From what we could decipher, Mist is an outpost of some gourmet ramen company called Chabuya Japan. The ramen behind the counter came in nice, wooden boxes, and appeared to be the real deal. The website doesn't reveal much more in English.

chashu behind the counter

So we weren't expecting all that much out of this meal. After all, it was a random place inside a mall. We were ready to chalk up the valuable lunch as a loss. Things started to change though when I saw these platters of pork behind the counter in intermediate stages of their preparation. I mean, how bad could the end product of this stuff taste?

shoyu ramen - ¥1,500 with a drink

Yeah, 1,500 yen is pretty damn expensive for some ramen. We weren't too put off by it though, given the location. Omotesando Hills is a very sleek and fancy mall, sandwiched on the main shopping avenue of Harajuku/Aoyama between a bunch of haute couture stores. The line was out the door anyway - Mist was cheaper than the alternatives next to it, I guess. The ramen itself was delicious. Sure, it's been 3 years now since I went to Sapporo, so I guess it's hard to compare... but this ramen definitely held its own. Noodles, which are hidden under the rest of the stuff, had a nice firm texture. The chashu was indeed fatty, flavorful, and extremely satisfying. The broth had a deep, hearty taste. And the beautifully soft-boiled egg is worthy of mention as well - I should have taken a pic of the bright golden gooey center...

So this actually turned out to be a nice quick meal. If ever you need a bite while shopping in Harajuku, Mist might just be the place.

Enoteca Norio is located far down a dark side street in the district of Shinjuku in Tokyo. To be honest, I have no idea how one might stumble upon it without knowing where to look, so it's good to hear Norio-san has a bigger and more central new location (I think in Ginza). Enoteca Norio is a pretty small, two-floor restaurant. A small bar and a few tables make up the downstairs, while the kitchen and more tables are upstairs. Norio-san was apparently a little nervous about handling our group of 11 in the midst of his move, so he left the whole restaurant to us for the night, a luxury we certainly didn't expect.

Despite all I've heard about the good Italian cooking going on in Japan, it was still quite an interesting sight to see a small Japanese guy like Norio preparing the kind of food we ate. Norio-san has a very noble, altruistic vision - to expose the newer generations of Japanese to great Italian food. This apparently means that he tries to keep his prices as low as possible, to the point that we suspect there's no way he is making any money. The restaurant offers a set-style menu of 5 courses (cold app, hot app, pasta, main dish, dessert), with 4-5 choices for each course. The whole thing is 6,000 yen, which is barely over US$50! That's not much for a meal like this to begin with, but throw in the superb quality of the food and the fact that this is Tokyo, and this becomes an absolute steal. Anyway, here it comes...

caprese salad

I was extremely curious to try this mozzarella/tomato salad because the cheese came from a local Japanese farm. Who knew they were making fresh moz in Japan? The quality was excellent - smooth, creamy, and very clean tasting. The preparation was top notch, with just a bit of olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. The tomatoes were hearty and sweet - I assume they were some kind of Japanese heirloom.

tripa alla fiorentina

Another classic Italian dish, this tripe in tomato sauce was just mouthwatering. The steaming hot, simmered tripe was supremely tender, and the sauce had a wonderful sweetness balanced by just a bit of tang. It'd been a while since I'd had this dish, and this version has made me want to eat it regularly. Luckily, we found a very good preparation here in SF at Florio. :)

smoked unagi pasta with fava beans and tomatoes

Now this is what I was looking for in Japanese-style Italian food. Where else would you find unagi in a pasta dish? The noodles were a fresh pasta (something pretty close to tagliolini) and cooked perfectly. The whole dish had a great, strong, smoky flavor. In fact, it was actually reminiscent of the smoked eels I tried while visiting the van Berkels in Holland.

spaghetti with uni

Sorry bout the blurry picture on this one. Pretty much everyone at the table ordered this uni spaghetti, and I thought it was quite picture-worthy. I wanted it too, actually, but I couldn't let our whole group not have anyone ordering the unagi pasta. Plus, I have seen uni pasta in the US (Taranta in Boston comes to mind). Anyway, I only tried a couple bites of this, but I remember the uni flavor being actually a bit more subtle than the overwhelming orange color would indicate. The creaminess of urchin sure makes for a great pasta sauce base though.

steak

Awesome description there huh? The menus were all in Japanese, so Norio-san was giving us basic translations for all of the options. This steak was some kind of sliced rib, and simply superb. The beef had some great marbling going on, which you can partly see. It was also dressed with some kind of vinaigrette that was also on the salad and tomatoes. Oh, those tomatoes... they were every bit as good as the heirlooms you find during peak season here in SF, and matched surprisingly well with the meat. Yummy.

I had to jet early to go meet my Yokohama-based friend Yui who I hadn't seen for years for a drink. I missed the included dessert, but it got the rest of the Che family's seal of approval.

So my first proper Western meal in Tokyo was an astounding success. You could plop Enoteca Norio in the middle of SF or Boston and it would compete with each city's best Italian joints. I wish I could help more with the directions and whatnot - Norio-san is a great chef and I hope you can check him out if you're in Tokyo. Let me know if you need more details on his new bigger and badder digs, and I'll... uh.. ask my dad or something.

