Kushiage dinner

Kushiage refers to pieces of vegetables, meat or seafood placed on a kushi (bamboo skewer), coated in a batter then age (deep fried). It is enjoyed at a counter in front of the chef frying the kushiage. The concept is really simple: the chef asks each customer if there's any ingredient he does not like, then he starts preparing the kushiage and keeps serving one after another until you say stop.

We tried kushiage at Tatsukichi. Their main restaurant is in Shinjuku but we went to their Akihabara branch, in the UDX building close to Akihabara JR Station. On this Friday night, the restaurant was full and luckily we were the only ones waiting and 15 minutes later two diners left.

We were the only gaijin (foreigners) in the restaurant. Our friendly counter neighbors, who did not speak any English,  were amused at our chopstick skills and we somehow managed to share some good laughs.

 We were offered a tofu-based starter, 4 dipping sauces, lemon, salt and some sliced vegetables.

Here's our chef busy preparing our kushiage, once we had confirmed our preferences.

These are our first 4 Kushiage. For each one the chef indicated which dip was best (or lemon juice or salt)

And so it went until we were full and asked the chef to stop.  He then offered the following dish (no idea what it was)...

followed by a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, which was perfect after all the deep-fried Kushiage.

Finally, some hot tea. While drinking our tea, the cook counted the number of sticks we had consumed and noted it down.

Despite its simplicity, our kushiage dinner was such a fun and enjoyable meal. We are so glad to have tried this new/different Japanese cuisine!

Shinjuku Tatsukichi - Akihabara branch
UDX Building, Akihabara, Tokyo
http://www.shinjuku-tatsukichi.com/accessakiba.html