This place seems to specialize in tantanmen (spicy sesame-and-pork noodles) and mapo tofu (tofu and pork in sauce heavily spiced with red pepper and prickly ash). I sense some thematic similarities there. In keeping with my recent capsule reviews of noodles places: – I like noodles like this in ramen – thin, straight, light. They’re […]
Month: November 2009
- Kyoto
- ...
Very Berry Cafe, Kyoto
A few curious things here. One is that the neighborhood of Kyoto behind the city hall has an abnormal number of modern, foreign restaurants and cafes mixed in with the old vegetable shops and paper stores. It’s quite nice, especially ‘Gokomachi street’ where we stayed. Another curious thing is the trend toward hyper-American cafes in […]
- Kyoto
- ...
Fujita, Kyoto (藤田)
Sure, this was the third day in a row that we visited Pontocho, but what the hey? Fujita is a pleasantly reserved-looking traditional place up near the top of the alley, with a youngish master but a feeling of long history. The food was decent; this would be OK for a lunch, but if I was […]
- Kyoto
- ...
Yuubi, Kyoto (遊美)
Really outstanding food from a modern kappou in the deep south of Gion – on the street with all the chayas, if that helps. While the atmosphere was a little cold, this was some of the best Japanese food I’ve ever had. But first, stone-paved streets with rickshaws! Quel queint! No pictures were really possible (master’s policy, […]
- Kyoto
- ...
Takenaka, Kyoto (竹中)
There’s nothing like 8 courses of kaiseki to pep you up from walking around looking at red leaves and tide you over until dinner. I mean, I already felt pretty peppy from walking around this neighborhood (for reference, this is the bit on the mid-east side of Kyoto, north of Kiyomizudera and south of Yasaka […]
- izakaya
- ...
Karaku, Kyoto (華楽)
Nice place they’ve got here. I like this whole Kyoto thing more every year. Friday night, got up the courage to poke my head into one of the nearly unmarked kappou on Pontocho. With a number of the places there, it’s hard to tell what they do – just a name over the door. They […]
Royal Curry, Nihonbashi
This has turned out to be a digressive and self-indulgent post. Feel free to skip it. The curry and lunch sets here were OK. Pon and I fell prey to several traps today: one was leaving the office at the height of rush hour (12:15?). The other was trying to go to places that are popular. […]
- Otemachi
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Shunsaian, Otemachi (旬采庵)
While this was a truly dull lunch food-wise, I can think of a few positive things to say about this place: – It’s cheap. I mean, $7 lunch sets cheap. – It’s pretty cool that it’s mainly private rooms, so you can sit in horikotatsu and mellow out on your lunch hour. – The rice […]
- curry
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Ciao! Curry, Kanda
This got kinda long and is probably boring. Caution is advised. Options. LOTS of options. In fact, a confusing number. Have I mentioned my theory about too many options on a menu? I think it indicates lack of focus. On the other hand, this is more in the line of a list of permutations, which […]
- Kanda
- ...
Naruto Ramen, Kanda (七琉門）
I’m not a particularly diligent person. You scoff, but it’s true. Only for those brief periods when I’m really interested in something can I really apply myself to it. Right now it’s tsukemen. Which I don’t even like that much; I just want to understand why other people like them so much (I think they’re […]