Seeing as Cole has put us in a food mood and it’s late on a Saturday night, I hope, my dears, that you will forgive me a little indulgence. I know many of you like reading about food (and, not incidentally, eating good food), and I suspect you might not mind if I were to tell you about a meal that I enjoyed on my trip to Japan at the beginning of the year.
I have been lucky enough over the years to eat at many fine restaurants. I’ve been rouxed and ramsayed and blumenthaled. I’ve been sneered at by waiters in the finest establishments in France and New York. I’ve even eaten an omelet made by the very hands of Julia Child herself.*
However, my recent meal at Takazawa in Tokyo has eclipsed all of those.
Knowing that I was only going to be in Tokyo for a few brief nights, I was determined to sample the best that it had to offer and damn the expense.
On our first night, therefore, we ate at the (apparently) legendary Ten Ichi, a tempura restaurant in the Ginza. No bain-marie-cooled and lumpy batter here. Rather, as we sat at the bench around the cooking area, wearing our bibs and scoffing Asahi, the chef coolly mixed his batter, skimmed his wok of boiling oil, and proceeded to place before us a seemingly endless succession of deep fried treats. Two shrimp, a single glassy scallop, one flawless mushroom, a tiny fish (head, bones, tail and all) and more, each piping hot within their paper-thin shell of batter, each ready to be topped to taste with a sprinkle of salt or a dab of curry powder or a squeeze of lemon before being gobbled down. Afterwards we retired to a table where we sipped little cups of pea-green tea and I ate a slice of melon so perfect I suspect I can never eat melon again.
All this, however, was mere foreplay for the pleasures that awaited us the next evening.
At night, the Akasaka area seems almost to vibrate with the flash of neon, the welcoming shouts of the chefs at the teppanyaki restaurants and the roaring rattle of a million pachinko balls. We escaped finally into a dimly lit laneway, where a dozen identical black limousines, their engines idling, waited for the great and the powerful to finish work. Almost at the end of the lane we found the gently glowing door that leads to chef Yoshiaki Takazawa’s restaurant.
Climbing the stairs, with their poetry-inscribed banister (“I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree …”), I was giddy with anticipation and unaccountably nervous. We were warmly welcomed by Takazawa-san’s wife, Akiko, who manages the restaurant and, along with a single assistant, conducts the entire service. Akiko is truly charming and explains just enough about each dish.
The restaurant is a single, windowless yet warmly-lit room. At one end sits the raised, brushed-aluminum platform at which Takazawa performs, his assistant appearing from the kitchen behind with the partially completed dishes, ready for the chef to place the finishing touches. Each night, there are at most three tables, and this evening there were a mere seven guests.
After a calming glass of champagne, our dinner began with a selection of highly amused bouches.
First, a spoonful of glistening white spheres of potato soup that quivered beneath shavings of white truffle, and which burst in the mouth with a gentle pop and a rush of potatoey goodness. Next a crunchy film like a sheet of silk paper, golden brown and flecked with herbs, tasting intensely of scallop and, beside that, a fat slice of ibérico ham which had been allowed to reach room temperature, so it was wonderfully unctuous and meaty.
Having finished our champagne, we began our flight of Japanese wines with a crisp white from a vineyard near Mount Fuji. I would love to tell you about each wine, but I quickly lost track, not least because most of the grapes were varieties of which we had never heard. Suffice to say that each was exquisitely matched with the courses that followed and, although I would never before have thought of buying a Japanese wine, I am now a convert.
Our first course was, as is usual, Takazawa’s signature dish – his Ratatouille. This is a little terrine, painstakingly made from a dozen different vegetables, served with a single black bean and a flake of salt, and designed be eaten in a single bite. In the mouth, it breaks into a multitude of flavours, each piece with its own texture and crunch.
By this point, I had relaxed, knowing that we were in the safest of hands.
