Din Tai Fung in Tokyo & Hong Kong

What with my track record, I know you're not going to believe me when I say I didn't mean to visit Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) three times in eight days in two different cities. But I did. First up was a solo visit to the Takashimaya Times Square branch in Tokyo. This was followed with a couple of visits to the Causeway Bay branch in Hong Kong, where I had one meal with a colleague and another one with family.

Three kinds of seafood XLB

Pork & scallop XLB

Naturally, as with any trip to Din Tai Fung, I decided to check out the signature soup-filled xiao long bao (小籠包). I've probably banged on about these far too much over the years and the classic pork xlb in Tokyo didn't disappoint. I also ordered a steamer of three kinds of seafood xiao long bao (海鮮三種小籠包). Of these, my favourite was the pork & scallop with the pork & crab a close second, but I wasn't overly keen on the pork & sea urchin, as the sea urchin was a bit overpowering.

Pork & black truffle XLB

Angled luffa & shrimp XLB

Over in Hong Kong, I thought the classic pork xlb and pork & crab xlb were better than in Tokyo but of these were eclipsed by the sublime pork & black truffle xlb (黑松露小籠包), where the rich truffle filling was out of this world. I also enjoyed the unusual angled luffa & shrimp xlb (絲瓜蝦仁小籠包) – this is a little different with its clean tasting, refreshing filling of silk gourd (aka angled luffa).

Of the other dishes in Tokyo, I was a bit disappointed with the steamed chicken soup (原盅鮮雞湯). In other branches of Din Tai Fung I've been to, this soup has been outstanding, but the version here was lacking flavour and a bit oily to boot. And the shrimp fried rice (蝦仁蛋炒飯) was decidedly lacklustre, too. I mean, just look at the photo of the version in Tokyo on the left compared to the one in Hong Kong on the right. Rather bizarrely, the fried rice came with a konbu seaweed soup, which is a Japanese, not Chinese, affectation. That and the use of local vinegar rather than Chinkiang vinegar also grated.

So while the signature xiao long bao were excellent in Tokyo, the support acts were the weakest I've come across in any branch of Din Tai Fung I've visited. However, this is all relative, and the positives far outweigh the negatives. In particular, I was very impressed by the service. Having sensed my total lack of Japanese language skills, a Mandarin-speaking waitress from Taiwan was assigned to look after me. My Mandarin is pretty shoddy, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless.

Any lingering disappointment from my visit to the Tokyo branch was soon eradicated in Hong Kong. To be precise, it was a cold noodle salad, bizarrely described in English as garlic pork green bean fettuccine (蒜泥粉皮肉), which restored my faith in Din Tai Fung. I just loved this winning combination of soft pork slices, crunchy cucumber slithers and wobbly broad fen-pei noodles in a garlicky soy vinegar dressing.

We also tried the fried shrimp & pork potstickers (肉蝦仁煎餃) for the first time, which were, as is the fashion nowadays, served upturned stuck onto a fried dumpling pastry sheet. This is a bit gimmicky in my opinion, but it did spark off a conversation of how they were constructed. These were good, but there are probably other things I'd order off the menu first.

Stuff like the open-topped shrimp & pork shao mai (蝦仁燒賣) and the various wonton dishes are higher up in the pecking order in my opinion. Of the wonton dishes I preferred the spicy shrimp & pork (紅油抄手), which had a real kick, to the ones in special sauce (乾拌菜肉餛飩). Memo to Din Tai Fung management, I wouldn't use the term 'special sauce' should you decide to open in Britain.

There was other stuff, but I thought I'd go over to one of my dining companions to give his opinion. After all, he's not some dilettante blogger, but someone who's worked in kitchens most of his life and really knows his stuff. I am of course talking about Pa Noodles, and his comments over the course of the meal have been translated from Cantonese into italics:

How meticulous, there's a guy weighing out dumpling dough in the kitchen. The dumplings here really are quite exceptional; this is a PROPER restaurant, they don't take short cuts. Mind you, they could've been a bit more generous with the crab in the pork & crab XLB. My favourite? Probably the wontons in spicy sauce; the sauce has a proper kick. The pork chop with soup noodles (油炸排骨湯麵) is good, too – nice tender meat with good 5-spice flavour. But the rice, the fried rice, it wasn't fluffy enough, a bit too hard. But anyway, I like it here. Is there one of these in London? It'd make a fortune there.

