Izakaya in Kyoto; Kurakura 蔵倉、京都

We got back to the hotel after an afternoon of sight seeing and shopping ready for a power nap. For the evening activity, I made the executive decision that, instead of rushing around to get to our favorite Izakaya Akagakiya 赤垣屋 when it opened at 5:00pm and take a chance we could sit at the counter, we would just go to Kurakura 蔵倉 which was within walking distance just around the corner. Although we always have been able to sit at the counter at KuraKura without making a reservation, I did not take a chance and booked our place at the counter.

When we arrived, it was almost empty. We have found from the experience of previous years that it pays to be selective about what we order. For example, one time we ordered avocado tempura. To our surprise we got the entire avocado, sliced—deep fried! We can appreciate a good avocado with the best of them, but you really have to be into avocado to eat a whole one, fried, in a single sitting. They must be renowned for their sumptuous serving sizes. That said, with some judicious selections we had a great meal. The interaction with the chefs was also nice. The good thing is that they also have a good selection of sake.

Soon after we were seated, the head honcho (chef and owner, we assume) came out and helped us pick some sake. With his help, I picked ”Summer" Ichino-kura , 夏の一ノ蔵特別純米生原酒 from Miyagi 宮城県 made from 100% "Kura-no-hana" 蔵の華 sake rice as our first sake. It was good choice, not too dry and not too sweet.

As usual, we first ordered a combination sashimi including Hokkaido uni and amaebi 北海道産うにと甘エビ.  The sashimi was all great and the amount was just right for the two of us.

We then ordered fava beans or soramame そらまめ.  The assistant chef asked if we would like soramame grilled or boiled. We said, without hesitation, grilled.





We also had half a simmered fish (Kinmedai 金目鯛の煮付けor fantastic alfonso). The assistant chef again asked our preference, head or tail? I said,  "Of course, head". My wife immediately said she would give me the "eye". The fish was not pre-cooked and just sitting there waiting to be reheated when an order came in. Instead the chef started cooking it after we placed our order. Blue flame suddenly erupted from behind the counter in front of where we sat. While my wife prepared to evacuate the chef reassured us it was just the alcohol from the sake used in the sauce being burned off while making our dish. Thanks to my wife’s generous offer, I enjoyed the gelatinous part behind the eye.

We were ready to order another sake. I went to the glass front cold case where they kept the sake bottles. A woman appeared and she seemed to be in charge of that part of the establishment. (We assumed, she must be the chef/owner's wife and was the sake sommelier). I discussed the various selections on display in the cold case with her, then I spotted "Icebreaker" sake behind the glass door.

Although I never tasted this sake, I remember reading about it on the Internet. I remember reading that it was brewed by the first and only foreigner (British) sake master Philp Harper at Kinoshita Shuzou 玉川木下酒造 in Kyoto. Seeing the distinctive blue label with the Penguin on it, I had to taste this one as the next sake. The sommelier/wife (?) commented  "Oh, you like summer sake". This is junmai ginjou genshu, non-filtered 純米吟醸無濾過生原酒 made from Nihonbare 日本晴 sake rice.  I think this was a new sake just released. We tried it first like regular cold sake. It was OK but not great.  Then I remembered that the idea behind this sake is that it can be drunk on the rocks which would be particularly refreshing in the hot Kyoto summer. Since it is genshu (not diluted and of high alcohol content), it would withstand the ice.  (And how could anyone be hot after seeing that label?) My wife provided some ice cubes from her oolong tea to test my theory. We thought it actually tasted much better so we requested more ice and drank it frosty cold. This was a rather clean sake and we did not notice the high alcohol.

Meanwhile, for the new sake, we had several more dishes including shiokara of “hoya”  ほやの塩辛,  (Hoya is similar to sea anemone and also called sea pineaple) which was not too salty or fishy and had nice texture. We needed some starch and fried food to absorb the alcohol so the next dish was potato croquets, which was nicely hot and somehow very comforting.