Only ten (or so) courses to go…
Next was the Vegetable Parfait – a towering parfait glass, filled with a coral pink and vibrantly flavoured tomato gazpacho, covered with a parmesan mousse, edible petals, caviar, and cubes of jelly and cucumber, all topped off with a plume of crispy deep fried cavolo nero and a straw. This dish was a joy to eat, scooping up the mousse with the kale chip between sips of soup and, finally, when it had been reduced to a sludgy mess, slurping up the remainder. It was like an adult bubble tea, with little pops of jelly and caviar, and I confess that I made a dreadful sucking noise with the straw like a kid trying to get the very last bit at the bottom of the glass.
Akiko (bless her heart) arrived with bread and more wine – this time a white from Nagano. No ordinary bread this. Rather, freshly baked individual loaves, warm and crusty and studded with chunks of sweet potato. It was served with a little jar of pale and creamy rillette made with Okinawa agu pork, which I slathered on with gay abandon. Only pigs that had lived and died happy could taste so good.
Now is perhaps the time to note that I will never succeed fully as a food blogger. I had intended to take photographs. Indeed, I had been ordered to do so by several envious friends. In the end, however, I decided (as usual) that I just didn’t care to spend my meal worrying about lighting and camera angles. As such, all of the photographs which accompany this article come from Takazawa’s website, with the kind permission of the lovely Akiko. There are innumerable bloggers who (like me) feel justifiably compelled to document their meal at Takazawa. Where I don’t have access to photos, I have linked below to one or another blog where you can find photographs of these dishes and, perhaps, enjoy the writing of some talented food writers.
Our next course was Powdery Dressing. The dressing was yuzu rind, frozen with liquid nitrogen and scattered on raw yellowtail fillets and wafer thin slices of radish – pink, white and green – rolled into cylinders that gleamed through the nitrogen steam like precious jewels. The scent of yuzu filled the air and glittered on the tastebuds between the crunch of the radish and the melting softness of the fish. The dish was burstingly fresh and, such were the poetic heights inspired, put me in mind of spring shoots climbing out from beneath the sun-dappled snow.
After the crispness of the first few courses, the meal moved on to more hearty fare. Takazawa takes a charming delight in making food look like other food, as evidenced when Akiko placed before us a bowl containing Bacon EGG? – a perfect poached egg, along with crisped ibérico and wilted spinach, over which she poured a silky jerusalem artichoke soup. Of course, the egg was nothing of the sort and was instead made of soy milk mousse with a golden melting yolk of kabocha (Japanese pumpkin). Pure breakfast comfort food, warm and soft and salty.
In Portugal, later in our trip, we ate quite a bit foie gras, which was generally served as if for dessert, the meatiness of the liver often heightened by the sweetness of candied apple, a port wine reduction or a dried mango snap. Takazawa’s next dish, EZO Venison Tar Tar did something very similar. Fresh handchopped venison from the far north of Japan was served with white truffle and a mound of orange sea urchin roe. The making of this dish, however, was the round, sugary galette (almost like a brandy snap) for scooping. Just like in the combination of fish and radish in Powdery Dressing, here the metallic coolness of the venison was brightened by crisps of caramel, with the creamy, briny uni and the musty truffle binding it all together. I was never a fan of tartare, but this is how it should be done.
I returned to scraping the last vestiges of pork from my little jar and trying to cadge some from my other guests. They were annoyingly unwilling to hand it over. Thankfully, I was distracted by the next plate, which was quickly followed by an offer (just as quickly accepted) of more bread.
Ankimo is the liver of a monkfish and is prized as the foie gras of the sea. Here it was served as a terrine – two generous slabs of smooth liver encased in mushroom and “wintry” jelly, surrounded with slices of pink-skinned, marinated leek, pine nuts, balsamic and still more white truffle shavings. Smeared on hot pumpkin bread, the terrine was exceptional and had a rich and almost floral flavor.
