Archive for December, 2008

Hakataya Kamata-ten (元祖もつ鍋居酒屋 博多屋 蒲田店)

Published
by
seat
on December 24, 08
in 03:Japanese
. 8 Comments Tags: .

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A friend took us to this local Hakata-style motsu-nabe place in Kamata. Reservation is a must as it is very popular. You can only stay for 2 hours but then you don’t really need more than that.
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ハツ刺し。山芋ステーキ。
Hatsu-sashi - raw heart. Yamaimo(mountain yam) steak - don’t know why it is called steak while it is actually a fluffy omelette/pancake. Very nice though!
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じゃがいもめんたい。豆腐めんたい。
We tried almost everything from the “Mentaiko series”. Left pic: Potato and Mentaiko. Right pic: Tofu and Mentaiko.
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なすめんたい。めんたいホウレンソウ。
Aubergine and Mentaiko. Spinach and Mentaiko.
The spinach one is stir-fried with butter while the other three are grilled with cheese. They are nice but they taste pretty similar - trying 1 or 2 is actually enough. There are other common Izakaya dishes in the menu like “yakiton”(pork version of yakitori) but we didn’t order.
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The main is of course Motsu-nabe, which is soy sauce based. The motsu is really nice! Noodles or rice are added to the soup at the end.

At first I thought each dish was a bit small(especially the hatsu-sashi), and we ordered the motsu-nabe for 3 people(we were a group of 4) but it wasn’t quite enough so we asked for one more portion. However, when the bill came we were really surprised…only about 2000yen per person! We got a coupon from the homepage below and got ourselves a free drink each so that contributed to the cheap price, but still!

Menu(J): 1, 2, 3, 4.

元祖もつ鍋居酒屋 博多屋 蒲田店(Hakataya Kamata-ten)
Add: 2F, 7-4-6 Nishi-Kamata, Oota-ku.
Tel: 03-3736-1666

Ceylon Inn (セイロン・イン)

Published
by
seat
on December 15, 08
in 04:Other Cuisines and Favourite Food Entries
. 1 Comment Tags: .

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Dinner at a Sri Lankan restaurant near Nakameguro.
Patis - Sri Lankan Samosa with minced chicken and potato. Vegetable Godamba Rotti. Cutlets - Sri Lankan croquette with fish.
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Mutton curry. Fish curry.
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Pol Sambola - shredded, lime, garlic, chilli etc. String hopper.
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Cashew nuts curry. Egg Roti.
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Kottu Roti. Plain Roti.

Absolutely delicious food. Chef is Sri Lankan. Spicy but not overly spicy that my tongue goes numb and can’t taste anything. Small restaurant busy with ever-coming customers throughout a Saturday night. Reasonably priced - 4 people share all the food plus a beer and a Masala chai each, about 3500yen per person. My favourites of the night: Pol Sambola, Cashew nuts curry, Kottu Roti. Don’t forget to print out the coupon from the homepage to get free Lassi.

Menu: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Ceylon Inn (セイロン・イン)
Add: 2-7-8, Kami-meguro, Meguro-ku
Tel: 03-3716-0440

Tempura Kondo (天ぷら 近藤)

Published
by
seat
on December 10, 08
in 03:Japanese, 05:銀座・新橋・日本橋 and Favourite Food Entries
. 4 Comments Tags: .

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From 8400yen “Fuji” dinner course. Prawn head.
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Two prawn.
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Asparagus. Shiitake mushroom.
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Kisu - white sillago fish. Renkon - lotus root.
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Haze(Goby). Small onion(tongue-burningly hot!).
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Anago. Satsumaimo taro(pic shows 1/4 cut) is not included in any of the courses but it is a MUST order. It takes a long time to make so you must order at the beginning.
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Kakiage(with lots of scallop) tendon. You can also choose chazuke with the kakiage, or have kakiage and rice come separately. I wanted to try the sweet sauce so I opted for the tendon but to enjoy the crispiness, it is probably better to have it come on a separate plate.
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“La france” pear.

Kondo is so famous that I think every foodie interested in dining in Tokyo knows. Somehow the idea of a 9F floor high-end restaurant in Ginza with only counter seats made me a little nervous before going, but to my surprise the atmosphere is totally casual and the staff are friendly. We sat in front of Kondo-san but there is a comfortable amount of space in between and he was busy making the food anyway so we were quite happy to be left alone. He cooks for other customers too and the younger chef also cooks for us so I guess it doesn’t really matter where you sit. We had the cheapest course with 2 prawn, 3 fish and 4 veggy, which is actually quite enough. The ingredients are all top-notch and fresh that I ended up eating them with just salt and sudachi and didn’t want to “spoil” them by dipping into the sauce with grated raddish. We were there for about 2 hours and as far as we could see, the oil(100% white sesame oil) was changed 3 times. I saw other customers ordering uni and shirako which looked so amazing that I couldn’t help drooling…too bad my friends were all too stuffed. I haven’t been to that many high-end tempura places so I can’t say much but I totally enjoyed the meal in Kondo.

Tempura Kondo (天ぷら 近藤)
Add: 9F, 5-5-13 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-5568-0923

インドカレーカーマ (Indo kare Kama)

Published
by
seat
on December 2, 08
in 08:神田・神保町・秋葉原
. 2 Comments Tags: .

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チキンカレー、￥８５０。 Chicken Curry.
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0808040009野菜カレー、￥８５０。キーマカレー、￥８５０。
Vegetable curry. Keema curry.

Nice Indian curry shop near Jimbocho. There are only three kinds of curry available at lunch time. Chicken curry is the hottest and I like it the best. Keema curry is nice too but a bit salty for me. Veggy curry is not spicy at all - very sweet with yogurty taste. Kinda healthy home-cooking feel with very little oil.

I read some reviews complaining that the chef and the madam can get a little rude if you order vegetable curry during busy lunch hour because it takes too much time to prepare….I tried ordering it at very late lunch hour when there were no other customers but the madam said they had run out. I went back another day at very early lunch hour(when the shop just opened) and ordered vegetable curry again and the madam seemed reluctant to take the order at first(so the rumour is true…) but she gave in and only warned me that it is not spicy at all. What a strange curry shop….^^;;;
Menu(J) here.

インドカレーカーマ
Add: 1-2-3, Sarugakucho, Chiyoda-ku
Tel: 03-3233-8787