Day in the Life of a Hungry Food Explorer: June 2014

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Sushi Bar Yasuda

I watch a lot of food documentaries and TV shows and I came across Anthony Bourdain's recommendation of a famous Japanese sushi chef who came to the USA but then eventually moved back to Japan who believed that in order to be considered one of the best sushi chefs in the world, it must come from within Japan. I was lucky enough to have gotten a spot during the Christmas break because initially when I emailed to make a reservation, it was all FULL! Some people cancelled their reservation so I got in. It was a pretty neat experience seeing someone in person for the first time that you saw through a TV documentary. Chef Yasuda's English was pretty fluent so it was nice to be able to get a nice story about each sushi that was served and where it came from. He goes to the Tsukiji market daily to get his seafood and usually doesn't look for the most expensive or freshest items but rather the most unique items and fish/seafood that he feels would be great tasting during a particular season. Interestingly enough, he admits that so far most of his customers are non-Japanese. I guess it doesn't help when he made his name in the USA so not many Japanese know of him. I guess that's a reason why he felt something was missing and decided to come back to Japan. His menu was surprisingly not as expensive as initially thought.

At the time he offered 3 options:

10 piece sushi assortment (priced at 3600 YEN or ~$36 USD dollars)
12 piece sushi assortment (priced at 4200 YEN or ~$42 USD dollars)
12 custom sushi assortment (priced at 5800 YEN or ~$58 USD dolars)

I was kind of glad that for the most part, it was just my group eating at his establishment due to many people cancelling last minute so we got him to share his wisdom on sushi creations and what inspires him. I actually enjoyed my sushi here. Although my only complaint was the soy sauce/mixture he used to spread on the seafood was a little too tart for my taste. I prefer my soy sauce to be more on the sweeter side but aside from that minor complaint I was pretty content with my experience at the Sushi Bar Yasuda. If you've never heard of this guy, it may not be worth the trip to only come here to eat at his place but for me personally, I was curious to see how his sushi would taste since Anthony Bourdain is really close with him. I probably won't be a second time visitor as there are many other sushi places that I have bookmarked that I would like to try in Japan. It's simply too competitive here for sushi to go to the same place twice. I wish him good luck on his goal as trying to be one of the best in Japan!

Name: Sushi Bar Yasuda
Website: http://www.sushibaryasuda.com/
Address: 4 chome 2-6 Minamiaoyama Bldg 426, B1, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Google Maps: Click Here!

Front Entrance

Chef Yasuda!

White Fish

Salmon

Sea Eel

Sea Scallop

Squid

Tuna

Sweet Shrimp - Amaebi

Scallion Sprout

Sweet Egg / Omelet

Sea Urchin

Sweeter Sea Urchin

Blue Skin Fish

Thanks Chef Yasuda!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Tsukiji Fish Market!

The Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world but unfortunately access to the inner portion of the market is no longer allowed and only the outer portion of the market is available to visitors after 9:00am. Here you will get a glance of a lot of fish and seafood that you have never seen before let alone seen alive! It was quite the experience!

On your way to the front entrance of the market, there were lots of colorful and must I say hilarious cartoons to illustrate the Dos and Don'ts at the market.

If seafood was really that fresh of course I would like to purchase/sample them while I'm there and so I did just that! There was a huge scallop that was in a shell that I was not accustomed to seeing. I asked my local friend to ask them to open it up for me and clean it so I could eat it! It was sooo fresh!

Although I didn't get the opportunity to check out the infamous Tuna auctions which start at like 5am! I still got to see a lot of fresh Tunas on display in the outer areas of the market. This really was quite the experience and definitely worth a visit. Only thing I regret from this visit was to buy an authentic Japanese knife! I need one to slice my sashimi when I'm back in the USA. Next time I'll be back for it for sure! They also have some restaurants slightly outside the market where they serve the fresh fish and seafood from the market.The below pictures are just a tiny glimpse of what you can see here! Check it out!

Google Maps: Click Here!

Best Classic Tonkotsu Ramen I've ever had so far!

I had another local friend take me to one of his favorite places to eat his Ramen and I have got to say it exceeded my expectations. This place in English is called Ichiran. Coming back to my previous post about how Japanese enjoy being alone or perhaps raised in a culture like this and keeping to themselves with little interaction around the world, notice the arrangement of this place! You also have to order using a Vending Machine here too! There's no concept of group eating at all. It basically feels like a bunch of individual photo booths and you can't even see the chefs making your meal! It's absolutely dead quiet in here aside from people slurping on their noodles which is customary as a sign to the chefs that you enjoy the food (quite the opposite in the Chinese behaviors when it comes to consuming noodles). You just are given a piece of paper and pencil in each booth and you just simply slide the paper in front and all you will see is a hand to take your order. Luckily enough we had our local friend ask for English translated papers so we could customize our Ramen without any struggling. You can customize your Ramen any way you want, these were some options:

Flavor Strength - was recommended Medium as a first timer
Richness - was recommended medium as well for first timer
Garlic - how much do you love Garlic?
Green Onion - how much you love Green Onion?
Sliced Pork
Secret Sauce - was recommended regular as a first timer
Noodle texture - up to you!

Once you have placed your order and your food comes, they close the drapes all the way down to leave you in peace to eat your food. Even getting your tea is self serve. It's really quite the experience, I've never been to a place that runs like this before.

I don't usually drink the broth but it was so good that I drank the whole soup! My friend told me to either finish it because they is some writing at the bottom of the bowl for the ones that finish the broth! Unfortunately I forgot what it said but I'm sure it was something cool like how fortune cookies work! I really want to believe that their broth was MSG (mono sodium glutamate) free because I did not feel sleepy or too thirsty after my meal which are usually obvious indicators on whether and how much MSG was in my food.The noodles were cooked to perfection as well and they were home-made! It was super bouncy which is usually a term to describe how good the quality of the noodle is aside from cooking it. If someone says that the noodles were super bouncy, it's high appraisal! The sliced pork was marinated and cooked really well. They focused on the natural sweetness of the meat. I also ordered a whole egg (100 YEN or $1 USD dollars extra) which was cooked perfectly! The yolk was bright orange and had amazing flavor and texture. Tasted much better than what I have had in the USA. Some other worthy notes about this place is that there's ZERO trans fat in their food and contain Natural Collagen in their broths which is a type of protein fibrous in nature that is good for skin strength and elasticity (or health and beauty)!

This place reminds of how KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is very hush hush about their secret ingredients that Colonel Sanders came up with. Ichiran's original red sauce has 30 types of spices that were aged and cooked slowly for nights and days. The secret recipe is only known by 3 of their experts.

Definitely for all the Ramen lovers, this is a MUST try! You will not be disappointed!

Name: Ichiran (一蘭)
Website: http://www.ichiran.co.jp/english/html/map.html
Phone: 03-3796-7281 (Roppongi location)
Address: Roppongi GM Building 2F, 4-11-11 Roppongi Minato-ku Tokyo-to 106-0032
Google Maps: Click Here!