Hi everyone,
One of the things I love about the Tokyo food and beverage scene is it's willingness to specialize. Many restaurants have their signature dish or ingredient, and they will do nothing else. At Izuei in Ueno, the do grilled eel, and every dish features the eel with the only differences being sides or accompaniment; at Tonki in Meguro, they do tonkatsu (fried breaded pork) and the only choice you get to make is what cut of pork; and at Harajuku Gyoza Lou they serve gyoza (dumplings) and that's pretty much it
As someone that worked at restaurants in America with the general policy of bending over backwards to avoid having to say "no" to a customer ("guest"), it's amazing that so many great restaurants are totally willing to put themselves in a position where they will have to say "no, we don't have that", "no, we don't do that", or "no, and that is a stupid question you should feel bad for even asking"
Yes, of course I like this because being able to deny a stupid customer's stupid request is one of my favorite parts of the job ("Hey Noah, what makes a good bartender" "You have to be good at hiding how much you hate people" "But I don't hate people" "Start bartending, you will"). But there's another reason why I love this practice: It leads to some amazing food
Izuei literally has its own kiln up in the mountains of Wakayama, which everyone says produces the best charcoal in Japan--that only makes sense if you know you're going to be using that specific charcoal for just about every entree you send out. Tonki has their assembly line of bread-fry-cut-serve down perfectly, including the frymaster who must be 80 years old and turns the pork in the giant vats of oil with his bare hands occasionally (the smile on his face makes me think he may in fact be the happiest person in the world). And Harajuku Gyoza Lou has the apparati to turn out hundreds (not an exaggeration in the least) of delicious handmade dumplings every hour
Let me show you the menu, which is painted on the wall:
To translate: The first six items are drinks; the next one is rice (which comes with a nice broth for free); the next three are vegetable sides (cabbage, cucumber, or bean sprouts, each topped with a dollop of sauce); and the last four items really should only count as one--gyoza, with or without garlic, boiled or panfried. Aaaaand that's it
What this means is that they can concentrate on making really good gyoza, and their kitchen has the setup to make sure that the gyoza is cooked perfectly every time. It's an open kitchen, so you get to watch:
 |
| Add the gyoza to the "pan" |
 |
| It has a spout right there to add the water |
 |
| Cover to steam |
 |
| And then just lift the entire thing up to drain off the excess water! |
 |
| A little extra time after the water has been drained to crisp up the bottom, and you have some pretty much perfect gyoza. Look at those. They're beautiful |
Each of those "pans" can fit two dozen gyoza, he has four of them, and each one takes about five minutes to cycle. So when I said that this place is capable of putting out hundreds of gyoza per hour, I wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. If they wanted to, they could do thousands. And each one would come out looking like that
Two orders of gyoza (one is usually enough, but as we've previously discussed I have poor impulse control), rice, broth, bean sprouts, and a beer. To save you the trouble of doing the math, that's 1530 yen, which is not at all a bad deal considering how much delicious, delicious food you get
Apologies to Robert Heinlein, but sometimes specialization leads to some very good times
Noah out
Okay, I finally have internet access - when I visit you in Tokyo, we are having Gyoza but will pace ourselves, dinner can be more than just gyoza. btw - humor an older guy - what was the Heinlein quote you were riffing on and which book was it from?
ReplyDelete"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.", from "Time Enough for Love"
Delete(P.S. Not saying this out of condescension, but out of a desire to point out that Google is a lot more powerful than people realize: "Heinlein specialization quote" brings up the quote pretty easily!)
It's funny, it's the same way in Korea and I've actually had discussions with Ye about this as well.
ReplyDeleteIn Korea (and apparently in Japan) so many places have menus literally posted on the wall. It has like three to ten-ish things written on it and most of the time half of those things are pretty much filler; you know what you're getting when you walk in, and anybody who knows anything knows what to get when you're going to that place.
Many times people don't even get menus handed to them, and they will order on their way to getting seated. Not an uncommon occurrence to have people just say "we'll take three" and the people working there know exactly what you ordered.
In general I just like this environment better for food. Maybe I'm just used to it.
On a somewhat related note, my theory about "Asian service" at restaurants that American complain about is more or less related to this as well. People working there don't really give a f*** how you're feeling as you're having food, they just care that you're getting food in a more or less timely manner, enjoying the food, and getting very basic needs taken care of _if you ask for them_. Not that they won't be nice people if you talk to them or ask for stuff, they're just not "bending over backwards", like you say, to _serve_ you. I'm not sure I'm really articulating this well, but I got the sense you were touching upon this as well.
- Jaeyoon
Same in Korea, huh? I wonder why that is. I do think it's a great way to eat. My other favorite point, which my friend Xiao brought up that didn't make it into this post, is that you never have to wonder what their best dish is. You don't go to a restaurant and then later find out online that you didn't order whatever they're really known for
DeleteAnd you're absolutely right, there are just differences in expected service in different cultures. Servers in America are trained to do a verbal check back with their tables two minutes after entrees go down, and then pass by every so often after that. In Japan, that would be considered rude and intrusive--it's expected that if you need anything, you'll ask for it (on the other hand, if you go to a restaurant and start waving and shouting "excuse me!" like they do here in Japan, you are likely to get punched by your server. And in my mind, you'd deserve it)