I feel the earth move under my feet and Brad Pitt and Monjyayaki
May 9.... Well, it was quite the experience to be awoken in the middle of the night on May 7, around 2 or 3 am, when you are in a deep sleep by the bed shaking and the whole bed and room pushing back and forth like you are in one of the old trains that are taking a winding path and jostling you back and forth as you walk along. I couldn’t understand what was happening, and then it was over and I fell back to sleep again. Only when I received an email from Dave in the morning did I understand that it was an earthquake measuring around 6.7 on the scale. It’s something that’s normal around here but this was a bit more severe than usual, centring on eastern Tokyo, however there was no damage. It doesn’t even make the radio news and people talk about it just in passing as a regular occurrence. At least, Dave had told me so I didn’t think I was in some weird exorcist experience or something. And, again this morning there were other minor earthquake tremours that shook the apartment as well. With a history of earthquakes, typhoons and other disasters, everything in Tokyo seems to be prepared for emergency preparedness from special escape hatches from the balcony in Yuki’s apartment, to creation of buildings and there always seems to be a little spacing between buildings even though they appear side by side, etc. Working with the Japanese Red Cross when I was in Russia, they seem to be masters at preparing and handling disasters, and this expertise has been/is being used in other areas of the world where there are disasters.
Yesterday we went to the Tsukishima area of Tokyo, near the harbour and a formerly central area of the city. This area is famous for "monjyayaki", which I had never known before, and is an original Tokyo creation. It is similar to "okonomiyaki" which is an Osaka creation but she said that each city and region wants to have their own specialty. This area of Tokyo has an incredible number of places that serve monjyayaki and okonomiyaki in very old, small restaurants with small grills and seats around the grills. We went to one of the most famous and popular restaurants called Monkichi which is known for using the best regional ingredients. So what is monjyayaki? It’s hard to describe and I’ve seen nothing like this before, it’s usually vegan (unless you want meat or fish added) and is made with flour, broth and with other ingredients that bind and standard ingredients like shredded cabbage and a wide assortment of possible vegetables. So you put your ingredients on the grill and then the sauce in the middle, start mixing the two together, until you get this thin layer on the grill like a omelette but much less even and messier. Actually, it looks quite the mess on the grill. Then you are handed very small metal spatula like devices and you start to eat this slowly, scooping up the mixture as it is cooking and when it starts to bake and get brown on the bottom, it is even better, with a bit of gooiness on the top and crispiness at the bottom. It’s like eating the scraps from when you are making a omlettte or crepe or pancake but here this is showcased and enjoyed. After monjyayaki, we had the more usual okonomoyaki, again you can choose from a 101 variations but we chose ours with cabbage, other vegetables and natto (fermented soybeans) and it’s usually with egg but we opted out of this. This is more of a standard pancake type form that is made and grilled until done and it’s eaten with tonkatsu, which is a worchestire type sauce, nori flakes, and mayo if you wish. After that, we had to try the special grilled dessert which is a crepe with red bean paste an inside, which was made from the quite colourful server. As we waddled our bodies out of the place, I saw a picture of Brad Pitt and wondered why they had this up. Yuki read the article and it said that Brad Pitt shot a cell phone ad in the restaurant and tried some monjyayaki and okonomiyaki as well, and there were lots of other photos and articles of Japanese and foreign celebs as well. Who would have known that there would be a relationship between Brad Pitt and monjyayaki?
Then we went to the Nihonbashi area which is the home of the first large Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo and where a lot of banks and financial houses were located. Also, before there was a department store, there were many speciality stores and some of these are still around, for example, some one specializing in nori, another in miso, etc. We went to the most famous knife store in Tokyo called Kiya and it’s been around since 1792. There is an amazing array of Japanese knives on two levels along with related kitchen supplies. I bought one knife and will return for others I’m sure. When you buy a knife, you can get your name written in the knife for free and they will sharpen it to ensure it’s the best quality and sharpest it can be to start for you. It’s interesting to watch this in the traditional stone method that has been done for ages and is still used and recommended.
After the stop for some mango and mandarin juices at a café across the street, with so many coffee, juice, pastry and other cafes, we went through Mitsukoshi with floors of fashion for women under each designer with their latest pieces.
In the evening, we headed to the Dakanyama area to eat at a macrobiotic organic restaurant called Merleau Pannonica. The chef is a friend of Yuki’s who studied at the same macrobiotic school as Yuki in Japan and had a change in career from design to chefing and opened up this restaurant which has a fusion of French, Japanese and other influences in a very chique environment that seats around 15 people around the counter and 1 table for 4 people, which seems to be the standard in many cafes and restaurants in town. The menu is mostly vegetarian and vegan except for a few fish items and there is a table d’hote that is changed every day. The dinner started with an amuse, led to an appetizer dish, then to some pasta or risotto, the main, and then the dessert. Everything was beautifully presented and plated and the flavours were interesting. I loved the pasta with a seaweed sauce for example. It’s always nice to be able to meet the chef, have a brief discussion, and exchange cards. He was a very nice man and I asked him about the name and he said it was just a fun name that he came up with and that he got into chefing for the passion and the love of it and hasn’t looked back at his previous career and lifestyle in the corporate design sector I believe. He seemed to be very happy and peaceful. Afterwards, we went to a local bar in the area, all beautiful places and you can certainly tell there is a lot of money in the district and that a lot of foreigners live in the area. It’s even the area for the Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Tokyo which Yuki said is known as an extremely expensive and elite school that only the rich can afford to send their children.