Time for something hot, and the Hot Blanc Mangier was just the right thing. A jar of creamy blancmange, made from fish milt (shirako or “white children”) and topped with an intense crab jelly, was served beside a piping hot, deep fried “truffle” with more milt inside. I don’t think eating cod sperm will become a daily occupation for me. However, the contrast between the earthy, crunchy truffle and the delicate, melting blancmange was superb.
Our next plates each arrived under an enormous belljar, filled with coils of smoke from burning cherrywood and which, when lifted, disclosed the scent of a mountain fire and an Early Spring of crisp-skinned white fish, surrounded by just picked beans and peas, more crispy jamon and a sprightly warm green vegetable soup.
In preparation for our last savory course, Akiko placed a little white disc before each of us and poured over hot water redolent of pine and sap. It immediately expanded directly upwards into a nice hot towel. I know now that these silly little expanding handtowels are in fancy restaurants everywhere, but I’d never seen one before this and it made me laugh like a drain, and made my hands smell like a forest, which was nice.
Clean hands means eating with your hands and, sure enough, Dinner in the forest arrived without cutlery. A thick slab of pine bark was scattered with pine fronds (the tips of one of them smouldering redly), chunks of finest chargrilled wagyu and of purple and sweet potatoes, bright green ginko nuts and deep fried pine mushrooms, all of it robustly meaty. Fine produce done simply.
With that it was time for dessert. First, a pair of tiny cumquats filled with campari jelly, tart and sweet and bitter, and then Takazawa’s special camembert – seemingly a round of cheese, but instead a smooth, densely creamy truffled cheesecake served with manuka honey icecream and pear jam. Heaven.
To finish, petit fours of a coconut crisp, a delicate green tea madeline, salt and pepper chocolate and a yuzu marsmallow – I saved the marshmallow to last – and pots of tea selected from a dozen varieties.
Despite eating an extraordinary amount of food, I was sated without feeling gluttonous. I’ve racked my brain trying to find fault and I just can’t. There was an assurance and balance to the food and the order in which it was served, to the harmonies of ingredients and the deft references back to previous dishes, that was almost musical.
Even better, the menu is designed afresh each day based on the tastes of that night’s guests, so I know that next time I visit there will be new creations to discover.
If you would like to experience Takazawa’s food (and his gorgeous mirrored bathroom with its lighted glass balls and fancy towels), you should email Akiko three months before you are due to arrive in Japan. She will be delighted to hear from you.
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All photos used with the kind permission of Aronia de Takazawa.
* It wasn’t that good an omelet, although I have to say in Julia’s defence that the poor dear was a little upset that morning after my husband Keith and I had to bail her out of jail after she got rolling drunk on absinthe, stole a gendarme’s hat and then fell into the Seine.
Raven
Oh yea, Cole put up his post and you just typed this up on a whim! Great post in any case.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
wow. This makes me wish I had taken that job in Tokyo so many years ago.
Quarks
….and naturally, Google ads pairs this with an ad for vibrators.
Ron
Sounds very interesting. Not likely to go to Japan anytime in the foreseeable future, and even if they had a US version of something like this, a place like this would be nowhere remotely in our eating out budget. I can’t imagine how much a meal like that costs. (I suspect it’s in the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” category)
Raven
Spent an hour on the Tarmac at Tachikawa Airbase 35 years ago. No catering.
Yutsano
Nihon ryoori wa totemo oishii mo omoshiroi desu. A lot of chefs take a rotation in Tokyo before starting their careers. If they’re smart they get further into the country like Hokkaido or Shizuoka.
magurakurin
@danah gaz (fka gaz): doubtful that job would have paid enough for you to have eaten at this place. It’s fucking really expensive. She must be pretty rich. Richer than me.
While I have no doubt of the quality of the above joint, I’m more of a B級グルメ ”B Grade Gourmet” myself. Lots of really awesomely delicious things for 5 to 10 dollars here, okonomiyaki, ramen soups, udon, yaki soba, tonkatsu and on and on.
a local favorite of mine
jl
That is some high class stuff that I did not even know existed. Thanks, SpaT.
