“This made my trip to Japan worthwhile.” – Tom Censani. 6:07 am

That was what I thought midway through my breakfast sushi meal at the fish market. I heard that if you are a daring person, having sushi in the morning at the Tsukiji Fish Market will be the freshest sushi you will ever experience your entire life. Me being a typically daring person (in terms of food at least) decided this was a no brainer. Deciding a place on the other hand was harder.

Walking around after my market tour, I saw a large line outside a tiny counter-only sushi restaurant. It was freezing out and I asked the lady what the deal was. She said it was a 3000 yen 7 course meal or a 4500 yen 10 course meal. Strapped for cash, I sadly had to accept the $30 course and was then told I had to wait outside with everyone for an hour and a half in the cold. Slowly freezing, I gently complied. My mantra was that if the locals were willing to wait on line for over an hour, this place had to be amazing. My mantra definitely did not fail me.

I cannot stress how cramped this place was. The tiny 12 person counter had to shift whenever someone was moving to get out as they had to rub against everyone’s back. The people didn’t speak a trace of English making this one of the more awkward eating interactions in Japan. The workers and customers were very friendly though and it was wild seeing two teenagers next to me drinking Asahi beers at 5 in the morning.

Everything was super fresh. Egg which I normally don’t eat in terms of sushi was outstandingly delicious. They make a huge brick of it and just slice it into smaller pieces before topping it on the soft and fluffy rice. The tuna portion was gigantic (look at that long red strip!) melting immediately in the mouth and was so very, very moist. The miso soup had a surprisingly large portion of crunchy octopus in it that somehow retained it’s flavor mixed in with the brothy soup. The photos are not exaggerating with the size of the portions. My only regret was not having enough for the 10 course menu which would have consisted of a sashimi tuna roll that looked out of this world. Awkward language barrier interactions aside, I did leave extremely satisfied knowing that this restaurant would be the finest sushi I would ever have my entire life.

Julia, Dria and myself all headed to this awesome arepa bar for lunch today and it totally blew me away.

Julseas rocked the butternut squash soup and got the arepa de pollo (top pic).

Dria, being all ladylike, got the salad and an arepa and I ordered the arepa de pollo and beef empanada. Go to this place immediately.

Still slightly jetlagged and excited to head to one of the main points of interest on my trip, I trekked on over to Tsukiji Fish Market at 4am. Just a 15 minute walk from my hotel, the fish market is one of the largest in the world and their massive tuna auctions draw a huge crowd of tourists every morning. I didn’t realize how large the market was until I got there. Sure enough, it’s faintly lit labyrinths posed a threat to locating the tuna auctions that occur at 4:30 in the morning and I could not locate them.

Instead I made up my time by scouring the marketplace looking at all the fascinating and GIGANTIC fish. See those mussels above? Each one was the size of my entire arm, I kid you not.

Besides the stalls where individual merchants sold their fresh goods, the back of the market held all the auctions. Directly above is an auction taking place for a smaller, non-tuna fish. There is a lot of undecipherable yelling and the most important thing is to not be in any of their way. These men have a job to do and tourists have been impeding auctions so much the next day during my trip tourists were banned from attending the tuna auctions for a whole week.

These are the carts the fish dudes used to deliver the winning fish to the stalls throughout the fish market. They are very maneuverable, but due to the tight spaces and sheer volume of carts, heavy gridlock does occur. Also, they are not opposed to running down tourists in their way so I do not recommend bringing a large family to the fish market otherwise little Timmy might become roadkill.

While I did miss the tuna auctions, I did happen to catch the fish cart men delivering tuna from the auction to the stalls. I passed by this man hacking away at the just purchased tuna and was floored by how huge these tuna are. That sword is the size of the dude for crying out loud. Insane.

The stalls themselves are very tightly spaced but it was an incredible experience walking around them from opening time around 4am to fully operational at 6am. I must have passed the same stalls at least 10 times but since they are always bringing in fresh fish it seemed like I was passing a brand new market stall. Extremely satisfied with my morning journey, I decided to head out and grab some as fresh as you can possibly get sushi near the fish market.

