![Waiting For a Table on Flickr.Kushiwakamaru
Naka Meguro
Tokyo, Japan
[This week’s photo theme is: Tokyo, Japan]
Kushiwakamaru is an excellent yakitori restaurant in Naki-Meguro in Tokyo, Japan, encompassing the first floor of the building pictured here. After an amazing yakitori meal on my first trip to Japan, I know we’d need to try and hit one out of the culinary park once again. A bit of internet sleuthing kept pointing me to Kusiwakamaru, a place known for being a destination in the neighborhood with those in the know lining up for hours to get a spot in the cozy diner. The chairs out front are for those waiting to get in, and we spent a good 45 minutes there before finally getting seated.
Yakitori roughly translates into “skewered chicken” although it may refer to skewered food in general. A great feature of yakitori restaurants is a centralized kitchen/chef who prepares the food for the restaurant. It’s somewhat akin to a teppanyaki style (think Benihana) as the grill is usually out in the open on the floor, except in this case the one chef is cooking up goods for the entire restaurant, served to your table as they’re ready. All parts of the chicken are served: aside from wings you can get chicken heart, liver, gizzard, cartilage, and skin. Despite what you may think, it’s all incredibly delicious, prepared with a delicate touch that is at once simple yet rich. I wasn’t expecting this yakitori meal to be able to live up to my first, but it miraculously pulled off being just as good in it’s own way. It didn’t hurt that the staff were all incredibly friendly and accommodating of our broken Japanese.
I discovered that the Naka Meguro area is a bit of an alternative den compared to the more glitzy and showy areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, or Roppongi. Think slower paced and a bit eccentric and artsy, more Silverlake than Hollywood, more Williamsburg than Manhattan. At night it had a quiet charm that was a nice change of pace from our home-base in Shibuya.
Twitter: photojames
Instagram: jdhilger](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly0am7c5eP1qzulajo1_500.jpg)
Waiting For a Table on Flickr.
Kushiwakamaru
Naka Meguro
Tokyo, Japan
[This week’s photo theme is: Tokyo, Japan]
Kushiwakamaru is an excellent yakitori restaurant in Naki-Meguro in Tokyo, Japan, encompassing the first floor of the building pictured here. After an amazing yakitori meal on my first trip to Japan, I know we’d need to try and hit one out of the culinary park once again. A bit of internet sleuthing kept pointing me to Kusiwakamaru, a place known for being a destination in the neighborhood with those in the know lining up for hours to get a spot in the cozy diner. The chairs out front are for those waiting to get in, and we spent a good 45 minutes there before finally getting seated.
Yakitori roughly translates into “skewered chicken” although it may refer to skewered food in general. A great feature of yakitori restaurants is a centralized kitchen/chef who prepares the food for the restaurant. It’s somewhat akin to a teppanyaki style (think Benihana) as the grill is usually out in the open on the floor, except in this case the one chef is cooking up goods for the entire restaurant, served to your table as they’re ready. All parts of the chicken are served: aside from wings you can get chicken heart, liver, gizzard, cartilage, and skin. Despite what you may think, it’s all incredibly delicious, prepared with a delicate touch that is at once simple yet rich. I wasn’t expecting this yakitori meal to be able to live up to my first, but it miraculously pulled off being just as good in it’s own way. It didn’t hurt that the staff were all incredibly friendly and accommodating of our broken Japanese.
I discovered that the Naka Meguro area is a bit of an alternative den compared to the more glitzy and showy areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, or Roppongi. Think slower paced and a bit eccentric and artsy, more Silverlake than Hollywood, more Williamsburg than Manhattan. At night it had a quiet charm that was a nice change of pace from our home-base in Shibuya.
Twitter: photojames
Instagram: jdhilger
