Japan, Food and Drink, Part 2

Attentive readers of this blog may have observed that I like to take cooking classes--for one thing, it's a sure way to eat a good meal. Lonely Planet hooked me up with the website kyotouzuki.com, which is actually this petite, delightfully scatterbrained but very knowledgeable Japanese lady named Emi, who offers a cooking class in her home. The other student was an interesting world-traveler named Alice who is in Kyoto because her husband, a professor, is on sabbatical there. Anyway, Emi says she can host a class of up to four, but I don't believe it--her kitchen is admirably equipped, but vanishingly small: we were shifting furniture around with just the three of us.
We made a fairly traditional Kyoto meal, focused on seafood and vegetables in season. Below are photographs of some of the unusual ingredients: top, yuba or soymilk skins, and a Japanese ginger blossom; next, fuki or Japanese butterbur, something between a rhubarb and a celery; bottom, Emi and Alice (not technically ingredients, I suppose) assembling the salad. The salad was sugar snaps, scallops and prawns with a white miso dressing (delicious--I have to say the scallops were pan-fried in a dot of sesame oil to perfection): The meat course was tainokinome yaki, which is marinated, grilled sea bream. These fillets were wonderfully fresh, and worked great with the marinade, which is equal parts sake, mirin and light soy sauce. It was served with rice and a soup whose key ingredient, beyond the yuba and suki, is dashi stock (dashi is fish flakes, available packaged in any japanese market ...): To my mind, the piece de resistance was hirouse or giant fried tofu balls, containing any vegetables (in our case shiitake mushrooms and mitsuba leaves), and chunked prawns. The tofu was very firm, having been pressed overnight, and pushed through the strainer, but I felt certain that "deep-fried" on a gas stove in light sesame oil, these balls would just disintegrate. I am proved wrong again, as here is one floating in its broth of tsuyu, which is dashi stock simmered with mirin and dark soy sauce. Integrated and tasty! One thing about a cooking class is you meet people--often interesting, adventurous people, and I was in luck again! Alice graciously invited me for drinks, etc, with her husband, and we met up the next night in the Gion district, Kyoto's nightlife/izakaya district, also famous as the last place with genuine geisha, according to LP. We strolled around until we came across this place... ... which Chris felt was a bit touristy. I agree, but I am a tourist, and I was hungry, and whatever they were cooking smelled great. We ate okonomiyaki, which is a stuffed Japanese pancake, and it really hit the spot. I know this post is about food, but our conversation was the show, as they are both literate, opinionated and real. I think you'll be impressed with Chris's website. We made the rounds until the subway threatened to shut down, strolling on Shimbashi, "arguably Asia's most beautiful street," tasting sake at an oddly authentic place with an English menu, and enjoying beer at an upstairs place which we had to ourselves except for an outstanding playlist running from Elvis Costello to Lou Reed to Roxy Music. Thanks, Alice and Chris, for a memorable time.

Fast forward a few days, I'm in Tokyo, it's Sunday, I've done some sights and museums, and I'm sampling the nightlife. I make my way to Tokyo Midtown, a huge relatively new complex, on the advice of Rough Guide. Well, most of the places there are absurdly expensive, even for Tokyo, but on an exterior corner, I see a bar called A271, which has half-price happy hour until 8 PM. It's only around 6:00, so I can be happy here for two hours! And the beer is cold! I noticed on the happy hour menu a ham sampler, not terribly pricey, but it doesn't come with crackers or anything. The waiter points out that I can get toasted baguette slices for only Y300. "Only". Hell, that's about USD 4.50. Well, I eventually go for it, and these are actually pretty high quality--I think, not for the first time, of the gustatory delights offered to us by a pig properly perpared. Soon afterward, I make my way to Roppongi, and find my way into the Cross Over Bar, which has an impressive list of world beers. I'm just in the mood for more munchies, so I order a cheese sampler to follow the ham. Now, I went to Roppongi in order to visit a place called "Super Deluxe" which is billed as a kind of avant-garde multimedia artsy joint, but turns out they want Y3300 to get in, with only twenty minutes left in the show. Which on this night is a stand-up comedy set. In Japanese. So I retrace my steps toward the station, and stop in a place called Brasserie le Duc, where The Premium Malt's is the house draft. I have a fish course to complete my meal, in the form of a salmon and cream cheese sandwich, not so much onions, please.

My last night in Tokyo, I "saved" for what everyone says is the whirlwind, party district of the biggest city on the planet--Shibuya. Finally, here was a place with a vibe, tons of people, miles of neon--like ten or more streets I know in Seoul: To fortify myself, I wanted a filling but not too heavy meal, and wandered past this place whose loudspeaker claimed it was "the most famous noodle restaurant in Tokyo". Dunno about that, but it was kind of busy--and it was the only other restaurant besides the one on the ferry where you pick your meal from the pictures and buy the coupons from the vending machine. So that was a plus. I got the "small" pork and noodles, and it was more than I could eat, and it was really, really good, too. Thus fortified, I made my way into the Shibuya atmosphere, finding a couple of stand-up bars, a common type in real estate pressed Tokyo, before seeing the "270" phenomenon. There were several of these in the neighborhood, which promise a menu whereon all items are Y270. They also have a premium menu of Y380. Now, what they don't tell you is that though your 300 cc beer will be Y270, you must also buy an order of soybeans, also for Y270. Tricky, but not an outrage, and a soybean here or there never hurt anyone, not that I know of. Perhaps the thing that makes this kind of izakaya(?) so inexpensive is the efficiency: you place your order using an electric tablet mounted on the wall of your booth (you can see it to the right above). It has Japanese, English and Korean: My last stop of the night was up some crazy little alley, where I saw this sign: The Legless Arms?--Smokin' Steve's Bar & Grill has always been my fantasy future joint, but I'm rethinking that now. Carlsburg for Y600, a barkeep that speaks English, and a smattering of little toys and games to occupy you, that's the ticket!