Celebration for Setsubun!

"Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!"

We throw some roasted beans in and out of house. Beans ward off all the evils.

We celebrate the eve of first Spring by eating Eho－Maki (an uncut big Sushi rolls) towards facing to the North-north East, the direction where this year's god from.

We prepare 4 kinds of Eho-maki. Please eat up the Eho-maki with filled up with all the happiness to come. 

One miso soup will come with each Eho-maki

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Kaisen Seafood Eho-maki  £9
(Steamed prawns, raw squid, raw salmon, seasoned tobiko, smoked mackerel, sea sticks, and cucumber)

Classic Eho-maki  £8 

(Steamed prawns, smoked mackerel, cucumber, Japanese omelette, Koya-Tofu, sea sticks, shiitake mushrooms)

Salad Eho-maki  £8 
(Breaded prawns, Lettuce, cucumber, sprouts, carrot, Japanese omelette, spinach)

Vegetable Eho-maki  £7 
(Japanese omelette, Ko-ya tofu, cucumber, spinach, red pepper, shiitake mushrooms, cooked radish)

*We will exchange the non-vegetarian/vegan filling to avocado and Inari skins

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Roasted soy beans are also on sale. By eating the number of soy beans of your age, you will ward off evils in your body. 

Happy New Year!!!

 " New Year's Day is the best time to make the whole year's plans. "

But I'm doing it today, on the 2nd.

(This in itself shows the inadequacy of time management in the future 💦.)

Well, no matter. In fact, every New Year's Day has been a day for me to sleep in and get my strength back to a normal level.

Here are some of my resolutions.

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1) Revival of the Japanese A-futa-nun-tee
　　　　In the last few months, traditional Japanese sweets (not the ice-cream and chocolate-covered ones) have suddenly started to attract attention. In my opinion, wagashi is a simplified version of Japanese culture and customs. Yes. That's why I want to focus on wagashi in the future.

2) Change the course of Japanese cafe an-an
　　　　We've been doing too many things, so we wanted to reorganise a bit.
　　　　I've also been getting requests from people all over the UK to give talks and sell wagashi. I am very grateful for that. I would like to respond to them somehow.

3) Reviving the Okonomiyaki event
　　　　We had a lot of help from everyone to buy the trailer. We cooked okonomiyaki once at the end of September last year and it was very popular. In the spring and summer, when we can sit outside more often, we would like to have more okonomiyaki events.

4) Support for Japanese language exchange study groups and Japanese craft groups　　　
                 Thankfully, we get a lot of customers who are interested in Japanese culture and language. So if we could get together with other customers who share the same interest, it would be a great opportunity for us to exchange knowledge with each other.

5) Repaire the damage from the pandemic.
　　　　　Be kind to the environment as well as people. Think all the time before moving to action "There should be a better way" all the time. 

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That's about it for now. There's so much more I want to do, but there's no end to it!

And my personal resolutions for this year are...

Not using car (as much as possible) !

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I'm looking forward to seeing you all again this year. Let's do lots of fun things💓

Mini-Osechi Box Booking start！

 It's December and getting colder and colder.

Due to Corona and Brexit, we are struggling to get ingredients from Japan.

So I was wondering if I could make the "Ohitori-sama Nanchatte Osechi (Mini-New Year Dinner Box for one)" again this year, which I make every year and you all love.  I had a customers inquire about it and said "I would like to have some Osechi Box, even if it's only what you can make." By then, I've already had a couple of customers asked me same, so I've decided to give it a go.

So please understand that the contents may be a little different from the Osechi in the photo.  I will make sure the changes only to something of a same or semilar value.

So, this is our annual Osechi.

This can be eaten by two people as one meal, and two meals for one person, morning and evening on New Year's Day.

Ojuu(layered box)

 is not included in this price. 

Kraft box will be used.

However, please note that from this year, we no longer serving into the Ojyu box. Last year we had an accident which a customer's precious Ojyu was broken, and due to our reasonable pricing not allowing us to have it's specific insurance, we have decided to discontinue the Ojyu service.

￡25.00 per box

（This year we are including two single packets of Mochi from Sato!

You can use them to make ozoni, etc.）

Closing date: Wednesday 15 December 2021

　How to register : By mobile message only

       07923 900344

Orders by phone, email or verbally will not be accepted as it is first come, first served.

We will be handing over Osechi and New Year's Eve Soba (Eat in and Take Away) from 12pm on Friday 31 December, but this may change according to the government's decision on Covid-19. If there are any changes, we will announce them on Facebook and Instagram by 29th December.

Please note that we don't do outbound deliveries, so you can only order if you can pick up your order from the cafe between 12pm and 6pm on 31 December.

Let's all have a happy Christmas and New Year by wearing masks, washing hands and observing social distance.

