This post was written in 2005. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
Somehow I ended up hitting both a top-class soba shop and a top-class ramen shop in Tokyo on the same day.
The details as we go through the photos..
For lunch I went to Kanda Yabu Soba. I head to Kanda regularly to hunt for photo books and CDs,
and since it’s not far from the bookstore district, I’d been meaning to try it someday. Today I finally made the time.
This is the unagi nanban. It was the most expensive thing on the menu, but someone had strongly recommended it, so I ordered it without hesitation.
The taste.. well.. I’d call it the standard for soba. It felt like it had everything soba should be striving for.
A perfect flavor with nothing lacking and no rough edges.. on the other hand, it was a little removed from anything
really striking or moving.
The problem is the small portion and the high price.. -_-;; Still, every now and then you’ve got to have a bowl like this to feel
like life is worth living..
The soba portion was so small -_-;; that I grabbed a snack while passing through the Ameyoko market. I think it was called
“ameyaki.” They were making it a lot like our Korean gyeran-ppang (egg bread).. so I got nostalgic and tried one,
but it tasted different from gyeran-ppang. It was closer to okonomiyaki. One of these costs 200 yen..
and I don’t recommend it.
My hand got in the shot.. a straight-on photo taken right before I ate it.
Right.. meal done, so time for dessert ^^; This is Mihashi, an anmitsu specialist, anmitsu being a sort of Japanese take on patbingsu.
It was the weekend and the line was way too long, so I just decided to get it to go.
You pour that black liquid over it, mix it all up well, and eat. Compared to Mealtop, the bingsu specialist on the 5th floor
of the Hyundai Department Store in Apgujeong, it’s about 1.5 times tastier. ^_^; How do they get that flavor out of red beans..
it’s really amazing.
I came out of a concert in Shinjuku at 9. I thought about just going home.. but I’d had a pretty poor lunch
-_-;; so I felt I should eat something before heading back, and went to Menya Musashi, the ramen shop reputed to be
number one in Shinjuku. I got there at 9 and waited about 20 minutes. Just what you’d expect from a famous shop..
You can choose between rich (kotteri) and light (assari). I went with light. Living up to its reputation as number one
in Shinjuku, the ramen that came out was of a really high standard. I’ve also been to other famous ramen shops in Shinjuku,
Shinjuku Gen and Keika Ramen, but Musashi was tastier. On top of that, if you look closely
you’ll see there’s no pepper in it. I can hardly eat anything peppery or salty,
but a lot of Japanese restaurants serve food like that, so I struggle. Even quite famous shops
torment me that way (Keika was pepper plus very salty, Gen was a bit salty), but Musashi
had none of that at all.. the price and the portion are still a bit of a problem.. but if anyone wants to go, I’d strongly
recommend it.
Ramen and soba are both noodles, but in Japan they hold very different positions.
Japanese ramen shops are a lot like Korean Chinese restaurants. They’re for everyone, they’re spread out
all over the country, and though they originally came from Chinese cooking, dishes that don’t exist in China itself
became popular. Most Japanese ramen shops also sell gyoza, and among the famous ramen shops
many are run by overseas Chinese.
Soba, on the other hand, is a traditional Japanese noodle dish. If ramen is completely down-to-earth,
soba is treated as a bit more upscale. I can’t say which one tastes better, but both
play an important role in Japanese society. (I just wish soba were a bit cheaper..)
In Korea.. there are almost no places where you can get good soba or good ramen.. ^^
so there’s no point even agonizing over which one to eat..
Other visits to this place