The Izakaya Experience @ Yarukiyo, Gaienmae, Tokyo

Regular readers will know that I have described Tokyo as a labyrinth, making it very difficult to find specific locations. I'll give you an example - I booked a haircut at a place called "Sinden" in the Omotesando district. I downloaded the map off the website and it seemed easy enough. But, unlike Melbourne, anything can be anywhere, a vintage clothing shop can be on the 2nd storey of a Japanese restaurant, a Karaoke bar can be on the 4th floor of an office block and a hairdresser can be in a back alley running off a residential side-street. Lucky I had given myself a 10 minute buffer to find the place, as is often the case nowadays.

So following a quick trim with my friendly former London based hairdresser, I looked at my list of places to check out to see if I was in the vicinity of anything. The description of the recommended izakaya, Yarukiyo noted: "Hard to find even though its on a main street. Call once you're close and Kei will help you find it - Jingumae B1 3-1-21 34758963."

I have now learned how to decipher Japanese addresses. In the above example - 3 is the suburb, 1 is the block, 21 is the building number and B1 is the level in the building. So reasonably quickly (for me at least) I found the building, with a Chinese restaurant on street level, this little Izakaya was hidden downstairs in the basement underneath. I walked in and was greeted by 2 Japanese guys behind a bar that had not more than 15 seats and no other patrons. I sat down, eyed the chop-sticks balancing on a shell covered peanut in front of me, ordered a beer and in Jinglish asked the guy holding the knife to make me whatever the specialty was.

Wow. This was like a degustation being made in front of my eyes. I'll try to recall/name/describe it all but to be honest I have no idea what most of it was:
1. Baby Cuttlefish, with bok choy & hollandaise
The chef must have been trying to test my mettle by starting with cuttlefish. Interesting texture, calamari-like but less chewy. Incredible sharp hollandaise. Overall great.
2. Fried crumbed white-fish with ginger and onion paste
A great second dish - the fish was rolled in some sort of crumbs, topped with an incredibly flavoursome and thick ginger paste. Excellent.
3. Oden Beef Cheek and Turnip with Wasabi
Oden is a big steamer filled with different goodies like fish cakes, eggs, root vegetables and other things. This was a tender beef cheek placed on top of a steamed turnip (I think). Very hearty and enjoyable.

4. Fried Panko Crumbed Tuna
This was my highlight - see photo. The tuna was sliced right in front of my eyes. The centre a beautiful deep red, the outside lightly seared, the Panko crumb giving it a schnitzel like texture. Incredible!

By this stage 3 others had entered the bar:
- 1 x 36yo male Japanese real estate agent about to visit NYC
- 1 x 29yo female Japanese secretary who said I was "very handsome"
- 1 x 89yo male Japanese (no idea what his deal was)
After they entered I moved onto Shocchu, a Japanese spirit like Sake so my memory of the last 2 dishes was a little hazy.

5. 3-of-a-kind (Potatoes with bacon pieces, buk choy and beef/tofu) - see photo.
6. Char-grilled Green Chilli

I told the Japanese chef that it was one of my best meals in Tokyo to which one of the other guys in the bar called me a "Bootlicker" in Japanese ("Asslicker" is the translation in English).

Overall a highly memorable meal. For those visiting me here in Tokyo, you will get taken here. For those that aren't, I'll take better photos next time.

Japanese Chicken Soup @ Ippudo, Ebisu, Tokyo

After a long skyping session, my lovely girlfriend said that it being Friday night in Melbourne, she would have to regrettably sign off to partake in the usual Friday night Sabbath meal with her family - the Chicken Soup was on the table. She asked whether I would be having Chicken Soup for dinner in Tokyo. I looked at the meagre options in my pantry and the closest thing was a packet of instant Miso soup. Not good enough. So I put on my thermals, a few more layers of clothing and left in search of Chicken Soup on a blisteringly cold, dark, snowing Friday evening in Tokyo.

Armed with a recommended address on an email, I took the metro from Akasaka station on the Chiyoda line, switched to the Hibya line at Hibya station and got off at Ebisu. In Tokyo it is notoriously difficult to find any particular place. Best practice is to print off a google maps search and take it with you. With the snow pelting into my glasses, I trudged along the streets in search of the place. No luck. I felt the beginning of frostbite in the tips of my fingers as I back-tracked, circled, crossed streets to no avail. I was moments away from packing it in, when I saw the light of a restaurant across the road - I had found it!

After taking off about 8 layers of clothing, and with some strange looks from the waitress, I sat down in the warmth of Ippudo and smiled contently at having braved the torrential conditions and for having not turned back. Ippudo was recommended to me as serving great Ramen - Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish served in a broth. The Jews have Chicken Soup, the Japanese have Ramen.

A big hearty bowl is placed before me. I always remember my grandmother heaping salt into her Chicken Soup before she even tasted it. No need here - the broth is salty, meaty and full of flavour. The semi-hard boiled egg, tender pork, spring onion and noodles combine with the broth perfectly. The only thing missing on a Friday night is Kreplach (dumplings filled with meat and added to Chicken Soup). With my extensive knowledge of Japanese cuisine, I thought the closest thing to Kreplach was Gyoza and quickly ordered a serve. I was tempted to drop them into my Ramen but thought it best not to draw any more unnecessary attention to myself and quickly devoured them.

So the Jews and the Japanese appear to have more in common than we think. Ramen just might be the Japanese penicillin. Now to track down some Challah and I'm set!

The Xiao Long Bao 11 @ Yokohama

What better way to bring in the Chinese New Year than by celebrating in Japan. Along with a crew of "Gajin" (Japanese for "non-Japanese") we boarded the train at Shibuya station for the journey to the city of Yokohama, home to one of the largest China Town areas in Japan. Pushing through the massive crowds we managed to view the standard parade.

Following the parade, we moved onto the important business of the day - dumplings of the Xiao Long Bao variety. For the uninitiated, these are generally steamed dumplings filled with pork and a hot soupy broth. The virtues of these dumplings have been well documented in Melbourne foody circles, having been made famous by Hutong. The difference here was that the streets of Yokohama were lined with vendors selling these tasty morsels. To the chagrin of my compadres, I pragmatically chose the stall with the longest queue and waited patiently.

20 minutes later, after the maestro having first steamed the dumplings, then fried the bottoms in oil and then having added a sprinkle of spring onions, they were ready. I eagerly handed over my yen, snatched the dumplings and added the usual vinegar. Then I heard a scream.

My famished rookie XLB eating companion had dived in too soon, biting into the hot soup dumpling, painfully scolding his tongue. Me, being well trained in the art of XLB eating, was familiar with the ancient Chinese proverb "Patience is a virtue" where the Xia Long Bao 11 approach was first developed. See upon receiving your dumplings, you must wait a full 11 minutes before consuming. As you can see in this photo, it is a well trained art. Even with the skill of the grand master that I possess, it can still be a difficult pursuit, particularly eating whilst standing in a street packed with thousands of parade-goers.

And so I too had a minor debacle eating my XLB. With my much cherished last dumpling held high between my chopsticks, I bit in with gusto, piercing the smooth outer layer and releasing a spray of soup so strong, that it hit a 12 year old Japanese girl 2 metres away right on the cheek. Even for the Japanese with impeccable manners, I was met with a death stare that said nothing other than: "What the fuck, Gaijin! You no eat Xiao Long Bao before?" And so the master was humbled. I will certainly try again.