Yakitori Tori Shin

As I wrote in a previous post, I really miss Midtown East's Yakitori Torys. Fortunately, there's a great yakitori place that's not too far away: Yakitori Tori Shin. This very authentic restaurant specializes in exotic chicken parts, but there is much more on the menu. The other night, my companion and I went there to check it out. At the risk of sounding corny, I could liken our meal to a succession of fireworks, with each bite more impressive than the last (and only one dud).

The dim, smoky room was already packed early in the evening; reservations are strongly recommended at this place. We sat at one end of the bar and watched as people who were much more familiar with the menu ordered dish after dish. If I had to do things over again, I think I would have followed their lead, ordering the special chicken meatball served with a dish of egg (which came first?) and a buttered shiitake stuffed with chicken breast meat.

We began with the tsukune, which is one of my favorite dishes at Yakitori Totto. Unfortunately, although this meatball was fragrant with scallions, it was filled with little nibs of unpalatable gristle. I was very disappointed. Everything else was delicious, though, even if it seemed as though we waited 20 minutes for the next bite to arrive.

A skewer of three chunks of sauce-lacquered chicken liver was very tasty. Grilled zucchini strips came with a wonderful spicy mayo. Creamy Japanese eggplant was embellished with feathery bonito flakes. Then came the skewers of sweet soy chicken and the chicken with piquant yuzu-kosho. Atsu-age, or fried tofu, was as delicious as the chicken, with its sharp soy-and-scallion seasoning. Gingko nuts were better than popcorn. We had fun watching the white-jacketed chefs inspect every skewer and sprinkle it with seasoning. The most indelible taste of the night was definitely our last bite: the pork belly. A cherry tomato was encased in slightly charred, tender pork belly meat daubed with spicy citrus paste and topped with shredded shiso leaves. The tomato burst with hot, sweet juice - culinary fireworks.

Yakitori Tori Shin: 1193 First Ave., (212) 988-8408.

Donguri

I still feel the loss of both Toraya, the Japanese tea and sweets room, and Ito-En's flagship store on Madison Avenue that included the kaiseki-focused Kai. Fortunately, New Yorkers still have Ito-En's Donguri, a cozy little slip of a place on an out-of-the-way Upper East Side block. I was craving some miso soup and hot sake last night, so I met a couple friends over there.

As the night went on, the ambience went from reverent to lively; at the end of the meal we almost had to shout. (This could have been due to the consumption of sake.) However, we were able to focus on the food, and some of it was truly memorable.

Our onslaught of appetizers included zaru soba, spicy octopus, corn tempura, miso soup, and sesame tofu (they were out of soy tofu, and later, grilled mackerel). The perfectly al dente soba was of the Inaniwa variety and was served with the typical toasted seaweed squares, scallions, wasabi and soy dipping sauce. The scallion-heavy miso soup was fine, but I'd been craving Tokyo-style red miso soup instead of soup made with white miso. The standout for me was the sweet corn tempura appetizer... sweet-salty disks of lightly battered crunchy corn were as addictive as popcorn.

For mains, two of us went with the chef's special sashimi, a well-balanced plate of thick chunks of tuna, a marbled rectangle of rich tuna belly, thinly-sliced snapper and fluke, salmon, orange clam, and yellowtail. I was glad I hadn't ordered the grilled Scottish salmon with salmon roe, as I wouldn't have had room. My other friend ordered the squid-ink risotto, also topped with salmon roe; I felt that this was rather one-note, not something I could eat an entire meal of.

For dessert, there was hojicha and then green tea pudding with vanilla bean ice cream. I wish we could have stayed longer (I drained three cups of sake, which is more alcohol than I've consumed since delivering my son), but the next party was itching to sit down. I don't blame them, as I am already planning my next visit.

Donguri: 309 East 83rd St., (212) 737-5656.

Robataya's 1st Anniversary

Time flies. In December, my baby will turn one. And now Robataya, one of my favorite restaurants in the city, is celebrating its first anniversary from today through October 1. (I mean to post a review soon - the grilled sweet potatoes sprinkled with lemon juice are exquisite.) There will be a gift certificate lottery and a sake sale, and seasonal specialties like mackerel and matsutake mushrooms will be featured.

