2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Lunch)

In this segment of "Notable Mentions", lunch time is the topic! One of the must-do items on my list is to have a meal of premium beef. My friend, K-chan, recommended Rokkasen, a pretty popular restaurant specializing in top-quality cuts of Wagyu and Matsuzaka beef.

Fortunately, the concierge at our hotel was able to make a lunch-time reservation for our party of 10 and we ended up having a spacious private room to ourselves!

The combination sets were pretty affordable for the quantity and quality of the food. For around $55 CDN, W and I shared the Japanese Black Cattle Sukiyaki set.

Appetizers: Jelly fish in vinaigrette, Marinated mixed veggies (spinach, bean sprouts, carrot, cloud ear mushroom)

To begin, we had little dishes of cold appetizers - marinated jelly fish, and marinated veggies.

Green salad

There was also a small bowl of salad with radish sprouts, peanuts, and sesame tossed in a tangy vinaigrette.

Japanese Black Cattle Sukiyaki Course

The cast iron pot was filled with the sweet and savoury sukiyaki sauce. The rest of the ingredients were placed on top. There was onion, carrot, tofu, konyaku noodles, veggies, shiitake mushrooms, and of course, the star of the show... slices of beautifully marbled Japanese Black Cattle beef!

Aside from the items in the cast iron pot, we were given extra slices of beef on the side!

Extra veggies (mushrooms, leeks, tofu, onion slices, vermicelli, Tong Ho veggies) were also provided. The combo also came with snow crab legs!!

Left: Matsuzaka boneless short rib; Right: Black Cattle galbi short rib

We also wanted to try out the grill on our table so we ordered a plate of the premium Matsuzaka short rib and the lesser, but still amazingly delicious, Black Cattle short rib for a comparison tasting.

After our comparison tasting, it was a no-brainer! The Matzuzaka beef was the winner! There really was no denying that the highest quality Matzusaka beef was the most tender and juiciest piece of meat out there.

Ice cream mochi with strawberry sauce and cookie stick covered with nuts and chocolate

At the end of the meal, we were all served a cup of hot tea and a bowl of ice cream mochi. 

All those Japan travel trips are true; if you want to have a meal at a higher-end restaurant, it is best to visit them during lunch as the prices are lower yet the portions and quality are just about the same as dinner. For a first time Japan traveler, Rokkasen hit the spot!

2016 Japan - Tsukiji Fish Market

My ideal plan in visiting the infamous Tsukiji Fish Market would consist of waking up at 5 AM and heading over there to try at least 3 different places for breakfast inside the actual fish market area. Then I would walk over to the outer market and sample maybe half a dozen different snacks sold on the streets.

Alas....that is just a dream. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for me, sleeping trumps eating. In reality, we arrived at Tsukiji Fish Market at 9 AM to find long queues already formed at all the famous shops.

Luckily, we were able to snag seats for our party of 10 inside the tiny Aiyo Coffee Shop.

Aiyo Coffee Shop is located right next door to Sushi Dai, one of the most well-known spots for sushi within the market. 

There are only a handful of small tables and seats at the counter for maybe half a dozen people or so. Our group of 10 nearly filled up the whole shop!

Plain black brewed coffee

I originally wanted to have their Milk Coffee (brewed coffee with milk stirred in) but W accidentally ordered plain black coffee for us. That was ok though because the milk served on the side was super creamy and aromatic! It definitely "leveled-up" the plain brewed coffee!

Toast with butter and jam, coffee with milk added in afterwards

My mom and I also shared an order of their toast. I loved how they put strawberry jam on one half and plain butter on the other half, and then cut them into tiny bite-sized pieces! They do this for all their orders but I just think it's very thoughtful of them.

Nakaya Seafood Don

After coffee, our group split into two as some of us like to eat raw fish while the others do not. I was part of the raw fish-eating group haha.... Since all the popular shops still had really long line-ups, I recommended Nakaya as the line-up was not too bad. This shop specializes in rice bowls topped with various fresh raw fish.

Part of the menu (they have about 40 different combinations!)

#20 - Toro with Snow Crab Rice Bowl

W chose the #20. On top of sushi rice were slices of tuna, whole pieces of snow crab leg, and shredded snow crab meat. The menu said the tuna was toro, but it didn't look like the typical fatty pieces of tuna belly... The ample crab meat was sweet and succulent though.

#3 - Uni and Seafood Rice Bowl - served with miso soup, pickled radish and marinated baby clams on the side

The #3 was my choice. All donburi (rice bowls) came with tea, miso soup, and dishes of pickles and marinated baby clams.

Along with uni, my bowl also had sweet shrimp, scallop, salmon, toro (tuna belly), octopus, tuna, salmon roe, tobiko (flying fish roe), and shredded crab meat. I loved all the variety in my bowl but I would have loved it even more if there were more uni pieces in this namesake bowl :(

Grilled scallops with uni on top, doused with a sweet soy sauce

Afterwards, we walked out to the outer market for some street food! Immediately, the grilled scallops topped with uni caught my eye!! Creamy pieces of fresh uni were placed on top of 2 whole grilled scallops, then squirted with a sweet soya sauce. This was definitely a real treat to eat on the street (LOL rhyming much?).

W and I also ate freshly made tamago-yaki (sweet thick egg omelet), and for dessert, I ate a large strawberry wrapped with red bean paste and mochi (strawberry daifuku). Unfortunately, I did not take any standalone photos of these deletable eats...

One could seriously have a ball eating all the things the outer market has to offer! There were so many good eats but my tummy did not have enough room T___T