Cizuka Seki

On 7/19/2017 at 6:37 PM, Gadarene said:

The ara yaki here is probably my favorite dish in DC right now (it's that or the marinara pizza at Etto, now that the carrot cake is off the menu at Tail Up).

The meat left over from butchering fish for sashimi, broiled on the bone with salt and lemon.  So simple, so ridiculously good.

the marinara from etto is my favorite dish in DC forever. 

there seems to be confusion about the two-stage dish.  1) we have the ara yaki, which ARE the offcuts of (usually) sea bream, salmon, shima aji, and whatever other whole fish we get.  ara means "offcuts" and yaki means grill or broil.  2) the fish we offer in two stages is the aji tataki, which is a whole horse mackerel from japan.  we filet and serve it raw with grated ginger and we present it on the spine so it looks like a whole fish.  after the sashimi is eaten, we take back the spine and head and fry it and serve it again.  the spine of horse mackerel (as well as many other bluefish varieties, like sardines) is very brittle so you can eat the bones if they are fried or dried out enough.

sorry i wasn't there to say hi! i'm in japan for a month doing a stage.

the ara yaki dish is not a regular item because it's dependent on the sashimi we get in. you're always welcome to shoot us an email or call if you want to come in

specifically to try it.

One find from that book was Kanda Matsuya which is a traditional soba restaurant, which had the best soba we had during the whole trip (http://www.kanda-matsuya.jp/p01.htm)

your trip sounds lovely! last time i was in tokyo i stumbled on kanda matsuya and had a lovely soba lunch. it's been around since 1884 and is just as good as the very famous kanda yabu soba shop, in the same neighborhood..

it's not terribly far from jimbocho den where i apprenticed and will apprentice again for a month (!!) this summer. i hope if you ever go back to tokyo, you'll consider dining at DEN. (www.jimbochoden.com)

i'm going to look into kushiage isa!

Crap.  Now the ara will run out much earlier.  Damn you, Bittman!

haha. i was just going to send this to you. you're not the only one to recognize the awesomeness of this dish!

ha! good to know my liberal arts education still comes in handy :-)

Baltimore not ready for an Izakaya?

Not super surprised that Baltimore couldn't support an Izakaya.

Could an authentic Japanese Izakaya survive at these locations? I don't think so - not yet.

Is there any particular reason why izakaya is written with a captal I? i know foreign words should be in italics (...i do not have access to this function).

it's not a pronoun....am i forgetting some grammatical rule?

i can't believe there is no thread for meats and foods. they opened quietly in august 2013. they were previously supplying several bars and eateries under the name "13th st. meats" while working out of the kitchen at pharmacy bar but they finally opened a brick-and-mortar shop at the corner of Florida St. NW and 3rd St. NW.

they offer a rotating and fairly wide variety of sausages, including half smokes, thai basil chicken, brats, a roasted poblano, and chorizo. everything is made at the shop. they can be consumed there or taken home. i love their sausages. they have been well tested and the care and love is evident. but what i really love right now is their vegan dog and vegan chili. this is far superior than anything else in DC, including ben's regular chili cheese dog. the vegan dog has the best texture. it's primarily gluten mixed with smashed black eye peas and garbanzo beans.

they offer a small but choice selection of beverages. mexican cola, DC Brau, broadbent vinho verde. did i forget to mention that the sausage sandwiches on martin's potato rolls are all $6??? add ons, like sauerkraut and gordy's pickles can run you an additional $0.35-$0.50. you can also order a bowl of chili for $5.

any 4 links to go are $10. they started ofering house made bacon for $5.

they don't appear to have a website but they are active on facebook and instgram and will post their menu once a week on instagram.

Last night was a beefeater with 4 olives .

if you enjoy a beefeater martini, you might also like jensen's london dry. it's a new gin i discovered last year and there's a great story behind it (http://www.bermondseygin.com/). it's rumored to be the original beefeater recipe before beefeater became big. i was a steadfast beefeater consumer until i discovered jensen's.

with a "happy ending" as the final course, i attest that this could be one of the city's most satisfying menus.

There's Sushi Seki in that neighborhood. We're not related. It's supposed to be decent but I've never had a chance to go.

Otherwise, when I'm in that area, I prefer to check out the many izakayas around there. They tend to be a little more mellow and grown up (unlike the places around St. Mark's) because of all the Japanese NY offices and the UN. Torishin is yakitori and I really like it.

I agree wholeheartedly.  And, like Seki (I know, a very different thing altogether -- but likewise under the heading of great seafood), it's very reasonably priced, considering the high quality of food.

Thanks for the shout out. I <3 Julien and Eat the Rich too. Delighted to be considered in the same camp.

i was told he's on vacation

I AM INCREDIBLY EXCITED FOR THIS TO BE REAL

 

Deterred by the 350 mile drive, we'd never made it to Town House, ending up disappointed at the missed opportunity when it closed, and disappointed a second time when the DC project was put on hold.  We weren't going to miss the opportunity to attend one of the Riverstead dinners....

jca76, i feel the same way! and am very excited to dine at riverstead in october. thank you for the very thoughtful post. i have some vague notion of what to look forward to but you're the first to post a very thorough and thoughtful description of your experience.

Nothing drives home the fact that I want to eat here once a week like looking at a calendar and remembering that Seki is closed through the 8th. To make up for that I went twice last week, but still.