Our group of 11 was joined by Arthur Hungry inspiration and Tokyo resident Nobrin (her much more punctual, Japanese post on this meal can be found here), which meant enough people to fill a private room with a big long table and 2 Japanese grillmasters. Anyone who's been to Benihana will know what these rooms feel like, but the chefs at Sazanka are generally a lot less flashy than their Americanized counterparts. I guess when you're using the highest grade A5 Japanese cattle there is, you can forego the little spatula flips and stuff. Needless to say, the service is friendly and professional. The place also has a relatively casual atmosphere. It feels totally comfortable to be dressed casually here, but it'd be just as comfortable to have a business meal too. The fixed menus start from around 10,000 yen (US$100 or so), but once you start adding expensive cuts of beef and fresh seasonal seafood to the mix, that price can absolutely skyrocket. A base Kobe beef meal starts somewhere in the $200s, and with all the bells and whistles you can break $400 per head. We went all out and got in the $400 range when you factor in all the food and drink, making this probably the most expensive Japanese meal you can find if you exclude high-end kaiseki.

Izu black abalone

Sazanka always carries whatever luxurious seafood there is in season. We happened to be there at just the right time for these gorgeous black abalones from Izu. Here's a video of them still moving, if I got it to work properly:

Just testing this stuff out. Let me know if you guys like it or not, and maybe I'll start posting more videos. In this one, you get to hear my dad and my uncle Jack having a deep discussion of these abalones' origins.

abalone chillin' on the grill

They always serve the seafood as a sort of appetizer, so as soon as the grill was hot the cooking began. The teppanyaki grilling table probably looks familiar to most of you. Do not click on the following if you're scared of slimey looking moving things.

I know I'm not gonna score any brownie points with PETA for posting this one. Check out the one on the bottom left. It totally started spazzing out. Not that we doubted its freshness... Anyway, there's more random Che family banter - some Cantonese, some dad on the phone, and some play by play by yours truly.

grilled abalone

Finally, the finished product. With just a nice grill and some light seasoning, the subtle abalone flavor really came out. Each piece was perfectly tender as well.

abalone liver

And now for something a little more exotic: abalone liver. Apparently, this is truly a rare delicacy. The livers from these black abalones are only edible during a very short period of time during the season. Usually, the liver has too many toxins built up inside, but we happened to be there during the 2 weeks where it was still alright. This was some of the strongest livery/foie-y tasting stuff I've ever had, and I don't think most people would enjoy it. I actually liked it quite a bit - it was like an intense, dense, concentrated ankimo. Very interesting stuff.

grilled broccolini, mushroom, onion, eggplant, pepper

I guess for the sake of thoroughness I should include these grilled veggies. They were quite delicious, actually, with a nice char to them. Obviously they're not the main event though.

grade A5 Kobe sirloin and filet, pre-cooking

BAM. As you can imagine our jaws dropped when they brought out this baby. I guess the picture says more than anything I can really type here... the marbling on this stuff was incredible. They have both sirloin and filet cuts - as you might expect, we opted to have a higher proportion of the sirloin.

filet on the grill

Here's a shot of the filet cooking. It's grilled very lightly, with a nice sear on the outside.

filet as served

And the finished product, with some fried garlic chips on the side. Notice the slight glistening. This had a meatier texture than the sirloin, but was more tender than anything stateside. Nice, even marbling and good fatty flavor.

sirloin on the grill

Here is our expert chef chopping up the sirloin into more manageable pieces. Just looking at the white lines of fat on this make my mouth water. It's really an awesome sight.

another shot of the sirloin sliced up

At this point, I'm thinking this beef must be pretty impossible to screw up. Just look at that color! Now for the finishing touch:

Sazanka can hold its own in the showtime department, as you can see. Luckily we had a big table that had 2 sets of beef cooking, because I missed the first round. Nothing like some hard liquor to finish off that beef.

sirloin as served

And this is it: absolute beef heaven. Each bite of this sirloin is like a dose of bovine perfection. There are those who say that beef can be too marbled or too fatty, and to those people I say NAY. The deliciousness of beef only goes up with marbling, and Sazanka is here to prove it. Entourage fans: What if I were to tell you that this beef is more tender than any meat you've ever had, and literally melts in your mouth? Is that something you might be interested in?

bean sprouts and Japanese greens

Another quick break from the meat overload - a break I didn't really need. I didn't eat much of this, but luckily Nobrin, who can't quite eat as much as me, was happy to trade me her beef for my bean sprouts. I say yes to that deal every time.

Kobe fat trimmings for fried rice

This is gonna gross out some of you out there who aren't fat-loving carnivores like me. In teppanyaki, when you've got really high grade brief, the standard practice is to use the trimmed fat from the meat and use it for fried rice. The chef will chop it up into little bits and use it as the oil base. Here's another vid:

That looks pretty gross I guess, but keep in mind that it's for a huge amount of fried rice.

huge pile of rice!

A teppanyaki style fried rice is one of my favorite forms of the simple dish. Usually they'll just throw on a mountain of rice, some egg, some seasoning, and the fat trimmings. This leads to an amazingly flavorful, beefy fried rice.

our chef serving the fried rice

And still, out of the monstrous stack of rice and oozing pile of fat, the Japanese manage to make it all look clean and presentable. Funny how that works, isn't it?

teppanyaki fried rice with Kobe trimmings

And here is a closeup of the final product, served simply with a few shreds of pickles. The beef has done a thorough job of imparting it's marbled flavor throughout the entire bowl.

miso soup, pickles

And of course, at the end of the meal, you get some soup and pickles to go with your rice. This miso had a nice variety of mushrooms inside. Very soothing after eating so much meat.

honey dew melon

They also throw in some incredibly sweet honey dew. I've talked about the melons before, and this is just more of the same. Sweet and juicy beyond belief.

chocolate ice cream

Of course it'd be more stereotypical to go with some green tea ice cream, but I like to buck trends. I got chocolate. That's right; you heard correctly. I like to live dangerously.

