Simmered warm tofu 煮やっこ

This is a quick dish I made one weekday evening. I got the idea of making this dish from reading the description of simmered tofu which was cooked in the simmering broth in which fish was cooked. This is because I had leftover simmering liquid from cooking a  whole vermilion snapper in the refrigerator. Since this simmering liquid has lots of collagen/protein from the fish, it totally congealed as a gel in the refrigerator and I was looking for how I could use it. I also happened to have about a cup and half of “dashi broth” I made from a “dashi pack” (combination of kelp and bonito flakes). In addition I also had some leftover silken tofu (3/4 block) which was the portion left after I made stir fried tofu, abura-age and daikon greens. So all the constillations were lined up perfectly to make this dish.

I combined the broth and congealed simmering liquid and heated it up. After I tasted the broth, I added soy sauce and sake for a fresh soy sauce taste and for adjusting the seasoning. In addition to the tofu I also boiled quail eggs (from a can) and simmered for 15 minutes or so.

I served it with a garnish of chopped scallion and a dab of hot Japanese mustard. I was afraid that this would taste too “fishy” from the congealed simmering liquid, but I was not fishy at all. It had a nice flavor. This silken tofu (from our Japanese grocery store) was good quality and a perfect snack with sake. I could have done a better presentation, though.

New York Izakaya-style restaurants ニューヨークの居酒屋風レストラン

We recently went to New York with the primary purpose of exploring Izakaya-style restaurants there since they are quite numerous. We did a 3 nights 4 day excursion. We chose the restaurants based on information I gleaned from the Internet. I chose three different style restaurants representing 1. robatayaki/Izakaya style, 2. Sake bar, 3. Yakitori-ya. If we had more time, we could have ventured out to smaller restaurants but we didn’t do that this time because very small places don’t take reservations. (We’ll explore them next time). One of the first places I tried to get a reservation was "Sakagura 酒蔵" which was featured in one of the Anthony Bourdain's episodes on the television show "No Reservations". According to the Sakagura website, they strongly recommended "reservations". (So did "No Reservations" have a "reservation"?) I called several times but no answer and the messages I left were never returned so we had “no reservation” and didn't go there.

This is by no means a restaurant review but more a record for ourselves of the great time we had. Although I took a camera, I did not take any pictures. Somehow, as the meal unfolds and I immerse myself in the enjoyment of the food and drink the idea of taking a picture of the experience becomes distracting and falls by the wayside (even though that doesn’t seem to be the case with the other people snapping pics to the right and left of us). I am sure most of those pictures are destined for Facebook and Instagram to "share" the experience with friends). So all the pictures shown here are either from Google street views (all the outside pics) and from the corresponding websites of the restaurants.

1. Aburiya kinosuke 炙り屋錦乃助
The picture below shows the outside of Aburiya. It is the left entrance of the building with the vertical stripes of green, blue, yellow and red. Despite the bright colors visible in this picture there is not much signage indicating the location of the restaurant except a demure blue "Noren" at the entrance. It was a 20 minute walk from our hotel to the restaurant. I was navigating using Google maps on my iPhone and I knew exactly where we were and where the restaurant was supposed to be located. But we couldn’t find it. We walked back and forth on the block several times but we could not see anything that looked like an Izakaya or Japanese restaurant. We saw the Wyndham Hotel (below left). Was the restaurant located in the hotel? I ended up calling the restaurant. The manager first tried to explain that the entrance was to the right of the Wyndam. There was in fact a restaurant on the right side of the Wyndham but it was definitely not an izakaya. Finally the manager said "just wait there". He came out to the sidewalk found us literally standing in front of the restaurant and ushered us in.  How embarrassing.

Inside is surprisingly large (deep). The front of the restaurant had tables and, in the back, (going down few steps) there was a L-shaped counter which can seat about 10 or more people. Inside the counter, there was a grill and 3 young chefs in Aburiya T-shirts busy at work. On the left side along the wall were a few shelves on which 10 or so individual "Kamameshi" 釜飯 vessels were placed. (see below, this pic is from http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/kappabashi/m10-230.html).

