Monja-yaki in Asakusa: Tokyo’s Soul Food

Do you like barbecue? I do! I can enjoy cooking as well as the foods themselves. The flavour makes me so hungry. That’s the absolute advantage of BBQ. Every time I visit Asakusa, I enter a Monja-yaki restaurant, which is a soul food of Tokyo.

They serve a bowl of ingredients and a hot plate.

Monja Ingredients

The ingredients are water, flour, cabbage, dry shrinp, seafood, spicy fish egg, and sometimes cheese, rice cake and so on.

Put them on the hot plate, heat and mix them until it becomes soft and thick, and…

Monja-yaki on the hot plate

Finish! Too soon, isn’t it? But that’s all. I had it with the mini slice directly from the hot plate. This photo reminds me of the delicious taste and makes me hungry again…

Yedo Monja Hyotan
11:00 – 22:00
Closed on 2nd & 4th Tuseday
Turn left from Nakamise Street
Google Map

Tokyo’s Monja-yaki is soft and that’s the identity of Monja. It is different from Osaka’s Okonomi-yaki and Hiroshima‘s Hiroshima-yaki. Maybe I’ll show them someday.

I remember my friend who used to live near Asakusa told me that children there go to Monja after school every other day.

Then, is Monja a meal or a snack? Nobody knows. It’s a B-class food.

When we travel in a new place, a soul food will tell us the life there. Do you try Monja in Asakusa?

Links

Asakusa Sightseeing Guide by Tokyo Direct Guide