- We are Sorted, a group
a foodies from London, who today, (record scratch) are way out of our comfort zone. (upbeat music) - I feel like I need some moral support. - [Ben] We've been sent to Toyko in Japan and tasked to cook up a
food and sake pairing menu for some locals. - I'm so nervous. - [Mike] So, first job
is to immerse ourselves in the culture, food and sake,
to work out how we achieve probably our biggest challenge yet. - This might be the hardest
thing we've ever done. - Konnichiwa, my name is
Jaime and this is Ben. - If you remember back to
the start of this year, we were able to explore
sake, in London and New York, thanks to Jay Fudo. - And thanks to your comments all saying, wouldn't it be great if
you could go to Japan and explore Japanese food and sake. Guess where we're going! (lively music) - Genuinely, the most exciting
place I've ever been to. - Century overload, this place. (lively music) - [Jaime] So of the five of us, only Ebbers had been to
Japan before had you? - Yes, although walking around eating whatever takes your fancy on holiday is very different having to cook for a restaurant of Japanese diners. - And seafood has a particular
cultural significance, which we don't have a
lot of time to grasp. - Yeah, so we started with sushi, which was (smacks lips) very different. (playful music) - [Barry] Instantly, you
couldn't help but notice the care taken over what
seemed just a few ingredients. - [Ben] But wow, it was probably the best sushi I've ever had. - Ben, stop filming. Stop filming it. I tried to pick up my oyster
sushi with the chopsticks and it went terribly wrong. (laughs) And they're having to redo it for me. That is incredible. (background laughing) That is unlike anything I've ever had! - I know! - It is incredible. And, with yet another
sake, a plum sake, unreal. - And we went from what seemed to me, very traditional sushi, to
very cool, experimental dishes. - As if sitting at a sushi bar wasn't feature enough, you then get this and this is like their
signature, a really hot stone, and now it's kind of
being steamed within that. I'm so intrigued. I've never had hot sushi. The fish, literally just melts away. - This is really dry, almost sour, with a really strong
flavored fish it's perfect. - [Jaime] And of course,
the food was just one part of this challenge, we
also needed to pair it with our choice of sake,
Japanese rice wine. Luckily, we had an expert on hand. - When you think about pairing sake with seafood and why it works, it's because you have, not only just the access
of sweetness and acidity, which you have with wine, with sake you have
sweetness, acidity and umami. I like to always think of it as the tool that allows your tongue to
taste in three dimensions. - So with that lesson learned, we need to eat a lot more seafood. - [Ben] Japan is a country
surrounded by water from the ocean on the coastlines, to the freshwater lakes and rivers flowing through the mountains. And as a result, Japan has
access to some of the most fresh and diverse fish and seafood in the world. - It's octopus on a stick,
it's been blowtorched, it's been griddled,
covered in barbecue sauce. I was expecting that to be really tough. It kind of flakes apart, it's so fresh. It's charred, bitter,
sweet, it pulls apart, that is spectacular. He's got one, he's going home. - Mm mm mmm. - [Mike] Thoughts? - I put myself forward for this so-- I like oysters. - How do you eat that? - One shot. (gulp) (gulp).
- [Mike] One shot? (group laughs) - This is homemade ponzu dressing. I feel like I need some moral support. All right okay. - [Mike] Three, two, one. Got it. - Oh, it's really good. But it's so much, it's just so big. Lemony, creamy and sweet. That was very exciting. - Very exciting. - I don't know why (group
laughing drowns out speech) - When it comes to
Tokyo's best fish market, and one of the first things
you see is wagyu beef, then obviously you're gonna
get wagyu beef on a stick. It says it's Japan's highest grade. - [Ben] We can get it with sea urchin on. - I think Jaime just spent
30 pounds on meat on a stick. - [Mike] A steak lollipop. - [Jaime] Both the flavors
mellow each other out. - "Sugoi!" It is kind of salty from that sauce, but it is beefy beefy charred. And then the sea urchin
gives you kind of a, a rich, sweet, I've compared
it to like mussel meat before, like the meat of a mussel,
except on steroids, it's insane. - Next up we have takosen,
which is essentially squashed octopus rice paper. - [Ben] Cracker. - [Barry] Cracker. - Big long queue for them, you vend your own ticket and pay for it. You take your ticket to a
window and you then queue and they do them real-time,
right in front of you, between two very heavy,
clasped, hot plates and I'm amazed at how quickly they cook. It's like a stained glass shellfish. - It's art, that is art. That is art, not food. - It's like a salty prawn cracker, but lighter, less foamy and more crackly. - It's so crispy, these were
octopus five minutes ago. - Definitely like the cracker. (lively music) - Everywhere you look, more food. (active music) - [Barry] You're now in Cafe
De Fleur, trying kakigori. I've got a mango one,
you've got (mumbles). - Roasted tea, bubble milk tea. - [James] Ah, it's so weird. - Refreshing, zingy, clean. This is just (mumbles). - Another thing that
would quickly dawn on us, was that no matter how many
or few ingredients we use, the looks, the care and
even the crockery design were taken into consideration. ♪ Check, check, check, check ♪ - We are at Sincere, which is a fusion of classical French and Japanese cuisine. Which I think is quite good for me, because I'm not sure that I
like Japanese cuisine yet. - Ooh! - [James] Right from the off,
every plate looks amazing. (upbeat music) - This is Japanese
crab, with tomato jelly, there's a mousse and
there's some Japanese herbs. The tiny flowers on top have got really floral flavor to them. Which is amazing, but the
best thing about them is they're grown just outside the restaurant. - Cheers. - [Group] "Kampai." (glasses clink) (electro music) - (foreign language),
started with the big stuff. - Probably the best sake I've ever had. - I think we can confidently
call this Japanese Tapas. - (laughs) No. - Why not, no? It's a selection of hors
d'oeuvres that all look unreal. Before we dig in, can
we just appreciate that these guys have been to the
James Currie school of plating. - That might be the biggest
compliment you've ever given me. - I'm going for breakfast, obviously. It's toast, sausage
and a quail's egg yolk. Could we get like, four more of them, to make a real breakfast. No. (Barry laughs) They are decent.
