About food in Japan

Italian Ramen?! Taiyo no Tomato Men (太陽のトマト麺)

Following our last post reporting a unique casual restaurant extremely specialized in fried rice, Chanan Ou or the kind of fried rice, today we introduce another unique experience that can be described a kind of B-grade gourmet (B級グルメ) by locals. 

The flagship restaurant is in Kinshicho (錦糸町), a residential town situated East Tokyo. Some of you might stay in the area, as the town has a few of international-standard hotels. Kinshicho is a vital town with a plenty of casual restaurants & bars. It is a 10-minute ride from JR Tokyo station or less from Akihabara, further more it is about 20 minutes walk to Tokyo Skytree Tower. The restaurant is about 5 minutes walk from the JR train station. 

 The unique Ramen restaurant is called "Taiyo no Tomato men"(太陽のトマト麺), representing "Sunny tomato noodle".

YES!!!

Can you imagine?! Ramen + Tomato!! the food often used for Italian dishes.

Tomato is quite popular food ingredient for Italian pasta, salad even in Japan.

Needless to say, Ramen is too. But can Tomato go with Ramen ?!

 

The anwer is here,

my order, Cheese Ramen

They go well and matched!!

Surprisingly!!!

As seen, the soup is in rich with tomato,

while the noodle is surely ramen, not spaghetti.

 

What may be better than tomato sauce spaghetti is that we can enjoy more the tomato flavor in such large volume of soup. As a kind of Ramen, it must be healthier than ordinaly ones whose soup is likely to be made from pork, beef etc.

Tomato is said to have strong antioxidant effect, which is very attractive especially for all ladies seeking for more beauty. Because of that, Taiyo no Tomato men has more female guests compared with ordinary ramen restaurants. According to the restaurant official website, the soup contains thick Tomato juice from 3 pieces per bowl. After trying with many kind of spieces, the restaurant owner decided to use only San Marzano made in Italy for the soup, as he believe that it is the best for their menu.

 

If you wonder, try the bowl by own to know how much Ramen and tomato go well together!!

Unlike an ordinary ramen restaurant but like an italian restaurant,

we found TABASCO sauce and chilli oil on the counter.

 

Season by season, time by time, we can find some special menu for limited period.

This is for summer version, with shrimps.(Description and photo added on August 2014 )

 

 If tomato is not your taste, alternative menu is available.

Chicken paitan (white soup) noodle

 

Other menu recommendable at the Italian-inspired Ramen restaurant are

Rice: Here it is called "Ra-Riso". It is served to put into the noodle soup, after you finish noodle. As we can imagine, it become closure to Italian menu Risotto.

Gyoza (Chinese dumpling) : It is a typical menu at a ramen restaurant. Here tomato is used even for this Gyoza filling.

Chicken Paitan noodle: for those who would not like take Tomato soup, the restaurant offers also Ramen in thick chicken stock soup.

Fried cheese: It looks like "Gyoza" but cheese is inside with sweet honey sauce.  

 

In addition to the flagship restaurant in Kinshicho, the ramen restaurant, Taiyo no Tomato men, serves you at some central locations in Tokyo, such as Suidobashi (Tokyo Dome stadium area), Shinjuku, Kayabacho (Nihombashi).

 

 

Restaurant Name: Taiyo no Tomato men (太陽のトマト麺)

Official website (In Japanese): http://taiyo-tomato.com

 

Kinshicho flagship shop

Address: 1-11-8 Kotobashi, Sumidaku, Tokyo

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Shinjuku 

Address: 7th Floor Odakyu MyRoad, 1-1-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

 

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Suidobashi

Address:  2-17-8 Misaki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

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Kayabacho

Address: 7-7 NIhombashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

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Shin-Ochanomizu

 Address: A.PLAZA1F, 3-2-6 , Kanda Suruga-dai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

We found some cute decorations at the entrance of Shin-Ochanomizu unit.

 

 

Cha-han Ou(チャーハン王, King of fried rice), Shimbashi (新橋), Tokyo

Fried rice is called "Cha-han"(チャーハン) in Japanese. Obviosly it is one of the most popular Chinese food in Japan and Japanese people are quite familar with the rice plate.