So that's it. The best Kobe beef you can eat anywhere. I know it will be impossible to convince many of you that $400 isn't a total ripoff, but I will try. If you really want to experience a meal that is absolutely best in class and unlike anything else in the world, a top-shelf teppanyaki restaurant really fits the bill. There are no Benihana gimmicks here, just amazing food using exquisite ingredients. Eating here changed my perception of beef as a whole, just like Kyubey changed my perception of sushi. I urge you to try Sazanka if you get the chance.

Note that the omelet rice is only available AFTER 1pm, Monday-Friday. My dad said he once asked them why such a strange rule, and the answer was something about limited kitchen space during the lunch rush (I guess it takes all the burners to make the omelet rice).

fried croquette with creamy gratin and crabmeat - ¥950

I gasped in horror thinking that my beautiful appetizer had been tainted by ketchup, but luckily the red sauce is actually Real Tomato Sauce. The croquette was wonderfully crisp on the outside, and extremely rich and creamy on the inside. The amount of actual crabmeat was surprisingly adequate too, giving the cream a nice flavor.

fried rice and Matsuzaka beef omelet with soy sauce - ¥2,625

Here: the omurice in all its glory. I'm putting up the cut-open shot so you can see some of its delicious insides. Keep in mind that ¥2,625 (about US$25) is pretty obscenely expensive for omelet rice, which usually runs for a couple bucks. It's worth it though. The beef is marbled and tender, and there is actually a ton of it inside. A typical omurice uses, for example, chicken fried rice, and has a dollop of ketchup on top, which is really gross to me. This version eschews the ketchup in favor of a light soy mixed with oily goodness from the Matsuzaka beef. The result is a very well-executed fried rice, buttery meat, and a perfectly cooked casing of scrambled egg. This is, without a doubt, some of the best fried rice I've ever tried.

domPierre is sure to become a regular lunch stop for all my future trips to Tokyo (let's hope there are many). It's in a convenient spot just near the main Ginza strip. I've also since heard their curry is pretty famous, so I wouldn't mind trying it, but it'll be hard not to order the omurice again.

Kyubey is tucked away to the side of the main Ginza avenue. It has a small, unassuming storefront that would be easily missed by the average passerby. Inside, however, is a 5 story sushi temple, with a maze of different rooms and sushi counters. Our party of 11 took up almost a full counter, with a Japanese businessman and 2 ladies filling the last few seats. Immediately noticeable at Kyubey is the beautiful unlacquered wooden counter, incredibly smooth to the touch and pristinely clean (here's a view of the counter). The quality of the counter is something my dad taught me to look for in sushi bars a long time ago, and you won't find one nicer than the counter at Kyubey. We always joke about how long it must take to clean the soy sauce stains from our clumsy gaijin spills. Tourists need not worry though, as Kyubey is quite friendly to us, and there seems to always be at least one chef behind the counter that is very eager to practice some English. All of the chefs are very friendly and clearly good at what they do (action shot of toro nigiri, and another action shot of uni gunkan maki).

suzuki (sea bass) salad

The first thing served when we sat down was this suzuki salad - small strips of suzuki sashimi with a touch of wasabi and some ponzu-type sauce. Very light flavor and a pleasant start to get the night going.

sea jelly

Next came something I'd never tried before. We couldn't really figure out what it was exactly, but we think it's some kind of weird seaweed. The whole thing has a gelatinous texture, and the little things buried inside had the texture of a thick vermicelli. The whole thing had a very light sea flavor, but not much taste to speak of. We saw some of this stuff at Tsukiji when we went later. Can anyone identify it?

seaweed salad

Next was a much more common seaweed salad with scallions. Dressed with some vinegar, this was like a leafy green salad for the sushi bar.

otoro nigiri

We got started right away with some otoro. Like all fancy sushi places nowadays, Kyubey puts a bit of whatever sauce you need on your piece of nigiri before handing it to you, so you don't have to do any dipping yourself. One side effect of this is that the soy sort of covers the color of the fat; just believe me, there was lots of it. This toro was melt-in-your-mouth fatty and just plain delicious. The rice had just the right temperature and just the right vinegariness.

hirame (halibut) nigiri

Hirame, aka halibut or flounder or fluke, was much leaner and lighter. Served with some finely chopped negi, this was the perfect refreshing white fish.

shimaaji (striped jack, or baby yellowtail)

At this point, I turned off the flash on my camera. I'm still not sure what to do sometimes. It's hard to get good focus when the flash is off. Oh well, I hope the rest of the photos are alright. Shimaaji, we were told, was just perfectly in season. Like hamachi but richer and more refined, the piece was sliced thinner than a typical piece of yellowtail, but had a stronger flavor.

grilled toro nigiri

Cooked toro is all the rage these days. I've had seared toro at a number of places, but this was the first time I'd seen it grilled. When it came out, my dad and I were both a little scared at how cooked it looked, but those fears went away when the thing simply collapsed on the tongue. Not burnt at all, the toro was as silky smooth as seared foie gras.

uni (sea urchin) gunkan maki

The uni was truly spectacular - creamy, sweet, and everything in between. Not much else to say.

steamed awabi (abalone) nigiri

Black abalone was in season too, and though we sort of ordered this by accident it turned out great. Extremely tender and delicate.

ankimo (monkfish liver) nigiri

Like the foie gras of the sea, this version of ankimo had a relatively light texture and flavor. I think I prefer Ino's more intense foie gras imitation.

