Easter breakfast 2019 イースター朝ごはん2019

This is a sort of regular menu for Easter breakfast. My wife baked hot cross buns for Easter this year as usual but without the representative icing cross. Instead, she put icing on the side so that we could "smear" it on the bun however and wherever we wanted.  In addition, she made a new cream cheese based icing. She also has a collection of "bunny" plates (bunny seen here peeking out from behind the food) that add to the occasion.

To complete the spring theme, I made creamy scrambled eggs which was supposedly made by Chef Patrick O'Connor of Inn at Little Washington when Queen Elizabeth visited some years ago. Since I did not have green aspraragus, I garnished with blanched sugar snaps and rapini.

The hot cross buns are made with a recipe from King Arthur flour.

Instead of confectionary sugar icing, she made cream cheese based icing with honey and cinnamon.  This was much better and much easier to handle.

Ingredients for the icing:
1 package of Philadelphia cream cheese
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tsp. honey
3 tbs. butter

Directions: Cream the butter in a mixer. Add the cream cheese and mix until it is fluffy. Add the honey and cinnamon until completely blended.

This is not as sweet as a sugar based icing and it comes out like a spread so it is easier to use on the muffin. The cream cheese gives it a slight tartness offset by the honey. The cinnamon goes so well with the spices used in the hot cross buns. This is certainly something worth getting up for in the morning.

Easter breakfast; whole wheat cross bun and scrambled egg イスーターの朝ごはん

Although this is obviously not Izakaya item, the creamy scrambled egg with shiitake mushroom and asparagus is a perfect dish as a drinking snack. My wife is into making all kinds of bread (taking over most of what I used to bake and going further) especially whole wheat breads. She baked hot cross buns for Easter breakfast this time. Instead of the usual sweet sugar-laden icing, she made it from cream cheese and milk with much reduced sugar.

I have to ask my wife to provide recipes for the whole wheat hot cross buns and icing. 

The recipe comes from Laurel Robertson's cookbook "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book". Of course the recipe I used varied somewhat from the one in the book. For the bread: Raisins and chopped dates (2 cups total), 1 cup walnuts toasted and then rubbed in a towel to remove the bitter tasting brown skin. 2 Tsp dry yeast, 1/2 cup warm water (to proof the yeast), 6 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsp salt, 2 large eggs, 3 tbs honey, 1 cup hot water, 1 cup cold buttermilk. I added the salt, the honey and hot water to dissolved the honey and salt. I let it cool down. I proofed the yeast. Using a mixer (Kitchen Aid - Professional 5 - with a dough hook), I then I added the yeast, honey and salt mixture and cold buttermilk to 4 cups of the wheat flour. I then added more wheat flour 1/2 cup at a time until the mixture started to form a dough. Then I added the eggs. I continued to add more flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough formed on the dough hook and pulled away from the sides. I then added 1/4 cup butter cut into small slices. I continued kneading after the butter was fully incorporated for another 7 to 10 minutes. For the last few minutes of kneading I added the dried fruits and nuts. I removed the dough from the bowel did a few rounds of hand kneading and then put into a bowel coated with about 1/2 teaspoon of oil to keep the surface moist during the first proofing. I deflated the dough and let it rise again. After it doubled in size I deflated it again and formed it into small round balls. I put the balls in a heavily greased glass Pyrex baking dish slightly separated but close enough so that the buns would touch after rising (I'm not wild about a lot of crust on these types of buns). After they doubled in size I put them into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  

Icing: I used one block of 1/3 less fat Philadelphia cream cheese, 1 tsp butter, 3 tsp honey 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 2 tsp of milk. Using a mixer, I softened the cream cheese and butter. When it was creamy I added the honey and cinnamon and kept mixing. I added just enough milk to make the mixture a spreadable consistency.  

She asked me to make something goes with the hot cross buns for breakfast. I made creamy scrambled egg with shiitake mushrooms garnished with asparagus tips. If I had, I would have made this with black truffle but no such luck this time. I made the scrambled eggs very soft and creamy by using a double boiler or "bain marie". Since I will not totally cook and harden the eggs, I used pasturized eggs with the addition of cream.

