Hiroko s Food Tours of Asakusa

Transcription

1 Hiroko s Food Tours of Asakusa How to Use this Guide Hiroko s Food Tours (HFT) is a personal guided food tour in English or Japanese for people who love food. The contact details of the guide, Hiroko, are at the end of this guide. There are other food tours available, but this one of Asakusa is a free sample brochure. You could use the information here to guide yourself. Detailed shop information is in the appendix, and shop access information is provided in another file. If you do self-guided tour by yourself, some of the samples are not available. However, by joining the tour in person, you can learn a lot more, and in addition, you can eat samples at every shop, market and place described here. You may need to have a very hungry appetite. Depending on your budget and time, a personalized tour can be arranged. Kaminari-mon gate (Thunder gate) The symbol of Asakusa: Thunder gate Thank you for joining my food tour in Asakusa. We will start today s tour from Kaminari-mon Gate. This is the official gate of Senso-ji Temple, which we will soon make a short visit around. Kaminari-mon Gate wouldn t be so symbolic as it is today without such a huge, red paper lantern hanging under its roof. The lantern is 3.9 meters high and 3.3 meters in diameter, and its weight is about 700 kilograms. The original location of Kaminari-mon Gate was Komagata, a place about 500 meters towards Sumida-gawa River from here, the current location. The gate was built there in 941 A.D. during the Heian period ( ). A military commander, Taira no Kinmasa, donated a gate to Senso-ji Temple to show his gratitude when his prayer was answered. During the Kamakura period ( ), the gate was moved to the place it is today, and at that time, the statues of the wind god (Fujin) and the thunder god (Raijin) were first enshrined. Thunder gate depicted in the woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige Talking about the huge lantern of the Kaminari-mon Gate, its origin is not known, but it appeared in the ukiyoe woodblock prints by (Utagawa Hiroshige) during the Edo period ( ). However, the wooden Kaminari-mom Gate was burnt down once every hundred years during the Edo period. After the fire occurred in 1865, the gate was not reconstructed until A Japanese businessman, Matsushita Konosuke, contributed this current gate with a large lantern as a token of gratitude when he recovered from an illness by making a prayer to Senso-ji Temple. Not to repeat the fire anymore, the current gate was build using reinforced-concrete. The large lantern has been renovated once every ten years, and the current one was made in

2 Nakamise-dori Street: One of the oldest shopping malls in Japan Senso-ji Temple has a quite long history, which was begun in 628 A.D. (Imperial Year: Year 36 of the reign of Empress Suiko) when fishermen found Kannon, the goddess of mercy, in their net while fishing on Sumida-gawa River. Having received the statue of Kannon, their boss became a priest and enshrined it in his residence converting it into a temple. As the oldest temple in Asakusa, it had been believed by the Samurai and Shogans, and became a large temple. Thunder gate depicted in the woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige In 1685 A.D. (Imperial Year Jyokyo 2), Senso-ji Temple permitted its neighbors to open shops on the approach to the temple in return that they cleaned the precincts periodically. This is the predecessor of present-day Nakamise-dori Street, one of the oldest shopping malls in Japan. The Edo period ( ) was the time when the ordinary people in Edo city gained power, and Senso-ji Temple and Nakamise-dori Street in Asakusa was developed as the center of the culture for them. The atmosphere of Nakamise-dori Street, always jammed with people (even more on the festivals and fairs), was created at that time. On the way up to now after the Edo period, Asakusa had gone through the Nakamise-dori street change of administration from Tokugawa shogunate to the Meiji government, the Great Kanto Earthquake, and the Second World War. Current Namamise-dori Street was reconstructed right after the Second World War, and it has been given several renovations since then. Now, this street is about 250 meters long from Kaminari-mon Gate to Hozo-mon Gate (the final gate to the main temple), and there are 54 stores on the east side; 35 stores on the west side of the street, welcoming pilgrims and tourists with their specialties. Food tour: There are quite a lot of shops which deal with food even only on Nakamise-dori Street: shops which are specialized in a single type of food, and shops which have a wide variety of food. An interesting thing is that some of them have some branches throughout the Asakusa area. So, on this street, for the tour I will choose the shops which seem to be better to drop in as we walk along Nakamise-dori Street. The first shop is at the edge of this street. It deals with the most representative sweet which has been the must-buy-food in Asakusa since the Edo period, Tokiwado

