Sunday 13 March 2022

"B-class Gourmet" on the Yurakucho Line

Set 75 of the EMU Tokyo Metro 10000 series arrives at Shintomicho station

"B-kyu gourmet (B-class gourmet)" is a Japanese-made English phrase widely used in this country. It means "a person who likes inexpensive but tasty local food" or "inexpensive but tasty local food" itself.

For example, "monjayaki" is a "B-class gourmet (inexpensive but tasty local food)" in Tokyo. Simply put, monjayaki is a savoury pancake with various fillings. It's like okonomiyaki, but uses more soup than okonomiyaki. Monjayaki is made with a flour and water batter. In addition to flour, ingredients like dashi soup stock, Worcestershire sauce, cabbage, leek, shrimp and sliced squid are added.

If you go to eat monjayaki, please take the subway Yurakucho line and get off at Tsukishima station. You will easily find "Tsukishima monja street" in front of the station. There are a number of monjayaki restaurants on the street. I recently visited there with my family, and tasted monjayaki heartily.

On my way back home, I stopped by Shintomicho station for taking pictures of the Yurakucho line trains. As I posted before, Shintomicho is a precious underground station for rail-fans, because we can get a whole train including bogies in the frame there. The station consists of separated platforms. There are no pillars between the eastbound and westbound tracks. Thanks to the special structure of Shintomicho station, I could easily shoot the EMU Tokyo Metro 10000 series and other trains in a very short time.

The B-class gourmet followed by the subway train photography... Rail-fans always get a bonus, whenever they go out by train.

Monjayaki is a famous "B-class gourmet" in Tokyo