Food update 2

So much eating going on!  I have to talk fast, so I can munch some more.

Went back to Tsukiji Fish Market for the third time, didn’t eat the twitching seafood below, but thought it had a certainly early morning beauty to it nonetheless. Still haven’t made it to Daiwa…need to stand through that line some day! Maybe I’ll go by myself since one person should be quicker to seat…

This here is a small subset of the ramen club at work. We went to a branch of Setagaya ramen, which won this year’s “best ramen in Tokyo” award according to some magazine. It serves shio broth at lunch (when it’s called hirugao, the late sibling of the asagao/morning glory) and shoyu broth at dinner, when it’s officially setagaya. I got the chashu, which had grilled slices o’ roasted pork along with the clean broth.

Ahem. This lovely plate comes from the Shiseido Parlour in Ginza! Before you get all excited, I was NOT, for the record, stocking up on makeup. Au contraire – I was enjoying a dessert course. Actually…not super creative, but it was fun going with people and watching all the retired old ladies getting their gossip on.

I also got to go to a 2 star Michelin restaurant, called kikunoi.
It’s a 3rd generation, father to son, semi-hidden kaiseki (small plate, seasonal course meal) restaurant in Akasaka. The service was great, and while the other customers were entirely business people, we had a good meal. No socks knocking about, but a good solid meal with some nice surprises.

Sigh. After writing this, I wonder why I should ever learn to cook.