3 Tokiwado: A popular sweet as a souvenir of Asakusa among Japanese people since the Edo period Kaminari-okoshi: rice puff coated with candy Kaminari-okoshi is the name of the sweet, which Tokiwado deals in as its specialty. The name kaminari on its top derives from a story that there used to be a shop which sold this sweet in front of Kaminari-mon Gate. The name okoshi is a name for this type of sweet, and it has a good meaning to make something such as a business and a family prosperous. The main ingredient for kaminari-okoshi is steamed, dried, and grained non-glutinous rice. The granular rice is roasted to make it a puff-like food. By heating, the texture of rice changes dramatically like popcorn. The puffy rice is mixed with heated sugar and starch syrup. The mixture is then stretched into a board-like shape. When cooled, the board of kaminari-okoshi is cut into bite-size blocks. This sweet was already sold at a street stall in front of Kaminari-mon Gate in 1795 A.D. (Imperial Year Kansei 7) in Asakusa, and it was a popular souvenir of Edo. Tokiwado Tokiwado, is said to have its roots in the early stages of the kaminari-okoshi shop. It started its business at the current place, just next to Kaminari-mon Gate Plaza, in 1892 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 25). Since then, the variety of kaminari-okoshi offered by Tokiwado has been increased in order to catch up with the changing preferences of people. Tokiwado now has over 50 varieties of kaminari-okoshi to attract every people. The most standard types are the ones coated with white sugar or brown sugar. They have a cooking class of making kaminari-okoshi (from 2 people; for about mins; 2,000 per person). (Tokiwado: Bairindo: established in 1876 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 9) Variety of bean and nut snacks - one of the traditional and casual snacks for any occasion Bairindo Snacks made using beans and nuts are one of the favorite daily foods among Japanese people. The simplest one might be roasted soy-beans, and it is an indispensable food for a bean-scattering ceremony which is held on the 3rd of February in Japan. Roasted peanuts with or without shells are also popular. Fried broad-beans, roasted green-peas coated with salty powder, and peanuts coated with many different flavors are standard items. They are a good accompany while having a cup of tea or drinking alcohol

4 Nowadays, most of Japanese people buy bean and nut snacks from a section in a super market. But, traditionally, people bought them at a shop which specialized in beans and nuts. Bairindo was established in 1876 A.D., and it is one of the oldest shops in Asakusa. It still keeps a traditional way to sell bean and nut products. It has a wide selection: roasted beans, fried beans, and glazed nuts. Some of them are already packed, but some of them in the show case are sold by weight. Kameya: doll-shape cakes and rice crackers Traditional, quality rice crackers Kameya Many people would stop to see closely what those things are in the showcase over there. This is a shop which deals with both doll-shape cakes and rice crackers. Their doll cakes are nice, but here I would like to introduce their rice crackers as they have got such an attractive display of the very standard and traditional type of rice crackers. Rice crackers are popular snack, which Japanese people eat while having a cup of green tea at home. Since the exact definition of rice cracker is a bit complicated, so this time I say that there are roughly two types of rice cracker; one is made from non-glutinous rice, and the other is made from glutinous rice. Here at Kameya, I will focus on the former ones. To make the non-glutinous rice cracker, non-glutinous rice flour is used. It is steamed with some water, and then pounded into dough. The dough is rolled out, and from it circles (with a diameter of about 8 centimeters) are cut out and dried. These are the base of rice cracker. Before being eaten, the bases are placed over a wire net under which charcoal is burning. When heated, the thin rice-cracker-bases rise up, and its texture changes from hard and dry dough to airy and crunchy crackers. (We will be able to see the grilling procedure at Ishibanya later.) Let s have the most typical shouyu-senbei (rice cracker flavored with soy-sauce) here. Fortunately, there are many shops which sell rice crackers in Asakusa, so I will stop by some of them and will introduce the different types at each time

