Of Rice and Jen

A post about an epic adventure in Japan, featuring some food, and…

Matt-san as The Director [of the funniest short film in history; this blog will be ten thousand times better if he lets me link to it here]:

 

 

 

 

Mike-san as The Japanese Speaker:

 

 

 

 

James-san as The [only one who had any] Money [left]:

 

 

 

 

and Jimmy-san as Billy Joel:

 

 

 

 

Also starring Jen-chan and Jam-san as The [likely / unlikely] Karaoke Soloists

 

 

 

 

and with special guest star….. The Local

 

 

 

 

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The Fish

Where to begin a blog about food in Japan but with the fish in all its forms: sushi; sashimi; whole fish to be deboned; little fish we fried ourselves over a mini fire; cured; jellied; caked; rice crackered; and the strangest of all – a fish mesh carpet.

We started off with a particularly pretty presentation of buri (yellowtail) at a great izakaya (sort of pub-eatery) called Mifune (where Jam-san is local celebrity でしょう). Buri / yellowtail is Japanese amberjack and unfortunately the first in a long line of endangered species we sampled (BAD Japan). Japan then does redeem itself by being incredibly seasonal with its food; the buri season runs through the winter months so we came across it a lot:

Fish jelly – a lot nicer than it sounds:

This was on the second night in Tokyo in an izakaya called Yamato (aka Jen-chan’s place, as I like it so much!), and presented Billy Joel with his first opportunity to say “I’ll have the weirdest thing on the menu please!” After a long conference between The Local and the wonderful Yamato woman, I think we got the censored version in the form of these little fish to fry ourselves:

Fish carpet also in Yamato. Don’t believe me? Look for the little glittery eyes!:

We went to another izakaya in Nozawa Onsen, in which Jam-san got to demonstrate his most authoritative “SUMIMASEN”, spoken in a very specific way to an empty room, resulting in cries of “Hai!” from the distant kitchen. I say specific and it really is true – others in the group said and shouted it in a number of ways to an increasingly awkward response of total silence!

We only had sushi once on our whole trip – it’s more of a special occasion thing in Japan. We went to the same restaurant as I went to last year as well, which is expensive, but at the right (or should I say left) end of an exponentially increasing price curve. It was legendary – tray after tray of perfect sushi, with a few surprises thrown in [see Weird Shit, below]. This was their sashimi – so pretty:

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The Noodles

The Director was a useful noodle exponent on this trip in that he was essentially up for noodles at any time of the day. As a result we got on the case early with a Tokyo ramen stop, complete with individual booths, a choose-your-variety machine, and personal sliding hatches which mysteriously shot up and down, launching our bowls of steamy ramen towards us. Experience now tells us that ramen + beer is an almost indigestible amount of liquid to consume in one go (except while snowboarding where it actually turns out to be a useful counteraction to the perpetual dehydration).

Another noodle highlight was in Nozawa Onsen, at Daimon Soba, a family-run restaurant that has been churning out quality hand-made soba noodles for generations. Nozawa Onsen threw us a few challenges, such as ALL restaurants simultaneously swinging their Closed signs round at 20:30 each evening. It required a bit of research to find this place but was well worth it and a real privilege to eat in such a traditional family-run place.

We recreated a great noodle experience from my last trip as well, by going to Ramen World in Hokkaido Airport (amazing). Everyone else had a delicious pork-and-egg topped bowl of miso ramen. Never one to follow the crowd, I accidentally ordered one with “hormones” in [see Weird Shit, below] – could have been worse but it was a little challenging!

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The Takoyaki (Octopus Balls)

So, Takoyaki. My nemesis. Except this time you come to the party late as a midnight feast, cooked on a special hotplate by the awesome Foot Bar lady, and I’ve already been sake-bombed up before you arrive.

It’s all good, Takoyaki – your blobby octopus tentacles were a much more manageable size this time, and I am converted. In order to make amends for my previous resistance, we have lined up some Takoyaki cheek action for your pleasure. Jam-san has been practicing for 18 months and you can see the time he has invested has really paid off:

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The Hotch Patch

We think they meant hot pot, but I’m going with hotch patch, as a much more appropriate descriptive term for this genre of Japanese food. We had three different types of hotch patch on this trip – the simple shabu shabu;

My personal favourite – the higher maintenance but delicious sukiyaki;

And the weird-but-tasty hotch patch itself from Ebisu Te in Niseko;

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The Mountain Food

Breakfast
It was a trip of two halves when it came to ski/board breakfasts. In Nozawa Onsen, we came down each morning to a full-on spread of interesting and tasty delights, complete with a huge bucket of rice, and always some sort of alternate reality egg product. It was awesome. Set us up for the day.

