Soon after Asian Tofu
was released last year, Matthew Amster-Burton tweeted that he’d used the book
to make fresh yuba tofu skin. He went a couple of rounds with it and then told
me that the DIY yuba experience was good preparation for his trip to Japan. I
was both flattered and surprised because there are so many wonderful things to
eat in Japan and Matthew, a talented writer based in Seattle, was extra
keen on tofu.
As it turned out, Matthew had a purpose. He and his wife, Laurie, and eight-year-old daughter, Iris, spent a month in Tokyo last summer. They rented
a one-room apartment about the size of a single-car garage and ventured out on daily
eating adventures.
Matthew recounted their experiences in his new book, Pretty Good Number One, a fast-paced,
rollicking work that’s chock full of delicious humor and insights. Reading the
ebook at bedtime was my way of reliving and deepening my understanding of
Tokyo. I’d gone there in 2010 to research tofu and a number of the places I
visited and food people I know are part of Matthew’s book. I was honored to be
the lead on his tofu chapter.
Matthew’s vivid and spot-on description of Tokyo led me to
spend a few hours reviewing photos from my Tokyo trip. They’re part of the
collages on this post. The book was such a terrific read that I had to ask
Matthew a few questions about his work and of course, what to do and where to
eat in Tokyo.
Whet your appetite below and then enter the giveaway. There
are three (3) copies of the book available!
One of the charming aspects of your books is the relationship that
you and Iris have built around food adventures. Parents bond with their kids
over many shared interests but is there something different when food is
involved? Or am I just biased?
I think there is something different, but having written two books
on the topic, I’m also biased. It’s nice to bond with your kids over food
because adults and children can enjoy it in the same way, and because food
isn’t optional. If you’re going to be eating with your kid two or three times a
day anyway, why not try to find a way to make it fun?
You were in Tokyo for a month but the balanced insights you
provide about the city, its culture, and food make it seem like you were there
for years. Each chapter is jammed packed. What was a typical day like for you
while you were in Tokyo?
Thanks for the compliment. I’d start most days writing at the
Starbucks in our western Tokyo neighborhood, Nakano. I felt a little silly
going to Starbucks in Tokyo, since we have one or two locations in Seattle, but
most sit-down cafes in Tokyo don’t open before 10 a.m. Then I’d often meet up
with Iris and Laurie at Mister Donut, an amazing doughnut chain whose signature
Pon de Ring doughnut is made with mochi. We’d head out into Tokyo by train for
an adventure (a museum, shopping, the 634-meter Tokyo Skytree tower) and lunch,
and then come back to Nakano for dinner at home or a restaurant.
But there were plenty of atypical days. One day we got up early to
have breakfast at Tsukiji fish market; another day we took the Shinkansen out
of town to a small city that boasts hundreds of gyōza (fried dumpling)
restaurants, including one that serves 74 different fillings.
We tried hard not to overdo it, and most days we succeeded. One
thing I want readers to understand about Tokyo is that there’s much more to the
city than the popular images of neon-lit nightlife and tranquil temple gardens.
Walking around in the streets of Tokyo is delightful. The city is exuberantly
modern and celebrates street life, yes, but at the same time you’re never far
from a place to pause and relax. Because of this, Tokyo was less likely to give
me that wrung-out traveler’s malaise than most other places I’ve been.
There are people who say that Vietnamese food in the U.S. is
better or just as good as the food in Vietnam. People don’t say that about
Japanese food. Why is Japanese food so incredibly superior in Japan than it is
elsewhere?
Japan has the most fully developed restaurant culture I’ve ever seen.
Have you ever been to a food truck pod in Portland, OR, where a dozen or more
food trucks congregate, each focusing on a specific dish? Japan doesn’t have
food trucks, but it was doing tiny specialized restaurants long before Portland
got hip.
One night, for example, we had dinner at a restaurant famous for
nose-to-tail eating. It only serves freshwater eel, mostly grilled on a stick.
So we ate eel fillets wrapped around burdock root, eel liver, smoked eel, and
(Iris’s favorite) crispy fried eel backbones. Japanese diners expect and
appreciate this level of focus: literally everyone in the eel restaurant was
ordering and enjoying the all-parts-of-the-eel set meal.
In the U.S., this level of specialization tends to be reserved for
American food (e.g., steakhouses) and food trucks. Ethnic restaurants (for lack
of a better term), even very good ones, tend to get stuck serving a greatest
hits collection from a national cuisine too big to fit on a single menu. And
Japanese cuisine is really big. There’s no such thing as a “Japanese
restaurant” in Tokyo, but there are a hundred different kinds of Japanese
restaurants.
