tokyo food file

Kamiyama — soba with elegance

Kamiyama. Style and elegance, just steps away from the bustle and bling of Shibuya. As featured in my Japan Times column this week.  

Arriving at Kamiyama could hardly be more atmospheric. The entrance is set into a black wooden wall along a quiet residential side street. Ankle-high traditional lamps illuminate a short flight of bamboo-fringed flagstones, leading to a sliding wooden door hidden behind a dark noren(entrance curtain). It’s hard to believe you are just steps away from the brashness of Shibuya’s Center-Gai. 

You have come to eat soba noodles, but it feels rather more like entering a ceremonial tea house… 

 

At lunchtime, the ground-floor dining room is used, which offers a pleasant glimpse of the bamboo outside — especially nice at this time of year with the windows open…

 

If you've got an appetite, there are good value lunch specials (¥1,000 with seiro soba; ¥1,200 with the seasonal special). They will include a donburi (here, with chicken and cooked vegetables); a salad; a small bowl of pasta (not well seasoned, though); and some kimchi. Plus, of course, your noodles — which here are the seiro (chilled, with a dip).

 

Or you can just settle in with a serving of noodles alone. They are delicate and flavourful. Just as you'd expect, from a sobaya who learned his skills at the excellent Takeyabu in Kashiwa, Chiba.

 

In the evening, Kamiyama is even more atmospheric, with the andon lamps glowing at ankle level…

 

You will be ushered downstairs to beautifully spot-lit dining room, where you take your place at a large communal table split down the middle by a long thin "garden" of pebbles and foliage. There is also a private room to one side.

Besides the soba, Kamiyama serves a selection of side dishes, ranging from soft, savory tamagoyaki (rolled omelet) to grilled chicken and even wagyu steak. In the spring, platters of sansai (wild plants) are served. Here are some I had earlier this year…

 

What's on that platter? Kogome (fiddlehead ferns); taranome (buds of Japanese angelica tree); aiko (aka miyamairakusa/woodnettle); and shidoke (aka momojigasa/parasenecio). 

 

The tamagoyaki omelette is satisfying, and not too sweet (served with a mound of grated daikon)…

 

Among the various choices of soba, I do enjoy the tororo, with grated yama-imo yam…

 

And to close, the sobayu — the thick, milky noodle cooking water — is served in handsome cast-iron kettles that are now beautiful bashed and patinated…

 

Afternotes: Despite the headline given to my piece, Kamiyama is hardly "hushed". At lunchtime they play classic soul. At dinner, the sound system tends more to jazz. 

• You will find Kamiyama hidden behind the Creston Hotel in Kamiyamacho, just a few minutes from the centre of Shibuya.

• Its website is here…

• Takeyabu formerly had a branch in Roppongi Hills (now closed) and before that in Ebisu (long gone).

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…

Return visit to Matsubara-an

I always love stepping through this gate.

On this side of that long white noren curtain you are looking in from the quiet backstreets of Kamakura...

 

On the other side, you have arrived at Matsubara-san. Into the little garden with its patio tables (it's getting a bit chilly for dining al fresco now)… 

Across the paving stones to the front door... 

 

Down the corridor… 

 

…and we are at our favourite table. It's the one in the tatami room at the far end, overlooking the garden.

 

Matsubara-an is a soba restaurant. But I defy you to go there and ignore the side dishes. One not to miss is the creamy homemade sukui-dofu...

 

It's prepared from a variety of green soybeans called hitashi-mame, which are grown in the Nagano uplands. Besides the distinctly green tinge to the thick curds (just about visible in the close-up), they have a really lovely delicate flavour.

 

Although the easiest option is to order one the lunchtime set meals (¥2,800 or ¥4,000), we prefer to scan the menu of seasonal specials. That's where you find the grilled duck. It is given a good sprinkling of black pepper and comes with some grilled negi leek, aromatic shiso leaf and a wedge of lemon on the side. The duck is free-range — a variety called Cheribari — and outstandingly tasty.

 

Time for our noodles. Kamo-nan soba is Matsubara-an's take on the classic kamo-nanban recipe: slices of duck (this one is ordinary aigamo) with negi in a warming, nourishing broth.

The goma soba is served cold with a thick, savoury dipping sauce of creamy sesame. It comes with a saucer of finely slivered oba (green shiso) which I sprinkled on top for the photo.

 

The soba-yu is served in a handsome black lacquerware jug in the traditional square form with spout and handle set at an angle. Like all the serving dishes and tableware, it feels refined without being delicate.

 

In fact, like everything at Matsubara-an.

  

 

It's been almost four years since I first posted about Matsubara-an.

Here's a new map link…

There's more in my Japan Times column (which for some reason is only on the JT "legacy" website).

And the Matsubara-an website is here…

 

Narutomi: It's all about the tempura and te-uchi soba

Some people might find Narutomi a bit too stark and functional. There's no decoration to speak of, just the counter overlooking the pristine, shiny kitchen...

 

And nothing at all in the main dining area: just the tables and stools, a few coat hangers and those lampshades overhead...

 

So after you have sipped your sake and nibbled your snacks, it all comes down to the noodles. And the tempura. Both are excellent indeed.

This is the hotate-ten: a single sashimi-quality scallop lightly cooked whole and sliced into two: the interior is still firm and rare, the outside tender and white, encased in a thin light layer of batter... It comes with a selection of vegetables. Highly recommended.

 

But so is the gobo-ten — burdock cut into chunky strips with plenty of fibrous texture. Just sprinkle with a little of the sea salt. This one is intended to go with sake, rather than soba.

 

And then there are the seasonal specials. Currently it's shirako (milt) of fugu pufferfish. But soon there will be spring sansai wild herbs and takenoko bamboo shoots to look forward to.

Don't get the wrong idea: the soba is certainly not an afterthought. It's just that you don't order it until you're done with your nibbling and sipping. Narutomi-san prepares it from scratch, grinding and sifting the grain, then making the dough, rolling it out and cutting it into delicate noodles.

 

Most people go for the cold seiro soba, served with a dip on the side — with a few shreds of fine-sliced negi and a dab of wasabi the only extra seasoning. It's all you need, though: this is soba with plenty of buckwheat flavour.

 

Narutomi-san is is just as happy to serve hot kake soba — in a rich, warming broth. Needless to say he is as perfectionist about this as everything else on the menu. He's even printed up a little information card* placed on the table, in which he explains the absolute optimum temperature for kake-soba. Which is 85-86 degrees C.

If after this you're still a bit hungry, put in an order for some soba-gaki. Narutomi-san whips up his gaki nice and light, smooth and creamy, topped with a cone of fresh grated wasabi. Delicate. Subtle. Earthy. Piquant. Deep.

 

And finally a jug of soba-yu, thick and milky-white, so good: there's no better way to round off the meal.

 

And, because the address, phone number and website are currently missing from the Japan Times online version of my column, here are the details:

 Narutomi

 8-18-6 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

 (03) 5565-0055

 www.narutomi-soba.net/

 Open: Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (LO) & 6-8:45 p.m. (LO); Sat 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.;      closed Sun, holidays & 3rd Sat. 

* Narutomi-san has not been a soba artisan all his life; in fact, for two decades he worked in publishing, which may account for his sense of design — not just the restaurant but also his web site — and the informative leaflets he displays on the tables.