Travels in Tokyo

A few years ago, I spent a week in Tokyo for work. While I appreciate sushi, I am far from knowledgeable about the vast scope of Japanese food, and my work schedule did not give me a lot of time to experiment in any event. I did have two memorable meals, on each of my first and last nights there.

I arrived in Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon, and that evening I met up with a friend and his teenage daughter who took me to a tempura restaurant. This was exactly the type of food experience I live for – eating in an authentic place, the kind of place that a tourist would never find except perhaps by accident, with a local. I would never be able to find it again. My friend and his daughter met me at my hotel, and when we got to the building that contained the restaurant, we walked upstairs, took off our shoes, and sat around a counter where the perfect tempura was presented as individual pieces as soon as each piece came out of the hot oil. I did not have any photographs of that food and restaurant, but my friend did and was kind enough to share them with me for this post.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Fortuitously, the trip was toward the end of cherry blossom season, and despite the fact that I was busy with work, I did manage a couple of evening walks.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

On Friday night, with work done and scheduled to leave the next day, I was able to go out for another nice dinner. This restaurant was chosen for me by someone from Tokyo, and it was another place that I never would have found on my own. Unfortunately, none of my limited Tokyo contacts were available to join me. I basically got into a cab at my hotel and showed the driver the address on my phone. Once at the restaurant, I decided that, even though I am not generally adventurous with sushi, I would order the omakase. After all, how many chances does anyone get to do that in Tokyo? I sat there watching each piece being individually prepared and presented, and there were definitely a few things that I would not have ordered if left to my own choices. The sushi chef helpfully described everything as he prepared it. I do not speak Japanese, but the sushi chef was able to talk about types of fish, and Japanese MLB players, in English. Fortunately, I also speak baseball (we will eventually get to some posts about ballpark food).

Each beautiful, individually presented, piece of sushi is pictured below. In the bottom center picture, you’ll see a large dollop of uni. Uni happens to be one Japanese word that I do know because I have encountered it enough in other sushi restaurants to know that sea urchin is very much not my thing. I watched the sushi chef prepare that piece of sushi with all that uni and thought, “how do I eat this?” I managed to get it down without embarrassing myself. A little bit of sake might have helped with that.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Having no expertise in Japanese food, I am including a recipe that ties into this post solely because it involves Japanese eggplant. This has bold flavors that I appreciate, toasted sesame oil along with lots of garlic and ginger.

• 

•