Fugu Diaries

Sometimes it pays to work late. Last Friday, I was working in the office until past 8 o’clock, so Patrick met me at a bar downstairs so we could have dinner together. We had no clue about where we should go, so Patrick did a search on the Web with his cell phone and we ended up at a small place called Buri in Akasaka, a few minutes away. The restaurant was so well hidden in a narrow alley that it took us a little while to find it.

We ended up at a corner seat at the bar, which had a good view of the kitchen. In our particular corner, they had set up a small charcoal pit, where they grill vegetables, fish and meat. We ended up with a great meal. The sashimi were pristine, the sesame tofu was so dense with sesame paste, the lima beans that were grilled in their shell melted in your mouth, and the garlic french fries were satisfyingly garlicky. Patrick chose two sakes from an extensive list and I had my usual, a plum wine with soda water. The entire bill? About 8,000 yen - a real bargain.

— Yukari