Tokyo

And hop! A little trip to Tokyo to go shopping! On the program of this culinary journey, a short overview of some Japanese specialties such as sushi, katsudon, gyozas, tempuras… But above all, a trip to Kappabashi Dogugai Avenue in the Asakusa district, an avenue where more than 170 stores selling kitchen utensils are located. It is also the temple of plastic dishes, because this is where you can find the fake dishes for the front of restaurants in Japan. In addition, I will take you to the Ameyayokocho market, one of the last popular markets in Tokyo.

Here I am in Tokyo. The first thing I want to try every time I go to this city is sushi! Especially in small restaurants where there is a conveyor belt. Just sit back and watch the dishes go by. But be careful! Once the plate is touched, you have to take it!

The colors of the plates determine the price. In Tokyo, they usually range from 100 yen to 550 yen…

Even though I have tasted almost all of them, I still prefer the salmon ones. Especially if there are salmon eggs on top (ikura!).

Small walk in the street with stands of Tempura. These are delicious fried vegetables, shrimps, fishes… The dough is glazed, with a low gluten flour. Once the vegetables are dipped in the glazed paste, they are thrown into the very hot oil. The heat shock creates the characteristic shape of tempura and gives it a certain lightness for fritters!

A seller of crunchy rice cakes!

Another break in a restaurant with this time the Katsudon, whose recipe I will put soon. It is a slice of pork, breaded then fried, placed on a bed of rice, and onions cooked in a sauce made of mirin, sake, sugar and soy sauce. The whole thing is covered by an egg omelette which is cooked by the heat of the rice and pork. A true delight!

We continue the way with sellers of waffles forées. They are made with sweetened red bean paste, or western style, with a kind of custard or caramel…

This poor waffle will not have survived very long in my hand!

Another vendor, but this time from Takoyaki! Spherical doughnuts with squid… It is especially a specialty of Osaka!

I then went to the Ameyayokocho market, along the Ueno-Okachimachi station. A market where dried fish, breaded crabs, are sold with clothes, sneakers, cell phones…

Fishes such as fatty tuna (endangered!!), salmon eggs…

Here we are in the district which interested me most, the Kappabashi Dogugai avenue. When you like to cook, it’s a real paradise, or a hell for the wallet… But I ended up simply falling for a whisk and a sieve! You can find almost any mold that exists.

The stores on this avenue each have their own speciality.

For this store, it was the coffee.

This one was doing promotions for plastic sushi.

All the stores put their products in evidence on the sidewalk…

For Japanese knives, no problem, there is a store just for them. But the prices quickly stopped me! Next time, however, I will treat myself to one.

You can find everything in Kappabashi!

I don’t think even Mora has that many cookie cutter choices!!!

And finally the famous plastic dish stores. For those who don’t know Japan yet, you should know that in almost every restaurant, there is a window with the dishes of the menu, but in plastic. You can easily see what you are going to eat! Especially when you don’t speak Japanese, it’s much more convenient!

Even the beers are fake!

The sushi…

Everything goes! Even meat, seafood, tempura!

Even the cakes. I should think about it to make the photos of my site for the recipes I propose!

And here is the implementation! A restaurant window with the dishes offered and their prices!

I found this little restaurant so charming that I wanted to put a picture of it here!

And here is a vegetable that we will come back to later for the tempura recipe!

Finally, a small neighborhood restaurant.

With râmen (or lamen), a bowl of soup with noodles. There are so many kinds of lentils that it is impossible to go around them, as for all the Japanese cuisine!

The machine to prepare gyozas!

Here are some pictures! The recipe for gyozas is on my website!

And to finish, a small tour of the Tsukiji market where you had to go at the time (the pictures are from 2008! The auction does not exist anymore and has been replaced by an electronic auction system…) to go there at 5am to have the opportunity to attend the tuna auction!