In Niseko on the other hand, breakfast was an intriguing assembly of whatever we had acquired the night before from the late night convenience store. Judging from some of the contributions, I’m not sure we could claim these shopping trips were always conducted soberly. Lowlights were some chocolate eggs (but unfortunately it wasn’t chocolate) and some bread covered in saucy noodles – v weird.

Lunch
There’s nothing quite as bad as boarding in the Alps after a grim panini & chips and a pint (this would be a first world problem!). Conversely I’m not sure there is anything better in the world than boarding after a bowl of warming spicy ramen and half a jug of sake. Certainly I don’t feel my performance was affected by the alcohol – a quick dunk in some chest-high powder and a near miss with a tree later (not so lucky, o Japanese Speaker) and back in the game. The pick of the Niseko lunches was a storming katsu curry (Jen-chan: “I will finish this curry”; The Money: “but Jen-chan, it’s bigger than your head”) with some local sake at the hideaway Boyo-so; and Nozawa Onsen was a brilliant conveyor belt of ramen, udon, rice bowls and curries, with our favourite being Buna on the Slopes.

Dinner
One of the most interesting meals of the trip was at Kawahiro, our lodge in Nozawa Onsen. It had its ups (karaage – fried chicken, even the tofu) and downs (an unfeasibly large soggy daikon wheel with tuna / some sort of fruit paste on it). Most interesting of all was the horse sashimi [see Weird Shit, below]. Ethical considerations aside, I have to admit it was tender and tasty and really bloody enjoyable.

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Other Highlights and Classics

For our very first meal of the trip The Local took us to a brilliant tempura place, complete with kneeling seating and some local beer to settle us in. For us gaijin, the average time spent kneeling without shifting / moving / hopping up and down with pins and needles was around 30 seconds. All good fun and delicious food.

I’ve talked about Jen-chan’s place before, but it really is the most fantastic and amazing izakaya – welcoming, fun, friendly and with wonderful food. It would have been a challenge without The Local because the menu is just parchment scrolls of handwritten Japanese script. Somehow I think they would have sorted us out either way though.

And what an awesome invention these are from an izakaya in Niseko – chicken wing gyoza:

We had a few good yakitori experiences, and one of them was a recommendation in Niseko where thrillingly I got to use the Japanese phrase “onaji mono”, which means ALL the same again! What I like about Japan, and what makes it very different to Europe, is that even if someone speaks perfect English, if you speak to them in Japanese then that’s what you get your response in. It’s so much less depressing than say France, where no matter how reasonable your French is, you unerringly get a withering look and an English response for your trouble.

These yakitori came with a choice of salt or sauce so we mixed it all up and it was all delicious, washed down with a healthy volume of Sapporo beer.

My favourite yakitori experience of all time (so far!) was on the last night, when we went to a local place with a sunken bar-style seating arrangement which was a little precarious to get into, what with some serious cooking going on inches in front of us.

Our last night was magically never-ending and we settled into a local Spanish izakaya with lots of beer (sorry Alex!) and a selection of food that started out vaguely Spanish (kinda Mediterranean stew) and ended up more or less Japanese (kinda udon noodles). We shared tequila shots and choruses of Kanpai! with a bar full of Japanese salarymen and it was a perfect way to end the trip.

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The Weird Shit

This section is dedicated to Billy Joel, whose unorthodox but entertaining “weirdest thing on the menu” tactic led to some really memorable food experiences. Notable ones were raw horse; deep-fried stingray complete with many (surely unintended) wing bones; hormones; chicken bum; space candy (miso paste with cracky fried bits of noodle – awesome); chicken hearts and gizzards; and fish sperm.

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Appendix – Sake Rules

1. Sake is around the same strength as wine but if you stand up and you can’t feel your knees, ease off. Except if you have just got up from kneeling in front of a table / hot plate in which case not being able to feel your knees is normal, and will shortly be followed by blinding pain.

2. There are aniseedy ones and cloudy ones – these are nice, but impossible to identify from the names and descriptions. In fact, they even move them around so once you’ve worked out which one the aniseedy one is, next time it will be different.

