A note on the words: mapo tofu is tofu in a hot, savoury minced-meat sauce, and huajiao (Japanese sansho) is the Sichuan pepper that numbs the tongue. Saliva chicken is the literal translation of koushui ji, poached chicken under a chilli-oil dressing so good it is said to make you salivate. Shiso is a green herb leaf of the mint family, zhacai is pickled mustard stem, and tianmianjiang is the sweet wheat-and-bean paste used with Peking duck.
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Ganso Mabo Dofu, Shinjuku on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Lovers of heat, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
This time, to Ganso Mabo Dofu in Shinjuku. I saw it on a YouTube video by the comedy duo Kamaitachi, or something of the sort, where they said the takeaway mapo tofu here was good — so I went with someone who likes hot food. The sort of Chinese place in a crowded multi-tenant building.
It was nothing like what I had imagined.
The staff are Chinese, of course. And as they handed over the menu they pushed the all-you-can-eat-and-drink very hard indeed. No, we cannot eat that much, so we do not need it. The pressure was considerable, but we pushed back — a la carte is fine, thank you — and we were away.
If you had a big eater with you it would no doubt be a fine thing.
Well, first, a beer.
The first beer is the best one.
I asked for heat level three, and was told, “That is definitely hot, so level one or two would be better!”
Well, if you put it like that… level two, then.
Although — if there is a super-extra-hot on the menu, surely level three is not so much? Then again, just in case…
And while I was thinking that, it arrived. It does not radiate any great aura of heat.
A mouthful, and…
it is not hot at all.
What sort of customers who cannot take heat are they usually getting? Well, never mind.
The base of the flavour seems to be a dozen or so spices sent from Sichuan and the numbing of huajiao, Sichuan pepper. It arrives still in the hot stone pot, with a thickened sauce clinging closely to the tofu and the minced-meat miso. There is a good deal of potato starch in it, giving a dense, chewy mapo tofu. The heat is mild, to put it kindly. Something like Chen Mapo Dofu would make you say that is hot; this does not go nearly so far. The numbing of Sichuan pepper tells, and the savour and depth of the house minced-meat miso are easy to read.
I had ordered water spinach in case things turned out to be hot — and was rather left hanging.
The freshly fried wrapper is thin and crisp, and collapses with a light sound as you bite. What appears from inside is the plump spring of prawn and the fresh scent of shiso. Fried though it is, the coolness of the green shiso lightens the finish. If I were to say one thing: I would like a little more of the mustard alongside.
Now that we knew this place is not so hot,
I had the saliva chicken done at heat level three. Right, let us see.
The tingling numbness of Sichuan pepper, with heat and salt telling firmly — a wild sort of flavour. Saliva chicken of the local kind, pushing at you with punch? The heat is ordinary. A chilli-oil sauce clings to the moist chicken, with the toastiness of crushed peanuts over it. Hot enough that you can still read all of that. Very good.
The super-extra-hot is probably not much either, so I decided against paying the extra 500 yen to find out.
That is large.
A house speciality dim sum with real impact. Big, and served on a sizzling iron plate. The toasted fragrance of the well-browned wrapper, and the juices flooding out of it, are good. One is quite enough to satisfy; with a whole plate of these you would be full.
Looking around the room, I spotted something not on the regular menu.
There you are — this sort of thing is exactly what you cannot have on the all-you-can-eat, is it not?
Sweet and sour pork from northeastern China — of the guobaorou line, I think. The mark of it is pork beaten thin, battered and fried, then coated in a sweet-and-sour sauce. The batter is very thick and this too is substantial. Bite in and the batter cracks, and a beat later sweetness and acidity spread out. I may rather like a firm batter of this sort, like a fritter.
This one is interesting. Peking duck, but with pork?
Shredded pork stir-fried in tianmianjiang sweet bean sauce; wrap it with fine-shredded spring onion and cucumber in a thin pancake, and you feel entirely as though you are eating Peking duck. This can be done very cheaply and is thoroughly satisfying — a fine invention. A nicely conceived dish that lets you have the pleasure of Peking duck, casually, with pork.
And to finish, a little of the gently spicy zhacai.
So — I had thought I might get to taste something ferociously hot, but the original aim was to try the mapo tofu, and it was indeed a good mapo tofu. A good deal of potato starch, plenty of spice, and it would go well with rice. Anyone confident with heat should simply take level three as standard. For a serious hot-food gathering, the super-extra-hot is surely the way.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Ganso Mabo Dofu, Shinjuku (Sichuan / Shinjuku Station, Tochomae Station, Shinjuku-nishiguchi Station)
Tabelog evening rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
