ONCE in a LIFETIME MICHELIN STAR Japanese King Crab Experience & BEST Yakisoba in Tokyo

Hey guys, it's Mike Chen. Before getting to this video, my Japan snack boxes has just arrived for the month of April and they are amazing. So first, a little Japanese snacks review from the sponsor of this video, Tokyo Treat and Sakura Co. Let's do Tokyo Treat first. As you can already tell from the box, this month's theme is Sakura Picnic Party. And if you don't know, Sakura Co. and Tokyo Treat are Japanese subscription snack boxes and as soon as you open the box, you'll see a pamphlet detailing every single snack that's in the box, as well as really cool cultural information about Japan. And inside the Tokyo Treat box, you'll get 20 of the latest, most exclusive limited edition and seasonal flavor Japanese snacks, all sourced from Japan and delivered to your door anywhere in the world. Like peach KitKats, best KitKats in the world. These are amazing. Sakura Rice Crackers, Strawberry Soda, and these are made with king strawberries. Spicy Japanese ramen. It's spicy, the noodle is chewy. Now for the Sakura Co. box and this month's theme is Arrival of Sakura. Again, a Sakura themed snack box. Beautiful Sakura soft candy. These are some of my favorite crackers in the world. A Sakura cake, sweet Sakura tea, super floral castella. That's a great combo. And with every Sakura Co. box, you get a houseware item as well in this month, a Sakura plate. And with Sakura Co., you get 20 authentic, artisanal, traditional Japanese snacks, including Japanese teas, tableware items. And they work with a lot of snack makers, some of which have been around for over a hundred years. And I love the mission of this company. They're trying to promote traditional Japanese culture through the medium of snacking, which is really just a great way to do it. And I think I said in my last video, April's box probably is my favorite and it's not too late for you to get one. So if you want to check it out, go to my link down below. Use my promo code Mikey for $5 off either boxes or use a special promo code Hanami and you can get extra bonus items inside your Sakura Co. box for life. This is always so fun for me, opening these boxes, because this is now going to be breakfast. So I'm going to eat this and enjoy the video. Today's brunch is going to be the best yakisoba in Tokyo. This shop right here, all they serve is yakisoba. You can either get it with salt or with sauce. I like sauce. Just got my yakisoba and it looks incredible. Got a ready egg that they put on top of everything. Bits of pork belly underneath, shrimp, squid, there's some scallions and right underneath they're all saucy, delicious looking soba noodles. The thing that sets this place aside, besides the fact that they only serve yakisoba, they make their noodles fresh and the noodles are made with Hokkaido flour, which makes the noodles extra springy and chewy. I love how the fatty pork belly is all charred on this plate, so you get that delicious smoky charred flavor. Let me take a bite of the meat as well. And the runny egg just kind of balances out the sweetness of the yakisoba. And there's so much sauce here. I'm going to add some peppercorn. So the spicy sauce not only adds a huge kick, but there's a ton of Worcestershire flavor in that as well. The mayo goes so good with the yakisoba. I highly recommend it. Wow. It makes it more creamy. It enhances the spice flavor. Also peppers. Delicious melting touch. Definitely take advantage of the toppings they give you. I came to this dessert place at a reservation, which is really hard to get for this dessert parlor that serves kakigori, but not just any kakigori. They're super innovative. Today, there's different flavors. Strawberry and tomato. Potato. There's apple shaboose, which I got in this thing. Just got the torch treatment. Let's hop this like a creme brulee. Almost. It tastes like eating a caramelized apple. Kakigori. There's so many layers inside this kakigori. So she added the different flavors and then covered it in ice. Add more flavors, cover that with ice, until it gets this hop, which is the layer of shaboose. Shaboose, which is a French pastry cream. And that caramelized. It's so good. This thing is very apple-y. The filling she put in the middle just tastes like fresh applesauce. Some nuts and some chunks of apples here as well. Second one. Potato. Little fried potato chips to put on top. This is very much the definition of sweet and savory. Melting in your mouth, refreshing, and extremely crunchy potato chips. So that place, the pastry chef for a two Michelin star restaurant here in Tokyo, she ended up opening her own kakigori place. Again, the flavors are really, really innovative. It's beautiful kakigori. I think the potato chip one, there's also chunks of sauteed potato inside the kakigori. I don't think that one's for me. Apple one's delicious. Best