Hayashi

Hey all,

Great day in Akasaka today, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo. I might look at apartments there if I ever have waaaay more money than I knew what to do with.  But instead, I must content myself with visiting and writing up blog posts.  In fact, I think I'm gonna get at least three or four posts out of today--but Hayashi deserves a post of its own

So, everybody remember a few posts ago where I taught you all the word "teishoku" (lunch set)?  Well, nobody does it better than Hayashi. Let's begin:

This place is not easy to find.  All of these hole-in-the-wall places are awesome, but they take some patience.  I'm glad I'm alone on this trip, because I think that any traveling companion of mine would get mighty frustrated at my thirty-minute wander of "ok so, I was here 1-4 year agos, I think it might be over here.  Nope, don't recognize anything, let's try over there . . ."

In this case, the wander took the form of meandering up and down looking for the tiny "Farm House Restaurant Hayashi" sign that is the only street-level indication of the restaurant's existence

Even once you find it and get in, things look pretty sketchy for a bit

Pretty much just an apartment lobby, with a tiny elevator you ride up to the fourth floor

This is the hallway outside the restaurant

And at the end of the fourth-story hallway, a small door

But once you get to that door, things get pretty awesome pretty quickly . . .

The entryway, because why not?

And the inside??  Gorgeous.  Like you stepped into a farmhouse 100 years ago

Now, this is a very nice restaurant.  A half-dozen tables only, and set course dinners start at $63/person and go up to $110 (before drinks).  So what was Our Hero (the daring and dashing Tanabe-san), what with his lack of monetary influx, doing here?

See, this is where that word teishoku comes in.  Dinner?  6300Y-11500Y.  Lunch?  950Y.  No I did not misplace a decimal point

The lunch menu has a single item on it:  Oyakodonburi, chicken and egg on rice

[side note:  This is a Japanese food joke.  "Donburi", often abbreviated to "-don", just means over rice.  And "okayo" doesn't mean chicken and egg, it literally translates to "mother and child".  Oh, and if you swap out the chicken for pork, it becomes "tanin-don", where "tanin" means "strangers".  Japanese food joke!]

Oyako-don is a simple, home dish.  My mother used to make it for me; after fried rice, I think it was the second dish she ever taught me how to cook.  But at Hayashi, it becomes something else. Top-quality chicken, a sweet-but-not-too-sweet broth, and eggs cooked perfectly soft.  Finished off with fresh herbs and a raw egg yolk (they asked if I was ok with a raw egg, I'm ok with pretty much anything), it's everything I love about simple, comforting Japanese food.  Most Americans think of sushi, maybe teriyaki, when they think of Japanese food--but to me, this is Japanese food.  The kind of food that makes you smile

Served with a side of Japanese pickles and a cup of soup, it's enough to fill up even growing boy--but of a quality befitting a kitchen that charges three figures per person.  For less than ten dollars

Oh, and that's a pitcher of mugi-cha (cold barley tea), the most refreshing drink created by man, in the middle of the table.  I almost didn't leave

Noah out