About food in Japan

Gonpachi (権八) - the most famous Izakaya in Japan

Finally I had a chance to visit Gonpachi. The three-floor Izakaya building looks like "kura"(蔵, traditional style storehouse with a few small windows) and is located on the corner of Nishi-Azabu crossing.

The restaurant is well-known for the casual dinner meeting arranged by Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister of Japan at that time for the president of United States, Mr. George Bush.

 When I visited, the lower two floors were already occupied by dinners even it was not a weekend evening. We took a table on the third floor, where it serves also Sushi menu and where we found calm and cozy place. Japanese traditional works, paper slide doors, wood curving decoration, bonsai trees on the courtyard garden...the modern building is thought-fully designed and converted to a traditional style house.

The restaurants offer typical Izakaya menu such as "edamame"(枝豆, boild soybeans), Yakitori (焼き鳥, grilled chicken) and variety of Japanese dishes made with fresh ingredients. It also provides wide choices of Japanese sake, shochu with English words.

The last surprise was the amount of money we paid at the end. It was not expensive at all and nothing different from any other casual Izakaya everywhere. Considering the location, services provided by trained staff and quality of food, it has good value.

Related story -Izakaya Top10 by British newspaper

http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/03/izakaya-top10-b.html

Restaurant name: Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu

Address: 1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.gonpachi.jp

Outlet wine?! - Shibuya Wine Sakaba (渋谷 ワヰン酒場)

On a website, it is described ... the European style bar is the first "outlet wine" provider in Japan. It was the first time for me to hear "outlet" wine. It sounds like nice wine offered at very good price. Then I could not wait for visiting the bar. 

The bar is located on the second floor of a building at the end of Meiji street in Shibuya, just a few minutes walk from Shibuya station. On the weekend evening, it was bustling with guests of groups, couples. The wine list on blackboards or glass windows make us exited, telling the price from Yen 310 by a glass, even at the most expensive one less than Yen 1000 among choices of each 10 for red and while wine from France, Italy, Chili, California... Wine-lovers cannot miss it, after once they come to know. I guess that it is a half or even less price compared with ones of similar quality wine at other restaurants in Tokyo.

Why outlet? the bar sources the good selections of wine at reasonable cost exclusively. These bottles are regarded as "not-for-sale" on boutiques because of their etiquette labels being damaged (but the liquid inside not at all).  So the selection must be different each time but always good quality ones at bargain prices.

The bar foods are prepared by chef who has long experience at upscale Japanese restaurants. The wide selections include typical plates at European style bars (olives, lever pate, raw ham) as well as some Japanese flavors (pickles, seafood marine etc).

Today I had a glass of "beaujolai nouveau" at Yen350.

Restaurant name: Shibuya Wine Sakaba

Address: 2nd floor, 3-18-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Chinese- Momonoki (桃の木) Michelin 1* (2009)

I had a chance to re-visit Michelin 1 star Chinese restaurant Momonoki （桃の木）in Mita, Minato-ku. Again on its lunch time, tables were filled with groups of Japanese ladies or couples.

On this second time visit, I wanted to try what I could not last time and seasonal dishes which are available only this time.

 

One of startesr from its specialities 

“Mouth-watering” steamed chicken with mapo souce – the hot spicy sauce matches with a glass of beer or other alcohol drinks.

 

Seasonal plate

Shanghai crab and radish cakes hot-sweet stew – The crabs look like as they were alive in the pot…Try to dig the meat out with fingers. That is another fun.

Here all dishes are fresh, healthy and home-made like that make us relax .and comfortable This is unlike other Michelin star restaurants. It fits even for casual gathering as long as a table is booked in advance.

I would like to visit again and to try what I have not done yet. 

