In your face Heston Blumenthal! My previous post pointed out that although Yamato’s new Soy Sauce for ice cream throws the taste convention book out the window, it can’t quite trump Heston’s bacon and egg ice cream. But this surely gives Heston’s creation a thorough drubbing in the wacky flavour combination stakes - Lamb Raisin ice cream.
However my enthusiasm for this ground breaking product was quickly dashed when I found out it was just an example of a Japanese shop owner’s poor grasp of English. It turns out it was just Rum and Raisin. Such a pity.
Like Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, Japanese food manufacturers are not afraid of mixing and matching food in seemingly unappetizingly bizarre ways. Yamato have certainly embraced this spirit of showing complete disregard for taste convention by creating Soy Sauce for ice cream.
Possibly not quite as odd sounding as the Fat Duck’s bacon and egg ice cream, but considerable cheaper nonetheless.
What wacky innovation will those industrious Japanese boffins come up with next? “Space Beer” apparently. Japanese brewery Sapporo has announced it’s planning to brew a beer made from third generation barley grains that have spent five months on the International Space Station in 2006.
It’s supposedly not being created to allow space station inhabitants to go on the lash, but rather as part of a project to prepare for a future in which humans spend extended periods of time in space and need to grow food.
Sapporo hope to have the beer finished by November, but as they only have enough “space grain” for 100 bottles it’s unlikely to be available to the public. You can read more about this here.
After a lovely food tour of Tokyo it’s time to get back on the London based Japanese restaurant horse in the form of Wakaba.
Wakaba’s on Finchley Road , quite close to the tube station. It’s got slightly odd frosted windows which at first glance might make you think it’s closed.
The main draw is its all you can eat lunch buffet costing a very reasonable £6.50. The buffet offer is on 12:30 to 14:00 and consists of all manner of goodies including sushi, gyoza, miso soup, fried chicken and vegetable tempura. The food’s certainly not great, but with the exception of the Japanese hamburgers which were truly awful, it’s not bad when considering the price and the all you can eat nature of the whole affair.
Interior wise it’s minimalist in an almost staff canteen sort of way which in my opinion isn’t a great look. None-the-less £6.50 for all you can eat, half decent Japanese food isn’t bad for London . I don’t think I’d recommend a planned trip here, but if you’re in the area around lunchtime and really hungry, I’m sure you could do a lot worse.
Obachi is a Japanese designer who got bored of making himself standard bento boxes (Japanese lunch box) everyday so decided to mix things up a bit by using his bento ingredients to recreate famous album covers.
Here’s Nirvana’s In Utero constructed from rice, egg, umeboshi, salami and potato.
Kasabian’s self titled album is a simple affair made from rice, seaweed and kamaboko.
Not all of Obachi’s creations sound that tasty though - Spiritualized Let it Come Down consists of a slightly unappetizing mash potato and bread only.
Never Mind the Bollocks is egg, rice, ham and seaweed.
Jacket Lunch Box now has over 100 of these ingenious creations and I’m pleased to see Mr Obachi has at some point listened to Aylesbury rock outfit Merllion and crocodile shoe wearing Geordie Jimmy Nail, via 1985 compilation album Now That’s What I Call Music 5.
2. Tsukiji Fish Market
The business end of the list starts with Tsukiji Fish Market. Not actually a restaurant but a collection of restaurants and the biggest wholesale fish market in the world. If you like sushi and you’re in Tokyo you’d be a bit of a fool not to come here.
I’m told the market itself is quite a spectacle if you get there before 8am or so, but despite numerous attempts on my part, the early start has meant I’ve never been able to verify this. Either way I’ve been to the restaurants there a few times in the afternoon to eat sushi and it’s been superb every time.
1. Gokirakutei
With hundreds of brilliant chefs in Tokyo it would seem a little odd to claim the best restaurant in Tokyo is one where you cook the food yourself, but … erm that’s pretty much what I’m doing in putting cook-it-yourself-super-restaurant Gokirakutei at number 1.
This isn’t a massive show of arrogance or misplaced confidence in my cooking ability, but rather a salute to a restaurant which deliciously fresh ingredients, a convivial atmosphere and more character than you can shake a stick at. It’s also really good fun and pretty hard to balls up the cooking of okonomiyaki or fried rice.
Gokirakutei is in Yoyogi Uehara and just round the corner from my old flat when I used to live in Tokyo, which perhaps has also influenced its lofty position in this top 10.
The tables all have a built in gas powered teppan (iron plate) to cook on. You can choose from a variety of ingredients and try you’re hand at okonomiyaki, fried rice or fried noodles. All are easy to cook but the friendly staff can help if disaster strikes.
There are loads of these sort of do-it-yourself okonomiyaki places all over Japan, but I’ve never been to one that matches Gokirakutei in terms of taste or atmosphere. All in all a must to eat at if you’re in Tokyo.