For two servings;

 I sautéed fresh shiitake mushroom (4, medium sized stem removed and finely chopped) and shallot (1, medium, finely chopped) in butter (2 tsp) until soft (several minutes) seasoned with salt and freshly cracked white pepper and set aside to cool.

I beat the eggs well and strained them to remove any clumps of egg white and chalaza (3, pasteurized eggs) which will make an unpleasant congealed hard spot in an otherwise creamy scrambled eggs; situation similar to making "chawanmushi" 茶碗蒸し.

On a bain marie (gently simmering hot water), I melted butter (1 thin pat, less than1 tsp) and when the butter melted, I added the beaten eggs and the sautéed shallot and shiitake mushroom. I gently mixed it with a silicon spatula while scraping the bottom and the sides. After few minutes, eggs started to congeal. I added salt and freshly cracked white pepper and mixed more vigorously until it was cooked but nicely creamy. I took the pan from the bain marie just before it reached the desired doneness and kept stirring.

I used egg-shaped small glass containers as you see on the left of the above image. On the right of the image above, the lid was open revealing the contents. I garnished it with slices of shiitake mushroom (sautéed) and asparagus tips (microwaved and cut in half lengthwise).

The creamy scrambled eggs were infused with the shiitake flavor. The slow cooking over the bain marie and the addition of cream and butter made the scrambled eggs like soft custard. The hot cross buns were also excellent. They had the nice nutty flavor of whole wheat that combined well with the roasted walnuts, dates and raisins. The icing was not too sweet but had rich flavor that complemented the buns--a great combination. 

Buttermilk muffin with biga ビガで作ったバターミルクマフィン

My wife's baking. This is a variation of buttermilk muffin she made previously. During the Covid-19 induced yeast shortage, she made this with biga/starter to mostly to conserve the amount of yeast we had. Although the taste and texture are very similar to the original, this one appears to have a much more pronounced slightly tangy buttermilk flavor.

Ingredients:
Biga
1 3/4 cup flour
2 cups buttermilk
1/8 tsp yeast

Dough
Biga
1 tbs. sugar
2 tsp. salt
3 tbs. butter
2 1/4 cups flour or more as needed to make smooth dough
additional 1/8 tsp yeast (optional)

Directions:
In the evening mix together the ingredients for the biga, wrap the bowl in towels and leave overnight.

Next day mix the biga and other ingredients to make the dough. Rise in a bowl until doubled in size. Punch down. Measure 2 1/4 pieces of dough and form into a bun. Place buns in heavily buttered pyrex baking dish. Let rise again until buns are touching and about doubled in size. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and sound hollow when tapped. Remove immediately from pan to cool.

These buns were fantastic. Again the lovely biga dough resulted in a richly flavored muffin. We'll definitely be making this again.

The picture below shows a combination of baked goods we had for breakfast one day. We freeze the bread and muffins we bake. Then in the morning we just briefly microwave a selection of what we have available in the freezer in a silicon container. Left upper is buttermilk muffin made with biga, right upper is sweet potato bread with ricotta sweet potato filling and the lower is mint cake. This mint cake was made with only mint and no spinach as was used in the original recipe since spinach adds nice color but not much taste.

Of course, no monrning is complete without our cappcino (or more like latte).

This type of assorted bread/muffin is getting to be our regular breakfast on weekends.

Easter Brunch イースターブランチ

This year Easter came very late. By Easter, it was finally getting warm and we enjoyed this Easter brunch outside. My wife made two kinds of hot cross buns several weeks ago and froze them. They were very good, so, we could not wait until the holiday and we have been eating them for some time but luckily we had some left for Easter. We had a hot cross bun, sautéed hot smoked pork (smoked in the Weber some days ago) and special creamy scrambled eggs.



The presentation above leave something to be desired but once you open the egg-shaped glass container. The color of bright yellow, green and red are indeed colors of spring.



This is slight modification of creamy scrambled eggs which was reportedly served to Queen of England a few years ago when she visited Virginia (we are not sure if she tasted it but this dish was created by Patrick O'Connor of Inn at little Washington). He did not add salmon roe just asparagus tips.



