Kochuan, Happo-en Park, Tokyo

This is basically a food porn post. While in Tokyo during the cherry blossom season, I went to a meal for my cousin's daughter's birthday at the very respected Kochuan restaurant inside Happo-en park.
We had our kaiseki meal in a traditional tatami room that overlooked the cherry blossoms in the park. The theme of the meal was Hanami.
We started with a nice glass of Sakura champagne, and the courses started coming.
This was a shrimp paste made tableside in broth.



This amazing dish was sea urchin, scallop and egg.
Bamboo shoots grilled and then served in the actual shoot.

Red bean and mochi.

108-8631 / 1-1-1-Shirokanedai, Minato-ku
03-3443-3111

Food Porn- Jangara Ramen, Harajuku, Tokyo

Spicy miso Kyushu style ramen from Jangara Ramen in Harajuku, Tokyo might just be one of my favorite foods. The fatty pork is unbelievable. For 150 yen, you can get an extra order of noodles to help finish off their amazing broth.

Shanti Soup Curry Dining

In Harajuku in Tokyo, we had lunch at Shanti, a soup curry restaurant. This kind of curry, I read, originated from Sapporo, Hokkaido, and consists of a light broth made of spring water and various spices with vegetables and various meats added in and served with a side of rice.
I got the special "Black-Eyed Peas" soup curry (yes, the named after the band). It had corn and black-eyed peas mixed in. The flavor was nice.
We had the option of getting the spice 1 to 10. I got a 6 which was really actually quite mild. The Japanese are not much for the heat I guess. We also got a nice side of fried naan with our meal.

Honoraly Harajuku Bldg.2F
3-26-11 Jingu-mae
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
03-5772-6424

Super Takoyaki Balls in Tokyo

On our first day in Tokyo, we went to a section of town called Akihabara, aka "Electric Town", an area know for it's electronics and "otaku" stores. We walked past some food vans, and I immediately knew I wanted to try a cart that featured giant Takoyaki stuffed with 10 ingredients.

Normal takoyaki, consists of a ball of batter filled with squid, but these takoyaki advertised 10 items including squid, clam, sausage, cabbage, mashed potato, quail egg, mushrooms, corn, and 2 other things I could not identify (sorry). They were also about 3-4 times larger than the usual takoyaki- about 3-4 inches in diameter.
The ball is then topped with okonomiyaki sauce, bonito, and mayo. The cart offered alternate toppings like cheese, kimchee, and onions as well.
It was like eating a giant spherical Japanese hot pocket- yum.

McDonald's in Tokyo

Kelly and I were in Tokyo last week, and I've got a few upcoming posts from the trip, but I figured I'd start with some fun.
With Japan recently winning the World Baseball Classic, the Japan McDonald's was promoting the special McHotdog. Oddly enough, it was meant for breakfast!?!
I ordered it as a meal one morning with a coffee and hash brown. The McHotdog was actually a decent hot dog on a whole wheat bun with ketchup, mustard and relish.

I did not get the try to advertised McPork, which I'm assuming was a take on the Japanese Katsu style deep fried pork sandwich.
Kelly's favorite item was something we got at Narita airport as we were leaving Japan, the Green Tea Oreo McFlurry. It was pretty great- if they had this in the US, I would be in trouble- the green tea flavor complemented the Oreo cookie so well.

Doughnut Plant in Tokyo

Fougoo and I knew that there were Doughnut Plant franchises in Tokyo, but we were totally stoked when we found a branch a few blocks from where we were staying. Of course, we had to go.
The store had a lot of the same doughnut flavors from the New York store including the classic Tres Leches, the Chocolate Blackout, Vanilla Bean, and the Valrhona Chocolate doughnuts. I think the cake doughnuts were a little smaller than the ones you can get in New York, but the raised ones were the same size.





We were in Japan for the Golden Week, and the store had a Green Tea Fair special, featuring a raised Green Tea doughnut, and Green Tea and Creme filled doughnut. The store, unlike it's American counterpart, also made bagels and served lunch in addition to the doughnuts.







We got several doughnuts to try. It was very Japanese of them to individually wrap each doughnut we ordered in it's own napkin.
I quite liked the green tea doughnut- it had a nice sweet flavor and went well with the yeast doughnut. Fougoo wasn't too impressed with their bagels, but hey, who wants to order bagels at the Doughnut Plant.

Food and Design

In Tokyo, we went to the 21_21 Design Sight Museum in the new Tokyo Midtown area - the exhibit on view was Chocolate. Fascinating idea with chocolate as everything from the medium to the inspiration for design (Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures). Issey Miyake designed a chocolate collection in his Pleats Please line specifically for the exhibition, and I splurged and got a chocolate layer cake tank dress. I wore it out to Mother's Day dinner at Bookbinder's in Philadelphia, and my outfit ended up matching our dessert, Bookbinder's famous strawberry shortcake!

Lunch at Baker Bounce, Tokyo Midtown

In Tokyo, I went to the new uber-mall Tokyo Midtown, and had lunch at Baker Bounce. The place sells itself as American Diner food, and surprisingly, the burgers are good size and the prices aren't too bad.
I ordered the Egg'n Bacon Burger which was pretty darn good and while not quite like a real American burger was pretty good for a Japanese interpretation.
To drink, I had Wilkinson Ginger Ale, which came in a cool green bottle. I didn't realize that this is a Japanese brand of soft drink.