They've made a change to the chicken kara-age: it's now served with a dashi rather than the garlic puree. I can understand wanting to make it lighter for summer but I miss the delicious garlic. I can make up for this slightly by ordering the tuna tataki, which for the last couple of months has been served with fried garlic chips, which are addictive. And in this hot weather I'm loving the cold soba; it's great to share, as everyone gets their own little dipping sauce.

Right. I can hold out a week.

Jen, thank you for the kind words and your patience! We're back tomorrow from a much needed rest....although my version of "rest" was working as a stage in Tokyo :-)

"La Meilleure Boulangerie de France" segue - hilarious.

Shows from "La Meilleure Boulangerie de France" on channel M6.

i found a really nice video on sake making. it's romantic and moody but it looks about right from my experience visiting breweries.

i can't seem to hotlink this so here's the actual site:

http://higashikara.jp/?p=246

it's taped at the Tomihisa Sendai Brewery in Saga Prefecture in the island of Kyushu. They produce "Nabeshima" sake, which we occasionally carry.

i have heard that tomorrow is palena's last night. does anyone on here know otherwise?

EXPANSION: http://firstwefeast.com/drink/pappy-van-winkle-production-expanding-says-distillery-owner/

The second shad was butterflied through the stomach and entirely deboned.  Deboning shad is an enterprise in another reality of fish butchering and the handful of old timers that still know how to do it cleanly and efficiently deserve a comfy repose somewhere between the Smithsonian's American History and Folk Art Department. 

I meant to bring this up the other night but you have got to read, if you haven't already, John McPhee's book about shad. McPhee does for shad what Susan Orlean did for orchids.

He also wrote a fascinating book about oranges....in 1967!!!! I want him to write about bananas because there's an equally amazing tale behind the industrial history of the banana....

Definition #5 from the Urban Dictionary. You can figure out the rest, I'm sure.

hahaha. ew.

Alice Herz-Sommer died yesterday. I'd never heard of her until I saw this NPR video (scroll down to the bottom).

Nevertheless, I shared this video with two professional-level classical musician friends of mine, adding that she plays the Bach F-Major Invention - at 110 years of age - better than I can. Oh, I could play it faster, and I could play it louder, but I couldn't play it better - she has the piece under *total* control, and her tone and voicing are superb. The three of us rarely agree on anything, but we agree on this: this lady was a marvelous musician - and she *loved* music: look at the joy on her face when she plays it.

As Sasha K said, "It appears she is not thinking about how markets are going to open in Japan overnight, which clarifies her musical thought nicely."

It may be more significant to the rest of the world that she was the "world's oldest Holocaust survivor," starring in the documentary "Lady In Number 6," but it's clear to me that it was more significant to *her* that she was a musician.

Alice Herz-Sommer, we need more people like you in this world, and I will always look to your F-Major Invention as reference material - as something to which I can only aspire. Rest in peace.

and she wears chuck taylor's

Jaleo?  Really?  Also, interesting to see that Sushi Nakazawa (NYC) didn't make the New Restaurant cut.

I'm a bit disappointed that no area chefs made the Outstanding Chef candidates this time around, although several are in the running for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic.  Maybe 2013 really was that un-buzzy a year, other than Rose's Luxury...

No surprise to me that Nakazawa wasn't nominated. Sushi Yasuda was never listed either and it was historically considered *the best* sushi in New York, if not the East Coast. Not even a long-listed nomination for Kajitsu or Torishin (which has a Michelin Star). or for any amazing, traditional Chinese restaurant anywhere. Rasika might be the most "ethnic"-based restaurant to get nominated in the Mid-Atlantic category but they are far from traditional.

I've always found this odd about the Beard Awards....

So too with photographs. Yes, they show what the food looked like - but so what? In a photo I'm only getting colors and shapes. Maybe I get a bit of useful portion size information - but any good reviewer can convey that easily in writing. THE REST OF WHAT A PHOTO CONVEYS (or more accurately, fails to convey), in the context of a restaurant review, IS DOING NOTHING, OR WORSE, BEING DETRIMENTAL. I might as well cut out a piece of the restaurant's window curtain and bring it back to you and say "see how wonderful the dining experience is???"

I've only ever found pictures of the restaurant interior to be of some value as it helps determine if I need to wear a tie. I also understand that journalism and the sale of newspapers/magazines require some photos. But I'm with Don- photos aren't helping, pretty much ever. Dining is a full 3d/in time/all senses experience. To take a small sliver of that experience as a proxy for the overall is as pointless as handing someone a cup of sand and telling them how wonderful your vacation was.

interesting....

so to extend this argument, does this mean that restaurants shouldn't post photos of their dishes on their website or anywhere else because it may be detrimental to the diners experience?  with instagram these days, many chefs post their own photos of their dishes.  of course, a lot of places still hire professional photographers.  generally, i prefer the former's photos but mostly because professionals tend to over stylize and fuss with the dishes too much.  plus, a chef taking a photo is indicative to me of a certain pride in and appreciation of that particular dish or the ingredients they used.

given the number of restaurants whose menus consist of a list of ingredients and no information otherwise, i find photos provide helpful  information regarding the preparation and approach of the kitchen/chef/restaurant.  especially with modern or new american cuisine.  sure, i can't anticipate what the dish will actually taste like or what the overall dining experience will be; but i can always appreciate plating and glean a certain aesthetic based on photos.

if a reviewer takes photos of the sames dishes that the chef took photos of and posted on their website, is that really any different in the outcome for the audience?  or is it all about the intent of the photographer?

izakaya seki is open tonight