Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category

Tokyo Bistro, Yonago, Tottori – Japan

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Tokyo Bistro, Yonago, Japan

At the Wine Bar

The kitchen

Tokyo Bistro, Tel. 0859-34-3456, Opening Hours: Morning: 7:30-9:30, Lunch: 11:30-14:00, Dinner: 17:30-21:00 (last order). The wine bar stays open until 1:00 according to the sign although that hour may vary depending on the day of the week. They have a good list of wines by the glass including some interesting Japanese wines although oddly, all wines are written on a chalkboard in Japanese language, usually they are left in the language of origin, which makes the wine list the only thing I am able to read! The cooking is quite good and usually has some interesting selections for instance, flying fish or terrine of fresh water eel & sticky potatoes.

Terrine of sticky potato and fresh water eel

Flying fish

A simply prepared seabass

Daily specials

Le Bistrot de Suzuki, Yonago, Tottori – Japan

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Le Bistrot de Suzuki, Yonago

Tel. 0859-22-6080
Opening Hours: 11am-2pm (last order 1:30)
5:30-10pm

Le Bistrot de Suzuki, Tel.0859-22-6080, Opening Hours: 11am-2pm (last order 1:30); 5:30-10pm

I enjoyed a particularly well made Vichyssoise, the accompanying bread (crispy and delicious) was  served  in a yellow imprinted paper bag; chicken confit was garnished with ocra, carrot, broccoli, onion, peppers, potato, green beans, lentils and tomato sauce flavored with garlic. Vanilla custard with creme Anglaise along with a small slice of heavenly chocolate cake.

Chef Suzuki has the skill to cook, although more importantly,  he has the feeling and sensitivity that is evident in every dish he creates.

The main dining room

Vichyssoise

Chicken Confit

Vanilla Custard with Creme Anglaise & fresh fruit

Vichyssoise with rose petals below

Pork with light pepper jus, freshly picked vegetables

Crème brulée, caramel ice cream, small cherries

Sanpou Chicken Restaurant, Yonago, Tottori, Japan

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Pictured above: The owner, Jun Nadatani who has owned and operated the restaurant for 42 years in the same location as of 2010.

Bransh Avenue, Ellmole 1st Street, Kakubancho, Yonago City, 683-0812, Tottori Pref.

Tel. 0859-22-5850

Sanpou means “Three Treasures” and Chef Jan Nadatani serves chicken in every conceivable way. If you feel like having chicken this is the destination and all of the recipes have survived the test of time.

Beer

SakeLocal Sake

Home Made PicklesHome made pickles to accompany the beer and sake

Chicken gizzardsChicken gizzards from what we know are reliable birds

Sanpou

SanpouFried chicken with just a light dusting of coating

Sanpou

SanpouBento Box chicken

Sanpou

Pousse Cafe Restaurant, Yonago, Tottori – Japan

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Pousse Cafe

Pousse Cafe Restaurant, Tel. 0859-32-6688 is located on the second floor with a separate entrance up a stairway from the street. It has been proven to me to be consistently good over a long period of time, and is run by Mr. Kanyou Tsubokura, the same manager/chef that has been there for years. The restaurant focuses mainly on French bistro cooking, with the occasional Italian dish, to give a bit of diversification.  It is a comfortable place with a good view of the tree lined street below. On this latest visit the tuna was very good along with the tomato salad, pork belly and the outstanding potato crusted snapper with fresh basil leaves.

Pousse Cafe, Panna CottaA well made Vichyssoise was a good choice for a summer lunch

Tuna sushi, wasabi & ponsu saucetuna sashimi with wasabi and ponsu sauce

tomato salad with oil and sesame seedsTomato salad with oil and sesame seeds

Pousse CafeMarinated tuna with tapenade

Pousse CafePork belly sandwiched between zucchini slices

Pousse CafeSnapper with basil in shredded potato crust

Panna CottaPanna Cotta

Tampopo Curry Restaurant, Yonago, Tottori – Japan

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

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In downtown Yonago, Tottori prefecture, Japan, Tampopo has a small, bright and cheerful room with a counter-bar containing mainly tables for deuces, with one four top near the entrance. Their specialty is curry and they have a large assortment with a changing daily menu, all of the plates I tried were very good and they have on offer other dishes in the evening such as roasted chicken.

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Sushi Waka, Yonago, Tattori – Japan

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Sushi Waka

Sushi Waka is a conveyor belt operation, but don’t get the idea that it is the normal, tired-looking sushi traveling around and around endlessly on a belt. This place has the freshest sushi you can hope to obtain anywhere, as it is situated in the port city of Yonago in southern Japan. Actually, since my wife’s brother Eiji Kagawa and his wife Kumi are friendly with the owners, all orders were hand-delivered, and everything we sampled was excellent.

