A tuna sushi meal that is made with farmed tuna from Kinki University. The fatty tuna is lean with a soft texture. There are only two restaurants in Japan that the whole menu is based on farmed seafood from Kinki University. Not just tuna, but also sea bream, yellowtail, and a hybrid of yellowtail and…
Category: seafood
Salmon and Ikura Rice at Tsukiji
Delicious start to the day at Tsukiji Tadokoro Shokuhin, a fish roe specialty shop. The eat-in counter has rice and pasta dishes with ikura (salmon roe), tarako and mentaiko (both from pollack roe). There is also onigiri or omusubi rice balls stuffed with roe for take-away. This is rice sauteed in butter and soy sauce…
Table-worthy Canned Goods
We keep a big variety of canned foods in the pantry, in case of an earthquake, and because Japan offers great options. Canned foods in Japan offer a wide variety of seafood and meats, many worth putting on the table with a glass of wine or saké. Kokubu is a company that offers a colorful…
Tuna Lovers’ Day Trip From Tokyo
Misaki Maguro Kippu is a special discounted train, bus, and lunch ticket that is a fun day trip from Tokyo for tuna lovers. Many Japanese train and bus lines offer discounted tickets for round-trip excursions. Misaki is a famous port for tuna. Maguro is tuna, and kippu is for ticket. The Misaki Maguro Kippu can be…
New Breakfast Spot at Tsukiji Market
There is a brand new place to have breakfast at Tsukiji Market that is void of tourists and offering a value priced meal. There is a new facility, Tsukiji Uogashi, with about sixty retail shops for seafood and produce on the first floor. The first floor is open to the general public after 9 a.m. Prior…
Savory Unagi
Ikebukuro Tobu is Tokyo’s largest depachika with over 200 food stalls. The depachika is spread out over two floors and two buildings, and is worth a careful peruse. The restaurant floors on the upper five floors of the department store offers tempura, tonkatsu, sushi, unagi, and much more. The restaurant floors are packed on weekends,…
Keisuke Fugu Ramen
Fugu, a fish that has many names: torafugu, pufferfish, tiger blowfish, blowfish, porcupine fish, or globefish. Regardless of what you call it, you probably know that it is the fish that one could die from if it is not handled properly. Nowadays fugu farmers in Japan have figured out how to raise poison-free fugu. As for…
Nodaiwa
I first came across Nodaiwa while working at Nihonbashi Takashimaya. The fifth-generation unagi-ya has a branch at Takashimaya. Here is the fifth-generation shokunin, Kanejiro Kanemoto-san. Details are in Food Sake Tokyo, my book. I just wanted to share these photos of the storefront and the lovely Kanemoto-san. http://www.littlebookroom.com/products/food-sake-tokyo
Japanese Breakfast – Kuouesu
I have a six-month column on Japanese breakfast in the Japan Times. This special spot was mentioned in my first column on traditional Japanese breakfasts. Kuouesu near Hiroo offers a very unique Japanese breakfast. The kappō restaurant is only open for breakfast and dinner. It was a long walk from the station, so best to…
Shinjuku Kaijin 海神
Kaijin literally means the God of the Seas, a perfect name for this ramen shop that does not use meat. The seafood soup at Shinjuku Kaijin changes daily based on what seafood is in season. The broth, while rich in flavor, is light and refreshing on the palate. The fish that goes into the broth is…
Temakizushi Party
A fun idea for entertaining at home is a temaki-zushi party. Hand rolls (手巻き寿司) are interactive and as each person makes their own rolls it can be a good way to keep everyone happy. Some supermarkets and department store seafood sections will sell the seafood already cut for the rolls, especially on weekends and holidays. Ingredients…
Japan’s Most Challenging Food
Chinmi. I am not a fan, not one bit. But my husband, Shinji, loves having some type of chinmi in the fridge at all times. Usually we have one or two types, but we recently traveled and Shinji picked up some along the way. Chinmi is fermented seafood, often including the guts or other parts of seafood…
Shibuya Kotaro 高太郎
** Note, reservations required. Kotaro is very popular and not many spots open up each month as regulars make their next reservations on their way out. Kotaro is named after the owner and chef who prepares all of the food in an open kitchen behind a large wooden counter. I was introduced to Kotaro by…
Deep-Fried Oysters at Tsukiji
Yachiyo is a Tsukiji shop that specializes in tonkatsu, but also does a very nice kaki furai, deep-fried oysters. It is located to the left of Sushi Dai. Oysters are just finishing off their season but will be back in the autumn. However, the days of Yachiyo and the inner market are limited. Oysters are breaded and…
Sardine Lovers’ Lunch 新宿割烹中嶋
Chef Nakajima of Shinjuku Kappō Nakajima is often on television on a morning cooking show. His restaurant serves a multi-course kaiseki meal in the evening, but the lunch is a set lunch based on iwashi sardines. For less than $10 USD (800 or 900 JPY), the menu options are sashimi, furai (breaded and deep-fried), nimono (simmered in a sweet soy sauce),…
Hiroshima Oysters – Mitsukoshi Kakigoya
A trip to Hiroshima was timed around oyster season, which is just now coming to an end. Shinji has not been and for him it’s all about the seafood, so we flew to Hiroshima and traveled around the area for about two weeks. Sadly we were told at the restaurants we did visit that they…
Isomaru Suisan 磯丸水産
A friend and I needed to grab a quick lunch before he jumped on the shinkansen to Kyoto. We popped into Isomaru Suisan near Ueno station and had colorful and fresh sashimi donburi. Donburi are large bowls filled with rice and toppings, a great one-bowl meal. He had a tuna and avocado bowl and I took a chirashizushi with…
Tsukiji Katou 築地かとう – moved to Toyosu
*** Katou has closed with the closing of the Tsukiji Jōnai Inner Market and has moved to Toyosu Market. It is in the Suisan Nakaoroshi Uriba-to on the 3rd floor and the name changed to Ikinoya (粋のや). I believe it is being managed by Kaisendon Oedo, another popular shop that moved from Tsukiji to Toyosu. (updated…
Tokyo Station Sushi Sei
Sushi Sei is a popular sushi shop at Tsukiji Market that has a branch inside of Tokyo Station. There is often a line of salarymen outside of the shop before it opens at 7 a.m. The breakfast options include sashimi or donburi (sashimi over a large bowl of rice). There are also two versions of ochazuke….
Octopus Cuisine
Shinji’s father has a boat on Tokyo Bay and he often goes fishing. Recently he came home with an octopus. Shinji set to work preparing the octopus by first massaging it in grated daikon. It was then boiled and here is the boiled octopus. Octopus, tako in Japanese, is one of my favorite seafood. It’s meaty,…
Food Sake Tokyo 