Kanazawa-Hakkei: A Loaf of Bread, A Jug of Wine

Aoki is the bakery I pop into just about every week when I pass through Kanazawa-Hakkei after shooting the breeze with Dr. T for two hours. The sign for Cafe Aoki on the second floor has intrigued me for months so Mike and I decided to have lunch there when we were heading up to Yokohama to stock up on wine the other day.

There were two doors at the top of the stairs. The door on the right led into the cafe and the door straight ahead opened into a -- here's that charmed existence again -- wine shop.

After a very nice and surprisingly inexpensive lunch, we ambled into the wine shop and tried about half the free samples on offer before selecting six bottles and stumbling downstairs to the bakery. "You sure were smart to bring the Harris Teeter wine bag." "I know." "You should start carrying it whenever you visit Dr. T so you can bring wine and bread home." "Feel free to call me Omar Khayyam."

This turtle is as big as my fist and tastes more like a cookie than bread.

I call these rolls "raisin butts." I've bought at least 15 raisin butts since I first spotted them three weeks ago but I only kept three for myself.