Kaoriya Soba (Ebisu)

This is the fourth post in the series titled Tasting Tour of Tokyo detailing my recent trip to Japan. Other posts include Kikunoi Akasaka, Rokurinsha, and Mikawa Zezankyo.

Who doesn't love a hidden gem that's so authentic the menu's basically only in Japanese, and the place is filled with only Japanese people?

Sure, in some ways these restaurants are intimidating. You can't read the menu, and you have to struggle your way (with a mixture of broken Japanese and English) to figure out what to order. On the other hand, the experience is real.

Bryan and I visited this quaint little soba shop in Ebisu twice. The first time, we went alone and braved it, entering this cozy place by ourselves. The second time, it just so happened that Bryan's Japanese co-workers decided to invite us to dine there with them.

It was really interesting to experience the same restaurant from both side: that of a clueless tourist and that of an inside "friend" of a local Japanese person.

First Meal - Solo
Kaoriya is cozy inside, with a long wooden communal table that a majority of the diners share. It's tiny, and as you can see, fills up pretty quickly.

There's a peanut that acts as your chopsticks holder. The menu consists of sheets of rice paper bound together with string, filled with Japanese characters written in artistic brush strokes. Everything feels like the opposite of "modern."

As a free "snack", everyone receives a small bowl of lightly salted puffed soba wheat, which is delicious.  It's crunchy, airy, just lightly toasted, with just a touch of oil (maybe sesame oil?). I find myself really wishing they sold this in stores.

At the beginning of our first visit, the server hands us the string-bound menu filled with pages and pages in Japanese. Of course we can't read it.

"eego no menu, arimasu ka?" I ask (do you have an English menu?)

The server runs back and hands us one white piece of paper. There are about 10 items on it.

"Soba only" she replies.

Well, it's all we can do at this point. We can tell by looking at the other guests that the menu includes a lot more than soba. However, this is a soba house after all, and that's why we came, so we're OK ordering their specialty.

After much contemplation, Bryan orders the soba with the quail egg and mountain yam.

The mountain yam is sticky and starchy, and with much agitation, mixes well with the quail egg yolk and soy-based soba sauce.

The homemade soba is fabulous, gorgeous al dente, chewy, and nutty.

It comes in two sizes, so we try both.

Though they are both good, Bryan proclaims that he prefers the thicker one, mostly because of it's chewier texture, but also because it's more unique and harder to find.

At the end of the meal, the server offers to add hot soba broth to your dipping sauce. At that point, you drink the entire cup like a bowl of soup. It reminds us of the time we got fresh soba at Nobu's Mastsuhisa in L.A.

Second Meal - with Coworkers
Our second visit occurs about 3 days after our first visit. This time, we are guided by two of Bryan's Japanese coworkers.

We tell them how we felt stuck the first time, limited by the "soba only" menu.

Our host immediately begins ordering all sorts of interesting snacks and appetizers, none of which showed up on the English menu. I'm happy to report that everything is tasty and very reasonably priced. I can totally see why this place is popular with the locals.

I *think* this is a Japanese potato salad of sorts, but I regret to say I can't remember exactly!

Assorted shrimp and vegetable tempura are all expertly fried and quite good. Of course, it's not the same as high-end tempura, but then it costs about 1/10th the price. It's an excellent value.

Sliced fish cakes with assorted accompaniments.

Smoked miso paste is served with fresh cucumbers and scallions (it's sort of like a veggie dip on umami steroids).

Japanese omelet topped with scallions and served with shredded daikon.

Cold tuna salad with local greens.

Of course everyone also eats soba. We still order it as our main entree after having all these snacks.

Apparently this place is also well known for their selection of soju (Korean distilled alcoholic beverage) and sake (Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice). A big part of coming here is to start off by enjoying some spirits alongside these "snacks."

I must say, I really do not like the soju. Compared to sake, I find it much harsher, less sweet, and overall more "boozy." Perhaps it's the particular bottle we ordered, but we end up sticking with beer the rest of the evening!


Overall, we really like this little gem. It's not too far from the Ebisu JR station, and is a perfect place for a casual yet high quality meal. The prices are quite reasonable. I think most of the soba dishes are in the 1000 yen to 2000 yen range, which is pretty decent considering how weak the US dollar is these days (though I believe it's gone up quite a bit since we were there). Add on a few appetizers and drinks, you should be able to easily get out of there for well under $50 USD a person all inclusive.
 
