The Go-to Restaurant for the Youth of Shibuya! Tokyo Rad Girls Marianchu Tells Us of How Food Should be Eaten at ‘Akakara’

‘Akakara’ utilizes a blend of red capsicum and red miso from Nagoya as its secret ingredients to create the delectable soup of their main menu! ‘Akakara’ is quickly expanding with its main restaurant in Nagoya, it also has stores opening up in the north in places like Hokkaido all the way down to places such as Kyushu, in the south of Japan.

The store we had the pleasure of covering was the Akakara Shibuya Udagawacho store situated just past Basketball Street in Shibuya. When you walk into the restaurant, the first thing you see is a huge line of photos on the wall! Generally the majority of Shibuya’s local customers are young people and many of their regular customers are often staff from the shopping mall 109 or magazine fashion models. Marianchu, Maria Konno, also often comes to the restaurant with her friends. When she visited the restaurant with us, Marianchu went straight into ordering Akakara’s signature nabe (Japanese style hot pot).

Since there’s a spiciness scale of 11 different levels to choose from, even those that don’t do great with spicy foods can rest easy. Marianchu chose her usual spiciness level of 3. Veteran level at Akakara starts from about level 5 in spiciness and is sure to bring on a bit of stinging, while level 7 and above is said to leave your tongue burning until even the next day! Despite this, there are customers that are said to order nabe with a level 10 in spiciness and devour it completely like it’s no big deal.

10 minutes after putting on the lid of the nabe (hot pot), your food will be cooked and you’ll have the pleasure of tasting the food that Akakara is most famous for – ‘Tori seseri (Aka)’ (Chicken neck meat). Akakara’s original miso, which has been made into a paste using the red miso from Nagoya, is rubbed into the chicken neck meat and then grilled to give customers a little taste of heaven. The plump, juicy chicken neck meat that has been soaked in red miso paste also looks like it would go well with rice! The seasoning used to create this delicious flavouring however is a company secret…

Now, let’s move on to what its like once the nabe has finished cooking! You can really feel the tender taste of the capsicum’s strong flavour in the soup made from secret ingredients. As there is chicken coated with the superb flavour of Nagoya’s miso and horumon (chicken intestines) inside the nabe, you can enjoy a variety of delicious flavours. You’ll also be happy to hear that Akakara Nabe is filled with vegetables too. Once most of the ingredients have been devoured, you’ll also be able to enjoy a selection of other foods.

These foods include cheese risotto, rice porridge containing vegetables and bits of meat or fish, ramen (Japanese noodles) as well as 4 different types of flat noodles. Non-Japanese customers often mistake Akakara to be a ramen restaurant and visit as a result, but despite being known for its delicious nabe, its ramen is nevertheless very tasty.

On this visit, we chose to try the number one most popular item at the Akakara Shibuya Udagawacho store – the cheese risotto. Its spiciness and strong flavouring of the soup went outstandingly well with the rich cheese. Even the scorched rice at the bottom of the nabe was delicious! At the Akakara Shibuya Udagawacho store there are also 2 other types of flavours for you to enjoy with the SEPA nabe. With this, both lovers and non-lovers of spicy food can enjoy eating ‘Akakara Nabe’ together! So be sure to try the delicious ‘Akakara Nabe’ which can only be found at Akakara!

Photo by Tsubasa Ishiguchi
Model : Marianchu
Translated by Cheryl Coyle

AkakarafoodMARIA KONNOMarianchuNabeShibuyaTokyo Rad Girls

Author

Miki

A university student who loves literature and art. On weekdays I usually take part in works something related with Manga's promotion and designs. On weekends I spend my time with drawing illustrations or visiting some exhibitions. I love cities of Harajuku and Ikebukuro in Tokyo and Barcelona in Spain. I hope to live in Edinburgh in some day.

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