Serious foodies have always raved about Tokyo’s fabulous food finds in a city where no matter the time of the place, there’s always a treat ready to be had.
Now, Brendan Liew and Caryn Ng, who established chotto, a pop-up Japanese café in Melbourne, Australia, where they introduced the art of traditional ryokan-style breakfasts, have written A Day in Tokyo (Smith Street Books), a cookbook highlighting the best of Tokyo’s round-the-clock cuisine and culture.
Lew has worked at the three-Michelin-starred Nihonryori RyuGin in Roppongi, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and also studied the art of ramen-making in Japan before delving into kappo and modern kaiseki cuisine. In Melbourne, he worked at Kappo, Supernormal, Golden Fields and Bistro Vue. Together, Brendan and Caryn have traveled extensively through Japan’s countryside and major cities to explore, learn, and live the country’s culture and gastronomy.
As its name implies, the book is divided into chapters by the time of day starting with Early when the streets are silent. Recipes in this section include Kitsune Udon, a noodle dish made with deep-fried tofu, sea mustard, and sake and Funwari Hottokeki or Souffle Hotcakes.
Mid is a time when people head to their favorite ramen shops, curry houses, and depechika, department store basements filled with grocers, fishmongers, specialty pickle sellers, furikake or places to buy rice seasonings, wines, patisseries, umeboshi or stores selling pickled plums, and food stalls where one can buy rice balls, tempera, bento box meals, and other lunch items.
Late, when the sunsets behind Mt. Fuji and the neon lights of Tokyo flicker to life, is when Tokyo’s boisterous and lively night scene comes to life. Recipes include Chawanmushi, a savory egg custard and Kanikorokke or Crab Croquettes.
The last chapter, Basics, shows how to cook rice, milk bread, and hot spring eggs as well as tempura flour and different types of dashi. This is followed by a glossary of common ingredients in Japanese cooking found in Asian and Japanese supermarkets or greengrocers.
“It would be impossible to dine at every restaurant in Tokyo in a single lifetime. Layer upon layer of dining establishments exist here, stacked on top of each other in high-rise buildings, hidden down long narrow alleyways, and crammed tightly together in warrens. Their only signposts are noren, small-calligraphed signs accompanied by delicately arranged sprigs of flowers or traditional Japanese lanterns hung outside the door,” write the authors in the book’s introduction. “Tokyo is a city where centuries-old restaurants can be found in between modern ones, where third, fourth, and fifth generations of chefs’ neatly pressed white jackets live the life of shokunin, (a word commonly translated as artisan, but which encapsulates so much more) going through the processes their forefathers went through before them.”
The 96 recipes are not necessarily difficult, indeed some are very easy. But for those unfamiliar with Japanese cooking, it may seem daunting. The best approach is to start with recipes like Bifu Shichu Hotto Sando (Beef Stew Jaffles), Tomato Salad with Lime Dressing, or Yakitori (skewers of marinated chicken) that don’t require a long list of unusual ingredients or a lot of steps. And then continue from there.
YAKISOBA PAN
YAKISOBA ROLLS
SERVES 4
Yakisoba pan is a quirky Japanese creation consisting of fried noodles stuffed in bread, specifically a hot dog roll or milk bun. The story goes that a customer of Nozawaya in Tokyo asked for the combination in the 1950s, and the invention has lined the shelves of Japanese bakeries and konbini (convenience stores) ever since.
4 Milk bread rolls (page 216) [below] or store-bought mini hot dog rolls
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or margarine, softened
300 g (10½ oz) Fried noodles (page 99) [below]
beni shōga (pickled ginger), sliced, to serve
- Split the bread rolls in half and spread with the butter. Divide the fried noodles between the rolls and top with lots of beni shōga. Serve immediately (though it also tastes fine cold).
SHOKUPAN
MILK BREAD
MAKES 1 X 2.8 LITRE (95 FL OZ) LIDDED LOAF TIN OR 12 ROLLS
“Our Australian chef friend, who lives in Japan, once made sourdough bread for his Japanese wife and her family,” write the authors in the introduction to this recipe.
