浅草で牡蠣料理に車坂、海風土、氷見を合わせて「目から鱗」

Good evening!
Thank you very much for visiting this blog.
Today’s article is about a restaurant “Mekara Uroko” in Asakusa.

Contents

〇　Jyakotsuyu before dinner

On the day, I visited “Tsuki Shrine” which I wrote about in a few times ago. I visited other places around by walk, so I had swelled legs by the evening. Before going to the restaurant, I went to a public bath of natural hot spring called “Jakotsuyu” near Kokusai-Dori in Asakusa.

The name “Jakotsuyu (In Japanese, ‘hot spring of sneak’s bone”)” sounds very interesting in Japanese language as well.
Its establishment is in Edo period.

The origin of the name is that there were terraced houses called “Jakotsu Nagaya” in this place before the spring was found.
I imagine that the reason why the houses were named “Jakotsu” = “Snake’s bone” is that the builders found some snake bones when they dug out the ground to build houses.

It’s not a big spa because it’s in the town.
They have an outdoor bath where you can enjoy Japanese garden while having bath, and there is a painted wall of Mt. Fuji picture which is a very typical sight of Japanese public bath.

Furthermore, they have sauna rooms, jet bath, and an electric bath (bath with very little electricity in the water to make it good for body) as long as I saw in the rooms for men.

In Tokyo, big city, Jakotsuyu provides us with atmosphere of Onsen!
If you are interested in Jakotsuyu, please visit the web site.
*Jakotsuyu was closed on the end of May, 2019

〇　“Mekara Uroko”

I stayed at this public bath for an hour, and after that, I went to have massage for another hour, and finally came to the restaurant around 11 p.m.

I actually had passed the restaurant some times, and wanted to try seeing a display of oyster shells and menu of Sake which are nice with seafood in front of the entrance.

When I entered, a group of 6 people was having a party at the back of the room.
I was by myself, so I took a counter seat.
I ordered a drink first.. I had not drunk or eaten for 4 hours, so I ordered a beer to relieve my thirst.

Ooooohhhhh…… A beer after sweating and getting thirsty is really good!

If I was younger, I would drink it up at one gulp, but I didn’t do it considering my body.
This is the menu.

From the food menu, I ordered a seafood salad, steamed oysters, and grilled oysters.
This is the seafood salad below.

And the steamed oysters.

The left one is with lemon salt, and the right is with ponzu vinegar (mix of soy sauce and citrus vinegar) jelly.
They were done just right, and the juice of oysters and the sauces went very nice together.

The next one is grilled oysters.

The left is with leek and salt sauce, and the right is with salt Koji (malted rice).
When I tried to eat one oyster at one bite, the hot juice came out in my mouth.

In addition, I also ordered Iwagaki oysters.
This restaurant buys Iwagaki oysters from many ports of various places in Japan.

There was a blackboard on which where the day’s oysters came from was written.
On this day, I remember that 5 areas were written, but I only took 3 of them considering the condition of my wallet and health.

The taste was……, I don’t have enough writing skill to describe the differences of each oyster
However, I can say that they had different taste and thickness of the flavor. What I can say is, “Delicious!”.

〇　Sake good with Seafoods

Well, I’ve written about oysters so far, but this restaurant also had characteristic in Sake.
The Sake menu showed,

Good Sake as I often see at other places. What is interesting about their menu is,

Another Sake menu to show Sake which taste good with seafoods.
Furthermore, they had another good service.

They serve tasting cups of 3 Sake with convenient price.
There was no other way but ordering it.

The staff filled the glasses with 3 Sake to the brims. From the left, “Kurumazaka”, “Sea Food”, and “Himi” (I think).
Maybe because I was taking pictures so studiously, the staff kindly gave me such good service of filling up the glasses.

I was so happy and appreciated it a lot!

My impression of each Sake was as following;

Kurumazaka

The full name is “Kurumazaka Ginjo, Ginjoshu for fish food from Kishu-Kuroshio”.
The brewery is Yoshimura Hideo Shoten in Wakayama Prefecture.
It basically tasted of a dry Sake, and sweetness and other flavors which typical Ginjoshu has were added.

Sea Food

The name “海風土” is pronounced as “Sea Food”. “海” is a letter for “Sea”, and “風土” is read as “Fudo” which sounds same as “Food” in Japanese pronunciation.
Both name and label are tasteful.
This is made by Imada Shuzo Honten in Hiroshima who also makes a sake “Fukucho”.
According to the brewery’s website, their concept is making good Sake for the local seafoods, especially the western seafood dishes.
They make sake reminiscent of fresh citrus using white Koji.
It had sweetness like of fruits, and it was rather like white wine.

Himi

The full name is “Himi Hatsuarashi Junmaishu”, and it’s made by Takasawa Shuzojo in Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, which is famous for yellowtail fish.
At the first sip, it tasted like barreled liquor, and was sharp and had clear aftertaste.
When I had oysters with it, the barrel taste became weak and rice’s flavor appeared.

Each sake had characteristics, and it was also interesting that the taste changed or became deeper when I had them with oysters.
I wanted to try some more; especially “Ochazuke of fish stock soup”, but I was going to another restaurant for research after so I finished it here.

The location of this restaurant is between Kokusai-Dori and Hisago-Dori in Asakusa.
It’s not so far from the way from my work to home, so I decided to come again on the way home on another day and have “Ochazuke” then.

This restaurant serves good oysters, and good Sake which go great with oysters.
It’s a very nice service for Sake lovers like me. They tell us how to enjoy Sake in an interesting way.
As the restaurant’s name says, it’s “Mekara Uroko” (means “See the light”).

There are various ways to enjoy Asakusa.
If you don’t have chance to go to Asakusa often, I think that places where you can enjoy old Edo culture like “Miyatogawa” will be good.
If you like Sake and can go to Asakusa frequently, I recommend you go this “Mekara Uroko” to enjoy nice oysters and Sake.