Itadakimasu

Tonight I went out to dinner with my mama at Gazen and I could not have been any happier.  Gazen is Izakaya-style, smaller, appetizer-like portions.  It was some of the best Japanese food I've had in a while.

Ganzen makes all their own tofu so as a self-declared tofu fanatic, I had to try it.  We had the tofu sampler which included the "Zaru" tofu, "Sukui" tofu, and the Kurogoma tofu.  The zaru was the plain tofu, my favorite, that you can eat alone or with sea salt, black pepper, and shoyu.  The sukui tofu reminded me a lot of chawanmushi, creamy with a slight hint of miso.  I found out that the sauce is actually made out of soymilk.  The kurogoma tofu was the most interesting because it didn't look or taste like tofu.  It had a sweet taste from the black sesame seeds (kurogoma).

 

Homemade Sukui tofu

 

Homemade Kurogoma tofu

 

Homemade Zaru tofu

We then ordered deep fried tako (octopus) with lemon, sea salt, and black pepper, along with clams steamed in a sake broth.  We also had pepper crusted pork in a white garlic sauce, though in a moment of consuming hunger I forgot to photograph.  Next we had the "Agedashi" style, deep fried tofu mochi.  It came in this bonnito broth, sprinkled with nori strips.  This was so delicious, now one of my favorite ways to eat tofu.

 

Deep-fried tako

 

Steamed clams in sake broth

 

"Agedashi" style tofu mochi

Finally for dessert I had the Sweet Potato Mochi with ice cream served with a Earl Grey Sauce.  This dessert was legit.  The mochi was so sweet and chewy, a nice contrast to the cold and creamy ice cream.  I was curious about the earl grey sauce, since it is tea based but holy crap, it complimented both the sweet potato and the ice cream so well.  This is a must have the next time I go there to eat. 

 

Sweet Potato Mochi with Ice Cream and an Earl Grey Sauce 

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*All photographs taken on my BlackBerry bold