Tokyo is…Part 2: all about food

I was only able to spend two days in Tokyo - not nearly enough time to get a real big bite of it but just enough of a taste to know that I loved every minute and I want more! Etsuko-san, my Japanese tour guide and I spent the day doing something I love: eating and shopping for food. I have never had a guide before who was as into hanging out in all these different and uniquely Japanese food shops and knife stores (I wanted all the knives I saw - oh there were some beautiful Chefs knives just wanting me to get my hands on them) and department stores with entire floors dedicated to food (like we used to have in Canada which sadly no longer exist and please don't say food court - it is NOT the same thing). The things they sell: like perfect strawberries and I mean each one of them were perfect. Visually beautiful but I wondered about these Frankenstein creations and how they would taste. At 20 bucks a package for 12 strawberries I wasn't that curious. I saw beautiful, beautiful cuts of Wagyu (Kobe) beef, just lined and veined with white fat - so much so that you knew the minute that meat was cooked it would melt like butter in your mouth. Stores with Japanese curry which got me wanting some so we had it for lunch. It's thicker than the Indian style but still very good. We had fish soup with shaved pieces of katsuoubushi (dried fermented tuna which usually comes as whole fillet and shaved on special machines or you can get it in a package already pre-shaved ) which gives the broth that unique flavour found in Japanese soups and sauces. It is in everything, believe me!










If the place had food and its production at centre stage, Etsuko-san found it and as a result we had such a great day together capped off beautifully with plenty of sake at a sake store and bar she found on a street just off the Ginza. Etsuko is a self-confessed sake geek, but sake geek or not she knows her stuff and she is my go to gal if I have ANY questions about it. I'm hoping I can do a write up on her and knowledge of sake in the coming weeks because not only is she an expert but she also organizes sake tours in Japan which I think might be of interest to some people! Sake is non-pasteurized so it's an issue when it comes to shipping it to Canada – surprise.


So that was my day - not bad eh? So after two days of hanging out in this amazing city and a week in the country overall, it was time to hit the road again. I'm scheduled to head back to Seoul, Korea and then onwards to Indonesia.

Next up: Orangutans - uncomfortably up and close and very personal.

Tokyo is…

Mindboggling. I've said that already about the city, and it is. Your senses just can't take in the size, scale and the sheer amount of people. There are people everywhere, all the time, every minute, every second you turn around. There isn't just one, there are fifty people to every square metre! Seems like an exaggeration but it truly isn't. It is amazing that so many people can live so tightly together yet create a city that is truly unique, incredibly modern and individualistic, but yet there is an elegant conformity to it all.








Next: Food Shopping with Etsuko-san

Kayotei Ryokan, Kaga: The Food

This had to be a post all by itself because the food provided at The Kayotei Ryokan was everything I dreamed and hoped for with authentic Japanese cuisine. I do not want this experience - the words and pictures, to be buried or lost on this blog.

As mentioned before, The Kayotei Ryokan is a traditional Japanese Ryokan in every sense of the word. And as I previously mentioned, everything you eat and drink is brought to your room. There is no communal dining room, which I have to admit I really liked. Sometimes when you're dining alone, it can be, well, a lonely experience. Knowing there is no option but to eat by yourself in your own room can be a relief.

The attendant brings every dish directly from the kitchen to your table. It is VERY traditional Japanese service, and it is an experience that you must do if you come here – you MUST!! On my first night I had a fourteen (14!!) course Japanese gastronomic adventure. I really didn't think, after the first couple of dishes appeared, that it was going to be a lot of food because it was served as very small portions. Oh was i ever wrong, but so what? It was the BEST meal I've had, if not the most memorable so far on my travels. Everything was prepared meticulously, presented beautifully and the taste and flavours were just mind-bogglingly good…look.

Dinner: Night One






See what I mean? I did not believe I'd be full after the first two courses. I thought to myself that these small portions would be no trouble at all. I was completely stuffed twelve courses. I kept thinking - as I rolled around my bed clutching my full stomach, that if I was to die, this would be place to do it. And then it's off to gastronomic heaven where the same incredible dining experience would be given to me every day.

Dinner: Night 2





It must be noted that the first dish I ate for dinner on night two, was a lobster shell stuffed with this creamy, mouth-watering egg sauce with freshly chopped lobster meat, and also had this bubbly, custard crust, and oh my God it was ecstasy in my mouth. This is the type of dish that Chefs kill for - that look in the eyes of someone who is absolutely devouring every morsel of a dish they created, and beg for more. They watch as your body just sighs with happiness when you bite into a dish they created, and love every single second of it. That was me with the stuffed lobster shell. I ate, and then slurped that dish in five seconds!! It was, and is, the best thing I have ever tasted. EVER (editor note: it's 2012, a year later, and I still believe that was the best dish I've ever tasted). It has beat out all the curry dishes in India and I just didn't want to eat anything else afterwards, but I did!

I can't remember half the names of these dishes, and I wish I could, but if prompted I could describe the tastes and flavours of each of them. If I wrote it out, you'd be reading a novel! I remember one of the soups having real gold leaves in it. See what I mean? Just speechless by the food. God it was so good. and I would kill, KILL I tell you, to go back in time just to have that moment with lobster again - yes it was THAT good.

What a fabulous way to end my time in Kaga. I was so happy and content in Kaga, but the culinary fun was just beginning because my next stop was Tokyo!