Rokurinsha (tsukemen ramen)

This is the second post in the series titled Tasting Tour of Tokyo detailing my recent trip to Japan. Other posts include Kikunoi Akasaka.

How do you find a good ramen place in Japan?

Easy - just look for the place with the longest lines. Japanese people absolutely adore their ramen and are very willing to patiently wait in long, organized lines in order to partake in this soul-satisfying hot bowl of noodles.

A perfect example would be Rokurinsha, a ramen shop that opened in 2005 in a quiet residential area in the Osaki district of Tokyo. Although it was a bit out of the way, the place was always packed, filled with lines that sometimes reached over 300 people on busy weekends. It was not unusual to show up at 11AM and wait about two hours before getting into the tiny 12-seater dining area.

Eventually in 2010, under much pressure from angry residential neighbors complaining about the crazy lines, Rokurisha closed its Osaki shop and re-opened elsewhere in the city.

The location most people talk about is the one inside Tokyo Station on Tokyo Ramen Street, a corridor full of ramen shops all in a row. A second one resides at the shopping complex at the Tokyo Sky Tree, Tokyo's newest attraction (and the tallest tower in the world).

The Tokyo Sky Tree is very, very tall and opened up to the public on May of 2012. The opening was so highly anticipated that some people waited in line for a week to get first dibs on tickets. Even now, it is quite popular with both tourists and locals alike. In fact, I waited over an hour in line before getting onto the uber fast elevator to the observatory.

It's quite fun to see Tokyo from such a height. I saw parts of the city I had never seen before (what is that cool area with all that water??)
 On a clear day, you can see many of the surrounding mountains, including Mt. Fuji.

If you're not afraid of heights, you can step onto the glass floor area and look all the way down. It's quite something!

Afterwards, you can head on over to Rokurinsha. Take the elevator back down and head over to the 6th floor of "Solamachi", the new shopping complex that's connected to Tokyo Sky Tree. Yes, there will be a line, of course (it wraps around the entire restaurant). What do you expect?

At least they have chairs for the people who have waited in line for quite awhile. Once you get to the chairs section, you also get a copy of the menu to peruse.

You have to purchase your "tickets" for the ramen before you enter the restaurant. The prices are quite reasonable, with most bowls being somewhere around 850-1050 yen range (about $10-$12 US).

After about an hour, we were finally seated! We had awesome seats at the bar, which was great. It was fun watching the chefs making the ramen right behind the counter.

They give you bibs because they think it's so messy!

After all, Rokurinsha specializes in tsukemen, or dipping noodles. You get your noodles and broth separately, and then you just dip the noodles into the soup. This explains why you may sometimes make a mess.

I'm not sure if the noodles were freshly made on site (perhaps not), but the texture was still excellent. They were super thick, very chewy, and really fun to eat.

But the star of the show was the gorgeously thick broth. I really think it was one of the best bowls of ramen I'd ever had in my life. The tonkotsu (pork bone) and dried fish based broth is stewed for over 13 hours. This results in a deeply flavorful broth that's brimming with umami. The bonito flakes on top add even more umami, making the entire soup oh-so-satisfying to eat.

The egg is boiled just the right amount to retain that soft, almost gelatinous center. Here I've dipped some of my noodles into my broth.

It was a fantastic meal. Because I had waited in multiple lines by lunchtime (both at the Sky Tree and then in the ramen restaurant line), I was famished by the time these noodles were laid in front of me. I was happy about the bib, as I'm sure I splashed some broth around in my attempts at dipping the noodles.

By the way, it's perfectly OK to making slurping sounds while eating your noodles in Japan. In fact, you should slurp. It shows that you are really enjoying your noodles.  It's almost more rude not to slurp, since the chef may think you don't like the noodles.

So slurp away!

I was thrilled to discover that they sold takeaway packs for Rokurinsha ramen at home. Definitely not cheap at around $15 a pack (serves two people I believe), I bought one to take back with me to the US so that Bryan could try it too. Unfortunately, I could not buy the pork that they sold (no meat products!), but I'm really excited to try their packaged noodles + dried soup base to see how good it is!

In short, I cannot recommend this place highly enough . Granted, I haven't tried that many ramen places in Tokyo (after all, I've been focusing on sushi for quite sometime my past few trips). However, the rest of Tokyo seems to be vouching for this place as well, evidenced by the insane lines at all of its branches. Is it any surprise that the branch of Rokurinsha at Tokyo Ramen Street always has the longest line?