We noticed that occasionally flames appeared under some of the "kama" vessels. This must be how they cook the individual "Kamameshi".  We were advised that if we wanted Kamameshi it would take about 40 minutes so get the order in early. We were seated at the counter in front of the "sashimi" station or #1 and 2. (I specifically asked for counter seating). The chef was busy cleaning and removing the fillets from whole fish which was a good sign. I tried to engage him in conversation but he was too busy. Another chef was in charge of grilling and yet another serving up other dishes.

We started with two cold sake "Uragasumi" 浦霞 (junmai) and "Kokuryu" 黒龍 (Ginjou). They　brought us a wooden box with ice in the bottom and two empty sake carafes (Probably Bizenware 備前焼 or imitation thereof—very nice). Then, they brought up the sake bottles, showed us the labels and then poured into the carafes. A very nice touch assuring us we were actually getting the sake we ordered.

We started with the sashimi three kinds (which were salmon, kampachi and flounder). The sashimi was good (although the salmon was the best sashimi which tells me that tuna and other good sashimi fish must be difficult to get or too expensive). One thing that struck us as different was the use of an artificial-appearing transparent thready thing made of agar-like material* (hope this is not plastic since I ate some of it) instead of the usual daikon "tsuma" 大根のつま garnish. We’d rather not to have any garnish than this stuff.

P.S. Later I came across this item on the Web. It is called "Kaisou-men" 海藻麺 or "Kaisou vidro" 海藻ビードロ (Vidro means "glass" in Portuguese) and made from sea weed.


Although the details of what we ate escapes me a bit, we had "smoked daikon pickles or "Iburi gakko" いぶりがっこ, homemade tofu with three different flavored salts (above picture on the right), firefly squid "okizuke" ホタルイカの沖漬け (excellent!), Tuna "nakaochi" yukke (鮪の中落ちユッケ,  tuna tartar Korean style) with a porched egg or "onsen" tamago 温泉卵. This was in good quantity and tasted good. We had few more items such as pork belly "kakuni" 角煮 (we could not pass up this item, good size and melt-in-your-mouth excellent with honey-flavor). We had more sake (Dassai 獺祭50) and some more food. We were too full for any rice dish to end the evening.

This is not an authentic robatakayaki or Izakaya but it is a very nice drinking place to visit and reminds me of some high-end chain Izakayas in Japan. The counter area, at times, got sort of smoky adding to the atmosphere. There was plenty of hustle and bustle that again added nicely to the atmosphere. It was a great place to “people watch”.

Information on Aburiya Kinosuke
213 E 45th St, New York, NY 10017
212-867-5454
Aburyakinosuke.com

2. Saka mai 酒舞
Since I could not get a reservation at Sakagura, I chose this place. The name "SakaMai" usually means rice specifically grown for making sake or 酒米 but they attached the ideograms 酒舞 meaning "sake" and "dance". It is on the lower east side in an area that apparently used to be a residential with old town houses lining the side streets. The restaurant was a renovated old town house (there was apparently another restaurant at this location previously as you can see in the Google street view below). The best way to direct a taxi cab to the restaurant is to say "Please take us to Katz's delicatessen at E Houston and Ludlow. The cab dropped us off in front of the delicatessen and we worked our way through the crowd of tourists standing out front taking pictures. It was a short one and half block walk from Katz's to SakaMai. The restaurant has been in business for about 6 months according to the Japanese bartender (or mixologist as he preferred to be called) who spoke with a Japanese-British accents (spent 7 years in London) . By the way, the lot next to the SakaMai was still empty as shown in the picture below.

Once inside the restaurant, it is a totally different world from what you may have expected from the streets and exterior. Again it is a large place since it is very deep. The front part had tables and the back had a bar counter as you see below. Nice warm light wood decor. We sat at the counter.

