3rd June 2010
To all gluten-intolerant or wheat-allergic people in Japan, we have GOOD NEWS!
It has been confirmed that Japan’s Nodogoshi Nama beer, which went on sale on April 6th 2005, is indeed a gluten/wheat-free beer.
In order to avoid high taxes on malt-derived beer and lagers, Japanese beer producers have invested time and money in researching and developing alcoholic beverages that taste like beer or lager but are in fact cleverly made from ingredients other than malt (thus avoiding the high taxes), and have succeeded in creating what has become affectionately known as the inexpensive, great tasting ‘third beer’.
In overseas markets there is already a variety of wheat-free, gluten-free beers available. We personally know of such brands made in Germany, Italy, Australia and America.
However, perhaps due to a lack of high incentive, such as the high taxes of Japan’s market, none of these brands actually hit the mark and taste like a truebeer-like product. On the other hand, Nodogoshi Nama has been embraced by the Japanese nation with such outstanding success that it has been the No. 1 selling beer in its category since its debut 5 years ago!
So, if you are one of those people who longed to enjoy a ‘real beer’ but couldn’t because of a wheat or gluten intolerance, now you can safely enjoy Nodogoshi Nama to your heart’s content!
Ingredients: Hops Sugar Soy Protein Yeast Extract
* None of the ingredients in Nodogoshi Nama are genetically- modified.
Alcohol: 5%
Shelf Life: 9 months
Unfortunately, Nodogoshi Nama is not commercially available outside Japan at the moment. Aside from traveling to Japan or asking others to buy some for you on their travels to Japan, there is no other way of obtaining it. We are currently looking into how we may import it into Australia.
Despite the best intentions to bring you an early update on our movements it has already been 6 months since S. Komatsu closed its doors on October 31st and it is only now that we can actively make any announcements along these lines as, at last, we have been able to finalise the transfer of the building lease to a third party. The last 6 months has felt like a very long journey in a tunnel, but thankfully we are out the other side now and can move onto the next phase of our plans.
Again we thank you all for your support over the full 3 years that we were in business in East Melbourne. Over this period we learnt a lot from our customers and were able to develop a range of sauces and other substitute products specific to the needs of our customers. We also learnt some hard lessons with regards to setting up a business in Melbourne, lease rental property regulations and all the associated expenses! But most of all we learnt that regrettably, despite the growing focus on food, and specifically problematic foods, neither the appropriate authorities nor many of the related organisations are adequately addressing all aspects of food intolerances. Whilst it has been somewhat of an expensive lesson for us, we have come away with a wealth of knowledge in this area. But that is not all that we have gained. More than anything else, we are most proud of the fact that we are now in contact with many people like yourself, who understand and appreciate what we strive to do. Our biggest reward is, without doubt, our 2500 loyal supporters, to whom we are very grateful.
As we have promised, we have only temporarily closed due to the need to re-locate and certainly have not closed down permanently. But having said that, we are still no wiser as to when and where we will re-open at this stage. The first move we are making is to inject the knowledge and know-how that we have gained over these 3 years in Melbourne into our sister restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. We have already made the changes that are required and renamed the restaurant “Kenko Bishoku Club S. Komatsu” and launched it on the 20th of January. This restaurant is Japan’s first and only 100% gluten free dining establishment. It upholds the same strict policies as the original ‘S. Komatsu’ especially with regard to issues such as zero cross contamination and chemical additives / preservatives, so that coeliacs in Japan, and indeed all other food-intolerant or food-conscious locals and visitors to Japan, will finally now have somewhere safe to dine in Tokyo. Our Japanese staff hope to have the pleasure of serving you there one day if you happen to be visiting Japan (and don’t forget to tell all family & friends about us if they ever head over to Japan too! The address can be found on our website under ‘S. Komatsu’, then under ‘Roppongi, Japan’, ‘Enter’ and then click on ‘English’. www.nexgeneats.com/s.komatsu)
We hope to keep you informed of all future movements via our web page and through regular emails. In the meantime, we wish you safe and happy dining wherever you go.