The last sake was recommended by the sommelier/wife (?) was another "summer sake". This is called ”Cool summer Gassan",  junmai ginjou 涼夏月山純米吟醸 by Yoshida sake brewery 吉田酒造 from Shimane prefecture 島根県. This is specifically brewed as a "summer" sake but the approach is a bit different from Ice Breaker. This is a very gentle and fresh tasting sake. It was brewed with very soft water and "Sakanishiki" sake rice 左香錦.

At this point, we had more than enough sake. Although the potato croquettes were good and quite filling, we finished with grilled rice balls. I asked if they were big and the young chef at the grill said no they were small and one order had two. So I asked for one order. Turns out they were BIG. They were filled with cod roe and the saltiness of the roe was perfect with the rice. I’m glad I asked for only one order. We only just managed to finish one each.

The sommelier/wife (?) was also the cashier. We paid the bill. I am not sure what the final sum was but I don’t think it was very high. We slowly walked back to our hotel. We are getting more and more fond of this place. Nice sake selection, interaction with chefs and the discussions about sake with the sommelier/wife (?)/cashier, were all educational and a major part of Izakaya experience we particularly like. With some judicious selection, the food is quite good. We were totally satisfied with this evening.

Izakaya in Kyoto; Shinme 神馬、京都

Recently we were in Kyoto 京都, a city not to be missed on a trip to Japan. This time we finally got to go to Shinme 神馬 which was recommended by Mark Robinson some time ago.  Fortunately, I managed to "reserve" the counter. It was far from our hotel at Kyoto station. Although the taxi cab driver knew where Shinme was, it was a long ride and the driver's lecture on Kyoto history and geography got fairly old long before the end of the ride. The izakaya had a very unassuming store front. Stepping inside was like going back in time. The inside reeked of Showa era 昭和 (an era of the previous emperor, 1928-1989); the decor, the advertisements, the clientele (including us).



We bellied up to the counter and an older fellow came out and initially interacted with me but was kind of unfriendly for the remainder of our stay, not the type to chit-chat and provide information. We were not sure if he is the owner but could be. He spent a fair amount of time, while we were there, in front of the old cash register tucked into a nook in the front of the store. He also occasionally came out and interacted with the customers especially a select group, we assumed, were the regulars. We noticed that while he used the drawer on the cash register to store money, he  relied on a calculator or abacus to ring up sales. There was no menu and I had to read hand written cards hanging on the walls to order sake and food. Some were difficult to decipher. The serving staff, in contrast to the Showa immersion experience, were young and efficient. Relics of old grills and other instruments of food preparation moldered long unused behind the counter. At some point in the past, at least, Yakitori must have been cooked there but "Yakidai" 焼き台 grill was not used any longer. The space was used only for the preparation of sake.



We ordered cold sake from Kyoto. The Otoshi was rather nice; composed of rice noodles on the bottom with onsen tamago, two grilled hamo (conger ell) pieces, okra, and shrimp in dashi broth.



We did not take pictures but we had a sashimi assortment including uni from Hokakido. We had a grilled fish, boiled firefly squid with sumiso sauce (The picture below is after we had eaten 2/3 of it. The serving was much larger than this). We ordered more dishes but our memories are foggy. We had more sake.

How was this place? It is not bad. The food was good but the total lack of interaction with the people preparing the dishes left an emptiness to the experience (the kitchen is in the back totally isolated from the customers). Since we like to stay in the hotel at the station when we visit Kyoto, the distance and lack of convenient transportation besides taxi is another negative. So, we still like "Akagaki-ya" 赤垣屋 better, although we have not been there for some time. I tried to secure the counter but they do not take reservation for counter just for tables. We staggered out of the door after paying the bill (about $180?) to the fellow at the cash register and took a taxi back to our hotel.

