Tuesday December 8, 2009
Yurakucho, Tokyo
Cold!
Through my best friend Karyn, I met a lovely couple Marian and David who are always game for any kind of adventure whether it be culinary, travel or shopping related. So I asked them if they would be interested in going to a "dive" I was introduced to by my good friends at work Kagawa-san and Iida-san. It is located by the train tracks of Yurakucho station. I don't know the name of the restaurant as I cannot read the Japanese but knew how to get there. Marian and David were excited to go so we met on a cold, blustery night at the lobby of the Peninsula hotel to embark on our culinary adventure.
About a 5 minute walk from the Peninsula hotel and the "rodeo drive" of Tokyo - Naka-dori, is Yakitori Alley. Yakitori is a specialty of Japan and is basically pieces of grilled chicken on a stick. They use every part of the chicken. The alley is by the train tracks and it is a completely different experience from chi-chi Naka-dori, where all the restaurants are packed with busy salarymen and young folks enjoying the inexpensive and very good yakitori with lots of beer. It gets quite rowdy during the summer where the tables spill out of the restaurants into the alleys and people have a fun time getting drunk while eating the barbecue.
Kagawa-san and Iida-san took me to the alley on summer night and led me to a restaurant that is hidden from the main alley and on the second floor. It is probably the only restaurant in the alley that does not specialize in yakitori. This particular restaurant serves Kushi-Age which is actually a specialty of Osaka. Bit size pieces of either meat, fish or veggies are delicately breaded and fried in front of you and served immediately. You can dip them in the different kinds of sauces, salts or just have it plane. There is no menu. You just tell them what you do not like, and the fried food on the sticks are served to you one by one. When full, you tell the chef you are finished and he counts the number of sticks and gives you your bill. I've been to many Kushi-age places but this place is fantastic and very reasonable. All the fish is extremely fresh and so are the veggies. The restaurant is tiny but has 2 stories and the service in impeccable.
Marian, David and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there and although we got biz cards of the restaurant, we still do not know the name! Anyhow, the whole experience is a "real" Japanese culinary experience so highly recommend it if you can find it!
Yakitori Alley (this photo was taken in September)The front display of my favorite mystery Kushi-Age restaurant
The chefs who cooked are food in front of us. The shorter guy is definitely the boss. But between the 2, they served all of the customers sitting around the bar.
The chef in action
The name of the restaurant in Kanji: I have no idea what it says!
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