Shaken up in Japan

Yes, we were there during the earthquake and I have already told the story a million times, so I could not leave my blog readers (all four of them) out of the loop.  I will however get to that later.  I'd like to think that the good parts of the trip should outshine this horrible tragedy (if not in importance at least on leaving a positive impression).   Having finally found the time to write about our trip to Japan, the first thing that came to mind was our breakfast the first morning there.

We got there late the previous day and our host (my brother-in-law) had an oyster party going on.  The next morning we wanted to start our culinary experience with a bang.  We headed out to find a noodle shop an instead ended up having some rice with beef and green onions.  With a breakfast like that, the trip seemed to be off to a good start.

Out of all the things we ate, the most surprising one (not the one we liked the most, but the most surprising) was deep-fried seaweed.  It came to the table looking like a chunk of coal.  It had the airy consistency of a dense foam, but the flavor was something between the flavor of the sea and the flavor of something fried.  Delicious, interesting and very unexpected.  The perfect started for one of our best meals while in Tokyo.

The restaurant in question was in Roppongi, a very commercial, trendy and popular area downtown Tokyo (and conveniently a few blocks from our home there).

The interesting thing about this place was that they cooked their food in hay.  This produces a big, hot flame that dies in under a minute.  The result is deliciously charred food that is nice a rare on the inside.

Furthermore, the outside has some of the pieces of burnt hay that flew up with the flame, and did have a flavor that reminded you of fresh hay.

Pictured on the left was a great piece of bonito we had at that place.  You can see the effect of the fast flame on that beautifully cooked piece of fish.

This dish is also an example of the type of presentation you learn to expect at just about any restaurant in Japan: impeccable, attractive and incredibly appealing.

After a few appetizers, we entered the soup course.    A table-top burner is placed in the center of our table under a bowl of chicken stock.  Cut up chicken is added along with many veggies.  When you are full and can't thin of anything else, the waitstaff brings rice to the table and adds it to the remaining stock.  It's possible not everybody eats as much as we did, but then again, we were on vacation on our first trip to Japan.

Another excellent meal came a few days later at another restaurant within walking distance.  That was a night for Shabu-Shabu.  Shabu-Shabu is a Japanese dish of thin slices of meat and vegetables cooked at the table in a simmering pot of broth or water, then dipped into any of various sauces.  The name is onomatopoeic of the movement and sound the meat makes while dipped in the broth.

Our friend Emi invited us to come along to Shinjuku for lunch.  This is a large entertainment, business and shopping area where she lives and works.  She took us to a Ramen Shop where we had pork pot stickers and shared three different bowls of ramen noodles.  This is truly addictive and delicious in so many ways.  Served with the soup is a not quite hard boiled egg that had been cooked to perfection to maintain a soft center.  What a surprise!

Sushi consistently had great quality, presentation and surprisingly low prices (compared with our expectations, anyway).  Toro (tuna) is available three ways based on the fat content.  Pictured at right are fatty tune (bottom right) and a medium fat (center bottom).  I found medium fat to have the perfect balance of softness and tuna flavor.  The sweet shrimp (top center) was also a crowd pleaser.

We also had kobe beef served sushi-style.  A few times even saw horse meat available the same way, although with all the seafood options available, we mostly stuck to fish (pictured at the right is tuna with seaweed rolled in green onions).  We will remember those breakfasts for a long, long time.


The day after the Tokyo Marathon (the primary reason for our visit), we went to the Asakusa,  the center of Tokyo's Shitamachi and one of the city's few districts that have preserved a certain atmosphere of the old Tokyo.  We were cold and were looking for refuge from the rain and snow and found a noodle shop on the second floor of a building

The udon noodles with tempura shrimp we ordered were the perfect, comforting meal for a cold day.  The broth brought just enough saltiness to the dish to counteract the usually (to my palate anyway) bland tempura. This soul-warming dish gave us energy to keep walking for a few more hours until we just had it with the cold and just went home.

 In Kyoto, after visiting the imperial palace and the surrounding park, we headed out to dinner to a place that had primarily skewers and grilled/fried food.  We were the first customers and got to sit at the bar by the cooks and talk to them (or attempt to anyway).  Pictured are deep-fried chicken.  Delicious but probably as unhealthy as they sound.