fried fish bone

The fried vertebrae of some fish, this thing was kind of like a long dense chip. An interesting change of pace to munch on.

eel liver

I hope I heard this right, because I've definitely never seen this before. This eel liver had a very strong, slightly bitter livery taste, and probably won't appeal to most people out there. I found it interesting, at least.

ika (squid) nigiri

Nice, clean tasting, tender ika. I've grown more fond of this in the past year or so. It was served with a dash of salt, which was less overwhelming than soy.

aji (horse mackerel) nigiri

A beautiful specimen of aji, both refreshing and very sea-flavored. The slicing of this was a beautiful sight.

anago (conger eel) nigiri

Anago was delicate and flaky, with a nice bit of tasty skin. They also cut it in half to make it easier to eat. One piece was came with salt, the other with a sweet sauce. :)

pickled eggplant

I guess the chefs thought we were finishing up now, and started giving us a couple veggie-type things. This eggplant had a pretty sharp tang - a little too strong for me, but others seemed to like it a lot.

daikon slices with shiso leaf and plum sauce

This was something I'd never tried before either. The daikon and shiso provided a cool, refreshing feeling, but again the plum sauce had a bit too much tang for my taste.

negitoro hand roll

Of course we were far from done. Here is the first of two delicious negitoro hand cones, with a filling chopped to the smoothness of butter and seaweed so crisp and fresh that the mere possibility of sogginess sits far at the back of the mind. They even do little cuts into the seaweed, dividing the roll into 3 ideal bites. Just awesome.

uni (sea urchin) gunkan maki

People started to bow out by now, but some of us had to keep going and get a few seconds. I think this uni picture came out a little better.

otoro nigiri

Round 2 of otoro was even better than the first - maybe they were pleased with us eating so much! I've always found it interesting that toro and beef start to look like each other as they increase in quality. The fattiness of this toro was incredible.

grilled toro nigiri

Round 2 of grilled toro looked better than the first, but tasted pretty similar. I think the piece was bigger though because of the lighter hand on the grill, leaving less of the tuna melted off.

anago nigiri

Anago round 2, also as good as the first. And again, better picture I think.

tamago nigiri

Finally, tamago, my dessert sushi. They say that tamago is ironically the ultimate test of the sushi bar. It's usually the cheapest item on the menu, and yet it takes a lot of time and preparation to make, which means that often in the U.S. you find pre-made versions of the stuff. To serve a good tamago, a sushi chef has to spend a lot of time with little economic reward. Kyubey's passes the test. Countless layers create a soft, delicate texture, almost like a dense custard, all with a perfect subtle sweetness.

And that was it. With our party of 11, the bill came out to just over 20,000 yen per person, making it about US$200 a head. This was quite a bit less than expected. I had literally 7 toro items (3 otoro nigiri, 2 grilled toro nigiri, 2 negitoromaki), plus 2 or 3 uni and all the other stuff above. Some of the stuff pictured I had 2 of. With all that in mind, it was a pretty good deal. Then again, I did eat the most out of everyone, so the others probably brought the average down a bit. I must have been around $250 at least. Still, that's not a bad deal considering how much you can spend on sushi (in the US for example), and that Kyubey is the best of the best.

You can eat there for less, too. They offer omakases at a range of prices, and I think you can go in for lunch for a good deal. I feel like if we got a 20,000 yen omakase, I probably wouldn't have eaten as well. I just can't imagine them including that much toro in it... Still, with less people I think omakase would be a cool route to go. Every piece of fish we had was good, so I don't think you can go wrong at this place. Get there ASAP.

A small intro to the Japan trip may be helpful, I guess. Longtime readers of the site will notice that my family tries to have a yearly reunion trip type of thing. Last year, it was our trip to France, which included a lot of awesome meals that were tons of fun to blog about. This year, we went to Japan, and with a bigger group than ever before. There were 11 of us in total: me, my dad, his four sisters, 2 of their husbands, my grandma, my grandma's sister, and my little cousin. As you might imagine, planning activities and meals for 11 people was a bit of a logistical nightmare, but my dad (as usual our official trip organizer) was up to the task. Fortunately, everything ended up working out pretty smoothly.

As usual, the focus of the trip was food. We spent 4 nights in Tokyo and 3 in Kyoto, so we had little time to hit all of the different types of Japanese meals. Some of you might know that Japanese food is my official Favorite Cuisine (the amount of it that you see on here is no coincidence). In fact, it was a 2003 trip to Sapporo, Japan that inspired me to actually start the site, so you can imagine my delight when I found out I was going to Japan again. I've been wanting to blog about this stuff for years now.

The cool thing about Japan is that there is room for specialization within Japanese food. What I mean is that they have restaurants that specifically serve sushi, tempura, ramen, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, tonkatsu, or whatever other yummy Japanese delight you can think of. Back home, we have sushi-specific places and ramen-specific places, and that's about it. Having done no research whatsoever, I've concluded it's simply because there just isn't enough of a market for specific types of Japanese cuisine. We have Japanese restaurants that serve all kinds of stuff at once because they can't survive otherwise (with sushi and ramen places being the exceptions). I guess that explanation makes enough sense to me that I haven't looked into it much further, and have decided that I just need to go to Japan as much as possible for the rest of my life to get my Japanese food fix.