Related story: Chinese - Momonoki (My first time visit on August 2008)

http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/08/chinese---momon.html

Restaurant name: Momonoki

Address: Aurora Mita 105, 2-17-29 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo

鶏（とり、chicken) - 焼鶏 あきら (grilled chicken Akira)

Not only beef and raw fish, chicken also has been often used in Japanese cooking for long years. We cook chicken in many ways, from raw as sashimi (!! very rare case) to fry, grill or minched dumpling. Yakitori (spitted chicken) is one of the most popular menu at cheap Izakaya restaurants, and the dish well matchs with a glass of beer.

Akira is also called Yakitori restaurant but their Yakitori is not like what we see at other restaurants. The casual restaurant in Marunouchi Brick Square (the newest commercial complex in the business ditrict) is specialized in traditional chicken dishes. Here we can find wide selections of chicken plates and different regions of chicken from legs, wings, skin, bone to heart! every parts we can eat... and they know the best way to enjoy the food.

Its main attraction is "grill yourself" style food. Fresh chicken meat, minched chiken dumpling (tsukune), vegetables are full on plates and all were grilled and eaten up by us! 

Several bottles of seasoning are set on the table; salt, two types of soya source (sweet or dry), local pepper paste etc. We can select one depending on food and our favor. For grilled chicken, maybe salt is the best to taste the fresh, fine quality meat.

At the end of the nice dinner, we cannot miss a kind of traditional chicken food in Japan.

"Raw egg with rice" (卵かけご飯) 

In Japan, we often have raw egg with rice. But at this restaurant, of course the home-like food is also someting special. The egg provided is "Versaille" brand from Kyushu region. (rarely available and must be expensive) It is very fresh and high quality one.

Put a few drops of soya sauce into the egg bowl, broke and mix it well. Then put the egg sauce on a bowl of rice. It could look like cheese risotto.

Anyway I recommend trying this in Japan, if you have never had raw egg

Restaurant name: AKira Marunouchi

Address: Marunouchi Brick Square B1 floor, Park Building, 2-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Japanese tea (日本茶） + English tea (紅茶） = ? Lupicia tea shop, Jiyugaoka (自由が丘）

Japanese people have tea for years and years. Green tea (ryokucha, 緑茶) is the most typical Japanese tea (nihoncha, 日本茶), as many know. In the world, or even in Japan, we have different types of tea; English tea (kocha, 紅茶), Chinese tea (chugokucha, 中国茶), herb tea.

How will it be? if we mix two types of tea... Japanese green tea + English black (? considered as "red" in Japan) tea.
The answer is here.

Tea shop Lupicia created a kind of blend tea from Japanese green and Assam tea. It is named "Jiyugaoka (自由が丘） after its flagship shop's located area, known as quite residential town with sophisticated fashion and interior boutiques in Tokyo.

Look at the tea leaf, surely it includes both green and black ones mixed together.

The taste and flavour also has recognizably different types of tea. First the fresh green tea comes into the mouth. Then it remains flavour of English tea in the mouth.

Can you imagine it ?

Surely it is tasty, recommendable and interesting tea, truely a good "East meets West" product.

The tea house Lupicia offers wide selections of tea from across Japan and world. Tea leaf or bags are displayed by type of tea in the large space. Try different types of interesting unique tea selections. On the upper floor, the tea salon is located.

What I got there;

Original blend tea Jiyugaoka (自由が丘) as described above, Apricot Barley (あんず麦茶） and Grapefruit Green (グレープフルーツ緑茶）.

 

Shop name: Lupicia

Address: 1-25-17 Jiyugaoka Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.lupicia.co.jp/

 

Galali (がらり） - Izakayaka (居酒屋）

After a half and a year since my last post about Izakaya top 10 by a british journalist, finally I had a chance to visit one of the top 10 Izakaya in Tokyo.

Galali (がらり） Aoyama is located in tranquil residential area behind Aoyama street or chic fashion area Omotesando. The two-floor building, which had been a traditional style local house, is not easy to find without information.

The bottles of sake and shochu are waiting for dinners' order on the shelf. Several different flavour of "salt" are also welcoming guests on the wooden tables and counter. The restaurant suggests enjoying the salt with food provided there. That tells us...the food must be relatively simple (never with thick sauce) but enough high quality.

