Base Island Kitchen: Unique Jamaican-inspired Vegan Cuisine

For more than a decade, the Jamaican restaurant Base Island Kitchen has stood out as unique, even among its neighbors in Yotsubashi, an area known for unusual eateries. Base has established a niche as a purveyor of vegan delights created by owner Kotomi Matsumoto, who said she was fascinated by the exoticism of Caribbean food.

Enchanted by Jamaican Cuisine

“I’ve been to Jamaica a couple of times, and honestly I wasn’t overly captivated by the place,” laughs Matsumoto, “but oh my, the food! I was enchanted by the local cuisine.” Base serves unique, mainly vegan cuisine inspired by the food in Jamaica, but Matsumoto, who has been vegan now for 20 years, wanted to create a place where people with different gastronomical philosophies could get together for a meal, so she included one non-vegan item: jerk chicken.

Base Island Kitchen
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Diners who order from the Vegan Lunch menu (available until 17:00) can choose three side dishes from a wide selection. Word has it that the fried options such as yam fritters with fermented nut cheese, yuba, and spiced cream sauce, and the maitake mushroom “KFC” are popular. In particular, the vegan nuggets, made with three types of tofu (firm momen, freeze-dried koya, and thin-sliced deep-fried usu-age) and minced vegetable scraps, have been a big hit since Base’s earliest days. These were inspired by Jamaican saltfish fritters, a veritable Jamaican soul food.

Base Island Kitchen: Unique Jamaican-inspired Vegan Cuisine
Base Island Kitchen: Unique Jamaican-inspired Vegan Cuisine
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Says Matsumoto, “A recent customer from Jamaica exclaimed the vegan nuggets were just like her mother’s fritters, and ended up wolfing down ten of them!
With the cockle-warming food and Matsumoto’s friendly conversation, a meal at Base is an enlivening experience.

Kotomi Matsumoto
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Name: Base Island Kitchen, Baked Confectionery, Jamaican Cuisine
Address: 1-16-27 Kitahorie, Nishi-ku, Osaka City
Phone: 080-7013-5231
Hours: 12:30-18:00; Fri.: 12:30-21:00
Closed: Sat. & Sun.
Getting there: 3 min. walk from Yotsubashi Stn., 5 min. from Shinsaibashi Stn. on the Osaka Metro
Seating: 7 counter seats, 2 terrace seats
Menu: Jerk Chicken Set ¥800; Vegetarian Plate ¥1,000; Casual Plate ¥700: Heartland beer ¥500; organic red wine ¥500, hot honey & ginger drink ¥500
※English-language menus available
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/base_islandkitchen/

ジャマイカ食堂『base』のニッチで優しいおかず

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