Our first meal in Tokyo (and I mean like, 2 hours after we got off the plane) was at Hanamura, a tempura shop in Akasaka that was established in 1921. It's a family-run place, and we had the man of the house (photo of him at work) along with one of his sons cooking for us. Japanese tempura pretty much exemplifies what I said in the last paragraph. Only in Japan will you find restaurants that focus solely on tempura, and serve it the proper way. The beauty of Japanese tempura is freshness. At Hanamura, the room we ate in (another picture with a slightly better view and both father and son) was basically a center cooking area with a counter built around it. Every item is cooked individually and then immediately served, like at a sushi bar. You eat each piece as it's made, so nothing ever gets cold. The concept is simple enough, and it makes a world of difference. At any proper tempura house, you sit at a counter, and the chef behind it is individually battering ingredients, frying them, and serving them to you throughout the entire meal. Usually, you pick from a few choices of set menus. At Hanamura, we got the best one at 11,000 yen, which is actually be quite a bargain for the meal we ended up getting, especially for a tempura place in Tokyo. Anyway, I've written a lot already - on to the food.

sesame tofu

We were first given an appetizer of cold tofu. It was actually quite rich, with a pretty strong sesame flavor and a thick texture. Not bad, but I was ready to eat some fried stuff.

tempura sauce with daikon

The anticipation continued to build when they gave us the sauce. Tempura sauce in general is one of my favorite sauces in the world - it's the type of stuff I could probably put on rice and eat plain. It's also one of the things each individual tempura house takes a ton of pride in. Each place will make the sauce their own way (as well as make their own batter), and so the flavor varies slightly from restaurant to restaurant. I've heard that the old tempura houses guard their secret family recipes the way that I guard... well, I guess I don't have anything that valuable to guard. In any case, I didn't ask for the exact recipe. I also love adding a healthy dose daikon, which is constantly replenished. Hanamura's sauce had a wonderful, light flavor - not too salty but just right.

prawn

Prawns are, of course, the primary tempura ingredient, and they got us started right away. The prawns they served were quite small - easily edible in 2 or 3 bites - and had a great shellfish flavor. The tails were trimmed well enough that I could just eat the whole thing. The batter was light, crispy, and piping hot. Absolutely delicious. I had about 5 or 6 of these before we moved on.

shiso leaf

Next up was a tempura shiso leaf. Nice, refreshing, herby flavor. My Uncle Jack didn't know what shiso was before the trip, but we'd all become very familiar with it over the next week...

tai and ika sashimi

At this point they served us a small plate of sashimi. I was too eager and ate some before I snapped the photo. It was pretty good - the ika had no fishiness like most of the ika back home, and the tai was nice and bouncy.

ayu

Ayu is a very small white fish that was in season during our stay. This is the fish served whole, with some of the skeleton and the head removed. It was just delicious, with a nice balance of crunchy bits and soft meat.

asparagus

Asparagus was pretty good, though I almost burned myself eating this one. Very hot and crisp.

lotus root

Lotus root, so often left to boil for a long time in Chinese soups, turned out to be a great tempura ingredient. It was very lightly cooked and actually crunchy.

pumpkin

The pumpkin was also excellent. It managed to retain a bit of solidity, which I think is always the biggest problem with starchy tempura things. In the US they always give you these yams that have gotten all mushy and gross. This pumpkin was just the right thickness and texture.

kisu

Kisu is a type of smelt, and actually a fairly common tempura ingredient. I liked it a lot - it has a very delicate, flaky white meat that does a great job capturing tempura sauce.

anago

Anago, aka conger eel, is probably my favorite (along with prawns). It's the primary tempura fish in my mind - meaty, crispy, and always big. It's also served sort of like the main dish, since the prawns go first. This anago was just great, with a flaky texture and delicate eel taste. People were starting to get full so by now I was happily cleaning up other people's servings... :)

eggplant

Next we got these cute tiny Japanese eggplants, which are more squashlike than a typical American eggplant. Since they're so small, the skin to flesh ratio is higher, which gives it more of a veggie-like texture, and a nice strong eggplant flavor.

string beans

Hanamura fried the stringbeans in groups of 3 or 4, which made for big stringbean fritters. The beans themselves were very fresh and crunchy.

pickles

At this point, the main frying portion was winding down so they started bringing out the end of the meal. Japanese people like to eat some soup, rice, and pickles at the end. These veggies were very lightly pickled and quite refreshing.

fried seafood cake

At the end of a tempura meal, they always make this awesome fried cake thing of mixed seafood, and serve it on top of rice drizzled with a bit of tempura sauce. This was mainly small shrimp and scallops. You can't make all the stuff out I guess, but rest assured there's a lot of seafood mixed in there. This had more scallops than versions I've had in the past, which is great because I love scallops.

miso soup

And of course, we got some miso soup. This was red miso and had a whole slew of different mushrooms in it.

orange and melon

They finished us off simply with some orange and honey dew. I wasn't gonna post this but the fruits were so damn sweet that I had to. Japan really has the best melons I've ever had. Actually, in the food sections of department stores, they sell ridiculously expensive melons that can cost up to like US$200 each. I've never had one that expensive, but this melon was good enough for me.

Hanamura was an awesome experience, and a great first meal in Japan. Battered frying in its highest form - what more could you ask for?

