Eat your way through Tokyo

Jaku niku ky? shoku (The weak are meat; the strong eat). — Japanese proverb         

MANILA, Philippines - Where all long cues lead to a ramen shop, a katsu place, or a sushi buffet, we Filipinos are no strangers to Japanese food. Yet, much more than a predilection for raw fish, a touch of wasabi, and chopstick dexterity, much more can be learned from the Japanese way of eating than that innate appreciation for umami. And where better to understand this than in the country’s capital of Tokyo?

Japan during autumn is the perfect time to gorge out, just when the koy?, or the spectacle of changing leaves (best witnessed in Tokyo’s spiritual center, the Meiji Shrine) ushers in the special fall diet of the Japanese. “In Japan, we lose our appetites during summer and regain it in the autumn, so it’s the best time to visit and eat,” explained Kiyotaka Akasaka, president of the Japanese Foreign Press Center, who served as our gracious host for its well-designed culinary tour.

Starting with a traditional cha-kaiseki dinner with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Senior Deputy Director Hiroko Kaizuka, in the legendary Kitaohji Akasaka-saryou restaurant (2 Chome-13-5 Nagatacho, Chiyoda), the audience of hearty diners, comprised of six Southeast Asian journalists, was treated to a crash-course in the Japanese refined way of eating. “Japanese cuisine gives importance to beauty and nature, so you can feel the season with our food,” Kaizuka explains.

“This is what we call the washoku, where we use the freshest ingredients, the anticipation of the seasons, the celebration of nature in each presentations, and where people are connected through traditions,” Kaizuka further added. So revered is the Japanese washoku way of eating that the UNESCO recently declared it as “Intangible Cultural Heritage.” Literally translating to “harmony food,” the washoku greatly showcases Japan’s abundance of fresh, unadulterated ingredients, time-honored and skillful food preparation techniques, and its relevance in maintaining strong social relations.

So, among Tokyo’s 88,000 dining establishments (boasting the most number of Michelin stars in the world), and the other 56,000 authentic Japanese restaurants globally, whatever specialty they may serve, trust that the washoku way will always be the first order of the day.

STARTERS

Any well-revered restaurant in Tokyo will start their business day at the Tsukiji market, where, at 5:30 a.m. every day (except Sundays and holidays) some 19,000 people battle in bets and bids at the largest fish market in the world. Posting an average revenue of ¥1.5 billion daily, the market auctions up to 2,000 tons of fish per day, where a 100-kilogram tuna can easily fetch ¥2 million. All 57 acres of retail space, divided between the inner and the outer market, attracts a total of 30,000 shoppers daily, many of whom are seen lined up among Tsukiji’s sushi shops, known to be the finest in all of Japan.

One of these, just across the market, is Tamasushi (2-15-19 Tsukiji, Chuo). Here, the restaurant has maintained the same perfected quality of cutting fish meat and serving it on a bed of vinegared rice mastered since the Edo period (1600s). A product of painstaking culinary training, where a total of eight years is dedicated to perfecting rice cooking alone, and much more laborious hours are devoted to choosing and cutting the fish and artfully hand-rolling with dried nori wrapper, the sushi in this part of the city provides a whole new dimension to the term “fast food.” Dipped in golden soy sauce (largely optional) and a delicate shaving of fresh wasabi root, you recognize the fine flavors of the sea married with the grainy feel of the land in one swift, savory taste.

Perhaps another quick-bite favorite of the sea’s bounty is the takoyaki. This relative newcomer in Japan’s culinary odyssey, the ball-shaped snack made from wheat batter and tako or octopus meat traces its origins to Osaka in 1935. Coinciding with the development of the radio, it was once called radioyaki, riding on the modern appliance’s popularity, and not since a patron from Akashi City, famous for its yield of octopus, tried reconstructing the recipe with his local fare did the takoyaki get its present form and flavor.

Fast forward to the digital age: preparing this well-loved snack took on a faster approach. The Tsukiji Gindaco company, under the Hotland corporate umbrella, has 500 stores all over Japan, nine of which are around Tokyo, and in 25 stores across five countries in Asia. Its stall at the Shinjuku train station attracts a legion of young diners for its fast and hearty fair, and its usually demanding rush-hours gave way for the company to develop its own automatic takoyaki machines. Despite introducing a newer, faster way of preparing the snack, Tsukiji Gindaco maintained its traditional taste, where minced tako, tenkasu or tempura scraps, pickled ginger and leeks find their way inside a crunchy-chewy wheat batter casing. These are then served with teritama or teriyaki sauce, or negidako or dashi broth, and topped with bonito shavings.     