Below: a really fresh scallop

Scallops

TunaMaguro tuna

GingerPickled ginger

UniSea Urchin roe (Uni)

scallopsScallops

Computer Ordering 2Selecting your order on a touch screen by computer

SakeSake

Ice Cream Three cousins eating ice cream: Reina, Hoshino and Akiko

Nyotaimori, ‘Sashimi or Sushi Displayed on Naked Female Body’ – Japan, Los Angeles

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Nyotaimori

Nyotaimori, ‘to eat sashimi or sushi displayed on a naked female body’ once practiced in the secret underworld of the Japanese Yakuza, has not garnered ANY attention among the Japanese mainstream of late. It is a different story in the United States, likely due to intense competition among sushi restaurants, and a select few sushi places offer this attraction for small groups who wish to experience this style of sushi dining.  More recently it has evolved into a trendy fad in certain major cities in Europe.  In Los Angeles, one of the restaurants offering Nyotaimori is: Hadaka Sushi in West Hollywood that will, for a price, arrange this for you.
Cleanliness is the most important factor in preparing for this event. All body hair must be removed and the person’s skin must be cleaned by soaking in a hot bath and being thoroughly scrubbed with a Japanese akasuri (rough cloth), before positioning the sushi on the body (in America the sushi must be placed on a banana leaf for health reasons) the woman’s body must be cooled down by rinsing with cold water to bring the body temperature down, this is a very important step.

Hadaka Sushi, West Hollywood
8226 West Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, 90046
Tel. 323-822-2001

Nyotaimori

Nyotaimori

Ikizukuri

Above: From Hong Kong, the title of the photo “Ikizukuri” (meaning: live skinned fish eaten as sashimi, sake is sometimes poured into the fish’s mouth to show how fresh it is, and it will wiggle).

Links you may enjoy:

Demonia, Bangkok

Eden Club, Bangkok

Restaurants Pescaderia & Chez Daimo, Naha, Okinawa – Japan

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Naha Downtown

Pescaderia
Tel 098-901-0142
Kamamizu Sakihara Chisaki,
Naha City, Okinawa

Pecaderia, as the name would suggest, specializes in seafood and the restaurant serves live oysters and scallops in the shells, which they wheel to the table on a trolley. You may choose to have the scallops as sashimi or sautéed with garlic. Both were very good, as the mollusks were so fresh.

Chez Daimo
Tel. 098-867-9418
2-2-21 Kume Naha-C,
Okinawa

This small restaurant would be a find anywhere but it is especially exciting to be recommended to a place of this caliber in Naha City, Okinawa where gastronomic treasures are at a minimum. The small dining room has only one table that seats six and a counter with ten stools surrounding an open kitchen where large, imposing, Okinawa-born chef/owner, Daimo san, spins his culinary magic for a handful of people every night.
We started with a perfectly marinated and concocted octopus salad with tomatoes and accompanied at the same time by another dish of fresh sardines with salad. It was followed by a risotto of clams and an incredibly good chicken “confit style”, specially raised on a neighboring island.
When we had to turn back a second bottle of Corvo Rosso because it was off, Daimo san said that it was his last bottle and in place of it he brought out a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau a day before its intended release.

Marushin Restaurant – Koriyama, Japan

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Restaurant Marushin
1-5-10 Ekimae,Koriyama,Fukushima
Tel. 024-922-1851
Opening Hours: Lunch: noon-2pm, Dinner: 6-10:30
Credit Cards: Yes
Prices: Moderate

Pictured above is the very best Uni (sea urchin roe) that I have ever tasted and I have eaten so many of these creatures all over the world, regardless of their high cholesterol count. (My first experience, was on the island of Capri in Italy, a long time ago when young boys used to dive for them and pry them off the rocks and sell them to the customers that were sitting at the seaside restaurants for a nominal price). Maruchin is an extremely well-run restaurant located in downtown Koriyama and it means business, as everything they serve from sushi to tempura is exquisitely presented and the raw materials that they use are so fresh and served at the ideal temperature. If the dish is not to be served raw it is cooked to perfection, it is amazing with so many items on the menu, that the restaurant manages to get everything right. I was so sorry that I did not have the time to pay one more visit to this incredibly good restaurant before I left. It is basically reserved for locals only and buried in a line of storefronts, you would most likely never find it unless you had inside information from persons living in Koriyama who knew about it.

Kyotozuchi – Yonago/Tottori – Japan

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

1-71 Kakubancho
Yonago-C, Tottori 68.3
Tel. 0859-22-3386
Credit Cards Accepted
Prices: Moderate

One of the highlights of a springtime visit to Southern Japan is the opportunity to taste tiny, transparent, freshwater whitefish and eat them while still alive as they squirm in a mixture of beaten egg and soy sauce. Quite curiously, while they put up a tremendous fight to resist being eaten, once into the mouth they stop movement immediately. They were able to survive swimming in the sauce for over ten minutes, slowly turning from transparent to a light red color as they absorbed the color of the liquid. The chance to indulge in this delight comes but once a year for a two week period as the fish spawn. I realize that this is not for everyone, as even some of the Japanese nationals in our party were repelled at the sight of the writhing mass.
Raw prawns were in the pink of condition and sweet to the taste and in the many tanks were turtles and Fugu (Balloon fish) along with a really unattractive shell called Akabe.
The thick and crispy Nori (dried seaweed) had a praiseworthy flavor and when wrapped around crab tomalley and sushi rice there could not have been a more admirable finish to this gastronomic dinner.