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2010-02-13

Katsugiya/Ogawamachi
かつぎや/小川町

 

I hesitated a bit before posting this one, but I felt that it was worth it as they have an odd item on the menu that may attract people and it is best to let them know our opinion. This place Katsugiya is in Ogawamachi near one of the Tokyo engineering colleges, just south of Yasukuni Dori and east of Jinbocho Station. On the Google Maps link below, it shows as being in the middle of the college according to its address, but it is actually in the middle of the south side of the street immediately north. Disappointing number of people in there, perhaps it was the weather today as it has been extremely cold and miserable this week (and last week, etc.) I had heard from an associate at work that the dan-dan men was very good. You can choose your spiciness level from 1 (least) to 5 (most) for all of the dan-dan men and like dishes. I ended up having the shiru nashi paiko dan-dan men (汁なし排骨担々麺), which sort of misses though. It's an interesting combination of flavors. Paiko (or possibly pronounced haiko) is a pork steak or big spare rib, sometimes with the bone-in, sometimes pounded flat, and then grilled in the wok, sort of like tonkatsu but not as deep-fried in deep oil, and with a thinner breading, more like weinerschnitzel. This was chopped up and placed on top of a bed of noodles and cabbage, with some condensed dan-dan men broth, more like a sauce, drizzled on top and more placed in the bowl below it. Something just didn't work for this for me though, it might have been the thin purplish-brown fishy strips that there in there, you see those in some types of yaki-soba also. What this dish needed was more spice (I got a 2, should have gotten a 3 or 4), more salt, less fish flavor and more of some other type of flavor.

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