Creamy scrambled eggs:
Pasteurized shell eggs: I used home-pasteurized egg using my Sous vide machine. I am not going to cook eggs completely, using pasteurized eggs are safest. Since we god three pasteurized eggs in the refrigerator, I used all three for two servings.
Heavy cream: 2 tsp
Salt and white pepper. to taste.
Butter: 1 tsp

I beat the eggs with the heavy cream, seasoned with salt and white pepper. Although I could have just used a non-stick pan, I decided to use a double boiler. I set the lower pan on low simmer and melted the butter in the upper pan. I then added the egg mixture and started stirring/scraping using a narrow silicon spatula until the eggs were creamy but not over cooked (3-4 minutes). I tasted and added a few more grain of salt. I placed the scrambled egg in the egg shaped Japanese glass container, garnished with blanched green asparagus spear and salmon roe.

This was very creamy and the salmon roe added an additional saltiness. Perfect for a warm Easter Sunday repast.

Pork Curry buns カレー肉まん

One of my food memories growing up in Japan is "Nikuman" 肉まん. It was sold in many small neighborhood stores displayed in a tall white square steam case with glass walls on three sides. (This was long before "Konbini" コンビニ or convenience stores made their appearance and became wide spread in Japan. Now-a-days, "nikuman" and many "unique" variations specific to the particular Konbini-chains are popular in convenience stores). Nikuman is a Japanese variation of Chinese baozi (包子). It is modified to better appeal to the Japanese palate. I remember as a kid, the steaming hot round white bun filled with seasoned pork meat was definitely a comfort food especially on cold winter days in Sapporo. Over the years we tried various frozen nikuman here in US. They were edible but a pale shadow in comparison to the ones from my childhood. We even tried some recently at a small Chinese bakery/eatery in San Francisco Chinatown but it was not what I remembered. Recently one of my friends (Chinese) gave me home-made baozi made by her mother. (I greatly appreciate her sacrifice in parting with some so I could taste them). They were by far the best I’ve had.  The flavor, however, was the original Chinese flavor not the Japanese flavor matching my childhood memory. So, I decided to make my own "Nikuman" using my wife's Indian-style pork curry for the filling as a test. (Curry flavored nikuman is definitely a common variation in Japan).



This is mystery to me but my steamed buns came out brown like baked bread (above). Besides, I did not do a great job to sealing the top of the buns as you can see.



I have to assume that the spices in the curry especially the turmeric and mustard must have caused the brown color but as you can see below only surface is brown and the inside is more yellow which is the color of turmeric and mustard.



In any case, my version of "curry nikuman" was pretty good. Although obviously biased, my wife thought this was the best nikuman she has had.

I adapted my version from this recipe. I reduced this recipe in half but the proportion of ingredients especially water in the original recipe was off and ended up using much more water than the previous recipe specified.

Ingredients for buns (made four good sized ones):
Flour: all purpose, 250grams
Dry yeast: 1 tsp
Sugar: 25 grams (I reduced sugar in half)
Baking powder: 1 tsp (I just realized the original asks for baking powder but I used baking soda—they still puffed up).
Water: nearly 2 cups

I combined the dry ingredients in a Kitchen-aid mixer using a dough hook. I mixed at speed 2 and gradually added water until a ball of dough formed on the hook as well as the center of the bottom of the bowl. I removed the dough onto the floured surface and hand kneaded it until it was nicely elastic. I placed the dough in a Ziploc bag (1 gallon) sprayed with Pam, removed the air, sealed, wrapped with towels and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour or more (until the bulk doubled). I divided the dough into equal sized pieces (I weighed them), formed the pieces into balls and flattened it to a disk. I covered it with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes (to relax the gluten).

Filling: I used the pork curry my wife made. I just removed the cubes of pork, shredded it by hand and using a fork, I added enough sauce to make it stick together but not too wet.

I flattened the dough and placed the stuffing in the middle on my left hand (#1), Then I stretched the dough and brought the edge to the center and repeated the process until the stuffing was covered and the surface of the buns were sealed (#2 and 3). I placed the buns on a square of parchment paper and put them in a steamer (preheated, #4). I placed on the lid and steamed for 15 minutes (#5 and 6).

