Australian cafe opens on tiny Japanese island

Australian Community Media

In the middle of COVID, John Widmer traded his life on the sunsoaked Sutherland Shire, NSW, for the shores of Himeshima, Japan, where he is now the only foreign resident on the island. With his wife, Teruko Nakamichi, the Cronulla local opened Ozi Cafe, on the island to introduce Japanese caffeine lovers to Aussie beans and coffee styles.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended