I tried croquette bread, a downtown taste that has existed since before the construction of Tokyo Stadium, at 'Aoki-ya' in Minamisenju
I had the opportunity to buy bread at Aoki-ya , a popular bread specialty store in Minamisenju where you always have to queue and it often sells out by mid-afternoon, so I tried the giant croquette bun that everyone is talking about.
Aokiya (@aoki.ya) • Instagram photos and videos
Arrived at Minamisenju Station. There are bus terminals on both the east and west sides of the station, but Aoki-ya is located towards the west exit.
The road that crosses on both sides is Route 464, and the direction towards Minamisenju Station is in the background. Construction work was underway to widen the road that passes through the north side of the station. The direction towards the front of the photo is towards Aoki-ya.
Follow the road and head towards National Route 4.
We came from the direction of the traffic light in front of us. National Route 4 runs to the left and right (north-south) here.
To the west of the intersection is a road nicknamed 'Senju-michi.'
Aoki-ya is located on the north side of this Senju road.
The location is here, 6-47-14 Minamisenju, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo. It was less than a 10-minute walk from Minamisenju Station. The nearest station is Minowabashi Station on the Toden Arakawa Line, about a 5-minute walk away.
The menu has four types of bread: croquette bread (290 yen), ham cutlet bread (270 yen), minced meat bread (320 yen), and pork cutlet bread (320 yen).
There are product displays, but they sell out so quickly that you hardly ever see any products on display.
Croquettes and other foods were being fried nonstop.
This time I ordered the 'croquette bun' and the 'tonkatsu bun'. The buns were huge, so big that two transportation IC cards would fit inside, and a third would just stick out.
The ingredients look like this.
The croquette bun has two giant croquettes sandwiched side by side, each roughly larger than a public transport IC card.
Here's what the cross section looks like. The croquette is sandwiched between soft, fluffy, and sweet bread, and the potatoes are finely textured with no lumps at all. The batter is slightly moist from the sauce, but it's freshly fried so it still has a crunchy texture and is fluffy and piping hot. This alone seems like it would be a satisfying breakfast.
On the other hand, the 'Tonkatsu Bun' is a huge rolled bun with a pork cutlet of almost just the right size sandwiched inside.
This pork cutlet is layered with pork belly, and the batter is a little firmer than a croquette. The bun absorbs the fat that oozes out and keeps it from escaping. The sourness of the sauce and the sweetness of the meat and bread combine to create a blissful dish.
Aokiya is closed on Sundays and public holidays, and opens at 7am. It closes when it sells out, and some items are sold out around mid-afternoon.
If you walk further west from Aoki-ya along Senju-Madoshi, you will come to the Arakawa Sports Center. This is the former site of Tokyo Stadium, which was once the home field of the Daiei Orions (later the Tokyo Orions, Lotte Orions, and now the Chiba Lotte Marines).
Behind the sports center building is a field, with a statue and monument in one corner.
'Shozo Inoue Monument'
Inoue Shozo was the first director of Senju Carpet Works, Japan's first government-run woolen textile factory, which opened here in 1879 (Meiji 12). The monument was erected in memory of Inoue's achievements, who died of illness in 1886. After the war, Senju Carpet Works was sold to Yamato Woolen Textiles and ceased operations in 1960. In 1962, Tokyo Stadium was built on the former site of the factory. However, due to the bankruptcy of its owner, Daiei, Tokyo Stadium was closed in 1972, just 10 years after its completion, and was demolished in 1977.
I looked around, but there didn't seem to be any monuments indicating that this was the site of the former Tokyo Stadium.
Aoki-ya was founded in 1957, five years before Tokyo Stadium was built, and it could be said to be one of those places that 'has remained unchanged since the days of Tokyo Stadium.'
Arakawa Yuu Net Archive > Special Feature > Lost Landscapes Tokyo Stadium
https://www.city.arakawa.tokyo.jp/unet/issue/0708/index.html
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