Going Japanesa...

Crazy menu!

So it was last night that I was whisked off by Boworn and Atthakorn to Tora Chiro on Tong Lo 13. I was assured that this would be the best Japanese outside of Thailand and I was not disappointed! You see, many Japanese have settled in Thailand (particularly Bangkok), so much so that there is a Japanese quarter – or ‘Japantown’ if you like. Many restaurants have popped up and Tora Chiro is one of the best. We were led up stairs to a comfortable but chilly restaurant (everywhere here is super-air-conditioned) and presented with huge garishly coloured menus. Luckily everything had a picture and Thai, Japanese and English descriptions. Boworn ordered for us after I had specified that I really fancied gyoza, noodles and yakitori. Ten minutes later we were tucking into some seriously yummy Japanese food.

Sashimi

The most impressive looking dish was a sashimi plate with at least 10 different types of sashimi. I tried the tuna, fatty tuna, salmon, mussel, hokki, prawn and scallop. I have to say my favourite remains the tuna, though the texture of the hokki and mussel were good too. I have to say that I love the way the Japanese care so much for the presentation of their food. The platter looked amazing! They had garnished everything with shredded diakon and carrot, used to separate the different types of fish. Lemon slices and deliciously aromatic perilla leaves, with their nettle-like leaves were arranged with aesthetic dexterity and it made you just want to devour the lot, there and then!

Yakitori
But sashimi was just the start. We also had various skewers of yakitori – mainly chicken and squid based. My favourites were the minced chicken and the bacon wrapped over enoki mushrooms which had great texture. The fantastic thing about yakitori is that the flavours are enhanced by the smokiness imparted from the bincho grill that they are cooked on. Yum yum.

The noodles Boworn had ordered were also fantastic. We ate Yakisoba which is a wok-fried noodle dish using pork, cabbage, beansprouts, onion, carrot and shredded preserved ginger. They served it with that naughty but nice Japanese mayo, that all who try it throw Hellmann’s to the wayside!

After all these delicacies we were presented with two soups – Oden and Black Miso. It was just as well as I wasn’t a fan of the Oden. It was a fishy clear soup with large ingredients floating in it (described by Boworn as ‘ not a soup, not a hotpot’). In fact it was more like a fishy broth, with a large piece of tofu, boiled egg, fish cakes, turnip and potato. It was an acquired taste and I hadn’t quite acquired it! But I did try…The second soup, the Black Miso, was more successful. It was richer than other misos that I have tried and had a meaty flavour, much like a beef consommé (though cloudy, not clear). It was enhanced by small pieces of deep-fried tofu, seaweed and enoki mushrooms which added body and interest. I liked it.

After all that munching I was full to bursting, and even the offer of Black Sesame icecream couldn’t persuade me to have anything more. Maybe next time…