restaurant in Tokyo by TripAdvisor. Also, is that a fruit vending machine? I think that is. No, this is not it. So I was just looking for like a dumpling place and I found this one. Number one rated restaurant in Tokyo. That's really interesting. They specialize in soup dumplings. It literally means dumplings inside soup. So I got the white paitan chicken soup. And also I got the Chinese spice soup. Also, I got a meat over rice and some spicy wontons. Brought over some pickled vegetables. Pickled radish. Goes great with dumplings. Spicy wonton has arrived. A lot of chilies on these little wontons. Skin looks very thin. There's peppercorn powder on top and covered with scallions as well. That is really spicy. I asked for very spicy. So the options are low spice, very spice, and extreme spice. This is very spice. Three seconds in, the peppercorn powder's already numbed up my tongue. Gotta say though, these are really good little wontons. Skin is very nice. Very thin, very elastic-y. The filling is nice. Overall flavor is really good. I mean, minus the blistering heat. Minus covering these wontons. For most people, 100% recommend the low heat. Because this is not just spicy, it's super nummy as well. Soup dumpling is here. These are full-size soup dumplings sitting inside stone pots of soup. And this one is the chicken soup. They give you a good-sized spoon to eat this with. That chicken soup smells so good. I gotta say, it's really delicious chicken soup. The chicken soup is filled with scallions as well. It's really mild. Very yummy chicken broth. They actually have a little cartoon. Kinda teach you how to eat a soup dumpling so you don't actually pop the whole thing in your mouth. I'm just gonna take a little nibble out of it. Because of the soup element, this is hotter than any other soup dumpling I've had before. The skin is not extremely thin, but that filling is huge. Good amount of soup sitting on the bottom of this dumpling. Mmm, pork dumpling soaked in chicken broth. Add a little vinegar. Scoop up the soup that's sitting on the bottom of this bowl. Mmm. This is a pretty darn good soup dumpling. Good amount of flavor in the filling. The soup inside is delicious. Combine that with the soup from the bowl. Makes this even better. Make sure to incorporate some vinegar as you eat. The filling is deliciously porky. The whole thing is very tender and juicy. Chase that with some chicken soup. Because it's sitting in a stone bowl, this thing just remains boiling hot. This is a delicious bowl of soup dumplings. This next one is pretty scary. I asked for very spicy as well. And based on what I got from the wontons. Yep. This is definitely not for spice beginners. So spicy and so numbing. I can't imagine what extreme spicy tastes like. Tons of peppercorn, tons of chilies. This should make the soup dumpling even more flavorful. Take a nibble. Dab it with vinegar. Run it back into that hot broth. This is 10 out of 10 spicy. Borderline spice challenge level spice. But with some vinegar. You can kind of treat it like a super leveled up hot oil. This is definitely something you eat when it's chilly outside. Which it is today. Gonna quickly just jump to my meat over rice. So I got some minced meat over rice with a runny egg on top. Get the egg all up in there. And all the chews from the minced meat. You can see absolutely steep into the bowl of rice below. This is very very good. Minced meat stewed to perfection. Look at this. Digging all the way down to the depths of this bowl of rice. Every single grain of rice is covered in this gravy. The minced meat is soft. Got a little earthiness from the mushrooms. A little crunch from the scallion. And the meat is flavored so well. Tons of umami. A hint of sweetness. Add in the richness of the eggs as well. And if you want. Dab in a little bit of the spicy numbing soup. Even better. I gotta say. The food at this place. Especially the dumplings. The way they serve it with the bowl of soup. Especially that delicious chicken broth. It's a deliciously refreshing take on soup dumplings. Where you're literally putting the soup dumplings into a bowl of soup. And the soup is delicious. Soup is good. The dumplings is good. The rice is good. I can see why people love this place. Alright. I'm gonna eat up. Take a break. And tonight is gonna be a very crabby feast. Dinner is at a restaurant. That was really really hard to get into. Because they only have 4 rooms. And 4 seatings per lunch. And 4 seatings per dinner. I think. Because they only have 4 rooms. So they can only have about 4 parties per seating. And they don't have any seatings everyday. So I was really lucky to be able to secure a spot. For an entire giant king crab. So I came across this place in the heart of Ginza. From what I read. Like I said. There's 4 mini dining areas. And a chef will come and prepare an entire king crab for you. And turn that one king crab into many different courses. And appetizer has just arrived. Itadakimasu. Appetizer looks like Ikura on top. Think of fish cake. Some shrimp, mushrooms, shredded eggs over rice. Popping Ikura. With some crispy lotus roots, greens. Super sweet. Snappy shrimp. So far so good. Round 2. Fried fish and asparagus tempura. This is so delicate. Lightly fried. Beautiful mouth. Flaky meat. Splash of lemon juice. Asparagus tempura. This is the king crab we're about to devour tonight. 