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Yakitori Yoshi, a closer look
 Mari Taketa and Nonstop on Yakitori Yoshi! |
 Yakitori Yoshi on Yelp! |
Local Blogger on Yakitori Yoshi's! |
 Lalinzy on Yakitori Yoshi! |
Aloha!
8/15/11 - Ooops! For some reason, I thought I already did a Closer Look on Yakitori Yoshi's when they first opened last year, but no, it was just a couple of mentions on other pages, that's it! Also, that was right around the time my camera was getting progressively worse with focusing issues, so I do apologize for the terrible pics coming.
But before checking it out, I figure I'd pass-on an e-mail I just got from someone in the Food Network organization. I guess they're looking for a new food star! Here's the message:
Food Network Star Casting in Honolulu! Food Network Star, Food Network's hugely successful culinary reality series is currently casting for season 8. We are looking for people who are full of life, passionate about cooking, and knowledgeable about food to meet us in person at our open casting call. Please help us reach out to any chef, home cook, caterer or culinary enthusiast who might be interested in becoming the host of his or her own cooking show on Food Network! The details of our event are as follows: Date: Tuesday, August 30th 2011 Time: 10am-2pm Location: Sheraton Waikiki 2255 Kalakaua Ave. Honolulu, HI 96815 For additional information please visit www.foodnetworkstarcasting.com or email us at fns8honolulu@gmail.com
I'm sure someone out there has the looks, vivacious personality, passion for cooking, and set of skills, but that wouldn't be me! I may have a passion for cooking, but one out of four isn't good enough! Me, I think famous Yelper, singer, and songwriter Emi Hart is the perfect candidate and a lock to win. I even sent her a message telling her about it! I think someone out there will create a "Draft Emi" page soon to coax her into representing Hawaii on Food Network!
Anyhoo, we had high hopes for Yakitori Yoshi's since not only are they an offspring of Kohnotori, but they are also housed in the former Kai and Hale Macrobiotic facility on Makaloa St. Like its former tenants, they were great places to eat but had this tiny parking lot that necessitated many a street-side parking moment. Not too bad, though - there's usually something available close by.
None of the incoming tenants would dare change the atmosphere scheme, as it embodies a unique, contemporary design dominated by an almost-wave of concentric wood strips on one side and a long, attractive stainless steel kitchen on the other. The sleek, very bold lines on these features are showcased in a dimly-lit room with strategically-placed lighting, and it all combines for a hip, Japanese-city-style ambience.
Walk into a cool place like this, and you won't even need a menu for your first order. A place like this begs and screams for a couple of these:
Basically, I'd say Yakitori Yoshi is like Kohnotori on steroids. I mean, not only is the dining room larger and designed better, but the menu is also much-expanded, as well. It's not only about sticks anymore, as you can see here:
The cleaner, more girlie way to enjoy oysters, I guess! No messy shucking, no threat of crunchy bits of calcified rock, and no seaweed and barnacle-covered shells to deal with - all's you need is chopsticks! Having already been to Broadway Seafood and Oyster Bar on Keeaumoku several times already, I can safely conclude that noone else comes close regarding raw oysters, but still, no complaints whatsoever with the ones here at Yakitori Yoshi's. The shelled bodies came with a ponzu bath, green onion, and a self-squeeze lemon wedge for a classic Japanese style of enjoying oysters. And enjoy, we did.
Another simple dish we loved, for the most part, was okra:
I say for the most part because the one aspect we didn't appreciate was, as you can see, portions. I mean, I coulda stuffed them all in my mouth in a single bite! At Kohnotori, I remember having them blanched, cut in slices, and bathed in ponzu, just like we do 'em at home. At least this way, they last longer even if given the same amount, just by virtue of taking longer to pick each piece up! But seriously, drizzled in ponzu and bonito flakes, the okra was still prepared in that simple, rustic, very natural way typical of yakitori/izakaya restaurants.
At home, and especially when I'm lazy, I stuff enoki and sometimes other exotic mushrooms into a foil pouch and the toaster oven for a few minutes. Usually, all it takes is olive oil and salt, ponzu, and/or shoyu, but on fancier occasions, I'll add large slices of garlic, fresh basil leaves, or other herbs. Whichever way, out pops a fragrant, tender, delicious side dish that could not be any easier or cleaner to prepare, with no dishes whatsoever - just throw away the foil! Here at Yakitori Yoshi's, they do much the same thing with their mixed pouch of mushrooms:
Who's one is better? No contest. Mine, of course! It's always better at home, right?
But moving along, I haven't seen whole ginko nuts used anywhere outside of Japanese restaurants, and even then, scarcely. So whenever they are available, you can bet Kumi will be placing an order:
Roasted, salted, and sliced for easy access, the nuts carry a distinctly bitter, earthy flavor and strong smell that kept many people groups from eating them throughout history. But you know them Japanese! Me, I loved 'em right off the bat and now find them addicting, especially since they actually do come from the ginko biloba tree, which is the source of that potent mind-strengthening natural medicine. The flesh is somewhat like a cross between a firm sweet potato and a roasted chestnut in texture, not crunchy like other nuts.