A fair assessment by Pa Noodles, although I think he was a tad harsh about the rice! My mum liked Din Tai Fung too, although she didn't really rave about it. The thing is she's rarely effusive about food that isn't Cantonese. And my colleague liked it so much he's planning to visit the branch in his hometown of Sydney. Me? I've been to the Causeway Bay branch in Hong Kong four times now, and I love it. If only they could open one in London – I know it's a forlorn hope, but here's the link to my petition anyway.

#Tokyoagram

To be honest I have very little clue where and what I ate when in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago. The thing is I'm no expert in Japanese food. Combine that with jetlag and being a bit pissed most evenings means that this isn't going to be one of those blog posts that people will be referring to when planning a trip to Tokyo.

Having said that I do know a little about noodles, and as I ate these for lunch it also meant I wasn't inebriated. Of the noodles I sampled, by far the best was a quite amazing mutant-tonkotsu ramen (photo, below left) from a place called Kiwamiya, where the broth was made with not only pork but also chicken, beef, seafood and vegetables with a shot of shoyu (soy sauce) for good measure. This rich, viscous broth was packed full of flavour and was augmented with top quality pork and egg. The only slight negative was that the ramen noodle used was a bit too thick; I really shouldn't gone with kaedama (refill of noodles), as it left me in a noodle coma all afternoon. I can still scarcely believe that lunch here cost Yen 880 (less than the equivalent of £6).

Of the other noodles I tried, I liked the classic Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen (photo, above right) from a place called HRC. Less viscous than the broth at Kiwamiya, it still packed a porky punch. London's tonkotsu contenders could learn a thing or two from this broth although its oily nature may scare off some punters. Oh, and rather bizarrely, this bowl of ramen came with a free bowl of rice. All this for the equivalent of a fiver – who said Japan was expensive?

A concept in some Japanese restaurants is the set menu with a 'drink-all-you-can' element comprising of an unlimited pour of local beers, sake and shochu (sadly, there's no premium booze on the list). I'm pretty sure that if anyone offered free booze with meals in Britain, they'd be bankrupt within a week. Of the couple of places with this concept I went to, I really enjoyed the barbecue at Namiu – the scallops were amazing. As was the whole spread that kicked off with various cold dishes including sashimi and ended with a bowl of cold soba noodles.

The other place I went to has no English name nor website and all I can remember was that it served food from the southern island of Kyushu. The surroundings were more casual than Namiu but the sashimi (photo, top right) was just as good, if not better.

Course after course came, as did the booze. Dishes were either served as a platter to share or on individual plates. I was taken aback by one of the courses, which consisted of a fried chicken wing with a slice of lemon. It was nice chicken, but somehow it felt wrong in the middle of a banquet that otherwise did a fine job in showcasing the regional cuisine of Kyushu. In terms of atmosphere, this was my favourite despite walking into the toilet when a salaryman was having a dump (in my defence he hadn't locked the toilet door).

The other evening meals were a bit more casual with a fantastic sushi / sashimi dinner one night and chicken skewers at a yakitoria (is that a real word?) on the other. Despite not being 'drink-all-you-can', I enjoyed both with the yakitoria edging it on ambience. Of the food, my favourite dish was the tsukune (chicken meatballs) and extra portions were ordered. I would love to tell you more about these places but neither joint has a website and both are tucked away in impossible-to-find alleys.