To all NexGenEaters, Guests and Supporters of S. Komatsu we extend heartfelt thanks for your valuable patronage since our opening in October 2006. Sadly, as our recent correspondence has alluded, we cannot continue under current circumstances so will be closing on October 31st (ironically, my birthday!)
Although the business has been growing steadily, the rent at 62 Wellington Parade has regrettably remained higher than the business could afford. I have been personally financing the excess for the past 3 years in the hope that these figures would turn around but have now come to the point where I cannot afford to continue to do so without seriously jeopardizing my family’s livelihood so am forced to abandon our current location. However, please note that we are not abandoning our conviction to propel the current food culture into a necessarily higher level, namely a “Next Generation Food Culture” whereby all people can dine out safely without the need to question what is in the dishes they order. We intend to carry on being active in this endeavour. We don’t exactly know when or where we will re-open but we are determined to re-open one day in the not too distant future. Until then, we hope to kept you abreast with developments through our website and regular emails as usual.
In the meantime, we are excited to announce that there are positive signs that our popular specialty sauces, bread and pastries are likely to go into mass production in the first quarter of next year. Happily, we have met a manufacturer who shares our conviction and is currently aiming to prepare a factory capable of producing non cross-contaminated, food intolerance-friendly products by the end of January 2010. Perhaps, you will come across our Tom-Poi products in your local health food shop or supermarket even before we get to re-open our restaurant doors…..?
Whilst this is all getting under way, I will be taking the knowledge and skills that we have honed over the past 3 years of creating food intolerance-friendly cuisine for our S. Komatsu guests and injecting it back into our head restaurant in Tokyo, which has until now specialized in sushi, to create Japan’s first-ever gluten-free specialist restaurant. We have no doubt that there are many coeliac foreign expatriates, students and tourists to Japan who experience great difficulty when dining out in Tokyo so we aim to provide a safe and delicious dining venue for such people, and all NexGenEaters of whom there are many in Japan. If you have family or friends already in Japan, or soon to travel to Japan, be sure to let them know to check our website (in the near future) for details.
With less than 3 weeks to go until we close our doors, it is our fervent hope to be able to serve all of you, our wonderful customers, again. If you loved our Jewel of Neptune, our Chicken Kiev or Berry Banana Crepe, or in fact any of our carefully prepared dishes, then please come along and enjoy them once again while you can. It would really mean a lot to us and further heighten our determination to re-open as soon as possible in the coming months.
We look forward to both serving you soon, for old times sake, and to the day when we can greet you all again, like old friends, in our new location somewhere, some day. Eat Well to Stay Well.
Aki, The Manager
S. Komatsu
Free dessert for all dining guests!
To celebrate our 3rd anniversary and the commencement of our 4th year, S. Komatsu is giving all guests who come along and dine on our a la carte menu between October 12th to October 17th, a choice of two special desserts, for free! Diners during this anniversary week will have the choice between a slice of smooth Banana Tarte or 
a tangy Kiwi & Orange Agar-Jelly, with our compliments! So don’t delay, give us a call to make your booking and pencil us in your calendar today!
Remember this offer is only available between October 12th to October 17th.
FATHER'S DAY OPENING
May all the wonderful Dads out there have a very Happy & Intolerance/Stress-free Father's Day on September 6th!
We will definitely be opening for Father's Day lunch on September 6th, between noon and 2p.m. As it is a special day we are of course more than happy to re-open again for dinner from 6pm IF we receive a reservation by lunchtime that day, so choose a session that suits you, give us a call and treat Dad to a body-friendly Happy Meal!
We love it in East Melbourne but…..
…the beautiful building that houses S. Komatsu comes with a hefty rent and, under the current financial climate, its looking more and more like we will have to relocate to another venue, in another part of town. We don’t know where we will go or even when it will happen but when the opportunity arises we will make the move, hopefully to a location that suits you even better! We will definitely keep you posted as to our movements, both on the website and via emails to our databased customers, so watch this space but in the meantime we ask that you continue to come along (ideally in droves!) and enjoy the food and ambience at 62 Wellington Parade! Your continued support is highly appreciated and encouraged!
