Kagari: Chicken Soup for the Ramen Lover's Soul (and, more literally, mouth and stomach)

Hi everybody,

Ok gather 'round.  Straight talk.  I may have a new favorite ramen place in Tokyo.  Maybe better than Mutekiya.  Maybe better than Kururi.  Maybe my favorite in town.  It's called Kagari, and it's something special

It's smack-dab in the middle of Ginza, Tokyo's high fashion district.  It's only been around for a few years, but they do it right.  They do it very, very, very right

Yes, down the alley past the Gucci store.  This may be the most Ginza thing ever

It's a cute little place, isn't it?  It'd be hard to find, if not for the line.  Fortunately, there's always a line

It goes down the alley . . .

. . . and around the corner

And that line is not messing around.  It doesn't move very quickly when there are only 8 seats inside.  It's not about a hurry

Cool little setting inside, right?  But we're not here for the ambiance.  We're here for the ramen.  There are a few things on the menu, but almost everybody gets the same thing:  Tori Paitan, a chicken-based broth that is very hard to find.  Possible because when you're working with such subtle flavors (no fatty pork or strong soy sauce taste to hide behind) you have to be pretty much perfect.  And these guys make it happen

Toppings:  Ginger and fried onion, just enough to give it some extra punch

(First of all, can we take note of the fact that they give you a super rich chicken-based broth . . . and then they give you grated ginger to dump in?  Just unfair--makes me want to get sick just so I can go down there and get cured instantly)

Noodles:  Medium thickness, cooked relatively soft.  Nothing to distract. Nothing but the soup

This broth is just awesome, no other word for it.  I know I overuse that word (I think it's my most-posted in facebook statuses), but seriously.  This broth inspires awe

It's like drinking a chicken made out of silk.  It's like your mouth is taking a bath in warm poultry goodness.  I swear, it's so rich and wonderful you think you can taste not only what's on your tongue but what's in your stomach as well.  I'm sorry, I know this paragraph is getting weird. It's getting really weird.  But the English language simply doesn't have sufficient adjectives for describing taste (someone needs to get on that).  So instead, I'm forced to resort to comparison and analogy

It's like your soup is giving you a hug, inside and out.  It's amazing

Noah out

Tsukiji, a working market

Hi everybody,

Another Tsukiji post!  My favorite place in the city, and not just for the sushi.  Although mostly for the sushi

But to be fair, you really can get quality sushi all over this town.  Hell, all over the world.  But to be able to wander through a working market, where professionals break down chunks of tuna worth many hundreds of dollars while their breath clouds in the cold morning air . . . that's something different

Like I said, my favorite place in the city

Yes that's right, sushi-grade fish is first broken down using a handsaw.  Because I think that hardware supplies don't get nearly enough use in the kitchen

And for the serious stuff, the bandsaw--in order to stay out for longer, many boats will flash-freeze the fish as soon as they catch it (water's expansion when it freezes is due to the highly polar molecules lining up; if you freeze it quickly enough there's no expansion, meaning no freezer damage)

Oh, should I have warned you guys at the beginning that there is a decent amount of blood and guts in this post.  Hey guys, there's a decent amount of blood and guts in this post

Blood, guts, knives, ice.  This is where your sushi comes from.  Blood and guts, knives and ice

Sadly, all good things must come to an end.  Word is that Tsukiji is going to be moving, going further out of the city to cut down on tourism and free up the valuable real estate on the Tokyo waterfront.  Now, this could be a good thing--as you can see, I don't care about the touristy stuff.  But I'm worried.  I don't deal well with change

This has been a "pending" thing for a few years now, but it seems pretty set to move sometime in 2016.  Rumor has it they may close the market to tourists altogether

And that would be unacceptable.  So in the meantime, I have a lot of touring and sushi eating to do

Noah out

Akihabara Gyukatsu

Hey guys,

Man do I have a backlog of stuff to post.  Sorry, life has been crazy!  But for my first post in a while, it will of course be a new delicious place I found to eat.  Because as much as I love learning wonderful things about culture, viewing beautiful parks and gardens, and even discovering new things about myself in ways only living alone in a foreign country can teach . . . let's be honest, the reason I'm here in this country is the food



