Eric Yu

New review on Tempura Naruse, the best Tempura restaurant in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

I shouldn’t be surprised though. Naruse gets their ingredients from the volcanic foothills of Mount Fuji, and Suruga Bay via Sasue Maeda (a highly sought after seafood supplier) with first dibs on everything before they’re sent to the Toyosu Market in Tokyo.

Timing is essential when frying great tempura but taisho Shimura-san takes it to a whole other level, timing even the harvesting and delivery of produce, most of which are harvested by taisho Shimura-san or his team in the morning, just in time for each sitting. Less

New review on Tempura Naruse, the best Tempura restaurant in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

Perfection.

I’ve never believed in the word “perfection”. Not in a “I don’t believe in ghosts” or “I don’t believe that NASA ever landed on the moon” way *puts on tinfoil hat*. I believe in the concept of perfection, but just never believed that perfection actually exists.

This whole blog is about my attempt to chase this fleeting concept, but that’s all it ever was - a pursuit, not the destination of food perfection itself.

But sometimes nature, ingredients and technique serendipitously collide to deliver a meal that is so near perfection that almost every dish sets a new benchmark for that ingredient moving forward - "but was it as good as the Naruse pumpkin?". One that is so near perfection that it makes you like ingredients that you don't normally like - renkon, tachiou, beans. One that is so near perfection that it makes you wonder if it’s existed all along. Less

New review on Sushi Amamoto, one of hardest to reserve Sushiyas in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

Sure, the hype and difficulty in getting a seat is still significantly higher than the food quality itself. When the reservation difficulty is this high, I don’t think any restaurant is worth it, even my favourites. But that’s hardly Amamoto-san’s fault. He can only do what he does best – making greater sushi every day. Less

New review on Sushi Amamoto, one of hardest to reserve Sushiyas in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

I was wrong.

Not about Amamoto being over hyped. Not about his otsumami being stronger than his nigiri. And not about other sushiyas in Japan having a similar level of sushi quality while being significantly easier to book.

But I was wrong about something very important. I was wrong about taisho Amamoto-san himself. Less

New review on Sushi Amamoto, one of hardest to reserve Sushiyas in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

After my 2019 meal, I was quite dismissive. Even after dining there, I thought it was a foodie circle jerk. That the food was good but the reason for Amamoto’s popularity was more to be seen to be eating there.

What I saw this time in 2022 was a control freak, A perfectionist. A shokunin.

Whether it’s the fact that he chooses to do all the prep himself without an assistant, or the minor adjustments he makes according to the fish condition he has on the day, or his vastly improved nigiri and shari. These are the things that I missed last time. Less

New review on Sushi Obana, one of my top 3 Sushiyas in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

Fellow foodies are always baffled by my answer, either confused by having never heard of Obana or confused by how the food at Obana can possibly be better than likes of Amamoto, Namba, Sawada etc.

After all, Obana is well known for purchasing extremely high quality neta including #1 boxes of Uni and some of the very best tuna from Yamayuki Less

New review on Tempura Naruse, the best Tempura restaurant in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

I shouldn’t be surprised though. Naruse gets their ingredients from the volcanic foothills of Mount Fuji, and Suruga Bay via Sasue Maeda (a highly sought after seafood supplier) with first dibs on everything before they’re sent to the Toyosu Market in Tokyo.

Timing is essential when frying great tempura but taisho Shimura-san takes it to a whole other level, timing even the harvesting and delivery of produce, most of which are harvested by taisho Shimura-san or his team in the morning, just in time for each sitting. Less

New review on Tempura Naruse, the best Tempura restaurant in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

Perfection.

I’ve never believed in the word “perfection”. Not in a “I don’t believe in ghosts” or “I don’t believe that NASA ever landed on the moon” way *puts on tinfoil hat*. I believe in the concept of perfection, but just never believed that perfection actually exists.

This whole blog is about my attempt to chase this fleeting concept, but that’s all it ever was - a pursuit, not the destination of food perfection itself.

But sometimes nature, ingredients and technique serendipitously collide to deliver a meal that is so near perfection that almost every dish sets a new benchmark for that ingredient moving forward - "but was it as good as the Naruse pumpkin?". One that is so near perfection that it makes you like ingredients that you don't normally like - renkon, tachiou, beans. One that is so near perfection that it makes you wonder if it’s existed all along. Less

New review on Sushi Amamoto, one of hardest to reserve Sushiyas in Japan, up on my blog 🔼 Link in profile 🔼

Sure, the hype and difficulty in getting a seat is still significantly higher than the food quality itself. When the reservation difficulty is this high, I don’t think any restaurant is worth it, even my favourites. But that’s hardly Amamoto-san’s fault. He can only do what he does best – making greater sushi every day. Less