Along it’s beautifully cowded narrow streets (something makes me feel really happy walking down a street filled with people, lined with awesome restaurants with pictures of food. It looks yummy. The pictures of the foods, not the people.) Shinjuku has a branch of Za Watami not far from the Shinjuku JR Line station. That’s where Satomi (my new Japanese friend and all-around awesome person) took me on Friday evening when I said I wanted to go to an Izakaya (a Japanese hangout – kind of like the cross section between a bar and a tapas restaurant).
When we got there at 9pm, there was a line, and Satomi told me it’s always like that on Fridays. In fact, there’s a two hour limit for how long you can sit at a table since there is high demand at Watami. I also got to witness the first time a Japanese person was not on-the-dot punctual when the host took twice as long (20 minutes) to get us a table than he said he would.
We had to take our shoes off to go inside, and I opted to skip the uncomfortable looking slippers they provided. We put our shoes in a small locker (of which there were many) and took the wooden key. An aside about the lockers – in India when you go to a temple or some monuments (like Taj Mahal), you have to take your shoes off as a sign of respect for the idols. Usually, these shoes are just left where you took them off, unsecured. It’s an interesting contrast that in India, where there is a high amount of theft, I leave my shoes just lying there, but in Japan, where there’s no real theft to speak of, I secure them inside a locker. I guess the lesson is to wear cheap shoes in India and expensive ones in Japan.
The menu was big and beautiful. It was littered with awesome pictures of the food and names only in Japanese. Thankfully, I had Satomi to help me navigate it. With a swift swipe of my index finger I was ready to devour Izakaya good-ness. Yum yum yum yum yum (Quick Tip: the correct pronunciation of that is said in quick succession leaving no time between words. Also, the first yum has a higher pitch than the latter ones, and you need to hold the ‘m’ on the final yum. If you have trouble with that one, email me.)
The white chips came first, as a light snack. They looked and tasted just like some chips you get in India, except in India they put masala on them and in Japan they put seaweed powder on them. Gotta say, I’m a masala fan on this one. Not a lot, just a little bit. But the rice chips are nice, I like them better than potato chips.
First up on the real food side was the Spicy Eki (squid). When I ordered this, I imagined some sort of Korean-style spices on my little tentacled friend. What we had though were battered and fried pices that looked like thick squishy French fries, with a lot of spices in the batter. “Yum Flavors!” type of spices, not “Ow, Burning!” type. Of course, this was served with mayonnaise (one thing I’ve learned is that all Asian countries love mayonnaise). The squid was very well cooked (by well I don’t mean overcooked like well done steak, but just done well. I don’t think this is done often), and the spices were just excellent. The burst of flavor in the first bite was delightful not only because I like squid, but also because it was a total surprise. I garbled that one up pretty quickly.
Next up was the roasted pork. Which was dry and gross. Like, really dry. It was like eating crappy chicken. I’m not going to harp on that one, because the dryness just a total dealbreaker for me.
I LOVE Raw Egg Yolk
Still reeling from the piggy, I moved on to the mini beef patties, made with minced beef. Like the Eki, these offered a surprisingly high amount of spices (once again, the “Yum, Flavors!” type). And the quality of the beef was absolutely excellent. Flavorful (other than the spices), juicy, and tender (maybe just cuz it was minced 
). There were four of these on the plate, each the size of a mini burger. They came with a leaf of something (lettuce?) which I ignored. As someone wrote on this most excellent facebook group, “I love vegetables. I just like to eat them concentrated in meat form.”
The next dish looked very familiar – they were dumplings. Except the similarities with normal Chinese dumplings ended with the shell, the contents were quite different. I have gotten used to the absolutely awful excuses for meat American Chinese restaurants serve in their dumplings, so the large amount of high quality beef in these ones was like heaven to me. Once again, there was a lot of flavor, and they served them with soy sauce and vinegar and hot oil. Something amazing happens when you mix those three liquids. You remember how someone told you God kills a kitten when you do x? Well, when you mix these three, that kitten is reborn. Ohlorditisilikeheaven. Repeat after me, “yum yum yum yum yum.”
The final straggler was a last minute addition which Satomi recommended since I loved the squid oh so much. It was raw octopus with wasabi. Except this thing was loooahaaded with wasabi. I don’t really know how to describe this one though – it tasted like what you expect raw octopus and wasabi to taste. The octopus was great, wasabi was great, this thing was a winner. Oeshi!!!
(Oeshi, pronounced Oye-Shee, in Japanese means tasty. A useful thing to know when you’re presenting at a foodshow. Nice.)
(Another side note: Our food really is Oeshi.)
All in all, best meal I had in Japan. Loved Watami, would probably have gone there a lot more if I had discovered it before my last day in Japan.
Epilogue: On the train back, Satomi gave me these mints made by Asahi. She gave me two, which may have been her way of getting back at me for eating 90% of the food (I really tried to get her to eat more though, she refused. Probably out of politeness). These are hands down the strongest mints I’ve ever had. I brought a few packs home to share.