Most frequently, I would hit up Pizza Politana, Joel Baecker's mobile pizza operation. It so happens I have some photos from lunch there exactly a year ago - August 27, 2009. Pizza Politana is basically a wood-fired oven on wheels, and they churn out beautiful little 1-person pizzas. They show up at many Bay Area farmers' markets, so you've probably seen their little trailer around before. They started going to Marin first before they expanded, and Joel himself would be there every week making pies. They're now at the Ferry Building Thursday market as well, so I guess he's got a lot more running around to do.

PEPPERONI - tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, artisan pepperoni - $10The pepperoni pizza is always available, and it's a great rendition of the classic pie. The sauce is subtle and never overwhelming, and the crust has a nice chew, which I prefer to the cracker-like crispy pizzas out there.

MARKET - tomato sauce, black olives, spinach, red onion, mozzarella, parmesan - $12They also have a constantly-changing Market pizza, with a variety of toppings based on the season. On this day it was this pizza with tasty black olives and some nice fresh veggies. The Market pizza varies a lot, and I've had everything from clam pies and white pizzas to classics like Italian sausage.

Simple pizza in the gleaming Marin sun - what could be better? Pizza Politana is quick, consistent, and always delicious. If you're at Marin Civic Center on a Thursday, don't hesitate to try them out. Alternatively, if you're at the Ferry Building, and there are literally 493 people lining up at Roli Roti for a porchetta sandwich, I promise one of these pies will leave you very happy.

(Don't get me wrong though... those porchetta sandwiches are bomb.)

I once promised to post some brunch pictures from Maverick, one of my SF brunch mainstays. There are two critical factors about brunch at Maverick. First, the food is delicious. Second, they are on OpenTable and take brunch reservations. It's generally pretty easy to get in, and there is rarely a line like other top brunch spots (such as personal favorite Universal Cafe... and I won't even get into places like Dottie's or Mama's). The intersection of convenience and quality make Maverick a standard brunch stop. I guess it's at a slightly higher price point than the packed brunch places, but I'll pay an extra few dollars to avoid the hassle.

ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE BENEDICT - grilled andouille sausage, poached eggs, crawfish and jalapeno hollandaise, English muffin, home fries - $15If you're eating brunch at Maverick for the first time, order the andouille benedict. It's been on the menu for years, and it really is their best dish. I'm a sucker for any good eggs benedict, and these eggs are expertly-poached. Maverick then mixes it up by using andouille sausage instead of ham, and throwing some crawfish into the hollandaise. The result is a nice peppery kick that gives the whole plate some life. The potatoes are also excellent here - hot and crispy on the outside, smooth on the inside.

MAC 'N CHEESE - $6Their mac 'n cheese is also a winner. Extremely rich and comforting, and also an excellent pair with the hot sauce...

YOUK'S HOT SAUCE - free, but it'll cost you $7 to take a bottle homeAnd a fine hot sauce it is. In fact, it might be my favorite American-style hot sauce of all (though admittedly, I've never been to the south). According to the label, the sauce is based mainly on serranos, jalapenos, and cayenne. It's got a wonderful tangy bite that goes perfectly with the potatoes and the mac 'n cheese (or just about anything, really). Love this stuff. Looks like they're actually selling it online now too.

So that's a typical brunch at Maverick. Apologies again for the long long overdue post. If you're awake in the morning on a weekend and looking for some numnums, definitely check out Maverick. You won't have to deal with the 600-person line in front of Dottie's.

Hachikian (Japanese-only website, but Google Translate kinda works), despite its unassuming storefront pictured above, is really quite a unique place. The restaurant runs a small-scale poultry farm outside of Kyoto, which breeds specialty chickens and eggs and showcases them in Hachikian and its 3 smaller outposts. The main restaurant on Marutamachi specializes in a multi-course chicken kaiseki, using many different parts in many different preparations. This meal from September 2010 had some chicken preparations you really won't find anywhere else, as well as a few things some of you might be pretty scared to actually eat!

APPS - chicken gizzard and meat, cucumber, pickled quail egg, snap pea, tomato gelee, tamagoFirst up was this plate of chilled appetizers. Nothing too remarkable, but a good set of clean refreshing flavors to start off the meal.

CHICKEN TATAKIBeef tataki is pretty ubiquitous here in the US (and probably the rest of the world), but nowhere other than Hachikian have I ever found chicken tataki. Obviously, the danger of eating raw/undercooked chicken is pretty appalling to most. At Hachikian, it appears to be completely safe (at least, I've been twice and I'm still standing). And I'm glad it is, as chicken provides a very different textural element than beef or fish. It's a slightly chewier and lighter than you'd think, and very delicious.

CHICKEN SOUPThis milky white chicken soup was as pristine as can be. Simple, clean, and intense chicken flavor. I'd love a pot of this the next time I get sick.

KIMO - poached chicken liverThis looks a bit like the more common ankimo at first glance, but actually tasted quite different. It had a silkier, more tofu-like texture, with a slightly sharper liver taste. I loved it.

CHICKEN SASHIMI - heart, gizzard, white meat, dark meatI realize we've been trained since youth that eating raw chicken would be like a death wish, thanks to our dear friend Salmonella. At Hachikian, the chickens are disease-free and have been served as sashimi for 40 years without incident. I won't waste my breath trying to convince you that raw chicken is "safe" - it's probably a terrible idea to try it in all but a few places. Suffice it to say I felt comfortable enough to try it at Hachikian. I've eaten it twice in my life with no issues, and my dad has eaten here more times than he can remember. Here's a Chowhound discussion about it if you're interested.

