An odd title to a post, but tonight we went out to have a bit of shabu shabu for the first time in a while.

For those who don’t know, shabu shabu is a meal where you have a big bowl of boiling water, and you sweep (or drop in and leave) very thin slices of beef or pork through it until it’s cooked and then eat it with different sauces like sesame (for example). The same goes for vegetables too – just put some carrots in there or such, pull them out when they’re ready and eat away.

We went to a branch of the Mo Mo Paradise chain in Ginza, and the twist here is that you don’t just get a choice of water to cook your sliced meat in, but of three soups: cow’s tongue, kimuchi and a salt based, potentially pork based one. We went for the first two. At this point in my order, I thought I’d got it wrong as the waitress said we’d need two nabe (pots/pans), one for each soup.

Ah. I was trying to see how we were going to fit two pots on the heating element in the middle of the table, and still be able to heat them both, when the waitress returned with split bowl shown below, in an almost yin-yang configuration. for reference, that’s the kimuchi on the right. I just thought I’d post it because I’d never seen one like this before, and it looked pretty good.

So basically, when I woke up last Sunday morning, I was thinking about making some Miso Shiru. This is not a normal way to wake up. A normal way to wake up is either a) thinking about an enormous fried breakfast which somehow makes itself and then does the washing up, or b) going back to bed because it’s still technically ‘AM’. Or both.

However, there I was wandering around the apartment thinking about miso shiru. Of course, like anything, my plan just got grander and grander.

“I’m going to grind fresh miso, make my own dashi from dead fish, recycled Gundam robots etc., make my own tofu and find clams and such on Tsukiji market to flavour and it will truly be an epic soup!! [Insert evil laugh here]“

One thing I do know about my local supermarket on a Sunday AM is that it’s packed with customers over the age of 120. Hundreds of them. All buying the same things. So I decided to spend a bit more time in the planning phase.

After a cup of tea and a good sit down at the dining table, the whole thing seemed like a lot of hard work. Maybe I’d buy the dashi paste or powder and to be honest I don’t actually like clams, so what’s the point in that?

After another cup of tea and a quick game of Katamari Damashi, the ‘grinding your own Miso’ thing seemed positively twentieth century – you can get very reasonable miso in a tube I’m told.

It takes a lot of time to make tofu. I remember seeing a programme on TV about it. Also, I don’t have the huge bath they had, so I’m better off just buying some.

OK. I have my plan. Just one more cup of tea, and off to the shop.

So after another quick Katamari session, I got to the supermarket, and had decided to do an all vegetable miso shiru based on the truth that I had a lot of veggies in the fridge which needed using. Potatoes, carrots and mushrooms to be exact. Also, I spied a tub of miso/dashi paste. Pre-mixed! I saw an elderly lady buy one, so I figured it must be pretty good, because I can’t quite see her allowing herself to be ridiculed by friends and family for not knowing how to make good miso shiru.

Buying the tofu proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Actually, it shouldn’t have been. There’s basically two types in our local supermarket – kinu and momen. They’re actually made differently, taste different, and have slightly different consistencies. I wanted momen, which should have been easy as I can read the ‘kinu’ kanji pretty easily, so I just needed to avoid it.

So after I bought the kinu tofu, and carried it home, I had this epiphany. Ah well, no problem, I’ll just figure it out later.

Bottom line was I mixed the dashi/miso mix (very twenty first century I might add) with hot water for a few minutes, added my slightly pre-boiled potatoes and carrots, then a bit later the mushrooms, and then finally, a couple of minutes before serving, the slightly soft tofu. Outcome: complete success. See, I knew that was a quick, pain free idea.

No, there was no wakame. I just wasn’t in a seaweedy mood that day. Maybe next Sunday.

This is a weak post. I know it’s a weak post. But I’m going to do it anyway.

Today was hot. Hot and humid, and I walked all the way from Maru building near Tokyo Station, to Ginza. Did I mention it was hot and humid? Anyway, by the time I got back to Maru, I’d got a little hungry and decided to head over to Tokyo Soup Stock for some lunch. I was feeling pretty hungry and noticed that Chili Con Carne was on the menu this month, and it’s usually really good. I ordered then the ‘Soup Stock Set’, which is 2 regular cartons of soup and some rice or bread. The counter person asked me what I wanted – ‘Soup stock set with bread’.
‘Which soup?’
‘Chili Con Carne for both please.’
‘I’m sorry, we can’t do that.’
‘Do what? Chili Con Carne is on the menu isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but with this set, you must have 2 different soups’.
‘Why?’
‘…’

So I ended up with chili and a pork stroganof.

I did say it was a weak post, but no weaker than that rule. I think I’ll try again next week and see whether I just got a rigid employee on a bad day. The exchange went on a little longer than I put here, but I think you get the point.

They never tell me I can’t have two butadons in Yoshinoya.

My long suffering partner and I decided to go out for a meal to the ‘Hiro’ restaurant on the 35th floor of Maru Building in front of Tokyo station. It’s a beautiful looking place, with an amazing view over Tokyo, which looked fabulous as the sun set. The food, as you would expect, comes in many small courses, each well made and presented, but the course that really impressed us was the caviar and rice entree, which, as it was only really a mouthful’s worth, came all ready on a spoon.

When the waiter presented it, he exclaimed “You may be surprised…it looks like sushi but it’s not!”. We were thinking it looked like a few bits of rice and caviar on a spoon. I’ve had small courses before, but not one where it came pre-attached to the cutlery.

We kind of looked at each other for a second, and at some of the other diners…was this a sample? Like a waiter presenting a taster glass of wine before pouring for all? Nope, that was it, though I should say that it was absolutely delicious.

All said, ‘Hiro’ is a great place for a date or a special occassion. Prices for dinner start at 9,000yen for a set meal, so I’ll be living off pot noodles and Yoshinoya for a while.

gososamadeshita!