tokyo food file

Duck shabu-shabu @ Chikutei — the illustrated version

You can read my column on Kamo-shabu Chikutei at the Japan Times Online. Now here's the illustrated version...

The look is contemporary: backlit glass alcoves, a long glass counter, and a few tables at the back.

 

Just about everything on the food menu involves duck in one form or another, apart from the morokyu cucumbers (and boiled peanuts).

It's a drinking and dallying kind of place, and there are plenty of side dishes to go with the alcohol. One of my favourites is the duck tsukudani, made with tamari (the dark savoury soy sauce favoured in Nagoya and the surrounding region) and plenty of sansho peppercorns.

Those are shochu bottles decorating the alcoves facing the counter. Chikutei also stocks half a dozen types of sake too, all from Aichi, including the tasty Handago, a junmai ginjo produced by Kunizakari.

That went well with the tobanyaki: duck and vegetables cooked in front of us on a handsome burner.

 

It's simply seasoned with miso, but to provide that extra tongue-numbing kick there's a whole cruet of sasho seeds.

To lighten things up, some salad — with slices of lightly smoked duck gizzard. It's surprisingly good.

 

Time for the centerpiece: the duck shabu-shabu...

The noodles that go in the pot at the end are light and delicate. They're the same as used in the eponymous ramen... 

A quick word about the boss, Tokuzou Niimi. He came up with the concept of duck shabu-shabu (and duck ramen) back in 1981 and managed to register the ideas. He was running his restaurant in his home town, Handa (southeast of Nagoya), for over a decade before opening in Akasaka. Hardly a conventional restaurateur, it is his character and presence (even when he's not there) that give Chikutei its refreshingly approachable character.

 

Just one final image: the one part of the duck you can't eat... the bill*.

*About the final cost: our mistake was to order a double serving of the duck shabu-shabu. At¥6,000 a head (now increased to ¥6,800) that bumped up our bill considerably. Good as it was, one portion between two would have been plenty good enough for us.

Here is a link to Chikutei's web site...

And here's a map link...

noodles for chilling — hiyashi chuka with refinement

This is more like it. No spice, but perfect for the summer heat.

Hiyashi chuka: the noodles — basically white, but mixed with a few strands of light green — are served chilled, topped with shreds of egg and bathed in a mildly piquant vinegar/soy sauce dressing.

In most standard versions of hiyashi chuka, the noodles are served with shreds of ham and cucumber piled up on top of them. This one is completely different. It comes with seafood — scallop, squid, a couple of shrimp, some seaweed (pink and light green) — which is served in a separate saucer on the side, so it doesn't sully the noodles or make them soggy. Note the whole cherry tomato, for extra colour and tang and cooling flavour.

 

Then you mix them all together and... yes, that is very tasty, colourful and refreshing indeed.

Voila!  Kaisen sarada hiyashi chuka (in Japanese that's 海鮮サラダ冷し中華).

I've blogged about this sophisticated little noodle counter before. It's always a reliable standby if you find yourself at the Dogenzaka/Shinsen end of Shibuya — but limited by the fact it's only open in department store hours.

Shabu-shabu in modernist mode at Kamikozawa-tei

The full review of the excellent Kamikozawa-tei is up in the JT today here... but there are a few photos that never made it to print or the web site.

Basically, it's a wonderful mid-century (mid-20th century that is) little freestanding villa that has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, the original fixtures and fittings have been removed – it's too valuable to leave an original Le Corbusier chaise longue around the place I guess – but it's still a classic setting.

The food – shabu-shabu and other forms of beef – is good if not stellar. Mind you, we had the cheapest course, a ¥5,000 opening special, only offered through Feb.22. Service is not particularly polished but that kind of seemed appropriate. If you're not an architecture buff, it's probably not a can't-miss, must-go Tokyo dining experience.

But as I write, it's a one-of-a-kind place that is totally special for this city. And you need to know about it!

PS: The desert was simple but elegant, as I already posted...

Here's the map link... 

bitter-sweet endings

Nothing can beat a good meal with great friends in a truly one-of-a-kind setting — not even a great meal with good friends in a nice setting.

Especially if it comes to a conclusion with a scoop of vanilla ice cream served with… k with... kinako; matcha; and a drizzle of treacly bitter-sweet kuro-mitsu.

 

 

And that was how we closed our excellent shabushabu dinner at Kamikozawa-tei...