Bringing Back Cocktail Hour – Asakusa Neighborhood, Tokyo, Japan

Hidden Jem in TokyoDiane recently surprised us by sponsoring “Bring Back Cocktail Hour”, requesting that we “Enjoy the Local Brew”.  We located a tiny restaurant with a lot of personality in a very well lit building where we secured two of the seven bar stools.  The friendly, casually dressed cook directed our attention to a colorful machine near the entrance.  It turned out to be a handy device which receives food orders, prints coupons for the selected items, accepts cash, and makes change.  After studying the device for several moments we secured our coupons and passed them to the man behind the counter.

Simple and affordable food is often some of the most enjoyable.  We devoured a plate of wontons topped with onions, scallions, peppers, and a pesto-style sauce before we moved on to succulent, boneless fried chicken which came with a cabbage slaw and a dollop of mayonnaise.  We toasted Diane’s generosity with Suntory Premium Malt draft, the perfect libation to go with tasty Japanese comfort food.