A while back, tastingmenu clued me in on a restaurant called Bo Innovation. Once a somewhat shady eating establishment run out of a home, the place went legit and started up a proper restaurant in Central. My dad had checked it out already earlier this year and said it was quite an interesting place. I was quite eager to try this Hong Kong take on Chinese/Western fusion cuisine, especially after reading about Hillel's meal. The restaurant itself is very nice and modern, although the location is actually a little more hidden than I expected. The menu gives a few choices of small to big tastings. We opted for the Degustation, which offers a series of apps and a choice of a main dish. At HK$600, it actually looked more appealing than the more expensive Chef's Menu.

steamed buns with eggplant dip

This was a fairly interesting implementation of bread. The smooth, smoky eggplant dip tasted remarkably like an eggplant dip at the beginning of our meal at Cafe Kor in Budapest; of course it was quite different with the steamed buns. Not bad.

crab meat salad, obha leaf mayo, marinated starfruit

I thought this turned out to be one of the best dishes. The crab had a very light herby dressing that matched wonderfully with the sweet, slightly tart starfruit. The balls of ikura added a nice textural element.

clam, okra, crystal tomato jelly, "fuyu" foam

Very, very interesting dish. For those unfamiliar, "fuyu" is a sort of tofu that's been fermented a little bit and usually comes in little jars. Chinese people like use it as something like a condiment for congee and such. It's something I've certainly never seen translated into any type of Western dish. The foam had a lot of fuyu flavor and was actually nicely balanced by the refreshing tomato jelly.

toro & ceps sushi, air dried foie gras, candied wasabi tomato

Good, although the foie gras shavings didn't have quite as much foie flavor as I was hoping. The toro was of surprisingly good quality. I would have gladly eaten another piece...

grilled calamari, chilli, lime, ginger, spring onion sauce

I was glad to see a big chunk of calamari... it feels like people don't serve it like that too often. The piece had a very nice charred flavor, and the sauce was tart and acidic. Nice combo.

pan roasted scallop, water chestnut, black sesame

Another of my favorites from the night for sure, though the scallop itself was just par. The black sesame foam/sauce had a nice subtle flavor, and the water chestnuts were crisp and refreshing. Again, I don't think I've ever seen water chestnuts used in a Western style.

pan fried frog leg, truffle congee

Frog legs, I've always thought, look and sound exotic but actually don't taste too special. Here, it was good, but I would have believed I was eating some kind of bird's leg just as easily. The congee, though, was quite special. Not quite as thick or chunky as a Chinese congee, this thing was more like a truffle soup, with a healthy dose of black truffle fragrance and flavor.

terrine of foie gras, black Chinese miso, pickled lotus root

An interesting mix of flavors, but in my opinion not the most successful. The black miso was just too strong for me, and wasn't an excellent mix with the foie. The pickled lotus root was very cool - gari fans would love this stuff.

green apple "milkshake" served over dry ice

I guess this was supposed to be some kind of palate cleanser before our mains (oddly, I'm blanking out on the order here, but I'm pretty sure it came right before our mains). Anyway, it was more for show than anything. We each got a bowl with a few small chunks of dry ice, and the waiter poured a milky green apple concoction over it which promptly started bubbling like a witch's brew. Drinking it with a small spoon, the stuff was ice cold and more like green apple milk than milkshake. Fun to watch though!

suckling pig two ways - crispy roasted and braised in jiangau vinegar with chestnut

I chose the suckling pig for my main, having heard a good report about it from my dad. It was probably the best one on the table (others we tried were an ordinary squab and a pretty but unspectacular fish). The roasted piece was crackly and delicious. The braised bit had a thick, syrupy coating - almost like a Chinese balsamic vinegar with plenty of age. The flavor was very strong, and in fact I would have gladly used a bowl of white rice to soak it all up.

tonic sorbet with longan

I guess they meant it was tonic water flavor or something, because the sorbet didn't have much taste. It was mild but very refreshing, and the longan mixed with a few strips of basil made for a nice palate cleanser.

dessert plate - coconut creme brulee, chocolate-stuffed sesame ball, citrus tart

A decent set of desserts. The creme brulee was good but pretty standard. The sesame ball was very interesting, though not delicious. It was like a sesame ball you find when eating dim sum, but with a bit of chocolate at the center of the glutinous rice. I'm blanking on what that sheet is on top of the citrus tart, even though it was my favorite of the three. I'm pretty sure it was some exotic mild fruit. In any case, it was covering a nice lemon cream/custard, with the whole lot sitting on a nice flaky cracker.

Overall, I'd say it was a very interesting meal, but I'm not dying to go back. The killer dish that I wanted to try from Hillel's meal, the cheung fun with truffles, wasn't there anymore. The food was all pretty good, but nothing really blew me away. That said, I still think it's definitely worth going to see these extremely unusual combinations. I'm glad to see people are working with Chinese fusion. Japanese fusion is commonplace now, but you don't really see the same attempts at melding Chinese elements. Maybe this will be the start of something new.

roast pork

Although Yung Kee is famous for its goose, it's actually a full-fledged Cantonese restaurant with a complete menu to match. So they've got all different kinds of meats and dishes and what not. We got a plate of char siu to share, and it was pretty tasty, though we later found out we could have specified for fatter cuts of pork. Still, the meat was tender and flavorful. Next time we'll get the fat ones; I'm sure that tastes even better.

roast goose leg

And there it is, in all its glory. To the naked eye it looks pretty much like duck, and it is actually quite similar. But the flavor is just a bit different - goose has its own distinct taste, and to me a good roast goose is like a better version of roast duck. Also, the skin isn't quite the same, with a slightly different crispy/fatty balance. Goose is definitely something you have to try if you go to HK.

lai fun

You can order the goose on top of noodles in a single serving, but we just decided to get the 2 meats to share and each get our own bowl of noodles. These are the famous lai fun, which is made of rice and looks a bit like a translucent spaghetti. It has a very light, bouncy texture and goes extremely well with the goose. It's hard to find lai fun outside of HK, and usually when you do it will be solid white all the way through like a typical flat rice noodle, with a taste and texture to match. I guess it's because of some combination of lai fun being really hard to make, really perishable, and not particularly profitable.

