Even though we had an amazing time during our trip to Japan last year, our time in Kyoto was limited because of Typhoon Vongfong. That was among more than a handful of reasons we decided to head back; the Missus had always wanted to see the fall foliage and She had gained a real affection for Yakitori (and ramen – remember the Santouka effect?). Also, She needed a use for the $$$$ Burberry overcoat She had bought….. So we decided to head back to Japan. Our trip was scheduled for 17 days and we had a 14 day Japan Rail Pass, so we needed to figure out what to do with those extra days. Seoul seemed like a good idea and that ended up being the plan. We arrived at Narita Airport quite late in the afternoon……man, the sunsets here at like 445pm! I decided that we should just the evening in Narita, before heading to Seoul the next morning. We stayed at the Narita U City Hotel, which is a bit dated, but very close to the JR Station, has a friendly staff, and even a free shuttle to the airport.
After settling in, the first course of business was getting something to eat. Of course the place I'd been looking forward to eating at was closed, even though Tabelog said they were open on that day. So we passed through the JR Station and started exploring, up and down the somewhat confusing side streets of Narita. Until we came across this busy little shop.
And the Missus did want to eat a lot of yakitori on this trip, right? The place was a hoot; the young man who managed the front of house would loudly greet guests as they entered and shout to find seats for customers. In this photo he is shouting upstairs to find a table for some customers. The staff were friendly and quite boisterous. There was an English menu, but we decided to ignore it and take a walk around the counter to see what we wanted.
That combined with the Missus's ability to understand some Kanji helped us make some good decisions.
Of course we started with a couple of beers.
It seems like the place also did a bustling hot pot business, but we were here for grilled meats. In looking at what was being ordered we quickly noticed that pork was really popular here, so we ordered mainly pork influenced items, even though none of them were on the English menu.
The Butahorumon (pork intestine) was very tasty. Smoky, with a crisp exterior, it had that nice savory slightly musty intestine flavor I love.
The Missus favorite was the delicious Yamaimo (mountain yam) wrapped with Pork.
Crunchy, slightly sweet, the thinly sliced bacon added a nice touch of smokiness. Just the right amount of salt made this quite tasty.
The Renkon (lotus root) was also wrapped with bacon.
It wasn't quite as pleasing as the yamaimo though.
Veering away from swine, we just had to try the Tsukune (chicken meatball), which was just ok, too many hard bits, not too flavorful.
The Pork Skin was seasoned well and had a nice deep smokiness, but was a bit too rubbery, with hard bits for our taste.
I ended with a nice Yaki Onigiri, grilled quite well.
This ended up being a nice little meal to get us started. I recall the prices as being quite reasonable as well.
The Missus had wanted to eat a lot of yakitori, right?
Sumibinouttori
533-13, Hanazakicho
Narita-shi, Chiba, 286-0033
anything wrapped with porkbelly is usually delicious!
catching up on your blog posts (especially loving all the recent japan posts!). i’m not a frequent poster of comments so sorry for this long comment… but i was just wondering if you have seen this cookbook yet? http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Peach-Presents-Asian-Recipes/dp/0804187797 hubby has tried a couple recipes and i thought they were yummy. and i am an awful cook (thank goodness for hubby, and for your blog which helps me find good places to eat or get takeout from when hubby isn’t cooking). but i actually find this Lucky Peach cookbook entertaining to read. anyway you and hubby have liked some similar cookbooks in the past (although this one prides itself on being “inauthentic” so i’m not so sure how you’d like that) so i thought you might like this one if you are looking for a new fun cookbook (recipes seem way less complicated in general than the typical ottolenghi recipes… hm, not sure if you’d like that either… you seem to like to follow some complicated recipes when you cook, as does hubby). anyway, glad you and the missus are safely back from your trip (i’ll bet your doggies missed you both tons)! looking forward to your future posts from back in the states! =)
Just about Kat!
Hi Dancing – I actually have that book on my list….though looking at the index, I either know how to make most of the dishes or have more than a couple of recipes that cover them. Thanks for the recommendation though and I hope you are doing well!
I agree, the dishes in Lucky Peach are pretty run-of-the mill. The two dishes hubby has prepared so far are their version of pad see ew and their version of basically pesto pasta… both extremely tasty (better than the average version of these recipes) but it’s definitely not difficult to find similar recipes elsewhere (or make one’s own tasty version of these dishes). In fact one of their after-dinner dishes or “recipes” is “Oranges — cut them up or don’t…” which is a joke but it made me laugh since I can now say that I have prepared something from the Lucky Peach cookbook (I generally don’t cook anything more complicated than boiled eggs or veggies and can almost never say I’ve prepared anything from anything… I can chop things though, i.e. oranges). We don’t have a more run-of-the mill cookbook so this one is actually good for us to own. Just thought I’d recommend the cookbook in case you like reading cookbooks as well as preparing the dishes in them. I don’t cook but I really enjoyed reading the Ottolenghi cookbooks and Lucky Peach is also very enjoyable to read.
I have recently been under the weather as well so today I got some niu rou mian takeout from Spicy House (hubby needed to get some hondashi from Nijiya in the same plaza). Instead of the usual spicy beef noodle soup with dark brown broth, I ordered the non-spicy one with light-colored broth and then added a bunch of white pepper to it myself at home. I have no idea what it is really called but it’s yummy… sounds something like “ching ta niu rou mian”??? I first got it accidentally when I asked (in my not-very-good Chinese) for “niu rou mian but please omit the spicy” which usually results in me getting the usual dark broth kind of beef noodle soup but without the spicy. But after the one time my order resulted in the light-colored broth and non-spicy beef noodle soup, I really liked it and someone there taught me how to ask for it in the future. They seem to understand me when I ask for it (since the result of the order is what I want). But please let me know if you happen to know the right way to spell/say this light-colored non-spicy version of niu rou mian and if there is a more common name for it (if you even know what I am talking about).
Other than having a minor cold, I’m just happy there is good niu rou mian takeout to be had when one is under the weather. And being under the weather makes me have an excuse to just rest and finally catch up on my fav blogs again so yay for that as well! Hope you feel better soon too and again! =)
oops… that (unfinished sentence in the comment above) was supposed to say:
again sorry for the long comment! gah…
Man I wish more Japanese places over here would do horumon!
Hi Dancing – You mean Chin-Dun (清燉) Niu Rou Mian? I do like a good back story, so may get the that book. THanks for the recommendation and I hope you feel better!
I do too Junichi! The only place I’ve seen horumon was at Tsuruhashi….but of course that’s yakiniku and am not sure they have it anymore.
Thanks, Kirk! Yes, chin-dun (or I guess some people spell it qing-dun) niu rou mian is EXACTLY the name of the dish I wanted to know the name of (I verified by searching it and looking at resulting images/descriptions online). I wanted to ask the staff person at Spicy City when picking up my takeout this time but I got the person who spoke very little English (and my Chinese is not very good). I just KNEW you would know what I was talking about! =)
Glad to be of some help Dancing.