Last but not least, Tokyo's late night snacks are pretty tasty, too. The gyoza was a bargain at Yen 250 (less than £2) for half a dozen. These were made using a special gyoza cooker consisting of a hotplate with a hinged lid that steamed as well as grilled the dumplings. I also enjoyed some takoyaki (octopus balls) smothered with what tasted like a thickened Worcestershire sauce. These were damn tasty and with a cheeky beer, I recall getting change from a 1000 Yen note – another bargain!

All told, I enjoyed eating in Tokyo and for that I must thank my colleagues N and S who both looked after me superbly. I was particularly touched that they remembered how much I adore ramen from my previous visit.

The Golden Noodle Awards 2010-11

Eat Noodles Love Noodles is two today! And to celebrate, it's hosting the awards ceremony that nobody is talking about: The Golden Noodle Awards.

The Golden Noodle – awarded to the best noodles in the world

Winner: No.1 Special Noodles (特製らー麺) by Kudan Ikaruga (九段 斑鳩)

Well OK, not necessarily the best noodles in the world, but the best I've tasted. I've decided to go global this year to encompass the amazing noodles that I've come across on my travels.

I mean it would be criminal to exclude places like Kuala Lumpur's Soo Kee where I had shan har mein, a dish of giant river prawns atop crispy noodles. And noodle joints like Mak's Noodle and Tsim Chai Kee in Hong Kong, where you can pick up a bowl of wonton noodles for less than the equivalent of £2. But as good as these places are, they fall just outside the medal positions.

Taking the bronze medal is the very posh Steamed Fresh Flower Crab with Aged Shaoxing Wine, Fragrant Chicken Oil & Flat Rice Noodles at The Chairman. This Hong Kong restaurant's signature dish has a rich Shaoxing wine based sauce that is soaked up by some very special rice noodles (chenchun fun 陳村粉). By the way, the flower crab was pretty tasty too!

We stay in Hong Kong for the silver medallist, the prawn roe noodles w/cuttlefish balls and shui jiao dumplings at Lau Sum Kee. These noodles are made the traditional way with a bamboo log and come with a prawn roe topping that is ever so addictive. In any other year, this dish would've been a certain winner.

As much as I enjoyed the noodles from Hong Kong, they're eclipsed by Tokyo's finest: No.1 Special Noodles (特製らー麺) from Kudan Ikaruga (九段 斑鳩). What's not to love about this dish? Springy ramen noodles, chashu pork, menma, nori and a perfectly boiled egg were all superb but what really made these noodles special was the amazing broth – a blend of tonkotsu (pork bone) and gyoku (fish).

The Golden Restaurant – awarded to the best London restaurant new to me

Winner: Launceston Place

I'm not what you call a dedicated follower of fashion, which is why the likes of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Pollen Street Social and Spuntino are absent from the shortlist. Judging by my past track record, I might end up checking these places out sometime in 2013, assuming they're still around then.

What I have been doing is sampling dim sum in unlikely corners of London. It'd be fair to say that Teddington, Earl's Court and Mayfair aren't exactly the kind of places that you'd expect to find dumplings of a higher order. But find them I did at Imperial China, Dragon Palace and Princess Garden of Mayfair respectively. Of this trio, the latter is a cut above and takes the bronze.

The trend for regional Chinese cuisine in London shows no sign of abating. In addition to the increasingly familiar flavours of Sichuan, I've checked out London restaurants specialising in the food of Beijing, Fuzhou, Hunan, and Shanghai. Of these I'm a big fan of New Aroma, whose Fuzhou offerings came close to getting a medal. However, it's the Hunan menu at Soho's Ba Shan, which deservedly picks up the silver medal in this category.

Years after every single other London blogger, I finally got round to visiting Launceston Place. To me, this classy yet understated establishment epitomises the best of British with dishes like duck egg on toast with Somerset truffle (as pictured). Quite how this superior restaurant hasn't got a Michelin star is beyond me. But you know what? Loads of places can get a Michelin star but there's only one winner of The Golden Restaurant. Take a bow, Tristan Welch!

