Here's a really funny clip i found on YouTube about dining in Japan. It seriously cracked me up and we figured we would have some fun in Japan by following exactly how they drink in this video clip. Enjoy!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Ramen @ Omotesando
01 March 2009 11:30 (Sunday)
Right... Sometime during my holiday in Japan, i figured i would have a problem with my blog due to the eatery names being in Japanese. This would be the first of my problems. The Japanese character is rather similar to Chinese and i figured the words at the end are Fire and Mountain but i cannot figure out what's the word in the middle. As such, i shall henceforth call this Ramen Eatery the Mountain Fire Ramen Stall.
Now, the Mountain Fire Ramen Stall is located along Omotesando which is near Harajuku. If you were to stand at the opposite side of the road from the Omotesando Hills Shopping Mall and face the mall, you should then turn left, walk about 134 paces then turn left again, you should face an alley, walk another 23 paces and the below scene should greet you....
At this point, i certainly hope you did not stop at the earlier paragraph, hopped on a plane to Japan and followed my instructions cause i doubt that was correct. General directions are correct, just not too sure about the number of paces....
Again, it was Kevin and Pauline that brought us to this relatively obscure ramen eatery but boy was the ramen good! The weather outside was about 4 degrees and it was drizzling and that Oh so tasty Soup ramen certainly helped warm up the body in the most wonderful way...
Just look at the soup..... yes, it's as tasty as it looks! Mountain Fire Ramen stall serves their pork separate from the soup rather than dumping everything in. Idea is for you to decide how much and when you want to mix the pork into the soup. I'm sure there's a highly logical explanation as to why this is so but i decided i would leave the chefs to serve the long queue of people in and outside the eatery rather than have him figure out what i am trying to say to them...
The bowl with the green stuff is actually Dou Miao vegetable with rice below. No sauce, no condiments.... just Dou Miao, Seaweed and Japanese rice. So simple yet so nice. The Gyoza was to die for! Skin was super crispy and the meat was awesomely tasty!
Another shot of the ramen.... u can't possibly tell me u aren't salivating yet....
Looking at these pictures certainly bring back wonderful memories. If only i could have this for dinner tonight.....
Mountain Fire Ramen
Somewhere in Omotesando
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Gonpachi - Nishi Azabu
28 February 2009 19:30 (Saturday)
Gonpachi is a bit of a legend over in Japan. When the former US president, George Bush, came over to Tokyo, the former Japanese prime minister apparently brought him here for some bites. For those of you who are into Quentin Tarantino films, you will find this restaurant highly familiar.... yes, that's cause the set for the scene in which Uma Thurman decapitates Lucy Liu and her Crazy 88 gang was based on this restaurant. Have i gotten you a little excited yet? :)
This is a view from our table on the 2nd storey of the restaurant. Doesn't the restaurant look so cool! It's always packed so reservations are a must! Gonpachi is a bit of an Izakaya, where people have small bites, drink huge amounts of alcohol and talk as loud as they can. And to reciprocate, the waiting stuff are always shouting some greeting whenever someone walks into the restaurant. The Chefs will then reciprocate with more shouting.... It's noisy, but it's oh so cool!
What's a good meal without sake right? Isn't this Sake pot so cool!
Starters to stimulate the stomach....
Errr.... i think this is the pork belly with a dose of Wasabi... Yuuummmm.
Grilled Beef... Mmmmmm....
Can't remember what fish this is but trust me, it taste better than it looks!
Black Miso Cod fish..... Meat so soft, Meat so smooth, Meat so tasty......
This one was our favourite of the night.... grilled Foie Gras with Strawberry. The liver melts the moment you pop it into your mouth. WHOA... i think i just fell into a 10 second trance just writing this bit about the Foie Gras....
More grilled meat.... too much alcohol to remember what is what....
Ok, i'll be honest. Gonpachi is a restaurant you gotta visit when you go to Japan.... but just once will suffice. It's a must in my books only because of it's decor and the electrifying atmosphere. You cannot find anything remotely close over here in Singapore. The food is great but it isn't fantastic... Don't get me wrong, it's very nice but you can have the same quality of food here in one of the better Yakitori restaurants in Singapore. We were looking for uniquely good in which we found in the atmosphere.... food was good, just wasn't unique. Still it's a must go... and you can quote me on that!
Gonpachi
1F,2F
1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku,
Tokyo 106-0031
Tel: 03-5771-0170
Tsukiji Market - Sushi Sen
28 February 2009 11:00 (Saturday)
It's been 28 hours since we arrived in Japan and we haven't sunk our teeth into any sushi yet. Sacrilegious!
Sushi Sen @ Tsukiji Market wasn't exactly where we had in mind. I did a lot of research prior and apparently the best sushi places in Tsukiji market would have been either Sushi Bun or Daiwa Sushi. For some reason, the map printout i had was completely useless cos it was probably drawn by an eight year old where the scale and the navigational indexes were wrong.... either that or we simply didn't know how to read maps!
Anyway to gut a long story short, we didn't manage to find either and that's where our dear friends Kevin and Pauline decided to bring us to Sushi Sen cos this is where they usually have their Sushi in Tsukiji market and they swear by it. It wasn't going to be long before we realise that if Kevin and Pauline swears by a restaurant, you better believe it's goooood!
Sushi Chefs behind the counter..
Being the uninitiated in a foreign land, we decided to let our friends, the local foreigners, do the ordering. First up was this plate of Aburi Sushi. I hear some of you asking "What on earth is Aburi"... well, it's similar to Flambe.... what the chef does is to blowtorch the sushi for a few seconds before serving. If done correctly, you will end up having a slightly cooked surface but with all the freshness of the raw fish. I can't quite remember what each piece in the photo is but they were all .... what's the word i can use here.... AWESOME!
Next up was the mixed plate of Sushi. Ok, here's where i admit i am a wuss.... yes, i almost cried when i placed these little pieces of goodness into my mouth. Back in Singapore, we probably eat more Japanese then the usual local delights. But never in the most vivid of our imagination did we imagine that the Japs in Japan can do it so much better than in Singapore. Ok, i guess the freshness of the seafood used helps but still.... how can anything taste so good?!?
Without discrediting any of the other sushi on the platter, my favourites were the Uni Sushi and the Aburi Salmon Belly Sushi (next to the Uni Sushi) with a droplet of Japanese Mayo. I'm lost for words to describe just how good they are..
Yes, they were this good we had 2 more orders of the Uni Sushi...
Anago Sushi (Sea Eel), So so so so so so so goooooooood.....
Hotate Sushi (Scallop). If i were to blindfold you, put this piece of hotate in your mouth, have you savour it, then i place a piece of the freshest hotate we can get in Singapore in your mouth, your natural reaction would be to spit it out simply cos your mind tells you the hotate has gone bad. For some reason, the hotate in Japan just taste ultra fresh and ultra sweet. The texture is so different from what we get around here!
Clams cooked in Sake Soup... MMmmmmm...
Can't remember the name of this Sashimi but boy was it good..... even though the picture does look a little barbaric, wouldn't you say?
First Sushi we had in the land of Japan and we were thoroughly floored by the experience. It's just our second day and we are thinking we want to consider spending the rest of our lives here... yes, we are simple people.... we gravitate mindlessly to where good food is....
Tsukiji Sushisen
6-chome jogaishijo ten
Akimoto building 1F, 6-23-12,
Tsukiji, Chuo-ku
Tel: 03-3549-1136
*Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me if there is a plural for Sushi?!? This one had me baffled...
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