Ukai-tei (teppanyaki)

This is the ninth post in the series titled Tasting Tour of Tokyo detailing my recent trip to Japan. Other posts include Kikunoi Akasaka, Rokurinsha, Mikawa Zezankyo, Kaoriya, Sushi Sawada, Sushi Aoki, Street Food in Tokyo, and Omotesando Koffee.

I originally was really, really tempted not to write a single word for this post.

There's something beautiful and surreal about going to Ukai-tei, a Michelin starred teppanyaki place in Omotesando in Tokyo. Pictures speak a thousand words, and you almost don't need text to complete the story. A huge part of the experience is the private "show" from the chefs preparing each course in front of you. Yes, it's teppanyaki, but it's not what you might imagine. There's no silly tricks where the chef throws food into people's mouths. Gone are the dramatic flames and other flashy displays done purely for entertainment.

This is refined, classy teppanyaki. It's all about the food and how to best prepare it with limited tools - namely, just a huge flat grill and two metal spatulas. The ritual is intriguing, almost mesmerizing to watch.

So I wanted to try to recreate some of that magic for you here.

However, Bryan convinced me that my readers would walk away from this post knowing absolutely nothing about the restaurant, which - in the long run - is not that helpful.

So I'm willing to compromise. There will be less words than normal so you can soak up the experience visually as much as possible. This will be a photo-driven post. However, I'll try to insert a few words here and there so you know what's going on.

Enjoy the show.

Take the elevator to the top floor of the "Chanel" building in Omotesando.

Enter what feels like a cross between an imperial Japanese home and a European museum.

And emerge into to a bright sunlit room.

Every diner enjoys front-row seats to the action.
 We start with the Marinated Red Sea Bream, (3150 yen) which is refreshing and light, but just cannot compare to the highest grade sashimi we have been enjoying at sushi places earlier in the week.
The Steamed Abalone (for two) (9450 yen) is a signature dish. However, we opt to order the famous steak instead ("Best Quality" black beef). I've read that the preparation of the abalone is half the excitement, and some say the taste is a bit underwhelming, so we choose taste over presentation.

We still get to see the fascinating presentation. To our right, our "neighbors" have ordered the steamed abalone. The chef whips out a pair of live abalone, dumps salt all over them, and then steams everything for quite awhile under that copper dome before serving it, shell and all, to the surprised guests.

We continue with this gorgeous Consomme Soup (2100 yen), clear yet packed with deep, intense beef flavor. We learn that it is made from the bones of the premium black cows (also the source of the super expensive steaks here).

Matsutake Mushroom is in season during the fall, and it's one of my favorite mushrooms.

The preparation is simple, though mesmerizing to watch nonetheless.

Served simply with salt and lime, it is divine.

I am fascinated just watching the teppanyaki chef in action, especially the deft way in which he is able to do so much with just two simple tools.

Garlic chips paired with steak is a revelation. I need to try this at home someday.

And then, the moment. Our chef brings out the Ukai "Best Quality" beef, the highest grade beef they sell in the entire restaurant. This small piece of steak - believe it or not - costs 34,650 yen.

Check out that marbling.

There are four breeds of Wagyu in Japan: black, brown, polled, and shorthorn. 90% of "fattened" cows are black cows, which typically comes from one of three regions, Kagoshima, Matsuzaka or Kobe. Even though Kobe is the most famous, all three regions produce premium quality beef and it's hard to say which one is the best. The restaurant usually chooses its cuts based on the quality of the meat on a particular day, not based on which of three regions it originates.

They recommend "medium rare" so that some of the fat would render.

This steak is pure decadence - buttery, luxuriously soft, and full of flavor.

Bryan immediately proclaims it's the best steak he's ever had (sorry previous front runner).

 I can see why they recommend not ordering a huge steak. Frankly, it's quite rich and you very well may not be able to finish.

Bryan disagrees. He is ecstatic I only have room for 2-3 pieces. He happily savors the remaining 8-9 pieces, slowly piece by piece.


Each set menu ends with what they call "meal", which is some form of starch served at the end.

We loved the fragrant Garlic Fried Rice (1580 yen), which takes on the lovely char ("wok hei") from the heat of the teppanyaki grill. It is fantastic.

I think we are too full, but Bryan convinces me to try at least one dessert "for the sake of the blog" .

We soon find out, we have only experienced half the fun.

Anyone who opts for dessert is whisked away into another gorgeously appointed room. It sort of reminds me of a traditional European tea room.

A dessert cart, probably the most decadent one I've seen since Joel Robuchon, graces the center of the room.
 Next to it, a larger table holds additional sweets that don't fit the cart.

