Like the nearby Uotei (and I mean “15 feet away”), the tiny back-alley kappo Tamamura shows both the blessing and the curse of this style of restaurant. It’s casually elegant, it’s quiet, it’s friendly in a restrained way, they always seem to have a table, the food is always excellent, and it’s never cheap. At least they’re nice […]
Monzen Nakacho
Magoroku, Monzennakacho (深川 孫六)
This was very pleasing. Very very pleasing – brilliant yakitori plus game meat and jizake. How did I manage to go this long without trying it? Mainly it was my unreasonable anti-chicken bias. I’m recently converted, and now there are several more chicken places I should hit around town. You can keep your everything-but-the-cluck Birdland […]
Torinoichi, Monzennakacho (酉の市)
Friday (11/19/2010) was the second and final day of the torinoichi in Monnaka. I got an OK video of walking from my usual station exit all the way through the market. I also got some interesting information when I stopped to talk to one proprietor. I always wondered what these guys do in the ‘off […]
Zero, Monzennakacho
Bike culture may not be for sale, but it is most certainly available for exhibition in the windows of recently-opened bars in middle-aged districts of Tokyo that cater to middle-aged men. This is a questionable strategy; there were some young customers in here that might have been lured in by the hip fixie in the […]
Fujimura, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (藤村)
These lazy days of not working really agree with me, especially when they’re Wednesdays. It was getting late and I was on the way home from my epic wander around Sendagi and Nezu, but I saw this sweets store on a street near my house and stopped in. I’ve been in the area for quite […]
Edomae Miso Ramen, Monzennakacho (江戸前味噌ラーメン)
I say unto you, all of you, it’s nice to have friends, and even better when they call you on a lazy Sunday to say “We’re at your station. Howzaboutit?” “It” in this case was lunch, with noodles being the request. Perfect opportunity to hit the, er, new ramen place on MZNC’s main street (probably […]
Daruma, Monzen Nakacho (だるま)
After getting hijacked into eating guts and drinking fake…not even beer, I guess I proved my street cred enough. Jerry sent a bottle of sake for me, and Hikuzo was nice enough to bring it up (from Tsukishima, which isn’t all that far really – perhaps 20 minutes on foot, or one stop). Being a […]
Itoigawa, Monzennakacho (糸魚川)
What can I tell you? Riding around the city on summer nights is a great pleasure. In this instance, it was just the cruise home from work, but the lighting seemed conducive to snapping a shot of the mothership for prosperity. And after changing, more cruising ensued…eventually ending up a bit south of the river […]
Yamagoya Ramen, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (山小屋、清澄白川)
Years ago I visited Yamagoya and pronounced it ‘undistinguished’. On the other hand, I didn’t have a clue about ramen. Now I can tell you with a little more certainty that it’s a decent Fukuoka-style ramen. The most notable things about it weren’t in the bowl – both were out in the room. First, as […]
Shoujou, Monzen Nakachou (猩猩)
Sometimes I have an existential crisis, a dark night of the soul where I wonder if there’s a point to all this looking for great restaurants – because lately it just seems so easy to find them, you know? There’s an expression in Japan if you like the taste of something, it ‘meets your tongue’. […]