A note on the words: kushiage is the Osaka-born way of breading small pieces of meat, fish and vegetables on skewers and deep-frying them, served one or a few at a time. Otoshi is the small appetizer you are charged for on sitting down — it is the cover charge. Moromi is the thick, unrefined mash left in making soy sauce or miso, eaten as a dip. Kisu is the Japanese whiting, a small white fish. Yamaimo is a mountain yam. Uni is sea urchin, ikura salted salmon roe.
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Kushiage Kushikazari Ginza Ura Corridor on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Right, this is Hangover Meshi. So, this time I had been out since the morning on an errand, and it finished a little after midday. I had missed lunch, so — shall we have a drink and head home? — and walking along Ginza Ura Corridor toward Shinbashi, was there not a kushiage shop open! It being the middle of the afternoon, around three, there did not appear to be any other customers, so it was ours alone! And in we went.
There is a whole range on the menu, including an omakase pattern where they keep bringing skewers out forever until you say stop, but
since there was nobody about, we decided to order several of whatever we fancied. They did mention that if it got busy the service might slow down, which is fair enough, so we agreed to go a la carte until the crowds arrived.
Right, kushiage time! Except the menu has rather a lot on it and I am spoiled for choice.
The otoshi is quite lavish! Vegetable sticks with moromi, and a few little snacks — a welcome thing.
First, chicken tenderloin wrapped in shiso, a perfect match with the umeniku pickled-plum sauce. Freshly fried kushiage really is delicious!
The duck loin is plump and juicy meat, and the contrast with the crisp batter outside is good.
The slightly-more-expensive series. Things taste better when you are hungry, do they not! And so the strategy was to order the good expensive items early. Tenshi no Ebi — “angel shrimp” — and crab in a kisu roll. And then my beloved shellfish! The Tenshi no Ebi is fried plump and is an extremely sweet shrimp, and it is delicious! The fact that a little of the head paste is left in is superb. I ate it right down to the tail, crunch and all.
Take the foil off the kisu roll and… here it is.
It is wrapped in foil, so whether this counts as kushiage is a question we shall set aside.
Inside the plump kisu is a good load of crab meat. White fish and crab are a fine match, are they not. Delicious!
Asparagus! Frying it with a handle left sticking out looks striking and has real impact.
The asparagus is plump and extremely sweet, and you feel strongly that kushiage is also a form of steaming ^^
And the batter on the outside with the mayonnaise swiped across it is irresistible.
The thing sitting on top of the mongo cuttlefish on the far right is uni, sea urchin! What a lavish skewer.
Squid kushiage is delicious to begin with, and the fragrance of the uni on top makes it more so!
Meat-stuffed green pepper is a sure thing. The yamaimo is floury and delicious! They are all one-bite size, so there is room for plenty more!
We finish with the vegetable skewers, and fin!
One way and another, we ate a fair amount! It may well be as much as we would have had letting them bring out whatever they liked ^^
So: a session of eating as much kushiage as we pleased from the middle of the day. Every skewer delicious — or rather, being able to eat them straight out of the fryer made it a very fine experience. And in any case we had the place almost entirely to ourselves the whole time, so it was as comfortable as could be. I had assumed the back alleys would be more of a crush, but around midday they show a different face, and I thought this a good shop where you can eat in peace! I may well go again.
Kushiage Kushikazari Ginza Ura Corridor (Kushiage / Uchisaiwaicho Station, Shinbashi Station, Ginza Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