We ate tapas-style mostly picking items from the appetizer menu.  There was no fish available on the menu, but we had chicken livers on a skewer, grilled mushrooms and (pictured) chicken thigh meat with union shoots.  The dishes just kept on coming as we took pictures, drank beer and sake and ate to attempt to keep up.

Just about everything on the menu was grilled in a tiny hibachi-style grill.  This place, the chef told us, usually fills up later where the locals come after work and have drinks and order some apps to go along with them.  The grilled ball of rice was an item we HAD to try.  A crispy, salty (from soy sauce) exterior and a soft center made it fun to eat.

Also in Kyoto, back from the Inari temple, we were looking for a place to have lunch.  A freshly made, still-warm rice cracker served to buy as a bit of time as we selected an eatery.  From the many restaurants we saw among knife and chopsticks shops, there was one that keep appealing to us because of an old, wiry japanese woman grilling eel right outside the door.

We also liked the place because it had Japanese-style sitting (on the floor with a low table in between us).  It took us several attempts to get the eel, but it was worth the effort.  So much so that we ended up having it twice.  Barbecued eel is probably the one dish that most differs from the one you can get in the US.

On our train ride to Hiroshima, we noticed the little boxes of food that just about every passenger had and started to eat as soon as the train started moving, so on the ride back we got one to see what the rave was about.  The cold lunch box was definitely not the best meal we had, but was fun to try and kept us busy for a portion of the four hour train ride.

Our last full day in Tokyo we went to Ginza, a big, upscale shopping and business district that we had to visit before leaving.

To the northwest, there is a series of restaurants below an elevated railroad track with the look of the old Tokyo.  We stopped for a bite and ordered the item pictured at the left without knowing what it was.  It was the size of a small cantaloup and had fish and veggies mixed and deep-fried together.  Interesting, but basically fried food...

We decided to follow that by a more elegant (i.e. less fried) meal.  We chose the top of a large department store right at the main Ginza crossing.  we has a tasting menu that satisfied our appetite and left the impression we were looking for our last day in Japan.  The picture at left was our favorite dish, tender pork with veggies (so much so that we ordered it twice).

On our way down from that restaurant (12th floor), we started to feel the ground shaking and our building swaying.  The earthquake lasted for about 90 seconds and it caught us (of all places) in the glass and pottery area of the store.  Inventory crashed around us as we tried to keep our feet on the ground.  A second aftershock got us just a few floors below.

As we got to the street, we saw large numbers of people outside.  The Tokyo Metro was closed, taxi lines were endless and busses where packed, so we opted to walk back home using a subway map as a guide.  We weren't alone, half of tokyo walked home that day.  Most impressive was the calm and composure seen on every face we saw during that 90 minute long walk.  Without a doubt, these are remarkable people.

When we finally got home we were glued to the TV.  Slowly, those that had planned to come for dinner started to trickle in (all walked).  Emi had offered to cook our last dinner in Japan.  We were happy to learn that she did her shopping before the earthquake hit.

Emi (pictured at left proudly showing us a knife she had just bought) and a friend cooked for us one of the best meals we had during our trip (quite the challenge as the pictures and descriptions above probably suggest).  The meal had multiple courses served family-style at the same time (outside of tapas, probably the best way to eat).

There was a seaweed salad with lotus flower root, a heavenly rice also with some seaweed and little pieces of pork (ham?).  One of my favorite dishes that evening was a fish that was vey quickly marinated in soy sauce and ginger and then sauteed on a pan (pictured).  The soy sauce gives it the great color you see in the picture.

Another dish that I still remember was w=some thinly sliced pork that Emi cooked simply under a broiler.  The pork had been marinated in miso and a sediment that remains after sake is made.  The exterior was caramelized and a little crispy (particularly where the fat was).  The interior was juicy and tender.  A terrific meal to end a great trip. 

Now, I could not end this post without taking some time to thank our host.  Edu, my brother-in-law and friend, was a great host.  As much as we didn't want to impose during our visit, he made sure we never left the door without some advice on where to go and what to see.  He opened his house and his heart and guaranteed we had a superb time.  Edu introduced us to his friends and spent a great deal of his free time showing us around Tokyo or helping us plan our trips to other areas of Japan.  Bro, thanks for making us feel at home and welcome.  Mi casa es su casa anytime you decide to come by Minneapolis or wherever we happen to be.  I hope it won't be long.