Although we did not come for the cocktails, we decided to take advantage of the expertise of the resident mixologist. The sake based drinks were unique and delicious. My wife had "Haizakura" 灰桜 and I "Sakoudo" 酒人. "Haizakura" is composed of sake, plum wine, salted plum (umeboshi) vinegar and peach liquor. It was interesting and quite good but a bit too sweet for us. "Sakoudo" is a type of "saketini" made with sake, Hendrick's gin, mirin, orange bitters. It has a faint but unmistakable citrus note. I initially thought it had a  "yuzu" flavor. I am not sure it is from the Hendrick's gin or orange bitters but must be the latter.

We then had flights (three small glasses each) of "genshu" 原酒 and "daiginjou" 大吟醸. I do not quite remember all the sake we tasted (taking pictures may have helped). One of the "Genshu" was "Kikusui" 菊水一番しぼり which was poured from an aluminum cup (one of the "cup sake") (see picture below). I do not remember the name of other two now.

The daiginjou flight included "Dassai 50" 獺祭, and Hakkaisan 八海山. We like the third diaginjou which I do not recall the name (despite my wife's telling me to remember the name). We had a cup each of daiginjou and genshu. These sake were not bad but none was extraordinary. We wished more information about the sake we tasted was provided to us especially since this is a sake bar.

For food, we started with "Kampachi" crudo. It is a small serving but nicely done. Good quality kampachi sashimi garnished with finely chopped perilla, myouga and wasabi with shoyu graze. Uni crostini was again small and grilling made the delicate flavor of uni to diminish a little. We also had egg-on-egg-on-egg (picture below). This is a very nice creative dish. Instead of a real sea urchin shell seen in the picture below, it was served in a porcelain bowl made to look like a sea urchin shell. The bottom was nice creamy scrambled egg topped with caviar and uni. You cannot go wrong with this combination but it was excellently prepared.The "chawan mushi" 茶碗蒸し was forgettable. The croquette was ordinary and we could not find any lobster meat albeit it was called lobster croquette. We also had grilled dried skate wings and renkon chips. Interestingly, the renkon chips were the only sizable appetizer we had all evening but they were crisp and addictive.

For the ending dish, we each had a pork bun which was very elegantly done. The pork filling was great--a large tender chunk of pork belly. They have a larger dish of steak and mushroom rice to be shared with 2 or three but we were stuffed so it was out of the question for us.

Information on SakaMai
157 Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002
(646) 590-0684
sakamai.com


3. Torishin 鳥心
The last day, we went for Yakitori. We took a taxi cab. Having learned that traffic is generally bad at any time we took precautions and started early to get to our reservation on time. But, of course, this was one of those rare instances in New York when our taxi sped through the streets without slowing down (even for the stop lights) and we arrive there 30 minutes earlier that the designated time.

The outside was rather un-assuming. Since I did not take any pictures, this is from the Google maps street view (below). Once inside, the interior was quite nice with lots of light colored wood (second pics below which is from their website).

The restaurant was mostly counter seating with a few small tables. Even though it was fairly early the place was basically packed when we arrived (good thing we had a reservation). We sat at the corner of the counter next to the chef tending the grill.  The menu is very close to Japanese counter parts especially those of more modern/tame chain yakitori places which have proliferated in Japan (I do not indicate a negative here, it is clean and nice).

They had a special cold sake they recommended.  This is supposedly a seasonal special, un-pasteurized or "nama genshu" 生原酒 sake , I think, it was Ichino-kura namagenshu 一の蔵生原酒. There may have been "arabashiri*" 荒走り on the bottle label as well. This was quite good with nice crisp taste and clean fruity notes. Towards the end, we run out of sake and ordered a glass of "Nanbubijin daiginjou" 南部美人. They served us in a glass with a generous spillover into the "masu" ます saucer. Actually, this was the best sake for the evening.

