Enjoyed Edo Sake and Foods at “Miyatogawa”, Asakusa – Part 2

Good evening.
Thank you very much for visiting this blog.
It’s been a while since the last update, and this time is the second part of the report of a restaurant “Miyatogawa” near the west approach to Sensouji Temple.

I introduce two Nihonshu called “Edo Genroku no Osake” and “Bakumatsu Keiou no Osake” in the last article, and this time I write about the foods.
Let’s see the menu.

The number of their food menu was less than I expected. Well, I let’s not complain.
In order to complete my vegetable-first diet, I ordered a vegetable dish with the restaurant’s name, “Miyatogawa salad”

I heard that the normal size was too big for one person, so I asked a half size which you can see in the photo above.
If I were younger, I would have ordered the normal size looking forward to seeing how big it would be.
However, now I’m older and the doctor said that I must do calorie restriction, so I didn’t try it. The salad tasted good.

The next one was “Tempura sticks”.

They were tempura of shiitake mushroom, shrimp, muscle of shellfish, Japanese leek, and zucchini.
The dipping sauce for tempura, grated daikon radish, salt with maccha powder and shrimp powder were served for the seasonings. All the tempura were just cooked and hot, and the doneness was just right. Each ingredient had its taste well.
I personally liked “shrimp salt” the best overall while the matching differed in each ingredient.

I studied about Edo tempura a little on the internet (The Teacher Wikipedia, as usual) before writing this blog, and knew that in Edo period, tempura was served on sticks like this at food stands. This restaurant serves how they did in Edo period.
In the end of Edo era, tempura started to be served in restaurants, not at food stands, and after Meiji, tempura changed to a rich menu of high-classed restaurants like it is now from fast-food at food stands.

I came back to the menu book to find the next one to order.
I thought it was rather strange that they had only little number of food menu, and after a while, I finally noticed it.

One page was sticking on another, and two pages became one. The page in the photos above were missing^^;

The photos don’t show all the letters, but they had “Hirousu – deep fried tofu mixed with vegetable flakes”, “Tofu Dengaku – grilled tofu with miso paste”, and some other tofu dishes which were introduced in an old book “Tofu Hyakuchin”. (Maybe it’s more famous for being featured in a Japanese cartoon.)
There were many attractive dishes, and I decided the next orders considering some things such as my stomach’s limit.

The first one is “3 snacks on a plate”.

From the left, cooked short-neck clams, sesame tofu, and tuna Shuto (salted and fermented tuna entrails).
All of them were delicious, but especially the sesame tofu was great with sesame’s natural sweetness.
The next one I ordered was “Stewed cow”.

All the ingredients – many vegetables, tofu, and beef line meat which was so soft including its gristle – absorbed the slightly sweet-dashi soup a lot. It was so good.
The last one to conclude this meal was this.

The name was “Fukagawa Bukkake Meshi”.
Bukkake means pouring soup in the bowl, and Meshi is rice.
You might think that “Fukagawa (another town in Tokyo)” in Asakusa’s restaurant is strange, but please do not mind too much.

This one was really good!
The spring onion, cooked clams, rice, and miso-based soup made a fantastic combination in a bowl.
According to the menu book, this dish was made after a historical novel “Kenkaku Shobai”. I couldn’t help praising the author Shotaro Ikenami who invented such a wonderful dish.

I enjoyed both sake and foods a lot.
Their signboard saying “Edo food and sake” was very correct.
Their menu was arranged strictly according to their concept of “Edo food and sake”. Their location which is near Sensouji Temple should be the big reason for it.
Their name “Miyatogawa” is how people call Sumida River in Asakusa area, which should be the origin of the name.

I strongly recommend you visiting this restaurant where you can enjoy the old sake and foods in Edo times near Sensouji if you have chance to come to Asakusa.
Of course, it’s a good one for frequent visit. I’d like to come again to try other menus.

It’s our great pleasure if this article is helpful for you.