“We see the market in the Philippines as a big, untapped market for takoyaki. Filipinos love snacks, and takoyaki is the perfect fast snack that you can eat with just one hand. Maybe you will find one of our restaurants in your country next year,” quipped its CEO Miki Yohei.

MAINS

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he traditional Japanese meal, despite its infinite variety, abides by one golden rule: the ichij?-sansai, or “one soup, three sides.” Usually comprised of its staples — the gohan or white rice, miso soup, the tsukemono or pickled vegetables, and a choice of one or several okazu or main dish — the ichij?-sansai is likened to the traditional food pyramid where all Japanese meals are founded.

One of the traditional restaurants that champions this dining concept is something strikingly familiar to Filipino tastes. With its localized version, Yabu, finding our palettes in 2012, katsu chef Kazuya Takeda, owner of the legendary Tonkatsu Takeshin Bunten (3-1-7 Nishi-hara, Shibuya- ku), is unfazed by the fanatical popularity of his golden-fried cutlets in the Philippines. In his small neighborhood branch in Shibuya, Takeda maintains the same deep-fried methods of his famous katsu master father Etsuo in their quaint pop-shop in Kanagawa prefecture.

Here, unlike its Philippine counterpart, Takeda prepares its Hayashi pork tenderloin with no salt or pepper, maintaining the natural zest of the meat. The restaurant uses its own-produced panko breadcrumbs for its golden color and softer crunch. It is then deep-fried in rice bran oil at just the right temperature, ensuring the perfect crunchy texture and the rather rosy hue of the meat inside. It is then plated and served with just a few leaves of shredded cabbage, a side of mustard, a warm bowl of miso soup, and of course, the unlimited gohan.

Takeda’s purist approach to deep-fried pork may have altered a bit in its Philippine setting, where a sauce-making extravaganza had been the centerpiece of its nine-store, full-packed, localized establishment. “The Japanese always say, ‘Food is an art.’ But in the Philippines, where there is a bigger demand, we didn’t only perfect the art, but also the science,” Takeda claimed. The result is a systematic transfer of knowledge to standardized manuals, where a headstrong team of one chef per station at Yabu makes up for only one master chef in its Tokyo counterpart. Well, for that, you can very well thank Kazuya Takeda for jumpstarting the katsu craze in the Philippines, but when in Tokyo, it’s best to still have a sample of the original.

Speaking of samples, no traditional Japanese restaurant will be complete without a ganso sample. In its Kappabashi Dori showroom, found among rows of mom-and-pop shops selling kitchen equipments and utensils, the Iwasaki Company Ltd. has been providing lifelike food replicas to specialty restaurants since 1932. Here, you can also try the art of replica making, in the traditional wax method, through Iwasaki’s specialized workshops, while its modern counterparts, fashioned from  more durable resin, are for sale as souvenirs or commercial displays.

For a soup that is a meal in itself, the Japanese have the shabu-shabu. Reaching Japan by way of the Chinese hotpot in the early 20th century, the traditional shabu-shabu used to be known as a stately, costly affair, with some meals fetching for ¥8,000 per person. Not until Shabu-Shabu On Yasai (7-13-6, Roppongi, Minato-ku) came into the picture and redefined the shabu-shabu as a less expensive, more popular meal, among its 324 outlets peppered around Japan.

The term shabu-shabu is translated, literally, as “swish-swish,” which is the sound the piece of meat makes when being rightly cooked in its broth. With your chopstick firmly holding a piece of premium kuroge wagyu, for instance, you delicately swish the meat over the boiling stock while chanting “shabu” 10 times. This will guarantee that the fine-cut meat is cooked perfectly, making your shabu-shabu experience more enriching than boiling everything in the broth at once.

And when caught around the 100-year-old Tokyo station at the height of rush hour, one need not compromise his dining predilections. At the ekiben shop in the subway grounds, one can have a choice of the finest food fair across Japan’s many train stops, all conveniently packed in a bento box.