I can't deny it though. The overall experience feels much more complete with our Japanese hosts. All is not lost, though. After all, at the end of the day, our favorite dish at the restaurant is still the soba.

I guess the bottom line is: even if you can't speak a lick of Japanese, you can still come to Kaoriya and enjoy the best food they have to offer. However, if you want the entire authentic experience, it's still better to come with some Japanese friends.

Related Posts:
Soba Koh (New York City)
Matsuhisa (Los Angeles)
Hand Pulled Noodles (video tutorial)
Guchi's Midnight Ramen Pop Up (Boston)

Sycamore

We had such a great thing going. Why did it have to be cut short so soon?

Bryan and I moved into the neighborhood just north of Harvard Square a little over a year ago. After ten years, we had gotten quite comfortable living between Central and Harvard Square (where we'd established our favorite haunts). It was a bit unsettling to start all over when we moved.

Thankfully, we soon discovered Ten Tables, a cozy, quaint little restaurant tucked away on a residential street just a few minutes' walk away from our new home.

Chef David Punch was super friendly and showered us with warm hospitality every time we visited. Soon, we became regulars, preferring to sit up front at the newly installed bar so that we could chat with Dave, mostly about our common passion: food.

One day - out of the blue - we arrived at Ten Tables to learn that Chef David Punch was no longer there. He had left to open his own restaurant in Newton Center. Chef Dan Janus (who had been sous chef while Dave was there) had been promoted to executive chef.

Newton?? Why so far away, Dave??

We knew we had to visit our old friend and say hello. A couple days after Sycamore opened in December, we drove through rush hour traffic (yes, it took 45 minutes from Cambridge) to visit Chef Dave Punch and his new digs.

The menu at Sycamore is divide into four sections: snacks ($4-$7), starters ($9-$13), mains ($19-$25), and sides ($5-$6). Some of Dave's signature dishes from Ten Tables, such as his incredible boudin blanc, have made their way over to the Sycamore menu.

The plan is to change the menu relatively frequently, guided by the seasonality of ingredients and Dave's imagination.

We ran into some friends who were dining there that same night. After exchanging pleasantries, they got straight to the point.

"You have to get the gougeres. They are transcendent."

That got my attention. These friends of mine do not use the word "transcendent" lightly.  It sounded like we had to try some for ourselves. The Warm Gougeres, which Dave calls "alpine cheese puffs", is a "snack" that's sold for only $4. We immediately placed an order for gougeres.

Warm Gougeres $4

The gougeres were delicious. They were light and airy, yet had a substantial and deep cheese flavor at the same time. Instead of being thick and dense, oozing out cheesiness like some gougeres I've had, these were more like pillows - light as a feather. You could eat these all day and not feel weighed down.

In fact, our friends liked the gougeres so much they decided to get two additional orders as their dessert.

I kid you not.

Because we really didn't know what to order, we just asked Dave to "cook for us." We gave him complete free reign in deciding which dishes he wanted to share.

Keep that in mind while you look at these pictures. While some of them may reflect the actual size of the dish on the menu, in other cases he may have scaled down the portion sizes since we ended up eating 5-6 courses.

We started with the  Roasted Beet Salad, a "special of the day" that is not on the regular menu. This particular salad came with pistachios and a horseradish (or was it parsnip?) cream. As I've come to expect from Dave, the ingredients were fresh and excellent quality.  I love beets in general, and I liked having the combination of red and golden beets. It was a great way to begin the meal.

The Grilled R.I. Squid came next served over pinquito beans, arugula, braised cardoons, and crispy black olives ($13). Chef Dave is a master at cooking rustic, flavorful dishes, and this was no exception. The Mediterranean-inspired flavors came together beautifully, and the squid was incredibly soft and tender. They were barely cooked (that's a good thing!) and had absolutely no hint of that rubbery texture you see too often with overcooked squid.

Dare I say this? It was the best squid I'd had since the squid sashimi I had at Sukiyabashi Jiro in Japan.

This dish was most definitely a winner and probably my favorite of the night.

