tokyo food file

Kagiroi – a few more images from the teppan grill

 

From the front, Kagiroi – as introduced in my Japan Times column this week – seems quietly genteel: not your usual izakaya. And certainly not typical of the kind of places you find in Ogawamachi.

It looks the same way upstairs. In fact this stately three-story house, built back in the early days of Showa, used to be the residence of a sake merchant.

 

 

If you enter from the back – which is where the actual sake shop used to be housed – it looks rather more down to earth.

 

That's the area that is now the open kitchen – with the teppan grill.. 

 

And that's where the cooking action takes place. Here are a few more images of what's on offer – and what's good – there. Starting with an order of pork, served straight off the steel griddle…

 

It's from a breed called Seseragi pork, raised in the uplands of Gunma Pref. close to Mt. Akagi. They're fed on a diet high in barley, and given only mountain spring water to drink, which certainly gives the meat great flavour. The slices are marinated in miso before being crisped up nicely on the teppan, then served with a mound of shichimi-togarashi (seven spice).

This came as part of a lunch teishoku (set meal), with a green salad, potato salad miso soup, rice and pickles on the side. Great value for ¥900.

 

At dinnertime, the menu is a lot wider — and there's plenty of good sake to drink too. Such as Toroman, a hiya-oroshi from Aizu, in the uplands of Fukushima.

 

 

Because the teppan dishes can take a while, it's a good idea to order a few appetizers. The vegetable sticks with miso dips may look prettier, but the potesara (that's Japanese for "potato salad") is really tasty too. The spud is mixed with a mayo-miso blend: excellent with the cucumber slices.

 

Another side dish that is served promptly is the egg; halves of boiled egg slathered with a sweetish yellow miso and then browned over the charcoal grill.

 

The foil-cooked potatoes are even better: they're cooked with butter and then seasoned with a heaping dollop of sake-kasu mixed with miso. Quite an umami hit.

 

More pork is called for. This is the imo-buta, from porkers raised in Asahi, Chiba, that have been fed on sweet potatoes. Juicy and rich and piping hot straight from the teppan, it goes beautifully with the Hiroki tokubetsu-junmai.

 

And yet another great pairing: Meikyoshisui m12, a junmai daiginjō of some refinement from Nagano Prefecture...

 

 

… with the dengaku-style eggplant/aubergine. The miso was dark and a bit sweet, in true dengaku style, and the poppy seeds scattered on the top gave a nice contrasting texture to the softness of the aubergine.

 

What else was good? Plenty, though I don't have many more photos. Here's one final image: the mixed kinoko being given the teppan treatment. The perfect kind of warming fare for cold late-autumn evenings.

 

Here's a map link to Kagiroi…

And the restaurant web site… As you can see, it's part of the Yumemania group, who are responsible for some really good little places around town.

Including Tamayura, as featured here at the beginning of the year.

Café de L'Ambre: an old-school coffee classic

 

Hidden away unassumingly on a small street in Ginza 8-chome, Café de L'Ambre is a classic old-school Showa coffee shop. It's what all coffee shops used to look like in Tokyo when I first touched down on these shores. Or at least the way I like to remember them: cluttered, smoky, 60s-style furniture, kitch decor, hushed conversation, and coffee painstakingly brewed to order.

Of course they weren't all like L'Ambre: because L'Ambre has only ever served coffee. No tea; no soft drinks; no "morning set" breakfast. Just coffee. And also coffee jelly.

 

So if I find myself in the neighborhood, it's hard not to find an excuse to drop in for half an hour or so. Frankly, it's not the aged-beans thing — cool and unique as that is — that grabs me, so much as the place itself. 

Those leatherette swivelling bar stools...

 

That stained-glass lamp...

 

The stained glass panel on the wall...

 

And the perfect ashtrays.

 

I don't like the cigarette smoke (any more), however. So that's why I don't go more often or stay for longer. 

But if I'm anywhere in the neighborhood, I always have time for some of that coffee jelly...

Lion Beer Hall, a classic bierstube in the heart of Ginza

Sometimes the rain arrives at exactly the right time. The downpour hit just as I was walking through the heart of Ginza. I ducked into the nearest doorway — well, the nearest doorway of a gothic bierkeller.

 

Rainy season refuges don't come any better than the Lion Beer Hall. I hadn't been inside for years, probably a decade or so. But it looks no different to the very first time I was brought here, back in the latter years of Showa. It was a one-of-a-kind then, and it still is today. Now, though, they even have a non-smoking section. And the beer selection is considerably better: Edelpils on draught. Jawohl!

 

And just to keep my beer company, a side order of crispy deep-fried gobo (burdock) sticks with a mayo dip. Beat that Bavaria!

 

But really these photos fail to do justice to this magnificent place and its cracking atmosphere. So here's a short vid showing what Tokyo gets up to on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of ritzy Ginza...

 

The sky lightened and the rain lifted before too long. But that was just long enough to savour a couple of small glassfuls — and to replenish my memories of this timeless Ginza classic.

 

The link for Lion Beer Hall is here...   And there's a map link here...

There's a larger version of the vid over on vimeo here... 

Keats House — a thing of beauty indeed

That over-quoted line from Endymion is the inspiration for Keats House in Yutenji, as introduced in my Japan Times column today. 

The handsome old edifice that houses this natural foods cafe-restaurant-lifestyle shop is indeed a thing of beauty. But nothing is for ever when it comes to architecture in Tokyo — least of all traditional timber buildings.

The very fact that this building has been preserved and given a new lease of life: that alone makes it worth celebrating. But it's been done with such care and enthusiasm it really is a very fine space.

There are a few ancient knick-knacks — most obviously the ancient hinoki ofuro bath tub outside — but inside it has a very clean modern feel.

 

The ground floor (the original shop space) houses the boutique, with its shelves of wholewheat bread, non-additive foods, biodynamic wine and "lifestyle goods".

The cafe/dining area is out back, in what used to be the yard. It's been given a timber deck and clear plastic roof — and currently is sealed in plastic to (not totally successfully) keep out the chill...

But the place to sit — just as long as no one has got there first — is the beautifully restored 2nd-floor chamber, with its high ceiling, wooden beams, antique glass in the windows and retro 1960s furniture. And kingyo goldfish (they're for sale, ¥40,000 apiece) as introduced in the vid I posted yesterday.

I just love the patterns in the old glass, especially when it's refracting the lights from the street outside at night.

Don't fail to check out the restroom, also upstairs, with its period furnishings and wonderful full-moon window, which has a slightly different design to its frosted glass (below)

In my column, I perhaps give the wrong idea: it's not a private space as such: it just feels that way because there's only room for two small groups of people (couples, threesome, or maximum four) at a time.

And what about the food? Well, it really falls into the "simple, wholesome, worthy" category. It's certainly not gourmet. But the curry is tasty and satisfying — with all that whole grain it goes without saying — and the veggies are fresh, colourful and organic.

This (above) is the chicken curry lunch platter; and here (below) is the steamed vegetable set meal.

But, bottom line, it's the space not the food that's special. Drop in during the afternoon for some organic coffee and the house special waffles (with maple syrup and whipped cream, or one of the fine (and vegan) Chaya Macrobi desserts.

antique glass and traffic lights, kingyo and beer...

A trailer for tomorrow's Tokyo Food File in The Japan Times!

 

Kingyo and beer from tokyo food file on Vimeo.