tokyo food file

zeppelins and margheritas: all's good at da M.

A few more images of my current favourite pizzeria, as profiled in my Japan Times column on Friday...

L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele only opened at the end of January, but the Harley riders have already discovered it.

From the outside it looks a bit big and impersonal — not the compact, intimate setting of the original in Naples. But this is all that counts: the handsome blue-tiled wood-fired oven.

Inside it's bright and spacious, white tiles on the wall, retro lampshades up above, tables packed in close together.

Busy all the time, even midway through a Saturday afternoon...

The menu is short and to the point...

To start: an order of the zeppoline di alghe, pizza dough mixed with ao-nori seaweed and deep-fried in puffy one-bite balls. That's one I never saw on the menu in the old city of Napoli. No complaints, though: it's good. And the house wine, a Nero d'Avola, ain't too bad either.

But tradition rules when it comes to the pizzas: only the two official kinds are offered, Margherita and marinara, each available in two sizes — and just exactly the same dimensions as you'd get at the original da M in Naples. This was the Margherita, in the normale size.

Yes, excellent. The flour, the tomato puree, the mozzarella, everything is imported fresh (virtually daily I was told) from Naples. So good it's worth a close-up...

There's nothing fancy here. It's certainly not a place to linger, and really there's no reason to. Having eaten your pizza — and they have mandatory "one pie per person" policy — you reqlinquish your table for the people waiting in line outside. Bottom line: it's fast food, but done at a comfortable, friendly Napoli pace.

This is just the first branch (anywhere in the world) of the venerable da Michele. But judging from the reception it's getting in Ebisu (and the word I got from Maurizio, the manager), it won't be the last. Expect to see plenty more branches of da M around town before too long.

Here's the web site...

pizza in the Naples of the East

More tomorrow in the Japan Times...

oysters on the half-shell with sake: a classic winter combination

A few nama-gaki oysters: Hokkaido (on the left) and Matoya (Mie; right)... a plate of lightly steamed eggplant, very unseasonal but a year-round favourite; and a bowl of nira-tamago (think of runny scrambled eggs with plenty of green onions)...

...a whole saba mackerel himono (love those R2D2 shoyu dispensers)...

...and a snifter or two of some nifty nihonshu. Starting (and ending too, it must be said) with the ever-ace Tamagawa... 

 

The location: Shutoan, a simple basement with a modest menu and a truly remarkable selection of sake.

Their web site is here... 

drinking naturally at code kurkku

The fundamental ethos — yes, you could call it the underlying code — for all the kurkku restaurants is respect for the environment. That translates into using organically grown vegetables and meat from reliable free-range sources.

Not surprisingly, it also means serving "natural" wine. The compact wine list is entirely populated with what is known here as  "bio" — basically organic or biodynamically grown, although not necessarily all sulphite-free

Here are two we had with our lunch the other day at code kurkku. The Domaine des Huards is 100% Romantin, a grape not a million kilometers away from Chardonnay, giving quite a strong Chablis profile.

 

The Coenobium was especially good. A blend of Trebbiano, Malvasia, and Verdicchi, apparently it's made by Cistercian nuns in Lazio just north of Rome. Fruity and light but with a pleasing complexity, it went very well with our pasta, and the chicken that followed, too.

 

code kurkku: Kyoto-Italian in Yoyogi Village

Arriving at code kurkku in the evening, through the cluster of converted freight containers that constitute Yoyogi Village, is pretty memorable, with that living wall of vegetation glowing through the massive picture window.

It's very easy on the eye in the daytime too...

The lobby leads past the gleaming open kitchen, with the chefs in their well-worn white baseball caps...

The dining room has a nice simple spacious feel, the height of the ceiling moderated by the random clusters of lights hanging overhead.

As I wrote in my Japan Times column last week, we had the upper of the two set lunch menus (¥5,000), which started with this excellent "cigar" of anago wrapped in filo pastry and deep-fried till crisp. This was draped over a fragrant asari-jiru, a clear broth derived from clams, containing plenty of mitsuba herb and a soft, freshly poached egg prepared in onsen tamago style. That's sansho scattered around the rim of the bowl, lending its distinctive aromatic presence without dominating the flavors in the mouth.

The antipasto was buri yellowtail, the slices lightly seared in tataki style, just enough to whiten their exterior but still sashimi-rare inside. These were paired with thin slices of apple and a small mound of mustard leaf salad topped with a white foam (also with a faint apple perfume), and served on a delectable sauce of grated raw apple mixed with daikon oroshi (from tangy karami-daikon), further spiced up with red peppercorns.

Spaghettini tossed with spring nanohana greens and plump, pink ama-ebi shrimps so lightly cooked they were almost raw, it was scattered with bright yellow bottarga and just a hint of tōgarashi chili. Bursting with understated flavor, this more than anything else on the menu gives meaning to the term Kyoto-Italian cuisine.

The main course: fricassee of Iwate free-range jidori, rolled and pan-fried, then finally seared in the oven over sumi charcoal to give it a lovely golden skin. Carefully arranged on the plate with a colorful selection of vegetables — potato, button mushrooms, yellow squash, Brussels sprout leaves and scarlet kyō-ninjin carrots — it came with a swoosh of pureed broccoli and a creamy vegetable-based sauce that was remarkably rich and satisfying for something containing no butter or dairy.

Dessert (hers): matcha tiramisu, with hojicha ice cream.

Dessert (his): panna cotta packed with espresso, sozzled with a dark, boozy caramel sauce and topped with a simple milk gelato.

The verdict: excellent. and a beautiful example of the evolving genre that has come to be called Kyoto-Italian. Just as we had expected, given the involvement (as executive chef) of Yasuhiro Sasajima of Il Ghiottone fame. Not quite up there on the same level as at his main Kyoto restaurant, but certainly as fine and inventive (and beautiful) as when we ate at Il Ghiottone Cucineria, Sasajima's more casual second restaurant.

OK, the view from the dining room is not as spectacular — Cucineria sits on the bank of the Kamogawa river in Kyoto. But screen out the looming Docomo high-rise and that exotic garden is still quite something for Tokyo.

In fact, illuminated at night, it's quite atmospheric.

I wrote up the original kurkku kitchen restaurant when it first opened. I haven't been back for a couple of years now, but I still hear great reports, especially of the café.

The web site for Yoyogi VIllage/code kurkku is here...