Unfortunately, Peshi has closed their doors. However, I’m leaving this post up, not only as a memorial, but as inspiration for readers to seek out other izakaya serving up similar eclectic sake and chinmi!
I love finding new restaurants on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram; there’s an unprecedented number of travelers and eaters posting pics from all kinds of places I’ve never heard of before. Especially in Tokyo. However, for me, local word of mouth is still how I manage to find those little neighborhood gems I tend to like best. Which is how I found Peshi...
I was sitting at the counter at Kadoya in Nishi Azabu having a late dinner one evening and struck up a conversation with Yae, another regular customer there. Turns out her husband, Nori, is the manager and sake sommelier at Peshi, a small 20-seat izakaya in Ningyocho. Nori later joined us after work and we hit it off and he invited me to Peshi for dinner one night. I took him up on his offer a few days later and had an absolutely incredible evening of seafood and sake! Here’s a look...
The meal started with a trip of braised spinach, persimmon salad mixed with tofu and spring “seri”, and a Japanese black whelk...
I love whelk, known as “bai gai” in Japanese, but have never had one like this before...
Nori has relationships with small sake breweries all over Japan and is able to get his hands on a lot of small batch and craft sakes from young, inventive brewers. Many of these “sakagura” even produce limited bottles just for Peshi, like these two varieties of Sugata from Tochigi prefecture...
Mackerel is not a fish I normally order, but Nori explained it was a house special and that I had to try it. Simply seasoned and grilled on a skewer over binchotan, this “saba yaki” was one of the best things I ate all evening...
Then it was on to a white chicken liver and grilled chicken heart...
Paired with a couple sakes from Takachiyo in Niigata, the first an unfiltered nigori...
And the second a variety the brewer made hoping to give the drinker hints of apple and complement seafood...
It was perfect with this dish, fresh-caught squid cooked in a sauce made from its own liver...
Once I had finished eating the squid, I commented how I felt bad the delicious sauce was going to go to waste and wished I had some bread to sop it up. The chef, Kishimoto-san, who works hand-in-hand with Nori to ensure every dish on the daily menu matched the sakes he’s serving, overheard this, came out of the kitchen to take my plate, smiled and told me he’d be right back. When next he appeared, he delivered this plate of succulent squid liver “risotto”...
A “how much have you had to drink” eye test you can take when you go to the bathroom...
Then it was on to what for me was the main event, a flight of “chinmi”, fermented seafood organs, made specifically to pair with Japanese sake...
“Kuchiko” which are dried sea cucumber ovaries...
"Shuto”, which are aged Skipjack tuna intestines...
Salted sea cucumber stomach...
You can combine the last two into a dish called “makurai”.
Nori then brought out some aged sake to serve with the aged fish offal, a warmed seven year-old Mantensai junmai ginjyo from Tottori...
That’s when Kishimoto-san served me this, a dried and grilled warasubo...
This fish is more commonly knows as the “Alien fish” as rumor has is that H.R. Giger was inspired by this eyeless deep-sea fish when he design the now clasic alien for the famous film! Served with Kewpie mayonnaise and shichimi pepper, you’re encouraged to eat every bit of the fish, even the head and teeth...
But not before Nori breaks off a piece of the fish and drops in to a cup of hot Jyokigen sake from Yamagata...
The fish is left to sit for a few minutes as it flavors your sake, a common practice in the winter in Japan, often done with fugu fins and tails...
Then it was on to more “chinmi”...
Squid “shiokara”, a more basic version of my earlier dish, but here raw squid is left to ferment in its own guts...
Brined baby firefly squid...
And “konoko”, the fermented raw ovaries of the sea cucumber...
A lovely, fresh Hanahime Sakura sake from Ehime...
A couple very limited-run Hakuin Masamune productions served in bottles with custom labels and accessories, one produced for a gay pride event, the second for a hip hop dinner...
Nori then sent me on my way but not before pouring filling my cup one final time, with some Shinkame from Saitama, known as the “King of Kan” (kan = hot sake), served hot to help warm you up before heading out into the cold...
See, sake give you strength...
I’d never seen anyone post about Peshi online, and never came across them in any guidebook, but this is the kind of special Tokyo izakaya I’m happy to spread the word about as I want more people to experience the hospitality here, and I guarantee that Nori and Kishimoto-san will make sure you have a meal unlike any you’ve had before!
1-8-7 Nihonbashi Horidome-cho