Izakaya in Kanazawa; maguro-ganchi まぐろがんち 金沢

It was Sunday and this was Kanazawa 金沢. On our previous visit two years ago, we enjoyed several Izakayas but this time, we arrived on Sunday and many of the Izakaya we visited the last time were closed. Our hotel was next to Kanazawa station and I looked for Izakaya within walking distance. I found this place "Maguro Ganchi" まぐろがんち. I read that "Ganchi" is a local dialect for local crabs called  "Zuwaigani" ズワイガニ. So, this Izakaya specializes in Tuna and Crab. I am not sure this place is classified as a "chain" but they have one more Izakaya in Kanazawa called "Monzen" 底曳き割烹もんぜん. It was just 5 minute walk from our hotel.



This was the "Otoshi" appetizer. Needless to say we were quite surprised and have never seen anything like this before. It consisted of a portion of the ribs and back bone of a tuna. We ate it with spoons that were slightly curved at the corners--almost square shaped. (originally for Ice cream?) They were perfectly shaped for us to easily scoop the meat off the bones. The tuna meat attached to the bones is usually called "Nakaochi" 中落ち and is a good and economical portion of tuna. We have eaten tuna nakaochi before (often served in Krean "Yukke" style) but we have never seen Nakaochi served still attached to the bones. In any case, it was a fun to dig in and tuna was quite delicious. Of course we cleaned off all the good meat except the dark red "chiai" portion.



We then ordered a special maguro sashimi combination. It had red meat or akami 赤身 (left back), chutoro 中とろ (left front), ootro 大トロ (right front),  kama-toro カマトロ(right back) and nouten 脳天 (center back).  Among these different portions of tuna, the most precious are Kama-toro and Nouten. Kamatoro is fatty meat in the collar/head of tuna and nouten is small amount of very fatty meat in the top of the tuna head ("nouten" means "brain"). The amount you can get from one whole tuna for these two portions is very limited. This was the first time we had "nouten". All was excellent. It was almost like a “tuna tasting”; all the parts laid out side by side so we could compare the taste and texture of meat from various parts of the tuna.



We really liked the kama-toro and ordered additional servings; one as is and another "aburi" or seared by torch. We liked aburi best. We had several sake at this point. It came in a medium sized Tokkuri (They called it "large") supposedly holding  2go or 360ml but, somehow,  it did not feel like 2go of sake (much less). In any case, we started with local (from Noto in Ishikawa 能登石川県) sake called "Sougen" 宗玄純米 which we dispatched quickly. As far as I can remember, we went for  "Tedorigawa" 手取川山廃純米 and "Tengumai" 天狗舞山廃純米 (both also ”Jizake” 地酒 from Ishikawa prefecture 石川県). All sake was quite good but we liked Tengumai best.

Since we cannot pass up our Kanazawa favorites, we ordered firefly squid okizuke ホタルイカの沖ずけ and shiraebi kara-age 白エビのから揚げ.



Since it was not crab season, the only crab item available was "Crab croquet". It was hot and nicely creamy. Finally as a shime dish, we ordered fried potato. They were quite decent steak fries. The bill was very reasonable $103 (or 12,480yen).



We walked to our hotel and I immediately crashed. My wife enjoyed the sunset over the sea of Japan (a thin sliver of ocean can be seen from our windows) and took the picture below. This was really a fun day and we enjoyed good local sake and tuna.

Tuna mayo and Tuna zuke handrolls マグロのマヨ和え、漬けの手巻き

Recently when we visited Japan, my wife had a "gunkan" 軍艦 sushi which was topped with tuna salad (canned tuna dressed in mayonnaise) from a chain take-out only sushi store at a home party. I did not try it but, according to my wife, it was unexpectedly good, especially the combination of mayo, nori, and sushi rice. While we might agreed that mayo and sushi rice was a good combination on principle we both balked at the use of canned tuna. So, instead, I used a frozen yellowfin tuna block. As I posted several times, this frozen tuna block is my emergency sashimi ration and requires some additional treatment to make it palatable. So this is an ideal tuna to use.