*Arabashiri (meaning "wild runs") is the first portion of sake comes out without any pressure when it was filtered/pressed in the traditional way (not using a modern mechanized press). Supposedly it shows more wild and flavorful sake.


In front of the counter was  a cold display case similar to the kinds seen in any sushi bar. Many prepared skewers were displayed inside. There were two grills (or "Yakidai" 焼き台) one near the right corner where we were seated and the other at the opposite corner.They are boasting the use of Japanese lump charcoal called "binchoutan 備長炭 which is known to burn hot.  Despite the ventilation system just above the grill some smoke escaped every-now-and-then and added to the ambience but never became too smoky as can sometimes happen in small Yakitori places in Japan.

The vegetable skewers were displayed on the top of the cold case in the bamboo basket (see below, again the pic is from the Torishin website). Interestingly there was small sign in the middle of the basket saying "Display only (in English)". We thought these were fake skewers for display only (like realistic models of dishes seen in many restaurants in Japan) and admired how they looked so real. Then, we noticed the woman chef was taking theses skewers from the basket and giving them to the griller. Apparently these are real vegetable skewers. We have no idea, in that case, the meaning of the sign "Display only".

The yakitori menu is rather standard but rare parts are reserved for the "omakase " course and cannot be ordered as a-la-carte which included  two kinds  (from kiel and back bone) of "cartilage" 軟骨, neck meat せせり, kidney 背肝 etc. We just went with a-la-carte. the chicken liver 肝 was underdone (I am sure this was what the grill chef intended) which made us a bit uncomfortable since we had to assume they were from US chickens with the possibility of salmonella. (They said they were using "organic" chickens, whatever that means). Skin 雛皮, tail ぽんじり (ponpochi or ponjiri), heart ハツ, and tsukune つくね were good. Fatty pork belly "tontoto" 豚トロ was also good. Chicken thighs 腿 with different sauces, grilled quail eggs ウズラの卵 and ginko nuts 銀杏 were just OK. Chicken wings 手羽 were small but with a nice crispy skin and were great. As a special vegetable, they had a small radish or "ko-kabu" 小蕪 (which was simmered in dashi broth first, then grilled, and served in a small bowl with sweet miso and vinegar sauce. We were not sure if the grilling added anything.  The sauce was excellent and my wife detected honey in the sauce. For vegetables (we need the nutritional balance), we ordered assorted "tsukemono" 漬物 which was a bit disappointing especially the cucumber was over pickled and too thinly sliced. I do not remember how many more skewers we ordered but the size of the skewers were quite small compared to those in many Yakitori places in Japan. As a result, we ended up eating quite a few skewers. They also have rice dishes (Donburi 丼 or rice bowl affair) but we were quite full and well-watered at this point.  Instead, we went back to our hotel and enjoyed a nice glass of cava at the bar and interesting conversation with the bartender.

Information on Torishin

1193 1st Avenue

New York, NY 10065

(212) 988-8408

torishinny.com‎

Grilled Pork belly "Kakuni" 豚の角煮焼き

Whenever we go to our near-by gourmet grocery store, I cannot resist buying a block of pork belly. The last time was not an exception and I made the usual  "kakuni" 豚の角煮. We restricted the servings to one small piece at a time.  I decided to vary how I served it.

Recently, I found out that there were two cookbooks on Izakaya cuisine in English and bought them. One is called “Izakaya Japanese barfood” and the other is called ”Izakaya Hawaii, Tokkuritei cooking”.  I am planning to post them on the Izakaya cookbook section of this blog soon ("soon" could mean in several months). Flipping over the pages of these cookbooks, I saw a crispy grilled pork belly dish in which the meat was first braised in liquid and then grilled. Since I already had "kakuni" made up, I decided to grill it.

