tokyo food file

Unagi with a difference: home-grown eels

It was the sign over the door that stopped me: two eels entwined around a bamboo skewer, housed in a quaint old-fashioned wooden frame complete with quaint gabled roof.

It was not just the logo design or the old-fashioned look: it was the fact that it was for a restaurant serving unagi kushiyaki – eel grilled and served on individual skewers – a style that is much more typical of Kansai than the Tokyo area.

 

But what made me really stop was the little huddle gathered around a plastic storage box placed on a chair on the pavement...

 

 

This was what they were looking at: 

               The full-size video is up on Vimeo here... 

It seems like this restaurant not only serves unagi eel, they also raise them from scratch.  At this stage the baby eels are known as shirasu unagi (glass eels). These ones in the video are just three weeks old. Apparently when they were bought (from a specialist dealer), they were about an inch long. So they're growing fast. 

I was taken inside to look at some of last year's eel: these guys are a year old now, and will soon be ready for eating.

 

After all this show-and-tell, I couldn't walk away without trying the house speciality. The signature kushiyaki is only served in the evening, when the place turns into an izakaya, with good shochu, sake and even wine on the drinks menu. 

At lunch time though they serve teishoku set meals. The most popular option is unatama-don — unagi and egg (tamago) donburi. It was as good and satisfying as it looks:

 

 

The name of this place is Shirayuki. It's little more than a hole in the wall, just a small counter and a couple of tables, and hardly worth heading out of your way to find. And there are certainly better unagiya in the Shintomi-cho area. 

But if you can speak a little Japanese, you'll get a friendly welcome from the young staff...

What's on the bill this Easter at J-P Hévin

 

Remind me (next year) not to go through Midtown any time near Easter. It's impossible to go past the Jean-Paul Hévin shop without stopping, gawping, drooling and finally buying one of their trademark weirdo eggs.

This year's selection sported appendages in the shapes of a) a duck's bill; b) some sort of pig (or other animal) mouth; and c) a chicken's beak.

It was c) that really grabbed me...

 

But a) was the only one left. So I snapped it up and hauled it home. Where it started to look more like a platypus than anything else...

 

I also picked up a smaller milk-chocolate egg that was a bit more ordinary.

 

Like the larger one, it had crustaceans, fish and turtles nestling inside...

 

Obviously, while I was there I couldn't not look and see what was next door in the Sadaharu Aoki boutique. Another classic, which appeared to come with chocorons inside. I did not succumb to this temptation though...

 

 

Last year's seasonal egg at J-P Hevin was even more bizarre. I wrote it up here…

 

Happy Easter to one and all!

Taking soba aloft: Kanda Matsuya in Skyward

 

To mark the start of spring and the new business year, my monthly column for Skyward, the inflight magazine of Japan Air Lines, underwent an overhaul from this month. 

So it's sayonara to Stellar Eats, my long-running series on Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo where you can dine affordably (well, for ¥5,000 or under). And in with the new series, entitled Tokyo Eats.

In a nod to the recent UNESCO recognition of washoku as an intangible (really?) World Heritage, I will be focusing entirely on Japanese cuisine, especially restaurants that keep alive the food tradition of the Eastern Capital, Tokyo. Starting with one of my – and everyone's – all-time favourites, Kanda Matsuya.

Here are a few more images from the photo shoot and my interview with Matsuya's octogenarian but totally spry owner, Toshi Kodaka, and his son, the sobameister, Takayuki…

 

 

The English version of Skyward is only available on JAL's international flights in or out of Japan — but not on domestic flights.

Many moons ago I also wrote up Kanda Matsuya in my Japan Times column, here…

Afuri once again

 

One of my favourite seats. Especially when I'm out late in the evening, in need of a bite – or rather a slurp – before jumping on my train home.

Actually, any time of day these are signs that are likely to draw me in.

 

 

Afuri has quite a few branches around the city now. But the original shop in Ebisu holds a special place in my affections. The no-frills decor, the soundless flickering TV monitor, the busy open kitchen.

There's plenty to look at while you wait...

 

Here's that bowl again. 

It's not my usual favourite, I pretty much always order the same yuzu shio ramen – there's a reason why the sign at the top say it's their "ninki number one" (most popular). It was time to try the Yuzu-ra-tan Ramen (shoyu version). 

This won't ever be my "ninki number one" – the balance between spicy and sour doesn't work for me – but it's still a good bowl. And that colour certainly is dramatic...

 

Another great point about Afuri: the whole menu is well translated in English and the staff take really good care of people. Good ramen, great place!

 

Here's the menu in full (click on it to blow it up)

More than just soba: the excellent side dishes at Narutomi

Back at Narutomi at lunchtime the other day, I was again reminded what fine quality side dishes he offers. Starting with his anago no nikogori.

Basically it's jellied eel, but done Japanese style. Lightly cooked conger encased in a thick, firm cube of jelly – nikogori is often made with the natural jellies that emerge from the fish bones; but these taste a bit firmer, which probably means that some gelatin has been added – seasoned with just enough shoyu to add umami rather than saltiness. And a dab of grated wasabi root for accent...

 

Yaki-miso, the classic sake snack, to nibble on as you sip. Well, I had work to do after this, so I was strictly on tea. But even so, such a rich umami-ful way to coax your  appetite into action...

 

But (obviously) I was there for the noodles. And the tempura. At this time of year that means sansai – spring vegetables foraged from the uplands.

On the plate that day were: fukinoto (butterbur shoot); tara-no-me (another bud, often translated as Japanese angelica); kogome (green fiddlehead ferns); and tazeri (wild seri herb)...

 

The noodles of course are nothing short of excellent. Narutomi-san makes his soba with 100 percent buckwheat grain (with no wheat or other extender), which he grinds, hand-kneads, hand-rolls and hand-chops.  

That means the soba-yu – the cooking water that is left after the noodles have been cooked – is white, rich, creamy, nourishing. Served in a lacquerware jug, the sobayu at Narutomi, like everything else, is outstanding... 

 

Here are a few more dishes that he's been serving this spring (taken from a recent dinner). Asari clams with nanohana greens...

 

Yudofu no ankake (in a thick clear sauce with grated ginger)...

 

Anago tempura, crisp and golden, coarsely cut into three using the metal cooking chopsticks. And check out the spine, tied into a knot and deep-fried (a.k.a. hone-senbei). As with the sansai above, it's served with a saucer of salt, rather than a tsuyu (shoyu-based) dip...

 

And this has to be one of my all-time favourite ways of eating soba: plain seiro (cold, on a bamboo tray), with a side saucer of ultra-piquant grated karashi daikon...

 

Here is the man himself at work. Intense and focused, he is the very definition of the shokunin spirit. Thank you Narutomi-san.

 

I have written more about Narutomi in previous posts here… and here…