44 - Just In Tokyo
Shabu Shabu
Thinly sliced beef that you
wave briefly through hot water,
barely cooking it before dipping
it in salty or sweet sauce and
then straight to your mouth.
The bubbling water in the
center of the table takes on
meaty flavor, and to this you
add mushrooms, carrots, tofu
and noodles. Fish these out
and then add noodles to make
Shabu Shabu a deconstructed
soup meal.
Mo-Mo Paradise
Mo mo is the Japanese word
for moo, or cow. This restau-
rant may not serve the highest
quality ingredients, but they
offer all you can eat shabu
shabu and sukiyaki for an hour
or so for under 30 dollars. That
can be an enormous amount of
meat, tofu and vegetables.
Look out - it's possible to injure
yourself overeating here.
Located on the fifth floor of a
building near Shinjuku Station,
across the street from a Ken-
tucky Fried Chicken. Good
luck finding it.
Curry and Rice
Brown sweet spicy sauce
poured over mostly unrecog-
nizable meat and vegetables
sharing a plate with rice.
Yakitori
Yakitori literally means roasted
bird. You'll find roadside
shacks set up to serve little
skewers of meat and veg-
etables. Nankotsu, roasted
bits of chicken with cartilage
are quite good, crunchy.
Shitake (mushrooms) are
wonderful as well. You can get
pretty crazy at yakitori joints,
ordering pork temples and even
grilled rectum.
Yurakucho Yakitori
In crowded smoky streetside
stands under the JR tracks
near the Yurakucho station
you'll find some of the best
skewers around. The spirit is
lively with proprietors calling out
to customers and you might
find some drunk diners willing
to help you order. Great for
intimacy, shoulder to shoulder
communal eating fun.
Tonkatsu
Mostly pork, though occasion-
ally chicken, shrimp or oyster,
breaded and deep fried. Typi-
cally served topped with a thick
brown sauce and some shred-
ded cabbage.
Sanno Park Tower
NTT DoCoMo's "i-mode"
mobile phone service has been
one of the few Japanese
business successes in the
Internet age. Sanno Park