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Tokkuri-tei, a closer look
Aloha!
1/9/09 - Some can eat burgers every single day of their lives, and never tire of them. Others, chicken katsu, saimin, or pho noodle soup; yet others, oatmeal, Pop-Tarts, or Sugar-Frosted Flakes. Me? Hops and barley, in liquified form, brah! Easy over there...
Wifey's pet indulgence, as you may already know, is sushi. Not that our pockets are deep enough to indulge every day, but on this fine evening, her sushi craving was crying out for attention like Horshack knowing the answer to a question in class on Welcome Back Kotter, or perhaps Vinnie Barbarino amongst a group of bubbling cheerleaders, for those of you who are old enough.
Wifey and I were both able to satisfy our respective taste preferences with one visit to a very casual, very drink-friendly, very popular little spot on Kapahulu Ave., inside the little shopping center where Papa John's sits, and right across the smaller side-street from Zippy's. The parking lot is small, so while less-crowded daytime hours are usually attainable, evening's are much busier and valet-only for a $3 charge (not counting tip!). Never mind the fact that when you come out of the restaurant after a happy and satisfying meal, your car is usually sitting right there in front of you, only ten or fifteen feet away. I guess the attendant still gets a tip for starting up the car for you! Other than that, you may opt for free parking on one of the tiny side-streets surrounding the area, or even on busy Kapahulu Ave. if you believe in a little (or maybe a lot) of luck!
Get that squared away, and you'll probably have a great time at Tokkuri-tei, which is one of those Japanese Izakaya Restaurants that have grown so much in popularity these days (follow the link to learn more about them). The menu here is as long and varied as a full-blown Chinese restaurant, only with many more drink choices, mostly coming in the form of sake and shochu. Dishes come in classic izakaya form - smaller, individual, ala carte dishes meant to offer more variety because a single diner can order several of them instead of just one set-course meal. It's also perfect for socializing because most groups simply hold on to the menu and order only a few dishes at a time, which fosters a leisurely pace livened up by drinks and as many rounds of interesting, tasty dishes as your party can handle!
Though Tokkuri-tei's menu contains mostly authentic dishes and the over-all design leans more torward old-school traditional than new-wave, there is a healthy mix of touches here and there that soften the, uh, samurai-like pressure you sometimes get at Japanese restaurants to conform to cultural mannerism's and norm's. In other words, you can cut loose a lot more without making anyone uncomfortable, or raising the ire of sushi chefs that can reduce your stature down several grades with a single, scowling stare! Yes, I am exaggerating the point, but there really is a vibe here that is super-casual, easy-going, and free, with a dining room that actually finds Japanese National's as a minority, as the crowd is most often a healthy mix of local, Caucasian, Chinese, Filipino, and other such tones, and age differences run from barely legal to Makule - ain't it great when we all get along!
There happens to be a very capable, very young sushi chef behind the counter at Tokkuri-tei. Sushi Chef James had a very enviable position for quite a while as first assistant to the radically perfectionist, very notorious, but super highly-skilled Chef/Owner of Sushi Sasabune on S. King St. I can imagine the kinds of hours and the unbelievable rigours he must have endured on that tour, but to have learned and survived through that, as well as a few other restaurants, as well, is to already have your game pumped up to levels most can only envy! And at his age? Get outta here - His name will be big-time one day, for sure! He's the prodigy in the center, working hard as always.
However, and I could be wrong, but from the looks of it he's still learning a thing or two from the Sushi Chef on the right, who seems to be watching and making sure that every cut was done with Bushido precision. It doesn't matter how smart or how great you think you are, let your head grow too big for your own hat and you're sure to be humbled the hard way, and Chef James ain't the cocky type that goes around tooting his own horn. Besides, every sushi bar and every master chef has his own different set of steps and procedures to follow...
As I said earlier, wifey was ono for sushi, so sushi it was! Our first round of dishes came with several different varieties, the first being a couple of beautiful salmon pieces that came in a deep, dark orange. The texture was tight yet tender and the freshness undoubtable, but seemed a bit weak on the flavor side, perhaps because of too little marbling.
We asked our kind waitress to inquire about anything flown in from Japan, and were rewarded with the only fish meeting the requirements on this particular night, hamachi. Unlike the salmon, these two pieces were rich in fat, with all the butter-soft, beautiful marbling that makes these fish legendary.
Next was not unagi, but anago. Both are eels, but that's about the only similiarity between them. Unagi is a freshwater fish that goes to sea only to breed, while anago is a saltwater fish that only ventures into brackish waters for precisely the same purpose. As in most fish, the flesh of saltwater varieties are much cleaner and sweeter-tasting than freshwater types. As a result, at least in Hawaii and most places outside Japan, the oily, more pungent-tasting unagi are usually grilled with a strong, sweet, shoyu-based sauce, then shipped out in vacuum-packed plastic, while anago can be shipped out in the raw, with cooks doing the grilling and flavoring with much less of a heavy hand, and right there on-location at sushi bars all over the world. Naturally, anago is considered the more delicate and refined of the two varieties, ordered by even the most haute sushi snobs, who consider unagi too bold and crude for true nigiri zushi and leaving them to brutes like myself! Who cares, ey? I love a good unagi sushi, especially at Sushi Bistro Shun, where they come in the most giant sizes you'll ever see!
