Easy: izakayas. These informal Japanese restaurants have been opening at a rapid pace around the country, but most Americans haven’t figured them out yet. Where’s the sushi bar? What’s with the tiny portions? Is this Asian fusion tapas or what?
That’s the izakaya: easy to love, but hard to nail down. It’s friendlier than a French bar à vins, has more food choices than a Spanish tapeo, and takes itself less seriously than a British gastro pub.
But it makes the same point: drinking is primary; food is secondary; and if you’re doing it right, there will be hangovers.
“Hangover prevention is a big topic of conversation at izakaya meals,” said Yukari Sakamoto, a Japanese-American sommelier and writer who lives in Tokyo. (She swears by a morning-after remedy called Ukon no Chikara.) “That is, when you’re not talking about what to eat next.”
From the words for sake (rice wine) and stay, traditional izakayas are places anyone can linger for the price of a drink. The word is usually translated as tavern or pub — not very helpfully, since those words suggest a menu more T.G.I. Friday’s than Nobu. An izakaya isn’t a destination for great ramen, or perfect tempura, or impeccable sushi — although the menu, confusingly, will list all those dishes and more. Izakaya food, like most bar food, is salty and spicy, crunchy and savory, and engineered to be especially delicious with beer or wine.
But our phrase “bar food” can’t cover the dizzying spread of house-made tofu and pickles, grilled seafood, deep-fried bites like octopus balls and chicken wings, home-style meat stews, fried rice, noodle bowls and local seasonal produce that characterize even modest izakayas in Japan.
At their best, izakaya meals can also be models of Japanese culinary poise and delicacy. “It’s supposed to be a kind of casual place to eat and drink,” said Eric Bromberg, the chef and restaurateur who opened Blue Ribbon Izakaya and Sushi on the Lower East Side last year. “But since it’s Japan, everything comes out beautiful and elegant anyway.” (...)
In Japan, where the custom goes back at least to the 19th century, izakayas — marked by glowing red lanterns and long sake lists — are where co-workers go to celebrate a promotion, where young people meet to fill up before clubbing or karaoke, where families gather for an inexpensive weekend treat. There are upscale and hole-in-the-wall izakayas, kawaii izakayas where the waitresses are dressed as little girls, and chains of kechi yasui (“for misers”) izakayas where the drinks or food come free. Among young people, sake consumption has been steadily declining in Japan as stronger drinks become popular, and chain izakayas are among the efforts by the sake industry to bring them back.
“In Japanese life, there is a lot of drinking, but it is always combined with eating,” said Ms. Sakamoto, who was raised in Minnesota and attended culinary school in New York City, and was a sommelier at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo. “Which is why we have more izakayas than bars.” (...)
Although the menu may look huge and rambling, there is a logical sequence to an izakaya meal.
“To a Japanese eye, an izakaya menu looks like a bento box,” Ms. Sakamoto said. “And you just know how to eat it: something raw, something pickled, something fried, something simmered.”
by Julia Moskin, NY Times | Read more:
