Tokyo: We Came, We Saw, We Ate.

The food is Tokyo is bonkers, amazing, crazy bananas. We love Japanese food, and we were lucky that in the East Village we had one of the best selections of Japanese eateries in NYC. It does not compare in any way to what is available in Tokyo. We put so many things in our mouths that just stopped us cold, it's going to be hard to relate the best of the bunch, but I'm going to give it a shot though...

5. There was a piece of sea urchin negiri sushi that I ate at Sushiko Tsukiji that I'm still thinking about. It was a perfect bite of food. Clean and creamy and briny.

4. One afternoon we walked to Futako-Tamagawa from Sangenjaya. We stopped in at a ramen shop along the way. We probably ate ramen 10 times this trip and this one was the best. Perfectly balanced. Good bite to the noodles. Rich flavorful broth without being greasy.

3. The grilled scallop at the Bettar Ichi Festival in Ningyocho. Totally simple. A grilled scallop with a bit of mirin added during cooking. It was perfectly cooked. Sweet and tender.

2. Rodney and Molly found a great restaurant for dinner the last night my folks were in town. We had a tatami room and the six of us enjoyed a truly memorable meal. The highlight for me was a grilled pork skewer cooked next to a pile of charcoal in the pit grill in our table. The pork was fatty in the best possible way and so porky with a little bit of smoke from the grilling.

1. It's a tie here. Both things were eaten in the same meal at an extraordinary restaurant in Sangenjaya and I won't choose between them. Molly and Andrew call the restaurant “The Horomon Place” as they specialize in horomon. As best as any of us can figure horomon is cow uterus. We ate a lot of it in Tokyo, but at The Horomon Place the proprietor makes a soup of horomon that's meaty and rich and yet delicate and nuanced. In the soup sit pieces of horomon and the whole thing is a heady combination. I hope that I have the chance to enjoy it again someday. If that soup wasn't enough, the chef made us a piece of grilled beef that was top three pieces of beef I've ever had the pleasure of eating. It was perfectly grilled and sliced into 6 thin slices accompanied by a small bowl of salt for dipping. As complex as the horomon soup was, the beef was just as good in it's simple beefiness.