Times to talk about Izakaya, one of Japan's coolest culinary inventions. I suppose the closest Western analogue would be Spain's tapas bars: Small plates of delicious food made at the proprietor's whim, to be accompanied by good drink and good friends. Go there, hang out, find out what's tasty today, and have a good time until it's time to go home (and then have another drink and another bite to eat anyways)
Now, there are plenty of izakaya at the major stations like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo, etc. But I don't go to those places. They're usually chains, and while the food is certainly delicious it lacks . . . creativity, I guess, or passion (and it is of course incredibly overpriced). In addition, their popularity demands that they keep the menu pretty much unchanging from day to day, so that everyone knows what they will get when they walk in. It's good, but it's not quite a true izakaya style. To get the experience of an old-school izakaya, it's best to venture off of the beaten track:
Hoochie Coochie (no relation to the music venue of the same name) is one of these places. In fact, I only know about it because the boss of a friend in Seattle happened to go to highschool with the chef here, and sent me to Japan with strict instructions to go say hi on his behalf. It's located at the small station Higashi-Nagasaki, a few stops out of Ikebukuro, not even on any of the main Japan Rail transit lines--the only way to get there is by the smaller Seibu Ikebukuro line (which fortunately is very reasonably priced for a private line. Unlike, for instance, the Tsukuba Express which charges fucking 800 yen to go like ten stops oh my god I am still so mad about that). Head off of the main drag down a side street, and take the stairs to the basement of a nondescript building to find an old-school izakaya of the finest sense, with amazing food at incredibly reasonable prices
The setting is casual, a bar with 8-10 seats and a few tables. The staff, Hiro and Nori are awesome. Punk and pop-punk are probably playing on the stereo; in the same night I've heard "Dammit" by Blink 182, "The Girl All the Bad Guys Want" by Bowling for Soup, "Basket Case" by Dookie-era Green Day, "Jesus of Suburbia" by American-Idiot-era Green Day (yes I consider those last two to be separate bands), "Time Bomb" by Rancid, and "Stranger than Fiction" by Bad Religion . . . and that's just to name a few (I feel like I'm parodying myself with all of these song lyric posts, I'm sorry), So you know from the first minute that you'll probably like this place
And then you sit down and they hand you a delicious amuse-bouche and you know you're gonna like this place
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| Braised daikon with miso, simmered gourd in sesame oil, and grilled eggplant |
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| Chestnut and spinach, potato salad, and stir-fried burdock root |
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| Or, on a cold autumn day, the trio is ditched in favor of a small bowl of cabbage and bacon soup with plenty of black pepper |
As for the rest of the food, every day Nori-san writes up the new menu by hand. While a few things stick around, you can always count on things changing. Strange things, interesting things, whatever Hiro saw at the stores. It might be something simple like crudites with a miso-mayonnaise dipping sauce. It might be something special like the first catch of sanma from up in Hokkaido. It might something unique and fantastic like whale stir-fried with bacon. But it will be delicious. A few more highlights:
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| Simple fried tofu with fresh ginger and shaved bonito, an absolute classic that also happens to go really well with drinks |
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| The sashimi selection changes every day and is usually only four or five types--whatever looked the freshest and the best that morning |
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| Chicken sashimi with egg yolk and fresh vegetables. If you know anything about me, you know I can't resist |
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| Deep-fried blowfish, which is fantastic on its own but transcendent with beer. If it weren't for all of the other tasty things on the menu, I'da ordered seconds |
This is the kind of place that is filled with friends you haven't met. Not only does the staff greet everyone walking in through the door, but often the regulars do as well (and why not, they feel like it's their place too). The person sitting next to the bar is likely to offer you a bite of his sashimi, or ask for a second glass so he can pour you some from the bottle in front of him
Oh yeah, did I mention the bottle service? There are of course plenty of options for drinking, Nori-san writes up the sake list by hand every day as well as he phases new bottles in and out. Or you can just buy a bottle of shochu and write your name on it for next time
Those of you that can read kanji have surmised that it's the custom to write the date on the bottle so that you can track how long it takes to drink. I just started this bottle last night, so I wrote "November 4th". The woman sitting next to me, one of the regulars, simply wrote "Tuesday" on hers. It's that kind of place
Noah out
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