Japan 2025 - Special Edition - Tokyo Eating...

Sitting in Narita with hours to kill, I thought I'd try to get one more post out. I'm way behind, but I decided it is time to give my audience what they really want, some FOOD PORN...

While we've done a lot of good eating - particularly fish/sushi - in the past few weeks, Tokyo offers a special variety that we are familiar with. We really have done some remarkable eating in the past few days, from ordinary fare in a department store to some surprisingly good modern takes on Japanese food at one of Marie's regulars. Here we go, sort of chronologically...

Sunday - Regular Folks Food

Our first day in Tokyo was to take it easy and end up at a sushi place. A pretty mundane walk through Mitsui Department Store in Ginza resulted in a shot of...

Gastronomi Hamburger in Red Wine Sauce [according to the card]

We stopped to eat at one of the upstairs restaurants, which are usually pretty good, if a bit over priced. We chose a local Soba shop where we ordered cold Soba with ground Mountain Potato (a root veggie related to Taro) for Nobue and duck breast in consume for me. Little late in taking the pictures as we were hungary.

After more wandering in Shitemachi (more in the regular post, I hope), we met up with Marie' and Nobue's sister Yoshiko (the sansai cook from the Tokamachi posts) at a variation on conveyor sushi, called SUSHIRON. Instead of the items going round-and-round, each table has an iPad with a dedicated menu for the shop. Select the items you want, they are made in the back and routed to your table on a set of moving belts with gateways to direct the order to the right place - including liquids; a bit shocked when the beer came shooting in. The sushi was good with a wide variety of items - didn't get enough pictures of them, though.

Tuesday - Tradition and a Variation Thereof

We decided to make an easy day of it and spend time in an old regular spot of ours - Inokashira Park (definitely more on this in a regular post). The last apartment we lived in was about 30 minutes along a gentle Kanda river, which is sourced in the Inokashira pond. The area around the park was, and is even more, fashionable among the younger Tokyo-ites. It also maintains some traditions.

One of these is a hole-in-the-wall Yakitori place that was old when we lived here. We decided to order some to go and make a picnic in the park.

Select your order from the list, pay the cook, and wait for the yummies...

We ordered a bit of liver, some chicken meatballs, regular breast, green onions, corn, and more - and threw in their version of Shu Mai dumplings for good measure.

And top it with some crepes for good measure...

We needed to take a few hours to work it off so we would be set for tonight's dinner. Marie' wanted to show off one of her favorite restaurants and the result was pretty spectacular.

Koenji Tokimeki is a little gem located in a fashionable-adjacent part of West Tokyo. We had no idea what to expect when we entered a dark, counter dominated space with a vertical grill roasting skewered fish like they do on countryside rivers. The place seems dedicated to presenting traditional Japanese flavors in a modern, sometimes fun, preparation. Lets just look...

First selection of grilled house made tofu in the blue bowls, which was crisp on the outside and really soft and cheesy on the inside, and a cauliflower mouse topped with uni, which was spectacular.

Head chef with his box of sashimi source which he pulls out, slices and adds to the dishes orderd

One of which is this sensational bonito sashimi with garlic and a soy/aspic/shishito sauce that I had to fight to keep from others poaching too much.

And finished with a salmon clay-pot rice topped with a bit of ikura

Not going to eat like this in a while...

Wednesday - Temple Food and my Usual Pilgrimage

After yesterday's amazing meal, Nobue had more plans for eating. Shojin Ryori is the Buddhist temple equivalent of Kaiseki, the high-end, multicourse, vegetarian ordered meal. One of Nobue's cookbooks referenced a temple not too far from where we stayed - Sanko-In in Musashi Koganai, getting out there to the West of central Tokyo.

We had a reservation for their first seating just before Noon at the small temple - literally through their garden, where some of the products are grown. This temple is run by nuns who do the cooking and provide explanation on what we are eating.

We start with a small sweet - a crisp shell around azuki (a sweet red bean) paste - and green tea, a pallet cleanser.

- Yamaimo Norimaki - ground mountain potato rolled in nori
- Koya Tofu - a spongy version
- Gobo in Misopaste - burdoch root used for many celebrations
- Steamed Kabocha pumpkin

Bamboo Shoot with Konyaku threads - grown at the temple

Sliced Pressed Roasted Koya Tofu - almost cheesy

Japanese Eggplant roasted with White Miso

Final Dish - Takenoko Gohan - bamboo shoot rice

This was remarkable and we really enjoyed it.

One last shot before going - My Tonki Tokatsu Dinner - I made my pilgramage