Ramen in Jiyogaoka

Personally, as exemplified by my lard ramen post, I prefer a heavy, rich, and fatty broth for my ramen. While in Tokyo, my cousin, took me to a ramen shop in his neighborhood one evening for guy's night out for ramen. Sorry, there was no English name for this place, and I can't translate the sign.
I got a bowl of ramen that consisted of a heavy miso soy broth that was the density of split pea soup. The noodles were firm and consisted of two types- one thick, one thin. Included were pork meatballs, seaweed, and a soft boiled soy egg. It hit the spot.

My cousin ordered a noodle with an even richer broth. It was more of a noodle dish for warm weather. The noodles were served cool with pork, a gently poached egg, and green onion. Then, the broth came as a side that he would dip the noodles into before eating. This broth was really rich with a thick layer of oil on top.

Additional: According to a poster, this place is called Buta Soba Dai Dai. Thanks for the info.

Bonjuk - Korean Traditional Porridge Restaurant

So, when Fougoo and I were in Tokyo, we went to the neighborhood of Nishi-Ogi-Kita to see Lickingpants and his wife open a new store for Portland artists in Japan, Moshi-Moshi.
Afterwards, we decided to grab a bite in a Korean congee restaurant, Bonjuk. Here is an English site. In researching this post, I discovered that this restaurant is yet another global chain with branches in LA, Las Vegas, and supposedly soon in NYC.
I had the Octopus and Kimchee Porridge (top). Fougoo had the Mushroom and Oyster Porridge. The rest of our party had the Mung-Bean Porridge and the Pine-Nut Porridge.
Overall, I would say it was just okay. The restaurant sells itself as "Wellbeing Slow Food" and a health brand, but it's really just fancy congee.
Personally, just give me some congee with preserved duck egg in it and I'm happy.

Korean BBQ at Manpuku, Tokyo

One rainy afternoon in Tokyo, I went with my cousins to a restaurant in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo called Manpuku. It served a Japanese style of Korean BBQ called Yakiniku, and the restaurant served Saga beef, a beef which ranks in quality with Kobe beef.
We did get the usual marinated beef or "robu" which is similar to Korean "bulgogi", but the restaurant also specialized in a "salted short rib" or shio-karubi" which consisted of salt and onions on one side of the meat. Instead of flipping the meat on the grill, you had to leave the non covered side on the grill and grill one side a little more so the top is still pink. The beef was pretty amazing.
We also had the "negitan shio" or salted beef tongue as well as scallion fried rice with the meal. Researching for this post, I found out that this restaurant has a branch in LA. Next time I'm in Hollywood, I'm there!

Lamb BBQ in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo

One evening in Tokyo, my cousin took Fougoo and I to a local restaurant in his neighborhood, Jiyugaoka. I apologize for not having an English name, but I unfortunately don't read or write Japanese. I did take a picture of the storefront.
My cousin told us that the restaurant was a style of Mongolian BBQ that specialized in lamb. The restaurant was on the second floor, small, a little dark, but it smelled nice.
We sat in a booth with a large charcoal burning stove with a cast iron grill on top. The grill was then prepped with a sizeable piece of lamb fat smeared onto the heated iron top.





We ordered a few plates of lamb, and the meat looked beautiful. The first plate was of thin strips of lamb, and the quality of meat was so good that we pretty much ate the lamb rare-medium rare from the grill. Unlike Korean BBQ, no marinade was used. It was meat- pure and simple.







The second plate was more of a lamb steak. It came with a sauce made with soy sauce and sesame oil that we could dip the cooked pieces of meat.
We also got several kabob skewers of lamb (below). These were lightly seasoned, as the focus of the flavor was the actual lamb meat.






On the grill, we added onion, mushrooms, and bean sprouts. This restaurant was pretty amazing, something I had never tried before. We all smelled liked smoke and lamb afterwards.

Snacks with Sake in Tokyo

In Tokyo, we stayed with Fougoo's brother, and on one day, they threw a birthday party for his four year old daughter. The kids were playing the the family room while the parents spent time in the kitchen having more than a few drinks.
One mom brought sake from her family's sake brewery. (the green bottle on the left) It was nice, a daiginjō-shu I think.
Of course, with alcohol, you have to have snacks. Well the Japanese are not just satisfied with beer nuts. My cousin's wife first busted out some seasoned roe. It's saltiness went well with the alcohol.
Then, one of the parents brought out an item packaged in aluminum foil. Inside, deep fried eel bones and chicken gizzards. The bones were crunchy and easy to eat like pretzels, and the gizzards, sprinkled with lemon were tasty.

Jonathan's, Tokyo

As Vincent Vega notes in Pulp Fiction, one of the great things in traveling abroad is when things seem almost like home, but are just a little different...

Take Jonathan's, for instance. Nice friendly family restaurant, like Denny's or Bob Evans back home. Same laminated color menus, same institutional waiter uniforms, same vinyl booths. But here instead of flounder with lemon-butter sauce, you can get grilled flatfish with saikyo miso sauce.

Instead of spaghetti with meatballs, you can get spaghetti with salmon roe, nori, and scallops.

Instead of meatloaf, you can get hamburg steak with minced daikon, or with creamy gratin cheese sauce and eggplant.




Instead of mac and cheese, baked shrimp gratin.











And instead of chocolate pudding, coffee jelly topped with vanilla ice cream!

We were also big fans of the du-rin-ku ba-ru -- the unlimited soda fountain dispensing such treats as Calpis carbonated or uncarbonated, Melon Fanta, or Cassis juice.