Best oden experience at Nakagawa, Tokyo, Japan
Oden is a Japanese stew with all sorts of ingredients cooked in a pot of light, soy flavoured dashi broth. It's not super saucy with thick gravy like a western stew and really the complete opposite of what you'd expect out of a stew. Despite being "light", the flavour it has gathered from all the ingredients cooked in the broth, you can taste the natural sweetness and you can really go on and on eating it without feeling "jelak" (you won't be sick of eating it).
Nakagawa is just a small little shop and not even a bit eye-catching. If you aren't on the lookout for it, you will most definitely walk right pass it.
The set-up is extremely cozy with no more than 10 seatings. Seated by the counter, pretty much an "open kitchen" concept, up close and personal with the owner/chef.
The different types of plates and glasses up on display. I doubt he uses even a tiny fraction of it but it gives the places a little bit of character. He probably chooses his plates depending on his mood when serving the food.
The owner doesn't speak English, at all. So communication was a bit of a problem but we were lucky in a way, one of the customers that night was able to help us with some translation work. Clearly, my half-cooked (actually it's probably like 0.5%) knowledge in the Japanese language wasn't that useful.
We didn't even know what to order! So what was on the plate that night was pretty much recommendations from all the other patrons. "Give them the egg!" "Give them the ginkgo!" It's like a plate of random jackpots.
Mustard on the side, this plate consist of daikon, egg, mushroom, cabbage and that white noodle thing.
Followed by another plate of gingko, melon, tofu, egg in something (lol told you, it's a random plate of jackpot. We had no idea what we got ourself into), tuna and leek on a stick.
Texture wise, what should have crunch, retained its crunch; what should be soft, dissolved as you bite into it.
In between we were savouring tuna sashimi and cured mackerel. To be honest, I never fully enjoyed tuna sashimi except the ones in Japan. Ah noms. Cured mackerel with a tinge of vinegar lingering in your mouth helps freshen up the palette.
Ended our meal with a very satisfying bowl of ochazuke. Ochazuke is a very simple dish that consist of pouring green tea, dashi or hot water over a bowl of rice, topped with nori (seaweed), furikake and etc. But the best part with the one at Nakagawa, the dashi was from the same oden broth! All that goodness from the oden broth now in the form that you can slurp from. He also added a piece of seared tuna and served us pickles on the side. This was also the the very first time I've tried pickled asam flower.
Kudos to them and everyone else present that night for making it such a memorable experience. The lady sitting next to us even shared with us her own bottle of whisky when we tried to order highball (the owner doesn't serve whisky).
If you ever crave for oden or want to try oden, give Nakagawa a shot! They're open 5-10pm and closes only on Sunday. It's approximately 4000 yen for 2 pax. I'm even throwing in the name card which I usually don't but I am, so yes. GO TO NAKAGAWA. period.
Address
2 Chome-12 Kanda Sudacho Chiyoda-ku Tokyo