We ordered some typical Izakaya menu as well as speciality of the restaurant.

Sashimi plate cannot be missed for a gathering at Izakaya.

Tsukune (つくね, chicken dumpling) is a specialty of this restaurant.

Another chicken plate, grill ... can never do cooking more simple but the juicy taste is even unforgettable. We can recognize the good quality chicken carefully cooked by the chef.   

At the end of the fantastic meal, do not forget ordering a rice ball

That is the best way to enjoy "the taste of fine salt"

Surely I will come back and this is the right choice as the top 10 Izakaya in Tokyo.

Restaurant name: Galali Aoyama
Address: 3-6-5 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.gala-e.com/galali.html

Related story: Izakaya top 10 by British newspaper
http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/03/izakaya-top10-b.html

Ganko Sushi Osaka (がんこ寿司）

My report from West part of Japan continues here.
I believe that Osaka is a place where we can have nice and fresh food, especially in casual style, at reasonable cost compared with ones in Tokyo.

Ganko (meaning "stubborn") sushi is one of the examples. The major restaurant chain in Kansai region including Osaka and Kyoto is well-known for its icon, trade mark of the Sushi chef face with the lips in a straight line. Its first sushi restaurant was born in Osaka almost a half century ago. Its main business is the Sushi restaurant, casual but not Kaiten(rolling-around) style.

 

I visited a unit in Namba central area on the side of a major shopping archade and found a very long Sushi counter where fresh seafood ingredients and several Sushi cook masters were stand-by.

The lunch set includes a plate of Sushi (above but they are not all of them) plus another plate of tempura. The price is reasonable considering the quality of food and the volume provided. It is something difficult to find in Tokyo.

I would like to come to Osaka again to enjoy food...

 

 

Restaurant name: Ganko sushi Namba Honten
Address: 3-1-15 Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka City, Osaka
Website: http://www.gankofood.co.jp

 

 

Machiya restaurant - Mukadeya(百足屋), Kyoto

I had a short trip to Kyoto in this summer.
In Kyoto, where traditional style buildings are still alive, we can find "machiya"(町屋）, traditional town house. Sometimes machiya is used as restaurant, cafe or even spa.

Mukadeya(百足屋, literally meaning centipede house) is one of these restaurants, located in 5minute-walk from Karasuma staion, center of Kyoto. One of the charateristics of machiya is its small entrance (5-10 meters width) and long depth space  as twice to four times as the entrance width, had been organized because of the taxation system in a few hundreds years ago.

It is known that the house was used by a kimono trader and it has been restored as a restaurant.
After a space with high tabels, and a welcoming room, I had a table in tatami floor room with a view of its small Japanese garden. The next of this room is former "kura" (蔵）, old storehouse.

Speciality of Mukadeya is called obanzai(おばんざい）, traditional home cooking menu in Kyoto. It is not always true that obanzai menu at restaurants are inexpensive. Dinner courses especially are considered as a kind of Kaiseki. But we can enjoy obanzai lunch at Mukadeya at reasonable cost.

 

Japanese course meals at upscale restaurants always remind us "the season".
The late summer plates made me feel cool...

The last plate is the restaurant's speciality rice with black means.
It brought with nice smell of Japanese cypress from the wooden box

Defenitely it is recommendable address in Kyoto to taste local specialities of the ancient capital in the traditional town house.

Restaurant name: Mukadeya
Address: 381 Mukadeya-machi, Nishiki-koji Agaru, Shinmachi tori, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Website in Japanese: http://www.kurochiku.co.jp/inshoku/shinmachi/index.htm

 

Kakigori （かき氷） - Chimoto

The summer in Japan still continues.
It is hard to be outside for long time during day...

Kakigori(かき氷）cannot be missed as sweets and as one to cool us down during this hot summer.

