Saturday, July 15, 2006

En Japanese Brasserie - New York City


Now, I've been to Tokyo several times to visit relatives. Several times, my cousin and his family have taken me to eat at a Japanese family style restaurant near their house called En.
In 2004, En opened a branch in New York called the En Japanese Brasserie, so I knew I had to try it out.
The feel of the restaurant was much more upscale than the one I had been to in Japan. It was more sheeshee(sic) in the West Village with a fancy bar whereas the Japanese one had a more rustic appeal.
Regardless, we were there for the food. Now, a lot of people just think Japanese food is only sushi and teriyaki, but like Chinese, it's a lot more diverse than restaurants in America let on about. En is an Izakaya style of restaurant meaning it's meant to have a large variety of dishes with which you drink sake.

I put up some pics of my more favorite dishes:
1. Grilled eggplant and uni in mustard sauce
2. En original Tsukune chicken sausage and poached egg - this dish was awesome- the sausage had bits of chicken cartilage in it to add a crunchiness, and you dipped the meat into the runny yolk of the poached egg.

3. Stone-grilled thick sliced beef tongue - this was not as awesome as the tongue dish at Mugi near Columbus Circle, but this blog always can use a tongue dish.
4. Foie gras and poached daikon steak with white-miso vinegar - I loved this dish when I first had it in Tokyo - it's pretty luxurious.

5. Chu-toro - this fatty tuna was almost too fatty- you didn't even have to chew it because it disintegrated in your mouth.
6. Sweet tofu pudding for dessert - really fun to eat with a wooden spoon.

By the way, click on the pictures- they are better viewed in a larger size to see the food especially the marbled fat in the chu-toro.

2 comments:

fougoo said...

yeah i forgot about the grilled tongue at mugi in terms of the best tongue ever... hmm that may be a tie with the tacos.

i think with the tacos it's more a comfort food thing - hot corn tortillas, creamy guac...

but that grilled tongue at mugi was good - again so good it was better than beef.

Anonymous said...

What I love most about Japanese food is that the portions are small enough so you can eat a large variety of foods, though I often hear from Americans that they hate the very fact that portions are small. I especially like izakaya style...and my bf loves beef tongue. I could skip it and go for creamy tofu instead =) L