Once you get over the mental aspect of it, you'll find that raw chicken tastes pretty good. The different parts varied in texture - the heart had a slight chew, along with an almost-refreshing "crunch" similar to chilled Chinese-style jellyfish. The gizzard was also chewy, with a more even bite throughout. The white and dark meats were both like a lean fish, with the dark meat having a bit more muscular fleshiness. Sustainable toro replacement it ain't, but this stuff was interesting to say the least.

STEAMED CHICKEN THIGH - chilled, with white onionsA very simple dish here, cooked not unlike Chinese steamed chicken. The crunch of the white onion played well with the skin.

KAWA - fried chicken skinKawa - the simplest (and guiltiest) of chicken pleasures. The version here is superb. Crispy, slightly chewy, and all-around awesome.

CHICKEN SANDWICH - minced chicken in sliced bread, breaded and fried, served in chicken brothThis was the highlight of the meal for me. Most preparations at Hachikian are pretty traditional, and just focus on the quality of the chicken. This dish was a total curve ball. The center was minced chicken, like you'd use in a meatball, sandwiched between two pieces of bread. The entire thing was panko-crusted and deep fried, but then served in a clear chicken broth. The result was like a wet cross between a Japanese croquette and a Monte Cristo. This was extremely savory, with an umami level that was off the charts.

BBQ CHICKENSome simple BBQ chicken with green onions. The sauce was a cloying teriyaki-ish glaze that I didn't enjoy too much.

CHICKEN NIGIRI - white and dark meatBoth very tasty. Like the sashimi, the dark meat definitely had a more muscular texture to it. Still, raw chicken is closer to fish than one would imagine. The rice was serviceable, considering Hachikian obviously doesn't specialize in sushi.

CHICKEN BROTHThe lightest and clearest of the various soups we were served. This contained just a few pieces of fish cake. Again, a very pristine and concentrated chicken flavor.

GRILLED CHICKEN WINGOf course, what chicken meal would be complete without chicken wings? This giant wing was simply grilled - a little too much so, in my opinion, as it had too strong of a smoky, charred flavor to the skin. The meat was juicy and tender though.

CHAWANMUSHIA beautiful, silken rendition of the classic egg custard. No bells or whistles. The egg flavor was quite subtle and very delicate.

GRILLED CHICKENAnother highlight. I'm not sure which exact part of the chicken this came from, but this was probably the best piece of meat of the night. Very rich and fatty, and perfect with just a squeeze of lemon.

CHICKEN ROLL, CHICKEN MEATBALL, CHICKEN CRACKLINGThe roll on the left wasn't too memorable, but the meatball was exceptionally moist, and crumbly once broken.  Very tasty. The fried pieces of skin would be best described as a chicken version of chicharrones, but firmer and more crackly. They'd have made for an awesome beer snack.

DUCK NOODLE SOUPHachikian serves one non-chicken item at the end of the kaiseki - their specialty duck noodle soup. Like the chicken, the duck used here comes straight from their own farm. The soup was a simple broth, and flavoring was handled mainly by the duck meat itself. This bowl of noodles was good, but I was pretty overwhelmingly full already at this point. I guess in true Japanese fashion, they have to finish you off with one big starchy item to fill you up in case you are somehow still hungry.

GINGER ICEThis simple shaved ice drizzled with a ginger syrup was fine, but fairly unremarkable. I guess it was good to wash down all the food with.

Hachikian is really a unique experience. It's not the type of thing I'd eat regular, but if you love chicken like I do, it's definitely worth a stop just to try. The quality of the birds here is as high as anywhere, and the generally simple preparations really highlight that.

Hilarious side note: the guy who runs the place is a friendly, jovial character, who actually kind of looks like a chicken himself. (If you click on their website, there are some caricatures of him that are shockingly accurate.)

Our last lunch in Kyoto was at Takaraya Ramen (note: Japanese website) on Ponto-cho near the river. Kyoto is not particularly famous for ramen, but this glowing review from Kyoto Foodie (with great Google map) plus my inability to go to Japan without at least one ramen stop made this trip inevitable. Takaraya is actually nicer inside than a typical ramen shop, with 2 little tables, a pleasant counter, and a boisterous crew in the back. It was pretty crowded when we went during the lunch hour, and we initially had to split up into 2 pairs. Eventually, the couple next to us left, and we got to take over most of the counter.

TORONIKU CHASHUMEN - fatty pork with green onion ramen - ¥880Ordering this was kind of a no-brainer for me. Their standard ramen, using a pork bone stock, topped with extra fatty thinly sliced chashu? I'll take 2 please! Toro here is a bit of a play on words in reference to the tuna version, aka my favorite food, and the concept of pork toro alone makes me salivate. This did not disappoint, as the pork was melt-in-your-mouth buttery, while the soup was hearty and flavorful. The noodles had a nice thickness to them with a little bit of chew.

SUMASHI RAMEN - flat noodles, chicken meatballs, chicken broth, veggies, mozzarella, crispy bacon - ¥850Kyoto Foodie adores this dish, proclaiming it symbolic of Kyoto style. I must say, it was one of the most interesting bowls of ramen I've ever seen. That's not a typo up there.. this ramen had a few cubes of mozzarella cheese! My dad volunteered and ordered it, since it was too interesting not to try. It had a lighter overall feeling than the pork ramen, and actually wasn't nearly as strange as it sounds. Once everything was mixed up, it turned into just a straight up good bowl of noodles.

I think that if I lived in Japan and ate quality ramen with more regularity, the sumashi ramen would be an exciting change of pace... but I preferred the regular style of the toroniku.