Robataya: 231 East 9th St., (212) 979-9674.

Katsuhama

You have a couple more hours to enjoy the celebratory $5.50 curry at Katsuhama. The restaurant has now been open for a whole year (not an easy feat in this economy). But if you're truly hungry, I recommend the daily lunch box special. What's so great about this is that you don't have to make a choice between cutlet or noodles - you get both. Yesterday I chose a small bowl of curry udon (other selections included kitsune udon and zaru soba), which was a pile of thick, chewy-soft wheat noodles in a medium-hot brown sauce with little bits of mushroom and a pile of scallions. That was only the appetizer. The box contained a delightful variety of all different tastes, temperatures and textures. There were: a deep-fried, marbled Berkshire pork cutlet inside a batter as crisp as cornflakes, a large scallion-studded chicken meatball seasoned with sweet soy, well-chilled sashimi slivers of brilliant orange wild salmon and red snapper as well as big chunks of tuna, cold, crunchy yellow radish and lettuce pickles, a small shredded sesame-burdock-carrot salad, and some sections of sweet kabocha squash. Run there, don't walk!

Katsuhama: 43-45 West 55th St., (212) 541-7145.

Hide-Chan Ramen

I have to preface this by saying that I am deeply saddened by the closing of Yakitori Torys; I preferred it to Yakitori Totto (both restaurants, as well as the new Hide-Chan Ramen, are part of the same restaurant group). However, I suppose Midtown needed another good ramen joint, and at Hide-Chan Ramen, the noodles are much more delicate and toothsome, and the broths more subtle, than those at Sapporo. The menu will soon expand to include Japanese fried chicken and a dish made with spicy cod roe; for now, it is limited to a few appetizers like gyoza (beautifully thin-skinned dumplings), curry edamame (what a great idea!), a couple of the salads you'll still find at Yakitori Totto (roasted sardine with poached egg and greens, and greens with tofu), and of course, noodle soup.

There are two special noodle soups right now, one is "no-fat" (I wasn't interested), and cold ramen hazuki with a katsuo broth (attention pescatarians, this is the only broth that does not contain pork, and you will have to request the omission of pork slices). My companion and I ordered the hakata kuro, or black roasted garlic oil, ramen. Two deliciously fatty slices of pork added richness to the inky, fragrant broth, which also contained a good portion of thin, al dente noodles, a mass of scallions and a brown, chewy vegetable that resembled tree ears. Our friends found the katsuo ramen rather bland - fortunately, there was a pepper shaker at the table.

I will always miss the much larger variety of menu options at Yakitori Torys, but it's good to know that a ramen hankering can be satisfied on East 52nd Street, which seems to be turning into another Little Japan. As a side note, a new Japanese jazz club, Miles Cafe, opened up just down the street at 248 East 52nd. The cafe is featuring some of the finest names in jazz, and serves sushi from the restaurant below.

Hide-Chan Ramen: 248 East 52nd St., (212) 813-1800.

Takashi NYC

It seems that almost every kind of Japanese restaurant is represented in NYC (a restaurant which features the cuisine of Japanese Buddhist vegetarian monks recently opened, and of course there's the notorious pig-foot place Hakata Tonton), so it was only a matter of time until Osaka-style BBQ came to town. One-month-old Takashi is fast becoming the place to grill your own meat (and offal), I predict that in a couple weeks, it will be almost impossible to score a table there.

Yakiniku horomon lets no part of the cow go wasted - you can order first stomach, fourth stomach, tongue, liver, cheek and heart. (The chalkboard explains the health properties of everything!) There's also a raw meat menu which features chuck flap ground with fermented soybeans or sea urchin. I have to admit that our party left the more adventurous stones unturned here, sticking to grilled, lusciously marbled short ribs, liver and ribeye in two preparations: salt-garlic-sesame oil with lemon slices, and a soy marinade with scallions. Plates of rectangles of meat arrived at our table and we set to inexpertly grilling them - the server gave us detailed instructions for rare, medium-rare, etc., but they fell by the wayside. No matter - all was delicious anyway. Rice and veggies were extra - a bowl of lightly pickled vegetables, which included fennel and okra, was much more exciting than the plate of mostly cabbage presented for grilling. I suppose a vegetarian could make a meal of kimchi, peppery edamame and grilled vegetables, but he wouldn't be able to avoid seeing, ahem, red.