The Golden Dish – awarded to my favourite (non-noodle) dish of the year

Winner: Fish-skin dumplings (魚皮餃) by 花好悦园酒家

To be eligible for this award, the dish has to be one that I've eaten for the first time. So for example, the typhoon shelter crab from Hong Kong's Under Bridge Spicy Crab and the chilli crab from Singapore's No Signboard Seafood are both ineligible, as I first sampled these dishes years ago.

However, one crab dish that does qualify is fried crab with sambal belachan. Now one might think that this is a dish indigenous to Malaysia, but in fact it was created in Hendon at a Malaysian Chinese restaurant by the name of Gourmet Garden. Belachan, a fermented shrimp paste, is an acquired taste but I defy anyone not to be knocked out by the fiery shrimpy flavours that makes this dish a worthy bronze medallist.

I visited Japan for the first time this year and I ate like a king. Rather surprisingly, one of my favourite dishes was kara-age aka Japanese fried chicken served with mayo and a squeeze of lime. Now I've eaten kara-age before, but to all intents and purposes, the fried chicken at Tokyo's Charari Charari might as well have been a different dish. I know I'm bending my rules, but they're my rules to be bent, so it's silver for the kara-age.

Guangzhou's 花好悦园酒家 is, in my humble opinion, one of the best restaurants that I've ever been to. Any number of dishes that I sampled there would've been a worthy winner of this award, but for the fact that I've eaten many of them before. However, there is one dish that I fell in love with: fish-skin dumplings (魚皮餃), made with a fish-skin wrapper and filled with pounded fish meat. Served in a broth with vegetables, this dish encapsulates the soul of Cantonese cuisine.

The Red Card – awarded to who or what I want to send off the field of food

Winner: 'Laksa' by The Providores & Tapa Room

I always try to be positive on my blog, but every now and then I get the hump. In particular, I got angry at Marks & Spencer's third-rate attempt at dim sum. And San Pellegrino's World's Best 50 Restaurants sent me apoplectic with rage - whilst there are some excellent restaurants on there, much of it reads like a list of where Russian oligarchs like to hang out with their arm candy.

However, the winner of The Red Card award, by a country mile, is the 'laksa' served at The Providores & Tapa Room. Or to give it its full name: smoked coconut, tamarind and liquorice laksa with a chicken lime leaf dumpling, green tea noodles, crispy shallots and coriander.

It's this kind of crap that gives fusion a bad name. Notwithstanding the incompatibility of subtle green tea noodles with a flavoursome aromatic broth, it was also poorly executed – the noodles were overcooked and the dumpling virtually had no filling.

Perhaps if I was richer and had the appetite of a quail then I wouldn't have been so pissed off at the high price tag and miniscule portion size. But for me, the laksa from The Providores & Tapa Room should be sent-off now!

Song of the Year – awarded to my favourite song of the last year

Winner: Blackout by Anna Calvi

I'll just let the music do the talking. Suffice to say, if there were any justice in the world then Anna Calvi would be a global superstar.

If you want to check out last year's Golden Noodle Awards then please click here.

Tokyo Part 4 - Dinner Delights

Business dinners can sometimes be awkward stilted affairs but there was no danger of that with my new tomodachi, N and S. After a long day at the office, we went to one of their favourites, Charari Charari for dinner. We were still in Kudankita but unlike some of the places we went to for lunch, this was a proper restaurant.

Skewers of chicken liver and chicken 'meatballs'

I left the ordering to my hosts, and the food soon started coming. To kick off with, there was some salad followed by loads of yakitori skewers. My favourite was the chicken 'meatball' or tsukune.

Assorted skewers

As well as orthodox chicken bits like wing and thigh, we also sampled chicken liver, skin, and heart. I must admit I wasn't a fan of the latter.

Sashimi platter

After the skewers, came a rather excellent sashimi platter. And yes I know I used flash photography, which is a bit naughty, but no one seemed to mind. Honest.

