Nao Maeda is the owner and chef of Milktart, the company that she owns that offers lessons in gluten-free baking and dessert preparation. She is currently based in Tokyo, though she is originally from Osaka. In March, she plans to relocate to Hawaii to work in a Japanese cake shop/bakery. グルテンフリーお菓子教室milktartのレッスンは1月で終了しました。 She is offering lessons until her relocation. If interested, please see her contact details at the end of the article. She recently published a recipe book in Japanese. It can be purchased here.
How many years have you baked or eaten gluten-free foods?
I don't have gluten sensitivity or celiac disease.
If you do not have the above issues, why have you chosen to promote gluten-free food in Japan?
My partner have a Hashimotos disease and is following a gluten-free diet.
I'm supporting my partner's gluten-free life.
Is your baking following a strict gluten-free diet?
My sweets lessons don't use gluten. Sometimes we use egg , milk and gluten-free grains. But the lessons I give are held in a public space. I think some baking class take place before my class and these classes use wheat or bread. So it's difficult to say 100%gluten free sweets due to potential cross-contamination.
What is your approach to offering food for those with cd/gs?
What do your baking lessons offer?
My lessons include the preparation of gluten-free sweets, vegan sweets and less sugar sweets. I sometimes host tea parties with people who has celiac disease or some gluten sensitivity.
How do you think Japan can become more friendly for those with celiac disease/gs?
I think restaurant and hotel staff should study and learn more about the gluten-free diet.
I have worked cake shop for 9years in Osaka .
I was vegetarian for one year.
Also I tried to make lots of vegan foods and baking.
And after that my partner and I started following a gluten-free life, though I sometimes eat wheat bread.
I don't have own bakery shop and I do not sell sweets or baked goods. But I can host classes for 6-10people come to my lesson each time.
I can make English recipe for a lesson for foreign students.
I'll support your gluten-free life!!!
あけましておめでとう!今年もよろしくお願いします. I wish all of you a wonderful, joyous gluten-free 2016 and hope your travels to Japan are memorable, fun and healthy.
To start 2016 off right, I've decided to offer up some link love. The following links have a ton of information that may be helpful for those traveling (or in the process of moving to) Japan.
First off, there has been a ton of information collected in the Gluten-Free Expats in Japan Facebook group. If you are not already a member, please consider joining it. You can ask questions and offer insight on traveling through Japan or living there long term.
A project I had been working on with another member of the GFEJ group was to create a clearing house site that would offer lists of restaurants that had been verified as safe for those with celiac disease. After living in Japan for four years, one thing that I learned was that restaurants have a difficult time serving those of us who require strict gluten-free diets. I have a difficult time recommending restaurants that might be gluten-free or that allowed someone to eat there but didn't really understand the importance of eating gluten-free for those of us with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. That being said, it's very difficult to travel without being able to pop into a restaurant or know that the city or town (or tiny island) you're staying has somewhere you can find sustenance. The following links may help those of you traveling. Be aware that you will still need to convey to the chefs/waiters that you absolutely cannot eat anything with gluten due to health concerns.
Satsuki Miki-san, a savvy entrepreneur living in Tokyo, has started this clearing house site for restaurants in Japan who can serve gluten-free food to those with celiac disease/gluten sensitivity. The site is called Gluten-free Restaurant. Feel free to check it out and offer feedback.
Jodi Ettenberg, the former lawyer turned world traveler/food blogger at Legal Nomads, has put together a gluten-free travel card for those who are traveling through Japan. These cards are comparable to the card I used when I lived there and offer extensive and necessary information for those who do not speak any Japanese and who need to be able to convey their dietary issues to chefs and waitstaff. She also has a list of restaurants she's compiled in the link above.
Another blog called Yebtastic! Japan, which focuses on Ebisu, Tokyo, has just put out a list of Tokyo based gluten-free restaurants and places to find food.
The next post will be an interview with Nao Maeda, a Tokyo-based baker who runs gluten-free baking/pastry cooking lessons called グルテンフリーお菓子教室 milktart.