KYOTO DEMACHI - raw egg over rice with salted kelp and pickles - ¥380Another intriguing item at Takaraya was this egg/rice dish. The quality of eggs in Japan is very high, and the simplicity of this dish is what made it great. The rice is served very hot, and after being scrambled into the bowl, the egg became ever so slightly cooked (kind of like a carbonara). You can then mix in or eat with the kelp and pickles. This would be a great breakfast.

GYOZA - ¥280Of course, we were in a ramen shop, so we had to get some gyoza. Takaraya's was about par for the course for a Japanese ramen place. Pretty good, thin skin, and a nice char.

Like many of you out there, I'm an absolute ramen lover. I'm always looking for good versions here in SF - sadly, most good ramen requires a drive down to the South Bay. If I were to spend any extended amount of time in Japan, ramen would undoubtedly become a staple of my diet. It's way better than the stuff in college...

Our next dinner was at Mishima-Tei, a famous sukiyaki house/meat market established in 1873. It's still in the original building, which is funny considering it's now under the bright lights of Teramachi Street. Inside, it's totally old school. You take off your shoes in a little entry area, then climb up and down a few little stairways to eventually to find one of several scattered private rooms. There, they set you up with everything required to cook at the table.

Sukiyaki is just one of many ways you can cook high-quality Japanese beef. This was my second visit here, so I knew what to expect. Though I still think teppanyaki is the best way to eat Japanese beef, sukiyaki is a nice change of pace, and Mishima-Tei is certainly a good place to check out the cooking style. They also offer shabu-shabu and what they call "oil-yaki," which seems to be a simple sear.

And hey, they even offer an Engrish menu for us gaijin! I love slised meat with soy source. Not surprisingly, we went with the Mishima-Tei "Grand class Meat" at ¥11,000, which basically comes with everything.

INGREDIENTS PRE-COOKINGA very polite Japanese lady came out with a huge tray of ingredients, containing our beef, a basket of veggies, and a bunch of sauce plus sugar.

GRAND CLASS MEATHere's a closer shot of our "Grand class Meat." The language barrier left a more detailed explanation of the beef's origins a mystery, but as you can see... it was very, very marbled.

EARLY COOKING ACTIONOur friendly Japanese waitress/chef started by dumping a ton of sugar into our little iron pot, then lining up a bunch of beef and pouring some soy sauce over the whole thing. They pretty much do all the cooking for you, so you don't have to worry about messing anything up.

JUST ABOUT DONEHere's the first batch of beef, well-dressed in sauce and just about ready to eat. Cooking does not take long at all.

COOKED BEEF WITH EGGThe other cool thing about sukiyaki is that you basically use a raw, beaten egg as your dipping sauce. It makes for a much gooeyer texture than teppanyaki, but an incredibly soft and tender texture. It requires minimal chewing and works amazingly well with rice. The flavor is very rich as you might expect, with a good amount of sweetness from the sugar.

BEEF WITH VEGGIESAfter an initial round of all beef, some veggies went into the pot too. Tofu, onions, mushrooms, scallions, a green called shungiku, and some chewy noodles made from konnyaku were used - all pretty standard sukiyaki sides. They all become delicious after soaking up the marbled juices seeping from the beef.

Here's some video action of the cooking in process. I guess I didn't pick the most exciting part to film, but you get the idea. I was busy eating immediately when it was cooked. Also included is some unedited bonus material that I call "Che family musings on sukiyaki sauce."

PEAR AND HONEY DEWA simple serving of fruit at the end was perfect and very refreshing after the richness of the meat.

Overall, a very good meal, and an important pit stop on the neverending path of Japanese cuisine. I'll admit sukiyaki doesn't excite me as much as sushi or teppanyaki, but it's still a fun and delicious experience. Check it out!

For our next lunch, we went to Ukiya Soba. Ukiya is a small mini-chain, with 9 locations (we went to this one on Teramachi Street; the website has no English, but it's easy to find). The Teramachi shop is tiny, with 4 tables and about 12 seats in total. Ukiya specializes in soba, a Japanese buckwheat noodle which can be served hot with soup or cold with dipping sauce. They are known to have some of the best in Japan.

Soba is a bit of a "checklist" item for me when going to Japan, because it is just so much better there than back home. Soba is a highly respected item, and though you can find many fast food versions of it, there are also many family-run soba joints that have passed on their secrets from generation to generation. To give you an idea, Ukiya has been in operation since 1929, which is actually quite young for a famous soba house - another famous place in Kyoto, Owariya, has been around for 540 years. In the US, you can pretty much only find the dried, pre-made, packaged wholesale version of these noodles; I don't know of a restaurant here that actually makes soba fresh. Ukiya makes it fresh every morning, and the difference is obvious. Check out Kyoto Foodie for some cool pics of the soba-making process (side note - KF highly recommends the ukiten soba, but as a non-Japanese, my hate of natto stops me from ordering it).

TENZARU COMBO - cold soba with dipping sauce, tempura, rice with pickled veggies, assorted pickles and tofu - ¥1,680Ukiya offers a bunch of different lunch sets. I opted for the tenzaru soba, a common pairing of cold soba with dipping sauce and a serving of tempura. The tempura of course wasn't quite as good as Yoshikawa from the night before, but the noodles were just wonderful. They're thin, feathery, and light, but still have a substantial, slight chew to them. I love cold soba because it so well highlights the "al dente-ness" in the noodle texture. It's a night and day difference from packaged soba, and I think fairly analogous to the difference between a freshly-made pasta and some Kraft macaroni.

