Gastronomic Heaven
January 11th, 2008 -- Posted in Japan | 6 Comments »Just a quick post to say that we have found gastronomic heaven here in Tokyo, with Tak and Jenny’s guidance. We drove straight from the Narita airport to a Yakitori place in one of the 6 official dowtowns of Tokyo, Roppongi. Our starter was small pieces of raw chicken (yes, raw!) with Japanese brocoli and some kind of broth. After that we had beautiful little sticks of all sorts of tasty stuff - gingko nuts, quail eggs, partially cooked chicken, chicken skin, beef, etc. We also had some of the best sake I have ever tasted, which went down very nicely with the meal. I will post pictures soon, because you have to see how beautiful it all is. My new favorite sweet is wagashi - traditional Japanese glutinous rice balls filled with sweet red bean paste. It doesn’t sound as appealing as it is. We tried cherry blossom wagashi, which was a beautiful little pink package wrapped in a salted shiso leaf and topped with a preserved cherry blossom. You eat the leaf and all, and the combination of salt and sweet as well as the crunch of the leaf and chewiness of the glutinous rice is heaven. The other one we tried had a whole fresh strawberry at the centre, surrounded by the red bean paste, then the glutinous rice. It was dusted in some kind of fine flour (I am guessing rice flour?) so it wasn’t sticky as you would imagine. After buying them all I could think about was trying them… I couldn’t wait to hold one in my hand as they look just so damn irresistable! I will never forget the first bite!!
Last night we went for an amazing sushi meal. We did it omakasi style, so the chef chose everything for us according to what was fresh and tasty. He goes to the Tsukiji market (which we also visited) every morning at 4 a.m. to buy his fish for the day. We sat at the counter and he told us that the oysters were the result of “some very good contacts” - they were delicious. The fatty tuna was absolutely gorgeous, the best we have seen and tasted anywhere, and he said quietly to our friend Tak “it is shit”. We all felt that it was a lot better than that and ordered seconds. The food kept coming, and each plate was more beautiful than the one before. We had a bright pink dish that was the liver and roe of some fish (sorry, don’t recall) — the presentation was so nice, with daikon, shiso and a few bright red fish eggs. The closest thing it could be compared to is foie gras… melt in your mouth, buttery goodness. Our next dish was interesting. While I did’t enjoy thinking about what I was eating, the taste was excellent and the memory a good one. The closest we came to an explanation was “from a boy fish, his eggs”…. it looked like some kind of apparatus closely related to an intestine. Really good, but very odd. The sashimi was more than great, it was stupendous. Tako, ebi, uni (urchin), bonito (with charred skin), beautiful tuna, scallops, white fish wrapped around tiny green chives, etc. We finished the meal with green tea and a preserved plum hand roll, which is basically nori, rice, a shiso leaf and plum preserves. We have a video of the chef making them- it was great to watch and so good to finish off the meal like that.
We have done more than eat during this week in Tokyo. We have visited some beautiful shrines, a massive bronze Buddha just near Yokohama, had a great home cooked meal by Jenny, made pottery in Mito, visited a traditional Japanese home, checked out Shibuya, Harajuku and other downtown areas, went to the Tsukiji fish market (and had a great lunch there), went to karaoke in Shibuya, and played Wii with Tak and Jenny (you know, when in Rome). It has been a lot of fun and we already know that this is a city we will definitely want to visit again.
Hope that all is well at home, and see you soon!
Paula
xoxo