Did you know that Tokyo has the most Michelin starred restaurants of any city in the world? There are more than 200 restaurants in the city that have a star.
I’m not interested in chasing after restaurants with rankings like that – I’m pretty basic in my food preferences and would rather eat a well cooked down home meal than a cheffy concept meal.
Having said that it turns out that there is a restaurant a few blocks from where we are staying that has been noted by the Michelin people. And it turns out to fit my ‘not too fancy’ criteria.
This is Asakusa Onigiri. I didn’t expect that we would be able to get in to the restaurant, but we scooted in as the last two people for lunch service. There are two tables for four people and six seats at a counter. It looks like a sushi restaurant with all the ingredients displayed behind the counter, and a chef preparing the onigiri as they are ordered.
And yes, I’m talking about onigiri – rice balls! The lunch set is a cup of tea, a bowl of miso soup and two onigiri.
Our soup has arrived, and the tray between us has the first two onigiri (grilled salmon filling).
At this restaurant they wrap the nori (seaweed) around on one side and the other side of the sheet of nori stands up like a wing. Because the onigiri is made and immediately handed over the nori does not have time to get soft, so the contrast between the crispy outside and soft warm rice inside is perfect.
For our second ‘course’ I had the pickled ginger filling and Wilf’s had tiny little shrimp boiled in soy sauce.
And all this for about $6.00 per person. Some might say that’s alot for rice balls that can be had at the 7-11 for two dollars, but these were Michelin approved rice balls. And it was a great little meal!
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