OYAKO-DON - ¥1,000Another bonus of eating at a good soba house is that, for reasons completely unknown to me, they also tend to specialize in oyako don, a humble dish of rice topped with chicken and eggs. This is one of my dad's favorite things. I prefer katsu-don, but I will never turn down a smooth, almost creamy oyako-don like the one pictured. The key is the slight runniness of the eggs mixing with the (dark meat) chicken and the hot rice.

Either is enough for a quick lunch, but of course we had a bit of everything (for the 4 of us, we ended up with 4 sets of noodles and just 1 oyako don to try). If you're in Kyoto, definitely check out one of the Ukiya locations for lunch. You'll probably run into mostly solo diners stopping for a quick lunch break. But really, if you go anywhere in Japan, there should be a serviceable soba shop somewhere nearby. Any decent soba shop will be a vast improvement compared to what's served in the US.

A 2 hour Shinkansen ride later, and we were in Kyoto, the former capital of imperial Japan. Kyoto is a decidedly calmer and quieter place than Tokyo, and you can pretty much walk around town in peace and see everything on one easy map. Of course, there are still plenty of good eats to be had. Our first dinner in town was at Tempura Yoshikawa, a very famous inn and restaurant.

Kyoto is filled with little traditional inns called ryokan, many of which are family-run and hundreds of years old. They generally feature tatami rooms, kaiseki dinners, and elaborate tea ceremony services, and tend to look much like Yoshikawa above. Staying in one is definitely an experience worth trying in Kyoto. Once was enough for me back in the pre-Arthur Hungry days, and I prefer the modern comforts of newer hotels. We stayed at a tiny boutique called the Screen, which was very unique and worth checking out. Yoshikawa does have a bunch of tatami rooms that do full kaiseki, but they are most well known for their tempura.

The front room of Yoshikawa is this tiny tempura counter, with about 12 seats around the frying area. The scene is actually pretty casual, with most people drinking beer and enjoying some laid-back banter. Yoshikawa is quite well-known and mentioned in all the Kyoto guidebooks, so there's no lack of tourists. The night we were there, the crowd consisted of some regular Japanese folks, an Italian with a translator in the corner to our right, and, believe it or not, a couple from Walnut Creek sitting right next to me on our left. It was certainly one of the more diverse groups we ate with.

In real life, I always talk about what I feel is one of the key things that sets Japanese food in Japan so far apart from the US: specialization. In the US, you can find sushi places and some ramen places, but other than that, "Japanese" restaurants cover the entire gamut of Japanese cuisine. In Japan, there are so many places that specialize in a specific type of cuisine, be it sushi, soba, ramen, tonkatsu, or takoyaki. It's no wonder that each item, no matter how humble, has some place where it has been perfected. It's also totally understandable that the US can't support this level of distinction within Japanese cuisine - there just isn't the demand required for such specialized places to survive.

Nothing illustrates this phenomenon better than the Japanese tempura house. In the US, tempura is fried in a kitchen in the back, and served together as an assorted combo plate. In Japan, the entire process happens in front of you at the counter. An esteemed tempura master (like the gentleman pictured above) does everything fresh, from making the batter and cooking up the dipping sauce on the stove, to literally frying each piece and serving it as it comes out. It's served much like sushi. You have a little plate in front of you, Awesome Tempura Chef Guy puts food on it straight out of the fryer, and then you eat it before he serves you the next item. Talk about a foolproof formula.

Yoshikawa offers a few different levels of set menus which increase in price and quantity. We went with the top one available, at ¥10,000.

APPETIZERS - ebi sushi, chicken liver terrine, sweet fish with picklesThey started us off with these cold apps. Nothing mindblowing - sushi was definitely not as good as what we'd been eating. The chicken liver thing was pretty good though, and surprisingly similar to a Western preparation of it.

SASHIMI - toro, madaiNext came some sashimi. Again, it's a little unfair to compare to what we were eating that week, but the fish quality was certainly respectable.

TENTSUYU - tempura dipping sauceOne of the things that sets various tempura houses apart is their sauce. Each place has their own top secret family recipe that's been handed down for centuries, guarded like Fort Knox, and so on. All I know is that they are generally some combination of dashi, mirin, and soy, and are universally better than the bottled stuff served in most restaurants back home.

I'm not a big "sauce" person compared to some people I know (ahem, Dave, LC), but I'll say without hesitation that tempura dipping sauce is one of my favorite sauces in the world. I could pour this stuff over rice and eat it quite happily. The version at Yoshikawa is simply delicious, with a deep, brothy flavor that manages to remain subtle and never overwhelm the ingredient being dipped. I embarassingly had to ask for a sauce refill about halfway through; I went through it at about 2x the rate of my dining companions.

SHRIMPFirst up was the tempura staple, shrimp, served with extra crispy legs. The meat of the prawn was tender and searing hot, just the way I like it, while the batter was tremendously light. The crunchy bits are cut and fried so perfectly that you can basically eat them like chips, including the tails. Deeelish. Blake, the guy from Walnut Creek sitting next to me, couldn't handle the tails. I gave him a hard time about it. I'm still convinced he lost street cred with Awesome Tempura Chef Guy when he left his tails uneaten.

GREEN BEANSNext up were green beans, which were more like haricots verts than anything else. Crisp and refreshing on the inside, and again super-hot on the outside.

SHIITAKE MUSHROOMI generally don't like shiitakes a whole lot, but I find they work pleasantly in tempura. They had just the right balance of chewy and firm.

HAMOOf course, the other cool thing about tempura in Japan is you get a much more diverse set of ingredients. Hamo was moist and hearty. Great fish for frying.

BABY CORNBaby corn was sweet and a little crunchy.

