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I haven't seen Geruhage since my little detour to Kyoto earlier this year, and a lot has happened since then. We met up for dinner tonight at
Yakitori Kyotanba (焼とり 京丹波), and I managed to rope in V for our little soirée. I'm really happy that he looked well and hasn't slowed down much, and even looks chic in his new accessory.
Takasaka chicken (高坂鶏) is one of the famous breeds used in yakitori, and it's rare to find a restaurant like this where everything is done using this particular breed, as often a restaurant will use it for a few skewers only. We were pretty excited to try this place for the first time.
We were presented with a menu in English for the
Chef's selected course:
A plate of assorted Takasaka chicken sasimi aged for 5 days (高坂鶏の刺身) - this included a slice each of thigh (もも), kelp seasoned breast (
ささみ昆布締め), and fatty liver (白肝) along with some gelée. The abundance of perilla flowers added wonderful fragrance to mask any potential pungent flavors.
Wonton soup, grated radish (ワンタンスープ おろし) - this was really about the chicken soup and not about the wonton, which had very little filling.
Breast and green onion (ねぎま) - the breast was very tender and succulent, while the leek was very nice.
Fillet (ささみの藁焼き) - very fluffy and smoky thanks to grilling while adding smoke by burning straw.
Daikoku shimeji (大黒しめじ) - this is always a shroom that's tasty.
Thigh (もも)
Steamed egg custard (茶碗蒸し) - isn't this just the cutest??? They cut tiny little chickens out of
kamaboko (かまぼこ) and put them on top of the
chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し)!
Inside the custard made with eggs of the Takasaka chicken, we've got chunks of chicken as well as shark's fin. Never thought I'd be eating shark's fin at a yakitori joint of all places...
Chicken char siu (鶏チャーシュー) - served cold. Nice with a sauce that's on the sweet side.
Skin (皮) - nice and fatty.
Chicken meat balls (つくね) - this was sooo soft and fluffy, and just dripping with juice. Slurp.
Tail (ぼんじり) - that's some juicy piece of ass! Very, very tasty.
Liver mousse with cacao (レバームースとカカオ) - gotta say this was really nice when you've got cacao and honey together with the liver mousse. Helps to mask any metallic, bitter flavors from liver.
Lotus root (蓮根)
Shoulder (ふりそで) - very, very juicy.
Chicken wings (手羽先) - a pretty tasty chicken wing, for sure.
Unlaid egg with rice bowl and pickles (提灯 焼きおにぎり) - this came with a little grilled
onigiri (おにぎり), and it was suggested that we put both the unlaid egg and the
onigiri in our mouths, pop the egg so that the yolk could mix with the rice like a TKG -
tamago kake gohan (卵かけご飯). I dutifully followed their advice as I love TKG. So happy with the result!
Chicken ramen (チキンラーメン)
We finsihed with some persimmon, pear, muscat grape, and marinated jelly.
Black bean tea (黒豆茶)
V very generously brought along a nice bottle of wine which he'd rather not lug back home, and the JPY 5,000 corkage was pretty reasonable so we opened it.
2014 Dujac Clos de la Roche - very floral and lovely on the nose, and showing pretty well. I could also taste the floral notes on the palate, which was very nice.
This was a pretty good meal, and I could see myself coming back here for more yakitori. The poor grill master, though, was hit with so much smoke while he was working it was literally "in his face", and the ventilation system here definitely needed some improvement... but other than that we enjoyed ourselves tonight.
While we were en route to our next destination, I made an extra pitstop at a 7-11 to grab myself an ice cream bar from
Akagi Dairy (赤城乳業) with
Kajiru Fortune Rich Butter (かじるしあわせ濃厚バタ～) flavor. This is made with honey, Hokkaido butter, parsley, and marscapone cheese - the same ingredients which go into making
Calbee (カルビー)'s classic
Potato Chips Fortune Rich Butter (ポテトチップス しあわせ濃厚バタ～). The others found it amusing or even gross, but I managed to get V to join me in this little adventure.
Yes, I can say that this tasted A LOT like the potato chips they were meant to mimic. Very buttery and creamy, and definitely somewhere between sweet and savory. Pretty happy that I ate one. Not sure I'd do another.
The night was still young so we were off to
D-Heartman, which had moved to a newer location since I visited last year. I stood outside the building for a few minutes trying to finish my ice cream before going in, and since there are no public trash cans in Japan, V and I had no choice but to bring our sticks into the bar...
OF COURSE I ordered a girly fruit cocktail! Tonight this was made with
fresh mangoes.
Even though I wasn't the least bit hungry, I knew I had to taste the bar's famous
sando. I found that they offered a half-and-half combination of
deep-fried pork cutlet sandwich (カツサンド) and
deep-fried shrimp sandwich (天使のエビサンド), where the latter was made with crystal blue shrimp from New Caledonia. This made me very, very happy... especially the shrimp
sando.
It's been a long first day in Tokyo, and I needed to catch up on sleep. Time to head back to the hotel and prepare for the big day tomorrow...
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