A note on the words: oden is an assortment of things — daikon, egg, fish cake, tofu — simmered slowly in a light dashi broth and ordered piece by piece. Most visitors meet it as grey objects floating in a tray at a convenience store. This is not that.
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Konakara Honten on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hangover Meshi here. The nights are still cold, but it is slowly warming up, and I found myself thinking this might be the last oden of the season — so I went to Konakara Honten in Ochanomizu. It is right by Yushima Tenjin shrine. Medical and Dental recently merged with Tokyo Tech to become Institute of Science Tokyo, didn’t it — the shop is just by the old Medical and Dental campus. The entrance has real character.
Inside there is a big U-shaped counter, and you sit at a sunken kotatsu-style seat.
Eating shoulder to shoulder with the person next to you is its own kind of good.
There seemed to be a lot of choice, so I ordered a la carte, picking whatever caught my eye.
Unmissable, this one. Daikon radish.
Konakara’s is not especially thick. It has sat properly in the gentle dashi broth and it is very good. The little gourd shape cut out of the middle is a nice touch — Konakara’s oden pot is gourd-shaped too, and there is a gourd in the shop’s mark, so these small flourishes are hard not to love.
Atsuage, from the day’s specials board, which I could not resist. Very good indeed.
It is grilled and nothing more, really, but it is delicious. The fragrance of the crisp charred edges, the fried tofu releasing its oil as you bite, and a little soy poured over. Married up with shochu, it is hard to beat.
Also from the specials, and also hard to resist: shiitake.
Soft and thick, and again simply grilled, but full of savoury depth.
A light squeeze of lemon works too. This is exactly what a drinking snack should be.
And this is the oyster oden.
Apparently it is the house speciality, so I ordered it — and it is very good indeed.
Less oden than a bowl of soup. The scent of yuzu and mitsuba, a herb something like a mild flat-leaf parsley, somehow reminds me of New Year zoni.
The oysters are plump with a strong savoury depth, and the gentle broth lifts that strong oyster flavour rather than fighting it. Really good.
Gobo-ten — burdock fritter — which is limited in number (I am weak to that sort of thing), and a fresh-laid egg.
I was always going to have the egg, but this egg is something else. The white has taken on the broth all the way through, and even the yolk is faintly moist. Presumably that comes from long, slow simmering. I can never peel a boiled egg this cleanly at home — and to peel a freshly laid one this cleanly is a real piece of skill.
The octopus skewer comes with sansho soy poured over it.
The octopus has taken the broth right through and softened to just the right resistance, and wrapped in the scent of sansho — the citrusy Japanese pepper that tingles on the tongue — it doubles in flavour. Octopus is better with soy to sharpen it up. I could have eaten another one of these.
Kikurage, wood ear mushroom, with a real crunch. I love that texture. Very good.
The nama-fu — steamed wheat gluten — is soft and takes the broth beautifully. And the hanpen fish cake is good too, which again must come down to this gentle dashi.
I did not feel like I had eaten that much oden, but I was quite full by the end. Or rather — I think I drank a good deal of shochu soda. Oden really is the perfect thing to drink alongside. Oden on a cold day is special, but this oden will surely be good once it warms up too, so this has become a shop I will go to whatever the season.
Konakara Honten (oden / Ochanomizu Station, Suehirocho Station, Shin-Ochanomizu Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