The Roasted Fluke, a main dish, came with crispy potatoes, artichokes, and garlic confit. It was served with this vividly green herb puree and topped with a Meyer lemon chip. The fish was executed well, with simple but solid well-balanced flavors.

The Handmade Agnolotti (a "starter"  on the menu) became a mid pastas course for us. It was tossed with sage in a savory roasted bird jus sauce. The texture of the agnolotti was excellent (yay fresh pasta), and the roasted bird jus gave the dish an intense, deep umami flavor.

One of the most special items on the menu is the Hudson Valley Duck Board for two for $60. On this board, you'll enjoy duck prepared a number of ways - roasted breast, leg confit, grilled sausage, and duck marmalade. The board also includes chestnut puree, grilled pear, parsnip mostarda, and cranberry compote.

The picture above only shows you a portion of the duck board. My friends had ordered it and had already started eating it when we arrived at the restaurant. I was able to snap a photo of most of the board (looks like the leg confit and the breast are still intact, but maybe they ate all the sausage?).

Dave also served us various bites from the duck board, such as the leg confit over crostini.

Dave's house-made duck sausage was fantastic served with a little bit cranberry compote.

The roasted duck breast was gorgeously cooked (look at how pink it is on the inside!) and came served with the grilled pear (also part of the normal duck board). Our friends were very impressed with the entire duck board, and I must say that all the little bites we had were excellent. This was another one of our favorites from the evening's "tasting."

For dessert, the server highly recommended the Lemon Pot de Crème, which came topped with huckleberries and served with a side of rosemary shortbread ($9). Bryan and I both loved this dessert. The  pot de creme was rich and creamy yet well balanced by the tartness of the sweet huckleberries. I loved the intense fruit flavors that came from the huckleberries as well.

I would definitely order this again.
 Bryan got the Warm Beignets ($8), which came with apple butter and canela crème anglaise.  Not surprisingly, these were delicious, though I've had good beignets in lots of places. It's a safe stand-by, but I personally found the lemon pot de creme to be a much more interesting dessert.

Overall, we were very impressed with all of the food. For a restaurant that's only been open for less than a week, we were pleased with how smoothly everything went. The place wasn't completely packed, which probably made it easier. Chef Dave said they wanted to open quietly and softly so they could slowly ramp things up. Honestly, they seem to have it together pretty well already.

Chef Dave Punch is really talented, and it's exciting to see him finally open up his own place. I can't wait to see what he dreams up once spring arrives and he has the whole bounty of spring produce with which to experiment.

Expect rustic, flavorful dishes that are executed really, really well. You won't see anything too crazy here (no foams or weird gels). After all, Chef Dave is more of a traditionalist when it come to cooking ("kids these days can use all these fancy gadgets yet don't even know how to properly grill a fish!"). He uses age-old techniques, but executes with extreme precision and skill. Sometimes I swear the food he cooks is so tender it must be done via sous vide, even though I know it hasn't. The guy's just that good.

I'm still a bit sad he's not in my 'hood anymore, but I'm also really excited for him. Opening up Sycamore is a fantastic opportunity, and I'm sure he'll do really well.

And it's not like Ten Tables disappeared. In fact, Chef Dan has been doing a great job as executive chef so far, and we still continue to frequent Ten Tables. At the end of the day, perhaps the biggest blessing of all is that Boston gets to gain an excellent restaurant without losing another one.

Win win, I say.

(especially for you folks who live in Newton)
Sycamore
755 Beacon St
Newton, MA 02459

French Lentil Soup (lentilles du Puy) with Bacon and Fennel

I confess.

I haven't really been cooking that much.

Or, at least I haven't been cooking "blog-worthy" stuff for awhile. Perhaps it's the busy-ness of life, or maybe I need motivation, and there hasn't been anything as epic since Project Food Blog to really motivate me to stretch my imagination and creativity.

I've realized I'm a goal-oriented person. If there's a specific person, event, or . . heck, competition for which I'm cooking, I'll easily go all out. My brain's creative juices go crazy, and I dream up wild ideas with food. Left to my own devices, however, I'm actually quite boring.