After thawing the tuna block, I did my usual "Yubiki" 湯引き treatment and then made half into "Zuke" 漬け. I made one quarter into "Namerou" なめろう, I used half of the Zuke in "Yamakake" やまかけ. So, I made these hand rolls from a quarter each of Yubiki and Zuke tuna.

For the tuna mayo hand roll; I cubed the yubuki tuna. I dressed with mayonnaise mixed with the marinade from making Zuke (or soy sauce, just a splash) and Sriracha for kicks (to your liking). I also added finely chopped perilla leaves.

For the tuna zuke hand roll; I cut slices of the zuke tuna in half to make long strips.

I made sushi rice as per usual. I then cut the nori in half to make long rectangular pieces. I passed the nori over a gas flame several times to make it crispy and to give it a toasted aroma.

I  arranged the components of  the hand rolls in order so that we could assemble them quickly (Actually I assembled and handed it to my wife).



I  placed the rectangular nori sheet at an angle on my open palm with the top corner in the 12 o'clock position, just hanging over my fingers. I placed the sushi rice on the upper 1/3 of the nori, added a spoonful of the tuna mayo. Wrapped it up to make a cone (see below).



For the second roll, I added Ikura or salmon roe as well since I had it.



For zuke hand roll, I place two strips of zuke tuna, a slice of cucumber and perilla leaves. I forgot to add wasabi this time.



I have to agree with my wife that the tuna mayo hand rolls were pretty good. This combination of tuna and spicy mayo is not unusual in any American sushi bar especially as a roll but we never tried it. So this is an eye opening experience and now we have another way of making this low-quality block of frozen yellowfin tuna sashimi palatable. Problem is my wife is talking about egg salad sushi.

P.S. After this post, I came across an article describing the first recorded use of mayo in sushi (in Japanese). According to this, it was invented by the sushi bar in Miyazaki 宮崎 called "Ippei" 一平 in Shouwa 41 nen 昭和４１年 (1966). It was a roll with shrimp, lettuce and mayo and details are in the web site of this sushi bar (in Japanese).

Kushiwakamaru, Nakameguro 串若丸、中目黒

This evening, we met with our Izakaya friends, Tobias and Dave and their wives. We went to a Yakitori place called "Kushiwakamaru" 串若丸 in Nakameguro 中目黒. Since we were a party of six, finding an authentic Izakaya which could accommodate such a large group was not easy and this place was a perfect choice.

We arrived around 7pm (the place opens at 5pm), it was full so we waited in queue (sitting on the row of chairs provided outside for that purpose as shown in the picture below) for 15 minutes or so before being seated at a table.

 

It was a noisy, smoky, perfectly authentic yakitori-ya 焼き鳥屋. It would have been fun to sit at the counter but being such a large group we were glad to settle in at the corner table provided. I have to say yakitoris are fun but even more fun when they are enjoyed with good friends.  We had such a great time! With all the conversation, and laughter, sociability took center stage and I forgot to take pictures. I only took one food picture and that was after we had eaten most of the food (I am not as disciplined as many other food bloggers).

They served an interesting otoshi appetizer  "Shirasu-oroshi" しらすおろしwhich was grated daikon topped with "jako"( or "shirasu", dried small bait fish) in sweet vinegar sauce. It was good but the portion was huge and we (my wife and I) could not finish it. Before we started on the yakitori, we had fava beans (soramame ソラマメ), herring roe on kelp (komochi konbu 子持ち昆布), and Kushiwakamaru salad. We ordered every species of drink; beer, white wine, and sake to accommodate all preferences at the table (we had sake). It is interesting that this Yakitori-ya had wine.



Tobias and Dave ordered so many interesting and delicious yakitori, I cannot recall them all. I remember chicken tenderloin with pesto, Hokkaido potato with butter, pork belly wrapped wedges of tomato, small Japanese green pepper (piiman ピーマン) stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. The number of skewers in the large cup in the picture above, indicate that we did not leave hungry. Fully fed and watered, we staggered off to the next place for dessert and nightcaps.

