かめや - Kameya
Kameya is a tiny tempura soba joint smack in the middle of Shinjuku's Omoide Yokocho and Omoide Yokocho is an alley full of little restaurants just by the West entrance of Shinjuku Station. We've had yakitori in there before, but most of the stuff caters pretty heavily towards drunks and tourists and isn't necessarily the best Shinjuku has to offer.
Kameya is notably different. It was already 2 PM when I sat down for a bowl, but the seats continued to fill up with patrons. Virtually everyone was a salaryman there for only a couple minutes, but I did have a homeless man sit next to me. Probably because Kameya is cheap. At 330 Yen for my bowl of tempura soba, it's cheap enough for even homeless people to afford it. It was easily the most popular shop in the entire alley.
I'm guessing that it was a good thing that a homeless man would eat it with me. I mean if he was willing to spend his precious money there it has to be good right? Well it was totally delicious. Easily the best value I've had in Tokyo. Free gyoza at Ippudo doesn't count. I'm not sure what makes this soba better than others, but can't I just qualify it by saying it tastes better? Simple enough I think.
Afterward, I headed to Isetan and bought a crapload of desserts again. Business taken care of, I was off to Harajuku for one last Omotesando visit.
Burton Tokyo
Picked up an omiyage for me and my brother. Unfortunately the small they had the last time was sold out, so I settled for two mediums. My collection of these has grown to three cities now. Yay.
I roamed cat street and Meiji-dori while I waited for V to show up. Did a bunch of window shopping but wasn't really in a buying mood. Why is it that only right before I leave I start to find some things I like? Saves me money I suppose.
I met up with V and we headed for her final visit to Kiddy Land. She wasn't quite as sad as I expected her to be, but I guess you can't be too sad when you buy Hello Kitty stuff. We continued down Omotesando towards Aoyama and what would surely be our final dessert date. Surely.
Pierre Hermé
Pierre Herme is a Paris chain with locations in Tokyo and London as well. Famous for its macaroons, we planned to hit up their chocolat bar for...coffee. Yeah right.
The chocolat bar is located on the second floor of the establishment and is laid out in a lounge setting. Seating is either on a low couch with tables or at a counter overlooking Aoyama-dori. We opted for the couch. PH is a super upscale place that seems to be heavy on etiquette (quiet). We only took a couple of pictures before a guy came over and asked us not to. So bear with us if the photos are not up to par.
Yeah this picture definitely doesn't do this justice. The Miss Gla'Gla' Montebello is like a macaron ice cream sandwich. Ours was pistachio and strawberry. This was certainly the most creative thing we had there and was really delicious. You can also buy them to go in the boutique downstairs and if there's one thing that's totally unique to PH and you should try it's probably the Miss Gla'Gla' series of ice cream sandwiches.
I ordered the White Day partially out of laziness but also because it sounded pretty good. It was more than just pretty good though; tasted like pure bliss. The vanilla and coffee tarts stood out the most, but all the chocolates were pretty phenomenal as well. I continued my trend of ordering awesome food.
Our other dessert (yes we ate three) was an apricot and chocolate biscuit. Two extremely bold flavors fought for attention in this plate and the result was pretty overwhelming. V is pretty weak to chocolate, so I ended up eating the whole thing as well as most of the chocolate on the other plate. Did you know chocolate is poisonous for people as well? Don't eat too much chocolate kids.
We definitely ordered way too many things and I was severely choco-overdosing. Pierre Herme is definitely special. He's become an all-star pastry chef and is considered by some to be the best in the world. His Aoyama store is actually the original (even before his Paris ones) and can be considered a destination for those culinarily inclined.
Just don't be stupid and eat too much chocolate.
We actually have our own pastry chef in Chicago who we love and treasure. V not only thought of him but also thought about the ichigo daifuku I had bought while we were eating, thus prompting me to call her a "dessert whore." This is probably the one loophole that makes it ok for you call your wife a whore. I still felt dangerous doing it though.