Housemade Madagascar vanilla ice cream comes with an assortment of toppings like roasted green tea syrup -I found the ground sesame and soybean to be a pleasantly nutty accompaniment.

Takashi NYC: 456 Hudson St., (212) 414-2929.

Tea Box Café at Takashimaya - and a Note to Readers

I've always wished that a giant, multi-level Japanese department store would open in NYC - the kind that has a rooftop garden, an art gallery, a floor devoted to kimonos, and, of course, a floor devoted to restaurants. As it does not seem that this will ever be in the cards, I still enjoy a trip to the exquisite (and expensive) Takashimaya - especially the Tea Box Café.

The East-West Afternoon Tea is a splendid affair, with a bento box filled with goodies like green tea creme brulee, chocolates, butter cookies, fruit salad, and a small selection of savories - vegetable crisps, a curried rice paper roll, a tiny chicken sandwich, and smoked salmon pressed into rice (for vegetarians, cucumber/pickled plum is an option). The box comes with your choice of various green, black, flavored black or herbal teas (I always get the genmaicha).

Note to readers: My most recent visit to the Tea Box Café was a party to celebrate the impending arrival of a new generation of foodie for my companion and me. Because of this, I will be taking a break from this beloved blog. However, since it's been a labor of love since 2002 (yes - I was one of the first NYC food bloggers!), I hope to eventually contribute to it again. In the meantime, I will keep the blog online, but probably won't be updating it. Have a great winter.

Takashimaya: 693 Fifth Ave., (212) 350-0180.

Takesushi

Takesushi, a six-month-old Japanese restaurant on the East Side, has a great lunch special for only $12. Today, it consisted of amberjack teriyaki with takuan pickles, five slices of tuna and fluke sashimi, simmered konnyaku, carrots and crunchy lotus root, two delicately fried pieces of pork tonkatsu over shredded cabbage, rice, soup and salad. The portions were not overwhelming, so my companion and I felt compelled to also order some sushi.

On a recent trip to Japan, my companion had enjoyed some individually-seared (aburi) salmon pieces. We wondered if the sushi chef at Takesushi might duplicate this preparation, and were delighted when he produced a little torch, rendering our chu-toro even more delicious. (Note: this particular delicacy does not fall under the "budget" price umbrella! But one feels less guilty indulging when the rest of the meal is so reasonable.) We look forward to returning for dinner.

Takesushi: 1026 2nd Ave., (212) 355-2048.

Restaurant Week at Matsugen

One of my favorite dining companions recently turned 40, and we decided to celebrate at Matsugen (we are usually over at Zenkichi in Williamsburg). Fortunately, her birthday fell during Restaurant Week (July 12-31), so we were able to enjoy a generous five-course meal at a reasonable price. (Maybe Mayor Bloomberg can have this extended to Restaurant Year.)

At times, Restaurant Week portions are smaller than the average, so I ordered an extra appetizer - six bites of rich grilled eel atop ginger slices and julienned cucumbers. Although a delicious strategy, it proved to be an unnecessary one, as my friend and I were to be completely stuffed at the end of the evening.

We began with warm, spiced edamame and a bowl of cold, soft milky fresh tofu. The mildness and heat was a nice combination. Then we enjoyed a tasty seaweed salad - its ginger dressing avoided the unpalatable vinegar taste that often mars this dish.

Then, we waited, and waited. We looked longingly at the tempura and sushi and black cod on the adjacent table. We waited some more, and then our next-to-last course - soba - made an appearance at our table. "But," I protested, "weren't we supposed to get the tempura, sushi, and the black cod?" The server seemed intent upon depositing the bowls onto the table, but then he had a little conference with the server who had brought out the salads. "You weren't served the tempura, sushi, or black cod?" she came over and asked. I confirmed this, the bowls were taken away, and we waited a while longer.

The aforementioned items were so delectable that it would have been an absolute tragedy if we were denied them. "This is butter in the shape of a cod!" exclaimed my friend, upon digging into the miso-marinated slab of black cod. Shrimp and vegetable tempura was greaseless and delicate, and marinated tuna sushi melted in our mouths with meaty flavor.

