The other day heading back to Ningyōchō from Asakusa on my bicycle I spotted a fish and chips restaurant I had never seen before. Fish and chips is rare in Japan, and something I usually eat at least once for lunch every time I visit Portland. Come to think of it, I may have eaten it once in my years in Japan, if even that many times. So I made a mental note of the shops location and continued on with the intention of actually returning to eat there in the near future.
The near future arrived in a hurry. My friend Josh wanted to get together and so I suggested the fish and chips place I had come across. As I hadn’t paid any attention to the name of the place I too a slight detour while out for a bike ride the following day to see if I could find it again. It was right where I thought. I asked for a shop card, told the guy that looked like he was in charge I would be back the next evening, and continued on my way:
Kanejin Fish and Chips、Taitō-ku, Kotobuki 3-7-9
A When I started emailing Josh the name and location of the shop, I noticed it closed at 6:00. Kind of early, I thought. I let Josh know and suggested we meet there at 5:00 the next evening. The next evening I hopped on my bike and rode over to the shop, arriving exactly at 5:00. The guy I had spoken to the previous day motioned for me to sit down and handed me a menu, adding that the shop was actually open until 10:00. As I was the only customer, I had my choice of seat. I sat at the big table close to the bar, ordered a high ball, then got up to look around the room. In the far back were some very modern style bath tubs, Japan made. On the walls were various pieces of hand-blown glassware, drinking glasses, flower vases, plates, all of it made in Belgium. Some very nice stuff.
My drink was ready a few minutes later so I returned to the table to look at the food menu. The manager (?) said the fish and chips used Hokkaidō cod and Belgium potatoes, the small size having one piece, the medium two and the large three. Right about then Josh pulled up in a taxi; he had planned to walk from Akihabara but got delayed, so took a ride instead. He ordered a highball as well, then we both ordered the medium fish and chips with house made tartar sauce. Josh mentioned that a few days before he had had a craving for fried clams, something I don’t think I have seen in Japan. When he realized fried clams were going to be nigh on impossible to find in Tokyo he thought about fish and chips as a second choice. And then I emailed him about the place. Good timing, I guess.
The fish was very good, and it came with a serving of house made tartar sauce that was the best I had ever eaten. I am not normally a fan of tartar sauce with fish and chips; I usually add catsup to it to give it some extra flavor. But not with this; it was very much wa-fu in flavor and composition. I am not sure what was in it, but there was not much mayonnaise, if any at all.
Even though the restaurant was open until 10:00, after an hour or so we decided it was time to head on to the next place, a new lemon sour bar I had come across in Kuramae called Yellow, written in katakana as イエロ. We paid, then started walking south. Six minutes later we were there.
Iero, or Yellow, had just opened June 1. But when we arrived it was fairly crowded, or so it seemed, as pairs of customers were spaced apart from each other for corona protection. After scanning our faces and determining we were virus free, the owner motioned for us to take our places at the back of the bar, facing the street. When we looked over the drink menu we weren’t quite sure what was what, so the owner gave us a brief run down of what was what. There were four types of lemon sour, which is why we were there; regular, spicy, with salt, and with honey, honey being written with a kanji for hachimitsu which neither Josh nor I was familiar with. The lemons were organic from Hiroshima. The drinks could be made with either gin, vodka, or shōchū, the shōchū being Kinmiya mugi (barley) shōchū. We both ordered the regular with shōchū, then turned to the food menu.
The regular lemon sour was good, and it went down fast. The owner/bartender suggested the salt version for next, so that is what we ordered. We also started ordering food, first some garlic edamame, then kaki fry (oysters), made with Hiroshima oysters which were very good. When the drink was ready it came with a straw, something I normally avoid as unnecessary but needed with this drink to stir up the salt in the bottom of the glass. We followed that with the spicy version, and finally the honey lemon sour. The honey was good, the spicy not very spicy and kind of boring. We also ate some garlic shrimp, a plate of eight medium sized shrimp deep fried to a crisp with a garlic sauce which was, again, excellent.
After paying our tab of ¥7,000 for the two of us we started walking towards Asakusabashi station where Josh could catch a JR back to his hotel in western Tokyo. A block before the station we found ourselves in front of Hicra (ハイクラ), a place we had been to before that serves highballs (hi) and craft beer (cra). It was still early so we went in for a final beer, something we had not yet drank that night. After that Josh walked up towards Akihabara to catch a train while I walked my bike back to Ningyōchō, about a fifteen-minute walk that was by then well needed, my belly being quite full.