Ogikubo has much the same feel as its neighbors on the Chuo Line, like Asagaya and Koenji. There’s a shopping street with some history and a fair number of decent places to eat, but since it’s a quiet residential area, there aren’t many spots worth going out of your way for. Tomato is pretty much the one famous place in Ogikubo, a neighborhood I almost never have reason to visit, and it specializes in European-style curry. I suspect it may be the only curry specialist in all of Tokyo that does neither Indian nor Japanese curry but the European kind.
The front of the shop
Their hours are really short, just 11:30 to 1:30. But as long as you’re in line by 1:30 they’ll let you in, so you can still end up eating after 2.
Prosciutto salad
These days I order a salad and some protein separately for my health, even if it costs a bit more. Health is the best return on investment. It looked great, but it didn’t really move me. I guess I’m past the stage where a well-made cured ham can impress me.
Wagyu stew
The portion is on the small side, but the flavor is rich. They took care not just with the presentation but with every single ingredient inside, and maybe thanks to the long cooking time it had that deep, slow-simmered taste. Somehow, though, it overlapped with the nikomi I’d had the day before. The tenderness of the well-braised beef is beyond words, but at 4,000 yen for this one dish it was a total bust for value. It tastes maybe 1.5 times as good as the nikomi in Tsukiji and costs about 6 times as much… From a value-for-money point of view you could call it absurd.
Rice cooked from Koshihikari
It comes with the stew. The rice was really nicely cooked. But no overdoing it. I’d already picked our second stop.
Seafood curry
It was loaded with fresh seafood. I ordered it for the looks, but it was a bit sweet. The seafood was good, but with four of us sharing, it didn’t impress as much. Overall the portions felt a little small for the price, but maybe that’s just how curry is.
Rice for the curry
The curry rice has cheese mixed in.
Beef tongue curry
This is the house signature dish. The beef tongue was as tender as I expected, and the curry was a little spicier than typical Japanese curry. I figured that’s why they call it European-style curry. It has a range of spices, though not as many as Indian curry, and in some ways it resembles Japanese curry a bit. With beef tongue in it, it’s not cheap. I also wondered whether European-style curry just doesn’t suit Korean tastes. For Koreans used to real heat, this level of spice is neither here nor there. I think a plain, sweetish classic Japanese curry would be more satisfying. Or you could just make it at home to your own taste…
Wagyu Java curry
Java curry means curry from the island of Java, but it isn’t the curry people actually eat on Java -_- It takes its name from a famous Japanese boxed curry roux meant to evoke tropical spiciness. In other words… it just means a slightly hot curry. It tasted similar to the beef tongue one, but felt like something important was missing.
The standard curry condiments
You get something similar at CoCo Ichibanya. While we’re on the subject, let me say this: CoCo Ichibanya curry is a knockoff. Order an XX curry and all you get is XX put on top of the curry as a topping. The XX really ought to go in while the curry is being made. It’ll do for a quick meal, but you can’t call it real curry.
All that came to 3,000 yen per person, so for the price it fell well short. With that money you could go to Ponta Honke in Ueno and eat at a higher level. Anyway, I’ll have to be happy with having tried European-style curry once. Then we headed to Kichijoji for dessert, the real main event of the day.
The weather was gorgeous that day.
We strolled for about 15 minutes through the narrow streets of a Kichijoji residential area. We could have taken the bus, but you enjoy your food more once you’ve digested a bit, so we walked on purpose. A food trip is just eating and walking, over and over, with some photo-taking in between.
And so we arrived at A Tes Souhaits, in front of Tokyo Woman’s Christian University
This is an upscale residential area, so the ladies of the neighborhood line up. With the women’s university nearby there are quite a few young women too. Mont St. Clair in Jiyugaoka had the same kind of vibe. I bought cakes here a few years ago too, but they were gifts so I never got to taste them. This time I get a second shot.
When I went to take pictures, they told me photography isn’t allowed. That’s happened to me only a handful of times in my life. Usually if you say you only want to shoot the food, most places are fine with it. So I sneaked some shots with my phone camera… -_- I’d meant to write a separate post, but since they’re phone photos I’ve put them in with Tomato. My passion for blogging keeps getting stronger lately. Almost to the point where I wonder if this is okay…
Apricot cake on the left, orange cake on the right
The exact names are probably on their website… The friend who came with me raved about the apricot one, but I couldn’t really tell whether it was that good. I bought the one topped with orange because it looked delicious, but it was less impressive than it looked. Oddly, there was something like rice inside, which was really unusual. It wasn’t heavy.
Apple pie
They say a whole apple goes into it. It’s apple season right now, so I trusted that and ordered it. The top is very tart apple, and the bottom is a nicely baked pie. Most places use sweeter apples, but maybe because the tartness is left intact, it’s anything but ordinary. It’s unusual, but very well made, with excellent balance. It made me think this shop might be better at pastries than cakes.
Crème brûlée and Acidulé
The Acidulé was really good too. The rich white chocolate is superb. But the best of the day was the crème brûlée. The top was burnt completely black, which gave it a strong bittersweet edge, and that’s utterly addictive. Inside there were candied chestnuts too, lifting what can be a plain crème brûlée to another level. A dessert this good deserves to be called a work of art, or a drug. It’s only the second time in my life I’ve had a crème brûlée this delicious. I want to taste it again when I’m in Tokyo. And it’s the kind of thing you want to give as a gift.
And so I wrapped up the Tokyo trip and came home. On the way back I stopped by Dominique Saibron, but I’ve already posted that one. It was such a full trip that I meant to lie low for a while, but a chance to travel again came up right away. So right now I have a huge backlog of posts… Time to build some momentum and get them up. I hope to finish this year well, and next year, please, I’d love to manage real-time blog updates.