tokyo food file

erba da nakahigashi

Arriving at erba da nakahigashi, you might think you’d stumbled into a plush, exclusive Japanese restaurant, rather than one serving Italian cuisine. The walls down to the basement premises are finished in lacquer and the dining room has no tables at all, just a compact open kitchen with a wooden counter. There are only eight seats, each set with chopsticks.

 

The style is classic kappo, a restaurant where customers sit and watch as the chef prepares course after elaborate course of exquisite washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine). That is, apart from one reassuring element: a large, handsome Italian bacon slicer in bright Ferrari red that stands in the center of the counter.

 

 

 

This intersection of influences is fitting. Chef Toshifumi Nakahigashi, the man who operates that equipment, carving slivers of the finest San Daniele prosciutto, hails from Kyoto, where his father runs one of the most highly respected restaurants.

 

Despite his family specializing in Japanese cuisine, the younger Nakahigashi chose a different path. At the age of 18, as soon as he graduated high school, he set off for Tuscany, spending a year at the renowned Ristorante Arnolfo, before moving to Paris to hone his skills at French superchef Alain Ducasse’s flagship restaurant.

 

Back in Japan, he worked at Italian restaurants in Kyoto and Osaka. But when he finally took the plunge to open his own place, he moved away from his roots again, opening instead in Tokyo’s Nishi-Azabu district. His cooking is undeniably Italian in flavor and inspiration, but his 14-course omakase (“leave it up to the chef”) tasting menu is presented with more than a trace of Japanese precision. 

 

 

 

The name — erba is Italian for “grass” — is also a homage to his father’s restaurant, Sojiki Nakahigashi (sojiki literally means “grass eating” but reflects the role that wild plants play in the meals). The younger Nakahigashi has an equal focus on the vegetable kingdom, using up to 60 different kinds of plants, herbs and flowers in each meal. Many of these are sent up to Tokyo fresh daily by friends who are farmers outside Kyoto.

 

The hunters who supply the venison, wild boar and fowl that form the centerpiece of his meals are also longstanding connections. They forage in the hills outside of Kyoto for wild plants in spring and for mushrooms in autumn. And the elegant ceramics that he serves the food on are made by a long-time friend in the Kiyomizu pottery district.

 

 

For one of his signature dishes, Nakahigashi pulls out a retro coffee siphon. In the top chamber, he places dried vegetable peel, roots and offcuts that would usually be discarded. Underneath he heats up a minestrone broth made from ham and Parmesan scraps until it bubbles up and is imbued with the vegetables. He serves this flavorful soup with lightly steamed vegetables or pours it over delicate hand-made ravioli

 

    

 

As in any Japanese meal, the final main dish is rice. Here, that means a delicate risotto, which Nakahigashi masterfully adorns with premium uni (sea urchin) or other seafood. It is the perfect summation of this meeting of very fine food cultures.

 

 

 

 

Here's the restaurant's website: http://www.erbadanakahigashi.com

 

And here's a map link: 

 

 

 

Celebrating sakura — on the plate

Sakura…

 

Sakura…

 

And more sakura…

 

Celebrating under the blossoms...

 

 

And on the plate.

 

Sakura-niku has long been the euphemism for horse meat (a.k.a. ba-niku), on account of its vivid red colour. 

Consider this a taster for my column tomorrow [April 2] …which is now up on-line here.

I'll put up a full post as soon as I can. In the meantime, here is a map link…

his master's pizza

Marinara at Seirinkan, in backstreet Naka-Meguro. Still one of the best in town.

 

As I wrote after it first opened (though nothing at all has changed):

Before the arrival of high-end pizza a few years back, the fabled Savoy was turning out premium pies from its wood-fired oven in the Naka-Meguro backstreets. The original eatery finally bit the dust this year, but has reincarnated just across the same alley with a curious retro look and calling itself Seirinkan.

Owner Susumu Kakinuma, Tokyo's original pizzaiolo, remains as antifashion and nongourmet as ever, resolutely producing only two varieties: marinara and margherita. They’re still just as excellent.

There’s a small counter on the ground floor where you can see him at work, or head up the cast-iron spiral stairs to dining rooms with funky secondhand furniture and retro-Soviet decor.

Seirinkan, 2-6-4 Kami-Meguro, Meguro-ku; (03) 3714-5160. Open 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9:30 p.m. (or when the pizza dough runs out); Saturdays from noon; Sunday and holidays till 9 p.m.)

 

From my Japan Times 2007 year-end round-up (scroll down to the bottom). What I didn't mention then was that Seirinkan also serves various pasta and a range of basic antipasti. None of them are comparable in quality to the pizza.

