Suzu Noren: Shabu-Shabu at an Affordable Price

Shabu-shabu is a dish in Japan that involves cooking paper-thin slices of meat right before eating. Everyone sits around a large pot filled with kombu dashi or kelp broth and using their own chopsticks, briefly submerges a slice of meat into the boiling dashi just until the meat is cooked. Since the dashi is only subtly flavored, there are usually two types of dips to eat with shabu-shabu, a light and refreshing ponzu or a thicker and heavier sesame dip. The word shabu-shabu comes from the motion of swishing the meat back and forth in the broth.

Going to a shabu-shabu restaurant can be quite expensive, especially those that use wagyu, or Japanese-raised cattle or pigs. One such well-known chain shabu-shabu restaurant is called Kisoji 木曾路. Here, the courses can range from 4000-7000 yen. However the same group has a sister shabu-shabu restaurant that is much more affordable. Suzu Noren 鈴のれん uses mostly imported meat, but you can still try domestic beef if you pay a little bit more. They also have an all-you-can-eat option.

I tried the "suzu no ne gozen" (1880 yen plus tax). In this set 3 slices of wagyu beef were included. Although it was wagyu it was not marbled so much, so it was not heavy in the stomach. The salad greens had a nice topping of potato salad and smoked salmon instead of being drowned in dressing. The lean tuna was perhaps did not seem so fresh, but this isn't a sushi restaurant. The tempura consisted of okra and an interesting lotus root sandwiched shrimp paste. I like that they included some unique dishes. Another unique dish was the lotus root manju.

Shabu-shabu dinner set (pot not shown)

Area: Iwatsuka Station (Higashiyama line) 岩塚駅
Restaurant: Suzu Noren 鈴のれん
Map and Website: https://www.kisoji.co.jp/suzunoren/shop/hataedori.html
Hours: Lunch 11am-3pm (LO 2:30pm),  Dinner 5-11pm (LO 10:30pm)

"Freshly Milked" Ice Cream at the Grocery Store

I recently tried an ice cream that caught my eye in the freezer section of the grocery store. It was called Bokujou Shibori, or "farm-milked". On the package it says that the ice cream is made withing 3 days of being milked from the cow.

Kept fresh, a package inside a package!

 I'm not sure if I could actually tell the difference from any other ice cream, but perhaps it felt creamier. The hojicha (roasted green tea) flavour was subtle and did not overpower the milkiness. Swirling the plain and tea flavour also helps to get bites of intense milk flavour. If you're a milk lover, perhaps this is the ice cream for you!

Hakken Sakaba: An Izakaya, but You Have To Try the TKG!

T.K.G is short for tamago kake gohan, a dish that takes just seconds to put together and is loved by all Japanese. It's mostly associated with something you eat at home because it is so simple. Take a raw egg, or just the yolk, place it on top of some steamed rice, drizzle a bit of soy sauce, and voila! Some people prefer to mix the egg thoroughly with the rice, others with just break the yolk, and then there are the people that beat the egg and mix the soy sauce before pouring it onto the rice. It's the perfect combination whatever way it's done!

It's such a simple dish, why would any restaurant serve it? Some restaurants use eggs that come from brand name chickens, eggs that would cost a fortune if you bought a carton of them. One izakaya that I visited recently had a kyukyoku (ultimate) TKG on their menu (480 yen). What made it a little more unique was that it was topped with gyu toro flakes, or beef flakes. These flakes, a couple of years ago, was all the talk for a short period of time. It's expensive, costing up to 2500 yen for just 200g, but it's not really something you can make yourself at home. It's almost like a prociutto version of fatty beef that's been shredded into small pieces. You keep it in the freezer and scoop out portions when you want to use it.

The Ultimate TKG

With a generous amount of beef flakes, the umami from the beef fat is not lost! It goes really well in TKG adding a depth of flavour to the raw egg.

This izakaya called Hakken Sakaba seems to specialize in charcoal-grilled yakitori (chicken skewers), with several cuts of the chicken available for order by skewer. They have a large menu overall with items that go hand-in-hand with a beer or drink. 

One side of the food menu

The drink menu

This chain restaurant recently changed their name and so perhaps their menu changed as well. It seems to have changed for the better. Affordable, casual, with lots of variety, it's a good place to 'kick off your shoes' after a hard day at work.

