A friend of mine took us out to Gonpachi tonight. Gonpachi is a rather well-known (if a bit commercialized) group of restaurants, each one specializing in a different type of food (apparently George W. Bush dined at one of them). The one in Shibuya that we went to tonight (14F E-Space Tower 3-6, Maruyama-Cho, 5784-2011) had one section specializing in sushi, and another section specializing in kushiyaki (a more generic term for yakitori) and soba. I’m glad that he took us to the latter, even though we’d been eating soba and yakitori for so many meals already.
This was actually quite a sight right when we went inside. Front and center stage was the yakitori grill. And I’m not just talking about one grill; I’m talking about a row of grills with smoke emanating above as if it were a ray of light coming down from heaven. You can sit at the counter, at a table, or in a private tatami room. We went ahead and got a number of various skewers and dishes, be they the usual negima and tsukune, or some new yet welcome things like the tanuki (mushrooms stuffed with chicken) and the Gonpachi House Salad, which even featured clams. All of these fared at or better than expectations (the tsukune, for instance, turned out to be more cylindrical and less spicy than usual, which was a welcome change). We also got some nice non-skewered things like gindara, a basic Japanese miso-glazed black cod, and mehikari, a basket of little deep fried fish seasoned with salt and spices.The most memorable part of the meal by far though was the kuroge wagyu beef. Actually, we didn’t even know what it was when we first tasted it (my friend mostly took the lead in ordering tonight, and this just looked like a basic skewer), but I distinctly remember putting a little morsel into my mouth and it tasting very rich…almost buttery in nature. My eyes suddenly opened wide and I exclaimed, “Wow, that was good…what was that??” The epiphany occurred when it was explained to us that that was wagyu (“no wonder!!”). This was even richer than the wagyu that we remember having at places like Aburiya and Azuma in Singapore, perhaps because this was actually wagyu from Japan (whereas I think some of our counterparts in Singapore are using Australian beef?). At 1,500 Yen (US$12.50) for one skewer, this wasn’t cheap, but it was definitely worth it.
Finally, some soba acted as the standard Japanese carb-based closer. Like Shimbashi Soba, these guys make their own soba daily (and even warn you that they may not have any left for the day). We went for a just a small and basic shime inaka soba, followed by a small kuzumochi and kinako ice cream (admittedly, I don’t know what those meant, but it tasted like normal ice cream, in a bit of a Japanese fashion).
So by and large, this was a very welcome meal. I just want to get more of that wagyu beef.
1 comment:
Japanese Restaurants in Singapore should not have any Japanese Wagyu, since the AVA doesn't allow import. At a Japanese place where I used to work, the wagyu was actually smuggled in. (And only certain customers were offered it.. At a different price from stated on the menu of course.) The Japanese seafood importer would tuck a slab under the fish. But it seems checks became more stringent in the past year so they don't dare to anymore. So if any Japanese restaurant in Singapore offers Japanese Wagyu on their menu I'd not believe them so readily.
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