So it's a new year. And I want to bring some fun cooking back to this blog. Thanks to an awesome birthday gift from Bryan last month, I think I may just be adequately motivated to start cooking really cool stuff again.

For my birthday just a little over a month ago, Bryan got me the coolest combination of "toys": Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine at Home and a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker.

You may have heard of the original Modernist Cuisine, a six volume, 2400 pages ($600!) set of books that explores modern cooking techniques. The book explores all sorts of different techniques, from water baths and homogenizers to centrifuges and liquid nitrogen.

This past year, they came out with a whittled down home version. Instead of requiring esoteric ingredients and strange lab equipment, you can pretty much execute most things in the Modernist Cuisine at Home if you have two major pieces: a sous vide machine and a pressure cooker. Since I already had the sous vide machine, Bryan got me a really nice pressure cooker with the book.

I decided to start easy. After all, I've always been scared of pressure cookers. The idea of scalding liquid under extreme pressure exploding in my face has always made me steer clear of pressure cookers.  I've had my share of lab accidents back when I used to be a chemist, and I'd sure as rather not re-visit those days.

One of the first dishes I decided to make was a twist on the traditional lentil soup. Instead of using normal mirepoix (carrots, onion, and celery), I switched out the celery with fennel root, which is a bit sweeter. I also added bacon because . . . well, bacon makes almost everything better.

Finally, I used French lentils (lentilles du Puy). These lentils are greenish in color and have a much more intense flavor than normal lentils. They also have less starch and cook up more "al dente" and less mushy, which I like.

I sauteed chopped bacon straight in the pressure cooker, and then added the carrots, fennel, onions, garlic, and the like. After it had all softened, I just dumped everything else in (lentils, herbs, broth), and closed up the pressure cooker. I monitored the pressure, turning down the heat whenever it looked like it was getting a bit high.

After about 13-14 minutes, I pressed down on the valve on top, which released the steam inside. It took about 1-2 minutes before it completely released. I think I actually ended up using tongs to press down on the button because the steam became very hot very fast! 

Finally, I opened up the pot and seasoned the soup to taste with just salt and pepper.

It was so easy. I couldn't believe I made such a gorgeous soup in less than 40 minutes.

Let me just say that the Kuhn Rikon works like a dream. I'm still flabbergasted at how much time I can save making soups, braised meats, etc. Bryan did a lot of research before buying this gift for me, and he claims it's the "Mercedes Benz" of pressure cookers.

I've just begun playing with it, but so far, I have to agree. This thing is really easy to use. The pot is really well aligned with two principles that are dear to my heart: saving time and saving energy. This does both.

Stay tuned as I begin a new Modernist/Pressure Cooker series on various dishes I make with these new toys.

Happy New Year!

Bacon & Fennel French Lentil Soup

Ingredients
3 strips of bacon (about 2-3 oz)
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 cup of green lentils, washed
1 small fennel bulb, finely diced
1-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken broth (or enough to cover lentils by 2 inches of liquid)

Cook bacon over medium heat in the pressure cooker until fat is rendered, about 5-6 minutes. Add carrots, onions, and fennel and cook until soften, about 10-15 minutes. Add broth, lentils, and herbs and cook for about 10-14 minutes at around 0.4 bar (5.8 psi). serve!

Notes: this recipe works fine with celery in place of fennel root. The flavors are a little less complex, but still perfectly enjoyable. Although I've never tried it, I'm guessing you can switch out the chicken broth for vegetable broth if you want to make this dish vegetarian.

Braised Lamb Osso Buco

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it's 2013?

Reflecting back, this holiday "break" has been really different from most holiday breaks I've had in years past. One major difference is that for the first time since we've been married, Bryan and I did not go back to California to visit his parents.

We had spent three weeks traveling around Australia and New Zealand with them in November, and essentially we had used up almost all of our vacation days for that trip.

So this holiday season, we spent a few days in Ohio with my parents before coming back to Boston to just chill at home.

After traveling so much, it was actually really, really nice to finally be at home. I felt like I hadn't seen my kitchen in ages. It was fun to finally, finally, experiment in the kitchen again. I cooked, baked, and did all sorts of fun things that I haven't had time to do in months.

I can't wait to share some of those kitchen exploits with you in the next few weeks.