As for me, I've returned to the US and am now living in Las Vegas, Nevada where I am pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing. I plan to return to Japan to work after I'm done with graduate school and hope that by the time I do return, Japan will be gluten-free friendly in a way that is different from the way the US has gone gluten-free. I have major issues with how the gluten-free diet has become a huge fad over here and is not taken seriously by chefs or waiters. There is so little understanding of the insidious nature of celiac disease or gluten sensitivity and its affects on those who have it. I actually feel less healthy living in the US than I did living in Japan, where I followed a strict primal diet mostly because if I didn't, I would be exposed to gluten. Here, I go out to restaurants that promise gluten-free, but really cannot make good on those promises. These industries need to be regulated more thoroughly. I hope that as Japan moves towards its 2020 Olympics, they will approach the gluten-free food industry carefully.
I hope 2016 is the best year yet for you all and hope that your travels through Japan offer you amazing experiences! Feel free to leave comments and recommendations about any of the restaurants or places you've visited while in Japan!
The following blog post is written by Stuart Baker, an expat and long-term resident of Japan who follows a gluten-free diet. He reached out to offer the following advice for those following a gluten-free diet who are currently living in Japan, those considering living in Japan, and those who are traveling to Japan. Please feel free to leave feedback in the comments for him. If you are interested in contributing to Gluten Free in Japan, please contact me via email. I'll soon be following up with several interviews from individuals in Japan running a gluten-free, organic farm/bakery as well as a gluten-free baker who hosts cooking classes in Tokyo.
Gluten-free bread sold at Tokyo markets: Yes, I discovered to my very pleasant surprise, you can buy gluten-free bread at some supermarkets and specialty stores — "OK" and Seijo Ishii! It's made by a company called maisen and you can read about them on their website in English: http://www.maisen.co.jp/en/products/brown-rice-bread/brown-rice-bread.html They also have a toll-free number and may have someone who can answer questions in English. Plus they also have GF pasta and Udon! Haven't tried them yet, but I eat their GF brown rice bread regularly and it's quite good toasted.
Costco in Chiba where I live, and Kanagawa where I shopped with friends last month, has gluten-free rotini (a kind of pasta), multi-grain tortilla chips, cold cereals and other items too — and all in large US-sized packaging so it is more geared toward families. You can also buy organic Quinoa in 4 lb bags, if you are into that extraordinary grain. And if you don't live close by, or can't get to, a Costco, there is actually an online buying service that will shop for you and have the products delivered right to your door called The Flying Pig (http://www.theflyingpig.com/tfp/shop.asp). I've used it before and it's fast, easy-to-use and reliable. You have to pay more than what you would pay at Costco naturally, but not excessively so. Also, you don't need to fight the crowds nor pay the yearly JPY 4,000 annual fee to be a member of Costco.
iHerb: iHerb (www.iherb.com ) is a US-based online shopping site for healthy foods and products of all kinds. So while it is not here in Tokyo, the speed of delivery (usually 4-5 days) makes it a great resource. Plus the costs are surprisingly reasonable, and the shipping is free for orders over $40 (or $4 if the order is under $40). Among the many gluten-free products are a GF bread from Belgium (pretty good toasted, if you like European-style bread), "Lucy's" oatmeal, chocolate-chip and other cookies, cold cereals, excellent gluten-free muesli (wow! my first time eating muesli and I really enjoy it), pancake mix, banana-chocolate chip cake mix and many more! And if you would like to get an extra $5 – 10 off your first order, enter the referral code BAK736 in the box next to Apply Rewards when you check out. (Full disclosure: This referral code is mine (Stuart Baker), so I too will save a few dollars on my next iHerb orders).
For those of you who are moving to Japan or just planning to take an extended trip, whether for business or for pleasure, you might have many questions about what you can and cannot eat, where you can locate gluten free food and potential safe restaurants, and how to make you life and travels safe and fun while living or staying in Japan. For over a year, there has been a Gluten Free JET group on Facebook which has significant activity and lots of information, but one of the administrators did not want to open this up to non-JETs since his goal was to start a SIG in order to lobby for Celiac/Gluten Intolerant needs to be taken seriously in the JET/AJET community. Well, it is now officially considered a Special Interest Group by AJET and thus a separate group for non-JETs (including those who are ALTs but not working via JET) has been born. Although I co-founded the Gluten Free JET Facebook group and have regularly contributed there, even after leaving the JET Program, I recognize that there are many people who live in and travel through Japan who are not on the JET Program and who need to have access to the same info that is available in this forum.