According to Izumi Kazuo, public relations officer of Tokyo’s largest ekiben supplier, Nippon Restaurant Enterprises, the ekiben traces its history back to the late 1800s, when rice and pickled vegetables were sold in railway stations packed in antiseptic bamboo peels. It was in Himeji station in Hyogo prefecture where the first assorted bento or makunouchi was first sold, comprised of three vital ingredients: the tamagoyaki or folded egg, fish cake, and grilled fish, all packed in fragrant cedar wood boxes. This, Kazuo claimed, made train journeys in the past more special, when the ekibens offered that taste of luxury and prestige.

Presently, Nippon Restaurant Enterprises offers 170 types of ekiben, selling an average of 10,000 ekibens daily, and double that during Japan’s Golden Week.

SWEET ENDINGS

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nd no Japanese mealtime is ever complete without cha, or green tea. In fact, 99.9 percent of teas produced in Japan are green, which means that the loose tea leaves aren’t oxidized or fermented. In its Omotesando store, Yoshi Watada’s Chacha No Ma (5-13-14 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku), presents a new way of enjoying tea, which, just like the Japanese artisanal coffee shops or kissaten, offers a premium in product origin and preparation techniques.

“I felt ashamed that I didn’t know the taste of real Japanese green tea while growing up, so I decided to open a tea shop dedicated to enjoying the highest taste of green tea,” shared the 36-year-old Watada. The result of this tea sommelier’s scouring among the Japanese countryside for the finest loose tea is the shop’s large selection of rare, hand-picked infusions, some fetching up to ¥4,200 per 50 gram package.

Also a highlight of this quaint tea shop is Watada’s rather specialized way of preparing teas. From pulling water to make it softer and lighter, to using cold water to preserve the tea’s sweetness, serving it in espresso shots for a more saturated flavor, or poured over soda water for a sparkly, afternoon tea affair, Chacha No Ma certainly makes traditional teas more enjoyable, especially with its line-up of sweet tea-based treats.

Traditionally, these sweet treats are made of mochi or glutinous rice, oft times with azuki or red bean paste pleasantly found inside. These mochi treats are often the crowd-drawers of the depacheka, loosely translated as “department store basement”, where the widest selections of Japan’s food fares and finds are for your picking and sampling. One famous depacheka is found under Japan’s oldest retail kingdom, Mitsukoshi (1673 Edo Honmachi, Nihonbashi Hongokuch?), founded by imperial kimono seller Echigoya in 1683.

Now, newer department stores have set up shop, mimicking Mitsukoshi’s centuries-old retail success. The Nihonbashi Coredo Muromachi (2-2-1 Nihonbashimuromachi, Chuo) offers the 90-minute “Best of Japan Tour” among its three retail complexes, with 10 stops offering a different culinary slice of Japan’s more famous prefectures and cities for a mere ¥1,000. Its most famous stop is the Kyoto wagashi store, Tsuruya Yoshinobu, selling traditional, handmade Japanese tea snacks. Here, the wagashi is made from scratch and by hand by the shop’s artisanal chefs.

And when it’s fame and popularity that is the issue, especially when desserts are involved, nothing can deter the Japanese sweet tooth from imported pastries. Judging by the long queues in Harajuku all ending in a pancake, waffle, or chocolate shop, traditions be damned, the younger Japanese are all about their Western sweets.

“Harajuku is the only place in Japan responsible for the explosion of pop culture,” explained one of its most famous locals, Putomayo owner Chiaki Hayakawa. Hayakawa was singlehandedly responsible for how the “gothic Lolita” trend swept through Japan’s youth, but this time, it is Harajuku’s foreign branded sweet shops that are causing quite the stir. “It’s famous for fashion and sweets, usually with long queues. For a shop to become famous in the rest of Japan, they should always have their first store in Harajuku,” Hayakawa said.

True enough, as Australian pancake shop Bills (7F Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku) can attest, where there is a frenzied display of pink-haired, pastel petticoated teenage girls patiently in line within a block, trust that there is a pastry shop at the end of that beautiful rainbow.

With its studied mix of old and new, tradition and innovation, Tokyo is a captivating gem — for its polite and friendly people, its awe-inspiring sights, its frenzied commercialism and its well-organized systems. But above all, as any visitor could attest to, the best way to the heart is still through the stomach, and, with this, Tokyo had us falling madly in love, and screaming, “Oishii desu ne!”

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For inquiries on Tokyo’s culinary treasures, together with the rest of Japan, you can visit the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) at the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, 2627 Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.