Azabujuban Fukuda

Dining around the globe is a hobby for us, and this was one of best meals we’ve had in quite some time. First, it’s worth pointing out that in the past few years, Chef Fukuda seems to have pivoted his style a bit. When I read about him a few years ago, he tended to use simpler cheaper ingredients. ...He is now targeting the higher end of the food chain. Luxury was rained down upon us. Female crab legs with (a lot of) its roe. Shark fin chawanmushi. A massive abalone with white miso and turnip. Grilled channel rock fish in a light smoky broth. Generally executed expertly and sensitively. The natural flavours of the main ingredient were delicately handled and never overpowered (except for the shark fin, which, as the Cantonese say, is supposed to be a sponge for delivering other flavours). The pièce de résistance was a guilty pleasure - tilefish cooked into a ceramic pot of rice. I’ve never seen this combination before. It felt almost like an exercise in overkill. The expensive tilefish cooked down and mixed into the rice, like it was a poor man’s fish. Don’t get me wrong, the technique was excellent. The rice formed a charred layer in bottom of the ceramic pot, charring with the broth and tilefish essence to give off a delightful maillard aroma. But the purist in me was a bit conflicted about whether this is the best way to treat the ingredient (but clearly I was not conflicted enough - I ended up wolfing down 3 bowls). Chef Fukuda and his wife Satomi were as smiley and delightful as advertised. Excellent meal.

Visited December 2019