5 Kinryuzan Asakusa-mochi Honpo: established in 1675 A.D. (Imperial Year Enpo 3) Sweetened bean-paste bun tempura and rice dumplings Kinryuzan Asakusa-mochi Honpo While you travel around Japan, you will have many chances to have steamed sweetened bean-paste buns. But you wouldn t come across a sweetened bean-paste bun tempura so often once you leave Asakusa, or Tokyo. This sweet, as name indicates, is made by deep-frying a steamed sweetened bean-paste bun in tempura batter. The origin of this sweet is not known. It might be that somebody had just tried to deep-fry the remaining buns in tempura style at some point. Some areas from central Japan to the north, this food is said to be made at Bean-paste bun tempura home on special occasions. In Tokyo, especially in Asakusa, sweetened bean-paste bun tempura is a popular sweet to buy outside. Traditionally, tempura is deep-fried in blended oil of sesame and canola, and it is the sesame oil which gives a good flavor and a crispy texture to the tempura coating. It is difficult to do this oil-blending at home. So in this meaning, eating hot, crispy, and slightly sesame flavored sweetened bean-paste bun tempura is a must-eat-food in Asakusa. Kinryuzan Asakusa-mochi Honpo itself is a long-standing shop established in 1675 A.D. (Imperial Year Enpou 3), 340 years ago, as a rice-dumpling shop. Rice-dumpling flavored with Japanese pepper is one of their specialties. About 60 years ago, the shop master started to serve sweetened bean-paste bun tempura as a pioneer of this food in Asakusa. This store starts preparing their own sweetened bean-paste, and also makes their own steamed buns with it, and then deep-fry the buns in tempura batter. (some shops purchase bean-jam buns.) So its quality is guaranteed! Kimuraya Honten: established in 1868 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 1) the oldest doll-shape cake store in Asakusa Kimuraya Honten Doll-shape cake is also a popular sweet as a souvenir of Asakusa. It is made using batter made of wheat flour, egg, and sugar, which is baked in a doll-shape mold filling sweetened bean-paste inside. I will explain this while watching the demonstration. This sweet was invented by a store in Ningyo-cho (near Nihonbashi), Tokyo, where dolls for Kabuki plays were produced during the Edo period. The word ningyo means doll in Japanese, and the sweet was created to promote Ningyo-cho. The mold for doll cake has a variety and regionality; in Ningyo-cho, the seven deities of good luck are popular, and - 5 -

6 here in Asakusa, five-story pagoda, thunder god, and lantern are popular. There are more than 5 stores, which deal with their original doll-cakes in Doll-shape cakes Asakusa, and among them Kimuraya is the oldest to sell this sweet on Nakamise-dori Street. It started its business in 1868 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 1). Their founder was the first person who changed the design of the doll-cake to become unique to Asakusa: five-story pagoda, pigeon, thunder god, and lantern. Somebody might wonder why pigeon. It is definitely not the pigeons which loiter in the precinct of Senso-ji Temple. There was a stall in front of the gate which sold a charm of pair-pigeons made of ceramic! The shapes and taste of doll-cake are different depending on the store, so maybe it would be fun to try another store of your choice after this tour. I will hand out a map of Asakusa later. (We will make a short visit to Senso-ji Temple after tasting the doll-cake.) Isekan: established in 1717 A.D. (Imperial Year Kyoho 2) Dried nori seaweed, Asakusa-nori, a brand name since the Edo period Isekan This is the very precious store in terms of the history of dried seaweed nori in Japan. Edo and Tokyo used to be the largest nori producing prefecture until 1939 A.D. (Imperial Year Showa 14). There were many cultivation sites of nori along the west side of Edo and Tokyo bay. The harvested nori was made into sheets of dried nori in Asakusa, or the sheets of dried nori made in that production sites were transported to Asakusa for distribution. So at its height, many stores dealt in dried nori in Asakusa. Unfortunately, because of the development of A wholesaler of dried nori in Asakusa the coastal area of Tokyo bay, nori seaweed is not cultivated in Tokyo bay any more. And Isekan is the only store specialized in dried nori remained in Asakusa area. Some of you might already have had authentic Japanese sushi at somewhere before joining this food tour. At that time, did you pay attention to dried nori? I guess due to the current popularity of sushi and sushi rolls worldwide, most of the people know dried nori. But there are not so many people who remember the taste of dried nori after having enjoyed the variety of sushi and sushi rolls. So it would be a good opportunity to focus on the single ingredient dried nori, here at Isekan. The taste and texture of dried nori is deferent depending on its rank. Also we will have a taste of seasoned dried - 6 -