“He couldn’t easily find the kind he ate back home, and missed the rustic, country-style loaves. He is a good baker, but we can’t say for certain that his wife and her family were charmed by his efforts. The Japanese are completely smitten with milk bread, you see, and it’s worlds apart from the chewy loaves and hard crusts typical of European breads.
“Milk bread is soft, white, sweet and fluffy: the perfect foil for a multitude of fillings, from cream, custard and red bean to katsu (crumbed and fried cutlets; page 186), fried noodles (see page 121) and curry (see page 127). It is also delicious eaten on its own.
- 220 g (11/2 cups) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 165 ml (51/2 fl oz) milk
- 50 g (13/4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 10 g (1/4 oz) salt
- 4 g (1/8 oz) dried yeast
- 60 g (2 oz) butter, at room temperature, diced
- neutral oil, for greasing
Preferment
- 220 g (11/2 cups) strong flour
- 165 ml (51/2 fl oz) water
- 2.5 g (1/8 oz) dried yeast
Egg Wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons milk
Start by making the preferment. Mix the ingredients together, then cover and leave for 24 hours at room temperature.
The next day, put the preferment in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add all the remaining ingredients, except the butter and oil. Knead on low speed using a dough hook for 5 minutes. Scrape down the side, add the butter and knead for another 10 minutes, or until the dough is very elastic, scraping down the side of the bowl every 2 minutes.
To make a loaf, when the dough is ready, scrape down the side of the bowl again, then cover and leave to rest in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. (To make rolls, skip to step 12.)
- Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide into three even pieces. Form each piece into a smooth ball, then cover and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, lightly grease a 2.8 litre (95 fl oz) lidded loaf tin with oil.
- Lightly flour your work surface. Turn one rested dough ball over onto the work surface so the smooth side faces down. Using your hands or a rolling pin, stretch the dough to roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper, or about 20 cm x 30 cm (8 in x 12 in). Fold the left side of the dough over two-thirds of the dough. Press down to remove any large air bubbles, then fold the right side all the way over to the left edge.
- Take the top of the dough with both hands, then tightly roll from top to bottom to create a log. Seal the excess dough by pinching it together, then place, seal-side down, in the loaf tin. Repeat with the remaining two dough balls.
- Slide the lid on the loaf tin and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
- When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Bake the bread for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 165°C (330°F) and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Remove the loaf tin from the oven, carefully remove the lid and turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
- If using the bread for sando, use it within 2 days. It will be fine as toast for up to 5 days.
- To make rolls instead of a loaf, after step 2, punch the dough down and shape into 12 evenly sized rolls. Place on a baking paper-lined tray, leaving a 10 cm (4 in) space between each roll. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
- In a small bowl, beat 1 egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of milk to make an egg wash.
- Pour 250ml (1 cup) of water into a metal baking tin and place on the bottom of the oven. Brush the tops of the rolls with the egg wash and bake for 15 minutes, or until the rolls sound hollow when tapped. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool before using. The rolls will keep for up to 5 days.
NAPORITAN PAN
NAPOLETANA ROLLS
SERVES 4
This is a twist on the Yakisoba roll (above), this time featuring spaghetti napoletana, a yōshoku (Western-style) favourite in Japan.
- 4 Milk bread rolls (page 216) [see Yakisoba recipe] or store-bought mini hot dog rolls
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or margarine, softened
- 200 g (7 oz) dried spaghetti
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
- 125 ml (½ cup) tomato ketchup
- 125 ml (½ cup) tomato passata (pureed tomatoes)
- chopped parsley, to garnish
- Split the bread rolls in half and spread with the butter. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, then drain.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, then add the onion and garlic and cook until soft. Stir in the ketchup and passata. Add the cooked spaghetti to the frying pan and mix well. Divide the spaghetti napoletana between the rolls and top with parsley.
Note
The napoletana rolls can be – and are usually – served cold.
This article originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.