3. Sake sometimes comes in a glass within a cedarwood box. In order to demonstrate generosity, the sake will often be poured up to and over the brim, over-spilling into the box. You should first lower your mouth to the glass to drink without spillage. Then when there’s space in the glass, you may pour the sake back into the glass from the box. Sometimes, it can deceptively appear as though there is more space in the glass than sake in the box when in fact it is the other way round. This mysterious illusion can lead to sake all over the table.

4. Order everything on the menu to see which one you like. This tactic is best employed in a group. It is impossible to keep track of who likes which ones, in which case, “onaji mono” is an appropriate thing to say.

5. Sometimes, you will need to choose your own sake glass from a tray with vessels of all shapes and sizes. Remember the training from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – largest or shiniest is not usually correct.

6. Sake in large quantities can lead to a condition called “The Tokyo Effect”. This serious affliction can result in periods of memory loss, time distortion, money extraction, and geographical disorientation, and particularly in males can result in a secondary group of symptoms collectively called “Cloakroom Syndrome”.

 

New York is a fabulous work trip to land, especially in Autumn when one day you get sunbathers in Bryant Park and the next you need to wrap up in wool against a bitter winter wind. I was on a mission to score some American classic dishes, as well as some of the other interesting options that crop up more in New York than London due to proximity, such as Cuban.

I was lucky enough to be staying in the uber-trendy W Hotel on Times Square. The hotel was in fact so trendy that I couldn’t even find my room on the first night – the lighting is all moody, and there are different lifts depending on how cool you are so it was all very hard to fathom.

Times Square was quite an experience (I read by the light of a giant luminous Corona bottle) and it did have its culinary challenges, being at something like the arse-end of the Manhattan food scene. One New Yorker said to me that if anyone ever recommended a restaurant above 34th St to him, his immediate conclusion would be to disregard all their future recommendations as unsound.

First task: order coffee. There seems to be no way on earth to order a “normal” coffee in New York, so my daily special had to become the chemical-rich tall skinny vanilla latte. I haven’t stopped hating the monstrous chain that is Starbucks but I will acknowledge that their coffee is marginally better in the US. I also found a nice old-fashioned bakery just off Times Square for my daily bagel fix; the aptly named Times Square Bagels. Top bagel tip – order whatever has just come out of the oven. I ended up with the most delicious, light, crusty, fluffy, tasty whole-wheat bagel. I am going to call this the holey grail of bagels. Ho ho.

Eating in New York is very similar to the variety of eating in London; in a week, I had Lebanese (at Ililli, where they do the most fantastic square falafel), Indonesian, Cuban (celebrating Columbus day with a Cuba Libre!) and Thai, and they were all very decent.

But of course there were the New York / American classics to get in there as well. There was delicious macaroni cheese at the Thistle Hill Tavern in Brooklyn; pay-as-you-weigh at Hill Country BBQ (where there was obscenely good brisket and prime rib); some proper American cookies (and by proper, I mean with the dimensions of a large burger and with the texture of something between cake and cookie dough); and a slice of the most lovely New York cheesecake. Less good was a pizza, or rather a pie, in a dodgy “authentic” Italian near work. It was like we had walked into a Working Men’s Club – v awkward, made comical by the look of horror on my work colleague’s face throughout.

One more super experience to report, and that was a fab cocktail in a trendy bar just off Broadway, called Bar Centrale. It was all very surreptitious – no sign; reservations a must; no menu but a bartender who can make all the classics; and regular opportunity to spot stars from Broadway and beyond. We saw Scott Rudin, producer of MANY outstanding films, such as No Country for Old Men and The Social Network. We did not speak to him. I, in fact, did not recognise him.

The only downside to my New York trip is that it has left me with penchant for “surreptitious” cocktail bars. As the amount of signage seems to be inversely proportional to the expense of the drinks, this is a trend I need to get out of my system pretty quickly or my bank balance will suffer!

London never ceases to impress and excite me with the rate at which it takes on other cuisines and drives them towards an intersection of authenticity and accessible quality. When I went to Japan in January, I had no idea of the specialisation of places over there – restaurants concentrating on delivering one thing (down to the type of noodle) incredibly well. And now, London is catching on with places like Koya and Tonkotsu, and they seem to be right on trend in terms of what people (including, or perhaps especially me) want to eat at the moment.

I tried Koya first (I do love an udon noodle), and went for a simple Buta Miso (pork and miso) atsu-atsu (hot udon in hot broth). It was familiar and fabulous, and I would be quite happy to work my way through the whole menu given the chance. Koya also sends out daily specials on twitter which sound absolutely delicious. I would say marginally expensive for a bowl of noodles, but that’s what you get for being in the middle of Soho I suppose. Typically, no reservations.

