In this series, I asked Japanese businesswomen the stories behind their Sydney stores. Taking a short break from the bustle of her cafe, Mika Kazato, co-owner of Pa.ra.mi, stepped outside to share hers.
Words and Photos: Sachi Kobayashi
（As an editor’s note, this interview was held in Japanese）
Tucked in a laneway behind Elizabeth and Liverpool Street, there stand a row of Gingko trees. They signal that good things will come, namely that you’re about to be greeted by the warmth of a perfect traditional matcha and freshly formed onigiri. Or, on a hot day, make that a Sydneysider’s abomination – our favourite iced-oat-matcha-latte-with-honey. Such is the goodness of Pa.ra.mi, a concrete cornerstone of the CBD.
This Japanese onigiri cafe celebrates nostalgic childhood flavours through a seasonal menu that also includes soft egg rolls, Japanese soups, and cold brew from Shizuoka.
From a town where the mountains meet the sea
─Can you tell us a little bit about your experience growing up in Japan?
I’m from the southern part of Oita Prefecture, bordering Miyazaki Prefecture. I guess you could say I grew up in the mountains. My town was by the sea, and my house was by the mountains, so I grew up surrounded by the harmony of where the two meet. From the countryside…
─To Sydney.
That’s right. And Sydney has become a place called home.
─What is the story of how Pa.ra.mi came about?
Keita, the owner of Chaco Bar, and I started working on the concept for Pa.ra.mi about three years ago. Keita has been a friend of mine for a long time. The owner of the former Cre Asion cafe, Yu Sasaki, wanted to move his cafe from this building to North Sydney, so the shopfront was going to be vacant, and there was a conversation.
Yu asked Keita, what do you think? And Keita thought he might quite like to give a cafe a go, and he thought, well, if he wanted to do it, he’d prefer if it were headed by a female chef, and because he thought that, when he looked at the chefs in his vicinity, the first one was me.
─In Sydney, sushi, especially nori-maki, has always been popular, but I feel like Pa.ra.mi was one of the first to do onigiri. Was there always this idea of starting onigiri in Sydney?
Yes. Yes. I definitely wanted to start onigiri. The original plan was to sell sweets, but when we thought about necessarily having savoury food available as well, we looked around us and saw all these cafes that sold sandwiches. We thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could sell onigiri? I always want to eat onigiri, and if we were to serve good onigiri, it could be nice to have a place in the city where you could just pop in and buy one, even though it’s a little off the beaten track.
─It seems to me that Pa.ra.mi has now become synonymous with onigiri and delicious green tea. Does it surprise you that these two things are popular?
Well, matcha predates us in this location, as Yu was making matcha since the time of Cre Asion. In a sense we were just continuing that tradition, keeping the coffee and the matcha as they were. The beans are a little different – Yu used a shallower roast, and I chose to have a slightly different looking roast.
─For first-time customers, are there onigiri flavours that they may not have tried before, flavours that you particularly recommend?
The mushroom trio onigiri is a bit of fun! In Japanese, it’s called ‘takikomi gohan’, mushroom cooked with rice. But I can’t write ‘takikomi gohan‘, so I just write ‘mushroom onigiri’. You can’t translate it into English.
─Is that difficult sometimes? Are mentaiko or karaage, for example, difficult points for translation?
To that point, it seems that in recent times, a lot of people are visiting Japan. In fact, ‘onigiri’ has now officially become an English word. From about a month ago. It is now in the Oxford dictionary.
─That’s true. It felt like for the longest time no one in Australia knew what onigiri was, and then all of a sudden everybody knew about it!
Exactly. Now, onigiri has been written into the English dictionary, so I think, “Good! Yay!”.
─Do you feel a desire to share specific flavours from your childhood with Australians?
Yes, yes, I do. Specifically, my ume (plum), or my kelp onigiri. Ume, kelp, and takana are flavours that I’ve eaten for a long time, so I hope when Japanese people eat them in Sydney they also get to feel like, “Ah! This calms me! This feels like home.” Also, shake (salt cured salmon)!
─Yes, that’s exactly how I felt when I first ate your shake onigiri! It reminded me of my grandmother’s cooking, and I thought the taste was finally right.
It’s not right to change things too much, and especially if you’ve been eating these for 20 or 40 years, you already know what tastes right.
─That’s true. From the outside, it looks like there are many women in this cafe. Do you feel that?
I feel it! It’s not that we endeavour to only hire girls. Cafes are different from restaurants, well, my shop is different from those restaurants, such as the one next door (omakase), because rather than focussing on one point, I want to work quickly and efficiently. It is better to have a quick mind, so I have been doing this for 20 years, and I think that a female brain can do that better than a male brain. From experience. (Laughs). So, it worked out like this.
─What I can’t express in Japanese very well, is to do with feminism, or how I feel,
Like, women-specific?
─Yes, and wanting to protect them,
I don’t have that. Not at all. When I worked with men it was the same. I don’t try to protect them. In my experience, in this industry, I would like to be treated the same as a man. I don’t want to be treated any differently because of my gender, so I treat others with the same respect.
“A culture where you can recognise faces”
─What are some cafe culture differences between Australia and Japan?
Australia has such a strong custom of eating breakfast at cafes. Coffee too. Not at home. Especially in Sydney and Melbourne, to always drink coffee, have breakfast, to eat something at a cafe – that’s completely different from Japan.
─What is it like in Japan?
First, cafes don’t open in the morning. Not from 6am, or 8am. Cafes are open in the afternoon. I think most people go to a snack shop instead, for lunch, and then later in the day they’ll have a coffee. The breakfast business is another thing entirely in Australia.
─Do most of your regulars come from offices?
Definitely. Maybe because of our location, we get police, and over there are the lawyers. The people who go to work in that building, well it’s a big business building, with many people who work there. So basically, they are all in need of caffeine. That’s why our regular customers come not just once a day – they’re here two or three times a day.
─Three times a day is a lot!
If they come in a fourth time, we’re like, “Are you okay!?!”. It’s a culture where you can recognise faces. When you see the faces of the regulars, it’s like,
─“Good work! 頑張れ！”
“Good work! 頑張れ！Keep up the good work for just a little bit longer!”
─It seems that customers want to speak a little bit of Japanese. I’m sometimes surprised when I come here, and I hear people saying “Arigatougozaimasu!” and “Otsukaresama!”. It’s nice.
That’s right. They do say that. In the morning, and in the afternoon, there are lots of arigatou’s. But, I mean, everyone understands “Arigato” in Japanese now. It’s a new era.
─Looking towards the future then, do you want to further Pa.ra.mi, or do you dream of creating this kind of shared culture?
Yes, we want to expand onigiri. I would like to expand onigiri in the same way as sushi rolls are universalised now.
─Thank you.
Pa.ra.mi is open seven days a week, every week. You can find regular updates such as onigiri specials and public holiday operating hours, through their Instagram, linked below.
Pa.ra.mi
Address: Shop 101, 21 Alberta St Sydney 2000
Open: Monday to Friday : 8AM-3PM, Saturday to Sunday: 9AM-3PM
Instagram: @parami_alberta
PROFILE
Sachi Kobayashi
As an intern at Nichigo Press, I was interested in producing a limited series exploring the perspectives of female professionals in Sydney, many of whom I had the good fortune of interacting with regularly. I had many questions, and I didn’t know how to ask all of them.
As a mixed kid, it has often been difficult to ask questions in my second language. As the series progressed, I became better equipped in articulating the questions I wanted to ask and reflect upon their answers. It was a learning curve, and this was ever so kindly the first interview.
