The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: The Best Steaks I Ever Had! (Satou Steak House)

Credit for finding this place goes to one of my best friends, who is also hot on all things Japanese, including food, fashion, sanyo, anime, dramas.... You know who you are! I also should refer you to this blog http://paulstravelpics.blogspot.com/2007/08/day-2-matsuzaka-steak-and-yakitori.html which helped us to navigate our way there.

Like many others before us, we combined our visit to Satou Steak House with a trip to Studio Ghibli Museum. The museum is a 20-30min train journey from Shinjuku to Mitaka, followed by a short 15-20min walk. We spent a few hours wandering around the museum, and exploring Miyazaki's wonderous creations of new words, before taking a 10 min bus ride (or its actually just 1 train station away) to Kichijoji.

As the restaurant is an extremely small 15 seater, we arrived very early hoping to beat the queue. Unfortunately it would open for dinner only at 5pm, so we spent some time wandering around the surrounding shopping streets, and most of all, admiring the queue at the Satou Meat Shop just below/next to the restaurant.

Apparently this is like the most famous beef store around, and furthermore, if you arrive before 5pm, you can receive a "special offer" on the meatballs. Hence we saw a long long queue of Japanese men / women / teenages all patiently queued up for almost 3 blocks (with polite "gaps" at intersections so as not to block human traffic).

At 5.10pm, we dashed up the extremely narrow staircase up into the restaurant, only to find another 4 people already happily tucked into their meals!!! Eating here is a very fast affair. Firstly, the menu is extremely limited. You can choose from different types of steak, but that's about it. Secondly, steak doesn't take long to cook. Thirdly, while the heat, smoke and smell from the grill in the open kitchen add to the atmosphere and experience of eating excellent beef, it definately discourages people from lounging around and taking their time.

We decided to go for the Matsu Beef (270g) from the "normal beef" sets, and the Tokusen Sirloin (270g) from the "premium beef" sets. On hindsight, we shouldn't have bothered with the normal beef set. Don't get me wrong, the beef there is very good. Its just that if you're going to order from the premium beef sets, you won't be able to appreciate the normal sets at all. So if you don't live in Japan, and can only make a few occassional visits there, don't worry about your pocket, and just order the premium beef set. The price depends on the weight of beef you choose, and a 360g steak is more than enough for 2 very hungry and usually-big-eaters.

Each set came with a side salad, and a choice of drink, the selection depending on which type of set you had ordered.

There were also 2 dips provided for the beef, but we totally ignored them after we had our first taste of the meat.

The Matsu beef set arrived first, huge chunks of meat with a side of beansprouts.


Doesn't it look great? Here's a close up of one piece.


We ordered our steaks medium-rare, and you can see from the photo the different layers of doneness. We had eaten most of this, when the Tokusen set arrived.


Are you drooling yet? If not, this next close up shot should do the trick.

Can you see the alternating stripes of white(fat) and red(meat)? The cubes simply melted away in our mouths. Even the wagyu steaks I had eaten in Singapore were nothing compared to this! We regretted not finishing the Matsu set faster, because once you started on the Tokusen, you can't really go back!

The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: One Time Only. Sadly... (Sushi Kyubei, Shinjuku)

I've put off blogging about this place for a while now, because I couldn't really decide what to say about it. The sushi and sashimi here are fantastic. Truly truly good. Perhaps the best I have ever tasted? I probably won't have to describe the food much, because the pictures below will speak a million words about how good it is. At the same time however, its not a place I would a) recommend or b) bring someone to, unless they had a bottomless expense account to charge it to. This makes blogging about it very difficult because thinking about how good it was but not being able to go back to it again is very very sad.

By way of introduction, Sushi Kyubei is part of a chain, the main branch being the very very famous Ginza one. As we were staying across town at Shinjuku however, we decided to try out their new branch there at the Keio Plaza Hotel.

We tried going there for lunch thinking that the basic sushi set would be affordable. However when we sat down, we couldn't help but succumb and ordered the sashimi set instead. The restaurant is divided into parts, the small enclosed area we sat at, comprised entirely of the counter.

See that black ledge there? I had almost placed my camera there to take photos, and very very luckily I didn't, because that's where they serve the sashimi directly!

First up was the starters, little bowls of Ikura (salmon roe) and Ika. I love savouring the little balls of Ikura which burst with an explosion of flavour when pressed down slightly with your tongue. If I have the time, usually I like to eat them one by one, and roll it around a little in my mouth before bursting them.

Next came a series of 4 other sashimi. First was the lightly poached Buri (Yellowtwail) which was in season. Don't think we get it done this way often in Singapore, and I quite enjoyed trying it.

No prizes for guessing what the next one is. The photograph unfortunately doesn't do justice to the swirly layers of fat which melt in your mouth. I tried saving the Toro for last, but couldn't resist it in the end.

This was some kind of clam ark shell. We dipped it lightly in the salt to enhance the flavour. It's slightly chewy, but not too bad.

The last one below, was something so complicated that I've forgotten what it is already. The chef sliced the thick piece of raw Buri halfway through so that it formed a kind of pouch. He then stuffed it with chopped spring onions and ginger and seasoned with ponzu sauce. It was really yummy!

Next on the menu was 7 types of nigiri sushi. We started with fresh Ika (squid) which was very nice and fresh, slightly firm and not too fishy/sticky/chewy.

Then came the sweet Ebi (prawn). Luckily ours didn't come with the raw prawns unlike some other customers. For theirs, the poor beheaded prawn was still twitching away even as the chef placed it on the small wad of rice.

