00:00Japanese coffee tends to be very bitter.
00:27And so either they've undercooked the beans or they've overcooked them.
00:33So you either get a really bitter taste or an acidic burnt taste.
00:37And we're sort of turning around.
00:39When we first opened, we were selling a lot of black coffees, which they know as Americanos.
00:44On my menu, it comes up as Australiana because I wasn't going to be an American.
00:48Now people are coming in and going, oh, flat white.
00:52And it's interesting watching the Japanese because we're primarily a takeaway shop.
00:59They're not in here saying, oh, this coffee is beautiful.
01:01I actually leave the shop and then come back in to tell us that the coffee is delicious.
01:07So it's not politeness, it's actually you must be hitting the mark somewhere.
01:13We do make toasted sandwiches, so like a smoked ham, mustard and cheese.
01:18And on some of those, I put a smearing of Vegemite.
01:23And it just gives that little bit extra flavour.
01:27So the toasted sandwiches really, and we use Australian teas, so I don't know if you can
01:32see these, but these are from Western Australia.
01:37And they're all like using Aboriginal plants in amongst the tea.
01:43So they've become quite popular as well.
01:46We get cookies from a friend of mine in Coburg, which is sort of up from the main island.
01:53But we only have a small space here.
01:55I'm looking at hopefully taking over the back end of the building shortly.
02:01And then we'll be doing like eggs, bennie and stuff like that because a lot of, we've
02:05only got five restaurants on the island.
02:08And a couple of them you can only get into if you pre-booked the day before.
02:13And of course, some people come to the island not knowing that.
02:17And then the other restaurants are full, so this will sort of give us another opportunity.
02:22The local Shinto priest is probably my best customer.
02:24He's in here every day for coffee, at least once.
02:28He'll get a toasted sandwich.
02:31He tries to get, because I've got jars of Vegemite for sale as well, and he'll bring
02:35somebody in.
02:36This one loves Vegemite.
02:37I'll give him a little bit of a knife.
02:39And some will go, oh, this is really nice.
02:41And others go, oh, oh, that's really good.
02:44But I say to them, it's Vegemite's like natto.
02:48It's a natto's Japanese breakfast dish, which is fermented soybeans.
02:55And it's really gluey, like you see them mixing it up and it's like got strings of glue.
03:01It's not something I'm a big fan of.
03:03And I guess we grew up on Vegemite.
03:05They grew up on natto.
03:06I was worried when I first started here that not being able to speak the language could
03:19be a problem.
03:21But I'd make a joke of it.
03:23You know, people come in and they'll start talking Japanese and I'll just go, Nihongo
03:26Choto Choto Choto Choto.
03:27That means a little, little, little.
03:29And then they start to laugh.
03:32And the other thing with the name of the shop, O-Z-I, Aussie, I couldn't put our normal spelling
03:37for Aussie because the Japanese couldn't say it, A-U-S-S-I-E.
03:41So I thought, oh, Aussie, that's a perfect thing.
03:44My wife didn't say anything.
03:45Aussie is actually pronounced O-G, which means old uncle.
03:50And so that's become a bit of a laughing thing because they come in and we've got the Australian
03:54flags and I've got Australian jerseys and all that sort of stuff up on the walls.
03:59And they go, oh, Australian.
04:01I said, yeah, Aussie, like Aussie beef, not O-G.
04:05And they all laugh.
04:07So it's become, even though I don't speak the language, I can still converse with them.
04:11You know, at worst possible case scenario, Google Translate.
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