Definitely check out this place if you're visiting Tokyo. It's worth the wait. I promise.

Reminder - today's the last day to enter the Radisson Hotel free night's stay Giveaway. Winner will be announced tomorrow.

Kikunoi (Akasaka)

This is the first post in the series titled Tasting Tour of Tokyo detailing my recent trip to Japan.

One negative aspect of being a tag-along on your husband's business trip is that you're often alone. After all, he's in the destination to work, which means he can't hang out with you during much of the trip.

Thankfully, Tokyo is an easy city to navigate, and at this point, I know it quite well. I was perfectly happy to spend my afternoons shopping, exploring, and even visiting friends while he was at his conference.

Unfortunately, there were a few nights where he had business dinners and couldn't even eat with me.

Last time that happened, I bought simple take-out at the local depachika (basement of the department store) and ate in my hotel room. This time, I decided to head out into the city and dine solo at one of the most famous kaiseki establishments in Tokyo.

Kikunoi specializes in Japanese kaiseki cuisine, a traditional, multi-course, Japanese meal. Kaiseki meals typically involve the use of fresh, seasonal ingredients prepared in such a way as to emphasize their flavors. The entire experience is a big part of kaiseki cuisine, and therefore the ambiance of the surroundings as well as the artistic presentation of the food are also very, very important.

Kaiseki has been around for over 500 years, starting back in the 1600's when Sen no Rikyu, a tea master in Kyoto, felt that the powdered green tea used during tea ceremonies was too strong for an empty stomach, and needed some food to accompany it.

The original kaiseki meals consisted of just miso soup with three sides, but over the years they have evolved significantly, turning into one of Japan's most elaborate and high-end cuisines. Naturally, Kyoto is famous for its kaiseki cuisine, and houses some of the most famous restaurants.

Yoshihiro Murata is one of the most famous kaiseki chefs in Japan. He has his own TV show and owns three restaurants in both Kyoto and Tokyo, totaling 7 Michelin Stars.

Chef Murata practices a form of modern kaiseki that draws influence from many difference sources, such as imperial palace cuisine, the traditional tea ceremony, shojin ryori (vegetarian temple cuisine), and obanzai (traditional Kyoto cuisine that includes tofu, gluten, vegetables). Murata also derives inspiration from other well-known chefs, such as the famous Ferran Adria (with whom he is close friends) and Nobu Matsuhisa.

Kikunoi is Chef Murata's prized creation. The original flagship Kyoto branch (Kikunoi Honten) boasts three Michelin stars, while the other two "offshoots" (Roan Kikunoi in Kyoto and Akasaka Kikunoi in Tokyo) each have 2 Michelin stars.

Since I didn't quite have enough time to zip to Kyoto on a shinkansen (bullet train), I "settled" for the Tokyo branch in Akasaka.

Like many Japanese restaurants, Kikunoi has a bar area that makes solo dining much nicer. You can interact with the chefs and also watch them cook.

Although the staff's command of English was only so-so, they did have Chef Murata's colorful kaiseki ryori book which includes pages describing (in English!) important details about the dishes I was enjoying.  Furthermore, they had English language menus, which was very helpful.

For dinner, you get a choice between three set-menus. The price difference is based on the expense of the ingredients. Matsutake mushrooms (which are very expensive) were in season during the fall, and thus set menus that included lots of the prized mushrooms naturally cost a lot more.

The prices are 15,750 yen, 18,900 yen, or 21,000 yen. Seeing how weak the US dollar is these days (about 79 yen for every US dollar) , that definitely hurts!

I went with the cheapest one, partly because it had a bit less meat and because it still focused quite strongly on matsutake mushrooms, which I love.
I gasped when the first course came - it was so utterly beautiful. Made to conjure up the image of one "watching the moon from a boat on a lake", this exquisite dish features many seasonal ingredients. Let's take a closer look.

The Grilled Saury Sushi at left was topped with a strongly marinated sea bream which was quite "fishy" and salty. The single pink peppercorn on top gave the entire bite a nice "pop" of flavor that I liked. In the middle front, we have Grilled Chestnut Paste (shaped like a dumpling), while in the back we have Roe bearing Ayu (sweet fish) poached with sansho peppercorns. On the very right, a  half-cut lime is filled with Prawn Marinated in Shao Xing Wine. The alcohol made the dish a bit bitter, almost boozy like Sojo.