7 nori, which is a popular accompany to eat rice, or to drink. (Isekan: Yagenbori: established in 1625 A.D. (Imperial Year Kanei 2) Traditional Japanese blend of seven spices Yagenbori Generally speaking, the taste of Japanese food is not spicy, rather it is moderate or plain. But depending on people s preference, the blend of seven spices, which we call shichimi-togarashi is used to make the individual dish spicy. Hot soba (buckwheat noodles), udon (wheat noodles), or yakitori (grilled skewered chicken) are the typical dishes which people sprinkle shichimi over. The kinds of spices used and its blending ratio vary from store to store. Frequently used spices are such as, red chili pepper, black sesame, poppy seeds, Japanese pepper, citrus peel, hemp seeds(!), dried nori seaweed, and dried green lavers. This is a long-standing store specialized in the blend of seven spices since 1625 A.D. (Imperial Year Kanei 2), and this is the originator of the product. Its founder first opened its shop in Yagenbori, Ryogoku, Edo, where many doctors and medicine wholesalers lived in. In this environment, the founder of Yagenbori mixed the seven spices with a reference to Chinese medicine. It suited the taste of Edo people, and became one of Edo s specialties. The blend of seven spices: shichimi togarashi The blend of spices used to be prepared at each time of purchase, while listening to people s preference. Yagenbori partly keeps the old style of business. There are showcases in which each of the spices is stored individually, and the shop-staff will prepare a special blend just for you. (Yagenbori: A selection of sweets made using sweet-potatoes: Sweet-potato is a popular ingredient for making sweets in Japan. It is very sweet itself, and in addition, it is cheap. So many types of casual sweets have been created using sweet-potato. Asakusa used to be a place where sweet-potatoes from Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture (a reputed producing area of sweet-potato), were unloaded from a boat coming down via Sumidagawa River. With this reason, sweets using sweet-potato are still quite popular in this area. Now, we are in an area which is crowded with shops specialized in sweet-potato sweets! Funawa: established in 1902 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 35) Sweet-potato bar for ordinary people - 7 -