Another very simple dish is their sukui tofu:
Once again, as in most other dishes, there's a predominant theme here - simplicity. A block of tofu topped with katsuo-boshi, green onion, and shoyu - what else do you need? The silky taste of sukui tofu itself, combined with a little taste (shoyu or ponzu), is the best way to go!
Another very traditional Japanese item is gobo, or burdock root. Love the stuff. And what is the newest, hippest style of preparing gobo? Deep-fried, of course! You'll find it in lots of Japanese restaurants these days, mostly in good izakaya's like Imanas tei and Ojiya. In fact, before looking at Yakitori Yoshi's version, check out these two first:
Deep-fried gobo at Imanas tei
Deep-fried gobo from Ojiya
How do these compare to Yakitori Yoshi's? See for yourself:
Yes, portions are once again an issue! The taste of these strips of gobo was fantastic, especially with a little dip of Kewpie mayo, but size does matter sometimes.
Just as an aside, I've always wondered why the term yakitori, which means grilled chicken, is the term most widely used, even in Japan, for grilled items of every kind on a stick. Of course, a yakitori place usually utilizes bird more than any other item, whether from parts of its wings, breast, skin, gizzards, liver, etc., but there are other impaled food varieties as well, such as pork, beef, fish, non-chicken organs, and lots of veggies, to name a few. Thus, wouldn't the term kushiyaki, which means "grilled items" and "stick," be more appropriate? Who knows - perhaps it's not sexy enough a word in Japanese? Heck, even "robata-yaki," robata meaning "by the fireside," is another term also used, but that's more accurately (at least traditionally!) for outdoor fires where they dig sticks into the ground at an angle, with the food part of the stick hovering above the fire, forming a rough tee-pee. Either way, though, it's all good - they are all different terms for grilled items, mostly on sticks but sometimes just grilled.
Here's one of the most basic yakitori items, chicken thigh with wasabi sauce:
And something a little more complex, chicken tsukune, which is a ground chicken mix:
Delicious! A mayo infused with mentaiko, or pollock roe, is also used to enhance the moist, juicy sticks of chicken.
Here's an absolutely horrid shot of a single shrimp on a stick:
Tasted better than it looked!
Bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms always work, too:
Just as great, bacon-wrapped asparagus:
Though Kumi did order either gizzard or heart, and someone else ordered skin, I guess the photo's were inadvertently lost somewhere in that digital scrapyard in the sky. I suppose I lost a few more dish memories, too, but I did manage to retain a pretty platter of mixed goodies. From left to right, chicken teriyaki, tsukune teriyaki, ume shiso chicken thigh, arabiki sausage, okra, and mochi balls:
If it fits on a stick and can be grilled, you'll find it here! It's all about getting charcoal smoke deep into every item, and they do that very well. Even though it's basically the same stuff you'll find at Kohnotori, I find, rather curiously, that the different atmospheres can sometimes play tricks on our individual dining psyches. At Kohnotori, there's more of a hole-in-the-wall feel, like any ol' casual dive you walk into from a dark alley. At such places, aren't we pre-conditioned to overlook things like bad service, longer wait times, and an eccentrically gruff mama or papa-san? Here at Yakitori Yoshi, however, it's a lot flashier, a lot glitzier, and a lot more polished and sophisticated. Don't the more upscale conditions automatically pre-condition you to expect things like promptly-arriving dishes, courteous service, and an over-all flawless experience? With basically the same food at both spots, I think expectations are a big reason why Kohnotori gets 4 stars on Yelp and nary a bashing, while the latter gets 3-and-a-half stars and consistent bashing from a decent handful of disgruntled folks. I dunno - just an observation, is all.
After a bunch of grilled meats and vegetables, I see no better way to close than with one of their hot bowls of ramen:
They are on the small side and come only in a few varieties, including tonkotsu, shio, miso, and shoyu, but are surprisingly good. Not wanting a heavier or darker bowl, we went with a shio (salt) ramen with butter. Huh? Yeah, a shio-butter ramen did sound kinda wierd, but after watching a simple stick of butter quickly melt into the broth, we did, to our amazement, find it a great combination! As for the broth itself, it wasn't complex as in a full-fledged ramen restaurant, but it was still well-flavored and delicious, in a simple, almost saimin-like way, while the perfectly al dente noodles also stood out in their own firm, thin-strand way. Like I said, a great way to finish!
Hey, hope you've all had a great weekend! We had another fabulous hibachi, with USDA Prime ribeye, grilled hamachi kama, Mama Woo's garlic chili wings, poke, fresh guacamole, grilled sweet onions, garlic edamame, basil fried rice, Thai green curry, and below, yakitori sticks and Alonzo's teri beef steaks:
Happy Hibachi's!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
Yakitori Yoshi's
1427 Makaloa St. on the Ala Moana side of Wal-Mart building
941-6891
Monday-Friday 11am-2pm; Monday-Sunday 5:30pm-12am
Parking in lot fronting store or on street