Because gingko nuts were in season, we enjoyed a small sampling of Glazed Ginko Nuts topped with a gingko-leaf shaped chip. I loved the gingko nuts. They were warm, lightly salted, and toasted with sake and salt. The intricate pine needles are actually dried green tea noodles, which surprised me with its strong tea flavor!

Next came the Poached Baby Kabura Turnip topped with walnut miso sauce and crushed walnuts. This local Kyoto dish is traditionally served with yuzu miso. Chef Murata's own version uses a beautiful, creamy walnut miso paste which was really, really good. Though I usually don't like walnuts, I couldn't stop eating this dish. The flavorful, umami laden miso sauce worked well to balance the light, steamed turnip, which reminded me of boiled daikon.

Sashimi of Butter Fish and Tai (Red Sea Bream) came with pickled chrysanthemum petals and freshly grated wasabi. The tai was chewy and had a very clean flavor. A flavorful, salty "gel" was sandwiched between one of the fish slices and added flavor to the entire dish. The pickled chrysanthemum was pleasantly not-too-sour, The texture reminded me of tiger lilies we used to eat in Chinese soups.

The next course was Sashimi of Koshibi (young bluefin tuna) topped with a small dab of mustard and served with a soy-marinated egg yolk sauce. The young tuna was buttery soft and picked up the thick, eggy sauce quite nicely. The flavor of this dish was excellent, although it didn't stand out as being particularly unique or unusual.

This next dish was one of my favorites all evening. Hamo (pike eel), Matsutake (pine mushroom), and Mitsuba Herb steamed in a teapot with Sudachi Lime. I love Matsutake mushrooms, and in my opinion, any broth made with these oh-so-expensive mushrooms is heavenly. The eel added needed umami to the fragrant, herbaceous broth. After slowly savoring the golden elixir sip by sip, I opened up the tea pot and ate all the mushrooms inside. The Sudachi lime added a nice, bright citrusy splash to the strong savory notes of the dish (though I don't think I was supposed to pour the tea over the lime - oops!).

The next bite, Salmon Roe with Grated Radish, sounds simple yet was surprisingly really, really good. The slight bitterness of the daikon was nicely balanced by the briny roe.

At this point I was already getting really, really stuffed. Honestly, I almost groaned when I saw the next dish - two whole Salt-Grilled Ayu (Sweetfish) with Roe.  Nevertheless, I had to admit it was an absolutely beautiful presentation.

The chef placed two perfectly grilled fish, sliced so that the roe was spilling out, onto a bed of pine (?) needles and autumn leaves.

I was definitely a bit squeamish about eating a whole fish. I had watched the Japanese ladies to my right eat this, and they polished the entire thing off -head and all! At the end, I couldn't bear to eat those eyes staring at me, so I left the head.

Objectively, the dish was perfectly executed. The fish nicely grilled with a gorgeous char and a crispy tail. Although it was tasty, the dish didn't strike me as mind-blowing (though, to be fair, I was getting stuffed at this point).

Almost like a break, the next course was refreshingly light, a salad filled with Mibuna Greens (A variety of mizuna), Grilled Shitake Mushrooms, Grilled Maitake (Hen of the Woods) Mushroom, and Trout Roe tossed together in a sasame and ponzu dressing. Edible flowers completed the colorful display.

I really liked the use of bonito flakes, which add a bit of umami to the very leafy salad. The flavors were nice, though the salad did not quite strike me as a Michelin-level dish.

The final main savory course was an Anago (sea eel) Baked Custard with Lilly Bulb, Carrots, Shimeji Mushrooms, Mistuba Herb, and Yuzu. The custard was very light and delicate, reminding me of the steamed Japanese egg custard chawanmushi. The custard was only lightly salted, giving you an opportunity to really taste delicate nuances of all the seasonal ingredients inside.

Finally (I was sooo full at this point), they brought over a HUGE bowl of Steamed Rice brimming with Matsutake Mushrooms, Mitsuba Herbs, and Yuzu. I was so sad that I was so full. I sampled just a tiny bite.