Area: across the street from Honjin Station (Higashiyama Line), 本陣駅（東山線）

Restaurant: Hakken Sakaba ハッケン酒場

Website and Map: www.marche.co.jp/shop_search/shop_intro.html?shopNo=2388

Hours: 5pm-2am, open everyday

Ice Manju: A Truly Japanese Style Ice Cream

The ice here is short for ice cream, and manju is the name of a Japanese confectionary. Manju is normally a sticky rice cake that is filled with a sweet red bean paste. If you replace the rice cake with ice cream, you have Aisu (ice) Manju. To make it easier to eat, it is all on a stick like an ice cream bar. The company plays around with different flavours of ice cream, but the bar always contains red bean paste. Examples of other flavours include hojicha (roasted green tea), matcha, and strawberry, all things that would go well with the anko (red bean paste).

All aisu manju have a red bean paste filling

Recently I've tried the standard vanilla flavour. The ice cream is soft and melts quickly so on a hot day you'll have to eat it quickly (even when in the freezer the ice cream is soft enough to take a bite out of). The anko is sweeter than real manju but that is probably so that it can stand up to the vanilla ice cream. Being a fan of red bean paste, I was pleasantly surprised by how much was inside the ice cream! It is a given that this combination would be tasty, as you can often find cold zenzai (sweet red bean soup) topped with ice cream, or Japanese style parfaits with ice cream and anko, but the great thing here is that you just have to open up the package and eat!

Vanilla flavour

Look at all that anko in there!

Arimatsu, A Historic Area Right in Nagoya City; Discover a Beautiful Traditional Craft

Arimatsu is just a 20 minute (or less) train ride away from Nagoya Station. Follow the signs pointing to the historic area, reading arimatsu meguri or 有松めぐり in Japanese. You'll be led to a street lined with several historic buildings that are designated cultural assets of the Aichi Prefecture. These structures date back over 100 years to the Edo and Meiji periods. The main feature of this town is a traditional tie-dyeing craft that has been passed down for even longer, at least 400 years. Thus the textile craft is called Arimatsu Shibori and is known all over Japan as an art that takes a lifetime for craftsmen/women to master.

Signs pointing the way to the historical street

I highly recommend paying the small entrance fee to see the Arimatsu Narumi Shibori Kaikan (有松・鳴海絞会館). It's a museum where you can learn about the detailed, time-consuming method that the fabrics are dyed. It's actually surprising to see how much effort needs to be put into dying just one piece of cloth. You'll definitely appreciate the beauty of Arimatsu Shibori even more after seeing the display. On the first floor you'll find a collection of Arimatsu Shibori products from different stores on the historic street. These products are for sale and range from small pouches to pillow covers, hand bags to men's and women's tops.

Arimatsu Narumi Shibori Kaikan

For lunch I suggest the hand-made udon noodle restaurant called Jugenmu-jaya. It's a quaint little shop located in one of the century-old buildings. They have an extensive menu of cold and hot udon dishes, including those made in traditional hot pots, curry or miso flavoured broths, and using seasonal ingredients. I had the lunch set (1000 yen) which included a mini size of their signature dish, ume oroshi udon. It's a cold udon that is topped with grated daikon and a pickled plum paste, perfect to satisfy your appetite especially on a hot day. The set also came with a salad, konnyaku with a vinegar-miso sauce, tempura, Japanese pickles and steamed rice. Making handmade udon noodles is also an art in Japanese, and is only done by experts that have had years of experience. This shop's noodles were clearly fresh, as could be felt by the chewiness that hand-made noodles have.

Jugenmu-jaya udon shop

Ume oroshi udon lunch set

RESTAURANT INFORMATION
Area: Arimatsu (a part of the Midori-ku area of Nagoya) 　有松（名古屋市緑区）
Restaurant: Jugenmu-jaya 寿限無茶屋
Map: tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230112/23004627/dtlmap/
Website: mc.ccnw.ne.jp/jyugemu/
Hours: Lunch 11am-3pm (LO 2:30pm), Dinner 5-9pm (LO 8:30pm), closed Wednesdays

Horai 551: The Best Chinese Pork Bun in Japan

Nikuman, or steamed bun with a meat filling is a popular Chinese dish in Japan. Most likely it is found in cafeterias, convenience stores or at food stalls lining streets leading to tourist destinations.
On a recent trip to the Kansai region of Japan, I once again found myself buying some take out butaman (a pork nikuman) from a famous chain store called 551 Horai.

