raji

Hey Hiroyuki - now that I'm here, I'll gladly contribute to those threads if I can - Well, the usual number were reading, but not many questions, no... Well, as a technician, I will allow that the thread DOES belong here so I'll continue to post my culinary adventures here. I wish I hadn't been drained by some settai, otherwise I might actually have a budget to try more expensive restaurants....

Haha - will do Bryan! MODS, I know this thread belongs in the Japan forum, and I'd love to link it over there, but I'm posting here more for educational purposes. Everything I've posted so far can be had at similar prices at Midtown Japanese restaurants. Japanese food is SOOO diverse that I find myself constantly introducing my friends and family to different kinds of dishes. However, the next post is for pure envy.

This pic highlights a few more elements of Japanese food culture. Indeed Japan's most recent athletic export is it's competitive eaters. There are many of them. Many restaurants features an inhuman-sized rendition of their dish which, if you can finish off, you will be rewarded with money. Competitive eaters can eat their way across Japan for free, as long as they can finish it. This guy finished off a 9.3 kilo ramen in a matter of 10 minutes and was rewarded ￥５０，０００ (about $450) for his effort. This is a ramen that this shop sells normally for 10 people to share. And of course they weighed and measured him before and after, this ramen adding 22 whole centimeters to his waist. The other feature being that, first of all, most Japanese only have NAMAHOSO, the OTA broadcast channels, so have just several broadcast channels. On these channels is an inordinate amount of food programming. At any given time at least one of the channels will have a variety show on where the hosts are discussing, visiting, or in this case, competing at one of Japan's numerous restaurants. Food is filmed meticulously and you are introduced to the ingredients, chefs, and history of many types of cuisine in extreme detail. Besides making you hungry and introducing you to delicious deals all over town, living here you become a much more well-informed eater. So I find most Tokyoites more like Egullet members, knowing this spot and that.

Apologies for making you tilt your head - my software did it automatically but loses it when I upload.... This pic actually still resided on my phone from last summer. Per Japanese tradition, on the hottest day of the year (according to the calendar) you are supposed to eat Unagi to give you energy. this was a simple Unagidon but more traditionally is the delightful SHITSUMABUSHI, which is basically the same thing but serve with an tea-based soup and wasabi. You procedurally eat the dish while mixing in the ocha and wasabi. Absolutely delicious and great as most of Japan gets very muggy and hot in the summer, very similar to DC weather. On the same day in NY you will find most Japanese restaurant serving at least an unagidon and they'll be packed with Japanese customers. This was had at Unagi Matsukawa near Shibuya station. http://www.unagi-matsukawa.co.jp/honten.html The thing that you'll notice and I love about Japan is that with few rare exceptions, the food you are served almost perfectly resembles the photos or plastic models in the front of the restaurant (check the website and then my half-eaten mess). Being that most restaurants feature these photos or plastic models (an art form in Japan), it's exceedingly easy for a non-Japanese speaker to eat in Japan. Point and enjoy. This was ¥1000, about $9. TSUKERAMEN had a new shop opened near Shimo-Kitazawa station. TSUKERAMEN is ramen deconstructed, noodles and soup separately. This allows you to more leisurely eat your ramen, not worrying about your noodles getting fat and soggy. It's also delicious. This was ¥680, about $5. Here we find a quirk of Japanese culture. The soup is the same size, but you can get a small, medium, or large order of the noodles. I went GUTS-style and went for the large, and a huge platter, about a kilo of ramen noodles came piled out. The quirk being that the small, medium, and large are all the same price. This is a result of either one of 2 things; 1) this is a "service" of the ramen shop, a unique feature that gets the customers in, just something interesting about it rather than your boring old ramenshop, and/or 2) As a proper Japanese you will order the size that you can realistically eat. My large absolutely stuffed me and I probably shouldn't have finished it, but I would rather do that than give the ramen shop owners any reason to deride foreigners. Then again, the women next to me handed back plates half-full of noodles after giving up . After a last-minute DJ gig in Shibuya @ WOMB, these are mine and my friend's ramen from the shop right across from Shibuya 109. I ordered the spiciest miso-ramen they had. It was very spicey with chili oil and had me full on sweating. It was also huge and I couldn't finish it. Next, my friend's more modest miso-ramen, which he also gave up on. For a miso-ramen it looked more like a tonkatsu-ramen without all the fat. ¥800 each, and we were given a service ticket for free gyoza next time we return. A week in Japan and you will find yourself with a dozen pointcards and service tickets. Ramen's a competitive biz! Teishoku lunch in Shimotazawa, ¥800 each. I got the MAGURODON (tuna rice bowl) coming with pickles and miso soup, as well as a nearly rare poached egg served in cold soup. And my friends KAKIFRY (fried clams). Not outstanding but for $7 you can't really beat it - healthy, delicious, cheap. Now I'm remembering why lunch was my favorite meal in Japan. Most restaurants fling their doors open and offer their fare at super-cheap prices. Negitoro-don Lunch @ ZIGZAG cafe in Shimokitawa, ¥800 plus ¥150 for drink service (I got a coke consumed in one draw on my straw. Hate that about Japan, beverages are served kids-size) Delicious. The white stuff you see is Tororo which is a mucus-like, delicious result of a ground-up yam.