8 Funawa Funawa is the oldest store among those which deals with sweets using sweet-potato in Asakusa. The founder was a wholesaler of sweet-potato in Asakusa and was seeking for a way to offer sweets using sweet-potato at an affordable price for ordinary people since a bar of sweetened red-bean paste was beyond their reach at that time. What the founder created with a specialist in Japanese sweets was a bar of sweetened sweet-potato paste. Right after completing the recipe, they opened a sweet shop with the bar of sweetened sweet-potato paste as their original in 1902 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 35). The making of the sweet-potato bar is: steamed sweet-potatoes are mashed, and then thickened into paste with sugar and salt while constantly being stirred over a flame; the paste is poured into a square container and cooled. The recipe is quite simple but straining the steamed sweet-potatoes is a hard work. A bar of sweetened sweet-potato paste: Imo-yokan Funawa also has another original: mitsumame. It is a sweet prepared in a dessert glass. Its ingredients are red-peas, agar jelly, dry apricot, gummy rice cake. When eating, people choose the color of syrup from white or black to pour over it. In 1903 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 36), Funawa opened a modern shop to serve mitsumame. It was quite revolutionary to be able to have such a sophisticated dessert at the shop. Now, mitsumame is one of the indispensable menus for the Japanese traditional sweets shop. This dish as a basic, varieties were developed, such as with sweet red-bean paste on top, or vanilla ice cream on top, and so on. (Funawa: Mitsumame with ice cream & sweet red-bean paste on top Oimoyasan Koshin: Candied fried sweet-potato The next sweet is candied fried sweet-potato - cheap, plenty, and yummy! It might be the second most popular sweet using sweet-potato after stone-roasted sweet-potato in Japan. We make this sweet at home, and also take away from local deli-shops. It is easy to make, just cut sweet-potato into bite-size pieces with or without skin, deep-fry them, and softly caramelize them. Oimoyasan also started from a wholesale store of sweet-potato in Komagata, in 1876 A.D. (Imperial Year Meiji 9). Its founder was from Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture, one of the reputed sweet-potato producing - 8 -

9 regions in Japan. In 1984 A.D. (Imperial Year Showa 59), they started a new business of a sweet shop specialized in sweet-potato in Asakusa. Its specialty is candied fried sweet-potato. (Oimoyasan Koshin: Mangando: Sweet-potato paste wrapped with wheat crepe: Imo-kintsuba Imo-kintsuba The last sweet is imo-kintsuba. Square shaped sweet-potato paste is roasted on a hot iron plate while being coated by wheat batter. The name kintsuba indicates a sweet made in this way, but its filling is sweetened red-bean paste. But sweets made using red-bean were expensive for ordinary people. So this sweet was made using sweet-potatoes as a cheap alternative. It was named imo-kintsuba to distinguish itself from the genuine kintsuba. Imo means sweet-potato in Japanese. This sweet is said to have been loved by the traditional Japanese female entertainers in Asakusa area since the early Edo period. Mangando Mangando was opened here in 1999 A.D. (Imperial Year Heisei 11), whose specialty is imo-kintsuba. Sometimes, an artisan of imo-kintsuba prepares the sweet in the glassed-in kitchen in the shop. (Mangando: Ganso Ebiya Honten: several traditional ingredients boiled down in soy sauce and sugar Ganso Ebiya Honten Tsukudani is the name of food which this store Ebiya has handled since the Meiji period ( ). It is a type of preserved food invented by the fishermen in Tsukudajima Island, Edo, in the early Edo period ( ). Originally, the main ingredients were seafood such as small fish or shellfish which were abundantly caught in Sumidagawa River and Edo Bay. These seafood were boiled down in Edo-style dark soy-sauce and sugar. This food is a traditional topping for a bowl of rice, and also a traditional ingredient for making rice balls. There are still several long-standing tsukudani stores in Tsukudajima area and Asakusa area. Ganso Ebiya Honten is one of them, and it was established in the mid Meiji period. Its main store and factory is located near Azumabashi Bridge (one of the bridges over Sumidagawa River), and this is its branch store. Although it is a branch, it has a wide variety of tsukudani displayed in quite a large showcase, and some of the types (such as locusts!) are rare and unique to this store. (Ebiya: - 9 -

