Great Brazilian Food in Joso City!

The picture that started it all!

This all started three weeks ago, I was scrolling around Facebook and came across a picture of three delicious looking sandwiches. Ham, cheese, salami and amazing looking bread. The picture was posted by a buddy of mine on Facebook, Adam Suslak. "Where did he get all those amazing looking deli products to make those perfect looking sandwiches?" I wondered. So I asked him. This great knowledgeable sandwich sage told me to go to TK Global Market by Mitsukaido station in Joso city. I wanted to run out the door and go immediately but unfortunately I couldn't go that day. The sandwich gods needed me to practice patience before I could partake. Three weeks later and it is sandwich time at TK Global Market.

After parking in the back of TK Global Market, my wife and I immediately went inside into the supermarket area. Adam, the sandwich sage, had mentioned that it was a Brazilian supermarket and it also had a restaurant inside. Our goal that day was to check out both. We first walked around the supermarket. Being from Miami, it felt a little nostalgic being in that supermarket because it looked like a lot of supermarkets that we have back in Miami.

Inca Kola, it has been a while!

Chicharons, I've missed you!

I was excited by a lot of the stuff I found, like Inca cola! I am not a big fan of it myself but it was just really awesome to see it there. The supermarket also had chicharons, which is fried pork skin. It is a delicious snack and I love it, it is bad for your health but I love it. There were so many other things to check out in the supermarket but then something hit me, a smell I haven't smelled since I lived in Miami. My wife looked at me with some concern because I followed the smell as if I were in a trance. It led me to the bakery section and I said something that I haven't said in years. "It smells like Cuban bread."

The Bakery Section

Anyone who reads this and knows what Cuban bread is, you most likely completely understand why a tear came to my eye when I found this bread. It has been quite a while since I have found Cuban bread. For those of you who do not know what Cuban bread is, let me explain. Cuban bread is made from the clouds of the great bakery gods of this world and us mere mortals are ever so lucky to have tried it. At least, that is how I like to think that that is how that beautiful bread is made. But TK Global Market isn't a Cuban supermarket, it is a Brazilian supermarket, so it is Brazilian bread, pão. I was still impressed by how similar this bread was to my cherished Cuban bread. I told me wife "３つ入り買いましょう" which translates to "let's buy the bag with three loafs. My wife then replied "いいえ、5個いり買います" which translates to "no, we are buying the bag with five loafs." My eyes lit up and I responded with "I love you." So we ended up buying that and also a bag of delicious looking pão de queijo (cheese bread). The cheese bread was next to the other bread loafs, they looked like small balls of bread and were very soft. I was extremely happy with the price of the bread. My bag of five loafs of pão was only 250 yen! The pão de queijo was also 250 yen and the bag brought 5 balls of cheese bread. I couldn't wait to try all my new pão .

The Meat and Deli Section

We also checked out the meat and deli section and I was quite impressed. Salami, ham, cheese, Brazilian sausages, so many sausages. We decided to buy salami and mozzarella cheese. Two great deli items for our future sandwiches. There were so many other things I wanted to buy, but it would have to wait. I will come back and buy their other deli items when I have more money to spend, that is a promise.

Well, we had our bread, we also got some chicarons, some chocolates, some black beans and of course our delicious looking salami and cheese. I was very excited to take all of this back home and try it.

Tanabata Sandwich

On July 7th, during Tanabata. My wife and I made ham, cheese and salami sandwiches with what we bought from TK Global Market (except the ham, I completely forgot to buy the ham at TK Market). Everything was amazing. The bread was so soft and delicious, it tasted almost exactly like my precious Cuban bread. The salami was out of this world and the cheese was pretty good. The salami and cheese were in big slices which is rare to find in Japan. The stars on the bread are ham stars that my wife made for Tanabata. We ate the sandwiches toasted and untoasted, both were fantastic. Everything was great but now I have a problem. I have been spoiled by TK Global Market's delicious sandwich ingredients. I am not sure if I can go back to regular Japanese sandwiches. I also tried the cheese bread for breakfast the very next day and I am definitely buying that again. I wasn't quite sure what cheese it was but I liked it. The bread was soft and oh so delicious.