We'd both chosen the hot duck soba (as opposed to cold sesame). A complex broth with ginger and yuzu was the setting for tender, fat-edged slices of duck and a healthy portion of thin buckwheat noodles. By now, the restaurant was completely packed, and I wondered if some of the diners used to frequent Honmura An.

A small ceramic cup of green tea pudding (with candle for my friend) was the final course. We plan to return to Matsugen, Restaurant Week or no.

Matsugen: 241 Church St., (212) 925-0202.

Around The World in Seven Days, Part I: A Week in Astoria

My companion and I haven't lived in Astoria for very long, but we've already eaten our way around the globe! Here are some preliminary impressions, organized by country. (Of course, our journey is not over; there are many countries left to visit!)

1. Afghanistan: Balkh Shish Kabab House. The fried scallion turnovers (bolanee gandana) at Balkh will neutralize any craving for those leaden scallion pancakes found at Chinese restaurants. But my companion was disappointed in the tough lamb kebab; the salmon was much better. The rice was nondescript but the basket of thick, dense bread was satisfying. (23-10 31st St., 718-721-5020.)

2. Colombia: Botero's Cafe. The walls of this small cafe are decorated with prints of the painter's famous Rubenesque muses. After spending a little time here, I might become a muse myself. Arepas, or grilled corn pancakes, are served with melted tropical cheese, or avocados and shrimp, or "ahogado" (drowned in sauce), and the tostones are perfectly fried. (45-01 Ditmars Blvd., I can't find the number!)

3. Greece: Taverna Kyclades (also, see Elias Corner). An appetizer at Kyclades is enough for around 47 people (I'm exaggerating, but you get the drift). The fried calamari, the skordalia, and the grilled salmon steak are enough to send me over the moon, and I think I've never eaten better fried fish. (33-07 Ditmars Blvd., 718-545-8666.)

4. Italy: Michael Angelo's II Pizzeria & Restaurant (also, see Trattoria L'Incontro). I like my pizza with a thin crust, so someone recommended that I order the "Sofia Loren" pie. It was loaded with pools of melted fresh mozzarella and sliced fresh tomatoes, I only wish I'd eaten it in-house instead of having it delivered, because I think the crisp crust got a little steamed inside the pizza box. (29-11 23rd Ave., 718-932-2096).

5. Japan: Linn Restaurant. What a pleasant surprise: sparkling sushi on Broadway! It's certainly not cheap, but if you're craving Alaskan salmon roe, Japanese striped yellowtail, or even something like a fried oyster roll with wasabi mayo, you've got it all right here. A wall has been erected inside to obscure the C-Town across the street and to show Japanese movies. (29-13 Broadway, 718-204-0060.)

6. Morocco (well, Moroccan-influenced): Cafe Soleil. Every neighborhood should have one of these cozy hangouts with mismatched chairs and free Wi-Fi. Authentic Moroccan mint tea is served from beautiful silver teapots, and did I detect a bit of harissa in the potato pancake that came with my "classic French" omelette? (37-14 Astoria Blvd., 718-777-1015.)

7. Thailand: WAVEThai. I'm not going to enter the fray that is the apparent rivalry between WAVEThai and Thai Elephant, but suffice it to say that WAVEThai's "street noodles" (pad see ew) are addictive. You can order them with chicken or veggie chicken, beef, roast duck or veggie duck, squid, shrimp, tofu, scallop, or mixed seafood. The vegetarian duck's texture is meaty, chewy and substantial instead of thin and flimsy. Curries are nice and spicy. (21-37 31st St., 718-777-6789.)

Kambi Ramen House

If I'd known about the sheer volume of noodles in a Kambi ramen bowl, I would've foregone the shredded pork and chive dumplings with gingery dipping sauce, the whole shrimp in glutinous rice wrappers, the perfectly chilled tofu topped with heaps of bonito flakes and scallions, and the refreshing julienned daikon flavored with sesame and soy. Well, now that I think about it, I'm glad I ordered all of the above, in addition to my basic pork ramen. But the thin yellow noodles (you can also order thick, wavy, whole wheat or bean) in a garlicky golden broth were definitely the highlight of the meal. Two rounds of sake-stewed pork, so tender that they fell apart at their swirls of succulent fat when I just touched them with a chopstick, lay atop the mound of noodles. The bowl also contained thinly sliced bamboo shoots and a bit of seaweed. This might not be a popular opinion, but I enjoyed the ramen more than at Ippudo; Kambi was more generous with the noodles, and the pork slices were more substantial.

