6/2/08 - Last night was a riot. Good friends, good times. Trace (Tracy) was one of my best buddies as bratty kids who used to terrorize the neighborhood together, but nowadays we probably see eachother maybe three or four times a year. It was nice to see Renee as well, his super-cool and super-big-hearted wife who is the perfect balance to her straight-talking, highly opinionated, and always amusing husband - never a dull moment with this guy, let me tell you!
He's the only guy I know that, when the priest conducting their wedding asked him if he would take Renee as his lawfully wedded wife, answered with a "Let me think about it." No joke, I swears! With the microphone on and right before family, friends - everyone! I know, I know, it sounds bad. And yes, it is (the big oaf!), but you kinda gotta understand this complex guy to just laugh out loud and know that he really doesn't mean it. The real truth is he'd be lost without her and loves her deeply. Despite the tough local-boy veneer, we all know that he's a good guy with a soft heart inside. But don't tell him I told you so.
We also met with a few other good friends, Gary and Miyako, but more about them on a later visit, as well as Big Al, whom you all should know by now.
The Japanese Izakaya restaurant we chose to meet at, Akinono, was crowded that night, so we had to wait a while before securing a large table for seven people. It is a super-casual, humble place that serves a wide variety of traditional and modern izakaya fare.
entrance shot.
We went to work right away on a few large bottles of Asahi Super Dry, which are a little less than two regular-sized beers and very reasonably priced at $5.50 each. Japan came up with the term "super dry" as a marketing campaign for a cleaner, crisper, more light-tasting beer, and was soon followed by America and the world after its huge success using the word. Myself, I favor stronger, hoppier tasting beers such as Pale Ale's, but it is good to have a smoother taste once in a while. It goes down nice and easy, that's for sure. In fact, a little too easy - watch yourself, please!
A few weeks back when wifey's dad was over from Kyushuu, he ordered some roasted ginko nuts and wifey and I both loved the slightly bitter, unique, and taste-jarring flavors it contained, and you know how we love anything "different." Plus, it's cheap and is a "finger food" that holds up nicely with beer.
Over-sized pistachio's?
It was Trac's first time at a real Izakaya, so we had to take it easy on the exotic dishes and not get too wild. Chicken karaage and yakisoba noodles were two safe choices to begin with. The karaage pieces were not much of a sight to behold, as they came really scrawny and a bit over-cooked. But then again, salted and deep-fried chicken, especially with the skins on, will almost always manage to rally some support around it. Nothing was left of the two orders of chicken, that much I can say. The yakisoba was better, but still, nothing stellar.
Another safe thing to order is the bacon-wrapped asparagus. This one was as good as they get anywhere, with still snappy-firm asparagus stalks and bacon that was perfectly cooked, rendered until the fat lost some of its jelly-like consistency but not too much, keeping it "real." Give pork fat a little TLC and it'll give you back something beautiful!
Lovely pork fat. Yeah, asparagus, too.
At an Izakaya, you can, but almost never do, order a plain bowl of rice. The sticky-starchy, white grains most often come in the form of sushi, ochazuke, fried rice, zosui, and other items like yaki-onigiri, which we had that night. It is basically a musubi rice ball that is basted with shoyu and/or miso and grilled so the outsides form a slightly burnt shell. Turns out, Trace actually wolfed down three of these roughened triangles! Amidst this ravenous predator, I didn't even get to sample a broken corner!
Where's mine, Trace?
So far, so good for Trace. I think Big Al, who was doing much of the ordering, was being much too easy on him, actually. He would never have ordered any of the previous choices on his own, but I knew he was just considering the three-musubi rookie-boy seated at our table. Probably would have been the four or five musubi-boy, if we let him.
You could tell the crowd at Akinono that night was a merry one, out for some good, honest fun. There were certainly no inhibitions, and I think it was our table that led the charge with no shortage of loud, heart-felt laughter and good times. Meanwhile, the kind waitresses and the chef/owner behind the sushi bar must have been kept busy with all our orders, not to mention those of the other diners, as well.
We definitely kept the chef busy that night!
Hat's off to the next two selections, a shrimp and enoki mushroom combo and a straight-forward hamachi sushi. The hamachi was simple and flawless, with larger pieces than I've seen anywhere except Zippy's, while the the shrimp/enoki was a uniquely refreshing dish, both to the eye and the palate. It was sitting in a sauce of vinegar and ponzu, which soaked right up into both the thin mushrooms and the shrimp. The toppings are green onions and a daikon oroshi with chili pepper. Big Al informs me that instead of the regular white daikon oroshi, this orange version is made by poking a chopstick into the daikon, placing a chili pepper inside, and grating the whole thing together, which gives it that beautiful orange color. I always learn a thing or two going out with Big Al!
As you may already know, wifey's urge for raw sea urchin (uni) is sometimes so strong it's almost primal, as in a hungry-lioness-on-the-Serengeti-Plain-Primal. I've seen 'em in action before. You know - Discovery Channel and all. When wifey smells uni, I sure as heck can't tell the difference. The funny thing was that Trace actually loved it! Shun-um-a-gun, boy!
Hey, let's get Trace to try it!
We asked the chef if there was any fish fresh from Japan, and out of the three available we picked the aji, or mackeral, known locally as akule. The Japanese fish actually looks a little different, and, though still crisp and firm, is more fatty because it lives in colder waters. After we cleaned off the sashimi, Big Al asked the chef to deep-fry the head and bones. When it came back, Trace polished off the whole thing - head and all! You go, boy!
Before and After!
The final two things on the menu that night were a hamburger steak that came with a teri-sauce very much on the savory side (as opposed to normally-sweet teriyaki) and a bottle of Otokoyama Junmai, an excellent dry sake that comes from a brewery on the upper island of Hokkaido, Japan, where they have been taking advantange of the super-clean natural spring waters there for almost 350 years. It could possibly be sake's answer to the Asahi Super-dry beer - very smooth, slightly-sweet, and waaay too easy to drink. And much more potent, I might add! Not a safe combination at all.
As I sit here today writing this entry and recollecing the fun night out, guess who decides to give me a jingle? Yes, the tough guy, himself! In his typical straight-forward way, he discards any petty intro's and skips right aways into the meat of the dialogue, his very first words being "Ey, brah, last night was goo' fun!"
Trace now informs me that I need to call him the next time we go anywhere. Hopefully, he's beginning to see the many joys inherent in eating out, and will begin to appreciate some of the finer elements of great food. But hey, this project may take some time. After all, this is the same guy who drank almost a whole bottle of sour wine last New Year's Eve. Though it tasted like shoyu, he was as happy and content as could be! Of course, the next day was a different story.
Always a pleasure to see someone's eyes light up from a new experience, and always a pleasure, as well, to share our latest dining experiences with you all. I know this story is about Akinono, but our man Trace sometimes has a tendency to steal some of the spotlight.
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