tokyo food file

soft cream miscellenia

Following up on my new monthly column on desserts and sweets, which debuted last Friday in The Japan Times – it's cutely entitled Sweet Inspirations – here are a few examples of classic flavored "soft cream" (that's the Japanese term for soft-serve ice cream) from around town… starting naturally with matcha:

This one is from the green tea specialist shop inside Solamachi, the mall at the foot of the new Tokyo Sky Tree. It's also available as a sundae, garnished with sweet azuki jam, of course — which you can eat with a special Sky Tree spoon.

 

 

Beni-imo is a variety of sweet potato found in Okinawa that is reputed to impart great health benefits along with its dramatic mauve colour. This store is in the arcade close to Sensoji temple in Asakusa.

 

If you're a chocoholic, Cacao Sampaka will need no introduction. The Tokyo outlet is in Brick Square, just around the corner from the Joel Robuchon bakery/cafe and the Echiré butter boutique. The actual soft cream is far darker and satisfyingly chocolate-rich than you would guess from the outsize model on the sidewalk outside the store.

 

I've already introduced the coffee soft cream at Binya — but there's no harm in revisiting this tasty treat…

  

 

One last item, and it's a bit of a novelty: soymilk. This kiosk inside the labyrinth that is Shibuya JR station serves all kinds of desserts with soymilk – including a soft cream.

What's it taste like? Just look at the name over the top. 

Surprisingly, there's very little tradition of using soymilk — tonyu, in Japanese — in Japan, other than for making tofu and yuba. This brand and its recipes apparently come from Singapore.

obento and tai-chazuke, refinement and satisfaction – a long, leisurely kaiseki lunch at Uchiyama in Ginza

Uchiyama in Ginza, as introduced in my Japan Times column on Friday, looks inscrutably nondescript at street level. The only signs advertising its presence are a simple nameplate hidden on the inside of the doorway, a small andon lantern at ankle level, and a steep flight of stairs to the basement. Don't be deterred.

  

Once you get down those stairs, it looks a whole lot more interesting. A strange altar — part Buddhist, part something else — stands just inside the front door. And right in front of you there's a simple whitewashed wall sliced through by a narrow horizontal slit, offering a glimpse of the interior.

  

The massive timber counter has room for 11 comfortable armchairs with plenty of elbowroom. It's a nice relaxed space with beautiful panels of wood burnished with Wajima urushi lacquer. And set into the opposite wall a long low alcove acts like a tokonoma, displaying a simple flower arrangement that changes with the seasons and the kitchen deities (which don't).

These photos date back to a lunch I had there back in early summer last year, when the weather was already more than warm. I settled in with a beer and watched the chefs at work while waiting for my bento lunch to arrive...

I ordered the ¥3,500 menu. Besides the bento-bako itself — a beautiful lacquered box with a lid of plain kiri wood — and the accompanying suimono soup, there were two small starters: a small serving of madai (snapper) and salmon prepared as nanbanzuke; and another of the house specialities, yaki-goma-dofu.

Although goma-dofu is a standard both in shojin temple cuisine and cha-kaiseki (as espoused by Uchiyama), this is the only place I have ever come across where it is prepared this way, grilled on the outside to create a skin that's firm, almost leathery, enclosing the delicate smooth sesame custard inside.

The bento-bako contained a lovely array of tidbits. Cooked morsels of seafood, meat, vegetables, egg; "a chef's tasting menu in an elegant lacquerware box."

The suimono soup was a wonderful fragrant deeply translucent clear broth, containing a slice of togan (winter melon) and a couple of little yuba pouches.

Once the bento-bako was finished — a most pleasurable half an hour or more of nibbling, enhanced by a flask of reishu (chilled sake) — it was time for Uchiyama's signature dish, the tai-chazuke.

The fillets of the fresh madai are sliced to order, and served in a shallow bowl filled with goma-dare, a thick sauce of creamed sesame seasoned with dashi fish stock and soy sauce. First you try the raw fish as sashimi, the richness of the dark-brown sesame sauce cut by the wasabi and the sweet neutrality of the rice. 

Next you place the remaining cuts of fish on top of the rice and drench it all with piping-hot rokucha tea. Blanched this way, the fish turns soft and white, crumbling into the now-soupy rice. Delectable.

To wrap up the meal, a small dessert is served with tea. On this occasion, a soymilk gelato prepared in-house...

I lingered a while, watching the chefs at work some more, then made my way back up those stairs and out onto the street. A very fine 90 minutes at table. No surprise here that Uchiyama has won a Michelin star for the last couple of years.

Here's a link to Uchiyama's web site...

And here's a map lnk...

Kansha Cooking with Elizabeth Andoh

Kansha cuisine — cooking with appreciation and vegan principles — is not only the subject of Elizabeth Andoh's recent book. It's also the focus of the ongoing workshops in her Taste of Culture programme.

Is it hard to generate flavour in Japanese food without using the standard fish-based ingredients and seasonings? Not at all if you use the range of stocks and seasonings that Elizabeth demonstrated for us...

From left to right (above): dashi stock from Hidaka kombu kelp; dashi from strips of kampyo gourd; dashi from kiriboshi (shredded and dried) daikon; and niban dashi (secondary stock) taken from recooking the shitake/shoyu mix used for preparing rich Vegan Seasoned Soy Concentrate – that's the sauce in the cute little fish dispenser at the top.

Elizabeth ran us through the preparation process for kampyo gourd strips ; and also the VSSC – which is basically shiitake soaked in shoyu overnight, then cooked up with sugar for a few minutes. It's really tasty and, as the name suggests, its umami-packed savoury goodness goes brilliantly with just about any other food you can think of (Japanese or Western – try a splosh of that in your spaghetti sauce).

We also got to sit down and enjoy a kansha feast in miniature — a small bento packed with goodies...

 • Granny's Sun-Dried Radish (centre) – kiriboshi daikon; carrot, konnyaku, hijiki seaweed and snap peas.

• Plum-Infused Gourd Ribbons (top left) – small curls of kampyo steeped in umezu, the red pickling liquid drawn off the umeboshi.

• lightly simmered greens (bottom left) with shira-ae – Elizabeth calls this dressing Nutty Tofu Sauce (it's made from tofu with creamy sesame paste blended in). I'd say "soy mayo".

• more kampyo: Sour and Spicy Gourd Pickles (bottom right) – this time steeped in rice vinegar, and with the tang of fresh ginger juice and a hint of togarashi chili. The yellow colour comes from kuchinashi (gardenia) pods.

• and rice cooked together with kodaimae (black rice), topped with eda-mame soybeans.

The final delicacy was delicate Steamed Soymilk Custard – aka chawan mushi, but here made without egg – containing enoki mushrooms and served chilled. 

There was also more of that excellent flavourful rice...

In case you missed it, my review of Kansha ran in The Japan Times at the end of last year...

Elizabeth's programmes are always inspiring and packed with information. There are more details – including upcoming events in the USA – at her Taste of Culture site...