(Barry hits head) (laughs) - So this is a turnip
round, with sashimi prawn, so raw prawn in the center
and then a jelly on top with more of those
fragrant, floral flowers. The prawn just goes (bloop) and it's almost creamy, almost dairy-like. - I've come to the sea snail croquette 'cause I thought, that's more Japanese. The closest flavor I can
compare that to, is mushroom. It's really mushroomy, but with
a slight seafood tang to it. - [Jamie] All of those hors d'oeuvres were served with one sake, and it's a sake like we've
never had before, I loved this. - [James] And it seemed the more sake we drank with the food, the more we were aware of the
umami taste Melinda spoke of. - Just imagine for a second, if we could plate up any of our dishes, (group laughing) our dinner, like anything like this. - [Barry] Probably easy
for you to say innit? - [Mike] You could get off serving it. (upbeat music) - Oh this? I just got this from one
of those fruit and veg vending machines on the side of the road. 'Cause they grow them in these fields. (upbeat music) - It's ramen time, we've
come to Motenashi Kuroki. And the reason that we've
come to this specific place is because, this ramen restaurant has won Tokyo's best ramen,
two years consecutively, and this is these guys finding
that out for the first time. - [Group] What? - They've even opened early,
so that we can get in, because normally there's a
queue all the way out the door. - I don't know about you guys, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable, we're about to watch our two
closest friends foodgasm. (James laughs) - All I'm hearing is, it's
the tiny little details they're adding up to make
this Tokyo's best ramen. The head chef has designed his own bowls, so that they're the right shape, depth and have the right lip so that you can slurp the ramen properly. It's crazy! - You must be really excited
to watch me and Ben eat this. (happy music) - First of three bowls,
and it is a chicken ramen so they call it salt. Fried chicken from Kyoto, some ginger, some tomato in a broth with some kombu. Oh. Ah. (James laughs) - [Jaime] Oh no,
- [Barry] It happened, - [Jaime] they like it
- [Barry] it happened. - Oh good it happened. - So, yes it is salty, but it's like the most
intense chicken broth and there's almost like
a chicken ball in there, it reminds me a little bit almost like Matzo chicken noodle soup. Except you've then got
that kombu in there, which has that super savory umami finish. - [James] And that might be the best chicken I've ever tasted. - James' actually shaking
with excitement, this is nuts. - As if one of Tokyo's best
bowl of ramen was enough, we're now gonna have a second. This has got clam, it's
got pork lard in it, it's finished with blackened garlic, it's got this amazing piece of pork on top which is 50 pork, 50% fat. And in this bowl, the noodles are thinner, so you get less of a flourness
and more of the fragrance of the clam and the lard and they soy. At the table, we got a sprits of soy sauce and that gives you that final fragrance, but also, that's where you slurp from, so you get that as you drink. - [James] Spoilers, spoilers. - Look at those noodles. I would put the clamminess halfway between like seafood and seaweed. It's kind of the sweetness of seafood, but it's not quite the
salty umami of seaweed, it's somewhere in between. - You really do take up a lot more of the broth with these noodles. - And they've specifically paired this one with this incredible Jinmai. And it's, yes it pairs
beautifully with the soy flavor, but also the richness of
the pork and the lard, you kind of have this, which
is slightly more acidic, kind of just cuts through it, and it's just a pair that is meant to be. (lively music) - Wow! (chilled music) - We've come to Ebisu, to
check out the restaurant that we're gonna be taking over tomorrow. Ben and James are so nervous. (Barry laughs) - This is all getting very real. - I think everything we've learned over the last few days is just sinking in. The amount of respect, care,
attention that is required for food and for people to
be able to enjoy the food. It is actually quite a big deal. - So, we'd learned a lot, but
then for the real pressure, we need to decide what on
earth we were gonna cook and how we were gonna pair that with sake to unlock that three
dimensional umami flavor, to win the approval of a
restaurant of local diners. - Challenge on. (energetic music) - What do you think
about our journey so far? Give the video a like
if you're enjoying it and comment down below
with your favorite moment. - It goes without saying there are two collective people we need to thank, one of those is you guys
and all your comments, 'cause that's what got us there, and two, Jay Fudo for making the whole thing possible, thank you. - The rest of the journey's gonna unfold over the next couple of episodes that we launch on the channel, so make sure you're subscribed, you got your notifications
on, so you don't miss a thing. - I know what you're waiting for. - A relevant dad joke. - Have you got a relevant one? (exciting music) - What's the most popular
font used in Japan? - I have no idea. - Times New Ramen. (Ben laughs) You're welcome. (laughs) Arigato! As we mentioned, we don't just make top quality YouTube videos. - [Background Voice] LOL. - We've built the Sorted club, where we use the best things we've learnt to create stuff that's
hopefully interesting and useful to other food lovers. Check it out if you're
interested, thank you for watching and we'll see you in a few days. (beep) - She's just grated about 200 quid's worth of truffle onto that. - That roll is worth more than my house. (laughs)
