Togoshi Ginza: JAPANESE STREET FOOD & Tokyo’s Coziest Shrine

[Applause] [Music] hi welcome to japan by food i'm your host jessica anderson today i am exploring beautiful togoshi ginza togoshikinza is a shopping street with a fascinating history following the 1923 great kanto earthquake which absolutely destroyed the high-end shopping district called zinza in tokyo there was an abundance of bricks that people didn't know what to do with and they actually brought them over here and built the shopping street there's a lot of shopping districts in tokyo that share the name ginza to symbolize prosperity and to wish for wealth but this is the only shopping street in tokyo that actually shares a direct connection with its namesake so it's a really interesting historical little place with tons of delicious food as well it's famous for croquettes so i'm gonna go see if i can find myself a delicious fried croquette and see what else i can find that's delicious to eat let's go explore [Music] such a beautiful old street you can feel so much history on this street and another really interesting thing about tokoshiginza street is that it doesn't have any power lines visible on the streets you get a straight view of no power lines and it looks so scenic [Music] well that was a lovely little family-owned bakery interestingly they didn't only have gluten-free baked goods they were also regular gluten in goods so you can see the little sign that says gluten in and that means it's a regular bread the other ones um it actually says gluten-free and they usually have a green sign on them today i found a couple of little goodies this one looks really good let's try the oyaki it's the gluten-free oyaki here we go itadakimasu it is filled with kimbera which is a japanese dish made of burdock root carrots and other root vegetables so it's really crunchy on the inside and it also has a kind of a soy sauce base really delicious lots of little sesame seeds in there too and now let's try the gluten in curry bread i'm gonna open this up and see what it looks like on the inside i love curry bread they're so crispy that is so good i love curry bread really nice and crisp on the outside it's got this crisp crunch to it and the curry on the inside is very mild a little bit sweet as japanese curry usually is really nice and to satisfy my sweet tooth i had to get a gluten-free chocolate baked donut it looks nice and chewy and doughy this one should be made with rice flour let's give it a try that is really nice it's not as sweet as i was expecting i would say this is very reminiscent of how a lot of japanese baked goods are a lot of japanese desserts they tend to go really easy on the sugar so it's very very mild sweetness but the sweetness comes from the chocolate chips so it's really nice all in all i think this was a lovely little bakery to stop by they said to always come by maybe in the afternoon if you want to get gluten-free goodies because they start making most of it in the afternoon well let's see what else they have on this street let's go oh this is a really cool old looking shop and i see here that they are famous for something called oden croquettes oh den is a japanese traditional soup with various ingredients like egg and tofu and fish cakes simmered in a fish-based dashi broth it's really delicious and very warming in the winter this is actually the first time i've seen oden in croquette form so i'm really excited to give this one a try and clearly it's been very popular because tons of tv crews have visited this place and i can see that there's even a photo of former prime minister abe eating one of these croquettes so it must be good let's give it a try all right i've got my odin croquette and it comes in an adorable package that says togoshigenza croquet this is the streets mascot and his name is kimchido and he's an adorable cat oh freshly fried it's still nice and hot can't wait to bite into this here we go it is so crisp can you hear that that crunch and the filling is so fluffy it's a wonderfully fluffy potato filling as a croquette should be but there are some ingredients in there from the oden such as the japanese horseradish the daikon which i can get a lot of flavor from also i get some flavor of the oden broth itself so it tastes a little bit like a japanese dashi broth i can 100 understand why there's so many celebrities who gather here it is really good and i wholeheartedly recommend it especially if it's freshly fried this is worth it let's go see what else we can find on this street there are so many gin-chan mascots on this street almost in front of not every shop but a lot of shops they even have ginseng muffins and gingen spaces is like burned and into it is another looks like a butcher shop oh it looks like their most famous one is the minced meat croquette oh it's actually not a croquette it's a cutlet mince meat cutlet and they also have their potato croquette which are the most famous things on this street so i think i'm gonna have to try both of them i have just come across a very old milk shop and it's very interesting because they've got some different milks in glass bottles very old school they also have sake so they sell milk and alcohol which is a really interesting combination but when i take a closer look it's actually a togoshigenza sake so this is a sake that you can only get on this street and apparently in the past there used to be a number of shops on this street that actually made sake but those have closed down and this shop has kind of you know taken up the mantle and is now selling their sake so you can get togoshigen sake and you can get togoshi ginza