I didn't even touch the next order, which was an ama ebi, or sweet shrimp. Coming large, glistening, and pretty, I nevertheless bartered my piece away for her anago, instead! Good and fair trade, it was, as both of us felt we each received the better end of the bargain! My deep-fried shrimp head, however, was not for sale, as those crispy legs on the bottom were delicious! I even at the miso, something I usually don't care for at all. I guess deep-frying anything long enough makes it taste good, huh? Either that, or Wifey is really beginning to influence me toward the dark side.....
Just one of the attributes that helps make Tokkuri-tei more non-Japanese-friendly (not saying it ain't Japanese-friendly, too, by the way!) is their oftentimes whimsical use of comments and names on the menu. They may list dishes called eel and Qkes (cucumber) and Nick Jagger (mimicking Nikku Jagga, or meat and potatoes), or say things like Caterpiller roll - tastes better than worm! Or, how 'bout this next description on the menu for California Roll, incorrect pronunciation and all!
I love the quirkiness of it all! Hey, if they can make mistakes, I can make mistakes too, right? Nobody cares except that you have a good time!
Moving right along, Tokkuri-tei is quite well-known for their wide variety of meats grilled on bbq sticks. Sometimes they are simple, with small pieces of chicken flavored in various ways, and at other times they step it up a bit, with items like pork-wrapped mushrooms and chicken mixed with giant Japan negi, or green onion. Whatever the case, they are all simple, very rustic dishes that travel in pairs and make great finger foods alongside sake, shochu, or Kirin draft, which wifey and I indulged in.
Next are two of these creations, both taken on an earlier outing, the first being a wabi sabi chicken stick, with the unmistakeable green tinge of wasabi, along with daikon suri, green onion, and nori. After that, a pork-wrapped mushroom stick.
Also taken on an earlier visit was a bowl of asari clams. This was a simple and satisfyingly home-style dish, with clean, meaty clams and a light dashi broth that was like clam soup for the soul. I can imagine this hot bowl first thing in the morning, especially these days, as it's been, like, super-cold every morning, hasn't it?
Winter in Hawaii, boy. Brutal...
I asked Sushi Chef James to prepare us something simple with whatever was best that night. Seated away from the sushi bar and at a regular table this fine evening, our kind waitress brought us a nice fillet of some kind in response. It looked like it was prepared in the classic manner - a simple sprinkling of salt (and just a splash of lemon)! Oftentimes, there's no better way - so long as the fish is fresh and of good quality, that is.
From the very first bite of this mystery cut, I was ooh-ing and aah-ing my way through in a manner normally reserved for a fat, juicy cut of ribeye steak straight off the grill! The meat was so butter-soft and fatty, one fish alone popped into my mind, and that was hamachi, a fish I've never had cooked before but once, only a week or so ago and prepared as katsu, when we had a little too much leftover sashimi pieces from New Year's (you've probably seen the pic!). This one, however, was sooo rich with fat, sooo foie-gras-like, sooo absolutely fall-apart tender and delicious, it must've come from the prized belly section. Chef did confirm as we left that it was indeed hamachi, but I forgot to ask if it was from the belly - if it wasn't, I'd be really surprised! Thanks for the choice Chef James, you really know what you're doing back there!
But you know what? I find it simply amazing that at many restaurants, they buy whole fish, use the clean fillets for sashimi, then throw out the collar, or kama (the gill area), as well as the prized belly wifey and I just had the pleasure of heartily devouring. Why? These are the two fattiest areas of the fish! If Chu and o-toro, the most prized pieces of sashimi on the planet, both of which come from the belly area of maguro and would never in a million years get thrown out, why, then, when it comes to just about any other fish, would the same areas get passed by? Haven't you ever seen smoked salmon bellies at the store for cheap? Or aku belly? Well, I can understand aku belly being cheap, as they have a huge reputation for having worms! But for everything else, I just don't understand it! I guess it doesn't really come down to quality, but customer demand, as misguided as that may be! A grilled belly just doesn't get any better, as far as I'm concerned. For all of you who haven't tried grilled or deep-fried belly or kama, please enlighten yourself!
Anyhow, last up were two popular ura-maki (inside-out) rolls, the first being a baked dynamite roll ordered that night and the second, a baked salmon roll, ordered on a separate night. Both looked rather similiar, with liberal doses of tenpura kasu, or the small crumbles of tenpura batter deep-fried in hot oil, along with tobiko eggs and a garnish of radish sprouts.
New-wave and traditional; local and non-local; young and old; Mainlander's and foreigner's, it don't matter. While the decor and dishes are undoubtedly Japanese (albeit with several twists, as mentioned above), everything else is up in the air! The crowds that rush in are definitely a melting pot of people - everyone's a minority, which makes diversity the majority! Tokkuri-tei is one of those pioneers helping to introduce izakaya restaurants to the rest of the world, a phenomenon that is sure to make these spots as familiar to the general public as sushi bars one day!
Tokkuri-tei is a great place to check out for a wide variety of interesting, new-wave dishes as well as many more traditional-style, Japanese staples. And watch that young Chef behind the sushi counter - he's definitely going places!
Hope you're all having a fabulous and wonderful day! Do it to it and never look back!
Take care and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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