There are so many wonderful things to eat in Tokyo. How did you
settle on the ones for the book? For example, I was flattered to be included in
the tofu chapter but at the same time I also wondered, why tofu?
Tokyo is always topping “World’s Most Expensive City” lists, but
having spent a month living and eating there, I can’t figure out why. You can
get any number of amazing meals for under $10—especially noodles, but also
takoyaki (octopus balls), bento, yakitori, rice balls, and so on. Once I
realized how well I could eat for $10, it was hard to get too excited about one
of those $300 sushi meals food writers are always gushing about.
So I decided the book would focus on the everyday food of Tokyo,
and tofu is an important part of that. Even so, one of the most expensive meals
I ate was at Ukai Tofu-ya, the same fancy tofu restaurant you visited in Asian
Tofu, and I describe in the book how they served me one of the best things
I’ve ever tasted (fresh tofu made from plump, Hokkaido-grown soybeans) and one
of the most challenging (a mucilaginous green called junsai). These were
served together in the same bowl. I love the idea of a high-end tofu
restaurant, and the meal was delicious, beautifully presented, and sometimes
way outside my comfort zone. That’s a good thing, right?
There were a few dishes I wanted to cover in the book and just ran
out of time, like Japanese curry and sōmen noodles, and others that I need to
revisit in more detail, like soba, sushi, and ramen. And, of course, there are
some great winter dishes, like tofu hot pot (yūdofu) and fish cake stew
(oden) that we didn’t try because we were in Tokyo during
the sticky furnace of July. Is it too early to hint that this oversight will be
remedied?
If a first-time visitor to Tokyo wanted a true experience with a
minimum of “vacation head”, what do you advise them to do in say, 2 or 3 days?
Vacation Head is a disease introduced to me by my friend Becky
Selengut, author of the cookbook Good Fish. You come down with it when
you go on vacation to a new place and, because your brain is addled by jetlag
and the sudden lifting of all your usual responsibilities, you decide that
you’ve landed in paradise. The food! The people! The scenery! It’s all perfect!
Japan is notorious for causing bad cases of Vacation Head, and that’s not
necessarily a bad thing; it’s only bad when someone else gets it and you have
to sit through their holiday slideshow.
Tokyo is the world’s biggest city, and you can’t see all of it in
a few days, a month, a year, or a lifetime. So you’ll have to prioritize.
Here’s what I think no food-loving visitor should miss:
- A visit to a depachika. Every department store in Tokyo has a food hall
in the basement, and they offer the most outrageous high-end food shopping you
can possibly imagine. A typical depachika has dozens of stalls staffed by
vendors selling sashimi, bento boxes, pickles, tea, rice dishes, Japanese
sweets, salumi, French pastry (including big names like Pierre Hermé). If
you’ve been to Harrods or Fauchon, you’ve experienced just the barest hint of a
depachika. The best I visited were at Isetan in Shinjuku and Takashimaya in
Nihonbashi. - Shibuya Crossing. This is the famously busy pedestrian crossing
seen in countless photos and movies set in Tokyo. Seeing a photo is nothing
compared to getting caught up in the crush yourself, especially on a rainy day
when you’ll be lost in a sea of umbrellas. And Shibuya is a bustling
neighborhood home to plenty of great restaurants and shopping once you get
tired of crossing the street. - An izakaya meal. An izakaya is a Japanese pub, the kind of
lively drinking and eating place where people hang out with coworkers and
friends after work, often for hours. Izakaya food is simple, diverse, and
usually salty and tangy to go well with beer, sake, or shochu. Think sashimi,
salt-broiled fish, stir-fried beef with tofu, mountain vegetable salad with
miso, and, in summer, a simple sliced ripe tomato. Nothing about the izakaya
experience travels well outside of Japan, so enjoy it while you’re there. If
you can go with a local, do so, but if not, go anyway and order by pointing and
shrugging. (Some chain izakayas have picture menus, and chain restaurants in
Japan are often great.) - Tempura cooked to order. One of the Tokyo dining experiences I miss most
is sitting at the counter in a neighborhood restaurant while a chef cooks us
pieces of perfectly fried tempura. We’d order onion, kabocha squash, and lotus
root, watch him cook, and pause to drink and enjoy the vegetables. Then we’d
order again: shrimp, whitebait, and a whole freshwater eel, slaughtered and
filleted before our eyes. We’d banter with the chef and fellow customers as
much as our limited common language allowed, and keep ordering food until we
couldn’t manage any more. Why aren’t American cities full of tempura bars?