cutlet sauce and since this area is famous for croquettes and cutlets a lot of the shops on the street actually use this tokoshikiza sauce so i thought that was really cool it's a very interesting little milk shop and they primarily do milk deliveries so this is milk that you can't really get at stores they just deliver them very old school and i think they said they've been running this shop for over 50 years so really cool i am in a quaint little side street off of tokoshigainza street and i'm going to try some of the foods that i picked up starting with the famous togoshigenza croquette and minced meat cutlet it's still nice and warm i love that i actually don't know which one is which so i'm going to take a bite and let it be a surprise you feel like you must i'm really good i'm pretty sure this is the croquette i'm a little confused because there is meat in it um but i'm getting a very fluffy potatoey taste this has to be the croquette the outside is crisp and delicious very lightly breaded really good a classic croquette i think this is definitely i can see why people come here for croquettes that's for sure let's try their minced meat cutlet oh that also looks juicy and crispy here we go all right that is definitely the minced meat cutlet it is all made inside with a bunch of it's very juicy and it's got a lot of wonderful caramelized onions inside to give it a little bit of a crisp texture but the rest of it is really really juicy and meaty and the outside is crisp this is really good and i should mention that it's probably worth trying these with the togoshi ginza sauce that you can buy on the street at the milk shop because those two would go really well together well let's try the other goodies that i've got all right my last snack of the day some sweets this is the ginger muffin that was only 80 yen so it's i don't know give or take 80 cents and the coffee milk at the milk shop this is um coffee milk if you haven't had it before is actually very common in japan it's a very popular flavor of milk you can also get strawberry milk banana milk but i think coffee is a good choice so i'm gonna take a little sip of the coffee milk first oh the top just pops off it looks really milky and frothy and delicious looks really good let's give it a taste that's really nice it's uh i have to say it just tastes like a a cafe latte almost like a sweet cafe latte it's very sweet though so it's like a very sweet coffee drink something you could get at a cafe for sure nice and refreshing oh that is really cute it's a little hard to see but there is an imprint of gin-chan's face on the front it's very cute and let's give it a try here we go it tastes like um an old school japanese style muffin this is not the kind of muffin that you would get in north america it is more like a cake it's closer to a cupcake and it's a little bit on the drier side so when you take a big bite it's a little hard to like swallow it down the top is um it's kind of it's tastes almost a little grilled it's been cooked very nicely so it has a little bit of a custardy taste almost it's really not bad it's for 80 yen it's a taste of old school tokyo i like it all right well now that i've thoroughly enjoyed all of the foods on this street of course there's plenty more to eat here but i have one more special place left that i want to check out so follow me out back behind the togoshi hachiman shrine and it is so adorable and so homey it feels like a happy little campground almost and there's this little tent filled with plants and there's a sleeping cat in the background and i just feel like i need to go in and say hello he's sleeping i don't want to wake him up this is the sweetest cat just sleeping in the sun he seems to be very well taken care of they even gave me some cat snacks to give him well togoshi hachiman shrine was my last stop of the day here in togoshigenza and it is such a lovely experience here let me tell you it is so very peaceful with a little bit of music box music playing in the background and the people here are so incredibly friendly there's even a shrine cat which you're allowed to pet so this has been a really enjoyable experience there are even sofas right in front of the shrine so it's a very welcoming atmosphere where you can sit and just relax and i've never experienced that at a shrine in tokyo where you just feel so at home so this is definitely a place where you should stop by if you ever come to this area the togoshihechiman shrine has a history of 500 years it's almost 500 years old and on its 500th birthday it's gonna be getting a little renovation so it might look a little different than this the next time you come but all the same i think it'll be a warm and welcoming place well all in all togoshigenza has been a really wonderful heartwarming experience it is a little taste of old school tokyo and lots of delicious foods to be found on this street as well so it's a wonderful experience and definitely recommend to visit this place the people are just amazing the food is wonderful and the streets are so historical and have so much heart so if you're ever looking for something like that in tokyo this is probably the place to visit anyway if you're interested in more shopping street videos we also have a video on sunomachi ginza for you to check out on this channel anyway i hope you enjoyed this video see you guys next time

Channel: Japan by Food

Views: 52,872

Keywords: togoshi ginza, tokyo, japan, tokyo street food, shizuka anderson, byfood, japan by food, japanese food, oden, croquette, menchi katsu

Id: Z1DatjR4pPA

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021