Kakigori is shredded ice with sweet syrup.
It is available at some cafe especially featuring Japanese sweets or food stall at summer festivals.

For the syrup, strawberry, melon, milk and green tea flavours are typical ones.

Chimoto, a traditional sweets house in Toritsu-Daigaku, a residential area inTokyo provides incredibly big moutain of Kakigori during summer. The volume of heaped ice is double or triple as much as normal Kakigori dish. In the photo, the tea spoon is normal size...

The size makes every guest amazed Can we finish it? Don't worry, the shredded pieces of ice are very light and quickly melted in the mouth. It is not a difficult task to finishe a bowl, although it is not easy...
Two flavours of syrup are on top; milk and green tea.
The green tea is high quality, real tea but not tea flavoured syrup.

At the bottom of the bowl, we find "shiratama" (白玉、white dumplings） and "an" (餡, Japanese beans paste).
They are the joy at the end of the dish and are unique point of Kakigori at Chimoto.

The tea room is very small and has only 10 seats. You might have to wait for a hour until getting the big mountain Kakigori. It could be worth waiting so long. But please be careful, not to dry up yourself...

Another specialty of Chimoto is Yagumo mochi (八雲もち）, rice cakes made of cane sugar and walnuts and wrapped by bamboo skin. This is available throughout a year and do not have to make a que to get some pieces...

 

 

 

 

 

Sweets shop name: Chimoto
Address: 1-4-6 Yagumo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Depachika (デパチカ） - Avocado shrimps don (丼） from AOcafe

Depa-chika (デパチカ） is a kind of Japanese slang but it is important for food lovers in this country. It is abbreviation of "デパート地下食品売り場"(depart chika shokuhin uriba = food corner on underground floors in major department stores). In order to attract store visitors as many as possible, major department stores in Japan compete in the selection of food stands on their underground floors. Some can be one from other regions in Japan such as cake shops from Kobe, Sapporo or from other parts of the world; France, Italy, Korea or China. Others would be from traditional grocery or upscale restaurants in Tokyo.
Anyway, if we go to food corners in the major department stores, we are surely able to find something high quality and rate to find in any other place.

Today I found very unique and could-be strange food at "Tokyu Foodshow"(food corner of Tokyu department store) in Shibuya.

 

It is called "Avocado shrimp don"(アボカド・シュリンプ丼）. Avocado is not traditional food in Japan. I wondered how the fresh product can go with rice
It is packed in a paper box with a handle like this so we can bring the lunch box everywhere we want.

The avocado shrimp don comes from a tea house AOcafe in Aoyama.

Rice is on the bottom of the box and it is cooked with Hojicha (Japanese grilled tea). So the rice is not white color.

The first step to prepare the meal is put avocado, shrinps and vegerables onto the cooked rice.

Then mix all of them well... until pieces of avocado are crushed into very small pieces.

Following advices by the food corner staff, I put the sauce at the last of mixing process.

The tast is never bad rather I like it. Surely I will buy it again.
But I have no idea about this food origin...

It cannot be Japanese traditional food at least.
Is it modern Japanese food ?
Can anybody answer to my question?

    

To enjoy more variations of Avocado shrimps don, as my original version, for the second half, I added nori (海苔、dried seaweed), sesame and wasabi. That was also tasty and maybe better for health.

At AOcafe food stands in Tokyu Foodshow, some more don(丼）menu are available such as Avocado salmon, Natto and minched meat. All are innovative food but surely healthy ones.
Let's try the new world of taste

Shop name: AOcafe Tokyu Foodshow, Tokyu Department store Shibuya Toyoko

Address: 2-24-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Website: Tokyu Foodshow http://www.tokyu-dept.co.jp/foodshow/

Other foods I already introduced are also available at "Depachika" in Tokyo.

Les MIGNARDISES at Daimaru Tokyo

Linked page: http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2009/03/les-mignardises.html

 

Mamegen at Tokyu Foodshow

Linked page: http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/05/mame--mamegen-d.html