Mark was sick during our Japan road trip last weekend and Noah got sick around the tail end of it. So it was only a matter of time before I got sick. When I woke up this morning, I let Mark know just how completely congested my head was and his first question was, “Well, should I cancel dinner reservations tonight?” at which I responded with, “What?!!! Are you kidding?!! Of course not!”
Mark has to work the rest of our time here in Japan so he made plans for the two of us to have a nice dinner Sunday night. The place? Restaurant Morimoto. Yep. As in Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s restaurant. Mmmmm. There was no way I was missing this. I popped a couple of Sudafed, dragged myself out of bed and starved myself the rest of the day so I could make the most of our dinner.
Mark took Noah to the National Children’s Castle in Aoyama in the morning which left me free to do some solo shopping and sightseeing. My first stop was Hie Jinja Shrine. The shrine itself wasn’t a big deal, although it does host some of Japan’s most spectacular festivals. The highlight of the shrine is the walk up — which consists of a tunnel of red torii gates:
After the shrine, it was back to the Harajuku district for some souvenir shopping (which I need to add that I failed miserably at). I stopped at a couple of places before heading to Kiddyland — a store on Omote-sando dori that houses six(!!) floors of obnoxiously cute paraphernalia for kids and immature adults alike. If you are suffering from major head congestion and are just barely keeping a massive headache at bay, you probably do not want to go to a store like Kiddyland. My head almost exploded from sensory overload the second I set foot in the door. Betty Boop, Snoopy, Elmo, Monchichis, Mickey Mouse all instantly and mercilessly descended upon me to pound my brain into a mushy pulp. Luckily Mark called and gave me a good reason to leave and head back home.
Elizabeth, our babysitter, came so we left Noah with her and headed out to dinner. Dinner at Morimoto’s was teppanyaki style (think Benihana’s, only much cooler). We were greeted at the door by a woman in full geisha gear and led downstairs to our seats. Of all the days to forget to bring my camera, I’m depressed that it had to be this day (although Mark was pretty happy that I wasn’t embarrassing him by taking pictures of every course). We chose the Steak and Lobster menu which consisted of:
A raw dish — Kobe beef carpaccio with a scallion-ginger sauce. If you’re ever going to eat raw beef, this is not a bad way to do it.
A sashimi dish – a small wooden plate with five layers of different sashimi. Imagine something like the gay pride rainbow flag, only with tuna, caviar, sea urchin, salmon roe, white shrimp, wasabi and avocado for the stripes. Beautifully presented and incredibly well done. Especially considering I’m not even a big sashimi fan.
A woodstone oven dish — baked bamboo shoot with chicken miso and cheese. The most forgettable course of the evening, in my opinion, but still beautiful to look at. Bamboo is surprisingly bland. I personally don’t know see why pandas should like it so much. Yay for me for not being a panda bear.
A teppan dish — roasted lobster with a black sesame and black pepper sauce. The sauce was a little overpowering, but it was worth it for entertainment value alone. Our poor lobster just did not want to go down. He jumped all over the counter and made crazy grabbing motions while our chef cooked him in front of us…and this was after he had been cut in half already! Yikes! Hardy little fellows. But so yummy.
The main dish — Kobe beef sirloin. I’ve already written about what a huge Kobe beef fan I am, but now I’m determined to only eat Kobe beef for as long as I live…and I’m not even a huge steak person to begin with. If you’ve never tried it and don’t think a cut of meat can really make that much of a difference, you need to taste it in Japan. It’s not a regular steak. It’s more like a work of art…an edible, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth work of art.
A carb dish — garlic rice with miso soup. It doesn’t sound like much, but miso soup in Japan is totally different from how it’s served in the U.S. One of Mark’s Japanese clients made this remark to him a while back about how you can’t get real miso in the U.S. and I totally agree. Miso soup here is more than just broth with a couple pieces of tofu in it. It’s loaded with so many other ingredients, so it’s light and fulfilling at the same time. It’s hard to explain but it is completely different than anything I’ve ever had before.
For dessert, they led us up to the third floor lounge. We took our seats in a comfy couch while they brought out creme brulee and a sakura (cherry blossom) tea for me and presented Mark with a cigar box. If you’ve ever wondered what cherry blossom tea tastes like, it does in fact taste slightly cherry-ish. But good cherry, not Nyquil cherry.
Mark and I have always been such huge fans of Iron Chef (the original Japanese version, not the new American version. Because we’re snobby like that) — Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto being our favorite. When he opened his first restaurant in Philadelphia in 2001 we tried to make up excuses to take a trip out there just so we could eat at Morimoto’s but never managed to. Seven years later we finally managed it. This isn’t Philadelphia, but somehow I’ll live settling for the Tokyo restaurant.
