Beyond Teriyaki

Recently, a dear friend of mine spoke of her fondness for Japanese food. "I love chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki," she maintained. But as you may know, the infinite variety of cooked Japanese and Japanese-American foods goes way beyond teriyaki!

If your stomach is growling while you walk through Midtown on a late afternoon, you might stop by Café Zaiya. Like Yagura, the adjacent Japanese grocery, it features assorted cooked items. Today, the buffet included fried almond-encrusted shrimp, broiled whole pike mackerel, simmered autumn vegetables in a soy sauce, and batter-fried Chilean sea bass. The boxed meals of the day were una-don (eel over rice) and nikujaga (Japanese beef and potato stew). Some items on the regular menu are spicy cod roe spaghetti, tempura udon, and tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet). Try to save room for the intriguing desserts, which range from green tea madeleines to chestnut mousse to an man (steamed rice flour buns filled with sweet red bean jam)!

Café Zaiya is a bustling little place; if you would like to relax in more of a drawing-room ambience, head over to Ya Bowl. Mien Eto, the pleasant owner, told me that her intention with Ya Bowl was to open a place where people could actually relax in the middle of Times Square. She manages to achieve the impossible in a cozy room that recalls the charming cafés of the European-influenced Harajuku section of Tokyo.

As you can presume by its name, Ya Bowl specializes in one-bowl meals. On a recent visit I enjoyed the fresh water eel simmered in sweet soy sauce, garnished with shredded egg and pickled ginger. Also on the menu are a Korean barbecued beef bowl and a chicken cutlet curry. Ms. Eto raved about her desserts, but I had already eaten dessert before lunch that day (shame on me)!

As we come into cooler weather, I also enjoy inhaling a big bowl of steaming hot noodles at Soba-Ya, with toppings as diverse as sardines, fried tofu, mountain vegetables, and shrimp tempura. Across the street, Otafuku offers artery-clogging takoyaki (six chunks of fried dough with octopus) and okonomoyaki, a fried eggy pancake which is filled with seafood and cabbage, and then covered with bonito flakes and mayonnaise. Further downtown, there is the recently opened Win49, which compensates for its lack of seating (2 stools) with its varied assortment of tasty items. Among the delights here are many different bento boxes with fried cutlets and yakitori (Although this is a column about cooked Japanese foods, I must also note that Win49 offers a $6.50 chirashi-zushi (scattered sashimi over rice)!

In summary, you have many options besides teriyaki, so start eating!

Café Zaiya: 18 E. 41st St. (212) 779-0600. Ya Bowl: 125 W. 45th St. (212) 764-3017. Note: Ya Bowl will be closing at the end of July '03. Soba-Ya: 229 E. 9th St. (212) 533-6966. Otafuku: 236 E. 9th St. (212) 353-8503. Win49 (Closed as of 2006): 205 Allen St. (212) 353-9494.