Toritsu - Nakameguro yakitori

True to our word, we visited Chika-san (and Zona-san, the grillmaster) at her yakitori shop down the road from Ichiya. She makes her own umeshu and the restaurant itself has been in her family for over 30 years. The yakitori still had a nice smokiness and char - surprising, given that it was a gas grill.

Yakitori skewer - Liver - レバー (Reba).

Liver - レバー (Reba)

Yakitori skewer - Onion.

Tokyo Negi (onion)

Yakitori skewer - Meatball - つくね (Tsukune)

Meatball - つくね (Tsukune)

This is the first time we’ve had tsukune with salt, not tare (sauce).

Pour umeshu into a highball class

Umeshu highball - 1 part umeshu, 1 part soda water.

She gave some hints for her secret homemade umeshu - she dropped the amount of sugar by 20% and upped the normal amounts of ume by 50%. Normally it’s 1:1. After 3 months in a dark place it’s good to go - but she’s had some batches go for a year.