If you have been wanting to sign up for this group, I welcome you to join Gluten Free Expats Japan.
Please message me prior to joining as I will need to make certain those in the forum are not spambots. If I see no indication that you live in Japan, this is even more important.
After I posted last week that I didn't know of anywhere to eat in Tokyo that was officially gluten free, I read on a blog that the gluten free trend has finally hit Japan and that there is a cafe in Tokyo that is offering food we can eat. Cafe Three in Aoyama, which looks like it is attached to a spa, has food that appears to be safe to eat.
While the majority of restaurants and cafes do not know what gluten is, it's good to see that some healthy cafes are now starting to serve gluten free options for those of us who cannot eat gluten. I cannot offer a first hand review of this cafe, but the menu lists that it has both gluten free pancakes and French toast as well as lunch and dinner options! If you happen to go there and want to review it for GF in Japan, please contact me.
It just dawned on me that I remember hearing about a raw food cafe in Okinawa that was rarely open and located outside of Naha (which is why I never managed to get there) that offered gluten free crepes. Apparently gluten free food is being offered alongside raw foods in these health oriented cafes. I think that's even better than eating somewhere that serves processed food and has the potential for cross-contamination.
If you live in Tokyo or you're traveling through or to it, check out the cafe. In the meantime, I'll dig up the name of the cafe in Okinawa in case anyone plans on traveling to the islands and wants to eat a sweet gf dessert.
I just wanted to offer some link love this week for those of you who are seeking info on either living or travel in Japan while following a gluten free diet.
Another JET who has Celiac Disease has more info on what to eat and what to look out for here. He's written some useful info about what to look out for kanji-wise in the Japanese language. Since we happen to be blog twins and both on JET, he and I decided to start a help group on Facebook called Gluten Free JET, for anyone on the JET program. Please join it if you are a JET.
Gluten Free Gaijin has a good write up on why eating food in Japan is so difficult for us. His research on MSG in Japan is a very important read for anyone who plans to live or travel here.
And I've just discovered this awesome Paleo blog called Nom Nom Paleo. Right now they're focusing on bento (lunch box) recipes. I don't know this person who runs it, but I'm glad they're out there making these ideas available.
I did want to make a few points clear to those of us with gluten intolerant/CD guts out there searching for info on what is safe to eat in Japan. I suppose this is a disclaimer for this blog. Take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt, or rather…gluten. Do your own homework and double check everything. Ultimately, you have to be responsible for what you put into your body and not rely solely on another person's advice. Just because they didn't feel like they were glutened doesn't mean the item doesn't have gluten in it. I've come across so much erroneous information online regarding gluten free traveling in Japan. When a website states that convenience store onigiri (rice balls with fillings) are safe for those traveling who are gluten intolerant/sensitive or who have Celiac Disease, I know that the authors have not done enough research. I would not recommend convenience stores for anything but juice, water, and fresh fruits or vegetables (if yours sell these), and maybe eggs and dairy if you are able to eat those items. Unfortunately, there is no centralized info from a Japanese nutritionist online and the information you are getting is from individuals who are also just trying to find ways to live over here on their own or they're traveling through and writing up what they thought was safe to eat.
If there is any advice I'd like to offer you it's that living in Japan is not an easy place to live if we're looking for gluten free alternatives to the foods around us. But eating gluten free isn't difficult at all if you decide to only eat whole foods. While I'm not fully immersed in the Paleo world, I do follow a modified paleo diet that includes brown (and sometimes white) rice. Ok, sometimes I also make non-paleo cake (with traditional gluten free flours). But overall I recommend eating vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, nuts and (sometimes) dairy (if you're not intolerant) as a great way to live a healthy, happy life in Japan (or anywhere). Plus, you'll lose weight and you'll also know what is in everything you're eating.