The real soba experience in Asakusa
Tanso-an Kenjiro
You will never find Tanso-an Kenjiro unless you know how to find it. It is the Saint Graal of soba experience.
Kenjiro Suzuki has traveled around Japan during many years to learn his craft and soba making from every region of Japan. He did it the medieval way: working for soba-masters every where in Japan, walking every region. And mastered soba making, he did!
Today, his soba-ya is located in a small street, in the back side of Senso-ji. It is the Asakusa you do not know, the Asakusa of geisha and of the geisha syndicate, very close. Actually, Tanso-an is one of their favorite place. They gather there before working... The atmosphere is wonderful there. It feels like home.
The restaurant is small, cosy and decorated with taste: there are hundreds of kokeshi, the funny looking wood puppets and of frogs. Frogs are there to make you come back: in Japanese a frog is called "kaeru", and kaeru-the-frog has a phonetic equivalent, meaning: "come back"...
Kenjiro has gold in his hands. No, he has soba in his hands (buckweat?): Everyday, he mixes his flour and prepare soba "a la mode" of a region of Japan, and he prepares a lot of things to go with soba: nothing but nori and wasabi, tenpura, of course, etc.
This place is the real, authentic soba place. No franchised chain behind. No famous chefs. Just the guy loving what he is doing!
You want to know that Tanso an is not always open. It is closed on Sundays, and holidays, and matsuri-days.
Claire
Belgium
