Saturday Opening! on 3rd February

This Saturday, Cafe an-an is open from 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm.

It's Setsubun (the first day of Spring) on Japanese Calendar.

I have just noticed I will open on Saturday often this year... as there are so many Japanese events on Saturdays!!!

However, as I need to take my children to London Japanese school in the Saturday mornings. The opening hour is a bit later than normal.... at 1:30pm ish!

Wagashi table top sales at Bazaar in Croydon Japanese School on 3rd February.

I don't know which sweets I can prepare, yet. However, I am bringing a lot of spring themed sweets.

Even if your children are not studying at the school, you can still go into the bazaar during the following hours; 9:50～10:40 and 11:25～12:00.

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And we need to celebrate Setsubun on the 3rd February!!!

an-an will serve Big rolled Sushi with 7 kinds of staffing. It's  representing 7 gods, sichihuku jin. There are 4 kinds of Rolled sushi. Some sushi is available, but I recommend to order rolled sushi. You just need to eat facing to a certain direction, South-Southeast for 2018.

Cafe opens at 1:30 pm, but Ehoumaki (Big ralled Sushi) will be available from 3PM. Please order Sushi in advance.

Cafe will be run with limited menu on the day. Sushi, Drinks and Japanese Sweets are available.

Fresh Ehoumaki　£6.00
Sushi Prawn、raw squids、raw salmon、Seabass(or black seabreams）、Flying fish's row 、smorked mackerel、cucumper

Classic Lucky Rolled Sushi　£4.50
Steamed Prawn, Smoked Mackerel, Cucumber, Japanese Egg Omlette,  Freeze Dried Tofu, Sea-sticks and Shiitake mushrooms.

Salad Lucky Rolled Sushi　£4.50
Breaded Prawns、Lettuce、Cucumber、Salad Cress、Carrots、Japanese Egg Omelette、Pickled Plum Mayo

Vegetarian Lucky Rolled Sushi　£4.50
Japanese Egg Omelette、Freeze Dried Tofu、Cucumber、Spinach、Roasted red pepper、Shiitake Mushrooms、Kanpyou or Daikon Radish

＊Avocado will be used instead of Japanese Egg Omelette for Vegan.

We also have Roasted soy beans for throwing in the air.
 50p for 100g.

I wish you will have good Setsubun Day with all the happiness rolled up!

Oh, yes. Remember not to speak any words while you are eating the rolled Sushi. your happiness might run away from your mouth.

January Sweets and Events

Happy New Year! (Sorry, it's a bit too late?)

The final day of 2017 was really busy as usual.
It becomes annual event to get together at the cafe and greets for the new year.
This time, I prepared quite well for the New Year's Eve "Over the year Soba noodles". I hope I didn't make people waiting very long. (I was really sorry because the weather was really bad!)
But the day finished with a bit of burnt out feeling.

Here is my the new year's breakfast, Osechi.

I thought I could relax a bit on the New Year's Day, but it was not so easy.
The cafe is open and business as usual from 2nd January!

an-an will work really hard in 2018, so just watch out what kind of events are coming up on this blog.

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January Sweets

Kuromame (black beans) Daifuku Mochi ￡1.50 each

Black Beans means "Healthy" in Japanese, so Sweetened black beans are one of staple dish in New Year''s Day. I put 7 Black beans, representing 

"Seven Deities of Good Luck"

Chuncky Adzuki Bean Paste inside.

Flower Petal Mochi　￡1.80 each

This is a common sweets for the first tea service in Tea, Sa-dou. Made from Miso seasoned white bean paste and candid Burdock root wrapped by white and pink Mochi. 

This contains Soy. 

This is available till 15th January. 

Sweet Adzuki Bean spoup　£2.00 per cup

The coldest season has arrived. 

This soup will warm up you from inside. 

It's really filling with 2 pieces of Mochi.

Daifuku Mochi (Smooth or Cunky) ￡1.00 each

Dorayaki Pancake Sandwich　（Smooth、Chunky、Green Tea bean paste）　￡1.50 each

This contains Wheat flour, Gluten, Eggs and Honey.

