Food, Food, and More Food Thread

Wynter wrote:The soba pic doesn't look to apetizing, but man, those gyoza pics... :drooling: I just ate and I'm hungry again.

Indeed, but if you've had good soba, hard to find in the States, it can be incredbily refereshing, especially after you add the condiments to the tsuyu (dipping sauce).

I ate some soba at Roppongi Hills when I was in Japan...it was fresh, flavorful, and light....the essence of Japanese cuisine.

bmwracer wrote:Gyoza tonight. :victory:

Hey bmw, have you eaten at Shinshengumi? I heard they have a pretty good combo dinner.

This is where I ate some great soba in Japan

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The old soba restaurant's freshly-made soba, which has a very good taste, has come back!

The old soba restaurant in Nishi-Azabu, opened in 1884, has renewed in a leading spot here in Roppongi Hills. Not only they served soba and donburi, they also serve a la carte dishes, rare Japanese sake, and shochu spirits in variety during night hours


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Mr.ChoyBoi wrote:

Hey bmw, have you eaten at Shinshengumi? I heard they have a pretty good combo dinner.

I just ate at Shinsegumi Yakitori in Gardena about two nights ago.

We had

thigh meat skewered with green onions
cherry tomatoes wrapped in bacon
japanese shiso leaf wrapped in pork belly
enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon
gizzard
nankotsu (chicken cartiliage)
tsukune (chicken meatballs)
gyu-tan (beef tongue)
black cod marinated in miso
grilled Japanese shisito peppers
spinach with goma

Tu_triky wrote:

Indeed, but if you've had good soba, hard to find in the States, it can be incredbily refereshing,

You mean that stuff I've been buying at Mitsuwa in the plastic tub and adding boiling water to ISN'T soba???? It says so on the top!!! I am truly disappointed. :bonk:

gaijinmark wrote: You mean that stuff I've been buying at Mitsuwa in the plastic tub and adding boiling water to ISN'T soba???? It says so on the top!!! I am truly disappointed. :bonk:

lol. it obviously is...but not very good. if you want to eat some good soba i'd recommend otafuku in Gardena. The soba is fresh, and tamgoyaki is tasty!



Otafuku


16525 S. Western Ave., Gardena
310-532-9348

Hours: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sat., 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

Readers' rating:
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In a space no bigger than a walk-in closet, Seiji Akutsu daily transforms an unruly mound of buckwheat dough into the silky strands that are the caviar of Japanese noodles. He uses only bottled spring water and the finest imported gozen-ko (flour milled from the white buckwheat heart), kneading the dough in small batches and testing it by feel, since the balance of water to flour has to change with the humidity.

For customers who prefer the deep, earthy sweetness of darker soba, Akutsu uses ichiban-ko (second milling flour) blended with a tiny amount of wheat flour for cohesiveness (machine-made soba requires much more), allowing the robust buckwheat flavor to shine through. While soba is Akutsu's true specialty, he also makes wheat flour noodles (udon).

With its clean lines and wood plank walls, Otafuku's small dining room is stylish but still subtly implies the rustic associations of buckwheat. It's odd to find such refined design -- not to mention such exquisite food -- in an obscure location such as this, down the street from two aging trailer parks and next door to a time-worn hangout called Micky's Cocktails in Gardena.

Otafuku devotees, like the friend who introduced me to the shop, are the sort of people who'll drive for hours to get the perfect lemon pie or barbecue. It hasn't escaped them that while most noodle houses get by with just a hot and a cold broth, Otafuku offers six different broths to complement the various kinds of noodles and their serving temperatures.

So how are the noodles served? Instead of the usual lengthy list of noodle toppings, Akutsu has just a few traditional ones, just like high-end soba shops in Japan such as Honke Owari-ya in Kyoto or Masu-oto in Tokyo. Among them are shaggy-coated tempura shrimp and crackly tempura-style seafood clusters (akiage). Succulent grilled eel is another. As you might expect from a perfectionist, Akutsu gets his eel fresh, rather than buying the frozen barbecued product that many Japanese restaurants use.

Akutsu's most accomplished dish isn't on the menu. One day one of the calligraphic wall signs offered kiku-uchi, a noodle that's rare even in Japan, where there are more than 40,000 soba shops. For soba aficionados, finding this notoriously hard-to-make noodle with its heady taste of undiluted buckwheat is at least as good as a jackpot on your first day in Vegas.

