Hachibe

In Japan, there is a genre of restaurants serving inner parts of animals, called “Horumon”, a name coming from medical term hormone, believing that inside of animals contains source of energy. But this type of restaurants tends to lack in delicate technique. They are cheap, good but very crude. Som...e of them make customers bake their own meat. One of the great exceptions is Hachibei, located on the narrow alley called Yanagi kouji in downtown Kyoto. Reservation is needed, for dinner course (6800JPY). Please make sure you get the counter seats. You only choose drinks. Starters were three. Cow’s Achilles tendon with ponzu sauce. A very refreshing appetizer, making us wonder if this really is a part of cow. No smell or fat. Hatsumoto with Chinese sesame oil sauce. Hatsumoto is aortae, very crisp and crunchy. Hachinosu with sesame paste sauce. Hachinosu is literally, honeycomb tripe (second stomach) of cow. While the first two we have never eaten before, this ingredient is familiar like French, but the taste was superb. All three starters were well prepared, and imaginative. Next up was Harami sushi. Harami is outside skirt, red meat but butchers in Japan deals this part with lung, which outside skirt supports, so this part also is considered inner part. After rather exotic appetizers, the straightforward red meat sushi was a good idea. Rebanira is a very popular Japanese style Chinese dish, stir-fried Chinese chive and lever. But of course here the image of salty, greasy, high calorie dish is completely turned over. Chive (nira) and lever (reba) are cooked separately. Chive marinated with a pinch of sesame oil, and lever is roasted slowly at low temperature. These two finally met in our mouth, creating very deep, satisfying flavor. One of the most opinionated dishes in tonight’s course, we could feel the esprit of the restaurant. Then, Hatsu yamakake. Hatsu (hearts) is my favorite part, but I never imagined that this can be had like this. Grated Japanese yam, Okra, wasabi, all we mixed and sipped. Traditional Japanese style, applied to Horumon ingredients. Next was warm item. A bowl of dashi soup, meat ball made of minced tongue and shredded ginger on top. Again tongue is my favorite, but I always believed in lemon and salt. Incredibly good tastes. Next was lever paste. On green salads, a ball of lever paste and toast. I recommend this one for lever-haters, as the peculiar smell and idiosyncrasy are dashed out. Now we entered the stage of yakiniku, roasted meat. Today we were offered four kinds. Yan (small knubby part near honeycomb tripe), very rare, but not expensive. As you can imagine, making this part edible takes long hours of cleaning and delicate technique. Thick, and a little fatty, but mild sweetness satisfied us. Cheek. Face of cow is familiar, like Boeuf Bourginion. A bit hard, as face muscle moves frequently, but taste is rich and full of gelatin. Hatsu (hearts) came back again. The cooks here roast meat so carefully, we only chatted, drank, and enjoyed conversations. What a difference with a cheap Horumon station, where we must do all the jobs, and must protect your own meat from other people’s robbery. Sagari, or Hanging tender. A part underneath the outside skirt, very mild and full of flavor. Throughout the course, in front of us there was a pot, simmering with very good smell, we could not help pay attention to. Finally, the soup in the pot appeared, as a bowl of tongue slices with potherb mustard. After enjoying the bowl, they offered us Shime no chukasoba (closing ramen), simply put the fine Chinese egg noodle in the soup. Lemon sorbet nicely concluded the great dinner course. Only setback is that this place’s wine list is very limited. When we had dinner, only brand available was Sangre de Toro (White half, and Red full we consumed), so we switched to independently brewed dark beer and shochu (Japanese spirit). For foreign visitors, it may be a little bit adventurous, but I think your adventure will be very successful.

Visited September 2015