tokyo_mb | A brief post

Waved goodbye (again) to

lilitufire this morning, at least until next Monday when I am back in the UK and we get to do the "meet the parents" thing with mine.

Last night we had a lovely (if pricey) teppanyaki meal at Seryna Mon Cher Ton Ton on the 52nd floor of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku. Unfortunately the view wasn't as clear as in these pictures, but it was still nice to be up so high.

It was a dinner of some notable firsts - first time eating real caviar, also abalone and Kobe beef - washed down with a nice Aussie Merlot. Verdict on those eating firsts:

Caviar (Osetra) - served on blini, with creme fraiche, cooked egg yolk and raw onion to taste. Pleasant, but not sure it's worth the fuss. As Lisa commented, lumpfish would probably do just as well, and be a lot more environmentally friendly!.
Abalone - cooked on the teppan grill, served with a choice of garlic butter or vinegar based sauce. A firm fleshed shellfish, described by Lisa as being much like a very large snail in taste. The liver was definitely the tastiest bit. My reaction, I'd probably go with the lobster option on the menu on a future occasion.
Kobe beef - cooked rare on the teppan grill, served with a choice of salt, almond sauce or onion sauce. Definitely up there with the other premium Japanese beef, but whether this is the best of the lot, I am not sure. Lovely melt in the mouth meat as a result of the fat marbling. Very good!