By way of A, a great way to virtually express a moment of silence for the people of Japan. Also, another deserving avenue of donation. I’m looking forward to *not* reading any posts tomorrow, nor posting ourselves. Be sure to visit www.forjapanwithlove.com for more details.
If you haven’t already, please take the time to donate to one of the many charities out there for this recent disaster in Japan. In this era of digital donations, it’s so easy that there’s no excuse for not donating.
Have a $1? Then buy a Sonic or Street Fighter game from the App Store. Sega and Capcom are donating 100% of the proceeds to charity, and you get some entertainment as a bonus. Learn more and donate.
Likewise, you can make a donation directly via the iTunes Store. Or if you’re into Zynga games, they make in game donations very easy (article).
Frequent traveler? Hilton is matching donations and allowing members to donate via HHonors points. I’m guessing your hotel chain of choice is offering the same donation options.
Then there’s the good old fashion way, donate directly to the Red Cross here.
Long before Iron Chef aired its tofu-themed battle, Sasanoyuki had already been serving tofu-based meals for a few hundred years (open since 1691). While the Iron Chefs and challengers typically create 4 or 5 dishes based on the theme ingredient, this restaurant delivers at least 9, that’s right 9, dishes where tofu is the star. While it may be hard to imagine how this humble curd could be served up in so many ways without patrons leaving in bland disgust, our meal here really opened my eyes to the possibilities of tofu-based cooking beyond just adding it to soup. Second to the all-beef based meal at Sutamina-En, the lunch at Sasanoyuki was my other favorite of the trip.
G and I were too tired (lazy) to head over to Tsukiji fish market at 430am to watch the tuna auctions, but we did make it over at what we thought was a very early 6am for a sushi breakfast at the “#1″ sushi stall in Tsukiji – Sushi Dai. Turns out we weren’t the only ones. When we arrived there were already at least twenty people waiting already. So we queued. After one hour the line had barely moved, but die die we would wait a couple more hours if need be in order to eat our fill of the freshest raw fish in town!
After two hours of waiting, we finally made it into the tiny twelve seater stall. The omakase cost around 3500 Y, and included 10 nigiri of the chef’s choosing + 1 “gift” of our choosing. Soup and a tuna maki were also included in the meal. Not a bad deal considering the cost and quality of the fish.
Tucked away on a side-street at the northern edge of Tokyo is a gem of an yakiniku restaurant, Sutamina-En (Stamina Garden). We were initially hesitant to make a trip so out of the way, despite the strong recommendation of a well-traveled foodie couple. But, since we were on a foodcation and Japanese wagyu is one of our favorite foods, we decided to make the pilgrimage. This turned out to be one our favorite meals of the trip!
Sutamina-En is well known amongst the locals and is frequently featured in magazines and on TV shows. Since they don’t accept reservations, we showed up before opening on a Friday evening to stand in line. When we arrived there were a couple groups waiting. A short 20 minutes later and the door opened for business. While no English is spoken here, we were tipped by the same couple that mandarin however is. Turns out, the 老闆娘, 帶 “姊”, is a fellow Taiwanese and a very excellent host.
Our Tokyo babymoon would not have been complete without this tour on our first full day in the city. Our Japanese friend, Y, suggested a tour with Hatobus because he’d brought out-of-town friends on it before. After searching through their tour options, I decided on the full-day Dynamic Tokyo Tour for 12,000 Yen.
We visited the Tokyo Tower where Wen was fascinated by the mascot; the Tokyo Banana, and saw a foggy outline of Mt. Fuji which our tour guide promptly told us is a one in ten chance of seeing. Our tour continued to the Happo-en garden where we learned about the intricacies of a traditional tea ceremony, including turning the side of the cup with the flower design away from the mouth when sipping the tea.
4 days are simply not enough time to eat your way through Tokyo. This is a city that boasts the most Michelin starred restaurants in the world (not that we could afford to eat at any of them). The places that we did visit were all memorable and we highly recommend to fellow foodies. Below are our favorites from the trip with a brief description, details, and of course links to food photos. Be forewarned, English is not spoken at most of these places. Ita daki masu!
One of the tastiest and hardest to find snacks has suddenly shown up in Narita Airport!
If you’re not familiar with Jaga Pokkuru from Potato Farm (a division of Calbee apparently), you’ve been missing out on one of the great snack finds in the past few years. Until recently, they were only available in Hokkaido and often in limited quantity. We’ve received the occasional box from our Japan-faring cousin and have always pined for more. While similar to other fries-shaped snacks, there is a certain butteriness to the Potato Farm ones that is just other-worldly.
So if you happen to be transiting in Narita, do your tastebuds a favor and pick up a box of Jaga Pokkuru!
Sticking out like a brick thumb at the southern end of Ginza’s shopping district is the multi-floor shrine to tempura, Tenkuni. From its humble beginnings in 1885 as a simple yatai stall, it is now a destination for tempura fans. G and I decided to try Tenkuni based on the recommendation of our Japanophile and tempura-fanatic friend. While neither of us are particularly crazy over tempura (too doughy and oily), the way Tenkuni served up deep fried cuisine has certainly has made me reconsider my stance on this battered tastiness.
We started off our trip with a visit to a cult favorite of sushi lovers- Daisan Harumi. This tiny 8-seater (and 1 table) restaurant is known for its top quality fish and eccentric chef/owner Kazuo Nagayama, who in addition to preparing wonderful sushi also dabbles in book writing, ceramic design, and seaweed harvesting.