So I decided to step up from the hard-working but surely outdated Canon 20D and bought a Canon 5D Mark II. Above is a picture of the fake burger I bought in Tokyo’s Kappabashi district. Yep, that is a fake burger. I’m so excited to shoot with this new camera.

So for my first night in Tokyo, let me paint you a picture. I arrive off the plane and take the wrong train BACK to the airport. Nice. I then get into the Tokyo train station and, not being one of those dudes who can’t ask for directions, begged an information clerk to tell me how to get to my hotel in the Ginza district. I somehow get on the right train but get off 2 stops early because everything is a lot less English-friendly than I thought. I get into the taxi cab with the one taxi driver who doesn’t know where he is going so we circle the neighborhood for 15 minutes when the ride should have been two. Finally I arrive at the hotel, disembark all my luggage in my room and end my adventure to my ROOM.

I visited the Shinjuku district for a little bit but head back to Ginza to get some grub close to my hotel. I spent an hour walking around being picky about where to go when finally I stumbled across the Brasserie Lion, a place my tour books all recommend for its fair prices and great beer selection. Score.

I sit down in this smokey den of a meathouse and I’m handed a menu with no discerning characters. Waiting 20 minutes to be served, I oddly realize you must push a button for the waiters to come over. Otherwise, they just leave you alone to eat and drink or, in my case, be confused while acting cool about it. I end up pointing at this noodle dish with what looked like beef on it. Note: MOST of my Tokyo experience involved this kind of ordering. It was exciting, mysterious and the rare time, a poor judgment choice.

This glorious dish arrives shortly after my huge Kirin Beer. This gorgeous looking dish contained some stir fried noodles, beef and a fried egg on top. The portions were huge for only ten bucks and I did not leave Lion with any room left in my stomach.

If you ever find yourself travelling to Japan (and who doesn’t during these economically rich days), I recommend flying Japan Airlines. Normally, airline food has that stigma for being extremely crappy – just peanuts for a 5 hour flight??? – or nonexistent altogether. Not the case on JAL. They had lunch and dinner on each flight and constantly refilled coffee cups, green tea or in the case with the lush old man next to me, his wine glass.

This was what I had for lunch. Seafood curry with peppers, rice, baked tofu, a salad and a lemon dessert thingy. I was shocked to see this feast laid out before me 40,000 feet in the air. Wanna hear something even crazier? It tasted great. Weird, I know.

I had a shrimp pasta for dinner on my way there and the pepper packet exploded on me so the picture looks like I REALLY love pepper. Use sparingly kids.

A few weeks back, my burger buddy Shauna and I ventured over to Resto to finally tackle their burger. I’ve long been delaying this trip and I decided it’s been put off far too long. Resto’s burger was voted best burger in NYC last year by NYMag, a big boast. Tempted to try this burger, it’s somehow always slipped from my to-do list. With the 2009 year approaching and a new best of list looming for ‘08, I decided it was now or never.

The Resto burger is served with gruyere, red onions, pickles, mayo and frites (that’s freedom fries for you uncivilized swine). We also heard that their grilled cheese was lauded as one of the best in the city but were disappointed to hear from our waitress that it’s only served during lunchtime. Travesty.

The burger was excellent. It was more medium than my medium-rare taste would prefer but this burger has possibly one of the best seasoned flavors in the city. The meat was tender and the gruyere complimented the meat nicely. My only complaint would be the bottom bun, which was getting towards the soggy spectrum by the end of the burger’s completion. The steak fries were well seasoned and the salad was left unscathed. Who dares have a salad when this wondrous thing lays in front of you?

So to all three of you that still actually read/view the photos on this blog, I just returned from a lovely vacation in Tokyo.  I spent a little over a week there and also a day in Kyoto.  I of course photo documented the entire trip including all my meals so be sure to stick around for a flurry of posts about all the unique and delicious cuisine I was able to sample on the little island on the other side of the world.  I also have a post from Resto I’ve been meaning to throw up so I’ll have that up for you guys eventually!