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January Events

Japanese Afternoon Tea is coming on 19th January!

This time, the scheme is "New Spring".

It will be in the style of Cha Kaiseki (茶懐石) and meals and sweets are in Vegan.

£12 per person. fixed menu.
Please mention if you have any allergy or food you don't take.
You can chose time slot from below.
Each slot can accommodate 8 people max. 

Morning Tea ; 10am to 11:30 am
Afternoon Tea ; 4pm to 5:30 pm
Evening Tea ; 6:00pm to 7:30 pm

Please apply at info@an-an.co.uk

I look forward to seeing you.

Christmas and New Year's Opening Hours

After the extended opening hours on 23rd, cafe an-an is into the Christmas holiday.

Cafe is closed between Sunday 24th to Saturday 30th.

The New Year's Eve on 31st December is Open.
The New Year's Dinner Box (advance order only) can be picked up from 12 o'clock.

No reservation for Toshikoshi Soba. We will serve either Eat-in or Take-away as you arrived to the cafe. No table booking accepted as no seat can be left empty.
The followings are the only menu we serve;
(Tanuki) Buckwheat noodle in broth with stewed deep fried tofu £4.50
(Kakiage) Buckwheat noodle in broth with Vegetable tempura £4.50
(Ebi ten) Buckwheat noodle in broth with Vegetable and prawn tempura £5.00
Inari Sushi (3pieces) £3.00
Onigiri Rice Balls (2pieces) with Pickles £3.00
                                                               
We expect the busiest time is from 12 to 2 pm. Please avoid the busiest time.

The following Wagashi will be available on the day. 
Chestnuts baked cake
Chestnuts steamed cake
Chestnuts Daifuku Mochi
Black Beans Daifuku Mochi
Flower Petal Mochi
Plum flower Mochi
Dorayaki Pancake Sandwich

The Cafe is closed on 1st January.

Business as usual fro 2nd January. From 11:30 to 14:30, on weekdays.

We are wishing you a merry Christmas!
Love from Cafe an-an staff

December Sweets & Events

Here comes the end of year, again.


It's just so scary.


One year is come and gone so quickly.


Thank you very much for ordering Osechi Celebration Box for one. Now finished taking order as it has reached to the maximum number.

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December Sweets

Mikan Daifuku　￡1.50/each　

It's Christmas time! Easy peeling citrus fruits are sweet and juicy. That goes with white bean paste really well. With a hint of cinnamon, it became really seasonal celebrating Japanese sweets. 

Kurimushi Yokan (Steamed Chestnuts Cake)　￡1.80/each 

or 1 raw （15㎝x4㎝x4㎝）£6.50

This steamed cake is steamed slowly with so much of chestnuts.

It contains Wheat flour and gluten

Kuri Manju (Baked Chestnuts Cake) £1.80/each

This chestnuts shaped cake has a lot of chestnuts mixed with white bean paste. You can enjoy aroma of chestnuts and butter if these are warmed up for a few seconds in microwave or oven. 

It contains Daily products, Wheat flour, gluten and eggs.

Kabocha (Pumpkin) Kintsuba　￡1.50/eacha 

22nd December is the Winter Solstice. We believe if we eat Pumpkin on the day we can go through this winter healthily. Cinnamon is a old remedy of Chinese medicine, too. This will be on the counter till 22nd.

This contains wheat flour and gluten.

Daifuku Mochi (smooth or chunky)　￡1.00/each

Dorayaki (Smooth, Chunky or Green tea)  £1.50/each

These contains Wheat flour, gluten and eggs.

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December Event

an-an Cafe now have the new menu. 

There are lunch & take away menu and Okonomiyaki and Night cafe menu. 

I hope you have picked it up already.

There are always request of opening longer hours... 

Open in the evening more...

Open till evening as school children wants to come...

Open in Weekend...

So I have been opening cafe a bit longer this month!

Opening in the evening more...

