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...

Mexico Libre – the burro rides into Shinagawa Station

Passing through the food hall inside Shinagawa Station last night I spotted a familiar silhouette from afar...

Yes indeed, it was the burro from burrito specialists Libre, last seen at their hugely popular (but now closed) pop-up counter housed in a converted freight container in a carpark on Aoyama-dori.

There was no way I could walk past those appetizing posters...

 

Needless to say I paused to pick up a couple of burritos — one pork, one veggie (they also do chicken and beef). Plus a jar of that tangy hot sauce, which up to now hasn't been available for sale.

I was ready to munch into them straight away on the train but, out of deference to everyone around me – I didn't want to have to share them, did I? – managed to hold off till I got home.

This temporary stall in the station will only be there through the end of this week (Jan. 22nd).

But I did get the lowdown on the new Libre restaurant, which opened last week in permanent digs in Ebisu — just along the street from Ebisu Yokocho.

More about that on their blog/web site here...

And here's a map link...

gibbous moon over Ch. Robuchon

The last warm night of the year (this was last week), so unseasonably balmy that they had the outside tables primed at the chateau in Yebisu, even for dinner.

We had other plans for the evening, so we did not linger. But it was a reminder of just how pleasant the little secluded garden of Table de Robuchon is when the weather is clement.

There aren't likely to be any more evenings this mild for quie a few months. But we will be looking forward to spring...

La Table de Joel Robuchon...

 

And then just a few days later — on the full moon — we were treated to a magical eclipse...

Ebisu Ramen map

Before Ebisu became one of Tokyo's better mid- to up-market dining districts, it was known for one thing only: ramen. There's still no shortage of options, as the map at the bottom of this sign shows. 31 noodle joints, all within a minute's walk or so from the railway station.

This billboard (inside the station) is actually advertising packaged noodles, under the name Ebisu Ramen. Maybe the idea of including the map was to head off charges that it's expropriating the Ebisu "brand" for its own profit.

Whatever, I do know that it makes me hungry when I scan it as I wait to transfer trains. And that it doesn't seem to list my favourite ramenya of all in the neighbourhood.

PS: click the photo to see the map in better detail...

bissori hanami lunch

The rain had brought down plenty of petals, but there was still a good amount of sakura blossom filling the sky from inside bissori's magical garden when we visited earlier in the week.

My lunch set comprised a small plate of vegetable starters...

...followed by a large bowl of samgyetang, the rich warming broth containing generous amounts of chicken cooked with jujubes and ginseng...

...and a bowl of zakkoku-mai (multi-grain) rice served with a saucer of crisp nori and some small dried fishes. Very hearty, warming and invigorating. 

In Korea, samgyetang is usually eaten in summer, to give energy and combat lethargy. But bissori serves it in winter and spring as well — just the ticket!

 

What with all the petals on the ground and clumped onto the plastic sheets around bissori's dining 'room', we left feeling absolutely in the pink.

The blossom is all gone now, but if you're planning ahead for next year, check out the view from the upstairs 'loft' room — right on the same level as the sakura.

There's really nowhere like it in Tokyo!