So let's chat about gyukatsu, shall we?  Not uncommon, but certainly atypical, gyukatsu is the cousin of tonkatsu (about which I have discoursed in the past).  "Ton" means pork, "gyu" means beef.  So instead of a nice pork loin wrapped in batter and fried, you do the same with steak

Now, steak is delicious.  Deep-frying things makes them delicious.  So I'm working on a theory here that if you take something delicious and subject it to a process that makes things delicious . . . it will be super delicious.  Gyukatsu is definitely a positive data point in this theory

There's a shop near my work that does a very nice gyukatsu.  Head on down for lunch and get the lunch set, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.  But I think I'm going to keep that shop anonymous, I'll explain in a sec

I will never get tired of lunch sets

But wait.  Now that's nice and all, but if I made a post for every meal that was "nice and all", I'd spend my whole life glued in front of the laptop.  But there is a shop in Akihabara that pushes all of my extra credit buttons

Tiny interior . . .

. . . with a long line out front

Ichi Ni San Gyukatsu (it's a pun--"ichi ni san" is Japanese for "one two three", but uses a different set of kanji in this name) in Akihabara does not mess around.  Like many of the places that get mentioned on here, their menu is simple and delicious.  I wandered past it at lunch one day and saw a line even longer than the one in the photo.  So I came back right at opening time and managed to sneak in

Lnch set.  1200 yen'll get you beef, veggies, soup, rice, and three kinds of sauce

Awesome, gorgeous, and super fun.  But what sets them apart is the quality of the meat.  Let's compare to the first place, which as we said will remain nameless because it's just not fair to have to measure up to Ichi Ni San.  Well, there is no comparison

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

No comparison, no competition.  Zoom in if you like, you'll find no flaw in that gorgeously ruby-colored cut of beef in there (just ask my friend Sam, he was along with me for the ride on this particular trip)

You want to take amazingly high quality beef and then wrap it in light delicious crispy batter?  Head on down to Akihabara.  Wait in line, it'll be worth it

Noah out

Yuki kuni (NoahandLexiinTokyo)

Hi everybody,

Momentous occasion for me, but I got to see my first snow here in Tokyo!

Not a blizzard, certainly not compared to whatever's going on in the East Coast back in the States, but not messing around either

My friend Lexi and I had already planned to hit Harajuku and Meiji Shrine that day, and so I asked her if she was still down to go if there was snow.  She's a trooper, and she said it would be no problem.  Thus, Noah and Lexi (after getting some pretty fantastic gyoza) made our way to Meiji Jingu just in time to get some fantastic pictures of the snow

Our side trip to get lunch first allowed the snow to turn into a light rain, so the landscape had a few splashes of color rather than a pure greyscale

Lexi, undaunted by the weather and with a smile on her face!

I didn't let it slide too often for much of this trip, but I told Lex it was ok to go in to see the shrine without the traditional purifying wash of the hands.  I did wash mine, however, and it was so cold I almost wish I hadn't.  Ok not really, but seriously my hands hurt from the cold for a half an hour after that

I've said it before, I'll say it again.  Everybody gets presents of sake and other such treats for their birthdays (I did, that's for sure!).  But you gotta be a real baller to continue getting sake birthday presents even after you're dead

No profound commentary or other observations to add.  Meiji Jingu is a wonderful place, a really delightful juxtaposition to the bustle of Tokyo life (especially considering that Harajuku, with its crazy fashion and blasting music, is just around the corner).  It speaks a lot to the Japanese spirit to have such a large park honoring Emperor Meiji--and it's important to note that though Emperor Meiji is responsible for bringing Japan into the modern era, the shrine in his honor is pure old Japan style.  Accepting and embracing the old while style respecting and revering the past, that's pretty much a summary of Japan for the last century and a half

And it doesn't hurt that said park provides for some pretty wonderful photo ops

Noah