In the new menu, there is an application form to have casual private party for small group (6-10 people) by request. Please check the detail on the Okonomiyaki & Night Cafe menu.

Open till evening...

On Every Friday, the cafe is open till 6:30. If you are going out on Friday, please use our take away menu. If your school children wants to have something different, please pop in after school hours! 

Open weekends...

The cafe is open on Saturday23rd from 11:30 to 15:00 (can open longer) with the usual menu.

Sunday 31st is the New Year's Eve. Open from 12:00 to 17:00 to serve the special noodle menu for Toshikosi Soba only. 

So if you could see an-an is working a bit harder!!!

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Cafe is closed 24th to 30th for Christmas holiday. 

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I will put out the Christmas opening hours charts here and window.

Have a lovely Christmas💛

We start Loyalty Card Scheme!

There were some requests an-an issues a loyalty cards.... so I made one here!

If you collect 5 stamps, you can have one drink free. (ex. Smoothies and Milkshakes)
If you carry on collecting 15 stamps, you can have one meal.

How to collect the stamps?
Well, You can collect up to 2 stamps on one visit. 

If you purchase a lunch or Wagashi (Japanese Sweets) worth more than £5.00 in cash, we will give you a stamp.
There is a law change for the cash card payment. We are no longer allowed to charge the commission charge...
However, I set the menu prices according to "cash only" trade. Therefore I needed to fix the pricing in the new menu. Anyway, it was a bit odd to ask for charging whenever someone uses card for the payment. 
On the other hand, it is not right to charge the cost from the customer who is paying by cash. So I came up with this loyalty card to return it.

Therefore, we limit to give the stamp for the customer for paying by cash.

If you bring a lunch box for us to fill up, we give you a stamp.
Please bring a clean, heatproof and leak-proof container. We will fill up your lunch into the lunch box whichever on order, so need to be clean. (We cannot be responsible contamination from the container.)
The container needs to be bigger than 700ml for a Katsu curry, more than 800ml for a Large Katsu curry.
If you have this container in a deep place of your cupboard, please wash and bring it!

Recently, There are so many heartbreaking news about plastics are heard.
an-an makes Wagashi, whose design is based on beauty of nature, we have been making efforts to reduce waste.
We would like to encourage people to eat in cafe to use proper plates and chopsticks, which are not disposable.
For takeaway sweets, not only paper box, paper bags and paper cups are biodegradable, but cellophane to wrap the individual sweets are also made from biodegradable material, cellulose. We give away wooden spoons and forks.

The last problem is... the container for curry and lunches.
If curry sauce leaks... That's a disaster!
Then one of my customer brought an empty Tiffin lunch box and told me to fill this up with his order.

I thought this is the way an-an should go!

I will store these lunch box at an-an for you to purchase, but till then, please bring your own container. This stamp is our appreciations to you preventing an-an to use plastic containers.

Such a small shop, so what we can do is still very small, however, this is a big step towards a lifestyle change, I believe.

We may be not working well to deal with this new scheme. We appreciate your patience. Anyway, this starts from 27th November.

November sweets and events Part 2

November Sweets

Inoko Mochi ￡1.50/each
Sooth Adzuki bean paste inside of Mochi, mixed with chunky Adzuki bean paste. Finished with the aromatic roasted soy flour, which is organic and roasted in-house. This available till mid-November. This contains Soy bean.

Kuri Daifuku Mochi ￡1.50/each
Candied soft chestnuts with smooth adzuki bean paste in Mochi.

Kuri Manju (baked chestnuts cake) ￡1.80/each
chestnuts and white bean paste in a rich buttery pasty. This contains Wheat, gluten, eggs and milk.

Kintsuba square　1.50/each
Please choose Chunky Adzuki Bean Paste or Pumpkin paste in Mochi like textured skin. Available from 15th... This contains Wheat and gluten.

Dorayaki (smooth or chunky adzuki beans or Green tea) £1.50/each
This contains Egg, Wheat and honey.

