chefmd

Going home today. Last meal in the city: gyoza. @JoNorvelleWalker Very easy to order on iPad, in English. They use a metal box hot plate to cook gyoza. Also you can order a variety of raw horse meat but we left it till the next trip.

Baking steel on sale with free US shipping https://shop.bakingsteel.com/collections/steels

Sake tasting at Meishu center. You can taste any sake on display. Prices start at 150 yen. The most expensive 30 year sake is 1100. You also get a snack. Very helpful labels. Positive sake meter value indicates dry and negative value indicates sweet. We tasted six varieties and bought a bottle to take home.

Yakitori and Kamameshi for lunch at Torigin. That place was packed, we had to wait in line. I did not know until today about Kamameshi. Rice on the bottom of the pot makes lovely crust. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamameshi i will follow @Anna N pursuit of Japanese cooking when I get home. So many different fantastic dishes.

Ice cream for a snack. Matcha and Kinako for me. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinako orange and pineapple for DH

@Duvel thank you for recommending this. It was one of the best breakfasts ever. And 830 yen, a bargain.

Why not shown? I want to see. Especially the Madeleines!

@KennethT Yasuda-san

@KennethT it is the same Yasuda. He moved back to Tokyo in 2011. The rice was indeed amazing. http://www.sushibaryasuda.com/index_e.html

@rotuts from top top to bottom: tuna, some white fish, snapper salmon, fatty tuna, horse mackerel squid, sweet shrimp, scallop eel, sea urchin, salmon roe sweet omelet, chives sprouts tuna and scallions roll wishing for some MR to fall back to sleep

Second and last planned fancy dinner on this trip. Sushi Yasuda. It was the only high end sushi place we were able to get into. There are 11 seats at the counter and two small tables in the back. We got the back table and I was initially not happy. Chef Yasuda is the only one making sushi. You can see and hear him well from the back table. The additional bonus is the ability to see all the diners when you seat in the back. They were all Americans. Loud and entertaining. No wonder we could not make reservations in other sushi places that are basically closed to foreigners . Our fellow diners were asking questions like “did radiation change the taste of the fish?”. One guy was vaping and almost got thrown out. The other guy heard that we were from DC area and started to press his political agenda. Young woman was screaming repeatedly that taste of Uni changed her life. Sushi was good. Very good. Three times better than fish market sushi (based on price)? I don’t know.

Trying to walk a lot to counteract non stop eating. Beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen Park is right near our apartment. This catfish like looking creature is begging for food. It just does not know that I am more likely to eat it than to feed it.

As seen in Whole Foods. Fish contains fish. Who would think?

Japan has so many iconic dishes, we are barely making a dent and the week is almost over. Udon for lunch. I love noodles!

Went to huge book store in Daikanyama, T-site. Cookbooks in many languages, only a small portion seen in photo. Bought Den cookbook. Really wanted to go to their restaurant but it’s impossible to get in.

Stemless users will not mind stemmed glasses but the opposite may not be the case. Especially if you are planning to sell high end wines. I love the glasses that you posted BTW.

They are preparing for 2020 Olympics and that has increased the amount of English signs (from what I understand). In any case, no problem whatsoever getting around. I agree, picture menus are great. Also a lot of restaurants have plastic replica of their food on display. I am afraid that sushi ruining is happening to me as well.

5 AM soba noodles and pork Katsu for breakfast. You buy tickets from the vending machine and give them to the chef. An obligatory drunk salaryman.

And the first cooking adventure in the rental apartment tiny kitchen. Wagyu beef, matsutake mushrooms. Embarrassment of riches. Shrooms cost as much as the beef. Seared mushrooms in a skillet, kept warm in a pan, no other cooking vessels are available. Turns out, one can cook without Darto, Griswald, etc. And a very small table for eating.

Bought another knife in Tsukiji outer market. Turns out the guy who sold me this gorgeous carbon steel nakiri is on Tsukiji website page first photo. http://www.tsukiji.or.jp/english/

Sushi for breakfast at 6:30 AM at the new Toyosu fish market. Sitting next to a British guy who lives in Brazil encouraging us to have a beer. So far the best sushi that I ever had.

One of beverage pairing was gin and tonic that also included turnip juice. Let’s say there should be more gin and less turnip juice in my future G&T

First of the two fancy dinners planned on this trip. http://kabi.tokyo/ At Kabi we focus on Japanese ingredients. But we are not a Japanese restaurant. Chef spent time in France and at Noma and it shows. Also very friendly to English speakers. I will post all photos, not sure about dish details (no menu at the end) but I also wanted to share their amazing ceramics collection.

The egg was intended to be cooked by the residual heat of the dish but only barely. It remained silky and essentially became a sauce. They did offer to cook egg separately but we declined. There was also a small dish with extra eggs on the table.

Don’t think we are going here but there is cat cafe where you can play with assorted felines.