HOME COOKED MEALS, PHOTO BOOKS AND EVENTS
A PLAYGROUND FOR ADULTS TO ENJOY

A sense of relief and a place to reenergize with Japanese Home Cooking

With your back to Ebisu Station, a 7 minute walk down Komazawa Street towards Aoyama gets you to Photobook Diner Megutama, a wooden building with large glass windows. It was opened in February 2014 by Chef Megumi-ko Okado, Photo Critic Kotaro Iizawa and his partner and artist Tokitama, to create a place where they could bring their specialties and favorite things together.

Okado and Tokitama have been friends for a long time and often collaborated with each other at events featuring Okado’s food at “Ueno Hirokoji Meguri” run by Okado till 2012. When Tokitama’s parents warehouse started running down, they decided to rebuild it and create “Photobook Diner Megutama”, a place where they could hold events like they had done in the past. The shop boasts more than 5,000 photo books from Iizawa’s collection which he has complied over a period of nearly 40 years, all lined up against an entire wall. The books can be enjoyed by anyone and includes many valuable ones that are now out of print. Megutama’s slogan is to “Eat good food and reenergize!”, and aims to be a playground for adults to enjoy.

Lampshades in the shape of a book. Lots of attention is put into even the smallest details of the shop

Okado cooks Japanese home cooked meals using organically grown vegetables from farmers she knows and at times from local grocery shops. Although she avoids cooking ingredient with additives in general, she doesn’t let these strict limitations control the way she cooks. She believes the most important thing is to be able to make a home cooked meal easily with what you have around you. This is why she doesn’t refuse any vegetables that become available to her. When she has a large quantity of the same vegetables she cooks them in different ways that represent the season. She also believes that the secrets to a good meal is the delicate process of seasoning. Soaking vegetables in salt water or washing them with soy sauce gives them a light flavor that brings out the ingredients. “I love to cook, and having people eat my food makes me happy” says Okado. This pure and simple way of thinking is what drives her cooking in her kitchen.

The daily set menu is well balanced with meat or fish, pesticide-free rice and handmade side dishes including pickles, miso soup and dressing. The menu changes daily so that guests can come back every day. They can accommodate vegetarians but they say it often takes longer to prepare. However, some dishes, like boiled vegetables and miso soup, use bonito stock which cannot be replaced and therefore they recommend vegans to visit for dinner so they can order a la carte.

Megutama holds unique events every month, like photo book talks, Rakugo and even tea ceremonies. Sometimes they even serve food related to the theme of the event. On the regular menu you can find several recreations of items found in the novel “Shokudoraku” by Genzai Murai like “Bran Cake”, “Tuna Rice” and “Fluffy Egg” from the Edo Era. They also post videos of home recipes and Edo recipes on their youtube “Megutama Kitchen” .

Fluffy Egg

A simple Bran Cake, something hard to believe was made during the Edo period

Megutama is also a place where people who are interested in culture gather, therefore it is also a place for social good. For example, curry powder made in Nepal is used in their Keema curry to support the graduates of the Himalayan Elementary opened by a friend, Daisuke Yoshioka. Every three months, they have different artists draw on the large mirror in their shop with ‘Kitpas’, manufactured by Nihon Rikagaku Kogyo who are actively involved in employing people with disabilities.

Nepalese Keema Curry, supports that Himalayan children

Okado, Iizawa and Tokitama all share a common desire where they ‘want to keep doing things that are fun and makes their soul happy’, which is something that all their guests can get a feel of at Megutama. They say that once people leave, they usually feel more relaxed and energetic then when they arrived.

Over 5,000 photo ooks that one must keep coming back to read them all