Here's the map link...

flying fish carpaccio and fresh handmade pasta: lunch @ Oltrevino in Kamakura

I've posted about Oltrevino before and about the premium Italian goodies we've picked up there from time to time when we've found ourselves in the Yuigahama/Hase end of Kamakura. But until last weekend, we'd never actually sat down and eaten anything there.

The eat-in choices are exactly the same as the take-out menu, and you select from the showcase on the counter at the front, before taking your place at one of the wooden farmhouse tables toward the back of the room.

We started with a caprese made with a delectable burrata, much creamier than ordinary mozzarella, topped with diced fruit tomatoes (grown further down the Miura Peninsula, not actually in Kamakura, they told us), mixed with fine-chopped mint.

 

And a carpaccio of tobi-uo (flying fish, now at the peak of its season) with hassaku citrus, a great combination. Served on mustard and other greens with a garnish of dill and a sprinkling of cumin seeds...

 

But what we were really there for was the pasta. Every day there are five or six to choose from, all made fresh in-house. And there are twice that many pasta sauces. The permutations are, if not infinite, considerable.

Choosing the ravioli was a no-brainer. There were two kinds, some stuffed with spinach, the others with ricotta cheese. A simple butter-parmesan sauce went perfectly with it, with more fresh-grated parmesan sprinkled over the top.

 

And to pick our other pasta, we worked backwards, first choosing the sauce we wanted. Which would go best with the ragu of salsiccia and cavolo nero? It had to be pappardelle. 

The cavolo nero was first lightly boiled before being sauteed and added to the ragu, with shavings of parmesan over the top. Absolutely right with a glass of chianti classico.

As I mentioned in my Japan Times column last week, you can sometimes find Oltrevino's fresh pasta — usually just linguine or other types that package well — in the big branches of Dean & Deluca (such as the one outside Shinagawa Station), and sometimes the pasta sauces as well.

But you would do much better to go to the source. Jump on a train and combine a trip to Kamakura with a leisurely lunch at the Oltrevino shop. Highly recommended!

The Oltrevino web site is here.

There's a tabelog map here...

al fresco lunch at Cucina 13 Aprile — the full post

It's all about the setting. Screened from the sun by a wide parasol and surrounded by shrubbery, you settle in sipping Prosecco and nibbling on focaccia. Ensconced in this oasis of calm, you might almost forget you're just steps away from the Nishi-Azabu Crossing, with its looming expressway flyover and ceaseless roar of traffic.

Inside is nice, with its whitewashed walls, scrubbed wood floors and well-patinated wooden chairs drawn up to crisp white tablecloths. But that outside table is really where it's at. A nice touch: your name inscribed on an ivy leaf to mark your reservation...

 

As nibbles: focaccia and other breads with some good olive oil to dip them in...

Starter #1: Cipolla spuma, prosciutto e pomprori [sic] — fruit tomatoes, from the market in Kamakura; Parma prosciutto; and a foam of fresh (and lightly sweetened) cream...

 

Starter #2: That excellent salad with slices of seared tairagi/tairagai. The salad itself is an eclectic mix of wild greens and herbs, including mange-tout peas, seri, ice plant, a couple of strands of wild asparagus and a single fiddlehead fern. Together with this you get several slices of the shellfish, like a coarser, meatier, country-cousin version of hotate scallops, anointed with a lively dressing of horseradish, mustard and shallots. For an antipasto, it's a substantial serving — and very attractively "plated" on the massive black triangular shell of the very same clam.

 

The pasta course: first up the trofie: small circles of dough rolled up into fat strings a couple of centimeters long — which he serves all'arrabbiata in a rich sauce prepared from fruit tomatoes. Remarkably sweet, and only very lightly piquant, it contains generous amounts of the delicate meat from kegani horsehair crabs.

 

Second, the gnocchi all fave: The broad beans, crushed and mixed with the dough, give the gnocchi an extra smoothness of texture as well as a distinctive dark-green hue. Served with creamy white ricotta cheese and crisp curls of salty pink guanciale (pork jowl bacon), it's not just a great mix of flavors — it's the quintessential Italian color combination.

 

And as a main course, a very tasty fillet of pan-fried amadai with very lightly cooked hamaguri clams. Like everything Chef Hidaka prepares, very attractively presented...

 

Dessert 1: biancomangiare with grappa-infused gelato...

 

Dessert 2: fresh mango served on a mango sorbet, imbued with plenty of vanilla... 

 

Bottom line: a great setting, delicately prepared Tokyo-Italian cucina, and a warm sense of it being a family-run operation. 

The full review is up in my Japan Times column here...

And the Cucina 13 Aprile web site is here...