What Does Kosher Mean?
Kosher foods are food that is permitted to be eaten under Jewish dietary law. The term kosher includes restrictions pertaining to the types of animal that can be eaten, the process by which the animal is slaughtered, and the separation of meat and milk. Probably, it’s the most well-known of all Jewish religious practices. Kosher is really of importance to the Jewish people. In Judaism, observance of the dietary laws is a part of obedience to God. Nowadays, we can find kosher restaurants and kosher certified products across the world.
Kosher Restaurant in Tokyo
Tokyo’s only kosher certified restaurant, Chana’s Place, opened to the public in 2015. The restaurant is located at Beit Chabad in the Takanawa neighborhood in central Tokyo. If we see the restaurant building at a glance, we might not notice that it is actually a restaurant. It looks just like a regular house and we continued to think so, until we noticed this cute-sized sign board:
Chana’s Place. Let us go in and grab some meals!
The entrance of Chana’s place.
Chana’s Place opens during lunchtime, from 11:30 to 14:00, and during dinnertime, from 17:00-21:30. You have to make sure to come at those hours. I went there during lunchtime so I had their lunch menu. Chana’s Place has a different menu for lunch and dinner.
The lunch menu.
I decided to order a set of Schnitzel, salad, french fries, and soup. The kosher soup came out first. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the soup; it was a green soup that looked thick. However, its taste was rather light.
Green soup.
Schnitzel is Austrian in origin; it was traditionally made with veal or pork. Chana’s Place adapted this Austrian dish to suit dietary kosher laws. Since pork is not kosher, and veal, as far as I know, is hard to obtain and pretty expensive, those two meats have been replaced by chicken. It didn’t matter to me because I love chicken! The chicken schnitzel was delicious and really left me feeling satisfied.
Chicken Schnitzel.
The thing that impressed me the most was the friendly chef of Chana’s Place. Probably because Chana’s Place has a pool of regular customers, the chef knew that it was my first time to eat at the restaurant. He told me a lot of things regarding the restaurant and kosher itself. From him, I knew that the kosher meats at this restaurant are all imported from America. The chef also told me that most of the customers are foreign tourists from America and Israel. Japanese customers often have lunch there as well.
It’s really a nice restaurant, so if you are around Takanawa or Minato, you can give Chana’s Place a try. It would be a really great experience too if you have never had kosher food before.
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