143. Tokyo - Arigato gozaimashita: Wrapping Up A Week in Japan / ありがとうございました, 日本!

If I dedicated a post to every single restaurant I visited in Tokyo, I would never get to my long back log of posts from the Bay Area and the East Coast.  Here's the remainder of the eating, seeing, and doing from Japan... all in one post.

Ken and I slurped up some very homey ramen that really hit the spot after an exhausting morning at Tsukiji Market.  The shop owner joked that the bamboo was from the same place Ken was from... Taiwan.  Look for a red noren that says ramen in white Japanese lettering (ラーメン) hanging in the doorway.  The faded red business signage reads Chinese food (中国料理) in Japanese.  The owner says the gyoza is very good too.

天好 24
東京都 台東区 / Tokyo Metropolitan, Taito Ward
花川戸 1-15-7 / Hanakawado District, 1 Chome 15-7

We passed the Asahi Breweries Headquarters on the way to Tokyo Skytree, the tallest freestanding tower in the world.  It was camouflaged against the gray sky and too pricey to travel up to the observation deck.  We relaxed over some chocolate and macadamia ichigo wafflate on the entrance floor instead.  The coffee is decent, and the chocolate beverages are milky and quite delightful.

100% Chocolate Cafe
東京都 墨田区 / Tokyo Metropolitan, Sumida Ward
押上 1-1-2 / Oshiage District, 1 Chome 1-2
東京スカイツリー / Tokyo Skytree
東京ソラマチ 4F / Tokyo Solamachi, 4th floor

A popular expat gathering hole serving Spanish-Italian influenced Japanese tapas helped us shield the hustle and bustle of Metropolitan Tokyo at bay.  We ordered the hot spiced chicken, fries with anchovy butter, squid in black ink sauce, and quattro formaggio pizza, oysters, and more.  The highlight was the octopus and ooba pasta with yuzu pepper.  The shiso garnish helped keep the pasta light.

Rigoletto Bar and Grill
東京都 港区 / Tokyo Metropolitan, Minato Ward
六本木 6-10-1 / Roppongi District, 6 Chome 10-1
六本木ヒルズ ウェストウォーク 5F / Roppongi Hills, West Walk, 5th floor

Kristen has a knack for introducing some very aesthetically appealing treats.  She ordered a gripping grape tart, and I selected a scrumptious summer peach tart.  There are more than two dozen tarts, all of which center around an individual fruit or combination of fruits that are formed into various flowers and other intricately carved shapes.

Berry Café
東京都 中央区 / Tokyo Metropolitan, Chuo Ward
銀座 3-2-15 / Ginza District, 3 Chome 2-15
外堀通り / Sotobori-dori Street
ギンザ グラッセ 6F / Ginza Glasse, 6th floor

A true late night in the streets of Tokyo must include yakitori at an izakaya.  Grilled chicken wings, skewers of extra crispy chicken skin and succulent meatballs are go-to favorites.  What captured my attention, though, was the mentaiko omelette... salty orange fish roe rolled into sweet yellow tamago for the ultimate egg in egg action.  Oh, and the beer here is only 380 yen in the wee hours of the night.  Kanpai!

串焼ダイニング十兵衛 (Juubee Skewers Dining)
東京都 渋谷区 / Tokyo Metropolitan, Shibuya Ward
恵比寿南 1-23-5 / Ebisuminami District, 1 Chome 23-5
恵比寿 スカイウォーク出口 / Yebisu Skywalk exit
アメリカンブリッジ ビル 1F / American Bridge Building, 1st floor

We celebrated the final night in Tokyo with drinks... a foam topped Yebisu Stout at the top of the Westin overlooking Ebisu District seemed fitting.  There is a scenic view of the Tokyo night scape just behind the bar.

コンパスローズ / The Compass Rose
 東京都 目黒区 / Tokyo Metropolitan, Meguro Ward
三田 1-4-1 / Mita District, 1 Chome 4-1
恵比寿 ガーデンプレイス 内 / Yebisu Garden Place 
ウェスティンホテル東京 22F / Westin Tokyo, 22nd floor

And that's about as much as my stomach can handle.  It's time to pack, get some rest, and head to the airport first thing in the morning... Taiwan is next on the itinerary! Super big thanks to Ken, the Lee family, and Kristen for the utmost guidance and hospitality on this trip.  Without you guys it would not have been as fun and gluttonous as it was.  Arigato gozaimashita!



