From what I had heard about this place, Soybean Farm is a miso soup place and right when you enter, there are several barrels of miso for sale. For those of you from Hawaii or other places where crack seed (話梅) is sold, the front of the shop looks kind of similar to one of those places. Perhaps next time I will check them out more carefully and buy some since it seems like every time I buy miso from the supermarket, I end up using only a tiny amount and throwing away the rest months later. Maybe if I raise the stakes and buy some fancy miso from a faraway land, I will be more inclined to cook things with it? Maybe not.
So I couldn't decide what to get, and citing the fact that I barely ate anything all day, I went with the omakase dinner. It's considerably more than what I would spend for dinner but I justified it because I have definitely spent more than 2800円 before on drinks alone and also because I've decided to try and be one of those "food blogger people". With exception of the after-dinner drink, I went with everything on the left side of the menu. I completely forgot to take a picture of this menu while I was trying to decide what to get so I ended up taking it right before I went to go pay.
First up was the 牛舌みそ漬けサラダ (gyuu tan miso zuke sarada) or "pickled beef tongue salad". I get that some people might be kind of grossed out about eating the tongue of a cow (I know, I have seen an entire beef tongue in my freezer before; it's gigantic!), but it is by far one of the best parts in my opinion. In this case, the beef is an almost beef jerky, or pipikaula (Hawaiian beef dish) sort of consistency. It's served on top of a few leaved of lettuce on top of shoestring-sliced (julienned?) radish and cucumber and a single baby tomato on the side. The dressing seemed to be made of some kind of sesame and miso and was semi-sweet. It almost did not feel like a salad because there was so much beef, but I wasn't complaining.
Next was the ゴマクリームソースロールキャベツ(goma kuriimu sousu rouru kyabetsu) or "sesame cream sauce rolled cabbage" and the rice. I don't really eat rolled cabbage that often, but it is something that is fairly common in Japan, so much so that it has been used to describe men that seem to be passive (sōshoku danshi) on the outside but are actually aggressive (nikushoku danshi) because it's meat wrapped in vegetables. The opposite of a "rolled-cabbage man" would be a "bacon asparagus man" since it's a vegetable wrapped in meat. Anyway, click the links and learn more on your own time.
While the rolled cabbage was quite good, I have no idea what kind of meat they put inside it, and I did not even ask (typical man?). The sauce was creamy sesame (and probably miso) based and went well with the rice which I dipped in it. The problem with that was that the rice was not quite as sticky as I am used to and fell apart so I used a spoon to scoop up the remaining grains (for 2800円 I wasn't going to leave any food to waste if I could help it!). I was surprised to see that the rice was not just a scoop on a place as I have been used to getting at other places and was wrapped in nori with a dollop of tart miso paste (it reminded me of Gohan desu yo!, what is the Japanese word for that stuff anyway?). Due to the aforementioned issue with the rice, I had to use the chopsticks and/or the spoon to get it completely on the rice.
The ポトフ（potofu) or pot-au-feu, French for "pot on the fire", literally a beef stew (my aren't they fancy with their fusion French-Japanese food?) was dominated by three large slices of simmered daikon that were firm yet soft with a few Japanese mushrooms (which I see all the time but have no idea what they are called), carrot and onion slices, a lone floret of broccoli, wedge of potato, and two chunks of stewed beef. There was a tiny scoop of dijon mustard which lent an almost corned beef and cabbage flavor to the dish. I wish I was more knowledgable about cooking soup so I could better explain the flavor of the broth, but for now I will settle for describing it as "light and refreshing" or "humble and unpretentious". In less ridiculous terms, it tasted like most Japanese soup broth taste but not quite so familiar. The beef was slightly juice and broke apart as slow-cooked meat should in the mouth.
The name of this dish is (in Japanese): ことこと煮こんだ牛肉と大根 (kotokoto nikonda gyuuniku to daikon), and literally translated into English as: "simmering (noise) cooked beef and radish", but I could be mistaken. "Menu Japanese" still presents a problem since the only time I see it is when I am looking at a menu. At the very least, "menu Japanese" tends to have a few more familiar characters in the names of things, but if all else fails, one can just point to it right?
For the プチデザート (puchi dezaato), "tiny dessert", I picked the 西京みそチーズケーキ (saikyou miso cheesecake) which apparently has as one of the ingredients, a special Kyoto-style white miso known for its sweetness. That is not a giant fork, the slice of cheesecake was bite-sized, but after having had everything else that came before it, I wasn't exactly craving something that looked like it came from The Cheesecake Factory. I did not take a picture of the iced tea that came with it because, in all honesty, how exciting is a glass of tea really?
In conclusion, Soybean Farm is a nice place with a relaxing atmosphere, polite staff, and good food even if it is not the kind of place that I would find myself frequenting. It might be because of the atmosphere of the place made me feel like I should be on an awkward lunch date with a Japanese girl who typically wears those semi-translucent smock-like loose fitting collared shirts buttoned all the way up over a black camisole, shorts or skirts that are baggy enough to leave everything to the imagination, and some kind of boot-like high heeled shoes. I am at a loss for a term to describe this look but there has to be one with all the young women I see wearing it in Tokyo. Perhaps I will edit this entry when I figure out the term for this kind of fashion is? The point is, Soybean Farm is a nice place, but it might be a little too "proper" for my liking. The entire time I was there, there were only women customers. Maybe this is a similar feeling that women get when they go to a ramen or gyudon place alone? Maybe it was all the estrogen in the soy getting to me? Maybe I'm just rambling because it's almost 3:30am?
Soybean Farm
Kichijoji Honcho 2-15-2. Open 11:30am-2:30, 5:30-9:30pm (LO) 0422-21-0272
吉祥寺本町2-15-2 11時30分ー14時30分, 17時30分ー9時30分
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