Mas!

I second Bar Room I've had nice lunches at Alto and Abboccato, though neither great rooms, you might check out I'm also still partial to Marseilles and think it's way underrated. I think it's wine list alone make up for any shorcomings

Hi Hiroyuki! NYers speak up! Yes yamamba still exist. Have you seen the gyaku-yamamba?! They look like albinos. I got here sensenshi no kinyoubi dakara, I jusssssssst missed it - Don't know any Tokyoites? It's amazing how localized Japan is - I can't get a recommendation from someone that isn't within a 10 minute walk or 170yen train of their home or office.

Hey fellow eaters - I was off to Japan on business last week, on very short notice, so I've been here a week already. I meant to post before leaving. Without getting into a more granular discussion of whether NY's Japanese cuisine represents the vanguard, in broad strokes I'll say it's 500% better than just 10 years ago, while I can't speak for the peak of Japan's bubble economy nearly 20 yaers ago when there where many more Japanese in rotation to NY. While 500% better, the "big room" Japanese boom in NYC nearly noexistent in Japan - I'd say a simple result of supply and demand of accomplished chefs, a proper Japanese chef is spread quite thin in NY. In fact I'd call Yakitori Totto "large" for this country. The suburbs have destination restaurants housed often in traditional Japanese houses with shoji, but I think we're talking about urban dining. That all said, without fail I seek out that which I cannot in NY while here. So, I've already eaten Ramen 5 times, Sushi 4, Yakiniku 5 times (at the behest of the Toraji president, a Japanese yakiniku restaurant group which should be in NY in another year or 2 if I have anything to do about it), but I needn't waste a lunch on bento or most Japanese fusion-type places which are very well represented in NY. Tomorrow I'll lunch at a Yakitori-ya that I hope will be better than Totto. I'm kind of busy here, not on vacation, so can't afford much time to do full-on reports although I'll try. I meant to post before leaving because I just wanted to know if people in the NY forum, who are all very actively discussing Japanese cuisine, have questions or want to know, for instance, what is booming, why you can get amazing $7 lunches in Tokyo, what the inside of your average sushi looks like, etc. Time and SD-card space permitting I'll try to accommodate. I'll start off with a smattering of Yakiniku pictures from week 1 (These are from TORAJI Ginza, Yaesu & Ebisu honten, and Sumibi-Tei in Sumiyoshi, Toraji's prez's mentor's restaurant) and your obligatory Shibuya 109 gyangaro-gal (mountain gal) candid shot　(notice the placement of "Male In", if she only knew...).... any questions/comments fire away! All my other shots are on my mobile phone here so I'll get them up tomorrow. Hiroyuki whereever you are, or anyone from the Japan forum reading this, recommendations please! 東京とだけおねがい。よろしくおねがいたします。

I'm sure they'd fax you one if you pleaded your case. Or did your best Al Pacino impression.

Mine too. It's been mostly the same staff, chefs and manager since it opened 3-4 years ago. I haven't made it t to torys yet either but I'm sure after a short learning curve it will be just as good, and I'm really glad there is another one to split the crowds up... Kanimiso salad is a favorite of mine, there is a sushiya in nakameguro that gives you prodigious amounts, I should be there later this week...