Everything was really excellent. Although the place is authentic and old fashioned Yakitori-ya, the menu had some new yakitori items which are not traditional adding to the interest. We would like to add a special "shout out" thanks to Tobias, Dave and company for introducing us to one of their izakaya treasures and sharing it with us in such a good time.

Izakaya in Tokyo; Ichi-no-kura 一ノ蔵八重洲店 東京

This evening, we struck out for the first Izakaya we wanted try and we ended up retreating to our second choice/plan B/backup called "Ichi no kura" 一ノ倉 which was just minutes from the hotel. This is one of seven middle-of-the-road chain Izakaya run by Kuramochi shouji 倉持商事.


It is located on the basement floor. This was fairly large and a bit (comfortably) down at the heel. We were able to sit side by side enjoying the view of the rest of the restaurant. The clientele that night were of an older generation (not including us this time). Although this was on the basement floor, there was a sort of mezzanine level to the dining room. From our vantage point we could just see the bottom of the tables and a forest of legs. In front of our table, was a bank of large glass front refrigerated cases.  They contained quite a collection of sake lined up in large "isshoubin" 一升瓶, magnum bottles containing 1.8 liter or close to 2 quarts. All sake was served in a tall small bottle/carafe which holds 2 go or 360ml. The staff appeared every few minutes to pour the sake from the "mother ship" isshoubin into carafes, for customers, using a funnel kept in the refrigerated case. They filled the carafes in one swift practiced movement (not a drop was spilled). We started with Uragasumi sake from Miyagi 浦霞　純米吟醸.

Once we settled on sake, we looked at the menu. We were presented with two menus, one was a printed "regular menu" which had all the "usual suspects" presented at any Izakaya such as Yakitori. The second menu presented "today's specials". It was a copy of a hand written menu (see below). As usual, we started with sashimi; we chose big eye tuna,  kawahagi かわはぎ (with its liver) and kuro-soi Rockfish 黒そい.




They were served rather nicely as seen below. Clearly this was prepared by somebody with the skills of a chef and done on site (not by a part time guy filling in or shipped from a central-off site location as appears to be the case with some chain izakaya). The tuna was not as good as Hayase’s the night before but, for Big-eye tuna, it was more than OK. I love kawahagi with its liver dissolved in soy sauce as a sauce and this dish reminded me of why I like it so much.



Some portion of the tuna was made it to a small rolls wrapped in nori.



We had grilled semi-dried firefly squid which was very unusual and good. My wife, who is a devotee of firefly squid particularly liked it.  We also ordered deep fried "Chiai" of tuna. This is dark red meat of tuna which has a gamey flavor. It was nicely done and this was quite a good dish (behind the combination sashimi in the picture above and a picture below).



We ordered more food such as grilled Kuro-soi kama (grilled Rockfish collar) and some yakitori but  I did not take any more pictures.

After finishing our first sake,  I found ginjou sake brewed in Nagano 長野 by a winery called  Sogga pere et fils ソガペールエフィス in the sake list on the wall. We tasted one of the variations 2 year’s ago at another Izakaya called Honoka 穂のか in Musashi-Koyama  武蔵小山. The sake was brewed as a hobby by the wine maker. The one we chose this time was not great; too simple and not much taste or complexity (since this was the most expensive sake we tried, this was not a good choice). Then, for the final round, we settled on “Yamato shizuku” やまとしずく from Akita 秋田 (which we had 2 years ago at the Akita Izakaya called "Shu-hai" 酒盃.) Turns out this place was pretty good and the bill came in at a very reasonable $86 (10,390yen).　

Izakaya in Tokyo: Sensaigyo Hayase 鮮菜魚早瀬, 京橋 東京

Our visit to Japan started with a 5 day stay in Tokyo. We arrived in the early evening at our hotel in Kyobashi 京橋 area.  For the evening, we went across  the street to the Kyobashi branch of a nation-wide chain Izakaya called "Kaisen Izakaya Hananomai" 海鮮居酒屋はなの舞 run by the Chimney group.  It was located on the basement floor of a business building. It was not big (some chain Izakaya stores can be very large), reportedly seating about 60 guests. The interior felt rather cramped and smoky. The name of the place is preambled by a word "Kaisen" meaning "fresh sea food". The group is known for providing good seafood at cheap prices because they purchase in large quantities for the chain.  For us, however, we chose this place because it was just across the street from our hotel and, in our seriously jet lagged state, it seemed a good choice.