Kara-age - Japanese fried chicken 

As good as the skewers and sashimi were, the star of the evening was the kara-age or Japanese fried chicken. Marinated in a very Asian mix of soy, ginger and garlic, then coated in flour and fried to perfection, Colonel Sanders ain't got nothing on this. With a squeeze of lime and a dip in the accompanying mayo, this was one of the highlights of the trip.

Rice balls

And if that wasn't enough, we finished off with yaki onigiri (crispy rice balls) and the ubiquitous miso soup. I think it's the law to have miso soup with every meal! A great end to a great meal, with my only regret being not having enough space for dessert.

On another night, we went out in Ginza and ended up in a restaurant specialising in the cuisine of the Akita prefecture in the north of Japan. I would like to claim that we went there especially to sample some regional Japanese cuisine, but the more prosaic truth was that it was close to where we were drinking.

I want that tableware!

The menu had pictures and whilst I offered a few suggestions, I left the ordering to N and S. The food again was excellent, my favourite being the beef fillet that was seared on the outside then sliced and served at room temperature. Other highlights included the two types of grilled chicken, Japanese omelette, chicken meatball, and an Akita speciality of fried noodles in plum sauce topped with a fried egg.

The company I work for has two offices in Tokyo, and whilst I was in Kudankita with N and S, my colleague was based in the other office. The guys from this other office were also a convivial bunch, and we joined them on a couple of nights out.

Shabu-shabu

Not wishing to be outdone by N and S, they took us out to the wilds of Roppongi to a shabu-shabu restaurant. I love hot-pot in all its guises, and whilst I prefer the Chinese version, this was pretty damn good. I was particularly impressed by the quality of the meat as exemplified by the marbled beef slices. Less enjoyable was the soy milk that was one of the four 'soups' bubbling away; I much preferred the traditional konbu based broth.

To round off the week, we continued the DIY vibe with a visit to a Korean BBQ joint. We were seated at a table with a proper open grill rather than one of those wussy hotplates that they use in places like Koba. Yet again I was impressed by the high quality of the produce and my final meal in Tokyo was another winner.

This is the last of my series on Tokyo, and whilst I had a great introduction to Japanese food during my visit, that's all it was. I would love to return to Japan and properly immerse myself in the food culture. For starters, there are so many more noodle dishes to try, then there's the fine dining extravaganza that is kaiseki, as well as simpler grub like okonomiyaki. Being a bit of a food geek, I also want to try the Japanese take on western food, as well as their version of Chinese food.

But just because I'm back home doesn't mean I can't tuck into more Japanese food. I'm a fan of Roka, like the noodles at Koya and Ramen Seto, have tried Sushi of Shiori, and Yashin Sushi is on my 'list'. Are there any other places that I should be aware of? I'd love to hear your top tips for Japanese food in London.

Tokyo Part 3 - A Very Special Ramen

"Can we go for ramen tomorrow?" I asked on the walk back from the tempura shop.
"Sure, no problem," N replied. “What kind of ramen? There are different shops for different ramen. Shio, shoyu, miso…”
"Tonkotsu," I interjected. "I like pork bones."
"We can do better than that," N said. "We'll go to the best ramen shop in Kudankita – they serve a very special ramen."

Ramen Day or 27th January 2011, as it's known in the Gregorian calendar, will stay long in the memory as the day on which I sampled some of the best noodles of my life.

The morning of Ramen Day went really slowly, and it felt much later than 11.30 when N and S came to fetch me. This may seem early for lunch but by the time we arrived at 九段 斑鳩 (its Romanised name is Kudan Ikaruga but you won't see this on any signage), there was already a lengthy queue. Whilst N kept our place in the queue, S and I went to the machine to order.

By the side of the machine was a certificate that proclaimed that we were indeed going to sample the 'Best Ramen 2010' in not just Kudankita, but in all of Tokyo. Now anyone can put up a random certificate but this one was awarded by the tabelog website, where punters rate their favourite restaurants.

