Posts tagged japanese

Chimpanzee Makes Udon

Mar just sent this to me. Can someone tell me what the dog is saying?

Day at MoCCA Festival and j-CATION at Japan Society

Takeru%20Kobayashi%20at%20j CATION%20 %20Japan%20Society Day at MoCCA Festival and j CATION at Japan Society
Hot Dog Eating Champion Takeru Kobayashi @ Japan Society

Stood in line at the armory on Lexington to get into the MoCCA Festival. A girl came up to me and said, “…Jason Lam?” I thought she was a food blog fan so I told her it was nice to meet her. She said she’s met me several times and we were Facebook friends. Oops.
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j-CATION Taste Japan @ Japan Society This Saturday

j cation j CATION Taste Japan @ Japan Society This Saturday

There’s a really cool event going on tomorrow at the Japan Society tomorrow (Saturday 4/10/2010). International Hot Dog Eating Contest champion -Takeru Kobayashi will be there, food bloggers -The Eaten Path & Feisty Foodie will be there, indie pop band -Asobi Seksu will be there, and a lot of interesting Japanese art will be there. Make it a Japanese Day!

More info at Japan Society (via Time Out NY). $5 Suggested Donation

Midtownlunch.com: Tebaya

This is where I ate this monster katsu sandwich –link

4441806267 1cda0f8545 Midtownlunch.com: Tebaya

Ai Ootsuka – “Ramen 3 Minute Cooking” Concert Video

Japanese pop star singing about ramen. The song is three minutes long. So when it’s over, your noodles are done cooking. Thanks for the link, Sam.

Sakagura – The Hidden Japanese Restaurant & Secret Menu

Had a late dinner with Marcellus, who is making these great illustrated letters to his nieces & nephew. It’s weird how I often seek Marcellus’ knowledge on Asian culture in New York, even though I’m the one who’s Asian. So here we are at this hidden Japanese restaurant downstairs in the basement of a Midtown office building. They have a lot of small dishes on the menu, similar to tapas.

The young waiter stopped me when I was taking a photo of the menu. We were confused. He said it was customary at most places that you can’t take a photo of the menu, because it’s private. From what we got is that they don’t want people stealing their menu. I confirmed this social faux pas with Yoshie, who said it was common in Japan with menus and food. Weird, since I always assumed the food photo-taking culture came from teenage girls from Asia. Perhaps it’s mainly the older expensive restaurants. The waiter didn’t seem to have a problem when I was taking twenty photos of each dish though, just the menu.

Marcellus and I shared a few small dishes. My favorite by far was the Gindara Yuan Yak (grilled cod). One of the two pieces was cooked perfectly. Just fell apart so nice. Everything else wasn’t as memorable. I should have tried a couple more, but they were relatively expensive for the size.

In their restroom, there was a bidet seat on the toilet. I’ve never used one and was really tempted. I didn’t have to go, but did press the buttons to see what it would do. Nothing happened, but maybe you have to sit on it first. And maybe that was good, because it would have just squirted my face.

BTW, you can check out their secret menu on Menupages and even on their own website.

Sakagura – 211 E 43rd St #B1 (btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave) New York 10017

Here’s Marcellus’ latest Letters From Uncle Marcefull series here
Marcellus%20Hall%20 %20Letters%20From%20Uncle%20Marce%203 2010 Sakagura   The Hidden Japanese Restaurant & Secret Menu

Blimpie Sushi

Yesterday, I asked on the Serious Eats forums what I should eat for Groundhog’s Day …or Lost season premiere. One person mentioned Setsubun (Japanese bean-throwing ceremony), which is today. I asked Yoshie about this.

Yoshie: its insane. one person becomes “oni” (evil spirit) and we throw soy beans at them
me: whoa
Yoshie: and then we eat big rolled sushi (not the kind we eat here, only veggies and stuff) facing certain direction. you have to eat it in one bite

So I went to the Blimpie downstairs that has sushi. Yeah, it’s a weird combination. The place also has donuts. The sushi (Inaka Sushi) is actually a separate entity from Blimpie and has been there for a few years now. It’s surprising because I don’t think they get much business.

When I looked at their selection, the chefs were eager to help. Nothing has changed from the first couple of times I tried them when they first open. Not meaning that the sushi was three years old, but meaning they were very friendly, accommodating while seemingly eager for business –like Babu and his American restaurant when Seinfeld first walked in.

I picked the fattest sushi they had, Futomaki ($4.90). I enjoyed it. Surprisingly, it’s really not bad sushi for being in a Blimpie. I can’t say it’s great sushi, but everything considered. I hope they get more business. I feel like Jerry and want to help. What would he do? Make the suggestion of making subs or move into a Yoshinoya?

I told Yoshie about my Blimpie sushi. She tells me you have to eat it whole –uncut roll in one bite.
Yoshie: …but if they are cut, you lose the luck
me: crap. I just ate it.

Inaka Sushi – 67 West 23rd St (btwn 6th and 5th Ave) New York 10011

Matsukado NYC

Tried this new ramen spot with Yoshie of Ramen and Friends. She had the Udon (with tempura flakes, sweetened deep-fried tofu pockets, spinach) –which I thought was pretty good. I got the Ramen Matsukado that had a little bit of everything (pork, shrimp, squid, thick gravy over soy based broth). The gravy mixed up with the broth and it sorta turned into a big bowl of lo-mein noodles with lo-mein sauce. It tasted Chinese.

The grand opening special of the sho-yu ramen $5.95 and miso shio ramen $6.95 sounds like a good deal. I think I should have gotten one of those. But I was already so indecisive. The waitress came over at least five times to take my order.

Matsukado – 104 Second Ave (btw E. 7th & 6th St) New York, NY 10003
Ramen and Friends’ cross post review