New Year Welcome Party at [Kitamachi Utou] / 「北町善知鳥」で新年会

This year my friends and I held our "New Year Welcome Party" at our friend's restaurant in Ushigome Kagurazaka. The name of the place is called "Utou" which is a species of bird indigenous to Aomori Prefecture. The owner-chef is a childhood friend of Mikako. We enjoyed a course menu with an all-you-can-drink bar.

今年の新年会は友達が牛込神楽坂に出した店「北町 善知鳥」。オーナーチェフは青森出身で美香子の幼馴染です。コースメニューで飲み放題を楽しめた。

Owner-chef Ken and his wife Yuki hard at work.

オーナーチェフのケンちゃんと妻のユキ。

Even the table setting is an art.

サラダの並び方も美しいです。

We started off with a little western style appetizer featuring sausages and potato salad which included avocado as well.

最初は洋風のおつまみ、ソーセージとポテトサラダ。ポテトサラダにアボカドも入ってるのはびっくりですが、とっても美味しい。

Japanese appetizer, oshinko platter as well. I usually don't care for takuan but this had a kind of smoky flavor and I found it to be delicious.

お新香の盛り合わせ。自分はあんまりたくあんが好きじゃないですが、このたくあんが燻製してる様な感じで美味しくいただきました。

Its not food, its art!

ただの食べ物じゃない、美術品だ！

Winter favorite - oden

冬の定番 － おでん

You will be amazed to know that this is deep-fried tofu and you can't stop at eating just one. I think this might have been my favorite dish of the day.

これは揚げた豆腐。本当ですよ。一つ食べたら止まらない。今日一番好きな物だったかも。本当に濃厚で豆腐と思えない一品です。

Grilled chicken which goes really well with beer.

グリルチキン。酒のおつまみにぴったり。

Chawan-mushi　(probably defined in English as a steamed egg custard dish)

The last dish of our course menu was soba.

〆はそば。

And various friends - there were about 14 of us that enjoyed the shinenkai.

新年会に参加した友達 －全員で１４人も集まりました。