I’m up, so it’s time to eat. A quick search turned up a well-rated bakery near Sannomiya.
Kobe streets in the morning
A street with real atmosphere. I like it.
The entrance of Boulangerie Comme Chinois
It’s in a basement, so it’d be hard to find if you didn’t know where it was. You buy your bread and eat it in the cafe inside. The cafe is huge and the interior is all solid wood, so it feels like you’ve wandered into a forest.
Croissant
The quality is high, but maybe because I’ve been to so many places with great croissants… this one was just so-so for me. At this rate I may not be able to eat croissants at just any old place anymore..
Tart
Tastes as good as it looks. This place does everything above the basics, so I doubt you’d be too disappointed whatever you order.
Rum-soaked white bread
It had a proper name, but I’ve forgotten it. It looks simple, but maybe because of the liquor, even the aroma feels luxurious. It’s very sweet, so you could almost call it a dessert, but it’s dense and still somehow refreshing, and it was the best bread I had that day. It would’ve been even better slightly warmed. Not sure I’ll get a chance to take some away next time, though.
Mt. Rokko milk
I asked for it cold. Rich stuff. Every town you go to has its own great ingredients, and that’s what makes travel so much more fun.
All together
Since we ate in the cafe, they cut everything up for us. I should’ve taken the photo first. That was the breakfast portion; I bought a few more breads for snacks.
Cranberry bread
At this level it holds its own against the famous boulangeries abroad.
Olive bread
The bread itself is excellent, but there were fewer olives than I expected, which was a letdown.
I’d actually thought about going to Isuzu Bakery, known for Japanese-style breads, but it gets insanely crowded, and this place was plenty satisfying anyway. With its pretty streets and its great bread, desserts and French food, Kobe is a city I’d really love to live in at least once. An hour after eating here, a baffling police stakeout-style crackdown did spoil my travel mood a bit, but that’s a problem with the Japanese police as a whole, not with Kobe.