Tokyo tour for foodies: 3 must-try foods to add in your itinerary

Like most cosmopolitan cities in our era, Tokyo (東京) offers a wide variety of food options when you visit the city of lights in the land of sushi. There are, however, a few specialties from the Kanto Region (関東地方 Kanto-chiho), and more specifically from Tokyo, that I would recommend trying while tribulating through the city. So, here’s a little overview of a non-exhaustive menu, with shop recommendations for when your stomach starts to cry for attention.
Monjayaki
(Image credit: photoAC)
Let’s start with our entree—the famous Monjayaki (もんじゃ焼き). Monjayaki, or monja for short, consists of a very liquid wheat flour-based dough with various ingredients and toppings selected by the customers according to their taste. Basic ingredients would be the usual cut cabbage, pickled ginger, and different umami (旨味) bringers such as soy sauce or worcester sauce. Some monja will contain eggs or squid, others tuna, but also minced meat, and vegetables. Last but not least, to bring a nice sticky texture to the plate, mochi or cheese is added before grilling the totality into a flat crepe on a hot plate. Once the monja is nicely grilled, customers would scrape the monja bit by bit directly off the grill with a cute small spatula. Eating monja while it is steaming hot is the only way. For the best of monjayaki, let’s take a stroll along Tsukishima Monja Street in Tokyo’s shitamachi district.
Tempura
(Image credit: photoAC & Flickr)
Next, we are off to tempura (天ぷら) paradise. Simply put, tempura are deep-fried beignets of all sorts. The coating consists of a batter made of flour and water. Ingredients are mostly vegetables, herbs, seaweed, fish, or shrimp and some places also serve cheese or mochi tempura as well.
Tempura is mostly enjoyed dipped in a soft soy-typed sauce with some scraped daikon (大根) radish, as it is said that daikon helps with digestion of fried food. You may also enjoy tempura with a little matcha salt or yuzu salt depending on the chef’s preferences. A lot of places serve tempura, mostly as side dishes to udon or soba for example.
But here, our main goal is to hunt for the unique tempura taste of Tokyo. Tempura shops vary from extremely cheap fast-food-typed eateries to insanely beautiful traditional restaurants. Here are the places you’d be able to discover and appreciate in Asakusa (浅草), the retro traditional neighbourhood of Tokyo: Tendonya (天丼屋); a chain restaurant in Tokyo offers rice bowls, curry, soba or udon noodles covered with all sorts of tempura. Budget-wise, it is the fastest money-saving option. If your budget permits it; a visit to Daikokuya (大黒家) will offer a difference in taste and experience. An old establishment, of which only two shops exist in the whole wide Tokyo.
Ningyoyaki
(Image credit: Flickr)
As for dessert, if our bellies still allow it, let’s try out the ningyoyaki (人形焼き). Freely translated, it means something like a “baked doll” delicacy. Well-known all over Japan, this dessert is represented in all forms and declinations of sorts such as the famous carp-shaped taiyaki, and in Tokyo, it’s a doll-shaped one—it can go from a simple panda or Hello Kitty figure to elaborate designs of the cityscape of Tokyo.
The dough, made of eggs and flour, is only lightly sugared. Once the dough has been baked in those funny-looking molds, anko (あんこ red bean paste) is added. Variations may include custard cream, white anko, or even chocolate pudding, but the crowd’s favourite was always, still is, and probably will stay, the red bean paste version. Ningyoyaki pastries are available all over Tokyo but since we’re now walking around Asakusa, let’s visit the multiple shops on the Nakamise Shopping Street (仲見世通り Nakamise-dori) right north of the famous Kaminarimon (雷門) of Asakusa.
I hope you enjoyed our little foodie tour of Tokyo. There are, of course, many more specialties like the Komakata Dozeu, serving traditional boiled loach dishes (also in Asakusa), or the everlasting soba and Tokyo style sushi. That leaves some options for a next trip, hopefully very soon.
Header image credit: photoAC