As long as you order one dessert, you have your endless choice of "petit fours" off of the carts. We decide to share the Caramel Pudding (I have a weakness for this velvety dessert), which happens to be the least expensive item on the menu (840 yen). Most other desserts cost either 1260 yen or 1580 yen. The coffee drinks are all 1050 yen, and Bryan opts for a coffee.

It's really hard to decide which small bites to try.

I settle on a few macarons, a sesame cake of sorts, and a madeleine.

Bryan chooses pound cake (maybe lemon flavored?), homemade caramels, and a homemade marshmallow.

You can sit here at your leisure for as long as you want. If you don't feel like steak, you can come straight to this room and enjoy "afternoon tea". One dessert plus unlimited petit fours and coffee or tea costs 3680 yen.

Service is exceptional here. The hostess escorts us all the way out to the elevator, bowing as the doors slide shut.

Thanks Ukai-tei for a perfectly executed, magical meal.

The Facts
For dinner, courses range from 24,150 (Special Course which includes crazy luxurious ingredients like Beluga caviar, fois gras, matsutake mushrooms, the special abalone, and Ukai "Top Quality" sirloin) to 12,600 (appetizer, soup, sole, beef, "meal", and dessert & coffee).  Lunch is even cheaper, with set menus ranging between 6,830 and 12,600.

All of the set menus come with "Top Quality" beef, which is not the highest grade. If you want the "Best Quality" beef, you will have to order a la carte, like we did.

Every single set meals comes with dessert, tea, and coffee, which means you get to enjoy that magical sweet experience at the end no matter what.

This restaurant is not too hard to find. It is on the main road in Omotesando on the 5th floor of the Chanel building, which is pretty easy to spot. If you still have room afterwards, you can head to Omotesando Koffee, which is what we did. It's not a far walk at all.

There are also other branches of Ukai-tei in Ginza, Yokohama, and several other locations. They also have restaurants devoted to tofu, charcoal grilled chicken, and seasonal Japanese cuisine. I think their steak is the most famous, though.

Ukai-tei Omotesando
5-10-1 OMOTESANDO-GYRE 5F
Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
TEL: 03(5467)5252

Tasting Tour of Tokyo

Bryan travels a lot for work (did I mention he recently hit the two-million airline miles mark?)

In fact, we recently calculated that he has spent the last 7 weeks (out of 12) on the other side of the world. Interestingly, he's spent most of that time in countries that walk and drive on the left side of the road, which has made coming back a bit confusing (especially when walking on sidewalks and such).

Although it's not fun having your husband away so frequently, there are sometimes perks. Occasionally, if the destination is enticing, I'll choose to go with him. It's great because I get to spend more time with him, and the trip becomes a bit cheaper because lodging is usually already covered by his work.

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to go with him to Tokyo. I love Japan, and it's hard for me ever to pass up a chance to go there. Instead of focusing so much on sushi this time, we branched out, and tried several different types of Japanese food.

Of course, we still had sushi. In fact, we had a chance to taste sushi made by probably the most famous sushi master in the world right now.

Here's a brief summary of where we went on our trip, all to be described in mouthwatering detail in the upcoming posts in this new series: Tasting Tour of Tokyo.

This pic is just for fun. It's the gorgeous mansion that houses Joel Robuchon in Tokyo. It was right across the street from our hotel, so I walked by it everyday. Alas, my biggest regret is that I never took the opportunity to pick up some fresh baked items from the bakery downstairs.

Bryan loves fresh noodles, so we visited this quaint, cozy, and very, very Japanese (the entire menu was not even translated) soba shop that made its own soba, served here with mountain yam (yamaimo) and quail egg.

Speaking of noodles, I queued up for over an hour for one of the best bowls of ramen I've ever had at this simple, tsukemen (dipping noodles) shop inside the Tokyo Sky Tree complex.

I love snacks, and it's always fun to see what different countries eat. I stopped by a 7-11 and picked up these cool, fried, bitter melon chips (surprisingly tasty!).

Of course, the most fun place to get Japanese snacks is to stroll the street at Asakusa leading up to the Sensō-ji Temple, where vendors sell snack-sized, freshly made portions of all sorts of goodies, such as homemade sembei (rice crackers), mochi balls, ningyoyaki (red bean filled cakes), and many other fun, delectable nibbles.

This street is walking distance to Kappabashi, my favorite place to shop for inexpensive, Japanese kitchenware. It was easy and pleasant to visit both during one of my day-excursions while Bryan was at work.

While I always want to visit Kappabashi, Bryan invariably wants to go to Akihabara, electronics capital of the world. This time, we browsed endless rows of iPhone 5 cases (every type imaginable), as well as tons of other types of fun gadgets. Seriously, there's nothing else like this place in the world.

