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Kyoto Japanese Cuisine brings to the Cincinnati area the delicacy and quality of the cuisine from Japan. Sushi, Sashimi, tempura, seafood, grilled steak, chicken, fish, lobster, etc. are available for dine-in or carry out.

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Despite my fondness for things noodly, I can’t enjoy pasta very often: Carbs settle on my hips, and my mood suffers if I eat too much of the stuff. This is frustrating, because pasta is not only inexpensive and easy to prepare, but its “portionability” is perfect for folks like me who are cooking for one.

So I was limiting my Zoba (a noodle bar) visits to about once a week, when I read about something extraordinary. Something amazing.

Noodles with no (or very few) carbs and no (or very few) calories.

(Naturally I wondered how such a thing could be possible.)

So I did some research and found out that not only could such a thing exist, but that it had existed for quite some time. A traditional Japanese foodstuff, shirataki noodles are made from glucomannan flour which is essentially soluble fiber. (There is also a version that incorporates tofu along with the glucomannan flour. This adds a few calories, carbs and protein to the noodles.)

The healthy aspects of the noodles are best explained by the experts, but I will mention some of the benefits that I have received from eating the noodles:

1. Significant appetite reduction. I am not kidding. These noodles are not only filling, but they really help to stave off hunger pangs.

2. Yes, I have lost weight since I added the noodles to my diet. I am NOT claiming that my experience is typical, but after adding one 7 oz bag of noodles to my daily menu for a week, I dropped 4 lbs.

3. I feel that my blood sugar is more stable, even if/when I eat sugar and/or simple carbs.

But enough of all this “health stuff”. I am quite sure that you are wondering: “Can something with so few calories/carbs actually taste good?”

In a word: Yes.
The traditional shirataki noodle, made only of glucomannan flour, are gelatinous, slightly elastic, with a distinctive texture. I have found them most suited to asian sauces and dishes. They don’t have much of a flavor, but generally take on the flavor of whatever sauce or food they are tossed with.

The part-tofu shirataki noodles, on the other hand, have much more of a traditional pasta-like texture, and I have prepared them with both Asian and Italian sauces, but I really prefer them with Italian (i.e. tomato) sauce. Their texture is firm, but decidedly softer than the original shirataki.

Preparation

Preparation is easy, but it needs to be done properly:  The noodles are typically packed in water, which has a strange, fishy smell. It is important to not only rinse away the smell, but to get the noodles as dry as possible.  Here is how to do it:
1. Put the noodles in a strainer or colander, and drain.
2. Run cold water over the noodles for several minutes until the “fishy” smell vanishes. Shake off as much water as possible.
3. Place the noodles in several layers of paper towels and squeeze gently so as to remove water without breaking the noodles..
4. (Optional, but wise, step.) Bring a pan (nonstick is best) to medium heat on the stove, and add the noodles. Heat and toss for about a minute until any remaining water evaporates.

5. The noodles are now ready to use.

Cooking with Shirataki Noodles

Shirataki noodles come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so it is very easy to use them in any dish that requires pasta. There are three things to keep in mind about shirataki noodles (which, after the rinsing and drying steps, are ready-to-eat out of the bag):

1. Don’t freeze them. Doing so will affect the texture.
2. Don’t overcook them. Add them as the last step to a hot dish or soup, and only heat enough to warm through.
3. Don’t microwave them. Again, this will affect the texture.

A Google search will reveal many recipes for the noodles, though I find that working with them is a matter of common sense. For example: Place part-tofu noodles in a shallow baking dish, top with spicy tomato/meat sauce, and cover with mozzarella cheese. Bake the dish at 400º in a toaster oven, and the result is a freshly baked pasta dish with a fraction of “regular” pasta’s calories and carbohydrates.

Shirataki For Stretching Calories

A little while ago I learned that the average entree at a Chinese restaurant is over 1,000 calories.  Even worse, the white rice served with Chinese food can add as much as 300 calories to the dish! Yikes!

The trick here is to enjoy your Chinese carry-out (i.e. take-away) without doing serious damage to your calorie count. Portion out the entree (say maybe a third) onto a bed of shirataki noodles. At this point you have a substantial, filling meal for under 400 calories, plus food left over to share or for the next day. Pretty neat, eh?

Where To Find Shirataki Noodles

In the United States, Whole Foods Markets carry the part-tofu shirataki in their refrigerated section: It is usually kept near the tofu.  Asian grocery stores also carry them in their refrigerated section (you may have to hunt for them, and they are sometimes called “Yam Noodles”). In addition, a number of online retailers sell them as well.