BELL PEPPERSBell peppers were unspectacular. Admittedly, they're one of my least favorite veggies...

ANAGOAnago, on the other hand, is probably my favorite tempura ingredient other than shrimp. Yoshikawa's version did not disappoint. The eel was moist, flaky, and just delicious.

SALAD - cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, marinated fishFor some reason, they interrupted the fried goodness with a salad. Kidding, kidding... It had a decent vinaigrette, and the cold fish was pretty interesting. Kinda tasted like fish you'd find in Japanese breakfast.

LOTUS ROOTLotus root is another veggie I'm not too crazy about, but that I find pretty good in tempura. I generally don't like the texture, but at Yoshikawa it was hot and cooked but still very crunchy. It also does a great job soaking up tempura sauce.

ASPARAGUSAsparagus is kind of a tempura no-brainer. These were modest little spears, and tender but not amazing. I'd love to try some of our springtime California delta asparagus cooked here - it'd be yummy for sure.

SWEET POTATOSweet potato! The ubiquitous tempura throw-in you find all the time in the US. I never like it because it's always too bland and starchy, but at Yoshikawa they manage to retain a much more solid texture.

SCALLOPDeep-fried scallops, pretty much guaranteed delicious. These were perfect - barely cooked, as you can see in the middle, but still HOT and crispy on the outside. Love it.

SHRIMPAnother piece of shrimp, signaling that we were near the end. It was just as good as the first two.

KAKIAGE DONMost tempura houses finish of the meal with some version of kakiage with rice. It's essentially a few different ingredients mixed together in some batter and then fried in a giant chunk or cake. At Yoshikawa, you can get it either as a donburi (over rice) or ochazuke (with rice and hot tea poured over). Their kakiage consisted mainly of small shrimp and green onions. Very tasty, with just the right balance of batter and ingredients. They also give some pickles and miso soup, as usual.

You end up being pretty damn full after tempura, since they hit you with this huge bowl of rice + big chunks of kakiage, after having just consumed all the actual tempura before it. But it's so delicious that I always look forward to the end.

CHESTNUT MOUSSEThey finished us off with this very light, airy chestnut mousse. It wasn't overly sweet, and tasted a bit like the "almond tofu" desserts that always get served in Vancouver izakayas.

That's it for the long multi-course tempura meal. Yoshikawa is pretty famous, but I'll also have to try some of the top-rated tempura houses in Tokyo the next time I go. The batter and frying at Yoshikawa seem pretty much perfect to me; I would think other places have just stylistic differences. In any case, absolutely go to at least one tempura dinner if you visit Japan - it's such a different experience, and should not be missed.

For our last lunch in Tokyo, we wanted to mix it up a bit and try something Western. We decided on Ristorante Aso, the flagship Italian restaurant of Japanese chef Tatsuji Aso. We were looking in particular for a Western place run by someone Japanese, rather than a Japanese outpost of a European chef. Aso, with 2 Michelin stars and a reputation for the best Italian in Tokyo, fit the bill perfectly. The Japanese have been known to embrace Italian food and put their own little twist on it. Given my love for the very popular rustic Italian places in SF like Delfina and A16, I was excited to see what the Japanese were doing with Italian.

Ristorante Aso is on a pretty road in Daikanyama, hidden away behind a more casual cafe operation which occupies the streetfront. Walking through the cafe, we passed a small interior courtyard before getting to the main entrance of the restaurant. Aso is actually a big house, with 2 stories and multiple rooms of varying sizes. There's one main salon with the most tables. We sat upstairs, in a smaller room with 4 tables overlooking some trees in the back. The place has a very calm, country atmosphere, although I can also imagine it becoming more formal during dinner service.

Aso offers a 3 levels of set meals, ranging from ¥4,000 to ¥8,400 for lunch, and ¥10,500 to ¥21,000. One of the reasons we went was the relative value of the lunch sets compared to dinner, and we ultimately opted for the middle one at ¥5,250. It's hard to beat a multi-course Michelin 2-star meal for around $60!

BREAD PLATEAso started us off with this pretty awesome bread presentation. We got two of these for 4 people, which is a definitely lot of bread... and since they were all different, I had to eat everything. They were all freshly baked and quite good, with my favorites being the scallion roll at the far left and the flaky thing second to the right. They also served another hot country roll, not pictured, and gave us 3 different butters.

SANMA AFFUMICATO - marinated and smoked saury with lardo, chives, and olive oilOur first course was this beautiful sanma (Pacific saury), a fish rarely used in sushi. Reminiscent of my mom's cured salmon dish, this fish bursted with smoky flavor. The combination with lardo was genius, giving the entire thing a rich, luxurious mouthfeel. Simple, creative, and tasty.

BEEF CARPACCIO - tonnato sauceA very interesting spin on carpaccio. The beef was cut thicker than usual, giving it a more chewy, tartare-like texture. The tonnato sauce, more traditionally used with cooked veal, was bright and slightly tangy. Loved this.

DECONSTRUCTED AMATRICIANA - spaghettini, clam foam, guanciale, onion gelee, roasted tomato, parmesan crispAt the beginning of the meal, our waiter summed up the pasta course as "Amatriciana," to which I quickly thought "awesome, probably bucatini amatriciana, a classic pasta dish." Imagine our surprise when they brought out this plate of what looked like prosciutto. I was confused at first and thought maybe there was a course I had forgotten about. The plates were then followed with glasses filled with hot spaghettini in a foamy sauce. This dish was like nothing I'd ever seen. We were instructed to mix the whole thing together (you can see some action mixing in the background). I've decided to dub this officially as a "deconstructed Amatriciana" - a more accurate description than the humble standard I was expecting.

