Sunday, January 15, 2012

Happy discovery on our 20th anniversary!

For those who do not know "yaki tori" is one of my passions. It's basically mini kebabs of various meats, chicken, vegetables. I first experienced it within four hours of arriving in Japan 25 years ago. I was told then to look for the little red lanterns outside of shops to find good, cheap, food and drink.
As fate would have it my first apartment was right next to a yaki tori shop. It became my "kitchen" and hangout for several years; the owners becoming great friends.
In this area, southern Chiba, yaki tori shops are few and far between. Fortunately we discovered a new shop the other day and decided to pay it a visit to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We were very happy with our decision.
"Ippo" or "One Step" has been in business for about 4 years now and is run by a former Ground Self Defense Force soldier, coincidentally my former hangout was also run by a former GSDF soldier and his wife. (Ironic that I always wind up around former soldiers.) The picture above shows the shop's logo on a coaster and some very delicious beef "kushi". The shop's layout is very similar to my old hangout in Kyushu. The draft beer comes from a freshly cleaned server lines, this generally not the case in Chiba prefecture. I would say that 8 out of 10 draft beer servers do not have their lines cleaned on a regular basis.
"Fuku Shogun" Nihon shu
Freshly caught "katsuo".












After a draft beer I moved on to the sake (Nihon Shu) pictured here to the right. A very mellow "Fuku Shogun" which means roughly "vice general". I had it at room temperature and it really complimented the fresh young tuna sashimi you see pictured above (the master gutted and cut it right in front of us).
Needless to say we were just beginning to have a good time when other like minded revelers stumbled in and the basic litany of questions ensued as to age, nationality and length of stay in Japan. I'm sure they will get to blood type the next trip. By the way, sports and politics are banned subjects at "Ippo" so we have to leave our soap boxes and logo ball caps at home.
Back to the subject at hand, food! a special item for my Google+ buddy Steve in San Diego who mentioned "mentaiko" just hours before my wife and I left the house. Below you can see beautiful golden brown chicken wings which are stuffed with the above mentioned spiced fish roe, "mentaiko".
Grilled wings stuffed with spiced fish roe!

I think it goes without saying that we will be a frequent patron at "Ippo" in the coming year. It's located in Tateyama not far from Number 3 Junior High School, across the street from Kiyota cake shop.


Below you can see the generous pour of Jack Daniels on the rocks, which led to more silliness and self portraits of happy campers.
Looks like a triple on the rocks!
3 sheets in the wind

3 comments:

  1. Wow that looks good. I'm so glad to see this long-awaited update on your blog. I had grilled chicken hearts on a stick for lunch today (but it was from the super market). I must try making my own chicken wings stuffed with mentaiko. Does the grilling cook the mentaiko, or is it still raw and moist inside?

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  2. The mentaiko was well cooked, but the chicken was done to perfection. I'm sure there will be more pictures from "Ippo". Thanks for your comment!

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  3. What a great 20th anniversary for you guys! This blog post is making me extremely hungry and ready for another trip to Japan. LOL! Congrats again. Nice touch with the mentaiko.

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