There as a pic of something that looked like chocolate ice cream. Was there chocolate ice cream? (OK, I’m a boor, I admit it).
Or was that the chocolate dessert thing? What was it, just ‘chocolate’? Or was that pic the fish liver lump (the only thing that did not sound delicious)?
The deserts sound unbelievably good.
Edit: If this is one of those BJ spoofs, I will be utterly bereft, since I want to visit Japan and live the high life for a week or so someday (yeah, I know it will cost a bundle). And this is on my list now.
Ron
@jl: It’s a real place. Some digging around and I found one place that said a 10-course meal was $220. Over $200/person is nowhere near a price range I can imagine being in.
Martin
@Quarks: That’s surprisingly appropriate.
magurakurin
@jl: Actually, I was reading an article late last year, and Japan now has more Michelin Stars than any other country in the world. The famous guide only recently started going there and apparently there is a treasure trove of high class, star worthy places.
Of course the really high class joints are the 一見さんお断り ichigesanokotowari. Which more or less means “if we haven’t ever seen you you can’t come in” Michelin approached some of these places and their reviewer was denied entry and asked not to return. It is only possible to enter these places if you go with someone who is already known by the owners. It’s a Kyoto thing, you gotta understand.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@magurakurin: I was making embarrassing sums of money back then, and I don’t have kids.
Another commenter mentioned $200 per person for a 10 course? I’ve paid much more than that, in Seattle.
jl
@Ron: OK, thanks. I won’t be able to eat there every night when I visit, looks like.
J.W. Hamner
@Ron:
Sadly that’s not even “outrageous” as these things go. In New York City you could easily drop a grand on a dinner for two at a place like Per Se or Del Posto. But yeah, you either have to be rich or prioritize food quite highly. Once a year I’m willing to splurge for an expensive dinner, but I’d have trouble justifying going over $200 unless Thomas Keller is cooking it for me himself.
magurakurin
@danah gaz (fka gaz): I stand corrected. Didn’t mean to make a comment on you as much as the high price. I forget that most of the world isn’t a poor bastard like myself(and an even cheaper tightwad)
Yeah, with a flush expense account and a massive income, I reckon Tokyo would be one of the funnest places going if someone is into all that kind of stuff. On a normal salary, it’s seems like a hell hole of drudgery and crowds. But that’s a bias. I live in a small country town and I’m something of a bumpkin anyway. I still stare at the skyscrapers when I visit New York. The suburbs of Philly does not a city boy make.
Yutsano
@danah gaz (fka gaz): I’m sure some Tom Douglas joints can set you back a pretty penny. I still want to eat at Serious Pie though.
Ron
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Damn, I’ve never paid anywhere near that much for a meal. Granted, never been to a true “fine dining” sort of place, but I think the most has been like $130-$150 for 2 of us
Schlemizel
@magurakurin:
Well, I read something like that and money becomes no object – screw ’em they couldn’t pay me to go there. There are a ton of pretentious restaurants closer to home.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Yutsano: I worked in the AGC building for awhile down on the waterfront, and I used to eat at the Rock Salt every day for lunch. I loved when all the good seafood was in season. It’s not the best joint in seattle by any means, but was good in it’s day – and the 10 course I had was at some joint on Broadway that isn’t there anymore. I took my ex there for valentines day. Drinks were included which probably explains the tab. It was in the neighborhood of $300 a piece.
Being a senior level enterprise architect and one of the only qualified ISAPI developers around (back in those days) had it’s bennies. I never worked for less than $60 an hour. =)
magurakurin
@Schlemizel: That’s more or less my take as well. Kyoto just isn’t all that anyway, in my opinion. We have friends who live there so we go twice a year, but we only ever hang out in their apartment and nearby streets. I don’t appreciate fine dining anyway. It would just be lost on me. I’m a “hot and a lot” kind of guy.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@magurakurin: After being a homeless teen, then making gobs of cash, and then being poor lately (our household income is in the neighborhood of $30k/year). I think I can say that I like being poor the best. I’m odd I guess. Money comes with stress. It has it’s advantages to be sure, but taking the long view, I like where I’m at a whole lot better than where I was.