More yummy Ikura with fresh crispy seaweed. The chef grated some orange peel and dusted it lightly over the Ikura before serving it to us.

Next was Hirame (fluke) glazed with sauce.

The Aji (mackerel) came with a bit of grated ginger, which I was thought was unnecessary.

More Toro!!!!!!

Eel was done in 2 ways, one with the usual sauce and the other lightly dusted with orange peel and sea salt. Very very soft and melt-in-your-mouth.

In between the sashimi and sushi, they had also served us with Chawanmushi (steamed egg) and Clam Miso soup.


I didn't really understand why they felt the need to serve us cooked salmon, but since it was good, we didn't really bother to complain.

Just when we thought we were done, they presented 8 little pieces of Maki sushi with us, filled with a mix of types of fillings including fish and pickles.

The pickled radish was really really good! Totally unlike the supermarket preserved types, this was crunchy, juicy, and thankfully not coloured artificially with the bright yellow food dye.

They also made this little "sandwich" which although pretty, was unfortunately not to my taste because of the Shiso leaf inside. I know its supposed to be very costly and delicious, but for some reason I'm just not a fan of it.

To end off the meal, homemade coffee ice-cream!

The interesting thing about eating sashimi/sushi in Japan, is that you're not really supposed to mix/dissolve the wasabi in the shoyu, which is how Singaporeans usually do it. Instead for sashimi, you place some wasabi on the fish directly, and dip it in the sauce if and only if necessary. For sushi, most of the time the chef will directly glaze it with some sauce or shoyu.

We left the place feeling totally stuffed, and spent the next few hours both reminiscing about the wonderful meal, but at the back of our minds, worrying about how much damage had been done to our credit cards.

The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: Nabe Banzai!

This is a small restaurant located right across our hotel. It was closed the night before, but had been recommended by the hotel staff, so we decided to try it on our last night in Yuzawa.




The restaurant was slightly larger than the bars of the previous 2 days, and didn't have a counter area. Here's what the Japanese seating area looks like:


This place even had an English menu, even though the prices on it are pretty outdated.

We started with our usual sake. The lady really surprised me when she continued pouring nonstop and the glass overflowed into the saucer below. Apparently this is how they give "service", or in other words, "free extra stuff".


The starter was this "white thing" in the same dashi sauce with spring onions as what they use for onsen tamagos. I was happily eating it until I casually remarked that I didn't know what it was, and *Shinta "helpfully" pointed out that it was... fish sperm. That was the end of the dish for me. Somehow I just couldn't stomach it after that.

Since it was our last chance, we decided to order the "Yuzawa Chicken Hotpot (Nabe)" for the 2 of us. Each hotpot is specially made, and adding in the time it takes for the stock, veggies and meat to cook, we had a to prepare for really long wait in front of us.

To pass the time while waiting, we decided to order some side dishes. First was the "lightly fried Maitake mushroom", which came in a tempura-like batter. It was tasty but nothing particularly spectacular.

I wanted to try the deep fried garlic, envisioning crispy pieces of thinly fried garlic slices. Instead the batter covered garlic was soft on the inside and barely cooked. Really not what I had expected, and not as tasty or fragrant as I was hoping for.

The Nabe was still taking a while, so we also ordered the deep fried octopus with a special sauce. Like the fried mushrooms, the tempura batter was not too oily. Unfortunately there wasn't much to the octopus. The "special sauce" was sweet and not too bad, but I didn't really see what was so special about it.

Finally, the Nabe was ready. The steaming hot pot was bubbling and threatening to spill over, just as we opened the lid.

In my opinion, we shouldn't have bothered with all the other side dishes, and just waited patiently for it. The meat was very well marinated while the flavours from the mushrooms, cabbage, meat and stock was nicely mixed up in the soup.


Towards the end of the hotpot, they lady brought us some udon which was just perfect for soaking up the remnaints of the soup. *Slurp slurp*

So that's it for pigging out in Yuzawa for now. Next up will be endless eating in Tokyo!

The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: 1, 2, 3... (Ichi Ni San / One Two Three, Yuzawa)

For some reason, a lot of the eating places in Yuzawa were closed on Tuesday nights. That's how we ended up at our 3rd choice (one of those recommended by the hotel staff), eating seafood at Ichi Ni San.


The place layout was essentially the "standard package" with 3 Japanese type tables (you either submerge your feet in a pit below the table or sit cross legged on the floor) behind, and a row of counter seats. Although it was only just after 5pm, it was already packed with what I assume (from the shoes) were snowboarders.

We took our usual favourite counter seats, and tried to decide what to order. Its probably quite difficult for those who speak /read absolutely no Japanese, because these small places generally don't have an English menu.


Since this place was suppose to be good for seafood, that's precisely what we decided to order. We started off with 2 versions of the Akai Ika (red squid) which was in season. The cooked version came delightfully soft and tender, with its flavour nicely brought out with the grilling. The sashimi version was thankfully not too fishy or rubbery, unlike a lot of other places.









The next order was the sweet Ebi (prawns). I don't usually order this in Singapore because I find it pretty tasteless, expensive and highly over-rated. But these were very much fresher and sweeter than those I had ever eaten before.

Everywhere around us, all the other tables were ordering these huge pots of butter clams. That's all it took for us to decide that we just had to try it too. Every single shell had a piece of soft fragrant clam meat, and I wished I had some bread to soup up the remaining sauce. (very un Japanese I know)

Last dish was the fish. Decided to order this just to try. It was ok but probably the one we had at Aburiya was better. Finally we got up nice and stuffed and ready to brave the cold walk home...