(If you visit Kambi and somehow have an appetite for dessert, the hottest bakery in the East Village is the nearby Momofuku Milk Bar. I wish this place weren't so darn tempting - last night I came away with a glass of wild strawberry milk, a chocolate donut soft serve ice cream cone, corn cookies, blueberry cream cookies, and an incredible slice of banana cake layered with salty hazelnut crunch and banana cream. Why, oh why.)

Kambi Ramen House: 351 East 14th St., (212) 228-1266.

Luxee Dessert Cafe (CLOSED)

Lately, it seems like I'm on Clinton Street all the time. The tapas at 1492 Food, four-cheese pizza at San Marzano, and tomato-mozzarella tarts at Falai Panetteria keep me coming back for more. And now I have yet another scrumptious reason to visit Clinton Street: the sweet-savory Parmesan souffle at Luxee. This towering, sugar-dusted, eggy dessert is already impressive; a tableside grating of cheese over the top renders it irresistible. The souffle is served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a little bowl of hazelnut brickle.

There are many other treats for the adventurous sweets lover: green forest parfait of avocado and chocolate; a Mont Blanc with the surprising addition of tomato-rose jam; chocolate and star anise cake; and rose macarons. Different teas are recommended for each dessert - my souffle was paired with chamomile.

Luxee Dessert Cafe: 6 Clinton St., (212) 375-1796.

Inakaya

Having not read much about Inakaya other than that it was a Japanese grill, I was utterly unprepared for the synchronized shouting and dancing of its cooks and servers. "Did we just walk into Cold Stone Creamery?" I asked my companion. Uniformed men cried out as they pounded mochi into submission, waiters loudly chanted orders, and there was an eruption of "Irrashaimase!" whenever a customer entered the restaurant.

The experience was rather jarring, which was a shame, because many of the grilled items were quite good. We sat at the counter, where baskets of fresh vegetables, meats and fish were laid out in a row. The cooks would pluck out our choice, cook it and deliver it on a long wooden plank. When the gummy taro potatoes ran out, they were replaced by golden-fleshed Japanese sweet potatoes served with a smear of sweet butter. We also enjoyed meaty grilled yellowtail filets in both teriyaki and sea salt preparations, and tsukune (chicken meatball skewers) in tare sauce. The grilled scallop was disappointingly bland, although attractively presented in a shell. (Our budgets did not allow for the $67 deep sea snapper.)

The cold dish menu included maguro natto (one of my favorite dishes); the raw tuna was sliced instead of cubed. (There was no maguro yamakake on the menu, although plain grated yam cake could be ordered.) There was also a sizeable sushi menu, which we didn't take advantage of.

It is this humble blogger's opinion that Inakaya might benefit from a menu apart from the a la carte, especially in this economic climate. Soup, rice, or salad could be included with a main course- it gets expensive when you are ordering four chunks of potato for $7, or a $9 skewer of mushrooms. And perhaps the theatrics could be toned down a bit.

Inakaya: 231 West 40th St., (212) 354-2195.

Taro Sushi

I haven't yet made it to Brooklyn's new Kappa Sake House or Zuzu Ramen (well, the latter isn't open until Tuesday, March 10 - it will offer novelties like green curry ramen as well as sake and beer). But I always enjoy the sake and sushi at Taro Sushi. I was first introduced to this Japanese gem by a Park Slope family whom I'll call The Olives. The Olives have two little girls who are rapidly broadening their palates at Taro. Tonight, they feasted on inside-out California rolls and shrimp tempura maki topped with rainbows of avocado and smoked salmon. But when one of the girls clamored for an item not on the menu (a bowl of plain tofu cubes), the waiter happily obliged.

