Sometimes you find a place that you want to jealously hide from the rest of the world because you know that if you let the word out you will never get a seat there again. After an internal struggle matching my selfishness against the combined underdogs of sharing, honor and the desire to get more good information on this blog so some of you buggers will read it, I decided to let the cat out of the bag. Coeur is fantastic.
My 6th occasion to Coeur was on invitation from a friend to join a cooking class. I was wrapped. We were to prepare 5 dishes, eat said dishes and wash it down with a couple of glasses of good white. This was my kind of lazy Sunday afternoon.
After arriving and catching up with friends, we all moved over to the cafe side of Coeur. The staff had set the tables up and removed the chairs. In typical Japanese fashion we were allocated our tables, making groups of 3 or 4.
The first meal to be prepared was to be the Carpaccio of fish with chopped tomato sause (in the above picture center bottom). In less typical Japanese style we were quick to decide who would set us off in our cooking journey (no not me, I managed restraint this time) and we were head first into the fore taking turns preparing our dishes.
Second on our list to prepare, was the Roast Chicken with Lemon (first picture below). This dish was a demonstration item, requiring an oven. Out host described the dish and prepared it in front of us before taking it away to be baked while we finished the rest of the dishes. This was prepared with olive oil, chicken stock, black olives, butter, sliced lemons, black pepper and salt. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded a little riesling in the mix, but a very good combination none the less.
Next was the Picked oil sardine and dry tomato horsedouvres (below). We all dug into a chance to make these little blighter’s. My desire for some playful competition and good preparation was starting to take hold here.
Fourth of the list was the Smoked salmon and cream cheese appetizer (top food picture right side. ). These were simple but good fun to make. While most of us seemed to have a flair for food preparation, there was one or two of us who were…erh…doing their very best to amuse us by perform great feats of bad preparation. This gave us all something to have fun with as we encouraged these guys to new heights of culinary design.
Last on the list was the green salad with parmesan cheese (below). This simple dish was a combination of lettuce varieties, olive oil, salt and pepper, 9 year old balsamic vinegar and topped with parmesan cheese. It must be noted that out poor food artist excelled himself while fascinated with running the olive oil around of the bowl.
While none of these dishes were exceptionally challenging nor did we cook or prepare them a great deal, the whole experience was a blast. The light atmosphere, friendly hosts and the knowledge that we were about to eat our creations over some wine were enough reward.
Coeur is a wine cellar and cafe that also feature a small deli selection of prosciutto and other smoked meats, a small variety of quality cheese and other assortments of deli foods. The wine cellar features the best selection of wines that I have found in Numazu. Quality French wines mingle with Australian, New Zealand, German, Spanish, Italian and American wines. Prices for wine start at around 1200yen and finish at around one 1/4 of my monthly pay cheques. The cafe has much of the foods mentioned above with the addition of some anti pesto’s, deli platters and some hot dishes.
Coeur’s friendly staff and excellent variety make it a place I don’t want to share with many people. Let’s keep it a secret so I can still have a seat there 😉 .
Cheers
Scott
Location: North side of Numazu station. Heading towards Bivi there Should be a street to your left running North South. Head north up this street past E-Spot Shops and just past Curves gym. On your right hand side you should find Coeur. It is about five to six hundred meters up the road. For a map of Numazu with Coeur’s location click this –
Style: Wine shop, cafe and some time cooking class host.
English Menu: Yes, because my wife said so 😉
Picture Menu: No
Gaijin Friendly: Yes
Ph: 055 929 6810 website: www.a-coeur.com
Numazu Traveler 