知る人ぞ知る？！ : Ginza Fujita

Although there are not many reviews on Tabelog yet, it seems that this restaurant has been well known from the beginning in TERIYAKI, a small but elite gourmet group led by Horiemon. Apparently, TERIYAKI members were among the students of the cooking class held by the owner, Ikkyu-san, so even if not, Mr. K may have been to this restaurant before? ? lol This is the information I obtained when I happened to meet the owner and decided to visit the restaurant. I looked up the address and visited the restaurant, and it turns out that it is in the basement of this building! Is it rare these days? There is no elevator to the unbarrier-free basement. lol We went down the stairs to the basement and passed Pork Cutlet restaurant at the back, and it is not just a sushi restaurant, but also a restaurant where you can enjoy tempura at the same time! First of all, the appetizer is fried Odawara (specialty) Jinta. It is crispy and makes you want to drink! Next up is purple sea urchin from Aomori Prefecture topped with foamy egg yolk soy sauce. The fluffy egg yolk soy sauce seems to contain a little vinegar. (It also helps with the foaming.) This is a concentrated flavor that can only be enjoyed with fresh shelled sea urchin, even though it is alum-free! It's delicious. I sipped it little by little (lol). The fillets were marbled flounder, also from Aomori Prefecture, and on the veranda, rockfish. It was sticky and moist. The rockfish had a rich flavour that stuck to my tongue. Salt-steamed Ezo abalone and liver. Uhaha! I love the texture of steamed abalone, but most restaurants end up seasoning it a little too strongly, which masks the flavour of the abalone itself. However, this restaurant's simple seasoning of only salt brought out the abalone's original seashore flavour to the fullest, doubling the feeling of enjoying the bounty of nature! Ikkyu-san, who remembered that I like shiny things and that I had casually tried it beforehand (not that I had asked for it! lol), had arranged for me to get horse mackerel fillets as well. The owner believes that butterbur sprouts go well with blue fish, so we drank it with soy sauce that had been soaked in butterbur shoots for a year. It was a new experience, or perhaps a first?! The ingredients of the temari Sushi were tuna belly and raw whitebait. It was a luxurious round Sushi topped with Nagoya Cochin yolk! It was left for a while after being made, so the vinegared rice, tuna, and whitebait were firmly intertwined (lol). The sticky texture was amazing...and adding egg on top of that was a cheating move! lol The pickled radish and ginger were well seasoned. The smooth texture of the wasabi, the timing and lingering aftertaste that refreshingly leaves the nose speak of its high quality. The plate was Hagi ware, which is said to be baked by a Swede. The striking white floral pattern and heavy feel were impressive. Oh, I forgot to take a picture! The Odawara sardines were soaked in seawater the day before. These were also served in fillets. The tamagoyaki is moist and contains minced white shrimp and scallops. Thin teriyaki of Oiso blackthroat seaperch, salted with Japanese pepper, pickled tomatoes in Tosa, and pickled myoga in sweet vinegar. Apparently blackthroat seaperch in the Pacific is rare and in high demand, and competition is fierce. The meat here is a little thin, so perhaps that's why it's also very lightly seasoned. I didn't think the tomatoes had any flavor, so I was surprised by the deliciousness of the Tosa vinegar that permeated them! I also love myoga ginger♡ And this is where Fujita's skills come into play! It's not just sushi! There seems to have been a lot of mixed opinions, but tempura is also a selling point! And Ikkyu-san's preference is for vegetables to be mini! The smaller they are, the more intense the flavor is, and the more delicious it is, and Dorami wholeheartedly agrees with this opinion! lol The larger they are, the more bland they tend to be. (Apart from the size of the fish? lol I didn't use tempura sauce, but when I tasted it, the fish stock was much stronger than the tempura soup that we usually eat. The salt is white salt from Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, in the Republic of Kiribati, and dried sardine salt from Ibuki Island in Kagawa. Kagawa Prefecture is also famous for dried sardines. I was born in Kagawa and lived there for a while, but is that why my mother left the dried sardines in the miso soup she made every morning and never took them out? No! lol To be honest, the dried sardine salt alone would make a great snack to go with alcohol. lol I thought it was green radish because of its green color, but it's actually grated "vitamin radish"! Is it good for women too? Attention to ingredients. Now, the important tempura is Inca's Awakening. It's a little giant with a strong umami flavor and the natural sweetness of the potato that's too delicious! The purple asparagus is very impressive! The bottom part was cut off and only the top of the head was made into tempura. Asparagus juice dripped on the cut surface! So fresh! Small onion. The thin batter and the onion, although small, were cooked so that it still had a crunchy texture, creating a good balance♪ Golden carrot. Dorami and her companion, who don't usually eat carrots, were able to taste the carrot for the first time in a long time. (They're kids! lol) The white shrimp rice crackers, which are handed to them between tempura paper (I don't think it's a kaishi), are a standard and sure-fire menu item, and you can see how popular they are. You can enjoy the contrast of the fluffy texture of the white shrimp in the crispy batter. And now, the final stage is the nigiri! If the main ingredient is red vinegar, the taste of the white meat will inevitably be weakened, so the rice is made with a red vinegar:white vinegar ratio of 4:6. Small fish. The finishing touch is to Dorami's liking. It's innovative to see the yuzu citrus fruit being gently hidden behind the topping. The grunt is from Odawara. The owner, who knows the best, doesn't seem to be convinced about the red meat of Ishigaki Island tuna (a luxury disease, I guess x wry smile), but it's still delicious. It's not strangely "marinated", and the light seasoning brings out the tuna's flavor. Bigfin reef squid. The cuts are beautifully cut to create a flowing line, with the wasabi visible through the skin. The horse mackerel from Odawara is topped with a carefully selected butterbur shoot. Medium fatty tuna. Finally, the horse manure sea urchin is handed to you. The hot tea cup is a modern-looking Arita ware. This is so cool ♡ I want one for my home too! The final touch is a miso soup with seaweed and grated yam, made with homemade miso! Homemade miso apparently changes its taste and flavor every time because it is made with the taste of Ikkyu's hands (lol), but I think its characteristics are its sourness and the fact that it has larger soybean grains left in it than commercially available miso? ? At first glance, they were considerate and let me sit at the counter right in front of Ikkyu-san, and they even adjusted the serving time of the food to suit my visit time. It was fun to hear all sorts of interesting stories, such as their attention to detail in the ingredients and dishes they use! As they keep a record of the dishes they serve to customers each time, they change the menu each time, not just according to the season, so it's great that even if I return soon, the menu won't overlap! ^^ Thank you for a delicious and fun time~☆彡