We made our best attempt to walk it off as we checked out Tokyu Hands and Loft in Shibuya. V loves those types of stores, but we didn't get to spend much time in either as we had to head to our final meet up with the Tokyo gang.
莫莫 - Baku Baku
Baku Baku is home to the highest rated kushiage on tabelog. The second highest rated is Baku Baku's second store. I had been searching for a kushiage place when I came across it online and it turns out that it's super close to where we live for some reason.
Located in the alley leading to Okubo Station, Baku Baku is definitely a bit difficult to find, and despite its vaulted rating it was surprisingly empty. We definitely didn't need to worry about our reservation. For those who don't know, kushiage is akin to tempura but everything is breaded using panko rather than flour and then skewered onto a stick. It's basically deep-fried stuff on a stick. So even when the head chef brought out a starter bowl of onions, we didn't have any chopsticks to use. Instead, we went had to use the little skewers.
We waited for Diana and Gordon for a bit while we pondered what to order. Luckily we found the omakase course on the wall and decided to just leave it to the chef. For 3630 Yen, it's a little expensive but it's also pretty much all you can eat. The head chef kinda reminded me of the master from the J-drama, Hero. We asked him what there was to drink and he replied, "何でもあるよ。” But he lied! Turns out not only did he not have chopsticks, he also didn't have any Calpis for V.
The basic premise of the omakase is that you go in order and eat from number 1 to 20 letting the chef know if you want to stop at any time. At the end you can order any additional items you want. Thus the marathon eating began.
The shrimp was the first course and perhaps even the best. You got a whole bunch of salty juices when you ate the head and the body was surprisingly tender. It was an awesome start. Most of the courses you're supposed to dip in sauce but a couple you aren't. The ebi was one of the ones you eat straight up. The courses came and went and although they took a little bit of time in between we didn't even really notice. Everything was delicious but some of the more notable ones for me are...
the eggplant on the right. The squid of the left was good too of course, but this eggplant just came out tasting super fresh and even a bit sweet. There was a wagyu course that was really good and the quail egg...
was freaking fantastic. I think I could have just popped those suckers all night. Eating purely fried things is a little tough actually, and everyone was beginning to get a little greased out by the time the house special came out.
That's seaweed wrapped in some sort of fish egg I believe. It was really good, but I don't know if I can even place it in the top 5 of the things we ate. Actually, most of the veggies really stood out for me and I could have done without a couple of the stranger courses like red ginger.
Our final course was mochi which turned out to be one of my favorites. We got the omakase for fun, since this was our last real outing in Tokyo, but the right way to eat Baku Baku is to simply order one at a time the way V did. That way you get to eat what you like and also don't get overcome by all the fried crap. We did plenty of damage though.
The real last course was actually the ichigo daifuku we got earlier at Isetan. V did some research and found out that Suzukake is actually from Fukuoka and only has six stores in Japan. Their only Tokyo store is the one in Shinjuku's Isetan so we were lucky to have found them.
We have yet to get ichigo daifuku aficionado Diana's opinion on them, but V and I thought they were pretty amazing.
We finished eating everything and the head guy came around for last orders. Everyone was finished except me who ordered another ebi like a proper fatass. Mmmm. Baku Baku lives up to its billing as amazing kushiage. I wouldn't totally recommend the omakase course and if you just order what you like to eat, there's no way you can go wrong.
I'm not sure why we failed to take a picture of everyone together. It was our last chance and it totally slipped our minds! I guess this just means we need to come back sometime to get that picture.
If there's one takeaway from Baku Baku, it's that double-dipping is bad.
In fact it's an offense for which you have to forfeit 1 million Yen. Or so the bathroom says.
We finally started packing that night and actually made quite a bit of headway. My body shutdown as a way of telling me to stop eating myself to death while V who had done a much better job of pacing herself over the past week indulged herself in a Pierre Herme mille feuille.
One day left.