I started my meal with a dish of chopped toro tartare, raw quail egg and lots of wasabi, and continued with two preparations of freshwater eel: plain with sea salt, and lightly sauced. Then I savored some yellowtail belly topped a white onion sauce, and an assertive mackerel slice. All of the fish was outstandingly fresh and presented with care.

But there was more than just sushi on the menu. The hot appetizer selection included such delicacies as simmered pork ribs and miso-cooked pork stomach. Mama Olive craved noodles, so she devoured a bowl of hot soba with spinach, seaweed and scallions. (I think she'll probably bring the Olive girls to Zuzu when it opens.)

Diners of all ages will enjoy Taro Sushi.

Taro Sushi: 446 Dean St., Brooklyn, (718) 398-0872.

Katsuno Restaurant

If you're a regular at Midtown's Restaurant Seo, you might be wondering where Chef Katsuyuki Seo is. It turns out that his fans out in Forest Hills are borrowing him for a little while. Seo, who just opened Katsuno in the former Ran space on Metropolitan Avenue, is arranging lovely plates at the sushi bar while his kitchen turns out specialties like grilled miso-marinated beef, steamed Asari clams, eel with cucumber vinaigrette, and those noodles everyone has come to love at Seo's original restaurant.

There are eight tables in the front of Katsuno (seven of which were full tonight), and two semi-private tables in back. Tonight, people around me were indulging in oshitashi, sea urchin sashimi, and chawan mushi. To start, I ordered a bowl of miso soup (the menu features both red and white versions) with seaweed, scallions and nice big chunks of tofu. My next course was three half-moons of sweet stewed pumpkin in a light dashi. The hearty orange vegetable was sprinkled with bits of yuzu zest.

My main course was a generous portion of grilled miso-marinated cod, its skin lightly charred. A dab of sweet white miso sauce complemented the rich fish, which was served with a big bowl of rice. (Next to me, a couple consumed a plate of rare sliced beef with daikon and citrus ponzu sauce.) Although I was tempted by the sushi menu ("Please ask for today's imported fresh fish from Japan," it said), I had no more room... maybe I'll go back tomorrow.

If you want to try out Katsuno for yourself, you might want to visit on Saturday, Dec. 20 from 5-7 p.m., when the restaurant is throwing a "grand opening party." You'll be able to eat all you want for $25! The menu will include cold soba, grilled chicken in lemon sauce, shrimp tempura salad, and sushi, among other dishes. Bring your own wine and beer - Katsuno expects to receive its liquor license in the next few months.

Katsuno Restaurant: 103-01 Metropolitan Ave., Forest Hills, (718) 575-4033.

Zenkichi

In its own simple way, Zenkichi is one of the most beautiful restaurants in Brooklyn. The dark, wood-paneled triplex is a labyrinth of hushed, narrow hallways lined with semi-private dining rooms. Each little room is separated by a bamboo curtain, which the server opens and closes. (If you order the multi-course omakase, as my companion and I did, there's a lot of opening and closing!) The place reminded me of Higashi-Yama Tokyo.

The $48 omakase menu changes every five weeks, and can be accompanied by a flight of sake. Our sakes were arranged in order of sweetness, and contained notes of dark chocolate, citrus and cantaloupe. My favorite was the Shichiken Junmai Ginjo (the chocolatey one). (There is also an assortment of dessert sakes, but I'll have to save those for the next visit!)

Our first course was a bowl of soup made hearty with strips of fried tofu. Then it was time for sashimi: slices of seasoned bigeye tuna atop a bed of julienned peppers, carrots and onions, rich monkfish liver seasoned with Japanese lime, and clean-tasting sea bream.

A yuzu-dressed baby arugula salad featured small chunks of free-range chicken and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms from Shizuoka. Disks of sea-urchin-stuffed fluke tempura were so tasty that we later ordered another tempura dish from the a la carte menu: tiger shrimp oozing with melted squares of Camembert. The tempura was accompanied by sprays of green tea salt and bowls of tentsuyu. (I love green tea salt and wish they served it on popcorn in movie theatres.)

Luscious black cod was lovingly prepared, marinated in salt for one night and Kyoto miso for two. The sake-scented fish was sweet and melted like butter. Tiger shrimp shinjo were two small shrimp/fish cake balls in a subtle broth. (For this course, the diner has a choice between shinjo and slow-cooked pork belly.) The final course before dessert was a plate of seared Mishima beef sushi, accented with ginger garlic soy sauce.