I didn't take down the exact prices but the meal cost something like HK$100-120 a head, which is about US$15. If you just get a roast goose noodle soup, you can probably get out for US$10. We just barely missed the lunch rush; the place get's really crowded, and if we'd gotten there even 5-10 minutes later than we did, we would have had to wait in line. Definitely worth checking out if you make it out to Hong Kong.

thousand year egg with pickled ginger

We started off with some simple and delicious thousand year eggs. Yea, I know it probably looks nasty to most of you, but us Chinese people love this stuff. And to my eye, the gooier the black middle is, the more appetizing the egg becomes. These eggs were very good, and better than any that I'd had in a long time.

veggies wrapped in tofu skin

This is a fairly typical cold appetizer, executed very nicely. The veggies were very finely chopped, and the tofu skin was firm but very light and not stringy at all.

chicken cartilege in a spicy garlic sauce

This was not very spicy, but had just enough peppery garlic flavor to coat the cartilege. The crunchy texture is the star here anyway, and this deceivingly light sauce complemented that well.

crispy pork

Ohhh man. I love crispy pork, and this stuff was the real deal. Delicious, tender meat with a thick layer of fat and a crunchy, crispy skin. I ate way too many pieces.

beef with mustard sauce

I'd never had this dish before, and it was excellent. The beef was extremely tender, like a lite version of a good Japanese teppanyaki, and the sauce had a great sharp mustard flavor. This dish seems like it could be pretty easy to screw up (overcooked or just plain bad beef, too much sauce, etc.) but I guess they know what they are doing.

glazed pork buns

Prince for some reason makes a very delicious rendition of pork buns. These are the glazed, baked style which are a bit less familiar to most Americans than the white steamed kind. I should have taken a picture of the filling, because the roast pork inside was just sublime.

shark's fin with crab meat and roe

This dish probably added more to the bill than anything else. A bowl for each person of 2 luxe ingredients tends to do that, I guess. This shark's fin was served "dry" - that is, with the soup on the side. You can then add soup to your liking as you eat it. The combination of shark's fin and roe was very rich, and quite an exquisite indulgence. Again, probably not the easiest thing to eat if you're not familiar with these ingredients...

grouper with ginger and scallion sauce

This is the fish that my dad compared with the super cheap fish at Crystal Jade. And I must say, though this fish was quite delicious, there was indeed a similarity. Then again, this fish was big enough to serve 10. The meat was flaky and moist, with just enough of the sauce to add some saltiness.

This style of Chinese lettuce isn't one of my favorites. The lettuce retains a nice crispness to it, and the sauce has a bit of spice, but somehow I'm just not into it. Everyone else seems to love the stuff though.

baby bok choy in broth

Baby bok choy, on the other hand, is one of the reasons I love going back to Hong Kong. You just can't get this stuff in the US. The bok choy are tiny and oh so very tender.

foie gras fried rice

Now this was another first for me - fried rice with little chopped pieces of foie gras thrown in. An awesome combination, kind of like foie gras sushi. I only wish they had less other stuff in it, which slightly masked the flavor of the foie.

roast goose

I didn't get to eat roast goose when I was in HK in 2004 because they weren't allowed due to some regulations at the time. I was craving this badly. Roast goose is basically like a better version of roast duck, with a sharper flavor and a nicer skin. Absolutely wonderfully cooked here.

egg yolk bun

Prince had a few surprisingly good (it's a Chinese restaurant after all!) desserts, the first of which was this steamed egg yolk bun. The filling was incredibly rich and smooth.

layer cake

This simple layer cake was also quite good. It was very light and soft, almost like a creamier hot pound cake. It's a very common item, but rarely this tasty.

egg tarts

Finally, they whipped out some pretty mean little mini egg tarts. The custard was very smooth and eggy, while the pastry was extremely flaky and even crumbly.

This meal was certainly one of the best Cantonese banquets I've had in a long time. Not only was the food great, but the setting was just outstanding. Our view of HK harbour (and the laser lightshow from the skyscrapers, not to mention the fireworks over the harbour that happened to be going on that night) was breathtaking. If you need a Canto restaurant that impresses, Prince is a good bet.

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beef brisket - HK$28

A very standard item is beef brisket, which Chinese people like to eat in a variety of ways. Usually you'll find it with noodles, but we just had it plain. A pretty decent rendition here; nicely braised and flavorful.

pork neck meat with fried noodles - HK$68

They listed this noodle dish under "fried sky noodles" and we were curious as to what that meant. It turned out to be an excellent fried thin noodle with a tasty soy base. The pork was very tender and slightly fatty. Great stuff.

seafood with rice in pail - HK$78

The reason we actually went to Cousin was because my dad wanted to show me this rice in a pail dish with eel and chicken cartilege. Sadly, they didn't have eel that day, so we settled for this seafood version. It was alright, but neither of us really liked the thick wet sauce (the eel/cartilege version is dry, according to my dad). Decent but a bit disappointing.

Cousin is actually a bit more expensive than the usual HK cafe, but we did pick out a couple of more unusual items. You can certainly stuff yourself here for less. I really did want to try that eel rice though... Maybe next time.

