Creative Japanese Cuisine and Rare Sake at Madara
Published: November 15, 2019
Obanzai is traditional Kyoto home cooking, comprising many different small dishes simply prepared from seasonal vegetables and seafood. Marry that with contemporary Japanese style and you have Sosaku Washoku Madara, a bright new addition to the increasingly interesting restaurant scene in Kameido, Koto-ku. On a recent autumn afternoon, we dropped in for a chat with owner Mr. Keita Jitsukawa and proprietress (okami) Ms. Yuriei Omori.
Chiba native Mr. Jitsukawa and Kyushu-born Ms. Omori met when they worked together at another restaurant in the area. “We teamed up and opened here on February 11th this year. We like the area and the atmosphere in Kameido is friendly and relaxed, which is what we wanted for Madara,” said Mr. Jitsukawa. Ms. Omori cooks and talks to the customers who sit at the counter, while Mr. Jitsukawa is hall manager. “We attract more female customers and more single female customers who can sit, eat drink, and chat in a relaxed ambience,” adds Ms. Omori. “They feel more comfortable in that way.”
The key to Kyoto Obanzai dishes is the broth or stock (dashi). Made from dried bonito and kelp, it has traditionally been light and delicate to allow the flavours of the vegetables and seafood to shine through. On the day we visited a beautiful bowl of simmered daikon radish sat atop the counter.
Exceptionally appealing is the only way to describe this gorgeous sea urchin and yuzu ponzu gelée on a bed of yuba. Yuba, one of Kyoto’s signature dishes, is the film created on the surface of soy milk simmered in shallow pans. Remarkable value at only 500 yen.
As much care goes into selecting the serving dishes as the food itself. Here, juicy pork simmered with potatoes and garnished with blanched spinach sits on a colourful bowl.
While a delicate pearlescent bowl holds simmered pak choi.
The daily menu features around 20 different dishes while the grande menu holds a whole lot more. This salmon roe on rice (ikura don), is a very reasonable 1100 yen. In fact, the prices at Madara seem very affordable given the exquisite presentation.
The menu at Madara changes daily; as autumn gives way to early winter, Kyoto-style oden has made an appearance together with hearty warmers such as braised belly pork (buta no kakuni). Again, the bowl is an exquisite shade of green.
Another wildly popular dish in the braised tongue (gyutan). Slow-cooked for over six hours, it simply melts in the mouth. At 1350 yen it’s one of the more expensive items on the menu.
Another classic seasonal dish is this daikon radish in a snow crab ankake sauce. Ankake sauces are thickened with potato starch which creates a thicker texture and stronger umami flavour.
Madara has 21 seats, five at the counter and 16 in the back room.
Ms. Omori’s home region of Kyushu is also represented on the menu, with the renowned chicken nanban (deep fried chicken in a tangy vinegar and tartare sauce) and Kagoshima’s immensely popular fish cakes (satsuma-age).
Ms. Omori’s beautiful creations are served with sake, of course. “We’re very fussy about the sake we serve,” says Mr. Jitsukawa, “in that we serve rare and unusual brands that aren’t available in other establishments.” He orders from a merchant he described as a “sake maniac” who spends his time traveling the length and breadth of Japan discovering little-known but fine quality brews. The heartland of Japanese sake is well-represented in Niigata, Nagano, Yamagata and Akita but brews from Yamaguchi, Gifu, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma also feature.
When pressed about the most popular sake on the menu he presents Beau Michelle from Sawanohana Brewery in Nagano. Apparently brewed with Beatles music playing, the bottle looks more like it holds wine than sake. The first taste is a huge surprise: it’s light, sweet, and incredibly fresh, far closer to a crisp white wine than any sake I’ve ever had before. My Japanese counterpart was even more surprised than I was! The aftertaste was clearly sake though, a most remarkable combination of flavours. It’s only 9% ABV, ideal for those who find regular sake a little strong.
With the year-end season of parties fast approaching it’s worth noting that Madara offers a variety of dinner courses, beginning at 3,000 per person. All-you-can-drink options are available too; please check out the homepage for details. The restaurant is open until December 28th but will close from the 29th to January 6th.
Sosaku Washoku Madara: beautiful food, beautifully presented in a comfortable and friendly atmosphere, served with rare and unusual sake by the charming and youthful proprietors. And all at reasonable prices, too! If you’re in the Kameido area you’d be mad not to visit Madara!
Story and Photos by Stephen Spencer