To my surprise, The surface of the buns turned brown looking like baked bread. Again, I have to assume this is due to the color of the stuffing leaching out to the surface of the buns but it is not "yellow" like colors of turmeric and mustard.

In any case, the buns were soft and hot. The curry flavored pork stuffing went very well. This is not quite my childhood "nikuman" but good enough for me and my wife really liked it. The left over buns microwaved very well the next day.

Sally Lunn bread サリーラン ブレッド

This is again my wife's baking. This is a very usual and good bread called "Sally Lunn" bread. The original "Sally Lunn bun" was reportedly served in the spa town of "Bath" in England in the 18th century. In the U.S., the same name appears to be attached to breads that are dissimilar from the ones served originally in Bath. This recipe came from "Beard on Bread" and probably represents the latter category.  While the leavening agent is yeast it is a batter bread. This means that the texture of the dough is very unusual and not like regular yeast dough. It is wet, sticky and has to be "poured". My wife never made a bread like this before and wasn't quite sure how to handle it but in the end everything worked out just fine.  Lightly toasted and buttered, this is wonderful.

As you can see lots of holes which make this bread so light.

This is how it looks before toasting. Since it was baked in a tube pan, you have to cut it into wedges which is a bit awkward.

Ingredients:

1 package active yeast
1/4 tsp. sugar (to bloom the yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
1 stick butter melted in the milk
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

Bloom the yeast. Melt the butter in a sauce pan add the milk, sugar and salt. Stir until the sugar and salt melts. Let cool to lukewarm. Add the eggs and stir to combine. Add 3 cups of  flour to the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to incorporate. Slowly add more flour in small amounts at a time to make a "stiff but workable batter" (whatever that meant). (I ended up using a total of 3 1/2 cups flour until I declared the batter "workable".  It was very thick, wet, stretchy and somewhat stringy). According to the recipe: Pour it into a bowel. (Pouring was a bit of a euphemism. It was more like battling it into the bowl against its will.) Let rise until doubled.  Then, again according to directions, beat it down with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute. (Beating it down was the appropriate term here). Scrape it into a heavily buttered tube pan. (This took some doing, particularly to get it evenly distributed around the tube.) Cover and let rise until it reaches the top of the pan. (Initially I did not think that would be possible given the volume shown in the picture below, but to my surprise it not only reached the top but was trying to bust out of the cover by the time I captured it from going over the edge.)

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until the bread is dark, golden on top and sounds hollow when rapped. (I thought this may have been a bit too high done next time I may try a shorter time). Turn out onto a rack to cool. (I was amazed at the final result shown below and even more amazed when we cut it into wedges and tasted it...what a beaut!)

Slice into wedges as shown below.

This was a remarkable bread making experience. This bread is very light and airy as you can see in the picture. I has a nice mild slightly sweet flavor. The crust is nice and crunchy especially when toasted. Who would have thought yeast bread could be made like this?

Hot cross buns 2022 ホットクロスバン 2022

It has been customary every year when Easter approaches, for my wife to make hot cross buns  (mostly without the sugar frosting cross, because the buns are sweet enough without it). This year was no exception. This year the recipe came from the heavy hard covered cookbook called “Bouchon Bakery Cookbook”. To me, this one looked like the most complicated recipe for hot cross buns I’ve seen my wife make over the years. Nonetheless it tasted very good and had a very nice texture.

This recipe calls for a lot of butter and multiple foldings. You can sort of see the multi-layering on the curt surface.

