As my trip in Japan is slowly approaching it's end, I thought I should use up my reserve of weekends/rest days and take an extended trip to Arashiyama, Kyoto! I took the shinkansen (the infamous bullet trains that travel 302km/hr or ~200mph). I arrived in the afternoon, soaked in the scenery, and then ventured to find a place for dinner. I wanted to avoid the touristy restaurants to minimize my disappointment and found an izakaya called "Akakura" about 5 minutes from the hotel I was staying at hidden inside a residential area.
The menu at an izakaya, or a Japanese style bar, is quite expansive. While there were a few set items, the majority of the food menu was written on a white board near the kitchen (for the daily specials) and near the bar (for catch of the day). While the there was a single person who was the waiter/sous chef, the owner/chef, typically referred to as "Master" was still quite involved in taking orders and figuring out the bill. This was an aspect of Japanese food culture I had not experienced yet so I was excited to see it and experience it live in person!
Hopefully, my mini selection of items presented below is a good enough representative experience but I cannot do the menu justice (not just because I couldn't read more than half of it...)
On the fresh catch was a katsuo (it's been a few days but I think eel might've also been on the list) so I got the katsuo-tataki. It was sort of like a katsuo carpaccio (with a light sear) served with a nice shoyu vinaigrette, some microgreens fried garlic, and green onions. The quality of the fish was fine but nothing masked or overwhelmed the katsuo in anyway so the fish was still the star of the show so a nice way to start the meal.
While sitting at the counter, there was this bowl filled with meet and konyaku/konjac and I asked the waiter what it was. It's apparently their beef tendon stew(牛すじ煮込み) with the stewing liquid being taré based. This was an example of a simple dish done great. Each of the individual ingredients, like the beef tendon vs. cartilage vs. meat had unique (but consistent) textures making the dish textually exciting. The mild sweetness and umami made it easy to pair with almost any alcohol or even just by itself. This was definitely something I considered ordering again but I decided it was better to explore the menu a bit more.
The next item was their mentaiko omelette. This was done in a Japanese omelette style (a rectangular pan with small amounts of egg added at a time create many thin layers of egg until a rectangular roll is formed) where a mentaiko (pollock roe) paste was added in the middle of the omelette before the final rolls were made. Julienne shiso leaves I think was also added but didn't add too much to this dish unfortunately.
Larger pours were in the creation of this omelette so, like a French omelette, the inside of the roll was still nice and barely runny, which was a cool trick. The blend of techniques and styles is pretty cool to see but the taste was mediocre.
The final dish I had was a fried eggplant (no batter?) that was later soaked in taré, topped with ginger, katsuobushi (shaved dried katsuo), and a green pepper (ピマン or piman). This was surprisingly simple but because of the depth of the taré and the perfect cook of the eggplant (not oily at all, refreshing even) so this was quite a surprise. I see why this was a dish the waiter recommended.
After those four dishes, a glass of umeshu on the rocks, and a whisky highball, I decided to buy a lemon sour can and some inari sushi and finish my meal experience gazing upon the Katsura river enjoying the view of Arashiyama. There's a certain joy as an American being able to drink in a public park staring at such a beautiful view. Great way to end the night before heading back into the hotel and indulging myself in the onsen.
The beef tendon stew was definitely the standout dish due to the proper timing required but honest, all the dishes were fantastic. It's representative to the experience I've seen in shows like "Midnight Tokyo Diner" so I couldn't be happier. 8.5/10.
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