Tokyo Golden Gai food tour

A great fun night eating and exploring some of Tokyo's hidden backstreets and bars

The night started meeting the guide and a small group of travellers at a Shinjuku station exit. This was no mean feat as Shinjuku station has 200 exits! If you go on the food tour and they're still meeting at the station I'd recommend checking where the meeting place is ahead of time as it took us an hour to find it. The group was lovely and a real mix: couples from US, single travellers from Canada and the Middle East.

First stop was "Memory Lane" for yakitori which are grilled chicken skewers. Post the second Word War Memory Lane was known as an area for black market goods and illegal bars. It was destroyed by fire in 1999 and the Government decided to rebuilt it to preserve the historical Shōwa era feel of the alley. It's much more civilised now and is popular with Japanese salary men who cram into the 60 small smokey restaurants and bars for yakitori and beers post a long day in the office. We headed upstairs to a bar with a great view of Tokyo at night and enjoyed chicken skewers washed down with Suntory larger. Most yakitori bars offer just two flavourings; salt or "tare" which is made of soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar. Since coming back from the trip I've explored cooking some Japanese dishes and was surprised that sugar appears in most recipes.

We then walked round the corner to the red light district which looks brilliant at night, so much neon. The guide took us to formica table restaurant and we had the most amazing pork ramen with broth that had been simmered for 12 hours which made it feel really silky and creamy. It was stunning. I haven't tried to make this at home, I don't have the patience to simmer bones for 12 hours just to make the broth. Nick found it too "collageny" but he has since gone on to become a pescatarian so each to their own!

Next stop was a sushi bar and on the way the guide stopped outside a Pachinko Parlour and said that she would quickly walk us through. It was insane! The noise, the lights, the noise!! Here is a taste of what a Pachinko Parlour is like, did I mention the noise !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iADzWQj4Qz0

Last stop before the Golden Gai bar was a shushi bar. This was much more Nick's zone than mine as I just don't love the texture of sushi, I did really enjoy the Japanese omelette they served though. This is made with eggs, mirin, soy sauce and dashi. It has a taste of the sea as the dashi is made from simmering kombu seaweed and bonito flakes which are wisps of dried fermented tuna. I have tried to make my own dashi but I just couldn't get it right. You're supposed to simmer the seaweed at 60 degree c for 60 minutes but I just couldn't keep the temperature low enough. The guide explained to us that the chef who made the omelette spent 6 years perfecting this one dish. I loved this about Japan, the pursuit of perfectionism and the care I saw taken over creating the very best version of whatever they were making. Kodawari is "the uncompromising and relentless devotion to a pursuit" and it did make me feel a little ashamed over the lack of effort and care I can put into things at home.

Last stop was Golden Gai for sake cocktails! Golden Gai is a tiny warren of ramshackle bars in Shinjuku Tokyo. Its 200 tiny bars and clubs are squeezed into 6 narrow alleys and some bars are so small they can only fit 5 or 6 people in. As so much of Tokyo has been modernised: it's historic buildings and quarters replaced with concrete tower blocks and wide roads its a real treat to explore areas like Golden Gai as you feel like you're stepping back in time and experiencing what Tokyo was like in the early 20th Century.

Our food tour ended the night having a few drinks in one of small upstairs bars and I was really pleased to be there with the group as not all bars welcome foreigners. I wasn't quite bold enough to walk up the steep dark stairs to see what kind of welcome I would find....

If you're going to Tokyo I'd really recommend this tour, it took me to bars and restaurants I wouldn't have known about or would have been shy to go in by myself.

Arigato tours