My mouth waters every time I see someone carrying this bag

Butaman

The first time I tried it was in 2010 when a tour guide on one of my trips to Japan recommended the 551 (Go Go Ichi) located in Kyoto Station. Up until then I had only tried convenience store nikuman which although were still delicious, the buns seemed a little too light and airy to me. Growing up in a city where there are many immigrants from Hong Kong, the steamed bun I knew had a denser, chewier texture. 551 Horai gets this part right in my eyes! The thick, dense dough has bite when it is steamed. Even when eaten the next day, you can just steam it again and it comes out the same as eating a freshly bought bun. The filling is reminiscent of the convenience store pork buns, soft and mushy, but that is for the most part how the Japanese like it; moist and juicy in the mouth.

The best pork bun in Japan

551 Horai also sells gyoza and shiu-mai with a similar filling, making for a flavourful mouth bite. Both are popular as well as the chimaki (steamed sticky rice in a leaf). If you're in Osaka, Kyoto or Kobe, try this takeout store for a snack or a casual dinner in your hotel room. You'll get a sense of how the Japanese like their Chinese food.

Area: Various Locations. This time visited: Namba Station in Osaka, なんば駅、大阪
Shop: 551 Horai
Map and Website: http://www.551horai.co.jp/shop/map_nanba.html
Hours: depend on the location

Komeda’s Coffee: A Rare Kissaten-Style Chain Shop

Cafe’s are not difficult to find in Japan. There are so many chain stores such as Starbucks, Dotour, and Tully’s,  all standard modern cafes. Kissaten is the Japanese word for coffee shop and falls into the category of a cafe. However, they do have a slightly different connotation to them. Coffee shops that flourished in the showa era were called kissaten. The ones remaining today typically have retained the showa era feel where the menu, atmosphere and decor reflect that. You could say they are a retro cafe.

Komeda is one kissaten that started in the Aichi prefecture, where the coffee culture was said to be strong. Kissaten rarely became large chain companies due to the fact that they were often family run with no intentions of branching out. Komeda is one kissaten that was successful in becoming a chain store and is still opening up stores not only all over Japan, but overseas as well. Although it doesn’t have the small family-run business feel, it still has elements of a kissaten. They try to keep a slightly retro look while staying modern, and the menu reflects that which you may find at many kissaten, especially their large array of sandwiches.

Normally if you order a sandwich, you'd better be pretty hungry or have someone with you to share it because Komeda's sandwiches are pretty filling. However, during the hours of 11am-2pm, they have an egg salad and tomato sandwich lunch plate that is just the perfect size for a light meal. It onlcy costs the price of your drink of choice (from a selected menu) plus ¥540, it's a good deal.

The bread is soft and fluffy like typical Japanese sandwich bread (made with lots of margarine or butter and milk) which makes it go perfectly with the creamy egg salad. The fresh and crunchy lettuce is a nice refreshing touch. The sandwich has a hint of mustard that compliments the nicely seasoned egg salad.

Two dressings come with the salad, the Komeda original and a shoyu (soy sauce) based dressing, so you can choose or mix and match how you would like to eat your salad. The Komeda original was creamy (made with tomato paste) and had a flavour similar to thousand island dressing. The shoyu dressing instantly made it taste Japanese.

Among the most recommended dishes at Komeda, this plate includes two, well, sort of. The mixed sandwich bursting with egg salad, and the fried chicken. The chicken is made with thigh meat so it’s juicy, and has a batter slightly reminiscent to Kentucky Fried Chicken, but not as oily and crispier. There is also a peppery accent. Even when its cooled, the chicken retains its juiciness.
Only fresh veggies are used (crisp lettuce and juicy tomatoes).

The Light Lunch

Komeda's Coffee

Egg salad and tomato sandwich lunch with fried chicken

The other sandwich available with this lunch deal is the sweet ogura (red bean paste) and whip cream sandwich. This sandwich reflects a well-known combination popular in Nagoya of ogura and butter on toast.

Other items on the menu include the popular miso-katsu sandwich (pork cutlet with miso glaze) which is also another Nagoya specialty, beef stew, doria (a gratin baked over rice), salads, fried pork tenderloin nuggets, and fried shrimp. The signature Komeda dessert is the Shiro Noir, which is a danish pastry topped with soft ice cream (the variations change with the season).

Even though the restaurant was full, I still felt that I could still relax. They gave me a 4-seater booth and I didn't have to worry about staying for a long time. There was quiet, calming instrumental music playing in the background. The seats were plush and very comfortable. This particular shop was very spacious with wide aisles. The smoking section was separate and I could not smell the smoke from the other side of the room.

Area: Various locations. Featured; 5 min walk from Nakamura Nisseki Station (Higashiyama subway line) 中村日赤駅（東山線）

Restaurant: Komeda's Coffee

Website and Map: https://www.komeda.co.jp/search/shopdetail.php?id=157

Hours: 7am-11pm