I was so surprised when the chef offered to wrap the rest up for me to take home. He wrapped it up so nicely, it was like I was taking a gift home. I'm so glad that 1) we had a refrigerator in the hotel room and 2) I was able to eat more of the rice at the airport on my way back to Boston.
Yum!
Finally, for dessert, I had Hojicha (Roasted Green Tea) Ice Cream with a Rum-Raisin-Fig cake. The tea ice cream was the best part, full of that strong, roasted tea flavor. The cake was dense, cold, and only OK (reminded me of fruitcake a little).

*  *  *  *  *

General Notes
This place is really, really hard to find on foot. I took the subway to Akasaka (cute neighborhood, by the way) and then tried walking to the location, using my phone GPS as my navigation guide. Even though I was almost standing right on top of the restaurant, it still took me about 15 minutes of wandering before I could find how to get in. It turns out the entrance is in a back alley, down a dark, bamboo-lined path (see top picture). Perhaps if you take a cab it will drop you right in front!

Service here is excellent, and the staff took really good care of me. On my way out, they offered to take a picture of me at the door. One of the chefs also walked with me down the dark, wooded path until I got the the lit road just to make sure I was OK.

As for the food, it was good, but I'm not sure if I would come back. Sure, there were some dishes that I loved, such as the Matsutake Soup, Matsutake rice, and the gingko beans. However, there were many other dishes that I only thought were good, but not mind-blowing. I also thought the food portions were way too big, and that affected my enjoyment of the entire experience near the end.
Overall, however, it was a fascinating experience. I loved the focus on seasonal ingredients and the artistry of the food was really an integral part of the entire meal. I learned I love fall ingredients, especially Matsutake mushrooms and gingko beans.

This is only my first kaiseki experience, so jury's still out on what I think of the cuisine style as a whole. In general, their raw fish dishes aren't as good as those from the top sushi places. However, I do enjoy the interesting variety of cooking methods and flavors.

Can't wait to try more!

Giveaway! Free night stay at the Radisson Hotel

Rome, Italy

Before we start our Tasting Tour of Tokyo series, we'll have this fun little travel related giveaway.

As many of you know, I love, love, love to travel. I love exploring new cultures, new landscapes, and (of course), new cuisines. Food is, naturally, a huge part of any of my trips, and I always do tons of research before choosing where to eat on each trip.

6-mile hike along the coastline of the island at Santorini, Greece

I also have been getting into photography a lot more lately, and it's been really fun to explore new cities and countries behind the photographer's lens. I've gotten to the point where the photos are really my main "souvenir" from each trip, and I hardly bring anything physical back with me these days (with the exception of some local snacks, of course!).

Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada

Of course, lodging's a big part of travel, and something I almost never talk about on this blog. The quality of your lodging can make or break a vacation, especially when you're in a foreign country where you really don't know how things work. I've often relied heavily on hotel concierges for help regarding various things, and they can make such a difference depending on how good they are.

Just a couple weeks ago, I was in Australia and stayed at a Radisson Hotel in Sydney. The location was fantastic and the free wifi in-room was really, really helpful (and not something we got everywhere else on our trip). The hotel breakfast was pretty pricey, but I just skipped out on dining there and walked right outside where there were endless choices for food.

China Pavilion in Shanghai at the World Expo, 2010

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm participating as one of 50 bloggers in Radisson's celebratory giveaway event called "50 Years, 50 Days, 50 Rooms." In honor of the hotel's 50th anniversary, they are giving away fifty free night vouchers over a span of 50 days.

I'll be running the Giveaway for one week, ending on Monday, December 10th. To enter, please comment below telling me what kind of posts are your favorite here on Tiny Urban Kitchen (and what you'd like to see more of . . ). For a second entry, please comment on this facebook post telling me where you would travel if you got the free voucher. Maximum 2 entries per person.

Yosemite National Park, USA

The free night voucher is valid for one free night, standard room, double occupancy at any North American Radisson Blu or Radisson hotel of the winner’s choice. The voucher expires one year after issue date. The full terms and conditions are located on the room night voucher.

Good luck!


Disclaimer - Radisson is providing the free hotel stays both to the winner of this giveaway as well as to Tiny Urban Kitchen as a thank you for participating in this event. I fully paid for the Radisson stay in Australia detailed in the post above.

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.