Japan Continued (1): Meat-Ya

One of the great things about visiting Japan is that you do things that you always meant to do when you lived there. One of those things was Meat-ya (メート屋) in Asagaya. We'd passed this place a million times and said we were going to go, but we just never got around to it.

Due to it's appearance on Adomachi, the chairs out front were usually packed. But for some reason the day we went it was empty. It was a sign. A sign that we must finally try it.

 

Like so many hot spots in Tokyo, Meat-ya does one thing and it does it well. You have one  choice - pasta with meat sauce.  Don't eat meat? Then what are you thinking coming here? It is called Meat-ya after all. 

You can customize the size and a few toppings: cheese, eggplant, and ... natto?! I am not one of those people who hates natto, but I was not ready to put it in my pasta. I suspect there was a good reason it was on the menu; I was just not feeling adventurous. Our only add-on was cheese. When it came out it was beautiful. This was the right choice.

But you don't just dig in. No, no, no. There is a process.

 

1.  Prepare your fork and spoon (Because I totally would have used my hands if you didn't tell me...)
2. Mix everything. Up-down-right-left. Stir at least 10 times. (I think I might have done 10)
3. The pasta will glisten. This is the sign that it is ready to eat!
4. Add Tabasco and cheese to taste. 
5. Eat it while it's piping hot! 10 minutes max!

There are no pictures of the post-mix, glistening pasta. I had to eat it in 10 minutes - no time for pictures! But there is a picture of the mix-ins:

And the outside of the store. Thanks for the great pasta, Meat-ya!

A (short) Return to Japan

For one glorious week I was back in Japan. I ate (and photographed) enough to keep me busy for a while. So here are my reports from Japan, in no particular order.

First, I'll start with my obsession - 小籠包/shouronpou/xiaolongbao. You don't need to go to Japan to eat these - they aren't even Japanese - but for some reason in Japan they are so, so good. I used to eat them every weekend, without fail.

The distinguishing characteristic is the soup. Outside of Japan these dumplings are juicy, but they don't actually have a noticeable amount of soup. In Japan the soup is half the fun. You have to be careful biting in because the soup is HOT and squirts everywhere. A less obvious difference is that the dough for the fried versions (not steamed, those are pretty much the same) in Japan is thinner, which makes the meat/dough/soup ratio just right. Finally, the dough is also slightly chewier. Outside of Japan you often get fluffy or flaky dough with the fried dumplings. While I guess these changes make the dumplings less "authentic",  I think they are an amazing innovation.

Unfortunately the place I usually went in Nakano closed (gasp!) but there are still plenty of places to choose from. For the sake of convenience I went to a relatively new spot in Musashikoayama, Fire Dragon (yes, that is actually the name). Unfortunately, I did not get the freshly fried boiling hot ones, but you are usually not that lucky.

Look at those beauties! Brings tears to my eyes and saliva to my mouth.

And here is the inside (minus a lot of soup). You get at least one generous spoonful of soup for every dumpling.

Magical sauce. Cannot get enough.