Sign-ing On

Name: Sign
Neighborhood: Daikanyama
Style: Western-oriented cafe
Website: http://www.transit-web.com/shop/cafe/sign-daikanyama/index.html

Today I went to Sign, a cafe right outside the station in Daikanyama, and I had two things I had never had before, both of which were really good:

A Shandy Gaff is a drink that's half beer and half ginger ale. I've known about them for a long time, but I had never actually had one, in large part because most American ginger ale is too sweeet for me. Fortunately, ginger ale in Japan is usually quite dry, and so when I saw this on the menu at Sign I went for it. On a warm sunny spring day, a Shandy Gaff is just the thing! I'm a convert.

The second item doesn't have a name, but it was great nonetheless: gravilox with potato pancakes. This appetizer was three small silver-dollar-sized potato pancakes, and a generous amount of gravilox covered with olive oil, salt, and pepper, with a side of sour cream. You put a little sour cream on the potato pancake, plopped a piece of gravilox on top, and enjoyed! It all felt vaguely Jewish. The only bummer is that Japanese sour cream isn't very good. It's too hard and not sour enough, some good old Quality Checkd from Safeway would have been an improvement.