To test the quality of the fresh fish, we ordered combination sashimi first. It was not bad but not excellent either.  We followed that with firefly squid okizuke, some yakitori (neck meat せせり, ”last part over the fence”　ぽんじり and, harami diaphragm　はらみ). We, then, had a non-descript green leaf tempura which was advertized as "today's special" and was "recommended". This was called Ashitaba 明日葉 from Hachijoujima island 八丈島 far off south of Tokyo bay. This green was touted as having all kinds of health benefits. The fact that it was not in evidence on any other of the tables despite being the special of the day should have been our first clue. Regardless, of its health properties the serving was huge and had no particular taste. It was just a fried tempura batter delivery system. Not being devotes of fried flour we partook of some of the greens and left the rest. The sake list was not extensive but adequate. On one side of our table was a chain smoking woman (it has been quite some time since we have been in such a smoke filled environment) and her friend. The smoking women spent the entire time when she wasn’t puffing on her cigarette, pontificating. On the other side were some salary men dragging out the several plates of food they were sharing at a ratio of 2:1 drinks. The final tab was just $63 which is very reasonable. The place was not the best but a lot of fun especially the first night while suffering from jet lag.

The next evening, we set out for our first real Izakaya called “Sensaigyo Hayase” 鮮菜魚早瀬 meaning "fresh vegetable and fish Hayase".  We found this place from Tabelog. This was reportedly owned by a Tuna fish wholesaler from Tsukiji market and, therefore, famous for the quality of tuna. It was in the basement of a non-descript building which was walking distance from our hotel.

The basement floor Izakaya was rather large and it appeared that many groups were in the back rooms already becoming quite boisterous. The place was a bit smoky. Three salary men sat at the table next to ours, one appeared to be the head honcho the other two were clearly underlings. The head honcho was pontificated about everything and then the topic fell on the necklace (chain) he was wearing. He told them that this necklace had a magical power and could make the wearer strong. To make his point, Head-honcho-the-demonstrator jumped up and made the other guy (underling-subject) stand. He then told his subject to put out his arms. The demonstrator then easily pushed the other fellows arms down with his hands. Then the demonstrator put the necklace on his subject. Again he asked him to raise his arms but this time…Magic.  The demonstrator was unable to push down his subject’s arms; QED. We were not sure if he had successfully made his point but sometimes the side shows at izakaya can be entertaining.

Meanwhile, we examined the menu and ordered sashim and sake. The sashimi plate was beautiful. The quality of the sashimi was wonderful especially the akami and chu-toro of tuna. The quality of tuna is the selling point of this place since it is run by a tuna wholesaler at Tsukiji. We had a large grilled fish (kuro mutsu 黒ムツ); lots of bones but nice firm oily white meat, fermented squid (shiokara 塩辛) with uni, hamo 鱧 (Conger eel), simmered pork belly 角煮, and some black sesame noodles.  The sake was good.

It was called Junmai Ginjou Hayaseura 純米吟醸早瀬浦, Yamada nishiki 山田錦 from Fukui prefecture 福井県.  During our feast, the three guys next door decided to leave. To my surprise, one of the underlings paid and the head honcho did not.

Sashimi plate.

Grilled Kuro-mutsu.



Hamo, we have eaten good portions before taking this picture.

 

Pork Kakuni.



The total bill was the most expensive so far at $137 (16,522yen) but still a good price especially considering the quality of food and sake and favorable yen-dollar exchange rate. This place does not have the atmosphere of an authentic Izakaya but the service was good as was the quality of the food. It had the feel of a higher end chain Izakaya.