00:01
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
When's the last time you ate a Jiro?
Um, last Thursday.
Shit.
But that was very, very 久しぶりJiro.
Oh, so when was the next?
Years ago, yeah.
Oh, years ago?
Yeah, like proper Jiro.
Damn.
Some like Jiro-inspired, yes, but proper.
Like the authentic Jiro?
Yeah.
I think it's years ago.
How often do you eat, including the inspired ones?
Eat a Yakiramen?
Once in three months.
Yeah, once in two months, I would say.
You know, I have like a similar schedule.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, you do.
Yeah.
Have you been to like Jiro?
Once.
Only once in my life when I was in university.
Okay.
That's it.
Where did you go?
Was it Kannai Jiro?
Can you name some other places?
Okay, okay.
Because you were living in Yokohama area, right?
Yokohama area, yeah.
Some other places.
I went with somebody.
Okay, okay.
Kannai.
What were the other places?
Sagami-o no.
No.
Fujisawa.
No.
Recently new opened Ikuta.
They say it's very good.
Oh, is it very good?
Okay.
Yokohama and where else?
Yokohama, Kanagawa.
Okay, I think it was Kannai.
Kannai?
Yeah.
Kannai.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What was your favorite place?
Yeah.
I love Kannai.
You like Kannai?
Yes.
Oh, okay.
You know the Jiro guy?
Yeah, the Jiro guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Our friend, right?
Brought me to that place.
And that's where I fell in love with Jiro.
Oh, really?
That's still my number one Kannai shirunashi.
Yeah.
But last Thursday we went to Hibarigaoka Jiro.
Okay.
That's far away.
I mean, not far away, but it's like...
North, much north.
Yeah, much north.
Yeah.
And with a Jiro guy.
Oh, really?
Yeah, he loves Jiro.
Oh, wait.
You met with a Jiro guy?
Oh, not that...
Not him?
Not our friend Jiro guy, but...
The other friend?
The keyboard player.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
With him, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
He's a Jiro guy as well.
So, yeah, we went together.
And he said that's one of the toppest place.
Oh, shit.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
It was good.
It was good, but it's rather like a mild version.
Kannai Jiro is more like punchy.
Okay.
Junkier.
Yeah.
I see.
Yeah.
So, it was good, but it was very like a usual meal kind of enjoyable.
03:01
I see.
Like, you can handle it.
Like, easily handleable.
It's not like you're going to get sick.
Yeah, battle or something.
It was just good, delicious.
Bowl of ramen.
Just a decent bowl of ramen.
Which was very big, though.
But still, like, tastely.
It wasn't that, that, you know, punchy.
Oh, okay.
I see.
It's that different.
It's that different.
Oh, okay.
I have to discover some other places.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was my first time visiting Hibari Gaoka.
It was good.
I see.
Yeah, yeah.
I went to this hamburger place the other day.
So, in, I don't know if, internationally, right?
There's this content, right?
Of like, there's this viral place, there's a viral hamburger place in Japan.
Okay.
That's kind of, I guess, viral?
Like, internationally?
Of like, Japan has, Japan likes to make things perfect.
Okay.
And they've did everything they could.
They've perfectionized the Japanese food already.
So, they started perfectionizing the hamburgers.
Okay.
And I, I'm talking about the content that I saw.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I found this restaurant in Azabu Juban.
Okay.
That sells hamburgers.
And they, they perfectionized it.
And honestly, it's better than what I eat in America.
That's what the content was.
And it was viral.
Okay.
And I was like, oh, I gotta check this out.
Yeah.
I went there the other day.
It was very good.
You gotta go there.
So, is it like, you said good.
But is it like, American good?
Or like, Japanese good?
Is it like, very?
Okay, so it was, so, what I was so surprised about was that it had both Japanese and American goodness in it.
It was, I've never eaten a hamburger that was so chaotic, but at the same time,
very organized and very straight.
Is it, what kind of hamburger was that?
Like, is that like a special something inside or?
It's just meat, cheese, caramelized onions.
Oh, yeah.
And a teriyaki sauce.
Oh, okay.
And eggs.
