Pabu Izakaya, Baltimore

   One thing lacking in the Baltimore restaurant scene is a true Japanese restaurant. Most of the sushi restaurants in the area are Chinese or Korean run. I was very excited when they announced that Pabu, an izakaya run by chefs Ken Tominaga and Michael Mina, would open in the Four Seasons at Harbor East. I'm already a fan of Wit & Wisdom, Mina's first restaurant in Baltimore. I was also excited to hear that desserts would be made by pastry chef Chris Ford.
   Pabu is also promoting itself as having a master sake sommelier, Tiffany Dawn Soto, so when I first arrived for an early Mother's day meal with my parents and aunt & uncle, I ordered a sake cocktail, the Super X, made with Lillet Blanc, junmai ginjo, yuzu, and housemade falernum, a kind of simple syrup. It had a good tartness and sweetness to it.

   Since Pabu is an izakaya, we ordered a lot of small plates, starting with a couple tempura dishes. First was a dish with maitake mushroom and some seasonal vegetables.
   They also inadvertantly served us a plate of the meso anago (young eel) tempura.
Both dishes were beautifully fried, and in particular the eel was great.

   We ordered Jako, a small dish of minnows seasoned with ginger, shiso and goma. It's like the Japanese equivalent of beer nuts, a salty snack to pair with drinks.
   My father and I wanted to try their Rappahannock oysters served with a tasty ponzu sauce.

   Next was soy braised lotus root with sesame seeds and thin chili threads.
   I always order the shishito peppers if they are on the menu. They served a bowl with at least 20 or so peppers, nicely charred, topped with shredded bonito and seasoned with shoyu.

   Pabu's edamame dish had a nice flair to it as it was seasoned with chili oil and smoked salt giving it a good kick in flavor.

   Our next course was hirame wrapped uni tempura. They came as small nuggets on the stick. When you bit into it, you first would hit the delicious white fish meat and in the center was the wonderful sea urchin.

   We then proceeded to get several items from their Robata grill. First to come out was tiny Japanese eggplants served with a miso sauce. It was good, but I thought the sauce was a little heavy.
   We then got ika yaki, or whole grilled squid. It came with a side of the yellow Japanese style mayo.

   I really loved the beef tendon. It was soft and seasoned with a wonderful yuzu kosho ponzu sauce.
   We also got kokoro, sake-cured chicken hearts, which reminded me of very tender gizzards, and kariganebone, the shoulder blade of the chicken.
Somehow, they ended up giving us an extra order the the shoulder, but boy, was it good.

   My folks also really liked the erengi mushroom skewers served with garlic and more shishito peppers.
   After the small plates, each of us ordered a "main"  of either noodles or rice.
I ordered a tasting of nigiri sushi. Chef flies some fish all the way from Tsukiji market in Tokyo for the sushi.
   The rice was awesome, and the selection of fish was pretty amazing including mackerel, yellowtail, sea bream, and horse mackerel.

   My mother and aunt ordered Michael's Chicken Noodle, a chicken ramen with a really flavorful broth.

   My uncle ordered the soba noodles. It included a quail egg to mix with the dipping sauce.

   My dad had the unagidon which included a piece of foie gras on top the the freshwater eel.

  Of course we had to order dessert. With a pot of coffee from Lamill, first we had a deconstructed sesame ice cream sundae. In the large bowl was ice cream with cocoa meringues. In the smaller bowls, there was black tapioca, togarashi chocolate sauce, and caramel crumble.
 

   We also ordered the dessert omakase, a plate with four dessert items. There was a white chocolate bar loaded with whiskey. I really loved the honey panna cotta topped with yuzu gelee and tapioca.
   It also came with a green tea sorbet with lemon grass, melon and pineappple, and a small mochi with miso caramel ice cream.
   I'm already looking forward to go back to try promising looking items like Maryland crab okonomiyaki, octopus poke, and tsukune, as well as some ambitious looking rolls. 