Next up was Tonkotsu, which literally means “Pork Bone” and is the basis of their amazing, simmer-for-about-a-week-and-a-half broth. Where Koya does udon (a thicker noodle), Tonkotsu does ramen (thinner wheat-based noodles) which come in a range of broth types (regional variations in Japan), and is usually topped with pork of some kind and a soft hard boiled egg.

Whereas Koya goes for exciting, seasonal specials, Tonkotsu has just three choices on the menu,  but what more would you need? I went for Tokyo Spicy (love a bit of chilli), and it was fantastic; very reminiscent of the bowls of ramen I had in various stations in Japan. Again, it’s Soho prices, so not something you can do every day (which makes it unlike the budget ramen-stops in Japan) but very nice for a treat.

And how about the authenticity? Food-wise, I think that both Koya and Tonkotsu are serving food that I would easily believe was teleported straight from Japan. The only thing that lets them down is that the decor is too nice and the price is too high! But maybe that’s what needs to happen to succeed with specialist Japanese food in central London – I won’t be complaining too much.

Could La Bodega Negra be any more trendy? It’s in Soho; it has no signage but instead you have to enter through what looks very convincingly like a sex shop (see above); it’s in a darkly-lit underground bunker; and it’s basically impossible to get a table before about 10pm if you’re not organised well in advance (I wasn’t).

Even knowing about the sex shop entrance beforehand, it makes you think twice when you’re there. The doorway says “Private Dances this way” and inside, the get-up of the welcome staff is, er, likewise convincing. Obviously I knew this was all no problem but I had some worried-looking faces behind me.

The food is proper (as far as I know) Mexican, a nice lime-chilli zingfest. We had Camarones (prawns in a chilli tomato salsa) mushroom tacos and lamb tacos, served on a rather cool wooden thing, tuna ceviche, mushroom and crispy tortilla salad (made extra good by a hit of tasty caramelised onions), and some roasted vegetable tostaditas. That last one must have been slightly unmemorable, but I would totally recommend the rest of it.

All that came with some nicely affordable wine, attentive staff, a good late-night buzz and some excellent retro tunes pumping out as well. Totally recommended.

 

Following an unintentional summer break from blogging (what can I say? I have been too busy eating!), what was going to be the trigger to get me back in gear? Was it The Bull and Last, or even Dinner @ Heston? Both were on top form and will certainly be blogged in good time, but the real inspiration of the last few weeks has been The Gun in Docklands.

It has awesome beer, for a start. Good range, and friendly, knowledgeable staff on hand. One chap wandered over when he could see we were near the bottom of our glasses and chatted to us about the flavours we liked, gave us a tasting glass, and delivered us the perfect beers to enjoy with our food. He also brought us more bread, which, it being possibly the best bread I have ever had (little rosemary loaves with very salty butter), was a fast way into my good books.

We all had fish to eat, which the pub gets fresh from Billingsgate (round the corner) each morning. Mine was the daily special, and special it was. Fillet of sea bass with gnocchi, chanterelle mushrooms and a herb butter sauce. So delicious, and another welcome chap wandered over at one point and started chatting away about how the chef makes the gnocchi and why it’s so good.

A portion of beer-battered fish and chips was soft and flaky, and a real pleasure (although I did spot a couple of sideways longing glances at my amazing dish).

And another triumph was the whole grilled lemon sole with caper butter, which was fresh, tasty, and which Midori did absolute justice to, as can be seen by the before / after shots below. Did the chef ever have such clean fish bones returned?? Incidentally Midori was dissatisfied with the end result – plenty more fish on there but ran out of time!

Ultimately, The Gun is a spectacular all-rounder. I would say the food was the highlight, but then the service might be the best I have experienced – a harmonious mix of attentive and casually chatty, perfectly at ease. And the beer! All in all, well worth a trip into the deepest Docks – and, by the way, it also offers a free taxi service from the Canary Wharf offices at lunch time.

Being a supper club virgin I was very excited and ever-so-slightly nervous about rocking up to the Two Hungry Girls Supper Club in Hampstead. I pretty much had to get over being English for the 5 minutes it took me to walk into someone’s house and introduce myself to a bunch of strangers!

Turns out, predictably, I had absolutely nothing to be nervous about. The people were friendly and interesting and the inevitable small talk of the first few minutes gave way beautifully to excitable sharing of food stories and harmonies of food appreciation over plate after plate of exciting and delicious Chinese food.