I'm going to finish up a few posts on some recent fooding in the States.  Posts on my trip to Taiwan will start popping up in October, so stay tuned... until then, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

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135. Tokyo - No Mo' Nomihodai for Me / 半兵ヱ 飲み放題 (Tokyo: Shibuya-ku, Dogenzaka / 東京都: 渋谷区, 道玄坂)

Nomihodai (飲み放題) means all-you-can-drink in Japanese.  Sometimes offered in conjunction with tabehodai (食べ放題), it is usually an option that many izakaya (居酒屋) in Japan offer as a way to eat and drink... for cheap.  Ken and I joined his local Japanese friend Reina at Hanbey (半兵ヱ), a hole-in-the-wall izakaya in Shibuya for some all-you-can-eat-and-drink festivities.  For only about 2,500 yen (about 25 USD) per person, we were treated to unlimited biru, sake, and fried food for two hours.

Normally I would post a plethora of food pictures, but the food at Hanbey, like many all-you-can-eat Japanese izakaya, is pretty terrible.  It was a good thing that there's plenty of cold beer to wash the food down with.  Despite the terrible food, what attracts people to these all-you-can-drink establishments is the warm ambiance and fun environment that makes for good times.  This particular location of Hanbey required navigating through a labyrinth to our table.  We sat down next to the open air kitchen so that we could see the chefs at work.  The walls were decorated with old movie posters, and they echoed with the cheerful noises of friends and co-workers toasting each other after a hard day's work.

After the many rounds of beer, the two hour eating and drinking party comes to a close when the staff brings the check and a complimentary order of bread to the table to help mop up all the alcohol in everyone's stomachs.  I guess it's the restaurant's way of saying, "You ain't gotta go home, but you gotta get the hell outta here!"

After one experience with nomihodai, I know I don't want no mo'.  But who would say know to friends, fun, and all-you-can-drink? Until then, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

半兵ヱ センター街店 / Hanbey Town Center Store
東京都 渋谷区 / Tokyo Metropolis, Shibuya Ward
宇田川町 31-4 / Udagawacho District, 31 Chome 4
井ノ頭通り / Inokashira-dori Street 
シノダビル2F / Shinoda Building, 2nd floor

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123. The Savory Uni Goma Tofu from Aburiya Toranoko (LA: Downtown/Little Tokyo)

Finally finished with the 12-post series on Portland, I am now turning my attention back home to a restaurant in Little Tokyo called Aburiya Toranoko.  This sushi bar and izakaya has an extensive menu with nearly 100 appetizers, entrees, sumiyaki skewers, sushi and sashimi selections.  However, after tasting the fresh oysters with ponzu sauce, various grilled skewers, and the obligatory fried chicken karaage, I knew that there was one dish that stood out to me.  The savory uni goma tofu made me gush with delight as it has done with esteemed writers such as Jonathan Gold.

Uni goma tofu, wedges of sea urchin roe laid out ever so carefully across a perfectly square cube of tofu made of ground sesame, is served in a fist sized teacup with a puddle of sexy soy sauce at the bottom.  It is the star of the Toranoko menu, and it wowed upon first and every subsequent bite.  The tofu is savory... it is smooth... and it is packed with sesame flavor.  Cutting into it with your spoon is like diving into a savory custard or firm pudding.  It is almost flan-like, and you can savor it by swirling it over the waves of your tongue over and over again until the very last bite.  It is the most recent amazing-delicious moment that I have had, and I must have more.  Made in house by the chefs themselves, it is something that everyone who is a fan of Japanese food should taste.

Other items that we ordered include the tsukune burger made with chicken meatballs and topped with bacon, the succulent braised buta kakuni, and the squid ink and clams risotto.  A few Toranoko crafted cocktails, such as the shiso leaf martini, can round out your experience here in this dimly lit social gathering spot. 

Special thanks goes out to Mr. Ken Lee and his brother John for entertaining that night and introducing me to the very gracious restaurant management.  Until the next amazing-delicious moment, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Read Jonathan Gold's First Bite of the uni goma tofu from Aburiya Toranoko here.

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Post 26.8: Vancouver - Day 2 (Dinner)

So after a breakfast of sushi rolls and a lunch of Japanese-American hot dog fusion, Amanda said it was time for her to show me her favorite Japanese izakaya in town.  And who was I to refuse? This girl knows where to eat!



Guu is guud.  It really is.  It even says so on the chopsticks wrapper.  And everyone knows that if it's in writing, it must be true.  Hah.



