Tokyo in April. Hot days. Cold nights. Shabu shabu dinner. NICE.
Tokyo in April. Hot days. Cold nights. KOBE BEEF shabu shabu dinner. THE BEST!!!
And the only place for it, according to my good friend Tom Cruise, is Seryna. This Roppongi restaurant has been around since 1961. And it seems that everything in it has been around since 1961, too. It reeks old school, from the restaurant interiors to the servers’ vest-and-bow-tie uniforms. The design of the place is so ancient it gives me the musty, moldy feelings. But vintage IS the rage now…
Fried Stuffed Crab
While waiting for our shabu shabu, I order this stuffed crustacean which I instantly regret the minute it arrives on our table. I am no deep frying guru but one look and I can tell it is gonna be a dry, overcooked, blah starter. To my utter bewilderment, it even exceeds my expectations! It is not just dry, overcooked and blah, it is the driest, the most overcooked and the blah-est thing I’ve ever eaten. It feels like chewing on a cardboard. Somebody, please take it off Seryna’s Chef’s Recommendations!
The Redemption:
Dips: Chili Oil with Ginger, Ponzu and Sesame
The secret, I discover while devouring the last piece of kobe, is to dip the beef in all 3 sauces. One sauce each time does absolutely nothing for my palate.
Not bad at all. Very tasty, buttery, requires little chewing. For the ultimate melt in your mouth experience, shell out a few thousand more and upgrade to The Kobe.
HELLO, FAT MARBLING!!! And hello, the most beautiful plate of beef I have ever seen! So beautiful and delicate it makes me want to just smile at it, sing to it, and caress it ever so gently like it is my firstborn child. And protect it from the cruel and heartless kimono-clad lady who is waiting to lodge assault with her long wooden chopsticks. I glare at her. She surrenders and leaves.
Alone with my plate, I cannot resist. I become one them mother fishes who eat their own eggs. This beef is so delicate it breaks at the slightest pressure. People who do not have excellent chopsticks control should not even be allowed to handle it. And the texture is just incredible. With Kobe, eating becomes so simple. You pop it in your mouth and it melts. No chewing required. Preciuex!
However, although I know that a light soup base is used to give focus on the taste of the kobe, the water based shabu shabu at Seryna just doesn’t do it for me. Even with the sauces, it does not give me the oomph I am looking for. Sukiyaki would have been perfect. Beef this exquisite, blanched in sweet soup base made with soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin… Aaaahhhhh…… That would have merited four hearts from me.
But sukiyaki will have to wait until the next visit, Seryna. After all, fat marbling is a highly desirable characteristic in beef, not in me.
Seryna 瀬里奈: 3-12-2,Roppongi,Minatoku,Tokyo. 東京都港区六本木3-12-2. +813-3401-1051