I finally found "Tokyo Character Street", a fun section in the Tokyo Train Station that houses stores devoted to different Japanese characters. Immerse yourself in all sorts of fun products featuring the likes of Domo-kun, Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Snoopy, and Totoro (just to name a few!).

I didn't find out until later that Ramen Street was just around the corner - gahhhh! Next time, next time . . .

To relax, I took the monorail train across the beautiful Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba, a manmade island right in Tokyo Bay that offers gorgeous views of Tokyo, funky futuristic architecture (reminds me of Tomorrowland in Disneyland), as well as many recreational activities.

On my first night dining alone, I visited a two-star Michelin kaiseki place whose "mother ship" restaurant in Kyoto actually has three Michelin Stars. Matsutake mushrooms were in season at the time, and I had a sublime soup made out of them.

Bryan has always wanted to try really, really good Japanese beef, so we tried ukai-gyu, top quality black beef (a breed of Wagyu) at a one-star Michelin Japanese teppanyaki place. Bryan's thoughts? "Best steak I've ever had in my life."

Tempura is treated very, very seriously here in Japan, to the point that it's an art form. I trekked out into the "burbs" in order to enjoy ethereal seasonal tempura (uni & shiso on left and gingko nuts on the right) made by a famous tempura-maker who essentially came out of retirement to open his own shop.

Although we tried more of a variety of food, we had to at least eat some sushi in Tokyo. After all, sushi is really one of Tokyo's specialties. We sampled different types of uni (sea urchin) from two different regions at this one-Michelin star sushi place in Ginza.

We weren't allowed to take pictures at this tiny, seven-seater two-star Michelin sushi restaurant, where the entire meal is prepared solely by the sushi master and his wife.

And finally, the epitome of our trip - a chance to try sushi made by the eighty-six year old master (first ever to get three Michelin stars for sushi) in a tiny, basement shop right inside the Ginza subway station.

It was a fabulous yet whirlwind trip (we were there for only 5 and a half days!), and I can't wait to share the details of it with you. Stay tuned!


P.S. Yes, you're supposed to eat nigiri with your hands.

"Pho" inspired Grilled Steak with Mint, Cilantro, and Lime

This post is part of a larger series devoted to a Molecular Gastronomy focused meal I made: Molecular Gastronomy with an Asian Twist. Other posts in this series include Spherification (making "caviar".

I am really starting to think that Southeast Asian cuisine is one of my favorites in the world.

I'm addicted to the fragrant and exotic herbs and spices typically used in the cuisine, From floral lemongrass and herbaceous Thai basil to the intensity of fish sauce and Sriracha sauce - I love it all.

This steak recipe incorporates many Southeast Asian flavors, adding an intense but flavorful kick to an otherwise mundane grilled steak recipe.

I tried it with skirt steak the first time, which worked out OK, but I may recommend trying a nicer cut, such as flank steak, if you want to avoid the chewier, stringier texture of skirt steak.


The elements of this dish are simple: a nice piece of steak, Southeast Asian herbs (mint, cilantro, shallots or onions), and chili flakes (to add some heat!).

Mix together all these chopped herbs.

Add soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, and the meat and mix it all together. If you are using a traditional grill, put all this in a Ziploc bag and let it marinate for at least 1 hour, if not longer (preferably overnight).

In my case, I sealed it up in a vacuum bag and cooked it sous vide for 3 hours.

Simply grill according to the doneness you prefer (I highly recommend medium rare), and serve! This tastes great over salads, on top of noodles, or just on its own.

"Pho" Inspired Grilled Steak
Adapted from Food & Wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 pound steak (I used skirt steak)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped

Sous vide
Combine in a vacuum seal bag with steak and cook sous vide at 125° F for 3 hours. Remove from bag, dry the meat, and quickly sear on the grill just enough to get a nice sear. Serve immediately (sous vide steaks do not need to rest - they are already perfectly cooked inside!)

For more details about the sous vide method for cooking steaks, click here.

Grilling
Combine all ingredients in a Ziploc bag and marinated for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Before grilling, sprinkle kosher salt and pepper all over the steak.

If skirt steak, grill 2-3 minutes a side for a medium to medium rare steak. If a 2-lb flank steak (the usual size of a whole flank steak), grill 4-6 minutes on each side. Let rest, covered in foil, 10 minutes before slicing (against the grain!) and serving.

*note - whole flank steaks are usually 2 lbs, so just double the recipe above.

Pan-sear
For a perfect steak, use the oven to pan method described here.

Enjoy! Optionally pair with spherified Sriracha and hoisin sauce!