AMATRICIANA... UM... RECONSTRUCTEDAfter putting everything back together, and getting over the crazy/weird/awesome factor, I was happy to discover that this dish was in fact delicious. The spaghettini was perfectly cooked. The guanciale (to be honest, I couldn't tell if it was guanciale or pancetta - I've never been served either sliced so thinly before) had a little bit of crisp to it, and balanced beautifully with the clam foam sauce. I was simply blown away by this dish. It showed some extreme complexity and creativity, and yet the sum of all these parts was very hearty and comforting. I ate about half of my grandma's share in addition to my own...

MYSTERY MAIN DISHOur main dish came next, covered in a parchment puff pastry of some kind.

CHICKEN - spring onions, radicchio, mizuna, topped with puff pastryCutting open the paper revealed chicken with a variety of greenery. It tasted grilled, and was actually quite similar to the chicken we had the day before at Ukai Toriyama - tender, and juicy. The pastry wasn't your typical puff pastry. It tasted a lot more flour-based than usual, without the overwhelming buttery flavor. All in all, this dish was pretty good, but definitely not up to the level of the other courses. (Admittedly, the pasta would have been hard to top.)

CHEESE - camembert, hard orange, taleggioIn more French than Italian style, Aso has a proper cheese cart with about 10 available selections. I opted for this camembert, a hard, dry orange that I didn't catch the name of, and some taleggio. All very nice, especially with the provided fig.

PINEAPPLE SHERBERTSorry for the crappy photo on this one. Palate cleanser was this pineapple sherbert, which tasted like a foamy essence of pina colada. Not a bad thing.

TIRAMISUYou get to pick from a few choices for dessert, and I went with the simply-described tiramisu. Again, it was a presentation like I've never seen before. The plate just had the square of cream at first, and the waiter "freshly" grated the bits of coffee on top. Lady fingerish cake was hidden under the cream, and the whole thing actually tasted like a rich regular tiramisu, except with an added bit of crunch from the bits of coffee. Very interesting.

GELATO - caramel and coconutMy grandma opted for the gelato, which I thought was photo-worthy. I believe the flavors were caramel and coconut, and it was served with some grate-your-own fancy salts. The ice block presentation was pretty slick.

PETITFOURSWhen they first brought this out, I thought it was just some flowers. This not being a French restaurant, I wasn't really expecting petitfours, and it took me a few seconds to realize they were in there! It was definitely the most beautiful set of petitfours I've eaten, with a very Japanese aesthetic to it. All of them were quite good, especially the cake-based ones.

Overall, I was very pleased with the Aso meal, most notably for the pasta, the sanma, and the carpaccio. And while I didn't think the chicken was all that great, it was more because of the standard set by the other dishes. Tatsuji Aso is capable of some excellent cooking, and has a creative perspective that is quite different than what I've seen from Italian places in the US and Europe. And for ¥5,250, this meal was certainly a great value. I'm not sure what you get for the dinner courses, but it seems like the formality and length of the meal are both stepped up quite a bit at night.

Either way, I highly recommend a stop here. It's the perfect place for a little break from Japanese food. Italian with a Japanese twist!

For dinner after Ukai Toriyama, we had planned one of the main highlights of the entire trip – Sushi Mizutani. One of just two sushi places to receive 3 stars from Michelin, Mizutani carried the weight of some incredible expectations. The other place that received 3 stars, Sukibayashi Jiro, was far more renowned when the Tokyo guide came out, and Mizutani was a bit of a surprise choice for the top honor. After reading various reports (special thanks to Exile Kiss), I was more interested by Mizutani than Jiro. Mizutani has a reputation for its no-nonsense, intimate vibe, and a truly personal experience with the chef. Also, the flagship Ginza location of Jiro apparently does not accept non-Japanese speakers, who are sent instead to the gaijin-friendly outpost in Roppongi (supposedly not as good). So Mizutani it was.

After our stellar lunch the day before at Kanesaka, I was very curious as to what the difference would be between a 2 star and a 3 star. In my experiences in France, I did feel there was a subtle difference between the two, but top French restaurants have a little more room for differentiation in cooking than Japanese sushi houses. I was thus pretty resigned to the fact that the sushi could not possibly be much better than Kanesaka, and tried to temper my expectations accordingly.

Mizutani is even more tucked away in the basement of an office building than Kanesaka was, requiring you to navigate through a tiny elevator and hallway before you see any trace of its existence. The little sliding door reveals just  1 tiny room containing a 10-seat counter and a small table in the back used more for coat storage than anything else. The bar is so small that Mizutani just serves everyone himself, with only one assistant visible behind the counter helping to prep ingredients. His wife and a couple others help with service and more behind-the-scenes prep. It’s a well-oiled but absolutely tiny machine – a staggering contrast to the scale of Western 3 star operations like Guy Savoy or the French Laundry. Think new iPod Nano vs. Apple 30" LCD.

Unfortunately, the first thing to happen after I sat down was that one of the young servers came over and said “no cameras.” I don’t think I’ve ever really posted about any place without pictures, but I think Mizutani merits discussion, so I’ll still go through what we were served. The dinner we got was, to our surprise, just ¥18,000 (about $200) – but I get the distinct feeling that the final price vs. what you are served is probably at Mizutani-san’s whim.

KAREI (flatfish) – Another pristine experience of this very light fish.

SHINKO (baby kohada) – Very rich and oily, with a gleaming layer of skin.

