Thursday, December 24, 2015

灯花 (Toka in Shinjuku)

鯛塩そば 灯花

DSCF4327.jpg

I accidentally went to Toka's first shop recently. Their first shop specializes in shio tsukemen, and it was wonderful. Certainly not a mistake I regret. And certainly not a difficult one to remedy. The second shop, their new one, is only half a block away.

DSCF4331.jpg

This one is also a shio, or salt based soup. But what sets it apart from the rest of the chicken and pork loving world is that the soup is made exclusively with tai, a kind of snapper fish. Fish is the only animal that goes into this one, meaning that the other ingredients, kelp and vegetables, need to be perfectly balanced to work.

DSCF4325.jpg

And they are. This is an elegant, beautiful bowl of ramen. Just a touch of yuzu zest for a bit of an aroma.

DSCF4330.jpg

I spoke with the chef, and he assured me that the only meat is the single piece of chashu on top. Pescatarians can rest assured that this is not only a bowl they can slurp, but a bowl that they can really enjoy.

DSCF4332.jpg

Map of 12 Funamachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to 160-0006

東京都新宿区舟町12-13
Tokyo, Shinjuku-ku, Funamachi 12-13
Closest station: Akebonobashi

Open 11:00-15:00, 17:00-24:00
Closed Sundays

1 comment:

Steve D. said...

Is this the second button on the top row - ¥900? 8=))