On an even more optimistic note, many of you may be as excited as us to know that our discussions with manufacturers re: developing our Tom-Poi Sauce range and bread range are going very well and that hopefully soon-ish we may be able to supply our products to your local shops! We’ll keep you updated on this too!
Healthy, Fresh Homebaked Bread
Spurned on by a long held dream to serve light, soft, warm toasted sandwiches filled with juicy, deep fried chicken cutlets (boss' favourite lunch!) to our customers, we wholeheartedly threw ourselves into a relentless vicious cycle of trial and error to come up with a new formula wheat substitute with which to make the ideal GF bread loaf. They all said it couldn't be done, but with our stubborn determination to carefully add and subtract precise quantities of various ingredients over and over again, we believed we have succeeded in creating a GF (also lactose, excess fructose and preservative-free) bread loaf that is light, soft, stands tall, has a scrumptious bread aroma and (drum roll please...) tastes just like a good ol' fashioned, crusty bread loaf!
We have been testing it out on a number of customers to our restaurant and here's some of the feedback we have received:
＜Closest thing to real bread I've ever come across. The kids would be happy to have a sandwich made out of this bread in their lunchboxesｃ (John, diagnosed coeliac of 17 years.) ＜This bread can be eaten just as it is, without having to toast it to make it more palatable.ｃ (Shane, diagnosed coeliac of 10 years, who normally can't abide GF bread unless its toasted). ＜ I dislike GF bread but this I likeｃ (Melinda, non-coeliac wife of coeliac.) ＜This tastes just like Japanese table loaf breadｃ (Non-coeliac Japanese woman)
With this recipe under our belt we can not only create those light, soft, warm toasted sandwiches filled with juicy, deep fried chicken cutlets we dreamt about, but we can also make butter rolls, fondue bread, pizza toast and hamburger buns, and have adapted it to make our popular gyoza skins even thinner (and therefore even more popular!) Like all bread, it retains its newly baked freshness for 2 days, but if stored correctly, can last up to a week. (We recommend consuming it within 2 days, but from the third day it may be toasted or microwaved to bring back a sense of freshness.) We are excited about making this bread available to our customers to purchase and take home. However, keep in mind that we are not a bakery and can only bake a limited number each day, and ultimately will only bake what we estimate we require for each day. So those customers who would like to purchase some of our loaves, rolls or buns to take home we urge you to ring your order through in advance so that we can make sure that enough is baked fresh on the day you choose to come and pick it up.
The key to this new formula wheat substitute is that, unlike other GF bread, it can be proven (raised with a leaven) not once but twice, which is what gives it its lighter consistency and high rise. We have worked so hard on this recipe that we are not about to give away all its secrets, but we will admit that guar gum is an essential ingredient. Happily, as it happens, guar gum, which is a gum made from ground guar seeds and has a thickening action, has been found to have some health benefits, such as inhibiting blood sugar levels, lowering cholesterol levels and is effective for constipation. So not only does our new formula bread look, taste and smell great, but its good for you too! We hope you will come and try some soon.
Valentine’s Day Special Dessert!
This Valentine’s Day, S. Komatsu is offering a complimentary special dessert to the first 20 couples to dine with us on the evening of the14th of February.
Make this romantic occasion one that is blissfully free of gluten, lactose, excess fructose and stress!
As a way of expressing his heartfelt appreciation to our loyal NexGenEater customers, Mac Komatsu, the executive chef at S. Komatsu, has lovingly created a Special Valentine’s Dessert for 20 couples to enjoy.
Make sure you and your loved one are among the first 20 couples to savour this dessert by making a booking today!
See you on Valentine’s Day!
We all do, but apples are loaded with excess fructose so people with fructose 
malabsorption difficulties sadly have to give them up…. until now! Yes, we’ve done it again! We have created an apple pie alternative that looks and tastes just like apple pie (some would even say better!) and yet without a single slither of apple in it! Served with our crisp, golden (wheat-free!) pastry and a splash of cream this is pure indulgence for those who need to avoid excess fructose. So, what is the alternative ingredient, you ask? Give our Applish Pie a try and you tell us!