Tag Archives: Sushi

Nagoya (2)

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My blog and my Facebook/Instagram pages are about “coffee, food, photography, and a bit of dentistry”. We’ve talked about coffee in the last post. What about food in Nagoya?

Well I have to admit I’m a bit boring in this trip. Instead of looking for local delicacies (like miso soup udon and chicken wings, I just looked for nice Japanese food in general. I had sushi, unagi and sukiyaki again. I did have some Hida beef which is famous in this area. (Two meals in fact, one BBQ and one French style).

I said earlier it’s my mission to look for the best unagi restaurant in Japan. I reported that I found one in Okayama. But now I have to make a correction. The place in Okayama was best for its Shirayaki Unagi (白燒鰻魚), but for the ordinary Kabayaki Unagi (蒲燒鰻魚), I’ve found my new favourite — Houraiken (蓬萊軒) in Nagoya. I was reluctant about visiting it at first because it was famous among tourists, meaning a long queue is expected and food may just be overrated. However the truth is it’s also famous among locals and indeed over half of the queue comprised the Japanese. The unagi was crispier than other unagi I’ve tried, and the Kabayaki source was richer. And if you want to elevate your unagi experience you have to try Kimoyaki (鰻肝).

If you think that travelling is all about the surprises you encounter during the journey, I have to remind you there are both good surprises and bad surprises. The nice cafe I encountered in Takayama is for sure a good surprise, but the restaurant I’m about to mention is a bad surprise.

Determined to try something new, I booked a whole new beef restaurant to have sukiyaki all the while knowing there’s a branch of Imahan (人形町今半, the first sukiyaki I had ever) in Nagoya. That restaurant was as inhospitable as a restaurant in Japan could get. My goal was to have sukiyaki with Hida beef. I made a reservation one week ago. I arrived on time. I was seated in a table for four, which wasn’t surprising in Japan at all. I ordered a sukiyaki set (the menu said ¥xxxxx/pax). All seemed smooth. But then I was told that sukiyaki can only be ordered for two people up. What’s worse, I was later led to a smaller table because apparently they had a group of four. I eventually had to resort to BBQ Hida beef, which was still good, but the experience I got meant this restaurant will never be ranked top of my list.

[TBC]

Nagoya (1) – Food

Trip to Tokyo (2015)

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So, I travelled alone again, to Tokyo. This trip almost got cancelled as I recovered from hand-food-mouth disease and considered focusing on work. I stayed rational at the end: resorted to playing hard. I’m glad I chose to do that.

Instead of sharing what I did in this trip, I’m going to share some insights from this trip. A lot of them are photography-related because I just love photography. But they somehow apply even if you’re not a photographer.

1) Try to blend into the locals. This doesn’t work when you’re travelling in Europe or in South America for obvious reasons, but in Japan, it works. Don’t wear a backpack, and don’t use a camera neck-strap. I even bought a long transparent umbrella as most Japaneses carry with them in the rain. This way, people always thought I’m a local and spoke Japanese to me before I spoke in English. This is advantageous when you take stealthy street photos.

2) Slow down. Don’t rush in one location and go to another due to time constraints. It’d be even more stupid if you rush even when you have no time constraints. That’s exactly what I did in Singapore and Taipei. Having learnt from that, or perhaps because Japan was a much more interesting place to visit, I succeeded slowing down myself. Do things slowly and I’m sure you’ll experience something unexpected.

3) Do research. Some places just close at the most unexpected times. Most restaurants in Taipei close on Mondays, for instance. And most importantly, Tsukiji Market closes on a certain days. I’m sure most of you know this better than I do as you travel so often.

4) Speaking of Tsukiji market, I have to make one thing very clear. The most famous ones, or the “Big Two” as I call: Sushi Big (壽司大) and Big Equal (大和), are good enough. But is it worth it waiting for four hours for Sushi Big? Think about your experience at Tokichi (中村籐吉) and you’ll know. Besides, from my experience the best one In Tsukiji is not Big Equal (I’ve never been to Sushi Big so I have no idea about that); it’s a less famous one called Chi Man (鮨文). I visited there once two years ago. When I came back this year, I decided to try Big Equal. But I was so regretted about my decision I went to Tsukiji again the next day and had Chi Man. Oh btw, have I mentioned I arrived at Tsukiji at 6-7 am for two consecutive days? This was kinda crazy considering my age, but I loved it.

5) Try those fancy sushi places in Ginza. I’m not talking about 梅登利… From the very early stage planing this trip I decided to spend a fortune at those Michelin-starred sushi bars in Ginza. This was in fact inspired by Shinzo Abe taking Barack Obama to Ginza’s Sukiyabashi Jiro. Of course I couldn’t afford that, and it required booking months in advance. At the end I shortlisted some: Sushi Kanesaka (2-star), Sushi Iwa (1-star), and Kyubey (久兵衛, 1-star), and visited Kyubey. It was good enough, and lunch there was quite a bargain. I spent only ¥8400 for an omakase set. You only eat moderately good sushi for this price in HK; but in Japan, this was already top quality by HK’s standard. Of course in Japan, they could reach even higher standards as prices go up.

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