10 Time for tasting different types of rice cracker: From here, we will walk back to Kaminari-mon Gate, while passing by some stores which deal with rice crackers. Ichibanya The attractive demonstration of grilling rice crackers by hand There a few rice-cracker shops which grill rice crackers by hand in front of people. The bases of rice cracker are placed on a wire net, and they are grilled over charcoal fire while being turned over several times until done. Ichibanya Ichibanya is a shop specialized in rice crackers which offers the freshly grilled rice crackers for eating while walking! Earlier today, we had a plain rice cracker at Kameya. Here, we will take away the one wrapped in dried nori, which is another popular flavor among Japanese people. Let s eat this while walking on the way to the next rice cracker store! Kineya: Fried rice crackers As I mentioned earlier today, there are roughly two types of rice cracker, and so far we had some varieties made from non-glutinous rice. Now, we will taste the other type of rice cracker which is made from glutinous, or sticky rice. Although the process of making rice crackers from glutinous rice is almost the same as that from non-glutinous rice, the final texture is different. Quickly talking about the regionality of rice crackers in Japan, glutinous rice cracker were more popular in western Japan, and non-glutinous rice cracker was more popular in eastern Japan. But nowadays these rice crackers made from glutinous rice are also popular in eastern Japan. The specialty of Kinya is rice crackers made from glutinous rice, and they are deep-fried. People enjoy its crunchy, fluffy texture

11 Hyobando: Genkotsu - very, very hard rice cracker made of glutinous rice Hyobando The last food is from this shop, Hyobando. Their special is genkotsu, which is a type of grilled glutinous rice crackers, and said to be the hardest rice cracker. Because of this hardness, some stores recommend that people whose teeth are not strong better not to eat this rice cracker! (Unless you want to try a visit to a Japanese dentist!) In the case of genkotsu, the base of rice cake is dried up completely until its surface got cracks. This process makes the texture of genkotsu very hard. According to Hyobando, they are the first shop which introduced genkotsu to Tokyo people. This hard glutinous rice cracker originated in western Japan. The owner of Hyobando invited artisans from Nagoya prefecture, and learned how to make the hard glutinous rice cracker. In addition, having taken the preference of Tokyo people into consideration, he slightly changed its texture and flavor, and gave it another name genkotsu. very hard type of rice cracker: genkotsu The name genkotsu means a clenched fist, and is used to make people imagine that something is hard, or very hard. Many Japanese people love this cracker and enjoy the hardness. (Hyobando: (We are now back to Kaminari-mon gate) Ending my food tour in Asakusa: Asakusa is the place where snacks and sweets for ordinary days are very numerous, and many genres of traditional Japanese restaurants are available. I hope you and your stomach are satisfied with my tour in Asakusa. Japan Food Tours by Hiroko Obata - Let s eat up Japan! obatahiroko@yahoo.co.jp, foodworldofjapan@yahoo.com Mobile Tel.: Facebook: For detailed information on Opening Hours and websites see the Appendix

12 Appendix for Detailed Shop Information Shop information for Asakusa by Hiroko Food Tours Tokiwado Address: 1-3-2, Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: Everyday 9:00-21:00 Website: Bairindo Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: 10:00-18:00 Closed: Tuesdays Kameya Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: 9:30-19:00 Closed: Not fixed Kinryuzan Address: 2-3-1, Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: 9:00-17:30 Closed: Wednesdays Kimuraya Address: 2-3-1, Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: 9:00 about 19:00 Closed: Not fixed Website:

13 Isekan Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: Everyday 9:30-18:00 (January 1: 12:00-18:00) Website: Facebook: Yagenbori Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: Everyday 10:00-19:00 Website: Funawa Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Hours: 10:00-19:00 (Weekdays) 9:30-20:00 (Saturdays) 9:30-19:30 (Sundays and National Holidays) Website: Koshin Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: Everyday 10:00-19:00 Website: Mangando Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Hours: 10:00-20:00 (Weekdays) 9:30~20:00 (Saturdays, Sundays, and National Holidays) Website:

14 Ebiya Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Hours: Everyday 10:00-18:00 Website: Ichibanya Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Hours: 10:00-20:00 Closed: Not fixed Kineya Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: Everyday 9:00-18:45 Hyobando Address: , Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Phone: Fax: Hours: Everyday 9:30-20:00 (till 18:30 on Thursdays) Japan Food Tours by Hiroko Obata - Let s eat up Japan! obatahiroko@yahoo.co.jp, foodworldofjapan@yahoo.com Mobile Tel.: Facebook: