tokyo food file

madai bō-zushi: Kojyu Feb. 2013

Pressed sushi with madai snapper, sprig of sansho, fine strip of almost translucent konbu, slice of sudachi citron.

Just one small element in the elaborate hassun starter tray at Kojyu earlier this month. What a meal.

 

Tokyo Food File: the illustrated year-end round-up

On Friday, in my final Japan Times column of the year, I introduced a dozen or so places where I ate last year that have not yet made it into print. Here it is again, with a few extra/different images appended...

Before we usher out the Dragon and ring in the Snake, it’s time to pause, look back and appreciate all the fine eating that Tokyo has provided this year. Gongs and rankings are meaningless in a city the size of Tokyo: How can anyone visit and compare more than a fraction of even the best restaurants? Here, though, are some of the places that thrilled — or at least caught the eye and taste buds — during 2012. Expect to read about many of them in upcoming columns.

Among Japanese meals, two of the best we had all year were at Kagurazaka Ishikawa. Master-chef Hideki Ishikawa is operating at peak capacity, with many bookings from abroad, now that gourmet tourism is rebounding strongly from last year’s collapse. Even so, his cooking remains profound and flavorful, a benchmark for high-end kaiseki cuisine in the capital.

Below: snow crab with dashi "jelly"; top: the beautiful lacquerware bowls in which Ishikawa serves his soups.

 

One of the younger generation of Japanese chefs, Zaiyu Hasegawa, has also been making a name for himself this year with his contemporary and often quirky take on traditional cuisine. Den, his intimate little restaurant in Kanda-Jimbocho, looks set to become a classic in no time.

Below: Hasegawa's savoury soymilk "creme brulee" of kabu turnip, topped with crunchy little arare senbei.

 

Another young chef who is cooking up a storm of creativity is Hiroyasu Kawate at his bijou restaurant Florilege, in the residential back streets of Aoyama. An alumnus of Quintessence in Shirokanedai, Kawate’s inventive modern dishes take flight well beyond the usual parameters of French cuisine. Two examples: his homage in miniature to ishi-yaki imo (winter sweet potatoes baked in their skins); and his manju dumplings stuffed with pigeon simmered in port wine.

Below: the main plate of pigeon which was served before the manju.

And the manju itself, sprinkled with shaved truffles and served with half the pigeon's head, split vertically to reveal its inner meats.

 

At émuN in Ebisu — it’s pronounced as strangely as it’s spelled, something like the lestters “M-U” — chef Nobuyuki Sasajima’s signature dish is his brilliant Exposition, an array of 40 different vegetables, each prepared a different way. But the item that lingers most lovingly in memory is his pressé of duck foie gras served with fresh figs and a superb, intense reduction sauce.

Below: Sasajima's equally memorable crab with bouillon jelly, uni and foam.

And Sasajima’s pressé of foie gras, served with fresh figs and that thick fig-accented reduction sauce…

 

Notwithstanding the current diplomatic posturing, one of the highlights of autumn in Japan is always Shanghai crab. And one of our favorite places for eating these fierce-looking creatures is at the wonderful, idiosyncratic Chef's in Shinjuku Gyoenmae. With the possible exception of the (overly sweetened) scrambled eggs with tomato, everything on the menu is great. Don’t miss the negi (scallion) ramen: It’s as comforting and healing — though definitely not as kosher — as chicken soup with matzo balls.

 

Among the many openings this year, top of the list has to be Esquisse, the swish restaurant launched by former Troisgros chef Lionel Beccat. Despite the glitzy setting, on the seventh floor of a new building called Royal Crystal in the heart of Ginza, Esquisse feels calm and understated, with pastel walls, beams across the ceiling and massive windows giving glimpses of sky and roof. A perfect settling for Beccat’s exquisite, though pricy, tasting menus.

 

Fans of Bill Granger’s hotcakes, eggs and other new Aussie comfort foods made the latest offshoot of bills, in Harajuku, one of the hot-ticket tables of 2012. But the real attraction of the spiffy Omohara Tokyu Plaza building is on the floor below: an outstanding rooftop garden with trees and shrubs (and private nooks popular with dating schoolkids).

Below: actually the best part of the Omohara building is that prismatic entrance.

 

Cicada, a longtime Food File favorite, recently upped and moved. Its new premises in Omotesando, a block back from Aoyama-dori, are larger and sleeker but the pan-Mediterranean menu remains much the same — apart from the sherry list, which sadly has been whittled back to just a single manzanilla. On the plus side, there is plenty of alfresco seating, and an outside bar that will be dispensing ales and IPAs from the TY Harbor Brewery, just as soon as spring temperatures arrive.

 

2012 was the year craft beer achieved critical visibility in Tokyo, and three bars in particular stood out. Good Beer Faucets has proved a massive hit, thanks to its extensive selection of draft microbrews, a handy location right next to Bunkamura in Shibuya, and a Middle Eastern-tinged food menu that improved noticeably over the year. GBF just celebrated its first anniversary with bargain pints and wall-to-wall revelry.

Below: Manager Dede — he's from Israel, hence the falafels and hummus on the menu — keeps a great selection on tap. And always serves them with a smile…

 

Watering Hole more than makes up for its less than scenic location on the Yoyogi stretch of busy Meiji-dori with the warmth of its welcome and the 30-plus taps dispensing handcrafted beers from around the country. From next year, they should be serving their own brews too, made right next door.

 

And, last but not least, the Brimmer Beer Box proves that small may not be beautiful but good beer tastes great no matter how basic the setting — in this case, a converted shipping container in a car park on Aoyama-dori. The beer is all from Scott Brimmer's sterling little brewery in Kawasaki. It's all excellent.

 

And, before sliding out of this old year, there's just one last thing to say: good fortune, good health and good eating in 2013! Thanks for reading!!

 

Addendum: All the above are now on a map here…

It's still mushroom season in Kagurazaka

We've had a couple of cold snaps already, but in Tokyo we're still enjoying autumn's final flurry — not just the leaves as they drift off the gingko and zelkova trees, but also on our menus.

As spotted the other night at Ishikawa...

This was a wonderful mixture of mushrooms – half a dozen different kinds, cooked with morsels of duck meat in a deep thick concentrated dashi, with plenty of sake and mirin in the mix to impart that extra umami richness. 

Just one of the highspots in a meal that hit the mark wonderfully from start to finish.

Ishikawa-san remains at the top of his game...

Wasabi and grater

 

The wasabi grater…

 

On the plate it's even greater!

 

More about this kind of traditional wasabi grater here...

Akasaka Tantei: kaiseki with an Okinawan accent

Fermented tofu with the tangy redolence of blue cheese; generous cubes of rich, fatty pork; crunchy clusters of seaweed shaped like miniature bunches of grapes. The forthright flavors of subtropical Okinawa in the far south of Japan are, like its climate and culture, ve­ry different from those in the rest of the country.

Given the geography, this is hardly surprising. Okinawa lies as close to Shanghai as it does to the Japanese heartland. The food is exotic, almost foreign, far from the understated elegance of Kyoto and its elaborate kaiseki cuisine. And yet these two worlds are brought together seamlessly on the table at Akasaka Tantei.

 

The meal opens with a fanfare: A large black lacquered box showcasing numerous colorful tidbits from both sea and land. There are a dozen morsels or more, prepared in a range of contrasting styles—some raw, others grilled, yet others deep-fried or simmered.

The exact composition will change according to the season, but one dish that is ever-present is jimami-dofu (peanut “tofu”), a white sphere with the smooth texture of tofu but an undertaste of creamed peanuts. Simple but refreshing, this is one of the classic recipes of Okinawa.

There will also be a small saucer of mozuku, a delicate seaweed that grows profusely in the southern ocean, here served in a gently vinegared sauce. And without fail, there will be some crescent-shaped slices of goya, a dark-green gourd that amply deserves its English translation as “bitter melon."

 

The next course is a clear soup featuring fine shreds of daikon, runner beans and kabocha squash, in a light but fragrant dashi soup stock prepared from konbu kelp. Although this seaweed grows off northern Japan, it has been part of Okinawa's famously healthy diet for centuries, thanks to its position on the ancient trading routes to and from the Continent.

 

“In Okinawa,” the old saying goes, “every part of the pig is eaten except the oink.” Making a virtue of frugality, the islanders eat nose-to-tail and ear-to-trotter. But the main dish at Tantei is a more luxurious cut: rafutei, cubes of glazed pork belly that have been simmered slowly until meltingly soft.

Because much of the fat is carefully skimmed off during the cooking process, the meat is rich and satisfying, yet light on the palate.

 

After a serving of rice...

miso soup…

and pickles…

 

…the meal closes with a slice of cheesecake made with a layer of ta-imo, a yam that is an island staple. It's a non-traditional touch that encapsulates the cuisine at Tantei. Modern but respectful of tradition, based on exotic ingredients but prepared with finesse, this is contemporary kaiseki with a flavor all its own.

Instead of a single open dining room, Tantei serves its kaiseki in individual rooms which open off a central corridor decorated in wood and coarse plaster, to evoke a rustic Okinawan tea house.

From the outside, Tantei looks unremarkable, identifiable only by a plain illuminated nameplate, a small lantern and a driftwood arrangement by the entrance...

 

And, if you look very carefully, an ancient urn and an Okinawan shisa guardian lion.

     

Akasaka Tantei is the only kaiseki restaurant in Tokyo -- or anywhere (to my knowledge) -- that incorporates Okinawan foods and recipes.

The restaurant's website is here...

The full version of this text ran in the current (August) issue of Skyward, the JAL seatback magazine.