How do you categorize your book? Is it a travel memoir or a
guidebook or both? How should a reader employ Pretty Good Number One for exploring Tokyo?
It’s definitely a travel memoir, but I’ve been delighted to hear from some
readers that they’re using the book to help plan their own Tokyo trip. The fact
that it’s an ebook and can easily live on your phone or e-reader probably
encourages that.
I love reading guidebooks, but they’re often out of date even
before they go on sale. The approach I tried to take in Pretty Good Number
One is to focus on the kind of food experiences you can have in Tokyo even
if all the specific restaurants and shops I mention in the book go out of
business. This is an absurdly egotistical thing to hope for, but if someone
were to read my book 25 years from now, they could say, “Now I want to go to a
cat cafe, and cook my own okonomiyaki pancakes at a tabletop grill, and shop at
a depachika, and eat a bento box while riding the train at 186 mph.” And of
course they’ll be able to. This being the future, however, possibly the tempura
chefs will be replaced by robots.
The Giveaway Lowdown:
- Prize: 3 copies of Pretty Good Number One by Matthew Amster-Burton
- Who
is eligible to enter: Anyone with an email address and willingness to read a
digital book - How
to enter: Simply
leave a comment on this post. What’s your favorite Japanese food? Include your
email address so
that I can contact you directly if you win. - Can
you enter more than once? Yes, if you’re a fan of the VWK Facebook page,
follow me on Twitter or
have joined me on Pinterest,
you can enter an extra time for each of those social media networks. If we’re
buddies on all three, then shoot, you can enter 4 times. If you’re doing
multiple entries, let me know who you are by including something like [FB],
[Twitter], or [Pinterest] in your comment. - Deadline
to enter: Friday,
May 3, 2013, noon (PST) - Selection,
notification, and claiming the tickets: The three winners will be randomly selected via
Random.org and notified by email. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, May
7. Because the book is available in different ebook formats, the winners will
individually coordinate with Matthew on how to receive the book. If you’d like
more details, read the official
giveaway rules.
Good luck!
Related posts -- Matthew mentions certain dishes in his book that got me thinking about these recipes on VWK:
- Japanese Octopus Dumpling (Takoyaki) (on Asian Dumpling Tips)
- Cold Udon (zaru udon) (great eating in Tokyo's sweltering summer)
- Udon with Clams and Shiitake Mushroom (a Tokyo-style izakaya dish)
Martin Nieznanski
My favorite Japanese food would have to be Hiyayakko. it's such a simple dish that can be done up in so many ways, and it's a lifesaver on a hot day!
Diane
Onigiri, because basically I'm a starch fiend and what's not to love about a portable handful of savory rice with a surprise inside?
Sabine Ferrara
Thank you for the information, it's very useful.
James G
My favourite Japanese food is not a food per se, but a meal--breakfast. I used to travel via Narita on international flights to Asia from the US just so that I'd have a chance to enjoy a breakfast at one of the many, many restaurants there, and I was never disappointed.
[email protected]
i worked in Gardena California for 10 years, eating daily some of the best ramen, soba, udon, shabu shabu and yakitori ive ever eaten outside of Tokyo. i lost that job due to the recession and recently moved to Massachusetts farm country. i deeply miss ALL of the amazing Japanesse (among others) food that LA has to offer and mourn constantly. there is nothing for hundreds of miles that will ever live up to one bite of the food i loved for so long. but i have become a pretty proficient cook of many things Japanese, so there is that. but still, i mourn.
Mary Chan
One of my new favourite Japanese foods is okonomiyaki. We had a Japanese student staying with us for 5 months and she said she hadn't eaten okonomiyaki in almost a year, so we hunted down all the ingredients and made our own. Sooooo good!
Julie
Hi there! I lived in Tokyo for two years, and I have to agreed that going to an izakaya is must-do for anyone visiting. One of my very favorite discoveries has been shako (mantis shrimp), which I haven't seen served stateside yet.
I've been a long time follower of your site (via google reader, but more recently I've been following you using feedly, pinterest and fb).
Linda B.
soba noodles are one of my favorites
Karen Himmer
This may sound a bit simple but my favorite Japanese food is miso soup. Just plain with a few green onions floating on top. The miso, to me, is so complex that it satisfies me on many levels.
I hope I win because I am a culinary instructor and will be teaching a class on Japanese food next month. Any extra research I can get my hands on is always appreciated. Loved the info in your post, Andrea.
