Back in Japan (September 2015)...Izakaya hopping in Ueno

Late night soba in Ueno

I came back to Tokyo again a couple of weeks ago. This was already my 4th trip back to Japan this year.

The following day of my arrival was a serious rainstorm all over Tokyo. A big typhoon was passing near, but since it was not a direct hit, I originally didn't take it so seriously. But, it turned out to be one of the worst rainstorms hitting Tokyo this year. In the neighbor prefectures such as Tochigi and Ibaraki, the rainstorm caused massive flooding and caused devastating damages to hundreds of homes.


I already had a plan to get together with friends, so I went out anyway. We met in Ueno, which is an old neighborhood of Tokyo and known as "shitamachi", very down-to-earth rustic area. We met at a typical standing izakaya where local working class people gather.


At this place, there are no servers, so you serve yourself. As we walked to the back room where there are tables you can sit at, there was a long stretch of a counter with so many different dishes you can pick up yourself and pay at the end of the counter to check out.


Three of us had a toast with draft beer and shared a few dishes to start a night.


We left the standing izakaya then realized the rain was pouring harder. We managed to walk a couple of blocks to this large building owned by a seafood company. Their first floor is a supermarket of seafood. The seafood all looked really fresh while the prices were extremely reasonable. There were even blowfish, live loaches, etc.


We took an escalator all the way to the top (8th?) floor of the building to dine at their izakaya. Despite the weather, the place was quite busy. I loved the real "shitamachi" casual ambience here. The quality of the dishes, especially the seafood, was so good. We enjoyed many different dishes with a variety of sake from Niigata.


As we walked out of the building, the rainstorm was going out of control. Originally, we wanted to go to one of soba restaurants my friend really liked. But, he said it would be more than 5 minutes walk and it would make us completely drenched even with umbrellas, so we decided to go to a different izakaya just across the street. He said this place is normally very crowded, but with this weather, it was quite empty. Well, but there were still some brave people like us who wanted hang out there in the crazy weather. We had some grilled pork organs and fried shrimp stuffed okra to start with shochu.


After a few drinks, we had cold "Tsumari soba" to finish the night. This is a rare type of soba, made in Tokamachi in Niigata Prefecture. Just like "Hegi soba", another Niigata's traditional soba, Tsumari soba uses "funori" seaweed as a binder for the noodles. I enjoyed the texture very much.

The night was a real adventure especially with the rainstorm, but we all survived and had a great time.

Paladare Private Supperclub at A Basq Kitchen

Roasted Suckling Pig

On a Sunday in late August, Jason and I had an opportunity to visit A Basq Kitchen, opened by our friends, Chef Bernard and Jessica a few month ago.


The restaurant is situated in the pier of Redondo Beach. They serve authentic cuisine of Basque, where Bernard is from. The place has a nice beach town casual ambience.


We were there for a special dinner event, which they call, "Paladare" dinner. It's a private supper club created by Jessica and Bernard. The chef creates special Basque-style dinner course for the guests. We were ones of 10 lucky guests of the night. After their home-crafted Paladare chips (quite addictive), we started with the following dishes.
Spanish Coca with cured ham, logo and Manchego cheese.
Croquetas de Bacalao
Lengua Pintxo (braised beef tongue)
Baked oyster with Spinach and Patxaran


The main courses were...
Halibut crudo, lime, local avocado, red onion
Seared duck breast, braised fennel, pomegranate molasses
Shrimp fideos, sauteed shrimp, angel hair, pimento stew
Slow-roasted suckling pig Basque style, tikiro salsa, espelette, saffron rice

Yes, we ate all of them!


Dessert trio...fig tatin, bread pudding, and Basque flan. Wow, the dinner was outstanding! It was a real happy party with fun people, great food and lots of wine.

Le Comptoir and Cassia

At Cassia (photo by Chigusa)

Two really wonderful restaurants, represented by really talented local chefs.

I've been a big fan of Chef Gary Menes since he was a chef/ partner at Palate restaurant (it was closed some years ago) in Glendale. He was trained in fine French dining and have been cooking sophisticated California cuisine. His own restaurant, Le Comptoir, is located at The Historic Hotel Normandie in Koreatown. It's a very small restaurant with only 10 counter seats in front of the kitchen.

Gary's dishes are true farm-to-table. He serves vegetarian 6-course tasting menu with options of non-vegetarian dishes. The ingredients are at the top quality which the chef carefully selects.


Amuse: kale chips with dipping (I think it was ricotta?)
First Course: Sweet potato velute, Greek yogurt, fried bread crumbs (forgot to take a picture)
Second Course: Not your typical "vegetable and fruit plate"
Third Course: Organic egg "en cocotte", lettuce from the garden, region, brown butter, chives, sourdough bread
Fourth Course: Eggplant, tomato fondue, purple basil, Sicillian olive oil
Fifth Course: "Three sisters" corn, Hokkaido squash, spring onion, beans, jus d'onion
Sisth Course: Butterscotch pots de creme, blackberry compote from the garden, graham cracker, creme chantilly

The dinner was both educational because Gary taught us about ingredients etc., and satisfying. Each dish made me appreciate the every ingredient and all the natural flavors. Gary is such a talented chef! My friend and I both did wine pairing and they were good, too. After dinner, my friend and I walked to LINE Hotel for a drink. Living in LA for about 15 years, it's interesting to see how Koreatown has been changing and now it's becoming hipster town.

Another new restaurant I really wanted to dine at was Cassia in Santa Monica. I had a friend visiting from NY, so two of us went there. The cuisine is modern Southeast Asian with California influences by a husband-and-wife team, Bryant and Kim. They used to own The Spice Table in Downtown LA, and I have been a big fan of them since then. The new space, Cassia, is so much bigger than The Spice Table. It has a wide open space and really beautiful.


I didn't get to take photos of all the dishes we had, but all were really wonderful. I missed Bryant's dishes since the closing of The Spice Table, so I was so happy to taste his new menu! Starting from Spicy Wontons, every dish was so wonderfully created and the flavors were great. I also loved their Vietnamese pot-au-feu, made in a Chinese clay pot. It was so good that now I want to make my rustic home version of it with my donabe!


After dinner, we had more drink in the next door, Ester, which is a brand new wine shop/ bar. The place was so lively and fun.

Fig Dinner at Maude in Beverly Hills

Since some people asked me, I am going to resume postings about LA restaurants sometimes, too.

Last month, I had dinner at Maude with a friend. This is a small restaurant by a renowned chef, Cutris Stone, and getting a reservation is very tough here ever since the place opened a couple of years ago. This is a high-end restaurant, serving "new American" cuisine by featuring a single "theme" ingredient every month.

My friend scored counter seating for us (yay!). The theme of August was fig. I was really curious and excited to try multi courses all featuring fig as a key ingredient.

After an amuse of Hummus "Spanakopita", the show has begun.



Soup: Sweet corn and coconut
Salad: Buttermilk, cucumbers, herbs
Lamb: Tomato, tarragon, feta
Chicken Liver: Black pepper, sorrel
Ocean Trout and its Roe: "Caper," zucchini
Lasagna: Gorgonzola, caramelized onion
Ham: Sweet potato, garlic
Squab: Miso, eggplant
Pecorino Faglie di Noci: Strawberry, walnut, rosemary
Goat's Yogurt: Violet, honey

Very elegant and well executed. The flavors were wonderful. We ordered different wines by the glass and the wine service was very nice, too. I enjoyed the meal so much. This is a nice place to come for an elegant dinner in an intimate setting.