For today though, I just wanted to share with you the insanely delicious (and easy!) dish I made for our New Years Eve dinner.
 
I have a friend Peter who's really into wine. I may have told you about him before. He's been collecting wine for years and is always looking for fun and creative ways to showcase the wines.

This year for New Years Eve he decided he wanted to do a French Bordeaux tasting.

He prepared an excellent presentation about the wine region in general, and we had an education tasting, I guess you could say.

It was a potluck style dinner, and therefore each person was responsible for bringing some sort of dish that would pair with Bordeaux. More than once, Peter not-so-subtly hinted at me that I should really make a lamb dish.

"I know you don't like lamb," he wrote, "but it's a great application for the pressure cooker."

It's true. I don't love that game-y distinct flavor of lamb, though I often eat it since Bryan loves is to much. And I agree, lamb is probably one of the best meats with which to pair French Bordeaux.

So I buckled under pressure. We also happened to find these lovely lamb osso buco pieces at Costco , which helped seal the deal.

I decided to try out my new pressure cooker, a gift from Bryan not too long ago (more on that soon!).

This dish is pretty straightforward and doesn't take that long if you have a pressure cooker. If you don't have a pressure cooker, it's still easy, but just takes a couple more hours.

 Sear the osso buco pieces until they are nicely browned on all sides. Remove from the pot.

Cook your lovely mirepoix ingredients - carrots, celery, and onions plus some garlic until soft.

Deglaze with wine. We went with a very good but not insanely expensive Carbernet-Merlot blend (2009 Château de France, Pessac-Léognan WS 93).  According to Peter, you should never cook with a wine that you would not be willing to drink. The quality of the wine most certainly affects the flavor of your dish.

After about 40 minutes in the pressure cooker, the lamb becomes fall-off-the-bone tender. I removed the meat and further reduced the liquid until it was slightly thick, like a nice, hearty sauce.

When I tasted the "sauce", I felt that it needed something to round it out a bit, so I melted just 2 tablespoons of butter into the mix. Finally, in order to brighten it up just a bit, I added a splash of sweet balsamic vinegar (the good thick stuff you usually eat with strawberries!).

Serve with gremolata, which further brightens the dish up perfectly.

Enjoy!

The dish was fantastic. The flavors were deep and hearty, yet well balanced by the brightness of the gremolata. I'm sure the fact that I used really good wine added to the beautiful flavors of the dish.

I would absolutely make this again, especially since I can make the entire dish in an hour with a pressure cooker!

Pressure Cooker Braised Lamb Osso Buco
Serves 4

4 pieces lamb osso buco
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

2-3 cups wine (can be white, red, or a mix of both)
1-2 T tomato paste
2-3 cups chicken stock (or enough to cover the shanks in the pan)

2 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tablespoons butter
1 -2 tsp sweet balsamic vinegar (optional)

Make sure pressure cooker pot is big enough to comfortably fit all the osso buco.

Over medium-high heat in the pressure cooker pot, sear all sides of the lamb osso buco in olive oil until browned. Remove from the pot. To the oil in the pan, add the chopped onion, celery, carrots, and garlic and cook until browned and aromatic (~20 minutes). Add the tomato paste and mix well. Add wine, turn up the heat, and deglaze the pan. Let the mixture cook for about 5-10 minutes to boil off some of the alcohol. Add the osso buco pieces back in, and pour in the chicken broth and tomato paste. Make sure that the meat is covered (or at least mostly covered) in liquid. Add bay leaves and rosemary. Cover and cook at the "1 red ring" level (around 0.4 bar (5.8 psi)) for about 45 minutes.

Release the pressure and remove the meat.

Making the "demi-glace"
Reduce the remaining liquid on medium-high heat until it is almost sauce-like.  If you think the sauce needs to be rounded out or brightened up, add butter (to round out) and/or sweet balsamic vinegar (to brighten). I added both, but it may depend on the nature of your broth, wine, lamb etc.

Serve the osso bucco with the sauce, optionally topped with gremolata.

For starch, consider serving with saffron rice or roasted potatoes.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can also make this dish in the oven. Check out my post on oven-braised lamb shanks. If you would prefer to make it over the stove top, check out my Milanese Veal Osso Buco post which uses that method.

Here's to 2013!