We really indulged in dessert, ordering three more items in addition to the dense chocolate cake with yuzu-topped yogurt-honey ice cream! My companion dug into a soft kabocha pumpkin pudding with ginger syrup and toasted pumpkin seeds, I finished off the nutty kinako cheesecake, and we both cleansed our palates with a grapefruit half filled with bright red grapefruit jelly. I suppose we'll be back in five weeks to see what else the chef has in store for us!

Zenkichi Modern Japanese Brasserie: (718) 388-8985, 77 North 6th St., Brooklyn.

Curry-Ya

I just want to eat the block of East Ninth Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues up whole. Chikalicious, Chikalicious Dessert Bar (love that chocolate pudding), Dieci, Rai Rai Ken, and Curry-Ya are located there. But it's getting harder to score a seat at one of these precious little eateries, because half the student body of NYU has discovered this economical and delicious street.

With this in mind, I made plans to meet a friend early in the evening at Rai Rai Ken. But it was a little bit hot in there, so we went next door to the spotless white bar at Curry-Ya, home of the Japanese gourmet curry in regular/hot/extra hot varieties. There are few dishes as comforting as a big portion of rice smothered in that thick brown sauce! We sipped oolong tea and white wine as we investigated the options. An organic raw egg over the curry? Corn? Fermented soybeans? And should we have a Berkshire pork cutlet in our curry, or giant deep-fried shrimp, or some grilled chicken? Price wasn't an obstacle, because everything at Curry-Ya is $15 or under. (Plain curry is only $7, and you can add some other little dishes and dessert to your meal for $6.)

We both decided on a hot, hearty vegetable curry, full of sweet kabocha squash, green beans, long strips of shiitake and large chunks of potato. Big plates of rice arrived with circular indentations in the middle, into which we poured our individual pots of curry. I ordered a raw egg and slathered it all over the rice. Although I enjoyed sprinkling the diced crispy onions over top, the prospect of mixing in the accompanying dish of raisins was not appealing to me. But as the nights grow colder, I know I'll often be angling for one of the coveted seats at Curry-Ya.

Curry-Ya: 214 East 10th St., (866) 60-CURRY.

The 15th Annual Japanese Food & Restaurant Show

This year's Japanese Food & Restaurant Show was an exciting event, with sake tastings, premium food samplings and people-watching galore (I caught sight of folks from Haru, Morimoto, Sushi Den, Takahachi and Soba Totto). Japanese cookbook celeb Hiroko Shimbo was on hand to sign cookbooks (you can find her recipe for tuna tartare here). I enjoyed tasting many innovations: Yamamoto-yama tea in apple and mint flavors; "Super Frozen Tuna" sashimi, boiled cut wild octopus from Azuma Foods, coffee gyuhi crepes, and white peach Sakura Muromachi dessert sake.

But the highlight of the show for me was the "History Of Sushi" lecture given by Eiji Ichimura, who was introduced as "the sushi chef's sushi chef." He passed out marinated tuna in bamboo leaves and salmon roe as he gave us a crash course in sushi.

We learned that sushi came into being when a mild vinegar, akazu, became popular; people used to eat a dish of fermented fish and rice. In the 1800s, a gentleman named Yohei Hanaya apparently created the nigiri-zushi that is so widely enjoyed today. Sushi used to be consumed in much larger portions (three pieces were enough for a meal!) and the prized toro, or tuna belly, was once routinely thrown away. Speaking of tuna, it was not generally consumed as sushi until the 1940s. Salmon roe and sea urchin are also relatively recent additions to the sushi menu. Old-time sushi lovers commonly ate clams, shrimp, whitefish, and silver-skinned fish such as mackerel.

Are you hungry? Well, so was I! After the show I headed over to my beloved Hasaki, where the special, coincidentally, was an Edo-Mae sushi plate. Mmm.

Greenwich Grill

If you crave Italian food while your dining partner wants Japanese, I suggest an evening at Greenwich Grill - a lovely TriBeCa Italian restaurant where you can order sushi from the Japanese place below! I was unaware of this perk when I visited with a friend this weekend and was surprised to see chopsticks at the place setting.