Purists often order their soba without garnish, the better to savor their chewy resiliency and ethereal flavor, and the first three items on this menu are plain noodles. Each is named for its serving basket, rather than the noodle; just remember that the seiro holds white sarashina soba, the zaru holds brown soba. They come with nothing but a light, slightly smoky dipping sauce and the usual wasabi and slivered onion for mixing into it. By the time you're slurping up your last noodle, Mrs. Akutsu or one of the waiters will be at your elbow offering a steamy cup of yu (noodle cooking water). You mix it into the remaining concentrated sauce for a soul-warming soup.

One of my favorite items, torijiru, is chunks of free-range chicken in a light broth that sparkles with the essence of yuzu, the Japanese lime-like citrus, and may be had with any noodle. The traditional soba-shop appetizer tamagoyaki, a pillow-soft rolled omelet, makes the perfect complement. And of course, all the noodles may be had in steamy bowls of Otafuku's rich-tasting broths.

L.A.'s soba scene has improved since the days when the few tiny noodle shops had to use dried soba. Today robot-like soba machines churn out fresh soba in a number of L.A. restaurants, but it can't quite duplicate Akutsu's artful touch.

-- Linda Burum, Special to The Times

What to Get: tamagoyaki, seiro soba with dipping sauce or torijiru, kiku-uchi soba, zaru soba with anago ten (fried eel).

Tu_triky wrote:

I just ate at Shinsegumi Yakitori in Gardena about two nights ago.

Is that the one next to the mitsuwa plaza? and near Max karaoke?

Wynter wrote:The soba pic doesn't look to apetizing.

Ditto that. They looked like worms to me. Then again, I never did like soba. :P

But man, the tonkatsu pics! Now I know what to make for dinner (or buy) over the weekend. :victory:

Mr.ChoyBoi wrote:

Is that the one next to the mitsuwa plaza? and near Max karaoke?

It's on Western right off the 405 off ramp.

cori wrote:
Ditto that. They looked like worms to me. Then again, I never did like soba. :P

i rarely eat soba but it's good.....but of course everybody loves the fried stuff...but to deny the place of noodles in Japanese cuisine is to close yourself off to some of the essence of Japanese food.

Tu_triky wrote:This is where I ate some great soba in Japan

Kasumi-cho@Soba-dokoro@Masudaya
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That restaurant looks AMAZING! What is soba made of, exactly? Buckwheat flour?

Wynter wrote:

That restaurant looks AMAZING! What is soba made of, exactly? Buckwheat flour?

Yes that is one type of soba that is very popular....zaru soba <buckwheat flour soba>

Tu_triky wrote:

Yes that is one type of soba that is very popular....zaru soba <buckwheat flour soba>

And the thing is if you look at the prices it's really dayem cheap for such high quality food!

Tu_triky wrote:


And the thing is if you look at the prices it's really dayem cheap for such high quality food!

Yea, I was just gonna post that. I mean, I don't know what the conversion is, but compared to other prices people have posted for food, it doesn't look like much.

Wynter wrote:
Yea, I was just gonna post that. I mean, I don't know what the conversion is, but compared to other prices people have posted for food, it doesn't look like much.

the current exchange rate is 122 Yen = 1 dollar US

cori wrote:
Ditto that. They looked like worms to me. Then again, I never did like soba. :P

Me too. I always regret eating it after especially if they are cold. I can eat Naeng myun, but never been a big fan of cold noodles. ... or maybe it's because my cooking sucks. :hehe:

Had tofu dogs with kimchee stew for dinner. A weird combo, but didn't taste so bad.

tabana wrote:
Me too. I always regret eating it after especially if they are cold. I can eat Naeng myun, but never been a big fan of cold noodles. ... or maybe it's because my cooking sucks. :hehe:

Had tofu dogs with kimchee stew for dinner. A weird combo, but didn't I daretaste so bad.

I dare say you have probably had bad soba, friend :P

Probably. I do like yakisoba.

tabana wrote:Probably. I do like yakisoba.

yakisoba ga daisuki....never had it in japan though where it looks way better than here :sweat:

tabana wrote:Probably. I do like yakisoba.

if you ever go to new york eat at Joe Shanghai's

http://www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/