And eggs.
Okay.
But.
So it's a teriyaki burger, I guess.
Yeah, it's a teriyaki burger.
But it's just, it wasn't, I don't know.
I didn't think it was teriyaki.
It was something different.
Like, to me, it tasted more like a gochujang than a teriyaki.
The umami hits very thick.
Okay.
Yeah, it was.
So you feel, it was like miso.
It was almost like a miso, right?
It was so thick and the umami was just very solid punch.
06:01
Wow.
But at the same time, you have that meaty, juicy, Americanized hamburger taste as well.
And that was scrambled together.
But it was so carefully combined into one piece of burger that it was just, it was an art.
It was a work of art, you know?
And, you know, every time you bite into something that has a strong taste, it gets weaker and weaker.
You get used to it.
Your tongue is adjusted to it.
But like, every bite was just as good as the first bite.
Wow.
You gotta try it out, man.
I'd love to try that.
I definitely have to go there.
It's called Azabujuban.
It's called, should I not say it in front of you?
Yeah, because I'm going to go there.
All right.
And you're going to go there too, right?
No?
Yeah.
So the thing is, it doesn't even look like a hamburger shop.
The place is dark.
Dark?
Kind of dark.
Okay.
It only has like five or six tables.
Okay.
And...
Is it like underground place?
No, it's not underground, but...
It's dark.
Yeah, it's dark.
The lights are not very bright.
Okay.
And it's run by two people.
Okay.
The kitchen was very dirty.
Kitchen is very dirty?
Kitchen is very dirty, but the place we eat was extremely...
It was like a French course set up.
But the kitchen was kind of dirty.
Like, in a good way.
In a good way, okay.
Not organized in a good way.
It's like a...
It's very busy.
Like a mastermind chef that is in his own world, you know?
Not filthy.
I see.
Not organized.
I see.
Yeah.
It's like a genius kitchen.
Okay.
And like, when you make a reservation, you have to tell them what you're going to buy.
Okay.
You can't change it.
I was one minute late to the reservation.
Okay.
They gave me a phone call on the dot.
They gave me a phone call on the dot.
It wasn't like, hey, why aren't you coming?
It was more like, we're going to have to start cooking your burger.
Because this is a precise fucking art.
And like, wow.
Just letting you know, we're going to start cooking because it's time.
That was the call.
And I mean, that kind of like, wow, they would call me for that.
They take their burgers very seriously, I thought.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm interested in it.
So interested in it.
What's the name?
Wow.
Is it like a very expensive burger?
It wasn't very.
It was like, I think it was like 3,000 yen or something.
Expensive for one burger.
Sure.
Oh, sorry.
No, joke.
09:00
But like, it's not.
The course meals are like 10,000 yen, right?
Yeah, yeah.
True.
But you felt the same value from that.
Yeah.
Oh, you know.
I know this place.
You know this place.
But you never went there?
I've never been there.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, this is during daytime, so it's not so dark.
But like, yeah, this is how it was.
Yeah.
It was so good.
It was so carefully crafted.
Oh.
True.
Like one day, you know my habit.
Oh, yeah.
You're like pinning all that shit.
Yeah, yeah.
And one day I wanted, oh, I want to collect all the good hamburger places on my map and
search on the web.
Yeah.
This one comes at any, you know.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Any places.
That was the best.
That was the best.
That was the best.
Yeah.
But I've never been there.
I think this was like the Taberogu burger ranking number one.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Burger number one.
I have to go.
Yeah.
What did they have like beside that?
The teriyaki?
They had several different right here.
Okay.
Cheese by cheese.
Cheese, extra cheese.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
These stuff.
Yeah.
You should go.
I have to go.
Yeah.
So this, this is the signature one.
Okay, okay, okay.
So this is, I think this is the one that everyone's buying.
Yeah.
But that's with the teriyaki sauce.
But I think, yeah, I think the teriyaki sauce is the main one.
Ah, okay.
Yeah.
Okay, okay, okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Right.
It was a magical experience.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
Thank you for sharing that.
I definitely have to go.
Yeah.
You should go.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Bye-bye.