Thank you!

November Newsletter!

 

It is now November and the leaves are changing colour beautifully in the UK.

Unfortunately, unlike in Japan, we don't get many sudden drops in temperature, so the ginkgoes and the autumn leaves are slowly changing colour.

It's been an incredibly busy October and we've been away a lot. I'll be writing more about the events at Kew Gardens in the next newsletter.

With Halloween over, it's easy to get caught up in the month of November when we're preparing for December, but we're also busy with 🌰chestnuts.

I'll be busy peeling chestnuts one by one to spend the long autumn nights. We hope you have already enjoyed the first chestnut daifuku of the year, but after the "Boar's Day 亥の日" on the 11th, we are getting ready for the chestnut manju and the chestnut steamed yokan in December.

Don't miss out on our Boar Rice Cake which is only available until the 11th of November!

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Sweets in November and December

Sweet potato Mont Blanc
A soft and fluffy sponge baked with brown sugar and filled with purple sweet potato cream. The sweetened apples with a surprising sourness and a hint of cinnamon come out from inside, making this cake twice or thrice as delicious.

Chestnut Mont Blanc
This is a classic. However, the chestnuts are made from Japanese sweet chestnuts, so they are less sweet and more flavorful. The cake is made of fluffy white sponge and chestnut cream, decorated in white. This one is a little more mature and has a touch of sake. Please be careful.

Spiced Toffee Apple Cake
A spicy sponge filled with apple. And a generous amount of toffee on top.... Warm or cold... as you like.

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Inoko Mochi (Baby boar Mochi) 

A rice cake in the shape of a baby boar, eaten on the first Boar's Day in November. The rice cake is made in the shape of a baby boar. The inside of the rice cake is filled with koshi-an (sweet red bean paste) and the rice cake is kneaded with tsubuan (sweet red bean paste) and covered with fragrant home-roasted yellow soybean flour. *It is made from soybeans.

Chestnuts Mochi
Yes, Daifuku mochi filled with chestnuts and smooth adzuki bean paste.

Satsuma Mochi

The month of December brings the Christmas spirit. Christmas is all about tangerines and cinnamon (IMO ^-^). When it comes to health, vitamin C and cinnamon just make sense, don't they? So, in December we will start making it!

Baked Chestnuts Cake

These buns are filled with chestnuts and baked in the oven. It is very popular with green tea and coffee. Contains eggs, dairy products and wheat flour. Contains gluten

Steamed Chestnuts cake

This yokan is steamed with a lot of chestnuts. *Contains wheat flour. Contains gluten

We also have Daifuku (sweet bean paste), Tsubukusa Daifuku and three kinds of Dorayaki.

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November Events

Please note that we will continue to be closed on Sundays and Mondays. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We are planning to have a Christmas market on the last weekend of November.

If you would like to set up a stall and sell your goods, please contact us at info@an-an.co.uk. Please note that only Japan-related items will be allowed.

Also, from mid-November we will start taking pre-orders for our annual "Ohitori-nyu-teki-otte-obushi". We are still not sure how many ingredients we will have available, so please wait a little longer. Please note that from this year onwards, we will not be able to take care of the Ojyu.

Cafe is closed on Saturday 4th September

 

It's already 3rd day into September and we would love to write our September newsletter, but the catering job for the first Saturday in September has become bigger than we planned and we are not able to keep up with the workload, even though we are working at full capacity.

Therefore, we are sorry to inform you that the café will be closed on Saturday the 4th of September.

This is short notice and may have upset your schedule.

Sorry.

However, we are so short-staffed that we may have to open fewer days for a little while.

We will let you know about this in the newsletter on Sunday when we will be issuing loyalty cards to those who donate in the kitchen trailers, as well as our plans for the future.

This year's Moon Festival is 25th September.

We will be making some sweets to mark the occasion.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

I've changed the title a bit, but the style hasn't changed at all (laughs).

We are now in August, is summer over? It was kind of "hot" and serious for only 4 or 5 days, wasn't it? Will it come back as Indian Summer...?

So, the CrowdFunding is over, and the Trailer, as you may have seen, is now in a corner of the car park of an-an.

It looks like this. It's tiny. It's already full when one person stands to cook.

And finally, the electricity is connected, but the gas is not yet on.

I hope to have it cleaned up by the end of August, and have the gas man come and use it, and then we can have a party to show it off at the beginning of September. Oh, and we're working on the loyalty cards and will send out an email to all donors by the beginning of September.

Thank you all so much for your support. I'm so happy to have your support!

Well, it's been a tough couple of weeks, reminiscent of last year's Eat Out Help Out. We've sold out of everything, and we're sorry to those of you who couldn't buy meals.From September, we will serve hot foods from the trailer. So hopefully we can avoid running out Chicken Katsu at least!!