I've been to both several times over the past couple years (Tabla's been around a lot longer) and they're certainly both consistently great. I'm half a dot but grew up with South Indian served at home and North Indian was what you went "out to eat" for...chicken tandoori, chicken tikka masala, channa masala (with my dad laughing at us for coming back in the next life as cockroaches), and of course basmati and rice pilaf etc. etc. - what you will find at Devi is this type of cuisine set 1000 light years ahead, mixing regions and methods and always seemingly pulling off a 9.9. You are guaranteed at least 1 or 2 dishes "you could never believe could taste so good" Their breads rock too You go to Tabla for the Danny Meyers experience and some of the featured ingredients you might expect at top 20 restaurants; Berkshire pork, rock shrimp, escaped sashimi, brought into a new context by the whily use of traditional Indian methods, ingredients, etc.... Tabla is overall a better experience; the room, the service, the wine list, But if traditional is top of your list, go to Devi. Almost any item on Tabla's menu you could find on the menu of a New American restaurant, but just as Sneak says, Tabla does it does superbly. I think I had deja vu then looked through that Best Indian thread and I couldn't seem to STFU there - well the info there is still pretty fresh and relevant Don't forget a poori. They're festive!

Mishima had a real rough patch... the 90s.... but a couple years later new management and itamae came and they are a very good neighborhood Japanese, a dying breed of restaurant..... Sesumi had a long run in that role as well... Yes thank you Mayur for Saravanaas If you have a Ghee allowance (just ran a marathon) hit up Madras Mahal

I DID in fact teach myself Japanese from the Japanese-alphabet backgrounds of Chinese-run Japanese restaurant menus (it's pure gibberish and pretty funny)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3...uka&btnG=Search My bad I had one too many 'U's in there (which I thought belongs there) http://images.google.co.jp/images?hl=en&q=...m=1&sa=N&tab=wi http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails...d=1&cuisineid=0 Chef craft under Iron Chef Chin Kenichi "American Chinese" food, many Asians will cringe (although I do have an affinity for some dishes when done right). It conjures images of battered and deep fried leather, drowned in globs of sickeningly sweet, or stroke inducingly salty sauce. Japan has own breed of Chinese cuisine called Wafu-Chuka (or Japanese style-Chinese), but unlike their mongrel brethren in the US, the Japanese variety is still well regarded in most Asian circles. While Chuka Fu restaurants are few and rare in the US.

Yo! I get a prevoius tenant's NY Sun and actually caught this review when it was first printed... As for Mr. B, I don't follow the cult of Bruni as most do here so I really don't know what the precedent would be.... I wouldn't really compare it to Tsukushi. Tsukushi is somewhere in between a snack or izakaya and a kaiseki, or perhaps an izakaya or nomiya with a very very good osusume menu. And it's quite different in that Tsukushi wouldn't be Tsukushi without it's one-of-a-kind, badass chef. Speaking of which, there's this guy named Nao who's staked out a spot in Hell's Kitchen... I dunno if Bruni is giving 2 stars to this particular restaurant or 2 stars to the ritual (and dinnerware) of kaiseki. Has he reviewed Sugiyama and Kai as well? (I'm sorry if I'm too lazy to search) There's just a number of things that rub me the wrong way about this place. They say they feature the cuisine of Kyoto; if that's the case they should put the spotlight on the chef, who should be from Kyoto?!? $150 course and feeling hungry 2 hours later? $105 vegetarian kaiseki???? I've patronized restaurants that just started delivery service, but not the other way around... And while they are clearly featuring authentic and traditional ingredients creatively, well, displayed, where is the seasonal and exotic that would warrant the price tag? It would have been a welcome addition 10-15 years ago when your choices below Canal were Nobu and Zutto on Hudson, various bentos and the Menchankotei in the trade center... Hey I wish I was a critic and could give this place a try, but based on those 2 reviews it would be best to go windowshopping at Rosanjin, then head to Sugiyama with some Totto for dessert!

Likewise, Sarge's Saburi @ 30th and Lexington, some of the best ramen you will find in the city and wafuuchuuka that is excellent even by Japan standards and that area is curry hill and hosts the best south Indian I've been able to find. Madras Mahal is my favorite however Mayur introduced me to V_____________ whatever it was it was just great.... So now I split time between the 2

re: Per Se, at this point is it rude to ask what the damage was?

katsuhaMa - and only the rosukatsu approaches superb... they're great though, I really should get there more often...