After 2 pieces, my dad, aunt Agnes, and I were fully into comparison mode already. Mizutani’s rice uses a more traditional approach, with a slightly less vinegary flavor and a brighter white color. We all decided we preferred Kanesaka’s rice, because of the way the grains felt so individually separated in the mouth. Mizutani didn’t quite match that, but it’s more a stylistic difference than a qualitative one. I can see myself flip-flopping quickly based on which version I ate last.

IKA (squid) – Perfect, clean flavor. Yet again, I was reminded that the humble ika is completely different in Japan than in America, perhaps moreso than any other sushi fish.

AKAMI (lean tuna) – A beautiful, deep red, with a smooth but meaty texture. Tastier than your typical maguro.

CHUTORO (medium fatty bluefin tuna) – Leaner than Kanesaka’s version, still delicious.

OTORO (extra fatty bluefin tuna) – Kanesaka had better chutoro in my opinion, but Mizutani’s otoro was a step above. The marbling was more evenly balanced throughout the entire piece, and this bite blended together with the rice into buttery perfection.

I should mention that Mizutani speaks very little English, and doesn’t really have any employees that speak it well either, so communication was a little more difficult. That didn’t stop us from trying. At the beginning of the meal, Mizutani was a little stoic and reserved, but at this point of the meal we could tell he was opening up a bit. It probably helped that we were watching his every move and eating every bite with the excitement of 8 year-olds opening really awesome Christmas presents.

AKAGAI (ark shell clam) – Crisp, bouncy, wonderfully fresh. On this and many others, the difference from Kanesaka was marginal at best – both used absolutely prime ingredients.

TAIRAGAI (pen shell or razor clam) -  Another clam, slightly chewier than the akagai, just as delicious.

KOBASHIRA (bakagai muscle) - Delicate little pieces, very close to Kanesaka’s. I really have to give a shout out to Kanesaka-san here, because it was at this point of the meal that Mizutani-san accepted us as serious sushi eaters. I anxiously blurted out "kobashira" as I saw Mizutani-san whip out his stock, and he gave me a total WTF face, clearly thinking in his head "how the hell does this English-speaking Chinese-looking kid know what kobashira is?" And I really had no idea what it was... I just knew the word because Kanesaka-san had told it to me about 30 hours earlier. From this point on, we officially had street cred at Sushi Mizutani, and he seemed totally pumped about serving us.

MIRUGAI (geoduck) - Another victim of low quality in the US, mirugai is something I rarely order in the US. This was the best specimen I've had.

SAYORI (needlefish) - This was served in a way I've never seen before. A strip of the bright white flesh and silvery skin was coiled up into a little circle, and topped with some kind of slightly sweet paste. No dice on a translation, but it was delicious. Really wish I had a picture of this one.

EBI (cooked prawn) - Not normally a fan, but this was very good. Meaty and flavorful, as opposed to the usual rubbery nothingness of ebi.

SABA (mackerel) - Excellent rendition, with a very light vinegar touch.

AWABI (abalone) - Simply perfect texture. Amazingly tender, no rough chewiness at all.

UNI (sea urchin) - Top shelf from Hokkaido, as expected. Nothing reminds me of the sea quite like uni.

ANAGO (sea eel) - A little better than Kanesaka's, I think. Very nice balance on the flavor, with just the right amount of sweetness.

TAMAGO (egg) - Okay, now this one was an absolute showstopper. It's sometimes said that tamago is the ultimate test of a sushi chef, as it requires tremendous amounts of preparation for an item that is usually the cheapest on the entire menu, kind of like egg fried rice with Chinese chefs. If that's the barometer, then Mizutani-san must be the best freakin' sushi chef in the whole damn world. His tamago is absolutely leagues about any other that I have ever tried. Light, moist, fluffy... it was nearly custard-like, with a more solid composition. Tremendous "essence of egg" flavor. Mizutani is worth a visit for the tamago alone.

At this point, he was basically wrapping up. My dining companions were clearly getting full, and I had already been double eating on behalf of my grandma, who ducked out a few rounds ago and got the tamago early.

TORO MAKI (fatty bluefin tuna roll) - Interestingly, Mizutani-san chose not to put any negi into his toro maki. It was different but delicious, and the quality of the toro really stood out.

The funny thing here is that he cut this into 8 pieces and gave me 6 and my dad 2. Of course, my aunt Agnes motioned that she was DEFINITELY still in for a round like this. So he jokingly grabbed one of my dad's 2 and gave it to her, instead of grabbing mine. I guess I am the Che family glutton. Ultimately, I had to concede and spread the wealth.

AKAGAI HIMO MAKI (ark shell mantle roll) - Never tried it in this form before, and it was quite unique and tasty. It gave the maki a bit of a crunch inside.

OTORO x 2 (extra fatty bluefin tuna) - By now everyone was really done, but after everyone egged me on I admitted I wouldn't mind another bite of toro. He gave me 2. It was awesome.

KANPYO MAKI (dried gourd strip roll) - He had one little final bite for us, and at the time we had trouble identifying it. He showed us these little long brown strips which he rolled into a maki and cut up. He didn't know the word and was having some trouble describing it. After tasting it, none of us could figure it out... it tasted like some vague kind of Japanese pickle - refreshing and tasty but unidentifiable.

He asked the 2 Japanese businessmen next to us in hopes for an explanation, but they didn't know - all we knew was it WASN'T any kind of eggplant. He turned to one of his backroom assistants, and thought we finally got a translation, but it turned out his explanation was simply "vegetable," which caused a laugh around the room. A few minutes later, he finally whipped out an electronic Japanese-English dictionary, and our answer was found. Turns out it's pretty common even over here in the US... I just never order it.