After reading about the Grill in a local magazine, I was drawn in by the prospect of a restaurant similar to Basta Pasta, a Japanese-owned Italian restaurant in Chelsea. Although the menus are quite different, both places present moderate portions of artfully presented dishes, and the service at each is exemplary.

My friend pronounced her dirty martini "excellent" and I uncharacteristically ordered a cocktail, the "Glinda." (It sounds so "Sex And The City!") The Glinda was a mojito-like drink made with rum, mint, and sparkling wine, but with no lime.

The lime would come in when my friend ordered ceviche - a brightly colored melange of green avocado, red tomato, purple octopus with some clams and striped bass. The dish packed a punch of cilantro and a bit of citrus. I ordered a half-portion of gnocchi in a Gorgonzola cream sauce accented with Parmesan; there wasn't one ingredient or bite in that entree that I didn't like. The seven gnocchi were of the larger, more substantial kind, not the little melt-in-your-mouth puffs of potato you find at Hearth. The green olive bread went to good use, as I could not let one bite of sauce go uneaten!

My friend went the pasta route for her main course, ordering the fettucini in a Thai green curry sauce with Dungeness crab. The coconutty sauce was rather sweet and would have benefited from some spice, but the texture of the fresh pasta was perfect. I loved the deep-fried swordfish with herbed tartar sauce and frisee salad.

Time for dessert! The server was very accommodating when I asked for some whipped cream to go with my "seasonal berry marinade," which was something like a cool raspberry blackberry soup with a dome of fruit hiding a scoop of vanilla ice cream. My friend's tiramisu was incredible; a dusting of espresso and cocoa provided it with an intense flavor, and the dessert did not suffer from the unpalatable surplus of amaretto that I have found elsewhere.

Green kukicha tea was a relaxing and fragrant finish to the meal.

Greenwich Grill: 428 Greenwich St., (212) 274-0428.

Kyoya

It's easy to miss this elegant Japanese oasis. After you walk past a graffiti-covered fence near the corner of East 7th St. and 1st Avenue, don't forget to look down; there will be a staircase leading you to an unforgettable experience! You can enjoy Kyoya's delicately prepared cuisine in the semi-private tatami room, in front of Chef Sono at the bar, or at one of the five or so tables in the front. Reservations are definitely recommended.

After being mightily impressed by my meal a week ago, I decided to bring my companion last night. To my amazement, our server remembered that I had ordered the Nagasaki mackerel sashimi the previous week. Almost all the fish is from Japan, except for the tuna (Panama) and the sea urchin (Canada). None is farmed.

The menu is divided into chef's specials, hot and cold appetizers, main courses, and a $150 kaiseki. (Note: this is one of those fancy places, so rice, miso soup, pickles and tea are extra! The Chiran green tea from Ito-En is bracing and wonderfully strong.) There's miso-marinated beef tongue, fried mountain vegetables, sea urchin with tofu skin in a crystal clear broth, eel agedashi-dofu, and Hokkaido male and female smelts. In short, there are a lot of items I've never encountered before, which just makes me want to order them all!

I thought my companion might enjoy the Tousui hotpot appetizer - a ceramic pot filled with a hot soymilk stew with tofu skin and soft chunks of tofu. This mild, sweet dish was livened up with garnishes of scallions, ponzu sauce, daikon radish and citrus salt. Although I'd also ordered the icefish yukari (a mound of tiny, lightly fried fish) on my previous visit, this time I went with ebi shinjo: fried shrimp mousse balls interspersed with crunchy rice crackers, tender shiitakes, baby corn and asparagus in a light broth.

We both ended up having black cod for our main course. My companion ordered the seasonal simmered fish, which was a large piece of cod poached in a sweet soy sauce; I chose the miso-marinated black cod. The three slabs of fish were rich as peanut butter, and they arrived with a small dish of cold edamame.

Although I fondly remembered the matcha-dusted dark chocolate mousse cake with unsweetened whipped cream from my last visit, we were due to meet some friends at Caffe Emilia for dessert. So I'll have to repeat that pleasure another time.

Kyoya: 94 East 7th St., (212) 982-4140).