling a wide variety of cookies. Just look at the packaging box. And each cookie is packed individually, with different package design for different cookie. 

This store sells Japanese rice crackers. The crackers above are all just model crackers, but look how real they look. 


You can choose from the wide variety of rice crackers offered. And not just the crackers, you can also select your favourite packaging. 

Rilakkuma mini corocoro waffles. so cute!

You can even find Maison Kayser here at the depachika. Well needless to say, Maison Kayser is a well known brand in Japan. 


Cakes
The other main attraction of depachika are their cakes! The cakes are all so intricately made and decorated, just looking at them is a feast for your eyes!


Ginza Tokyo  銀のぶどう 

Limited period Matcha Mont Blanc. Don't be mistaken, mont blanc is not the brand of the pen nor the mountain, it is a dessert of pureed sweetened chestnuts topped with whipped cream. It is named as mont blanc as it looks like a snow capped mountain.

In Japan, they make variations of the original chestnut mont blanc, by using pumpkin, purple yam or even cocoa or this one which is matcha. 

This one is seasonal limited edition - Spring strawberry chiffon cake. 

Roll cakes are also getting popular nowadays. Using very light fresh cream, you can have it plain or with strawberry which seems to go best with roll cakes. 

Giotto


Giotto is another popular brand selling delicious and affordable cakes. 

On the top left corner is the No. 1 best selling - Mont Blanc again. The Japanese do love their mont blancs. 
No. 2 best selling item (top right corner) - strawberry shortcake. No. 3 best selling is the crepe matthias. 



Look at the huge strawberry in the roll cake. 

Don't their cakes all look so beautiful! 

Mariage Freres Teas
Doesn't this tea store look very familiar? 

Don't be mistaken, it's not TWG. 
Mariage Freres is a French tea brand, founded by brothers Henri and Edouward Mariage in Paris on June 1, 1854, hence the name Mariage Freres (The Mariage Brothers).

The reason why both brands (Mariage Freres and TWG) are so similar (from teaware, to tea names and packaging and store design) is that one of the founders of TWG used to work at a Mariage Freres Paris salon. He met a Singapore guy who was so taken with the Mariage Freres store that they went to set up the TWG empire in Asia. 


Sushi and Sashimi

From cakes and teas, we move on to the fresh seafood section, where you can find the freshest sushi and sashimi sold for takeaway.

The high end sushi set sells at JPY3980 (SGD64). 


This is the ootoro and chutoro (the fatty tunas) sushi, and they are also going at JPY300 discount. This is typical in Japan when the sushi is displayed for a period of time and not sold. But this doesn't mean they have gone stale, they are still fresh (or fresher than those in Singapore)

Chirashi - small or large size for you? 

Tuna or what they call Maguro in Japanese is the no. 1 most eaten fish by Japanese. 

You can have them either sliced or in blocks.  A box of maguro sells at JPY980 (SGD16). Cheap. Or if you prefer something higher quality, go for the chutoro (中とろ) which sells at about JPY2200 (SGD35). The meat is sure to melt in your mouth.

Some other types of sashimi fishes

Fresh fishes, clams and squids are also on sale.

Frozen crab legs. These taraba crabs are already boiled, so you can just eat them as it is. 

I bought this sushi set of 10 pieces on a discount at JPY400. You definitely can't find this kind of prices and sushi variety and quality in Singapore. 


Don't forget to visit a depachika on your next trip to Japan. It is almost like a tourist attraction on it's own. And if you are a foodie like me, do remember bring lots of cash there, as you would definitely lose control over all the beautiful and tempting food and packaging. 

Websites of some stores featured (in Japanese):
Baumkuchen Nenriya - http://www.nenrinya.jp/
Baumkuchen Juchheim - http://www.juchheim.co.jp/
Sugar Fer's - http://sugarfers.jp/
Tokyo Banana - http://www.tokyobanana.jp/
Yoku Moku - http://www.yokumoku.co.jp/
R.L. Waffle Cake - http://www.rl-waffle.co.jp/
Ginza Tokyo 銀のぶどう - http://www.ginnobudo.jp/
Wittamer - http://www.wittamer.jp/
Giotto - http://www.plaisir-co.com/shop-pla02.html
Mariage Freres - http://www.mariagefreres.com/