Tara Mataraza Desmond
Tie between a big bowl of noodly ramen and shabu shabu (though eating takoyaki from a food truck in a park with befuddled Americans in Hokkaido is one of my favorite food adventure memories). Either one, with biru please. The title of this book couldn't be better.
gina
sushi, pork tokatsu, ramen soup...I can go on and on.....Gina
Cherelle K
My favorite Japanese food would have to been grilled eel rice bowl and ramen soup. 🙂
Lisabu
One of my favorite Japanese dishes can be found at their terrific pasta places. Spaghetti with mentaiko (tiny cod roe) and shiso leaves. Fusion yes but uniquely japanese.
terri
I don't think I can pick a favorite, but since I love carbs, I adore anything with rice (e.g. onigiri/omusubi) or noodles (ramen, soba, udon, somen, etc.).
Kathryn
I can almost taste a bowl of Nishin soba I had in Kyoto years ago...it was that memorable. The cured fish was a bit sweet, and the broth was rich, and of course lovely handmade soba noodles. I was oblivious to being the only tall blond-haired woman noisily slurping noodles in the place - completely engrossed in brothy noodle heaven.
Cynthia Sasaki
Tamago Gohan. Pure comfort. Hot rice and a beaten raw egg with a dash of sea salt and a just a hint of shoyu, garnished with seaweed/nori. It's a guilty pleasure now that raw eggs are off my heart-healthful diet.
Kim
I think my favorite must be either ramen or pork tokatsu. Thanks for the chance!
Dee
One of my first and greatest loves was gyoza. I first tracked them down via a restaurant review in London and found them in a tiny bar off Shaftesbury Avenue. I could have eaten them until I fell off the stool !
Nam
Tempura fried food are always good. And I also like takoyaki quite a lot.
VR
Miso soup, if I had to pick one. I don't do twitter or pinterest, but am picking 2 more:
Izakaya food- particularly eggplant w/mirin & soy sauce- don't remember the name offhand, but it's salty, crunchy and just right with sake.
Fresh, fresh sushi, gari & fresh wasabi.
Quyen
Any kind of ramen, hands down!
Dennis M Reed
number 1 has to be chirashi-zushi but I also appreciate good tempura...the list can go on and on...I am also a fan of the Hawaiian-Japanese saimin.
Uschi
Ramen soup and tempura. ?
And Kind regards from germany
Julia
Sushi in a bento box at a train station is pretty excellent but so are rice balls with ume in the middle and udon and ramen. Eh, I guess I failed at choosing just one.
Maggie
I went to Japan many years ago, and I still feel nostalgic for the wonderful meals I had there. I wonder if Matthew and his family ventured away from Tokyo and the usual supspects? It's just that if someone wanted to sample great local food in Britain or France, they probably wouldn't find it around Piccadilly Circus or the Champs Elysées!
Caroline
Ahh difficult one..so much good stuff. I would say tonkatsu. But ramen is a very very close second. I would LOVE to live one month in Tokyo, what a great idea!
AmaliaL
Takoyaki, ramen and sushi
RTF
I just got back from a trip to Japan on Tuesday. I thought I was pretty savvy about Japanese food before I went but it really opened my eyes to a lot of things, particularly the deliciousness of okonomiyaki and soba. That said, my favourite Japanese food remains tonkotsu ramen. My culinary highlight was eating at the original Ippudo in Daimyo, Fukuoka.
Natalie
Thanks for your tips. Food in Tokyo, in other areas in Japan, and food cooked in Japanese homes -- it is all amazing. My favourites are unagi on rice, onigiri, and my friend's homemade tempura.
Suzette
Lived in Japan for a year, and it's impossible to pick just one! Some of the more memorable things include: fresh bamboo tempura, watching my udon noodles being made by hand, basashi (horse sashimi), Beard Papa cream puffs, Ippudo ramen... and any and all of the foods already mentioned by other posters! It's 8am and now I'm craving for an onigiri from a 7-11! 🙁
Corey
Gyoza! The porkier and garlickier the better . . .
Susan
My favorite Japanese food is takoyaki... I love all kinds of Japanese food, but I fell in love with these when I was stationed in Okinawa.
Susan
I absolutely LOVE this! My grandmother used to make this for me all the time as a child. I still eat it for breakfast, or for dinner if I don't feel like cooking.
Candice
My favorite Japanese food would be ramen.
Candice
I follow you on [Twitter].
Candice
I follow you on [Pinterest].
Thanks for the generous giveaway!
Kana
My favorite is dango! Mochi rice balls on a stick with red bean paste or a soy sauce syrup. They remind me of my childhood and going to summer festivals in Japan.