200 International Drive
Baltimore, MD
(410)223-1460

Robata JINYA, LA

I had a nice supper at West Hollywood's Robata Jinya. My friend Dan raved about their Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen, which is the same style of ramen they serve at Ippudo in NYC. The broth is a fatty white broth made with pork bones. When the restaurant started serving this, they used to only make enough broth for 20 bowls/day. We both got our own bowls, and boy was it good. The ramen had a great chew to it and a wonderful alkali flavor, and the broth was wonderful. I cleaned the bowl.

Since their specialty was "robata grill", we ordered a few skewers with our meal. First off was a set of shishito peppers. On special, they had a tender miso grilled beef tongue. We finished off with a skewer of incredible chicken thigh "oysters".



8050 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 653-8877

Totto Ramen, NYC

Vegetable Ramen

I was lucky to go to a taping of The Colbert Report last month, and afterwards, we grabbed dinner at Totto Ramen nearby. Their ramen is different that what I've had before, as their broth is based in chicken and soy instead of pork.
I got the Totto Miso Ramen, which came with a scoop of Koji Miso & pork, egg, scallions, bean sprouts, onion and char siu pork. I also got a side of their very spicy bamboo shoots. The broth, even though it was chicken based, was hearty and flavorful. The noodles were also very good, a little toothsome and good alkaline taste.
My friend ordered the vegetable ramen, which was also very good. I believe it was made with seaweed and shitake mushroom, and the toppings included avocado and yuzu paste, one of my favorite Japanese condiments. The yuzu added a pleasant salty-citrus flavor.

Totto Miso Ramen

366 West 52nd Street
New York, NY
(212) 582-0052

Miho Izakaya, Portland, Oregon

I went to Miho Izakaya for dinner my first night in Portland, OR. Even though it's called an izakaya, they admit freely that they are not a strictly Japanese restaurant. Chef Michael Miho hails from Hawaii so there are some items on the fun menu inspired from his home. We were lucky to share some drinks with bar manager Michael Carothers this evening, sampling some shochu as well as several beers from the local Bridgeport Brewing. I quite liked the Hop Czar Imperial I.P.A.
We started with a tasty salad made with warm kimchee and a generous amount of gochuchang. We ordered the 'Ika' calamari salad, a wonderful and tangy salad made with tender squid, and an order of the kabocha squash.

On the menu, my eyes were right away drawn to the beef 'loko-moko' burger. I'm a fan of the original Hawaiian grinds version, so I ordered the iteration at Miho. In place of gravy, they used a Bull Dog sauce, used in "katsu" dishes in Japan. The result is a sweeter and smokier taste that was perfect with the rice, burger, and egg.

Next up was an order of crab and potato croquettes. They arrived with three sauces: hot mustard, horseradish, and a tomato sauce.
The dish of pork belly with sweet egg followed. The pork belly was wonderfully braised and very tender and fatty. The sweet egg was a split hard boiled egg that was topped with sugar and flamed like a creme brulee. It was really good, but I imagine how it would have been had it been a deviled egg.
Our last item was the sesame pork meatballs, a simple but satisfying dish.
By the end of the evening, the great food combined with great local drinks really hit the spot.




4057 N Interstate Ave
Portland, OR
(503)719-6152

Monta Japanese Noodle House, Las Vegas

For lunch on one of the day in Las Vegas, I popped into Monta Japanese Noodle House just west of Chinatown in the same shopping center as Aburiya Raku.
We started with an appetizer of pan fried gyoza. They were pleasant and light, with a little spiciness.
Monta offers several different kinds of broth for their noodles. I selected the miso ramen. In true "Hokkaido style", I ordered it with corn and a pat of butter. I also added an egg.
When you get the butter, it slowly melts into the miso broth, gradually turning it more creamy. It pairs perfectly with the sweet corn.
The noodles at Monta were very good. I don't think they make them, but they have the right texture I expect from ramen.
Monta is part of a family of Japanese restaurant in Vegas. Sushi Mon and Goyemon are sister places, and my friend in town told me that after Monta closes at 11 pm, the remaining broth is brought to Goyemon and made part of their all you can eat menu.