It's been a while I've been to Yasuda, (and certainly a lot of my requests must be hand cut) and now my memory is a bit hazy and I might be mixing him up with a similar itamae I see in Tokyo who also employs the boxes (most higher-traffic sushiyas in Japan I've noticed also employ wooden boxes for refrigeration and storage and it's not necessarily great for the fish to be sitting out, exposed and under the lights. Others use copious amounts of plastic wrap, and one wonders what sushi chefs did before that was invented) ... So you may be right. Maybe someone who's been recently can answer; what are the thin sheets of cedar separating, sections of fish or individual pieces? "While Yasuda brings in fresh fish from all around the world and much from Japan, he highly values good domestic fish. Yasuda personally selects the fish one by one, evaluating each for freshness, size and its "spirit" or "energy." He then carefully begins his comprehensive process of cleaning, preparing and storing. Paper-thin sheets of delicate Japanese cedar-wood line the many of the boxes, and different varieties of fish are stored in separate boxes. Yasuda carefully controls the aging process of his fish—an essential part of making sushi. "Just-caught" fish is not always ideal for being eaten immediately as sushi, and different fish require different methods of refrigeration and storage for preservation and taste."

I couldn't find a thread for Shimizu.... is there one? Time for one? This is roughly the omakase I had at Shimizu; he was very nice and I left there stuffed. This was back in November but from what I remember it was $110 each for the fish. We were a bit sticker-shocked at first but on further review I think it was pretty reasonable, but certainly not cheap. What do you guys think? Sashimi platter Kanpachi, Otoro, salmon, octopus, whitefish, scallops, shiromi with liver in it King crab Ika with ikura tai sayori botanebi abalone (awabi) uni aburiotoro butterfish unagi aburiengawa negitoro iwashi hirame, shimaaji, sawara

I'm really surprised you haven't been "blown away" anywhere because all that leaves is Japan. I've travelled extensively and have been told to go to places that are better than NY; LA, SF, Hawaii, you name it, and let me tell you these are always cases of bigger fish in smaller ponds. Look at the selection of sushi bars you have in NYC! Yasuda is just one. I would say there are at least a dozen sushi bars in NYC that could easily be located in Tokyo. What you will get in Japan is a wider selection, a lower price-point, more consistency, and many sushibars has their certain thing they do that sets them apart. Then there are countless anonymous sushiya at every old trainstop that will still be as good or better than what you may pay 40% more for here. If you can't put together a show-stopping dinner at one of these dozen places in NYC then you aren't ordering well! Omakase is a two-way street baby; tell him not to waste your time and move straight to the shiromi (whitefish) or kai (shellfish) if you want to try the more exotic. Among Japanese owned and run restaurants, for the most part you get what you pay for. Surely regulars will eventually be rewarded the same way a bartender you are acquainted with will engage in the seemingly forgotten "buyback" at a bar. Don't forget, sushi is served at a "bar". I'm not Japanese, although I can and have passed for half. I lived there and my sushi-bar japanese is damn near fluent. My anecdotes of a foreigner living in Japan, or what the latest trends are, will more often than not entertain and break the monotony for the itamae and maybe it's a bit of relief that he can speak Japanese to this dude sitting in front of him. There are few sushi chefs who are good and dedicated who still had time left to learn a decent amount of English. When they figure out I know my shit about sushi then yes, often I will be offered something that I might agree that only a Japanese might want or appreciate. But when the chef's course ends, I order some of my personal faves, like negitoro, aburiengawa, amaebi, or something that I liked from the omakase. Sasabune sounds like it's not worth the trip and "LA-cred" goes nowhere with me. Why not try Shimizu, Sushizen, Sushiden, Gari, or any other of the Midtown places without going all the way up there? The last omakase I got was in November (!) at Shimizu. I never got to posting. I will now. Read it and give him a try! The only downside of Shimizu is that he is a bit "tsumetai". It seems like I can't afford to go out for an omakase as often as some of you, but if you think Jap-cred will get you a better omakase, as I've said before I'm available for rental, i will downright embarass myself if it will get you VIP-end of the fish. PS Doesn't Yasuda pre-slice and store much of his fish in lacquered boxes? PPS Many of the higher-traffic sushiya in Tokyo pre-slice fish. I would say a just-in-time slice is great for presentation but it tastes the same....

It sounds like French Roast or La Jumelle but those are 2 places I used to always go to because they had very late or 24 hour kitchens, and my ex-girlfriend was a hostess so we'd have to go out late

I'm 98 years old and I have never known anyone who knew that word - that's almost a century of stumping people. I'm utterly impressed Raji - WOW!!!!!! ← Thanx! Try speaking Nipponese!

Who was chef there 3 years ago? I worked for a company at the time and we had our holiday party there. I was more impressed by the ingredients vs. the preparation. It was like a very good walking tour of rustic Italian markets.