By the end of the meal, Mizutani-san had seriously warmed up to us. I'm predicting that after 1 or 2 more visits, he'll hopefully recognize me and like me enough to let me bust out the camera. Cross your fingers! At the end of the meal, he did offer to take a group photo for us. So here you go - instead of delicious food pics, you'll have to settle for some sushi-filled happy people named Che: dad, aunt Agnes, Grandma Che, and yours truly. Sorry it's not as mouthwatering.

And there was our second epic sushi meal. As expected, I didn't find Mizutani to be "better" than Kanesaka. I preferred the rice at Kanesaka, and most of the fish was about equal, but Mizutani had the edge with otoro. I wish I'd tried Kanesaka's tamago, but I guess they didn't serve it as a normal part of lunch. Mizutani's tamago was out of this world. I think I'll start calling it Platonic.

Though we didn't go to Kyubey on this trip, my memory of it doesn't match the meals we had at Mizutani or Kanesaka. The intimacy and personal interaction of the smaller sushi bars put them over the top for me, and reports are that food quality at Kyubey has gone downhill. In any case, the final takeaway is that top-end sushi in Tokyo is simply an incredible experience. I encourage everyone to try it. The value is amazing, and it's pretty damn hard to go wrong.

I'm going way too off topic now.... so back to food in Japan. The day after RyuGin, we took a culinary break of sorts to visit Ukai Toriyama, in the outskirts of western Tokyo (aka, the Tokyo boonies). Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of food to be eaten there, but the place is just as much about the scenery as the grub. We figured it would be good to have a light (well, relatively) lunch in the middle of our constant crazy meals. Nobrin was able to join us for this meal - always great to have a Japanese ally when eating in Japan!

Apparently, the Tokyo boonies are pretty damn nice. Ukai Toriyama sits in a foresty but developed area near Mount Takao, which for some reason has a high density of love hotels. It's fairly close to a train station, but as you can see, there is no lack of greenery. The place is more a huge compound than a restaurant, with a giant garden filled with trees, streams, and huts with private dining rooms. It's really quite a beautiful place, and apparently it's a popular nearby getaway for Tokyo residents who need a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. What follows is rather unprecented in Arthur Hungry history - 5 food-less pictures in a row of scenery, tracing the little adventure between Ukai Toriyama's front entrance above, and our own personal dining hut.

Pretty nice place to eat lunch, isn't it? Apparently, a bunch of the trees here are Japanese maples, and the leaves turn a fiery red in the fall (not coincidentally the restaurant's most busy season). Every party gets their own little hut like the one in the last picture, with a private dining room and a gorgeous view of the garden outside. You can choose from a few different lunch menus, and we went with a ¥4,800 option centered around grilled chicken. Now on to the food...

GRILLED TARO - sweet misoFirst up were these two big balls of taro. It had a nice smooth texture, and wasn't as overwhelmingly starchy as I expected. Still, 1 probably would have been plenty.

GROUND CHICKEN "MEATBALL" - grilled eggplant, okraThe meat in this meatball was so finely-minced that it's worth a special mention. It gave the whole thing a wonderfully delicate texture.

MUSHROOM SOUP - eggplant, chicken brothThis piping hot chicken broth with a variety of Japanese mushrooms and grilled eggplant had a smokey, earthy flavor to it. Very nice.

GRILLED AYUGrilled ayu, called "sweetfish" in English according to Wikipedia, is a bit of a delicacy. The meat has a slightly sweet taste, while some of the parts inside have a strong bitter flavor. The crispy skin provides a nice char. Still, I find it a little more work than I like to deal with in the fishbone department, and I'm not too fond of the bitter bites. My dad loves this stuff though.

JAPANESE PEOPLE USE CHARCOAL TOOAt this point, they brought the charcoal in for our built-in table grill.

WAGYU RIBEYE - ¥4,400Ukai Toriyama does offer Wagyu for grilling, and we couldn't help but order a serving for the table to share... just to check it out.

WAGYU ON THE GRILLThe beef was very good, but not quite at the level of a true teppanyaki place like what we'd eaten a couple nights before.

CHICKEN SKEWERSThe main part of the lunch is the chicken, served in skewer form.

A LITTLE MORE CRISPY...Ukai Toriyama's English website describes these as "Succulent Chicken Skewer" and I must say it's an apt choice of words. Our server showed us a grill, dip in sauce, grill more, dip in more sauce, grill more method of cooking. On this first batch, we charred and overcooked them just slightly. Batch two was perfectly tender and drippingly juicy. There's nothing like simple, grilled, dark-meat chicken!

RICE, PICKLES, SMALL FISH, MISO SOUPAs usual, we finished with a set of rice and pickles. Normally, this comes with some of grated Japanese mountain potato (tororo), also known as my most dreaded food item. We asked to sub out for something else (anything else). Thanks to Nobrin's negotiating skills, we were able to get it swapped out for these little dried salted fish, which were a great flavoring item for the rice. Still, even with Nobrin's excellent English, the best translation we could buy was "small fish." Oh well.

MOUNTAIN GRAPE SORBETThey finished us off with a simple sorbet flavored with some local grape juice. Intense, powerful grape flavor, and quite refreshing actually.

So there we go. It was most definitely the least extravagant meal of our Tokyo stay, but it was a great breath of fresh air. The idyllic setting is beautiful and relaxing, and worth a trip to see. Looking at their website photos, the fall is even more impressive. If nothing else, it'd be a great place to impress a girl... :)

Next up is dinner from this day, at 3 star Sushi Mizutani (no pics unfortunately, but worth a post anyway).