First up (after a pre-dinner cocktail of Longan Spiked Tea) was Cold Silken Tofu with Century Egg. Now Century Egg was pretty much the only thing I struggled with in Singapore; it’s a very odd food for a Western palate. Look it up on Wikipedia and you might see why! Anyway, this had been (in the words of a Hungry Female) toned down and chopped up to make a really tasty sauce for the tofu.

Then we had 5-spice Szechuan Peppercorn Duck in Lettuce Cups, which I loved – well, I pretty much love anything spicy you can wrap in cool lettuce leaves – somehow makes the whole thing feel very healthy!

Next up was something spectacular – Lemongrass Pork Skewers. Lovely pork patties spiked with garlic and stuff and with the lemongrass flavour all the way through.

That was the starter section over, and we were then given some steamed rice to go with the main courses to come. First of these was something of a signature dish I think – Slow-Braised Soy Pork Belly. Flavour and tenderness that you only dream about in a dish.

There was some extremely spicy (luckily I like it hot!) Sambal Kang Kong (water spinach), and some Garlic Chives with Tofu, plus Steamed Sea Bass Cantonese Style, which at our table was expertly filleted by Seda, who has just qualified to be a chef. I (not an expert) picked up the wrong bit at one point and basically ended up eating fish spine but once I’d got over that it was lovely!

Finally, there was Hunanese Beef, which was as tender as can be, and really interesting, with some spices (cumin?) that are unusual for Chinese food.

Not done yet, and moving on to possibly the most fabulous section of the evening – the desserts. Leigh (@craftcakes) is a pastry chef and this was definitely something to look forward to.

We had a palate cleanser – can’t quite remember what it was, then an absolutely beautiful dish of Soya Bean Milk Pudding (panna cotta) paired with a stunning Peach and Jasmine Tea Sorbet. Topped with caramelised peanuts, this was one of my favourite things of the evening.

Finally (sigh), another fun and unique dessert offering – Pandan Ice Cream Sandwiches in Horlicks Sand. Very cool, and very delicious. Interestingly, I haven’t seen Horlicks in a Western cupboard since about 1987, but apparently it’s quite common in Asia. The biscuity things the ice cream came in were melt-in-the-mouth.

Some little home-made Matcha marshmallows to finish (more skill demonstration from Leigh) and lots of green tea to top off a wonderful evening.

All that’s left to say is thank you Two Hungry Girls and see you again soon! x

Here is my attempt at recreating Japas! at home:

Even managed the magic jelly made from a combination of agar and kuzu flakes, only made possible by the discovery of a little corner of Japan next to Waitrose on Finchley Road. The Natural food store looks like a normal organic shop from the outside, but with a little sign saying “Japanese food”. Walking inside is like being teleported to Japan, with hardly a word of English to be seen, and every Japanese ingredient you can imagine!

Japas! is a Divertimenti cooking course hosted by Atsuko, a Japanese chef who puts her own spin on traditional small plates of Japanese food, badging it with a Euro-centric “tapas” label. It’s clever actually – the “tapas” part of Japas has little influence (Japanese izakayas are all about small plates anyway) but because of its quirky title it somehow seems more inviting than a straight Japanese cooking course.

The actual cooking part of the course was shared out, as opposed to us all having to cook everything ourselves from scratch. As I was breading kushiage skewers for half the evening, I might have learnt less than I’d have liked, but I have the recipes so the test will be when I cook them for myself (and possibly Midori – eek..).

So, here’s the line-up:

Wasabi edamame – edamame tossed with wasabi paste, oil and sea salt and garnished with black sesame seeds.

Kushi age – deep-fried skewers of all sorts of stuff.

La-yu dressing with tofu and okra – this was an absolutely beautiful dish, an Atsuko signature I think.

Green tea soba noodle nori rolls with sesame dressing – a spectacular one and fun to make.

Tuna tataki with avocado and ponzu jelly – I was in charge of cooking the tuna, which as you can see below was cooked perfectly!

I think we learnt some really interesting techniques, such as making ponzu jelly with a mixture of kanten (agar) flakes and kuzu (starch flakes). Basically some dried flakes together with a few bits of rice wine and soy somehow transformed into jelly – it was like a miracle (and I’m a physicist).

Even if I come to cook these dishes and they are a total disaster, I will take away one technique from the course which I think has already saved me at least 50p; peel ginger with a teaspoon. Honestly – try it.