Portuguese Menu

Anyway, back to our day at TK Global Market. We finished buying our stuff from the supermarket, and then we made our way to the restaurant. The restaurant is right by the entrance of the market. It is a small restaurant surrounded by what I assume to be fake plants. I checked the menu and was wondering if I would be able to order. The menu was all in Portuguese. I don't speak Portuguese so this was going to be tough. But then my wife found the Japanese menu and I was relieved. For my non-Japanese and Portuguese speakers, sorry to say, I did not see an English menu anywhere in the restaurant. 

After looking through the menu, I can report that it has a sandwich section, a hamburger section, a pastel section and a coxinha (coquettes) section. I also saw one of the most beautiful words of all time, churrasco. Churrasco is boneless steak and depending on the country, it is cut differently. I believe that Brazil uses the rump cut just in front of the tail of the cow. I had my eye on the churrasco sandwich. After the restaurant staff shot rapid fire Portuguese at me, I explained in Japanese, that I wasn't Brazilian and we ordered the churrasco and onion sandwich, the Pastel Especial (Pastel Special) and one risoles.

Our order!

Churrasco and onion sandwich

The sandwich I ordered came in the same delicious bread I was telling you about earlier. It was filled with a lot of pieces of churrasco and onions. There were some tomatoes in their but the onion and churrasco flavor over powered anything else that was in that sandwich. I was given a sandwich bag because even though the bread is amazing, it wasn't going to keep all that delicious churrasco in between the loaf. The sandwich was excellent and the churrasco was everything I dreamed of when I read it on the menu. I do want to try their other sandwiches but I highly recommend this sandwich.

Pastel Especial

If you scroll back up, you will see a picture of our order. You will see my sandwich, and then you will see something towering over my sandwich. That is the Pastel Especial. Brazilian pastel is a kind of fried pie with a lot of filling inside. It could be any kind of filling, vegetables, cheese, chicken, beef. Our pastel was filled with a lot of different ingredients that were all delicious. Minced beef, cheese, green olives and a fried egg in the middle. When I first bit into it, all I got was the fried dough. Another bite and my taste buds were overloaded. Cheese, beef, so many delicious flavors, it was great. I ended up really liking the pastel especial. The filling ratio is a little lacking but once you make your way to the end of it, you will get everything that comes with the pastel.

Cheese Risoles

At this point, we were regretting ordering the risoles. We were pretty full with the sandwich and the pastel that we weren't sure if we could eat the risoles. But I am glad we did order it. Risoles is a croquette but a different kind of croquette. The risoles was filled with gooey delicious cheese in the middle. Around the cheese was a thick layer of breaded fried dough which I really liked. It kind of reminded me of empanadas but less crunchy.

I am glad I was able to visit TK Global Market and I am planning to definitely go again soon. I hope to try another sandwich or another menu item from their restaurant. And of course, I will be shopping at the supermarket as well. If you are ever in Joso city, I highly recommend trying this place out, especially if you are a sandwich lover. It is right by Mitsukaido station so you can't miss it. Make sure to check out the bakery, all the bread I have tried from their bakery has been phenomenal.

I hope you can check out this Brazilian delight in Joso city. Who knows, while you are shopping, you might see me in the bakery section buying as much pão as I can.

Enjoy!

For more information on TK Market, check out their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tkstore/1507845786203362

Update

 Restaurant Closed

Sad news my fellow Ibarakians. I recently went to TK Store for some delicious bread, ham, cheese, and pao de queijo. I got all my stuff at the supermarket area and was thinking of getting a sandwich at the restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant seems to be a causality of the COVID years. It is gone for good. The restaurant had some great sandwiches, pastels, and churrasco. What a sad day.

Pastels Still Available

But not all is lost. You can still order pastels to go. So if you would like a tasty meat pastel, just order it from the touch screen machine and the supermarket area will prepare it for you.