Last post before Mustique: Daft Punk and Iron Chef Morimoto's XEX

Word of warning: This post will make you hungry. Anyone on any last-minute Mustique dieters might want to skip this one.

First, two weekends ago, Manami and I saw the tour of the millenium that is Daft Punk Alive. This might have been better than the Red Rocks show I saw last summer. Maybe because the sound was better, or maybe it was just cool seeing Daft Punk in Japan. Great show, but I'm just gonna put one pic up, because there's millions of DP pictures on the internet that look the same as any I took. Still, the best concert I've ever been to.


Moving on, this last weekend Manami and I took on our second Iron Chef. This time it was the renowned Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto (the only Iron Chef to be on both the original Japanese show and the American one). I hate to say it mom, dad, and jonathan, but this MIGHT have been better than La Rochelle (Iron Chef French). In addition, this was our first time eating at a restaurant that is in a Michelin guide book (One star). Here we go. Don't say I didn't warn you.

First is the interior. You'll notice it's a teppan restaurant, like JMK or Benhiana. Nice lighting.




We'll do my meal first, cuz it was more expensive. What a dick. Ringing it at 13500 yen (about $120), it's by far the most i've ever spent on a meal for myself, but probably the best one too.

Starting off the meal was this, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

It's five different kind of sashimi (raw sushi-grade fish). From right to left- toro (fatty tuna) with a bit of caviar, uni (sea urchin), ika (squid), ikura (salmon eggs, or caviar if you wanna be classy about it), crunchy bread kinda things, and one other sashimi but i can't remember what it is. Then we have wasabi, sour cream and avocado. You use the little paddle spoon and dip it in the special soy sauce in the top. This was absolutely amazing. What a way to start the meal.

Next appetizer- grilled leek with iberico pork. Delicious, juicy, melted in my mouth, etc.


Item 3. Lobster. The sauce had salmon eggs in it and a whole bunch of other stuff. Delicious. Look at that presentay.


Some apple/mint sorbet to rinse the pallet for the main.


Steak sauces and delicious, delicious salt on the right.


The main. Japanese beef with huge chunks of garlic and mushroom. There was also some greens, but I guess I took this picture too early. It did "beef up" the presentation though.


Side dish- wasabi flavored mashed potato.


Garlic rice:


After dinner tea, seaweed miso soup and tsukemono (pickled vegetables):


And finally, the most amazing desert I've ever had in my life. It's supposed to look like tofu with soy sauce, like in Kyoto. This, however, is the most perfectly prepared, light, creamy cheesecake with lemon syrup. Unbelievable.


Next is Manami's meal. Coming in at 10000 yen (about $89), cheaper but very impressive nonetheless.

Appetizer one- buffalo mozzarella with tomato and some kind of fish.


Sashimi in the same style as mine, but with only toro.


Kamakura vegetables with ham-


Pre-main meat dish, sashimi chicken and a green salsa.


Her main was great. Think of like a Japanese tartare but almost like meatloaf. The green thing is made from asparagus and filled with creamy egg yolk. Mix it all together with the garlic and greens for the fanciest kind of comfort food I've ever had-


And that's it for today. A most memorable concert and meal to round off my blog for 2007. Hope you all enjoyed it. And may you all have a very merry christmas and a happy new years wherever you are! Love you all so much.
-ryan

Beyond late, w/Family Adventures in Japan

OK, so before I get into apologizing for how ridiculously late this update is, I gotta start with a story that just happened. This guy knocks on my door, a rare enough occurrence for a foreigner who doesn't live anywhere near his friends or acquaintance, and after a minute I comprehend that he's the owner of my apartment building. Slowly but surely (because he knows no English, of course), it gets across that he's asking me to subscribe to the Yomiuri Shinbun, one of the major Japanese newspapers. I tell him that I can't really read Japanese well enough to understand a newspaper so I don't want to pay for it. He says he understands but wants me to subscribe to it anyways. I guess he must get some kind of nice kick-back for his tenants reading the newspaper, cuz he then busts out his wallet and gives me the money I need to pay for the subscription. He also tells me to definitely keep it a secret that he paid for it (which, from this public blog on the internet, you can see I'm very good at doing). I say fair enough, but the best part is, he says "You drink beer, right?" A quick "yes" and he says he'll be right back with "sabisu" (that's "service," Japanized English for "free.") And returns with a fucking 24 pack of beer. That's like a $35 - $40 value, as beer is expensive in Japan and it's a pretty decent brew. SCORE!

So even though it's now December 3rd, I must talk about Nov. 14 - 21, when mom, dad, and Jonathan were here. Mom and J got here the night of the 14th, and we went up to the 35th floor of the Shinjuku Hilton and had drinks and fantastic food, including Wagyu beef. Then Manami joined us as we headed to the Hub. Then the ladies left, and Jonathan and I did an hour of karaoke with all-you-can-drink and got drunk. Highlights? Every song we sang and getting the guy that worked there to chug one of the beers.