Ingredients: (#1)
Flour 372 g (2 1/2 cups)
Yeast 8 g (2 3/8 tsp)
Sugar 44 g (3 tbs. + 2 tsp)
Salt 9 g (1 1/2 tsp.)
Eggs 186 g (2 eggs)
Whole milk 63 g (1/4 cup)
Butter 167 g (5.8 oz) cut into small cubes
Raisins 122 g (3/4 cup)
Dried cranberries 61 g (1/2 cup)
1 tsp. Vanilla

Ingredients doubled:
Flour 744 g
Yeast 16 g (4 3/4 tsp)
Sugar 88 g (7 tbs. + 1 tsp)
Salt 18 g (3 tsp.)
Eggs 372 g (4 eggs)
Whole milk 126 g (1/2 cup)
Butter 334 g (11 oz) cut into small cubes Raisins 244 g (1 1/2 cups)
Dried cranberries 122 g (1 cup)
2 tsp. Vanilla

Directions:
Combine the fruit in a bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling water over it. Let sit for 5 minutes then drain and pat dry with paper towel. Set aside. Add all the other ingredients but the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix until a paste-like dough forms. Add the butter a piece at a time and incorporate into the dough. (At this point it will look like that will never happen since there seems to be more butter than flour mixture to incorporate it into.) When all the butter is incorporated mix on speed 2 for 7 to 10 minutes. Pat the dough into a rectangle and spread the fruit evenly over it (#2). Fold the dough into thirds as an envelope fold. Press the dough out into a rectangle again. Turn the dough 180 degrees and do another envelope fold. Press into a rectangle, turn and fold again (#3). Pat into a loaf and place in a lightly oiled bowl turning to coat with the oil and placing it seam side down (#4). Cover and put in proofing box at 75 degrees and let rise for 45 minutes. Remove from bowl and repeat 2 more folds. Return to bowl to rise another 45 minutes. Remove from bowl and divide into 12 equal portions, (24 equal portions for doubled recipe). Roll the divided portions into bun shape and place evenly spaced on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (Next time I will just cut into squares. This will require less working of the dough and make the number of folds more evident in the final product). Cover the pan and let rise until rolls are touching each other. Coat with egg wash and bake in 350 degree oven for 18 to 22 minutes until golden and toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a rack.

These were indeed fairly complicated muffins. The hardest part was incorporating all the butter. At one point it looked like it wouldn’t happen. But it did. The muffins themselves are luxurious. The texture is dense but very soft. The numerous foldings made very fine layers. They were sweet but not too sweet. (They would have been sweeter if we had added the icing). The fruit adds another texture and a slight vanilla flavor. These are really quite something and worth the effort. 

Pumpkin ginger rolls かぼちゃと生姜味ロール

My wife always makes some kind of pumpkin-themed food around Halloween. This year, she made these pumpkin ginger rolls.

Since we had a Japanese Kabocha left (the last 1/4 of a whole kabocha), she also included a cube of kabocha in the pumpkin rolls.

Ingredients:
For bread
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs yeast
1 (15 oz. can pumpkin puree)
2 large eggs
4 Tbs. butter melted
Finely diced ginger to tast (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Directions:
For the cooked pumpkin (kobocha)
Cut the Kabocha in half inch thick slices and microwave in a lidded silicon container for 4-5 minutes or until soft. Remove the skin/rind and cut it into half inch cubes (see below).

For the pumpkin bread:
Put pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice in a sauce pan and cook on medium heat stirring constantly until pumpkin pulls away from the sides of the pan and the spices "bloom" (see below).
Let cool then add sugar, salt, eggs and melted butter. Bloom the yeast. Add the wet ingredients to the flour in a kneading mixer. Knead dough for about 2 to 3 minutes until ingredients are blended then let rest for 15 minutes.
Continue kneading, adding flour until the dough reaches a workable consistency. If adding ginger and raisins knead them in (we did not add them).
Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowel. Turn the dough so it gets coated with the oil.
Cover and let rise until it doubles. Punch dough down and turn out onto a floured cutting board.
Cut dough into pieces weighing 2 1/4 oz. Add a piece of cooked kobocha pumpkin and form into a bun. Put the buns into a heavily greased baking pan.
Cover and let rise again (about 1/2 hour).
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook rolls for 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately after they come out of the oven.

These rolls turned out with lots of pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavors--with cinnamon leading the pack. Because of the pureed  pumpkin, it came out really moist. The inclusion of cooked kabocha added a nice sweet taste and interesting texture. (next time my wife said she would add larger pieces). This may be the best pumpkin bread.

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