MA BO DO FU

Mabodofu Japan Style

Not only fun to say but delicious to eat! You can find this dish outside of Japan for sure. In it's natural form, it's spicy as hell and meant to make you sweat. Originally from Sichuan Province in China, it's been adapted to suit local tastes wherever you can find it outside of China. You see this one as a vegetarian option in the states but typically it's served with minced pork. The Japanese take on it usually has the spiciness reduced to non Sichuan levels. Making it palatable to humans who didn't grow up with Heaven Facing Chilis on their dinner tables. Think habaneros, only angrier.

Anywho, I LOVE this dish and I prefer the Japanese take on it to the American one (overall though American Chinese is phenomenal in my opinion, more like egg foo yum!)

Welcome to Gabi San! Which is the Japanese reading for Mt. Emei, a mountain in Sichuan Province in China. This place is located in my favorite neighborhood in Shinjuku, Araki Cho. Just find that green sign and head up the stairs!

There's the menu. Not so helpful. They have an English one maybe but again, like most places, the menu is seasonal. If you notice at the top this menu is for May 20th to June 4th. So it's only got a 2 week shelf life. Not important though! Because there are 2 things that you come here for and both are ALWAYS on the menu.

As you can see, everything is 950 Yen, so about 8USD. So it's cheap as chips for what you are going to get. Dinner here has a much larger much pricier menu so this is a definite lunch place.

I dare you to eat this with chopsticks.

Get the MABODOFU! It's INCREDIBLE! It will fill your tummy with sunshine and give your lips a weird numbing sensation. There is a Japanese pepper called Sansho in this dish. It's a peppercorn, not a chili pepper. And it makes your lips go a little numb! It's has a citrusy kick to it and is often served as a condiment in Japan. Here they put it right into the Mabo.

The "A" is for awesome.

They also give you an extra shaker of the sansho pepper on your tray. Just in case you want to really flavor that dish up and knock out all feeling around your lips. Go for it! You're on holiday!

The lunch set will come with egg drop soup which is refillable! You can also refill your rice bowl. If you refill your rice bowl a 3rd time though the saucy woman who runs this place will tell you to knock it off, you're putting on weight. 

You also get...whatever that is! I'm guessing pickled bamboo? I'll get back to you. It was good though, eat it. Get a refill, take a selfie with it.

Dish number 2! If you go as a group of 2 or more I highly recommend one person getting the Mabo and one person getting these noodles. Tantan men with thick or thin noodles. In summer time you can order this dish hot or ice cold. I am fairly certain the ice cold version is a Japanese take on this dish. It's summer here now so I'll be showing you some more ice noodles soon enough. If you try the ice cold noddles, it will compliment the Mabo nicely, which is molten hot. Seriously, you could dump the Mabo into the ocean and it would turn into landmass.

Tantan men is a wonderful, slightly spicy, minced pork and miso noodle soup that will knock the hangover right out of you. It comes with chahan (fried rice) on the side. When you finish those noodles you can dump the rice into the broth if you like, for a Sichuan gruel. I love putting rice in soups.

Condiment alert! Red is for Rayu, spicy chili oil. The green is soy sauce and the yellow one is Chinese White Vinegar.

Now, while this place is delicious I don't recommend it for dinner. Go for that Mabo lunch special. Here's a little advice about how to fit this into your day in Tokyo.

• Go to JR Yotsuya
• Grab Coffee and croissants at Paul (a chain of bakeries from France)
• Go check out the Gehinkan. It's also called Akasaka Place and is the State Guest House of Japan. Visiting dignitaries and royalty stay here when in town. It's beautiful, looks like a European Palace with a very Japanese feel. If no one is staying there you can enter for free and walk around taking a few photos.
• Next go to Yotsuya San Chome. You can go back to Yotsuya Metro Station and get on the marunouchi line, only one stop. If you don't have subway passes and there is more than one of you take a cab, it will be cheaper. Or you can walk, about 20 minutes.
• Check out the Yotsuya Fire Museum, which goes over about 1500 years worth of Fire Fighting History in Tokyo (it's mostly in Japanese  but if you have an hour to kill this is an easy option and pretty fun)
• Walk up the road to Gabi San for your MaBo Dofu Lunch! Achievement unlocked!

Enjoy!