Jewish Steel
That dining room looks like, “GOOD EVENING MEESTAH BOND. SO SORRY I CANNOT JOIN YOU. ENJOY YOUR LAHST MEEL. HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Or an updated version of Dave Bowman’s last digs.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@jl:
There was no chocolate dessert, sadly, although the cheesecake made up for it. The pictures are (in order) of the scallop starter, the terrine, the vegetable parfait, the bread, the powdery dressing, the tartare, the blancmange, the dinner in the forest, the cheesecake and the petit fours.
No spoof on this one. Just the real person leaking through. It was expensive enough to make me gasp, but much cheaper than the equivalent would have cost in London or New York. I’m saving my pennies for my next visit.
satanicpanic
@magurakurin: People always ask me about where the good sushi places are in southern CA and I’m like “Sushi pfffft, let me tell you about RAMEN.” Only one really good place that I know of. I miss the variety in Japan. All the other ones you mentioned are good as well, and I would add kare to your list.
maven
Sarah-will you let me be your boy toy? I’ll go with you anywhere you ask.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@magurakurin:
Most reviews of this place start with mentioning that he (apparently) has turned the Michelin people away several times. However, getting a table is as easy as emailing the owner well ahead of time – she’s adorable.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@maven:
Send photos and we can talk.
magurakurin
@satanicpanic: ah, good ole curry rice. One nice thing about Japan is the availability of this reliable standby in places such as the highway rest stops and ski slope base lodges. You can stuff your face slope side or on the road for less than 10 bucks. Definitely falls into the hot and a lot category.
George
Sarah, thanks so much for this write-up. It sounds like a fantastic experience. The terrene alone seems like it would be worth a trip to Japan.
That’s an amazing snippet about Julia Child as well. Sounds like quite a little adventure you had.
asiangrrlMN
That looks and sounds so delicious, Miss Sarah. Oh, how I wish I could have accompanied you!
Ron
@J.W. Hamner: yeah, that’s just not a level I really get. If we go out and spend over $100 for 2 of us on dinner it feels like we’re really splurging. Not that I go as cheap as possible, but at the local places that do the whole high quality organic ingredient bit, it still doesn’t usually top $100 for the two of us. It’s not one of these fancy places, but it’s damn good food.
Yutsano
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: It does sound wonderful. Do they limit party size since the seating is so small?
Oh and hi hon. I may be graduating to naproxen sodium, my brother gave me some and it was quite effective.
Jewish Steel
@Jewish Steel: Which is to say a pretty dope place to eat. That was a hell of a write-up. I was going to get some sushi this week but now I’m kinda, “Eh.” I wonder if there’s someplace here in central IL where I can get a little yuzu rind, frozen with liquid nitrogen and scattered on raw yellowtail fillets and wafer thin slices of radish – pink, white and green – rolled into cylinders that gleamed through the nitrogen steam like precious jewels
Probably not.
burnspbesq
Ah, Ten-Ichi. Gods’s own tempura joint.
mclaren
Been to a number of gourmet restaurants. Nothing at this level of pretensiousness, but still, some. Without exception “gourmet” food turns out to taste and look like overspill from a cesspool.
It’s now clear to me that beyond a certain point, there is nothing you can do to food to improve it. Centrifuging, vacuum-sealing and then boiling and then deep-frying, sea salt instead of regular salt…all horseshit. Salt is salt. Fried food is fried food. Sauce is sauce, and adding increasingly exotic ingredients only serves to reduce the quality and make it taste bad.