2 kilograms. So close to 5 pounds. So we're gonna eat this sashimi style. It's gonna be grilled too. First crab dish. Crab sashimi. And the crab meat is just draped over a straw tint looking thing. I think it's just really to get the excess water out of the crab meat. And the chef said just to eat it like this. Dip it in the soy sauce. Never had crab sashimi before. Wow, that's tender. The sashimi crab. Like I said, never had it before. That's the crab that is absolute sweetest and most tender. And this is the shabu crab. So part of the crab is cooked to rare. And the chef says just to eat this on its own. With no soy sauce or salt. Same amount of sweetness. And a slightly firmer texture. That's almost like eating 2 completely different crabs. The chef's gonna take these 3 crab legs. And put it back into the shabu. And cook it to medium rare. And what's amazing is he's cooking a lot of this just by hand. Holding the hand over the boiling shabu. And now the crab meat is cooked to a perfect medium rare. The texture is unreal. It's like I've never had king crab before today. And the rest of the legs is removed. And then the meat is lifted off the shell a little bit. And placed back onto the grill. And now it's sitting on my plate. Perfectly grilled king crab. A little bit of citrus. Orange juice. To put on the crab. Everything kinda happened in the last 10 minutes. He is lightning speed in preparing the king crab. Because there's a finite amount of time before the meat changes a bit. So to get the sweetest, most tender, the best out of the king crab. You gotta eat everything right away. I've had king crab plenty of times in my life. This is like having it again for the first time. You taste that awesome smoke from the barbecue. I've had king crab in shabu before. I've had king crab off the grill before. It's never been this naturally sweet. It's never been this naturally tender. This might just be the ultimate king crab experience. You don't want to leave a single piece of meat in these shells. Also, while I was eating this. The head and the body of the crab was taken into the kitchen. And is being boiled. Now it's back at the table. This is the heart of the king crab. And there's some ginger and vinegar sauce to dip it in. Very meaty. That's definitely not what I expected. Good amount of umami flavor. And this is the front of the crab. Right here. The texture is definitely different than the leg part. It's still soft. Bit more of the chew than the legs. So much umami. This may not be the sweetest part of the crab. Or the most tender part of the crab. But it's definitely the most tasty part of the crab. The meat right inside the body. And all that guts and energy. Just has so much flavor. It's pretty much the essence of the crab. A lot of that stuff are parts that usually restaurants would just throw away. That's the best part. And then what chef did. Was pretty much take out all the joints of the crab. And scrape out all the meats from the joints. Look at this. This is all joint meat right here. There's a lot of meat in the joints. Holy moly. Switching from crab innards. Back to the meats from the joints and legs. And you're gonna surprise me by how sweet this is. The natural sweetness of the crab will shock you. So amazing. So the next course is rice with some beef. And the meat is from the claw of the crab. Literally every single edible part of the crab. Is being eaten right now. So Ikura is laid on top of the freshly made pot of rice. On top of that delicious rice. You get all that great popping little bursting balls of umami. I'm gonna change the flavor up a little bit. Add some beef in here. Add some crab. Little dried fishies. Pickled vegetable. With some delicious miso soup. This is unlike anything I've ever had before. And if you love king crab. And you want a truly authentic Japanese culinary experience. This is a fantastic place. And that wraps up another amazing food day here in Japan. As always thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again. See you later. Also dessert. Amazing. Some kind of pudding. With little whole oranges. Including the peel. Inside. If you've never had orange peel. I used to sometimes just eat orange peel. Until my mouth can't handle it anymore. It's just so fragrant. And the milk pudding here. It's just tremendously creamy. Such a great complement for each other. And also a monaka. A cookie with mochi inside. Now this feels complete.