Pizzeria Iola

You would think that if you want lasagna you would go to Italy.  I would suspect that you would be wrong for if you want some pretty damn good lasagna, you would have to go to Japan.  No.  I am serious.  Oishi and his wife Miyoko make some damn good Italian food.  In a little, probably no more that twenty seats (and that would be crowded), restaurant, Oishi makes some of the finest Italian food around.  The best in Japan at the very least and world, well, it would be an interesting competition.

So, I was taken there by +Jim Mullins and his wife.  I am taking a trip to Japan and they called me and said, "come on down."  So I boarded the shinkansen and an hour later I was in Shizuoka.  Fast forward about seven hours and we were sitting in Pizzeria Iola.  I asked Mully what was good and he said without hesitation, the lasagna.  So I ordered the lasagna, the venison lasagna to boot!  To say that it was good would be an understatement.  It was so beyond good that it left it far behind.  The venison wasnt gamy at all.  It tasted like it was simmering for hours before it was put into the lasagna.  I asked my hosts for the evening and they said that the meat was whatever was in season at the time.  It wasnt as rich and hearty red sauce as most lasagnas are that I have had .  It was creamy and almost delicate in the way it was prepared.  I watched Oishi-san take the dough and crank out the lasagna sheets by hand.  The sauces in between the layers of cheese and pasta was more of a ragu.  I cant say anymore about it.  You will just have to come to Japan and eat it yourself.

The rest of the food was fantastic as well.  The meatballs were made with beef, pork and veal, the holy trinity of meats when you make meatball.  The real kicker was that he added ground green beans to the mix.  Unfortunately I got no pictures of the meatballs as the Mullys devoured them as soon as they came to table.  I got to taste on though, and it was a light and airy meatball, not heavy as you would expect a meatball to be.  Speaking of light and airy, you have to try the gnocchi.  Little bits of heaven.  The potatoes mixed with just a handful of flour to allow them to hold there shape and mixed with a Gorgonzola sauce.  I wish I had a plate of them right now.

Mrs Mully had the avocado salad mixed with mozzarella and tomatoes that looked yummy.

Miyoko-san took care of all the baking and did all of the deserts.  The Mully's had themselves slices of chocolate cake and I had the creme brulee.  Now I thought the sugar was a bit burned, not caramelized like it should have been, but the custard underneath was soft and tasty.  I gave Mully a bite and he went and ordered one for himself, just so he could take off the caramelized sugar and eat that whole.  I told him to wait, that he shouldnt eat it alone.

The food was fantastic, the company grand, the hosts a joy.  It just goes to show you, you can find good food anywhere, you just have to look for it.  Keep eating and as Mully says... "dont let your meat loaf."

Tratorria Pizzeria Iola
1663 Kataoka, Yoshida-cho

TEL 0548-32-0138
iola@amail.plala.or.jp

Be sure to watch the video on my YouTube site.  Its still loading...

Izakaya Fuga

Izakaya Fuga

Today I went out to lunch with my friend Kay, continuing out crawl around the Little Tokyo.  Today we went to a little izakaya, that is located in the basement of a building in the heart of Little Tokyo.  It is a nice place that looked like a lounge with out the smoke.  In fact, Kay mentioned that the place was a lounge.  In the back they had a couple of booths that were curtained off with opaque curtains.

As you can see, I had a sesame jidori kaarage bento.  It is a friend chicken that came with a aeoli that was nothing special.  But the kaarage was pretty good.  It looked like the chicken was overcooked but it wasnt.  It came with a salad, a spicy tuna roll and some tempura along with rice and miso soup.  All and all it was good and not that expensive.  For the two of us it only came out to thirty dollars.  Still, I think Daikokuya (the ramen place I reviewed last month sometime) is much better...

Atmosphere: 4 out of 5

Service: 3 out of 5

Food: 3 out of 5

Price: cheap for what you get

Midoh

http://www.midoh-la.com/

Today I went to Midoh for lunch.  The Midoh is part of the Bishamon Group, a group of restaurants that are under one umbrella.  What I had was a hamburg steak with demi-glace, two fried shrimps and some vegetables that included carrots, green beans and some potatoes.  I got some rice, miso soup and a salad to go with the it and I ordered some pickled cucumbers as well.  It was a big lunch!

I was kinda surprised at the hamburg steak that sat on a bed of julienned onions.  It was still juicy despite is being cooked all the way through.  The shrimp I suspect were were frozen but still tasted rather good in their panko coating.  The only thing I was not liking was the tartar sauce that they put on the shrimp.  Didn't need it in my opinion.  The vegetables were good, even though the carrots were too well cooked.

Overall a pleasant lunch.  I will have to go back and try out their curry.

Daikokuya Little Tokyo

I went out with my friend Kay for lunch today.  We went to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo, and both had the ramen with the kotteri upgrade.  It was just a we bit on the salty side, but the pork that came with it was very tender.  It also had a soft boiled egg, bean sprouts and bamboo.  The sauce was pork based and sorta thick and creamy.  Kay was telling me that if you let is sit and cool that the pork fat in the juice would congeal.  mmmm

It was a cool place set up like a ramen shop in Japan.  Small and intimate.  There was a line at the door, owing to the greatness of this place.