After we got our tickets for 特製らー麺, which translates as 'No.1 Special Noodles', we rejoined N in the queue. The wait was beginning to get to me, especially as I could smell the soup wafting through the cold January air. Eventually a waiter came out, took our tickets and told us that there'd be a table ready shortly. It was about 11.50 by the time we eventually entered the ramen shop. As the waiter had already taken our order, our noodles arrived shortly after we were seated.

And it was well worth the wait. This was noodle heaven. The ramen were springy and bouncy. Proper QQ. The toppings were a revelation, especially the tender chāshū pork (the Japanese take on cha siu). I also loved the perfectly boiled egg, and let's not forget the menma (fermented bamboo shoots) and dried nori (seaweed), which added a contrast in flavour and texture to the dish.

But as good as the ramen and the toppings were, it was the soup that had me in raptures. Traditionalists may want to look away now, as the soup in the 'No.1 Special Noodles' consists of a blend of tonkotsu (pork bone soup) and gyokai (fish soup) with a shot of shoyu (soy sauce).

The resultant milky broth was amongst the best that I've ever tasted. Tonkotsu can sometimes be too overwhelmingly porky and a little fatty, which is why the gyokai was such a welcome addition, as the smooth fish flavour took the edge off it. It was so damn tasty that I wanted to lick the pattern off the bowl!

I am reluctant to start pontificating on where to eat in Tokyo. After all, who am I to judge Japanese cuisine, of which I know little, in a city that I was visiting for the first time? Having said that, I have no hesitation in recommending this little ramen joint. Why? Because guys like N and S love it, and moreover, by the time we left, the queue was just getting longer and longer…

九段 斑鳩 東京都千代田区九段北 1-9-12
Kudan Ikaruga, 1-9-12 Kudankita, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Nearest metro: Kudanshita

To order 特製らー麺 No.1 Special Noodles, press the No.1 button on the machine. It's a bargain at Yen 880 (apx £7).

Tokyo Part 2 - Lunch Envy

Chicken teriyaki set lunch menu

Local knowledge. You can't beat it, especially in a country like Japan, where the language is pretty alien. So as much as I enjoyed exploring the culinary delights of Tokyo off my own bat, I was more than happy to be guided by locals like my colleagues, N and S. These guys took great pleasure in introducing me to some of their favourite lunch haunts.

Mixed tempura rice set

Mini bowl of udon in shoyu broth

On Monday, N hedged his bets and took me to a bit of an all-rounder that served both donburi rice bowls and udon noodles. I went for a set lunch of ten-don (rice topped with mixed tempura) that came with a mini-bowl of udon noodles in shoyu broth. The tempura was good but not great, and I cast more than a few envious glances at the sashimi-don that the others were eating. With hindsight, I should've just ordered a large bowl of udon noodle soup rather than try to have it all. A valuable lesson learnt.

Chicken teriyaki rice set

Tuesday was teriyaki day and we all went for the spicy chicken teriyaki set lunch, which included a bowl of salad and some miso soup. By the time I was finishing off my salad, a box of rice topped with spicy chicken teriyaki, egg, some pickles and dried seaweed flakes arrived. I marvelled at how well the different ingredients complemented one another, especially the dried seaweed-runny egg yolk-rice combo.

Mixed tempura - 1st batch

On Wednesday, we went to Fujigonomi (天ぷら革命 ふじ好) to try the mixed tempura set lunch. Almost as soon as we sat down, some miso soup and a bowl of rice appeared, and then the first of the tempura arrived. Rather bizarrely there was a piece of sesame prawn toast alongside the two prawns and the shrimp cake.

Mixed tempura - the rest

Being impatient, I ate one of the prawns in the 30-second gap between taking a photo and the arrival of the rest of the order, which included more prawns, aubergine and sweet potato. Fresh, crispy and not over oily, this is how tempura is meant to be. It was much better than the stuff I had eaten on Monday.

I had a very special lunch on Thursday, and it was that good, it gets its own dedicated post. Can you guess what I had?