Beginning of the night-


Wednesday, 15th, Jonathan, mom and I tore up Harajuku, Aoyama, and Shibuya using only our feet. After careful consideration, Jonathan picked up the Batman Bapes, his first pair, and I felt so proud. My brother is all grown up. Then dad came in around 6 and we went back up to the lounge. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the hotel and it's amazing view, but I think Manami might.

Thursday, I had work and the fam came and watched me teach my 2nd graders. The class went pretty smoothly, and I think the kids were pretty amazed with the size of Jonathan's arms. For real though, I think the kids and teachers alike were really happy to meet them and had only nice things to say about them in the following days.

I then took them on a tour of my crib, which probably took 20 - 30 seconds, because it's small. Then we went back to Shinjuku and got ready to eat at Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai's French restaurant. We all know what Iron Chef is right? The show on Food Network that was originally Japanese before it was Iron Chef USA featuring 1 of 3 Iron Chefs facing off against esteemed challengers from all over the globe. Here we are all set to go.



And here was the meal. I'll let the pictures do the talking, mainly because I don't remember the gourmet details of each course. The restaurant was amazing though, perched on the 32nd floor of the Cross Tower in Shibuya. I'll chalk it up as possibly the best meal of my life, surpassing that value meal from Taco Bell that one time I was really, really high.

Amuse Bouche:


Cold Appetizer:


Hot appetizer:


Jonathan's choice because the previous had veal:


Mom's soup, featuring fois gras ravioli. Notice the edible gold that increased mom's net worth instantly upon consumption:


The rest of us got this soup- sweet potato soup


The main:


Main without flash:



Desert:


The full gang:


The amazing bar at the restaurant:


Mom and our waiter. You might not realize it from this picture, but we were all thoroughly entertained by this fine Iranian waiter who spoke great English, was funny as hell, and could talk around politics. Good times.


Friday, I had a half day of work and we hit the shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. I think she's faking it-


The next series of photos (2 of em), I'd call "Looking really good on the shinkansen:"




We arrived in Hiroshima around 8 or so and hit Okonomimura. This means Okonomiyaki Village and was a 3 story building of little tiny teppan-tables lined up one after the other with maybe a tiny wall to separate each "restaurant." It was really cool and definitely an "only in Japan" kind of place. One restaurant was this big:


Hiroshima okonomiyaki (or Hiroshimayaki) is known for having udon or soba noodles on the inside, and FUCK is it good. Here we are enjoying it.



At night, we walked around a bit, drinking and sampling convenience store food that only lucky people with guides like me get to try, as well as spending too much money on winning several Marimokkori.


And even mom and dad were feeling Japanasized as they got into the video game me and Jonathan were playing:


Believe it or not, out of the 3 songs, I beat Jonathan once on this game. Granted he didn't know the song, I did, and I just barely beat him, I still beat that son of a bitch:


The next day we hopped on the train and a boat for Miyajima, one of the proclaimed top 3 most beautiful places in Japan. One of the 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites we saw on the trip (along with the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima). Here we go.

On the boat there-


View from the boat-


No joke, these deer will eat your maps, your clothing, your paper, and anything you drop on the floor:


Classic Japan:


Cute:


Gay:


On our last day in Hiroshima, we saw the tragic remains of the dubbed A-Bomb Dome apparently just about right where the bomb landed. We put our sad faces on:



The memorial which frames the dome:

Hard to believe we did it twice.

Back in Tokyo, Monday, we hit up Odaiba. I don't have any pictures from that event, but we did have an AMAZING feast of Japanese beef yakiniku. Goddamn, seriously it was good.

On our final night together, we went to Shamaim, the Israeli restaurant I so dearly love. Mainly because I feel I can truly express my Jewish faith and convictions there. The food is pretty good too. Here's the gang. We were celebrating Manami's birthday.


Next is post-family Japan life
On Thanksgiving, Manami's actual birthday, we had Thanksgiving food at a place called the Pink Cow. Buffet style and authentic, as you can see I was pretty excited about it:


Detail:


Next day, we decided to head to Tokyo Station, as there's been lots of promotion around for the area around the station as being fun with lots to do. I always thought there was nothing worth going to Tokyo Station for, but man was I wrong. Tons of restaurants and the Imperial Palace just minutes away. Before we left though, we got this snack. This snack is new. This snack is spicy. This snack features the Guinness Book of World Record's spiciest powder in the world. It doesn't seem that spicy at first, but it stays in your mouth for a good 20 minutes or so after eating just one.


She tries it:


She doesn't think it's that bad.....
but......
then......

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! Spicy.

Had a great lunch way above the station at a place called Xex. Yum. I think mom and dad being in Japan spoiled me and made me want to eat at only the classier establishments around town. As you can see, the food was nice.




Outside of the Imperial Palace. A beautiful beautiful place. If this isn't a Christmas card-type picture for the ages, I don't know what is.


And we rounded it all off with a night of drinking and ALL NIGHT karaoke with the buddies.


Good times. This weekend I relaxed at Manami's house. It was nice. That's all. Whew, my fingers are tired of talking.