Daifuku Mochi 
smooth or chunky adzuki bean paste £1.00/each

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November Events

Two big events already done on the 1st and 4th...
I have a bit of "burnt out" feeling.

So, the next event is...

We are planing to have Thursdays' OkonomiYaki night...
Well, I am sorry to say one on 16th is not happening any more as I am having a bit of fix on my right hand side, and I cannot flip over the OkonomiYaki very well...
It's getting cold, so come and have the hottest OkonomiYaki on Thursdays at an-an💛
You don't need any advance booking for the Take Away, but please make reservation for Eat In... You can leave a text message.

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From 20th November, we start taking order for the "New Year's Dinner Osechi box for one"

If you miss Japanese Osechi box, but you think it will be too much to make all by yourself. In the end, family won't appreciate the special meals in the box...

That was what I was feeling all the time.
This small Osechi box is for two meals (New Year's breakfast and supper for one person, or New Year's breakfast for two people).

Serving suggestion. This box is not coming with this meal.

The contents are same as usual. 
(salmon should be bigger than last year, though!)
£20.00 per box.

This is only for the customer who can pick up between 12 noon to 5 o'clock in the evening of the 31st December.
On the day, you can buy Mochi, Toshi-kochi noodles eat in/Take away. (Vegan option available.)

Please send the order by text message. 
Mention your name and £20 Osechi. It will help me a lot if you could mention what time on the 31st December you can come to pick up.

Order telephone number is 07923　900344.
30 boxes limit. the order is accepted till 15th December.

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Are you interested in Japanese style "end of year" party?
Please check the new menu some times in next week.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

November Sweets and Events Part I

It started really busy eventful week... It's been 10 days already!!!
Started with the Vegan Day and a big Wagashi Sale in Croydon Japanese School.
Yesterday was the "Ino Hi 亥の日". This is the day to eat Ino ko Mochi... Baby Boar Mochi.

In old Japanese calendar, 1st of October was the day start using a fire place for the tea ceremony in traditional tea hut. This sweets are served for this occasion at the 10 O'clock (called time of boar in old time) in the evening on the 1st of October.  The calendar was changed to the current practice, so the old 1st October moved to sometime in November. Therefore this sweet is still now eaten around this time of year. (That's my translation from what I read from Wiki in Japanese...)

This was my first challenge to make the Inoko Mochi for the Vegan afternoon tea on the other day. This was very popular! Adzuki bean paste, Mochi and Roasted Soy Bean flour... That's the best, I guess. Everyone's favorite. Moreover, the shape looks like a baby wild boar is cute🐗!

I will carry on making this sweets for a while. Please try!

Here is some feedback about the afternoon tea on 1st November.
It was no Japanese Afternoon Tea for a while, so some of you were waiting for it. Thankfully, the first two sessions were fully booked.

It was quite a challenge as I need to make every plates without anything made or related to animal nor fish. I checked and read so much about "Kaiseki Ryori" and "Shojin Ryori". Then I used Organic ingredients as much as possible.

I learnt so much, though....

At first, I served Soy milk and Pumpkin soup.
Then Rotus roots and Tofu cakes in sauce, and Chestnuts rice and Aubergine's Dengaku (sweet miso).







Aubergine and pumpkin is from Namayasai, Lewes's Organic Japanese farm. They are small, but really flavorful! I didn't need to put so much salt nor soy sauce.

The second plate is celebrating the "13th moon night". It's called chestnuts beauty moon.
We believe a rabbit live on the moon, and Dango represents the moon. Chestnuts steamed cake and pumpkin square filled up stomach a lot, I guess.

The third plate is with Nerikiri "Autumn Maple Leaf - Momiji" and "Inoko Mochi"
This Momiji is also my challenge this time.
You could see the shape improved so much even while I was making 20 of these while I was serving this sweets.

Thank you so much for those who came to the Japanese Afternoon tea. I am so happy as you smiled while you were eating my sweets. That's the best compliment for me!

If you missed this time, please try next one.... planned at the end of January in 2018... maybe...

Wow, It's time to go to the cafe!
I will do the next a bit later.