• Native nosh: Monja Mugi in Tokyo's Tsukishima district serves monja-yaki, a flour-and-water-based dish with meat and vegetable toppings that is cooked on a griddle at your table; it is one of around 70 restaurants serving the dish on Monja Street. | KOHJI SHIIKI
    Native nosh: Monja Mugi in Tokyo's Tsukishima district serves monja-yaki, a flour-and-water-based dish with meat and vegetable toppings that is cooked on a griddle at your table; it is one of around 70 restaurants serving the dish on Monja Street. | KOHJI SHIIKI
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This month’s Everyman Eats column brings you popular culinary affordable oddities from Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures — served with a dash of local culture.

Any food-inspired map of Kanto will have a big fat star over Tokyo’s Tsukishima district, an enclave of eateries devoted to a single dish: monja-yaki. The 70-odd restaurants along the main Monja Street drag each have their own take on the recipe, which has a base of flour, water and flavorings that might include katsu sauce or dashi broth. From there, it’s pretty much anything goes — dried shrimp, squid, pork and vegetables are added to the mix and cooked by diners into a slurry on a tabletop griddle. The everything-and-the-kitchen-sink version at Monja Mugi (1-23-10 Tsukishima, Chuo-ku, Tokyo; [03] 3534-7795) is particularly noteworthy (¥1,450).

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