After I warmed up the kauni in the broth I grilled it in the toaster oven (on broil). For the sake of convenience, I skewered one piece of pork belly with two bamboo skewers so that I could easily turn over to cook the other side. I covered the pre-soaked bamboo skewers and also the exposed parts of the skewers with pieces of aluminum foil. Upon reflection I could have just grilled the meat and put the skewers on later. Oh, well.

In any case, this method adds a crunchy crust to this fatty pork. This is definitely worthwhile variation of pork belly "kakuni".

Daikon wrapped rice with diakon greens 大根葉の混ぜご飯

With this dish I I used up all the daikon greens I had left over. The idea came from "Izakaya Hawaii Tokuritei cooking". While the picture in the book showed the rice wrapped in a sheet of diakon, instructions for the presentation were not included in the recipe. So I had to “wing-it”. Since I was in innovation mode I also rearranged the presentation to my preference rather than those shown in the picture. From the picture, in the absence of instructions. I was not sure if the daikon was cooked or raw. In any case here is my version; Daikon green rice wrapped in simmered daikon sheets topped with nori and crispy jako (which was left over from another dish I made at the same time).

The picture below shows what the dish looked like before I put on the toppings.

This is a simple concoction. I mixed blanched and finely chopped daikon greens with dried bonito flakes or "katusobishi" 鰹節 shavings (I used the kind that comes in a small plastic pouch) dressed in soy sauce and sesame oil (to taste, dry bonito flakes do absorb soy sauce)．I mixed this with cooked rice in a bowl.

I shaved the Daikon in the manner of "katsura muki" 桂剝き a bit thicker than for thinly julienned "tsuma" つま granish for sashimi (see below). I boiled it for 10 minutes in water with some raw rice then let it cool. I did not further season it (just because I got lazy but I could have simmered in in light colored soy sauce, salt, sugar or mirin). The sheets broke into several pieces when I tried to take them out of the pan. On hindsight either I should have cooked them less or cut the daikon a bit thicker. Using a ring mold, I placed the strips of daikon inside the mold lining the inner surface. I then pressed the seasoned rice into the center and made a tightly packed disk of the rice with the daikon sheets on the periphery. I then gently removed the ring mold. I briefly microwave it just before serving so that the daikon and rice were warm.

The daikon needed some seasoning but overall this dish was good as a “shime” 〆 or ending dish for the evening. The topping also added flavors and textures to the rice. The daikon greens are somewhat like mustard greens and have a very slight sharp (not hot) taste and the combination worked very well.

Daikon greens, tofu stir fry 大根葉、豆腐、油揚の炒め物

This is another small dish I made from the daikon greens one evening. This is very simple and quick but a perfect drinking snack.

The amount of ingredients is all arbitrary, but I used enough to make two small servings such as the one seen above.

Daikon greens 大根葉: This was from the same blanched daikon greens I used for several other dishes. I just chopped them up finely to make about 4 tbs.
Tofu 豆腐: I used silken tofu but any tofu will do. I used about 1/4 block. I first wrapped it in a paper towel and microwaved it for about 45 seconds (800KW). This is to remove excess moisture from tofu. I then cut the tofu into small cubes (half an inch).
Abura-age 油揚げ: I thawed a small deep-fried tofu pouch or "koage" 小揚げ in hot water, squeezed out the moisture and halved it and then thinly julienned.
Seasoning: Dark sesame oil (1/2 tbs), soy sauce (1 tsp), mirin (1/2 tsp), sake (1tsp) and Japanese one flavored red pepper flakes ("Ichimi" tougarashi 一味唐辛子).

I placed a small non-stick frying pan on medium flame and put in about 1/2 tbs of dark sesame oil. When the oil got hot I put in the cubes of tofu. I should have kept it moving but I got distracted. As a result, one side stuck to the bottom of the pan (which I eventually worked into the dish by degrazing with sake and mirin). After a few minutes or when the surfaces of the tofu were slightly brown, I added the abura-age and the daikon greens and kept stirring for one more minute. I then added the sake,  mirin and scraped off the whenever brown bits were stuck on the bottom of the pan. I then added the soy sauce and kept stirring until all the liquid was mostly gone. I served the dish in a small bowl and sprinkled with the Japanese tougarashi powder.

