a-typical dish

day 26
daily fare

for the first 26 days, we have eaten out daily. we don't have to - there's a perfectly good kitchen in our apartment, and three grocery stores within walking distance. the produce is so fresh it calls out to you as you walk past, especially the fruit. but there are more restaurants in tokyo than there are cel phones (i'm kidding) and they're calling too. we stop and look in each one.

let there be no mistake on this point. just to be clear, the food is fantastic.

and when i say this, i mean everything is good.



there are temples of ramen. museums of ramen. tv shows about ramen. it goes without saying then, that the ramen is good.

we sought out this bowl from a tokyo-wide guide to ramen, from a place in our own neighborhood. this is a small bowl.

this is not instant ramen, this is dense noodle made fresh each morning and boiled to order. and that may account for the really strange thing that happens to us every time we eat ramen. it starts just as the bowl ends. a heavy, heavy feeling like you've eaten more noodle than your body can support. a feeling that is an afternoon killer. when we eat ramen for lunch, we don't eat again until the next day.






being so popular, there are more ways to eat ramen than restaurants in tokyo. here, with velvet ribbons of omelette and roast pork salad.






japanese people consider gyoza and ramen to be chinese food, as this was the origin. indeed, ramen only really became popular in 1958, with the advent of instant.

here we have siu/shu mai, another chinese dish, but with a distinctly japanese flavor - ginger, cabbage, pork and something sweet - perhaps mirin. with silky tofu, rice, miso soup (always) and potato salad (of course).

i shudder when i hear those two words together - potato and salad. but that's what this was. pickled cucumber, carrot, and shallot blended with potato. and it was good.

it turns out that potato salad is a very popular side dish here - i think it's the mayo.






ahh... croquette. my favorite. sometimes.

most restaurants that serve croquette have only one thing on the menu: deep fry. so you have to be ready when you go in. and i always am. deep fried shrimp, pumpkin, potato. deep fried pork cutlet, chicken wing, eel. and it's all good.






there's nothing special about this dish. i mean, the photo isn't great, and it's just egg on rice, with some beef stew. but oh, how delicious. the miso soup - loaded with little mushrooms. the salad - crispy and bursting with juice - you'd think it was an heirloom cabbage. and the stew. what's the secret? the two little old ladies in the kitchen wouldn't tell me. or maybe they would, but i couldn't understand them anyway. sooo good.






so we're in this udon restaurant. more like a cafe really. and we think - let's have some salad. how about this caesar salad with what's that... smoked duck breast? ok, good.






seasonal cooking is much anticipated, and here we have an autumn specialty - sanma. they gave away 15,000 of these guys at shibuya station last week to celebrate the arrival of autumn, but we weren't there. fortunately, our oven has two burners and a little pull out tray. the pull out tray is for grilling fish. not for making toast, or chicken wings, just fish. so that's what stella did.