Pham Phan
I used to buy dinner at trainstation, which is normally in the basement of the train station. Stores normally offer discount price when it is close to business day.
Estelle
tonkotsu ramen!
Kana
My favorite is dango; mochi rice balls on a stick with red bean paste or soy sauce syrup! They always remind me of the summer festivals in Japan from my childhood.
Kana
My favorite is dango; mochi rice cake balls on a stick with red bean paste or soy sauce syrup. They remind me of the summer festivals in Japan from my childhood.
Jessica K.
My favorite Japanese food is sashimi! And I'm planning a trip to Tokyo for this fall so this would be perfect!!
jorgebob28
Although I grew up in Japan, it was in the south on Okinawa. For my last two trips I went to Kyoto and Osaka. My favorites from the trips were a tofu dinner at a Buddhist temple-affliated restaurant, Nishin Soba (hot soba with sweet braised sardines), udon in Osaka and the best of all, Saba Oshizushi. I'm a total freak for good saba and Kyoto did not disappoint! The tsukemono (pickle) shops in Kyoto are quite excellent and don't get me started on yuba, there's nothing like it. I brought back many goodies from Nishiki Market and a couple of really good knives, too. The train station bentos are a handy and affordable way to eat even if you're not riding the train.
Rachelle
I'm slightly obsessed with ramen regardless of how much sodium it has.
Ellen Deffenbaugh
Love soba noodles!
jill
Udon noodles and sushi. Love your post!
Sam
Definitely gyoza!
Emma
I love Unagi Kaba-Yaki - it's so good!
Eric
My favorite Japanese dish is a dessert...I cannot get enough of green tea stuffed mochi balls.
Daniel
Tuna nabemono. Ahi tuna and leeks barely cooked in hot stock and dipped in raw egg.
andrea
One of my favorite Japanese foods is a good bowl of chirashi. Especially when it includes a shiso leaf!
Mai
Cold soba or hot ramen, depending on the season.
Jeanie
All kinds of sashimi with fresh wasabi. Menitako spaghetti.
David T
My favorite Japanese food is okonomiyaki. Came here searching for your book. I heard there's a good Banh Mi recipe in there.
Alicia
My favorite Japanese food is Okonomiyaki -- I remember a great meal at an Okonomiyaki restaurant in Hiroshima on a school trip years ago. Delish.
David H.
Right now my favorite Japanese food is Karukan cake. It was from a movie called "I Wish" and although it has a mild flavor it is addictive. Looking forward to reading Matthew's book....hopefully in e-book format!;)
BK
Great story! I enjoy all of the food I've eaten in Japan, but I like the many types of natto best, especially over udon.
Diane K
onigiri, especially when it's warm and freshly made.
michlhw
you posed a tough question! at this point in time, chawan-mushi. it's so hard to get the texture and balance of tastes right. and then sourcing for the appropriate mix of ingredients to complement the egg.. yupp.. chawan-mushi for me. although jiro did say in his movie that the test to determine how good a restaurant is is their tamago. hmmm.
TomL
Grilled eel served outside on a scorching hot summer's. day.
Tom
Melissa
My favorite Japanese food is tonkotsu ramen, hands down!
Amelie
I love sushi, all kinds, every kind except the sea urchin since I haven't quite developed a taste for it yet. 🙂 Will work more on that. I would love to take a trip to Tokyo to try out the famous sushi houses there.
carol
takoyaki
Pamina
One of my favorites is a gobo and carrot dish my grandmother used to make.
Helena
Ramen with port tonkatsu! Yumm!
Julie
Any kind of comfort bowl with that steamed egg on it with some caramelized onions. Like shrimp tempura donburi (which may not be authentic).
Henry
Andrea, Thanks for the blog post! I just finished the book last night. Great read. It brings back memories of my honeymoon in Japan/HK in '08. He's so right that even an average restaurant in Tokyo is better than the ones here (at least in the OC area). The depachika was an eye opener with the variety and quality of the food. One unfortunate thing about my depachika experience was that there was no place to sit and eat the food in the department store. My local friend she told me that they assume you will take it back to your office or home to eat it.
Yvonne
There is so much to love about Japanese food it is difficult to know where to start. However some of my favorites are noodles and sashimi. What kind of noodles you may ask? All of them soba, ramen, udon, somen. My favorite sashimi is uni followed closely by ika although I love almost all sashimi.
Mollie
chawanmushi!
Jack
My favorite Japanese food is ramen. Much like pho, there is something soothing & comfortable about a bowl of broth and noodles.