Thursday, September 10, 2009

Monjayaki


Last night I went out with some coworkers to have some monjayaki in Tsukijima. The Tsukijima business association apparently decided some time back to draw people to their town by making it the center for monjayaki restaurants in Tokyo. There are currently over 60 monjayaki restaurants within walking distance of the Tsukijima station. The one we went too was called Oshio.

We ended up ordering 5 different dishes:
  1. mentaiko-mochi monja - Fish eggs and chewy rice.

  2. mapo tofu monja - Spicy chinese-style beef and tofu.

  3. curry seafood monja - Indian dry curry with shrimp and shellfish.

  4. super-spicy monja - Not sure, but had a pretty strong kimchi flavor.

  5. "apache" monja - Butter, potato, and a big slab of fatty beef.
The picture at the top is the super-spicy monja.

This was the first time I had ever had monjayaki. The consistency is fairy liquid with chunks of whatever the main ingredients are. It solidifies just enough on the grill that you can scoop up with a little spatula-like metal utensil.

Yeah, it has the look and consistency of barf.

But surprisingly, it tasted pretty good. The super-spicy monja, was hands-down my favorite of the bunch. The mentaiko wasn't really to my liking, but at least it tasted better than it looked.