David @ Tokyo

Bistro Kinta is a rather pricey izakaya that seems to specialize in French cuisine. I checked it out once a couple of months ago. While the food was very nice, a decent meal costs a fair bit more than one usually wants to pay, so I had passed up further opportunities to eat there.

Then about a week or so back Kana and I happened to pass by and she noticed (for my benefit) some interesting items on the menu:

English translation of the 5th item from the top:

Minke whale, seared (tataki) or deep fried (tatsuta-age) - 1,200

With my eye (constantly in search of whale cuisine), I doubt I could have missed this when I dined there previously, so I assumed that this was a new addition to their menu in the interim.
(Funny, I didn't know whale was an ingredient in French cuisine?!)

Anyway, I naturally managed to find an opportunity to sample one of these seemingly new additions (i.e., earlier this evening).


Out of this picture to the right was my dish of shoyu (soy sauce) and another of ponzu (a sauce which looks similar to soy sauce but also with citrus juice mixed, in I gather). This was the first time for me to try while with ponzu. It was OK, but I reverted to the standard of whale, with ginger, dipped in plain soy sauce.

Very good! I knew I could expect quality at Bistro Kinta (^o^)

I'd like to give the tatsuta-age a try as well sometime, but like I said, this isn't the type of place that the old wallet says you can go to every day of the month... The minke dish alone was 1,200 yen (about 9.8 USD using current x-rates), but I also had another salad dish, a beer, myer's rum (on the rocks)... Throw in the service charge and it all starts to mount up.

Labels: whale gourmet, whale meat market