Konnichiwa

Best Chinese Food in Tokyo - Ever!

Not too long ago, I brought the kids to Jiyugaoka, in part because I have not shopped there for a while and really wanted to check out some shops and in part to hurry Tomo out of his office which is in Jiyugaoka.  It was a Saturday night after all.  One really cool shop there is Pylones and they sell stuff you can see in this link.

It worked, we got him out of the office earlier than usual.  How nice it is to see him at 7.30pm on a Saturday night rather than 9pm.

We were deciding on where to go for dinner.  I had my mind on the new restaurant next to Pylones, only because there is a courtyard for the kids to run about, it is fenced in and far away from the cars, and the trains run right next to the courtyard - entertainment for the kids!!  Such a set-up could only mean that we could actually eat our food as the kids run about and ooh and aah at the trains.  However, Tomo insisted that we try this Chinese restaurant that is nearby.  It is really delicious, was what he said.  I was not convinced.  What would he know about Chinese food?  I have quite a few Japanese recommending supposedly good Chinese restaurants but they usually turned out to be pretty blah.  But he strongly insisted.

It turned out to be the best Chinese food I have ever eaten in Tokyo and ranks up there with all the other good Chinese restaurants in London (yes, London has many good Chinese restaurants) and Hong Kong.  I am so glad we went.

The name is Kou Shun (tel: 03-5731-3660).  It is on a road parallel to the famed Marie Claire Street,  in the direction away from the station.  It is less than a 5-min walk from Jiyugaoka station.  Like all Chinese restaurants (not counting Bamiyan, the McDonalds of Chinese restaurants in Japan), it is not cheap but its prices are not more expensive than other Chinese restaurants either.  We spent 10,000 yen (no alcohol) there but only because we ordered so much.

I would highly recommend the eggplant dish that is cooked with basil.  It is so yummy.  Eggplant and basil is a good pairing.  Claypot beef cooked with chilli was also very delicious.  Really good also is the spareribs.  I did not look at the menu, so I am not sure how many types of spareribs there are, but this one costs 1,900 yen.  I remember because we were wondering whether to order this given that we had ordered so many dishes already and this was 1,900 but I told Tomo to go ahead -  I thought we may as well give this a shot given that we probably would not ever be coming back to this place.  So if you do go there, I would say definitely order at least these 3 dishes.  And plain rice.  Because the sauce from each of these 3 dishes was so good, all I wanted to do after eating the food was to soak my rice with the sauces (not together) and eat it on its own.   We ordered bowl after bowl of plain rice.  And I am not usually a rice eater. 

We ordered mapo tofu also, but only because the waitress said it is their most popular dish.  This one was not good at all.  Maybe it was because we told them not to put in chilli (as this dish was meant for the kids).  Or maybe it really is just not good - you know, many Japanese people think that Chinese food means mapo tofu and always order it.

We also ordered char siu (roast pork).  I was expecting the Cantonese/HK charsiu where no soy sauce is used and the skin is red.  I think the charsiu in this restaurant is done more in the style of mainland China and the marinade was a dark sauce which I am sure included soy sauce.  It was not what I was hoping it would be, which was a disappointment, but that aside, it was good and rather delicious.  (But if you are on a budget, skip this and order those 3 dishes.)

I would most definitely be back in this restaurant again.  Probably at least once a month if I can afford it.  Delicious but because it is not particularly cheap, it is not the kind of restaurant that you would be bringing a young toddler to, a toddler who insists on eating on his own but dropping everything on the floor. What a waste!

If you do go there, they do lunch sets too which according to Tomo is very affordable (about 1000 yen thereabouts, depending on which set) and the portions are very generous.

Bon appetit!

Macaroons

I have been into food blogs recently.  I have always been into food.  I own lots of cookbooks.  But it pretty much stops there.  I really should get down to cooking one of these days.  But the photos are so good, that is reason enough for me to buy the cookbooks!

I am not a big dessert person.  Especially not that huge on cakes.  Sure, I like chocolate fudge (which I hardly see in Tokyo) but I will normally just have a cappuccino without any cake, in a cake shop.  Tomo on the other hand will usually order 3 cakes.  And inevitably, the unsuspecting and assuming waitress will put 2 of those cakes in front of me and 1 in front of Tomo.  Once the waitress is gone, the cakes all go over to Tomo.

So, I have never heard of Pierre Hermes.  I like macaroons and used to read Vogue (in my past life pre-kids), so I have heard of Laduree.  But never Pierre Hermes.  Did not even know before the connection between Laduree and Pierre Hermes.  (He used to work at Laduree, which is famous for its macaroons.)  Until about a month ago when I started becoming a food blog devotee.  They all talk about this chocolate god in a revered tone.  Apparently he is the Picasso of chocolate.  None of my favourite food blogs are based in Japan.  Then, they all mention how Tokyo is so lucky to have a Pierre Hermes shop.  Tokyo?  That's where I am!  Suddenly, my curiosity was piqued.  Where is this Pierre Hermes shop?  I have to go check it out!  And then I found out, he is just a 20 minute drive from my house (when there is no traffic, that is!)!   

So there I was today.  I had no time to go in to the salon, just bought some macaroons from the shop downstairs.  They were so good.  I can totally understand why people rave about it.  Nothing like other macaroons I have eaten.  Crisp on the outside, sufficiently moist and chewy on the inside.  And the inside was cold, I think that made quite a difference.  The flavouring was just right too, although I thought the chocolate one was a bit too heavy.  But that was probably because I just had chocolate ice-cream before and was already overdosed on chocolate.  I liked the lemon and rose-flavoured ones best.   They were USD2.10 each.  Affordable enough  as an addiction.

The shop was busy.  I tried to take a photo of the main doors closed, but that was almost impossible.  People were just walking in and out.  The decor of the shop was a little disappointing for me though.  It was rather ordinary, nothing very French.  If I have never heard of Pierre Hermes, I would be walking right by it.  It was modern posh, but in Aoyama where everything is posh, it does not stand out.