Nigiri and maki set

On Friday, we popped down to the local sushi joint for some top class nigiri and maki. I'm no expert when it comes to sushi and my naiveté was exposed when I was mocked for using chopsticks and not my hands. This was really good sushi, and I particularly liked that the wasabi had already been added, as it ought to be, to the nigiri. I'm not the biggest fan of miso soup, but the version served here had prawn heads in it, which made it more interesting.

All of the above places are in the Kudankita district, but sadly I couldn't find any websites to link to, other than for the tempura joint, Fujigonomi. That said, these are all casual joints and I'm pretty sure most if not all Tokyo districts have eateries of a similar standard.

Now I'm back home, I'm more envious than ever of how the Japanese do lunch. In the time it takes to get a sandwich and eat it, you could have a proper meal in Tokyo. And it's pretty good value too, a chicken teriyaki set cost Yen 790, which at the time of writing, is around £6.50.

Lastly, I'd like to thank N and S for being such top blokes in and out of the office. Not only did they love their food but in S's case, he also loves my kind of music. I wasn't too surprised that he liked early Oasis, but who would have guessed that S would be such a big Stone Roses fan?

Tokyo Part 1 - Left To My Own Devices

Tonkatsu joint

Discombobulated. I thought I would be on my first visit to Tokyo, and indeed Japan, but I wasn't. I think that had a lot to do with staying in Ginza, an upmarket shopping district dominated by luxury brands like Chanel and Prada. But I wasn't in Tokyo for shopping; I was there for the food, well technically speaking I was there on a business trip.

Ginza is full of places to eat, and in addition to all kinds of Japanese food, I was surprised to see so many Chinese, Korean, and European/Western restaurants. Some of the western food made me laugh, especially the 'pan-Mediterranean' joints that sold both paella and pasta. I guess this is the mirror image of the pan-Asian joints that are so common in the west.

Noodles! Yeh!

But for my first meal in Tokyo, there was only one thing I was looking for. So whilst my colleague had a Sunday afternoon nap, I went in search of noodles. I wasn't getting much joy on Ginza's main drag – too posh for its own good – so I dived down the side streets. It wasn't too long before I found a tiny noodle joint with about eight seats. Just the job!

The magical noodle machine

My first bowl of noodles in Tokyo

As I can't read Japanese, I chose by picture, and ordered using the machine in the corner. This system gives a whole new kind of meaning to the term, hole-in-the-wall! I went for what turned out to be soba noodles in a soy-based broth topped with shrimp tempura cake and spring onion. It wasn't anything special but it really hit the spot after the long flight from London, and it only cost around the equivalent of £3.

When my colleague awoke, he was hungry and he suggested we go for dinner at a robatayaki. So off we went to hit the streets of Ginza, and after a bit of wandering around, we found somewhere that fitted the bill. We were seated at the counter where beef, chicken, seafood and assorted vegetables all jostled for attention. It was a real education watching the chefs cook on an open charcoal grill, and of all the dishes, the beef skewers were our favourite.

Beef skewer

Japanese-style curry

As much as I enjoyed the robatayaki, you have to be in the mood for it. Other times, you just want something quick and easy, something like a curry. In common with many cultures, the Japanese have their take on curry. So after a long day at work, I was more than happy to find a little tonkatsu joint near the hotel.

Everything on the menu was a variation of tonkatsu (deep-fried breaded pork), and I went straight for the tonkatsu karē, breaded pork loin with curry, rice and salad. The best part of this dish was the excellent curry sauce that had been pimped up with bits of pork belly.

I thought I'd done well left to my own devices but really it was nothing compared to the treats that my Japanese colleagues had in store for me. In the next post, I'm going to focus on where they took me out for lunch.

PS: I'm sorry I can't tell you more about the places where I ate, but none of them had any signage in English or for that matter, Romanised Japanese. Nor according to their business cards did they have a website that I can refer you to. In subsequent posts on Tokyo, I will, wherever possible, link to websites although you may need to use Google-translate for those that don't have an English page.