Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Kappabashi is for Cooking!


Many great cities of the world have long established neighborhoods that specialize in products. I remember the dazzling gold "souq" in Damacus as well as the less appealing meat shops in other areas. Tokyo's most famous "town" is Akihabara or "Electric Town".
Lesser known, but possibly more significant, is "Kappabashi" which supplies kitchenware and restaurant fixngs for households and Michelin 5 star restaurants. If you are a foodie or just a kitchen gadget nut like myself, you owe yourself an afternoon in Kappabashi.



My interest in knives was a source of distress for my departed mother who thought no good would come of a hothead with a knife. Fortunately on this occasion she was wrong and I have channeled this love along culinary lines. The gleaming beauties you see here are displayed in a wonderful shop "Kamata" which has been in the business since 1923.(http://kap-kap.com) The master was very friendly and informative once he was comfortable with our Japanese ability. These are works of art and worth a "drop in" just to browse. You might want to leave your credit cards in your other wallet. However a great knife is forever, and you can pass it along to your kids.



Competition for the diners yen is very high among Tokyo's over 180,000 eateries so displays and gimmicks of all sorts are available in Kappabashi. The picture of a giant shrimp being eyed warily by Betty Boop was taken in "M's Display and Sign"(http://minegishiSS.com). Display items for bars, clubs and restaurants know no bounds here.
The same holds true for the very "camp" shop of Mr.Shimura who displays americana goods from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Everything from a full sized working jukebox to tin advertising signs from the past are available here. My wife intervened before I could buy tin adverts for John Wayne cowboy movies. His webpage is http://www.shimura-s.co.jp Below is a picture from the front of his store. I do have to go back there, alone.


There are many more wonderful shops I could tell you about, but I will save them for another posting. I will leave you in probably the most photographed interior on the Kappabashi way, that of the triple decker shop Kajiwara. This shop has an incredible amount of kitchenware, but you must mind your step and your head while browsing in the upper levels. Happy shopping in Kappabashi, near Ueno station.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Incident at Yakitori Okamura


On our summer vacation trip to Tokyo we stayed in Asakusa since my wife found a good bargain at a hotel we had stayed in before. I'm no big fan of that area as it is much too "touristy" for me. That said, I agreed because the price was right and it is just a short walk to the "Kappabashii" area which is the cooking goods and restaurant supply area of Tokyo. I intended to get photos for a blog post on this very interesting area; that should come next week.

Our second evening there, in quest of yaki tori, we came across a new large cloth "kanban" or sign displaying the face of the shop's master. The very same master was twirling small skewers of chicken on a grill facing us through a small window(see picture). The prices on the sidewalk chalk board looked reasonable so we went in.

The 2 storey shop's main floor is narrow with only four tables that I could see without rounding a corner by the kitchen. The other tables were occupied by a family of 3 young girls and their parents and a lone non-japanese customer waiting for the skewers I mentioned before.

The family group was already into their meal and their table was crowded with plates and empty beer mugs.The drama began just after we ordered. I faced the entrance way, as is my custom, and was taking a picture of my son, when I heard a loud crash next to me. Apologies filled the air as the family scrambled to escape a large puddle of draft beer and broken glass. The young father stood rather sheepishly by the table perfectly drenched in the beer that didn't make it to the floor.

Not seeing what had happened, and from prior experience, my first thought was, "fight"! No way, this is Japan.I've only seen 2 fights in 19 years and I caused one of them.(Long story)

The waitress in this newly opened shop had pushed the limit of the table to critical mass and a beer mug had fallen to the floor, soaking the father's pants on the way.More apologies and cleaning ensued as the very cool master joined in and dispatched a young kitchen employee out the door. Fortunately none of the kids was cut as they had managed to slip off their sandals before the incident.

The mess cleaned up and more beer arrived with compliments of the house and I thought the incident finished.

Soon the young kitchen staff returned clutching a large bag marked "Uniqlo". The master gave the bag containing new slacks and underwear to the father who scurried off to change. The end of the story saw the family of tourists leave the shop without paying a single Yen. Master and staff bowing on the way out as they would later do to us while apologizing for the commotion.

Oh, by the way, non-plussed the master's yakitori was excellent. So If you are ever in the Kaminari mon area of Asakusa, across the street from Starbucks you will find a large kanban with a grinning face of a young chef who has his act together.

Below you can see some of the prices for party groups in the upstairs room.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Autumn Appetite and Outdoor Cooking


It will come as no surprise to my friends and the neighbors that we are crazy about food and cooking outdoor. Autumn always brings the best weather for the latter as well as "Autumn appetite". Aki no shokuyoku, in Japanese, means the natural increase in appetite that comes with cooler weather. For us it means we break out the Shichirin charcoal brazier. Basically this miniture stove is used to grill fish over a frugal portion of charcoal. They are available in home centers for less than ¥1000 ($10 USD) and come in various shapes. They are made from a special type of clay and we replace ours about every 2 years.
The above picture(right) of thin sliced pork rib meat wrapped around Japanese basil (Shiso) demonstrates how to cook Yakitori or skewers of chicken and other goodies.
But diverting from the norm of 3 or 4 pieces of charcoal there are more interesting things one can enjoy.
For steaks, thick burgers, and Dutch oven cooking a hotter fire is needed so you should build a strong fire by adding coals to your base fire. The photo above left shows small pieces of wood added to some charcoal to speed up the process. My wife has baked biscuits and even an apple pie using a Dutch oven on a shichirin. Needless to say the apple pie was a lot of work, but the baking was extremely simple. There are plenty of pages devoted to Dutch oven cooking on the Web. Below you can see how she lowered the pie into the Dutch oven onto a steel trivet. She used aluminum foil(heavy duty) to lower and remove the pie. The top crust was a little over cooked so it's not necessary to load up the top of the oven with hot coals.
With a little ingenuity and a lot of patience you can do a lot of cooking on the little shichirin.