Presumably there’s a limitless reservoir of gullible dupes to make clip joints like this profitable. For the rest of us, simple ordinary food prepared well tastes about as good as it’s ever going to get. Like the myths and fantasies about alleged “improvements” in high-definition audio that turn out to be ultrasonic and totally inaudible to any human being, the delusions and fantasies about “gourmet” cooking wind up producing food that, for the most part, just tastes bad.
satanicpanic
@magurakurin: You sound like my kinda guy. I have a similarly unrefined sense of taste. I wish I had the money and knowledge to appreciate good food. Anything that goes with beer! is about my standard.
I gotta say though, that Ratatouille looks like something else.
satanicpanic
@mclaren: Oh jeez
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Yutsano:
They take at most ten people, so you could book the whole place out if you wanted a big group…
Yutsano
@Jewish Steel: If you find it let me know, I’ll be on the next plane.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@mclaren:
You’re such a funster. This place wasn’t pretentious – it just took food seriously. The staff were lovely and friendly and the chef was shy and sweet and obviously loved cooking and making people happy. There were no real gimmicks, just interesting food.
I like a good cheeseburger as much as the next person, but this was something special.
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
Here’s a Q-Tip. Clean your ears and try again, jackass.
Yutsano
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Ratatouille is gimmick food just because the chef has fun with the presentation? Methinks her meds wore off again.
magurakurin
@mclaren:
yeah. and plus it’s harder for them to hide the pills in saltines and baloney slices.
asiangrrlMN
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Thus, the inability of someone to recognize that one does not necessarily preclude the other. I would *love* to experience a meal like this once in my life!
kestral
Oh man. I have a long-standing love affair with Japanese food. Not just the sushi, either. Stuff like curry with chicken? Tempura? Okonomiyaki, which is the single most glorious thing ever in my book? Gimme.
So this is right up my alley. Consider me tres jealous, Sarah. You lucky duck. :)
c u n d gulag
God, I miss great food – especially Japanese.
And now, I’m VEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRYYYYYY depressed. :’-(
I’ll never be able to afford a dining experience like this.
But I’m glad someone was!
And was able to describe it to me in such wonderful detail.
Reading this made my weekend (and how pathetic is THAT?).
THANKS!!!!! :-)
AnnaN
@Quarks:
Hah! I think this says more about you than it does about Google.
RedKitten
Oh horseshit. I enjoy a big greasy cheeseburger as much as the next girl, but in the hands of someone who knows food, loves food and has studied food, it really IS different.
I am a good cook, from a long line of good cooks. My mother, my sister and I have all prepared meals that would make you close your eyes with pleasure.
But my husband and I went to Babbo, in New York, for our wedding supper.
And let me tell you, it truly WAS different. Everything was so carefully chosen to be at the peak of freshness and taste. All of the tastes went so beautifully together, one course flowing into the next in a way that was almost poetic. The combinations were truly inspired. I’m a good cook, but Mario Batali has made food his LIFE, and it shows.
Appreciating that phenomenal meal most certainly does not make me a dupe. Or if it does, it’s a dupe who still dreams about Mario’s duck ravioli.
Your loss, really.
Anton Sirius
@mclaren:
FTFY, big guy
Comradde PhysioProffe
Actually, I’m impressed that it took so long for some bitter cramped jerk to weigh in with the “pretentious” bullshit.
J.W. Hamner
Sadly late on this, but…
@mclaren:
Do you cook? I suspect that you do not since you are proposing precisely the wrong question. It’s not necessarily that I can’t sous-vide a tenderloin just as good as Thomas Keller… that his genius will make his sous-vide “better” than mine… it’s that I don’t have an army of sous chefs, nor access to the best ingredients, nor the imagination and training to put together a 10 course meal in my kitchen.
I think there is a solid argument to be made that it is precisely this kind of meal that one should be dining out for… the ones that can’t ever possibly be made at home… while the $30 roast chicken at your local fave is a complete waste of money.