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“Mea culpa”; I have been remiss in my restaurant reviews. There is a backlog of photos for many a ‘Grazing’ article but I cannot get to writing ACTUAL words. Despite accusations to the contrary, I have a life outside these fora which requires some of my time  .
So, in abject humility, I present mere photo-essays of a couple of restaurants in Tokyo. Please let your imagination run amok as to the aromas and tastes, which these visual stimuli evoke. Both cooking styles have Chinese/Mongolian origins but over the centuries, the Japanese have made it much their own.
They say Japanese "eat with their eyes"; well, that's my excuse....
Backlog #1:
‘GENJIKOH’ Japanese Restaurant is situated in the Royal Park Hotel which is next to TCAT (Tokyo City Air Terminal). Its serves ‘shabu-shabu’ which is like a steamboat hotpot, where the diners cook their own meat, tofu and vegetables in boiling stock and dip into cooling sauces (ground sesame paste or citron flavoured ‘ponzu’ sauce) before eating. Then, the stock is used to cook noodles or rice for the ‘filler-upper’.
The word ‘shabu-shabu’ is said to mimic the sound of the cooking, as the food is swished in the pot – sha…bu…sha…bu.
Entrance
Three DaiGinJou premium grade sake:
'Kita Homare' from Hokkaido: +5.0 dryness, 1.2 amino acids.
Sawa no Ii from Tokyo: +3.0 dryness, 1.4 amino acids.
Hokusetsu from Niigata: +4.0 dryness, 1.3 amino acids.
Tofu, marinaded fish and preserved fish roe.
Clear soup – suimono. Sui = water. Mono = thing.
Sashimi
Kobe Beef sliced wafer thin to cook quickly.
This is for two diners!
The only time you don’t get to play with your food.
Backlog #2:
ASTER GINZA – Nihonbashi serves Chinese cuisine. The original ASTER GINZA restaurant is in Ginza but we went to the Nihonbashi branch; hence the rather confusing name.
Entrance.
Japanese beer.
Chinese sweet rice wine
The French stuff.
More French stuff.
Assorted appetisers.
Shark’s fin.
It’s all gone – served out into individual portions below…
Lobster.
Abalone.
Grumpy Garoupa; you’d be livid too…
Duck for later…
Unknown baked objects for later…
All is revealed.
Rice filler.
Almond milk jelly et al.
Photos and (minimal) Text Copyright Melvyn Teillol-Foo, 2004.
MTF
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