About food in Japan

Rice(steamed rice) – 米（ご飯） at Seikoan

Steamed rice, it is no doubt a speciality of Japan. The species of rice is not same with what we can find in other parts of world. Japanese rice is short and sticky when it is cooked. Traditionally Japanese have a bowl of rice every days or more than once a day and rice is considered as the staple of the nationality. 

Niigata prefecture is known for the main production region of rice and for the high quality of the harvest. Seikoan is a restaurant operated by Niigata Prefecture exhbition house “N’espace” in Tokyo. There we can find local specialities of Niigata prefecture including rice, seafood, sake, pork and vegetables.
The rice is served by earthen pot and was cooked just for us!

The carefuly boiled by professional and the highest standard of rice is a littele bit sweet and soft. The color is stark white.

A plate of pickeled vegetable is brought and it matches perfectly with rice.

 

 Tofu is pure and also high quality one, of course.

 

Mozuku is a kind of seaweed with vineger.

 

Maitake (mashroom) tempra.

 

We can eat more than one bowl of rice with a variety of nice side dishes here!

 Restaurant name: Seikoan (静香庵）

Address: 4-11-7 Jingu-mae, Shubuya-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.nico.or.jp/nespace/tenpo_3.html

Unagi(うなぎ、鰻） eel - Matsukawa

The rainy season was ended in Japan and now hot summer has arrived!

It is very important to take care of what we eat and drink during summer in order to keep the best health condition through this hard season, because the heat and humidity of Japanese summer are likely to make us have littele appetite.

Unagi(eel, うなぎ、鰻）is traditionally known to be one of the foods that make people more energetic by taking.
"Doyo no ushinohi" is set on the last half of July according to Japanese old almanac and the date has been recognized for hundreds years in Japan on which people take Unagi menu to be ready for comming hot summer. In 2008, it is the 24th of July.

I enjoyed the menu a little bit earlier than the tradition at a restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Unajyu(うな重）is a typical and traditional menu of Unagi. A few pieces of grilled eel dipped in special sweet sauce are on rice and they are neatly put on a square box.

Not only the quality of eel(some are from Japanese ports and others are from Chinese or farm-raised), but also the special sauce are keys to be a good plate(or box?) or not. Traditional Unagi restaurants have each own receipe for the sauce inheritated generation by generation.

A clear soup with a small piece of eel liver is likely to be served with Unajyu.

Unagi restaurant Matsukawa is located very closed to Shibuya station. It is even surprising that we can find such a traditional dinning just a few seconds after going through the most busiest and noiziest intersection in the world(I guess), Shibuya Hachiko Crossing.

Restaurant name: Matsukawa
Website: http://www.unagi-matsukawa.co.jp
Address: 22-1 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Yakatabune - Cruise on Japanese traditional boat

Yakatabune is Japanese traditional style boat where we can enjoy the beauty of season on cruising.
In Tokyo, Tokyo-Bay and Sumida river are typical course of cruising.
This evening I took cruise and dinner course to enjoy cherry blossoms along river side of Sumida.

The boat departed from the pier in Shinagawa after welcome greeting by the hostess.
Two staff are in service for us as well as almost 40 other guests. All drink is included so we can drink alcohol such as beer, Japanese sake, wine etc as much as we want.
But what we need to keep in mind is that alcohol affects stronger on the human body when we are on swinging boat than at normal restaurant...

After we passed narrow canal, the boad proceeds to Tokyo-Bay.
Night illuminations of Tokyo tower, the Bay Bridge and unique shape buildings in Odaiba are the first attraction.

Dinner is typical Japanese "party" menu.
Sashimi boat is one of the main dish. That makes us delighted to the eyes even for Japanese locals.

Tempura(deep oil fry) is another attraction.
It is served just after freshly taken up from the oil.
That is what we can rarely expect at Japanese casual restaurant in town.
The host never forget that we are takings this cruise to enjoy Spring season. So we can find a piece of cherry flower on plates!
It is even fried in oil and we can eat it!

The half way point is Asakusa, where cherry trees in a row on both river sides. The boat stopped at the point for a while so we could enjoy watching full blossom of the trees from the surface of the river.
We have to accept the situation that it is not only us who would like to enjoy the beautiful spring scene. Many other boats are there and many people are on the river side as well.
Nobody can miss this opportunity!

The boat comes back to the pier after two hours cruise with a nice dinner and drinks.
What a fantastic evening to have a pleasure of Spring season in traditional way!

*More photos are uploaded here.

Restaurant(Cruise boat) name:　Funasei
Website: http://www.funasei.com/

Kushiage(skewered and fried) - Hantei

"Kushiage" means food skewered then fried.
"Kushikatsu", skewered and pan-fried pork or beef is the most popular kind of Kushiage. Not only meat but fish, shrimps, vegetables are often used as ingredient of Kushiage.

Today I visited kushiage restaurant in Nezu, Bunkyo-ku.
Now it is rare to find a restaurant specialized in kushiage menu.

As soon as we ordered lunch course menu, the table was set
by a waitress. A small dish of starter,  a glass filled with stick-shaped vegetables(carrot, cucumber and Japanese radish), a bowl  stuffed with pieces of cabbage and three kinds of spices plate(miso, salt and sauce for fry)...made us excited for what we were going to have.
                                           

The first dish is shrimp and ginger. Pan-fried shrimp is not rare in Japane but we can never see the one wrapped with "shiso"(Japanese basil). It is a good idea! We can imitate the way in home cooking... A stick ginger fry cannot be found any other place, maybe... Actually ginger was a speciality of this area long ago as the name shown.(Yanaka ginger)

Even though it was lunch time, I could not stop ordering alcohol drink with this nice pan-fried food. What is wonderful at kushiage restaurant is that all fried food were fresh and just taken out from a fryer by the skillful chef. Finally we had 8 kinds of kushiage and a bowl of rice followed.
At the end of the course, seasonal flavored ice cream is served. This time, it was sakura"cherry flower" flavor! It was the last surprise for us. It is difficult to find sakura flavor ice cream even in this country!

Restaurant name: Hantei (はん亭）

Address: 2-12-15 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo　
Website: http://www.hantei.co.jp
*The restaurant's building is registered as a cultural heritage.

Hanasanshou (Michelin * in 2008)

Hanasanshou is located in Park Hotel Tokyo, a member of Design hotels.
The lobby and the Japanese restaurant, both are located on the 25th floor.

Celebrating the Michelin awarded a star,  the restaurant organizes special course menu using seasonal ingredients.

In the modern interior decoration, providing authentic traditional Japanese dishes from Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, it also has a good selection of sake, shochu.

For more photos, please check here.

Restaurant name: Hanasanshou (花山椒）

Address: Shiodome Media Tower, 1-7-1, Higashi Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-7227

Website: http://www.parkhoteltokyo.com