Yesterday we went to the Tsukishima area of Tokyo, near the harbour and a formerly central area of the city. This area is famous for "monjyayaki", which I had never known before, and is an original Tokyo creation. It is similar to "okonomiyaki" which is an Osaka creation but she said that each city and region wants to have their own specialty. This area of Tokyo has an incredible number of places that serve monjyayaki and okonomiyaki in very old, small restaurants with small grills and seats around the grills. We went to one of the most famous and popular restaurants called Monkichi which is known for using the best regional ingredients. So what is monjyayaki? It’s hard to describe and I’ve seen nothing like this before, it’s usually vegan (unless you want meat or fish added) and is made with flour, broth and with other ingredients that bind and standard ingredients like shredded cabbage and a wide assortment of possible vegetables. So you put your ingredients on the grill and then the sauce in the middle, start mixing the two together, until you get this thin layer on the grill like a omelette but much less even and messier. Actually, it looks quite the mess on the grill. Then you are handed very small metal spatula like devices and you start to eat this slowly, scooping up the mixture as it is cooking and when it starts to bake and get brown on the bottom, it is even better, with a bit of gooiness on the top and crispiness at the bottom. It’s like eating the scraps from when you are making a omlettte or crepe or pancake but here this is showcased and enjoyed. After monjyayaki, we had the more usual okonomoyaki, again you can choose from a 101 variations but we chose ours with cabbage, other vegetables and natto (fermented soybeans) and it’s usually with egg but we opted out of this. This is more of a standard pancake type form that is made and grilled until done and it’s eaten with tonkatsu, which is a worchestire type sauce, nori flakes, and mayo if you wish. After that, we had to try the special grilled dessert which is a crepe with red bean paste an inside, which was made from the quite colourful server. As we waddled our bodies out of the place, I saw a picture of Brad Pitt and wondered why they had this up. Yuki read the article and it said that Brad Pitt shot a cell phone ad in the restaurant and tried some monjyayaki and okonomiyaki as well, and there were lots of other photos and articles of Japanese and foreign celebs as well. Who would have known that there would be a relationship between Brad Pitt and monjyayaki?
Then we went to the Nihonbashi area which is the home of the first large Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo and where a lot of banks and financial houses were located. Also, before there was a department store, there were many speciality stores and some of these are still around, for example, some one specializing in nori, another in miso, etc. We went to the most famous knife store in Tokyo called Kiya and it’s been around since 1792. There is an amazing array of Japanese knives on two levels along with related kitchen supplies. I bought one knife and will return for others I’m sure. When you buy a knife, you can get your name written in the knife for free and they will sharpen it to ensure it’s the best quality and sharpest it can be to start for you. It’s interesting to watch this in the traditional stone method that has been done for ages and is still used and recommended.
After the stop for some mango and mandarin juices at a café across the street, with so many coffee, juice, pastry and other cafes, we went through Mitsukoshi with floors of fashion for women under each designer with their latest pieces.
In the evening, we headed to the Dakanyama area to eat at a macrobiotic organic restaurant called Merleau Pannonica. The chef is a friend of Yuki’s who studied at the same macrobiotic school as Yuki in Japan and had a change in career from design to chefing and opened up this restaurant which has a fusion of French, Japanese and other influences in a very chique environment that seats around 15 people around the counter and 1 table for 4 people, which seems to be the standard in many cafes and restaurants in town. The menu is mostly vegetarian and vegan except for a few fish items and there is a table d’hote that is changed every day. The dinner started with an amuse, led to an appetizer dish, then to some pasta or risotto, the main, and then the dessert. Everything was beautifully presented and plated and the flavours were interesting. I loved the pasta with a seaweed sauce for example. It’s always nice to be able to meet the chef, have a brief discussion, and exchange cards. He was a very nice man and I asked him about the name and he said it was just a fun name that he came up with and that he got into chefing for the passion and the love of it and hasn’t looked back at his previous career and lifestyle in the corporate design sector I believe. He seemed to be very happy and peaceful. Afterwards, we went to a local bar in the area, all beautiful places and you can certainly tell there is a lot of money in the district and that a lot of foreigners live in the area. It’s even the area for the Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Tokyo which Yuki said is known as an extremely expensive and elite school that only the rich can afford to send their children.
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