If this blog post has inspired you to try shriataki noodles, please let me know. I’d love to hear about your experiences with them!

Can the new management inspire me more than the predecessors?

Let’s find out!

(*) Ok,ok – we didn’t notice anything had changed until late on Tuesday arvo!

Service Quality - 5.5/10

Top marks for being keen and eager to help with my meal choice upon ordering. Top marks also for providing a quite unexpected miso soup as a starter. Not so good marks for bringing the soup out 10 seconds before the main, giving me a choice of eating one of the two whilst the other one went cold. Also not so good marks for bringing the miso soup out without a spoon.

Should the customer have to go over to the counter and get the spoon themselves? Probably not!

Service Speed 6.5/10

Ordering is done upon entry to the cafe with no waiting, unless someone is in front of you of course, and I ordered one of the staples of Japanese cuisine, a Chicken Teriyaki don (my Japanese tastebuds are not as adventurous as most other cuisines). So I can only really the speed of the wait for the food to arrive.

Which wasn’t bad at all ~approx 10 mins. Although bringing the soup out straight away would also have helped boost this score, as I wouldn’t have noticed as much time going by twiddling my thumbs…

Food Quality 8/10

…and its the food the new owners score highest on. The Teriyaki don was top notch, freshly cooked in a wok, pretty much in front of my eyes, and was topped with a good array of condiments – picked ginger, spring onion and seaweed. Best of all the teriyaki source was not a heavy thick one but light not too salty and just the right quantity to flavour the steamed rice without drowning it.

I’ve had chicken teriyaki from a fair few places in town – this is easily one of the best ones.

And the miso soup (which I tried a bit before leaving in preference of the teriyaki) was pretty good too!

Ambiance 6.5/10
Unfortunately the new place doesn’t make a good enough break from the past. I mean if you’re going to change the name, change the menu and change the furniture, why put an ‘Under New Management’ sign in the window? Its not “Monkey Magic redux” – it’s Haru and the New Management sign is just confusing. Also the interior hasn’t completely changed – sure the chefs all have brighter-than-white brand spanking new uniforms (I almost had to put my shades on!) but the drinks units, cutlery and layout of the venue is still exactly the same. The decor is an improvement though, and I guess for any new visitors are not going to notice the similarities.

Value for Money 7.5 / 10

The price has come down a bit from Monkey Magic – the Teriyaki is now $8.30 as opposed to $8.60 previously, and is also a larger serving than before. For the quality that sounds like good value for lunch money to me!

Overall Ranking: 6.8/10

In closing, the great food on offer is let down somewhat by the unclean break from the old Magic Monkey. It really needs to find its own identity if its going to flourish and do justice to the excellent array of food options and quality thats now being served under the new owners.

But if for nothing else than the love of good food, give it a try!

I went I think 3 times. Once to try, once with a friend, and once out of desperation! So I am quite interested by its closing and the opening of ‘Haru’, a more traditional Japanese alternative and dropped by there today. While it’s not perfect it is a darn sight improved on the old venue – so check the review out of Haru coming soon.

And a word on our review policy – note, unlike other Restaurant Review sites, we do not get free meals for ANY reviews we do, nor does the venue know they are being reviewed at the time – it’s a strict policy of mystery reviews. Therefore the quantity of reviews we can do is limited by our lunch budget for the week as well as the time we can spare from our respective jobs. While I’d love to review a place a day for you all and tell you everything about it, a lunch visit to the likes of a Seamstress or Flower Drum wipes our budget for the rest of the week out.

Also our formal reviews are scored out of 20, the same as The Age, but we go further and break that down into 5 categories in order to be more accurate – both to you the reader and to the restaurant, who sometimes with The Age’s reviews might not get a clear picture of why they got a particular score.  We are also not quite as tight assed as The Age mob in our scores as we do consider the relative market segment they are aimed at.  That way a more ‘low-brow’ cafe that would otherwise never hope to get more than an 11 from The Age simply because they don’t stock $40 bottles of (free) wine can score reasonably reflective of its market positioning.

All of which is a somewhat long-winded way of saying we’re not as exclusive as The Age in our reviews! And that probably works better in stretching our lunch money further too! Which is not too say we don’t review the pricier places – Movida’s (expect to pay about $40 a head) review is coming soon, and we plan to visit Long Grain in August which is similarly priced.

So if you are a small, vibrant cafe with at least a freshly cooked-to-order menu (excludes fast-food joints now Macca’s are ‘made-to-order’) then drop us a line and we’ll review fairly as per the above stipulations.

All The Best,

Jeff.