We could be falling into a tourist trap in Asakusa, or we could be falling in meaty love.
One of the latest developments in the Japanese restaurant scene is the emergence of “inbound food,” culinary creations targeted squarely at foreign tourists from overseas with plenty of money in their pockets thanks to the weak yen. Moreover, a lot of inbound food is meant to cater to customers whose purchasing power outstrips their familiarity with authentic Japanese cuisine, often cramming luxurious ingredients with internationally famous names into places where they’re not generally found in meals made by Japanese chefs for Japanese diners.
Naturally, you’re most likely to encounter inbound food in neighborhoods that attract a lot of foreign tourists, such as the area around Sensoji Temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. And sure enough, on a recent stroll through Asakusa our Japanese-language reporter Takuya Inaba spotted a very inbound-y looking offering at cafe called Anna’s Crepe, which also has a takeout window.
“PREMIUM WAGYU JAPANESE BLACK BEEF,” announced the store’s sign in all-cap, giant-font text, displayed much more prominently than its Japanese-text equivalent. The sign then goes on to indicate that this is a “shoulder loin sukiyaki crepe,” name-dropping another Japanese foodstuff that’s known around the world.
This is obviously an inbound-oriented crepe…and yet, Takuya was intrigued. So he decided to roll the dice on this rolled-up luxury item, and ordered a Premium Wagyu Japanese Black Beef Shoulder Loin Sukiyaki Crepe with two slices of beef for 1,580 yen (US$10.90), about three times as much as you’d usually pay for a normal takeout crepe in Japan.
▼ Though looking at the rest of Anna’s Crepe’s options, even their sweet ones are pretty pricey.
To Takuya’s pleasant surprise, the wagyu crepe the staff handed over to him looked even tastier than the one in the photo. Sukiyaki is traditionally eaten by dipping the strips of beef into raw egg just before eating them, so the crepe is topped with an egg yolk, and it was perfectly rounded, with an enticing orange-gold hue.
Takuya started by breaking up the yolk so that it could seep into the rest of the crepe…
…and then it was time to take the first bite.
It was startlingly delicious. Takuya had been braced for the possibility that the strips of wagyu beef would be tiny, just enough to cover the crepe’s opening at the top. Instead, they stretched all the way to the bottom tip of the cone, delivering marvelous meaty mouthfuls from start to finish.
This wasn’t a case of quantity without quality, either. The beef was tender and juicy, and between the flavor and amount, Takuya started to feel like 1,580 yen price was justified, and that it might even represent a surprisingly good deal for what you get.
The crepe even has a bit of a mid-meal twist waiting for you. In addition to wagyu beef, egg yolk, and lettuce, it also has gochujang, the fermented red chili paste often found in Korean cooking. While gochujang isn’t at all a standard condiment for sukiyaki, its presence here, which comes on stronger in the lower strata of the crepe, means that the first half of the meal feels like eating sukiyaki, and the second feels like eating bulgogi.
So while Takuya, a native Japanese guy who’s not even a domestic tourist when he’s in Tokyo, clearly isn’t the target market for this crepe, he’s glad he gave it a shot, and next time he might just have to splurge for the even more premium three-slice version.
Location information
Anna’s Crepe/ アンナのクレープ
Address: Tokyo-to, Taito-ku, Asakusa 2-6-14
住所 東京都台東区浅草2-6-14
Open noon-5 p.m.
Closed Mondays (unless Monday is a holiday, in which case closed the following day)
Website
Photos © SoraNews24
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