Tokyo: SABAR+ by Shinmei

Saba (or more commonly known as mackerel) is a very popular fish in Japan. Essentially, every teishoku place will have a mackerel dish.After visiting Ginza, we decided to head back to Ueno early as we haven't had the chance to properly explore the stores in Ueno. Most stores close relatively early (approx 8pm) so we were kind of forced to have an early dinner.

As we were already in Marui Department Store, we chose the cutely decorated SABAR+ for dinner.

We ordered 4 different styles of mackerel so we could test which method was best. We got a Shio-yaki(鯖塩焼き定食; ¥990), Katsu-don (鯖カツ丼定食; ¥950), Zuke-don(鯖漬け丼定食; ¥930) and a Golden Set Meal (金の鯖定食; ¥990).

Mum's favourite food is fish, so no prizes for guessing who ordered this :D This grilled mackerel is one of the most common ways you will see mackerel being cooked. Mum really liked it (like seriously, what fish doesn't she like...) but I thought it was quite dry. I think this is due to the nature of the fish itself. Unlike salmon and tuna, mackerel doesn't have as much fat in its flesh which can make it slightly dry.

Jellybao is the exact opposite to Mum - every time she hears that we're going to a fish market or that we're eating fish she will lose all expression in her face. But her deep fried mackerel gave us the biggest surprise. I expected her fish to be more like a tempura style. Unlike the grilled mackerel, the deep fried version was quite juicy. Mustard was a perfect match too!

Dad opted for the pickled mackerel rice topped with what I think is miso paste. This wasn't really suit for my taste buds as I found it to be tough and salty. The pickling of the fish made it even tougher than it normally is.

Image sourced from Suisan Shinbun

I couldn't find the picture for my own dish... But I chose this set merely because I really wanted to have eggplant and this was the only dish with it. This simmered version is also a very common way of cooking mackerel. This is probably my most preferred cooking method before having tried the deep fried version. The sauce is both sweet and savoury and helps moisten up the fish.

This brings Day 2 to an end as we head off to Mt. Fuji the next day!