This is nothing special but the combination worked well. The subtle but distinctive heat from the Japanese red pepper powder really made this dish perfect with a sip of sake.

Cold tofu topped with daikon greens and crispy Jako 掬い豆腐の大根葉とカリカリじゃこ乗せ

This is another small dish made with daikon greens. This time I happened to have soft tofu,  "Blowing in the wind Jonny" and decided to top the tofu with the daikon greens and dried crispy small fish or "jako" 雑魚, which is a variation on the theme of cold tofu with garnish.

I thawed  the "jako" blotting out the excess moisture with a paper towel. I then fried it in a small amount of sesame oil (below left) until the jako became crispy (1-2 minutes). I had prepared the daikon greens previously; blanched then shocked in ice water with the moisture wrung out (below right). I chopped the daikon green finely and mixed in a small amount of undiluted concentrated noodle sauce (from the bottle) and a splash of sesame oil.

I scooped the tofu out of the package into a small bowl and topped it with the seasoned daikon greens. I then placed a small mound of crispy "jako" on top. I added a small amount of the noodle sauce around the tofu in the bottom of the bowl.

There is nothing special about this dish but the quality of tofu was rather good with a nice creamy texture and almost peanut-like soy bean flavor. The creaminess of the tofu was in contrast to the pleasant crunchiness of the topping. The sauce and daikon greens gave a burst of crunch and pleasant bitterness.

Miso soup with Daikon and daikon greens 大根と大根葉の味噌汁

When I find daikon 大根 with the greens still attached like this (below), I know the daikon  is very fresh since the greens are the first to go--wilting very quickly. Diakon is usually sold with the greens trimmed off. Not that the greens are anything special, however, when I see the fresh greens still attached, I have to use it somehow since it is rather a rare event.

Since it was lunch time when I came back from the Japanese grocery store and I had to use the greens immediately before they wilted, I decided to use them in miso soup. In addition, I thought the soup would go well with the package of rolled and Inari sushi 太巻き，いなり寿司 I had also found at the store. (I have not seen rolled sushi at the grocery store since the close of "Daruma" so when I saw it at the store we now frequent, I decided to try it).

For two servings of miso soup, I used two stalks of daikon greens and one half inch round of daikon. I finely chopped the greens and briefly blanched them then shocked them in ice water and squeezed out the excess moisture. I sliced the daikon rounds thinly, then julienned (below).

Beside these two items, I also thinly sliced aburaage 油揚げ (half a small or "koage" 小揚げ) which was first defrosted in running hot water and then the moisture squeezed out.

For broth, I could have used granulated "instant" broth but I used a dashi pack (mixture of kelp and bonito flakes). I made more than I needed for the soup and kept the remainder for later use.

I simmered the julienned daikon for 5 minutes in the broth. I put the aburaage, then dissolved in miso using a sieve and spoon specially made for dissolving miso (miso-koshi 味噌濾し) to taste. I then put in the daikon greens and let the soup come to a boil and immediately shut off the flame.

The miso soup was quite good and the Daikon green added nice color.

In addition to usual stuff such as seasoned shiitake and kanpyou, the futomaki contained boiled spinach (no seasoning) and pink and sweet fish flakes called "sakura denbu" 桜田麩. (The pink fish flakes reminded me of the futomaki my mother used to make since they were one of the ingredients she used).The Japanese omelet was made in a very amateurish way. The rice lacked any vinegar taste. Since unlike Daruma this grocery store does not have a kitchen I suspect this was made for the store by someone such as the wife of a Japanese visitor working nearby. Of course, I could have made it   myself but the convenience of buying some for lunch is nice.