Taiwanese restaurant in Ogikubo

I fond a good and cozy Taiwanese restaurant near Ogikubo station’s West exit.

It’s called Chogoku Taifu, and I recommend it unconditionally. It isn’t the top, but it won’t disappoint you.

Chugoku Taifu

Tokyo-to,  Suginami-ku, Kamiogi 1-15-8 Sakae Building 1F
Tel. 03-3220-0940

Parmesan at Kaldi

If you live reasonably near a Kaldi Coffee Farm shop (see list below), you can buy there very cheap Parmigiano Reggiano (see photo).
I have been buying this brand of parmesan at Kaldi in Ogikubo and Kichi Joji for a long time, and they almost always have it in stock. If they don’t, try asking the staff when it will arrive or visit the shop again after a week or so. The price, 700 Yen for 200 g, is a real steal, less than the Kraft shit you buy in those green cans at your local supermarket. A can of Kraft “parmesan” contains 80 g of cheese at a minimum of 300 yen. Mind you, there’s only one Parmigiano Reggiano, and Zanetti is simply the name of the company which buys it, cuts it and packages it under license, so, even at this price, you can be sure you are buying the real McCoy.
This is not the kind of hard, seasoned parmesan we grate on pasta (I have never seen it here in Japan: perhaps they have it at Isetan or places like that …), but rather the soft, young cheese we eat without grating it. It doesn’t matter, because it’s in any case way better than anything else you can get at this price. I am afraid seasoning it by yourself in a place as humid as Tokyo is not an option. I have tried, and failed.
Try eating it as it is: it’s (needless to say) excellent, but it’s particularly good with with salami and/or dry white wine.
Zanetti Parmigiano Reggiano is available also at Seijo Ishii, for example at their Shinjuku Station South Exit branch, but it costs more.
Here is the list of some Kaldi Coffe Farm branches (more in this list (only in Japanese))

Shimo Kitazawa 03 3422-9512
Kichi Joji 0422 201200
Shimo Takaido 03 3323-8897
Sengawa 03 5384-5217
Umegaoka 03 3420-8480
Soshigaya 03 3483-3495
Ogikubo 03 3220-5345
Kinshicho 03 5669-2345
Musashi Koyama 03 379-36201
Mizonokuchi 044 8500085

Mexican Restaurants: Posada del Sol

Posada del Sol
A chunk of paper mache Mexico in Shimo Takaido. Decent stuff, but all the signature flavors of Mexican food (cilantro, lime, raw onion, green chili) were missing. The staff might be Mexican, but the food is more Tex than Mex. My search for real Mexican food, the one I ate in cheap posadas in Mexico and L.A. Latino neighborhoods, continues.

Posada del Sol
4-40-7 Akatsutsumi, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 5300-9970
Open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 to 11 p.m.

Lebanese restaurants: Al Ain

Al Ain – Kannai
Looking on the Net for info about My Lebanon (see review on DOiT), I also found another Lebanese restaurant in Kannai, within the Yokohama metropolitan area, possibly an alternative to My Lebanon prices and Sindbad’s mediocrities (for info about Sindbad, see my main site).
Yokohama-shi, Yayoi-cho, 2-17 Stork Tower B1
Tel：045-251-6199
Map

German restaurants: Kabinett

Some time ago I ate at Kabinett, a German restaurant hidden in a small Akihabara alley.
The idea of eating anything in Akihabara sounds to me like eating computer keyboards in a sandwich, but the place in the end was quite good.
It really is a place specializing in white wine, but the food is also fine. The eisbein (boiled pork knuckle: better than it sounds) was enjoyable and so were the other traditional German dishes we had.
Kabinett has a site.
Tel. 03-3294-0880