We found the best place to have Cha-han(fried rice) in Japan. The restaurant name shows the fact. 

 

Cha-han Ou (チャーハン王) represents "King of fried rice." 

 

The casual small restaurant is located on the basement floor of New Shimbashi Building which is in front of JR Shimbashi station next to SL Plaza.

A day during a weekend, many restaurants and shops on the floor were close because Shimbashi is a town for Japanese businessmen who work only on weekdays in the area. Even though the sign is only in Japanese, it won't be difficult to find the restaurant.

  
 

 

The restaurant is almost full around lunch time and offers only Cha-han. 

Several people could wait in front of the restaurant for the best cha-han.

Cha-han Ou make the best effort to provide the best Cha-han in various aspects to cook the plate. For example, high quality Japanese beef is used for seasoning and taking for 3days to prepare 10 kinds of vegetable ingredients in order to make the most use of the natural taste etc.

Of course the rice is not too sticky and it is exactly like the one we can find at luxury Chinese restaurant.

 

 

Cha-han is served with a cup of chicken stock soup which is also cooked with high quality chicken as well as 3 kinds of selected salt, taking for 2days.

 

On the menu, we found suggestions to enjoy the cha-han and soup the most.

1. Have a ship of the soup

2. Have cha-han

3. Have cha-han and soup together 

    *To keep this way for a half is recommendable.

 

4. Add  a spoon of speial sauce (vinaigrette soy sauce on the table)

    * Be careful not to add too much!

    * For those who like hot food, Ra-yu(Chinese chili oil) can be added as well.

5. Have cha-han mixed with the sauce

Finish!

Hope you are satisfied with a place by the kind of Fried rice.

Eventhough it is out of authentic Japanese food, the plate is worth trying once in Tokyo.

 

Chahan Ou opens from lunch time to early dinner time for weekdays and only on lunch time for weekend.

 

Restaurant name: Cha-han Ou (チャーハン王)

Address: B1 floor, New Shimbashi building, 2-16-1 Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Official website in Japanese : http://www.cya-ou.jp/

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Japanese pro-buyers evaluated the highest on ”Matsusaka beef”(松坂牛)

Kobe beef is widely known as one of the best brands among Japanese beef. However not only Kobe beef is highly appreciated by Japanese locals.

According to Nikkei Marketing Journal issued on 29th July 2013, Matsusaka beef(松坂牛) got the highest evaluation on the survey where professional buyers answered. The survey was conducted for 35 Japanese beef brands on about 150 professional meat buyers working for supermarkets in Japan.

Matsusaka beef got the highest point for two important factors to choose beef brand; Quality(freshness, looking etc) and Taste. In addition, the beef brands' evaluation by buyers were much higher than others including Yonezawa beef (the second top) and Kobe beef (the third position) as below. 

Quality(freshness, looking etc) :

Matsusaka beef 46 points (46% of buyers highly appreciated.)

Yonezawa beef 29 points and Kobe beef 29 points as well.

Taste : 

Matsusaka beef 52 points (52% of buyers highly appreciated.)

Yonezawa beef 34 points and Kobe beef 34 points as well.

 

Furthermore, Matsusaka beef, which is originated from Matsusaka-city Mie prefecture in the central part of Japan, is also highly evaluated for "Repeating demand".

 

Surely now you want to taste Matsusaka beef? Here we review and listed up the restaurants where you will find Matsusaka beef on the menu in Tokyo.

Try Matsusaka beef at either of them to make sure the evaluation by Japanese pro-buyers.

Sukiyaki by Sugimoto, a high quality beef distributor, at Roppongi

Link: http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2012/07/sukiyaki-by-sugimoto-a-high-quality-beef-distributor-at-roppongi.html

Sukiyaki (すき焼, beef pot) - Imaasa (今朝), Shimbashi (新橋)

Link: http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2012/01/sukiyaki-beef-pot-imaasa-shimbashi.html

Okahan (岡半) - Teppanyaki (鉄板焼) at Ginza

http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2010/09/okahan-%E5%B2%A1%E5%8D%8A-teppanyaki-%E9%89%84%E6%9D%BF%E7%84%BC-at-ginza.html