5030 West Spring Mountain Road, #6
Las Vegas, NV
(702)367-4600 ‎

Aburiya Raku, Las Vegas

On my second night in Las Vegas, I had a great late night dinner at Japanese Robata grill and restaurant, Aburiya Raku, located just west of the city's Chinatown area.
We started with a series of cold dishes before sampling items from the grill. First was a bowl with poached egg, mountain yam, nameko mushrooms, okra, sea urchin & salmon roe. This was a wonderful slimy bowl of briny, eggy, fatty goodness. All the components blended so well together.


We ordered a serving of Raku's housemade tofu. They offered to split the portion into a cold portion which arrived first and a hot portion for later. The cold tofu was reminiscent of fresh mozzarella in texture and in it's clean flavor. At the table, you had the option of toppings for the tofu including: green tea Hokkaido sea salt with shitake & seaweed; yagenbori shichimi, a blend of seven kinds of chile powders, koregusu, an oil with Okinawa chili, Awamori, and island peppers; and a soy sauce deuced with plum. The tofu also came with bonito, onion, & shredded daikon.
I found myself using the green tea salt the most.

That evening, there were some specials. We first got the kampachi, or amberjack, sashimi. It's a mild white fish with a good flavor to it.
We also got a small salad of hotaru ika, or firefly squid, sunomono style.






Out last cold started was the Kobe beef liver sashimi. It was sliced thin with a very thin slice of garlic on top. The texture reminded me of tuna sashimi, and raw, the liver does not have a strong "offal" flavor. It's much cleaner tasting.
We got the second half of our housemade tofu "agedashi" style. It's lightly fried and served in a dashi broth with salmon roe and onions. It was good, but I did prefer the tofu straight up simply because it was so fresh.

We started our grill items with vegetables. First up was roasted tomatoes. They immediately blew me away. With this as a start, I could taste the flavor imparted by their Japanese charcoal smoke throughout the flesh and skin of each tomato. It was remarkable.
The following bacon wrapped asparagus was a little underwhelming to me after the tomato. The bacon hid the smoke flavor I think.




I liked their shishito peppers. It's one of my favorite items to get at izakayas. Eating them is a bit like Russian roulette. Some are very mild, but every so often, you get one that is really spicy.
The directed flamed Japanese eggplant was just alright. The texture of the eggplant was soft and pleasant, but it seems to be very bland, hidden away in the forest of bonito.



Next up were our meat skewers. My tablemates ordered the apple marinated lamb chop and the duck with balsamic soy sauce. The lamb was wonderful. It was soft, juicy, and packed with flavor.
I found the duck not as memorable. The sauce was good, but the meat was alright. I think the flaming dried it out a little.





Raku has two options for Kobe beef from their grill. The first we tried was the Kobe beef skirt steak with a thin piece of garlic. The beef prepared this way was great.
I also had the Kobe filet topped with fresh wasabi. This was less fatty than the skirt, and with the kick of the wasabi, reminded me of pit beef with horseradish.





We ordered one chicken item, the tsukune- ground chicken sausage. It was light, juicy and delicious. I do prefer my tsukune with a little cartilage, but unfortunately, Raku's did not have any. It was still quite good.
I got my cartilage fix with the next course, the pig ear. This was awesome- fatty with a little bite of the cartilage on some pieces.
I also really loved the Kurobata pork cheek. I was in piggy heaven. The pork was so rich, it felt like eating 1 centimeter thick chunks of bacon.
My favorite of the robatayaki was the Kobe beef tendon. I got two large chunks. They were incredible, and each chunk had different flavors. The first piece I had was very smoky, savory and meaty, whereas the second piece was more juicy and sweet. The flavor contrast blew me away.
For dessert, we ordered two "sorbets". They were more like slushies, but both were very good. The first was tangerine which was pleasantly sweet with a little tang. My favorite was the strawberry. Maybe this was because it was topped with condensed milk.








5030 Spring Mountain Road # 2
Las Vegas, NV
(702)367-3511 ‎