Ah, Thanksgiving. A wonderful holiday. A time when family gets together and devours everything that lies in their path, hopefully being food. There are two kinds of Thanksgiving families: a sides family or a turkey family. My gang always fell in line with the former and the bird was always a half-assed write off that you have a single slice of and load your plate up with the 13 other sides at your disposal.

Last year I said no more and took the reins at organizing the bird. In 2007, I decided to brine our turkey, something my family never even HEARD of.  I chose Alton’s Good Eats Roast Turkey. It came out outstanding. The turkey came out super moist despite its 18 pound girth and my uncle who doesn’t even eat turkey deemed it delicious. As a result, my family nominated me to do the bird again this year. For an added challenge, I wanted to try a new recipe.

This year’s recipe was Emeril’s Brined, Herb Roasted Turkey.  It had a brine, necessary to keep the turkey from drying out.  It also had basting with chicken stock, another technique people say keeps a bird from drying out.  It seemed like a surefire winner.

My tools for the job.  The turkey was 17 pounds, still beefy for a bird but I’ll work with whatever my family had for me.  The brine consisted of salt, brown sugar, rosemary, thyme, oranges and lemons.  I submerged my turkey in the day before Thanksgiving and left it in the brine for 14 hours.

Morning of Thanksgiving, I padded the turkey dry and shoved my remaining ingredients into the bird.  I whispered sweet nothings to it while this was happening because I am a true gentleman.

After an hour of roasting at 325 degrees, some chicken stock was dumped on it.  I sprinkled generously with pepper and rosemary and continued roasting it for 3 more hours, making sure to baste it with the stock every hour.  Once finally out of the oven, it smelled absolutely delicious.  I transported it over to my aunt’s house since it needed to be cooked at my grandma’s as there wasn’t enough room for all the cooking going on at the house that morning.

Some tried and true italian appetizers were had before the feast officially began.

When we were all ready to begin eating, I asked my aunt for a carving knife.  When asked “why?” I just stared at her puzzled, standing right in front of the turkey.  After that comical moment subsided, I went to work on the turkey, trimming the breast and dark meat off onto a serving plate.

The fruits (slices?) of my labor were finally to be had.  In all honesty, I was not a fan of my bird this year.  Somehow, it came out very dry and it was almost as though the brining didn’t help it at all.  The skin was crispy and tasty but the meat itself didn’t benefit from my regimented care throughout the cooking process.  Thankfully, that’s what sides are for.

I think for next year I am definitely going back to the Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe.  People swear by it and it was a crowd pleaser, compared to this year’s recipe which had people reaching more for the sides than for seconds.  Can’t win ‘em all.

Dear The Spotted Pig,

I’ve been excited to go to you for a while.  All the wonderful things I’ve heard about your burger, your fantastic burger, made me extremely eager to attend your presence.  I went to you with a couple of my coworkers, one of which organized this lovely outing.  Your decor is very rustic and reminded me of an old person’s basement, except with beer (or a very cool old person’s basement).

Myself and buddy Shauna ordered the Chargrilled Burger, mine topped with Roquefort Cheese and accompanied with shoestring fries. My other cohorts were in less of a mood for meat and ordered your confidently priced $20 grilled cheese. $20 dear sir? You are a ballsy one.

The burger was perfectly cooked medium-rare and the chargrilled taste combined with the creamy bleu cheese was an excellent balance. The grill marks on your burger were photo worthy (good thing I had a camera, haha!). Your shoestring fries were delicious. Sprinkling rosemary generously on them gave them a nice touch of taste I’ve only experience elsewhere at The Park Luncheonette in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

My coworkers were not so desirable with their opinion of your grilled cheese. $20 is steep for something that contains the following ingredients: bread, cheese and grilling. Even with onion marmalade, mustard and greens tossed on the side you cannot fool us. A grilled cheese is still a grilled cheese, albeit yours was greasier than most.

In conclusion, I hope that my solid praise for your burger is not offset by the general discomfort from my peers towards your sandwich of grilled cheese. I will attend your presence in the future, if you are willing to have me again.

Sincerely yours,
Thomas J. Censani, Esq.