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.
I dropped by last night's opening reception at Ivy Place, the latest project from David Chiddo and the TY Harbor Brewery group.
It's in the shiny new Daikanyama T2 development, facing Kyu-Yamate-dori. There was a good turnout, buzzy but not over-crowded...
It's a handsome building, low-rise and freestanding, with plenty of timber.
It's also got ample deck space — and because it's in the middle of the development, it looks out onto pedestrian paths, not traffic-choked streets.
This is the main dining room, spacious but with low ceilings...
On the other side there's a cafe area which will be open from 7 in the morning, serving buttermilk pancakes, scrambled eggs and other breakfast specials.
And in the middle is a bar area, complete with six taps dispensing ales from the TY Harbor Brewery.
As for the food, David tells me the aim is to serve quality comfort food, blending Mediterranean influences (a la Cicada) with modern American dining (TY Harbor).
It all sounds excellent. And we'll find out exactly how good just as soon as it's up and running — which will be from tomorrow (Dec. 5).
How much do you pay for eggs? Probably rather less than these ones sell for. But there again, these are probably the best I've had in a very long time.
Mind you they ought to be at ¥945 for a carton of six. That's ¥157 each, which at current exchange rates comes to £1.27p (or just over US$2) apiece. I actually picked them up at a discounted rate, of merely ¥110 / £0.90 / $1.50 each.
I forgot to mention: they're SS size. But oh so nicely packaged, with cute little individual labels, and fine curly wood shavings to cushion them from harm during transit...
They're a specialty of Kochi Prefecture (formerly known as Tosa), in Shikoku. They're fertile eggs and organically raised, fed with vegetables grown without artificial farm chemicals and fertilized with the very same chickens' droppings.
There may not be much to them, but they have the prettiest yolks...
And, here's the manifesto: "My motto is 'Eggs that are superior, healthy, and produced with utmost attention, eggs for eating raw over hot rice to warm your heart'"...
Finding ourselves at the Shimbashi end of Ginza the other evening and in need of some light sustenance, we decided to try our luck at Mardi Gras. Usually that would be a very long shot without a reservation — on a weekday we wouldn't even bother — but this was a Saturday (and still in the post-quake self-restraint gloom), so we were able to walk straight in.
This excellent little basement grill/wine specialist is one of our longtime favourites, and has changed little since I wrote it up in the Japan Times back in 2001. Best of all, chef Touru Wachi's Spanish/Mediterranean-inflected food remains as reliably tasty as ever.
We settled in (as we usually do) with sherry, which came with complementary wedges of tortilla español (good) and bread rolls (forgettable).
Our first appetizer was the plate of mixed pintxos. It's a great selection of nibbles on sticks: quails' eggs, breaded balls of sausage meat, deep-fried Brussels sprouts, tiny one-bite squid, eringi mushrooms cooked with fennel, and even smoked salmon with small cubes of cream cheese.
Our other starter was the creamy cod brandade...
By this time we had a bottle open. Mardi Gras' wine list seems to have shrunk a bit over the years, and still is too focused on French rather than Spanish or the New World bottles that would better fit Wachi's cooking — this is Ginza, though, so name brands count for everything. But the Saladin (Haut Brissan/Côtes de Rhône Villages; 100% Grenache; organic) delivered the kind of quick-to-drink spicy-smooth flavours we were looking for...
Especially since this was our main course: a terrific lamb tajine, with pine nuts and prunes in a lovely rich meaty gravy.
This was so good it deserves a close-up shot...
In fact it was so good it should be on video...
We lingered long enough to share a dessert, a very fine creme caramel drenched with bitter-sweet sauce.
Satisfying food; a good bottle of wine; a quiet, unpretentious setting you can settle into (the New Orleans music on the sound system). For Ginza, this is pretty great value.
Just in case you got the wrong idea, the Deli at the Park Hyatt is a big favourite of mine. Pricy it may be, but the quality is unimpeachable. I always like to drop by when I'm in the neighbourhood — not that I find myself in Nishi-Shinjuku too often — for a bite or just to pick up some of their exceptional take-out goodies.
The quiches are superb, no doubt because they use premium eggs. This one was perfectly cooked, and had a nice tangy hit of semi-dried tomato...
And a couple of very tasty norimaki — crab and kazunoko; and (on the right) lightly pickled vegetables, including beautiful red aka-kabu.
And it won't be long now until the Deli's outdoor seats come into their own. On sunny summer days, these are some of the most hotly contested lunchtime seats in all of Nishi-Shinjuku.
Recent Comments