We sat at the bar, and although there's not as much elbow room at the bar as there is at a table, the bar offers a great view of the chefs hard at work.  Substitute elbow room for a glimpse into the fast-paced chaos of an izakaya's kitchen? Count me in!



The menu at Guu is quite extensive.  Not only does the food menu come in a laminated, ring-bound, mini-Rolodex-like, school-report format, it comes in the forms of paper (the chef's specials of the day) and wood too.  (The entire menu can be viewed from a podium-like fixture by the front door.)  From sashimi to salad, from hot oden to cold dishes, from fried to grilled... Guu has it all.  I wanted to order everything.  But I called upon Asahi-san first, as he, Sapporo-san, and Kirin-san are my very good buddies.  Amanda chose to have a Ramune mojito, which substituted Japanese marble soda pop for the mojito's traditional fizz. Cheers!



Based on Amanda's recommendation, the first item we ordered was the daikon salad.  At first I thought, "How can you possibly make a salad out of radish and have it taste good too?" Well, just throw in silky strands of shark fin, gleaming noodles of jellyfish, and curls of fried onions, and you've got yourself a salad.  Mmm... the combination of different textures blend well together... and the delicate flavors from the sea create a salad that is not too strong or overpowering.  Cobb salad, this is not.  A light and refreshing Asian-style salad, this is.



The next item that we selected was the salmon yukke.  I've only ever had tuna yukke before, so this was one of my rare encounters with salmon yukke.  And this rare encounter was almost magical.  The salmon had a gorgeous, glowing, radiant color... but I'm sure that the dark teriyaki sauce in the background helped to bring out the glow too.  What struck me  most was not the color but, once again, the combination of textures.  There was the tender and fleshy-sweet salmon sashimi that contrasted with the smooth saltiness of the teriyaki sauce... and then the slight, crackling crunch of the shrimp chips against the firm resilience from the pine nuts.  Wow, Guu... this really was guuuuud.





Beef sashimi was next.  We moved on from a red-fleshed fish to a red-fleshed mammal.  And oh, the red flesh of this cow was oh, so tender.  I wish I could say tell you how raw beef is supposed to taste, but honestly, I can't.  I only know if beef is good or bad when it's cooked.  The best bovine expertise I can provide is that the meat didn't smell like past-the-date beef from Vons, and it tasted pretty similar to the rare cut of prime rib at Lawry's.  The paper-thin slices of beef were surrounded by a ginger tomato sauce, a drizzle of mustard mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of chopped basil and green onion.  Okay, I rescind my comment.  I know how raw beef is supposed to taste.



My favorite item was the ebimayo, a signature item at Guu's Thurlow location.  The ebimayo was also Amanda's recommendation, and I know exactly why Amanda (or any Guu regular for that matter) would swoon over it.  Shrimp and potatoes are baked together in a gratin-style dish, mixed into and blanketed by cod roe, cheese, and Japanese mayonnaise...  Seeing it made me hot and bothered.  Tasting it made me melt like cheeeese.  Ahhhhhhh... and the best part was that the curled-up shrimp and the spherical potatoes were the same shape and size.  Covered under the layer of cheese and cod roe mayonnaise helped disguise the sea critter and the land veggie... I was in for a surprise everytime I forked this into my mouth.  Really though, it's easy to distinguish shrimp from potato, but... I was eating with my eyes closed.



I ordered a fifth item... the butabara skewers.  Cannot. stay. away. from. pork. belly.  If pork belly is in front of me, I will eat it.  If pork belly is on the menu, I will order it.  If there is no pork belly in sight, I will crave it.  Sweet garlic cloves separated strips of my favorite meat, and sesame seeds somehow held it all together.  Mmmm... say no more.  PORK BELLY was here.



Four dishes for two people is usually quite the meal in itself.  But I... well, if it's good, I can eat.  And if I don't destruct what's in front of me, I'd be happy to let it destruct me.  So five.  Five dishes.  Two and a half stomachs.  Countless times I heard Amanda exclaim, "How can you be hungry right now? I'm still FULL!"

Poor Amanda.  Look at the hell I put her through with my attempt to eat my way through Vancouver.  And we had yet to hit up Vancouver's annual Summer Night Market.  If that's not culinary masochism, I don't know what is.  But for now... some more digestion via walking? You betcha. 

Next post: Some more Japanese... and little bit of Taiwanese

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