Oh, and by the way, they make a pretty solid milk tea. :)

xia long bao - HK$22

The signature item is of course the xiao long bao, and they're damn good here. The skin is thin and light, and the filling is perfectly soupy. Absolutely delicious. We also got a bowl of ginger scallion la mian, which isn't pictured because we ate it too damn quick. The two are must-orders though if you go.

fried scallion pastry - HK$20

This dish is a variation of the scallion pancake we find so commonly back home, and I think I like this one better. The pastry is flaky and a bit more starchy, sort of like a turnip pastry if you've tried that before. The thing has just enough flavor.

braised mandarin fish in chilli and broad bean sauce - HK$68

This braised fish was a notably good deal. My dad kept pointing out that it is quite similar to fish that you could pay HK$1000 for. I guess it's because mandarin fish is generally considered cheap. Despite that, it tastes great, and the meat is tender and flavorful.

sauteed minced pork with preserved vegetables, sesame pastry buns - HK$48

Another fairly typical dish, this is a nice tangy mix of ground pork and salty veggies. They give you a ton of filling for the amount of bun, and even though we stuffed each one to the brim, we had some extra.

The Crystal Jade menu is huge, and there's a ton of stuff that we couldn't get with just two of us eating. I'd go back again but we just don't have time. The freshly pulled noodles and the xiao long bao are just awesome. It's food like this that makes me miss HK...

This last Budapest meal I'll be posting is from Baraka, the most highly anticipated meal of the trip. The restaurant was featured in this NY Times article about eating in Budapest, and received some glowing remarks. Owned by a Hungarian-American, the restaurant is supposedly bearing the torch of modern dining in Hungary, blending elements from East and West. The 2-floored restaurant is actually pretty small, with a simple and modern decor. We got a table upstairs, in an area that was sort of like a big balcony over looking the main part of the restaurant.

seared goose liver baked in rice paper served with soy-marinated shiitake mushrooms - Huf 2900

This intriguing foie gras preparation immediately caught my eye, and as you can see it is as unique a foie gras dish as you'll probably find anywhere. The foie gras was wrapped in a thin layer of rice paper.

a view of the inside

After a bit of initial difficulty cutting through the wrapper, I was actually extremely happy with this dish. The foie gras was silky smooth and delicious, and the rice paper did an interesting job of soaking up the juices and adding a textural element I'd never tried before. This was quite possibly the standout dish of the trip for me.

prawns in curry broth served with sweet potato and baked red onion - Huf 5200

I followed up with this very fusion prawn curry. It was quite delicious; the prawns were plump and tender, and the curry had a deep, complex flavor. It made all of the veggies very tasty as well (green beans were also in there), and I particularly loved the sweet potatoes. The dish was definitely too freakin' small though. I would have been happier with a serving 1.5 times the size.

The food I had at Baraka turned out great, but I hesitate to recommend it because my three companions (Keith, Mike, and Elmer) all had very disappointing meals. I remember Mike getting a totally bland soup and a completely forgettable chicken, while both Keith and Elmer ordered an Atlantic cod that was downright bad. Keith is probably still angry about this meal, actually. And considering this is easily one of the most expensive restaurants in Budapest, the consistency issue raises a big concern. High prices + small portions = bad. For the others, the food wasn't good. I'm glad I went because I had two great dishes, but everyone else walked out pretty unhappy.

Anyway, starting tonight or tomorrow I'll post some updates from here in HK. As usual there are plenty of good eats to be had. And next week.. JAPAN!

I've got a few awesome trips coming up this summer, and at various times I will be in SF, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kyoto, Beijing, and Manila. It'll be the first time I'll be in Japan since I started the site, and I'm looking forward to re-eating some of my best meals of all time. Huge stash of photos are of course still waiting to be posted from Australia, SF, and more... I'm going to have to start picking the better ones and leaving some others out.

So onto the first dinner in Budapest, aka night of foie gras indulgence. We went to the much-loved Cafe Kor, around the corner from the St. Istvan Cathedral. The place has been around for a long time, and has a reputation for delivering solid, realiable versions of classics with first-rate service. I also read it's frequented by a lot of expats and tourists, but is still a great place to eat. The restaurant was quite a bit smaller than I was expecting, and very bustling. I heard maybe 4 or 5 different languages going on at other tables. They had a big board on the wall with what must have been 20 specials, so I'm assuming their menu must change with some frequency. Anyway, I was extremely eager to eat some foie gras, after hearing that it is Hungary's national delicacy.

foie gras pate - Huf 2380

Simply put, this was the largest serving of foie gras I've ever seen. I would have expected about 1 of these slices for an appetizer, and 3 was just monstrous. Mike and I had quite a bit of trouble eating it all. It was very good, with a nice smooth texture and a strong livery flavor. The accompanying bread, not pictured, was delicious - loafy and perfect for picking up the spread.

fresh salmon carpaccio with red caviar - Huf 2190

Mike had this huge plate of salmon carpaccio for an app - again, probably the biggest carpaccio serving of any kind that I've seen in my life. I only had a bite and it was quite good. Red caviar seems to mean ikura, I guess. Mike cleaned the plate off.

roasted foie gras with apples, cranberries and potatoes - Huf 3580

I couldn't resist ordering a foie gras main dish - I wanted to try both cold and hot ones. And after that huge appetizer, I was almost scared of the foie gras overload that was about to confront me. This foie gras main was really frickin' good though - reminiscent of the foie gras dish at Aqua in SF, with a touch more char to it. I was extremely full but I managed to down the foie and most of the potatoes, which had soaked up lots of the foie gras oil and flavor. The apples were good for cutting the heaviness every few bites.

I wish I was in town for a bit longer; there is a ton of stuff on Cafe Kor's menu that I'd like to try. They're supposed to make a mean version of goulash, and they had a bunch of interesting meat/potato stuff that I'd enjoy. Perhaps next time...