We will be closed for a week from the 16th to the 21st of August for the summer holidays. and for the rest of the month of August, we will be serving minimal meals to prepare for our reopening. We apologise for the inconvenience, but we will do our best to make the café even better from September, so please bear with us.

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Sweets in August

Strawberry Daifuku Mochi  ￡2.00/pce

Tasty British strawberries are still here. Plant Base

Mizu-Yokan　Smooth Adzuki・Matcha Green Tea　£1.80/each　

Please eat cold. Made of only bean paste and Agar and water... and a bit of salt. Simple is the best! PlantBase

Plum liqure Jelly　￡2.00/each　(slightly alcholic）PlantBase

Plum liqure, Umeshu, is sweet and refreshing. I made agar jelly for you to enjoy. 

Kuzu mochi with Green kinako ￡2.50/cup　PlantBase  Contains Soy

Made with good quality Kuzu starch. Please enjoy with green Uguisu Soy flour.

Sweeten with black syrup to taste. 

Fruits An-Mitsu　（Eat in only）　￡4.50　(+50p for cream)

It's a fruitsful monts, so why not have plenty of fruits with healthy Agar blocks?

Plant base without cream. 

Dorayaki　Smooth Adzuki・Chunky Adzuki・Matcha an　￡1.50/each

Includes Eggs, Wheat, Gluten and Honey

Daifuku Mochi　Smooth Adzuki・Chunky Yomogi　￡1.30/each　PlantBase

Note：The production of wagashi is slower than ever... To avoid disappointment, please pre-order wagashi 2-3 days in advance. Thank you for your cooporation. 

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Events in August

Breakfast service is now available.

Please see the blackboard for the menu. (We are working on the menu now💦)

Breakfast will only be served between 9am and 11am.

The cafe will be closed from 16th to 21st. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

30th - Summer Bank Holiday. By this date we will have sent an email to all those who have donated to the crowdfunding of the trailer. If you have not heard anything from us by this date, please contact us. And on this day we might hold an event to introduce the trailer in the cafe.

Announcements will be made on our Instagram or FB page, please follow us.

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Finally

Recently we have been getting very good reviews not only for our chicken Katsu but also for our cakes and Japanese sweets, Wagashi.

We are very grateful.

But the most recent one I received on Google was a compliment on our coffee.

Although we have taken barista lessons, we were always very nervous. So here it comes, we know now we can make a good cup of coffee! we will continue to work hard and devote ourselves to this, thank you!

Sweets and Events in June

The sun has finally come out and it's suddenly summer.
That's England!

Our "Special Lunch Set of the Week" started last week and has been very popular.

The Teriyaki Lunch Set includes

You can choose chicken or tofu, miso soup or a drink.

The price is £9.00.(till 5th June）

We say "this week", but we change the menu every fortnight, so if you missed it last week, don't worry. We will do it again this week.

We will be using local food as much as possible, so please support us.

From this month, we will list up Japanese style cakes (diffent from Wagashi). we also inform whats on our display on Facebook and Instagram. Please follow them, too.

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Sweets in June

Sweet Fish 　￡1.50/each

This sweetfish pastry has a yuzu-scented gyuhi inside.

It is made with egg and flour.

Kuzu Mochi　￡2.00/a bowl

Cool starch cake made from honkuzu, served with plenty of home-roasted organic yellow soybean flour and home-made kuromitsu. (If you want to take it home, there is an additional charge of +30p for the container. Contains soya beans. (Plant base)

Mina Duki　￡1.50/slice

This is a sweet eaten on 30 June to pray for good health for the rest of the year. It is available from mid-June. (Plant base)

Strawberry Mochi ￡2.00/a piece (Large ￡2.50)

This year's strawberries have been delicious, but we seem to be getting a lot of large strawberries, which means we are getting larger than usual. Enjoy the extra large strawberry daifuku that you can't get enough of even with your mouth full.

Strawberry shortcake ￡3.00~/slice

This is a Japanese style decoration cake made with lots of seasonal strawberries. Enjoy the fluffy sponge and less sweet cream with a generous amount of strawberries.

Strawberry Mille Crepe ￡3.00

13 to 15 thinly cooked crepes filled with fresh cream and strawberries. Sometimes it is a white mille crepe, sometimes a chocolate mille crepe.

We also have daifuku and dorayaki.

If you want to buy more than 5 pieces of Japanese sweets, please make a reservation 2 days before your visit. Please note that we may not be able to provide wagashi on the day of your visit. Thank you for your understanding.

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Events in June

1 ～ 5th　We will be having a Japanese used book sale. Prices start from £1.00 per book.

14th ～ 19th　We will be temprarily closed. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We will start serving breakfast on the 21st!
We will announce the menu as soon as we have it.