This is part 3 of a series of posts which is about tasting the authentic version of Japanese comfort/convenience food that we have been eating outside Japan – all in the one week we had in Tokyo. Part 1 is about noodles, Part 2 about izakaya.
Part 3 is about grilled foods (yakiniku) as well as tonkatsu and curry – staple foods of the Japanese.
On our first day in Tokyo, R and H came to meet us at Haneda airport where we were staying for one night in transit. Haneda was renovated a few years ago and has a collection of restaurants on a mezzanine just above the check-in counters. It is set up as a traditional village street lined with restaurants.
We went to Kuishinbo 串の坊 – a chain from Osaka specializing in deep-fried bits of food served with various dipping sauces, lemon and sesame salt. The concept is a bit like McD chicken nuggets. There is a branch in San Francisco.
Everything they served were on a skewer (except the poached egg) and used the kind of panko that covers tonkatsu (different from the type used for tempura).
They served the skewers one by one and as we finished each skewer, they served another of a different kind – like multiple courses in fine dining.
Tonkatsu
During the week, we had dinner at a tonkatsu specialist restaurant.
Sue ordered a curry with hers. Simple, inexpensive but tasty.
And then we had a curry dinner. This time it was me who had the curry with tonkatsu. This curry restaurant Temma is on the corner of our street and the main thoroughfare Aoyama dori. It is a chain with branches all over Japan.
I did not take any photo of the food because it was eaten quickly. But I took pictures of the plastic versions of their menu while waiting for Sue.
I must say the skill of the artist who created these plastic dishes must be congratulated. Curry is not something that can be easily reproduced in plastic and look palatable. It could look crappy literally.
Although we did not try it, the curry puffed pasty looked really good.
Part 4 of the series is here.