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we recently began offering Okonomiyaki.

we are told that we are the only place where you can get okonomiyaki in the metro area.

we are trying to get the word out to the Japanese community.

Westerners who have spent time in Japan also get excited to find we are serving this popular street food from Osaka.

the feedback has been very good

We also are beginning to offer takoyaki (now available at lunch weekdays but soon at all hours)

menu is at www.snapcrepes.com

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This is such good news. I have been waiting for a restaurant in DC that serves takoyaki for a very long time.

For the benefit of others like me who haven't the foggiest idea of what this is:

Takoyaki (octopus balls)

Ingredients:

* 200g chopped boiled octopus

* cooking oil

* benishoga (pickled ginger) (to taste)

* chopped negi (or scallions) (to taste)

* tenkasu (or rice crispies) (to taste)

[batter]:

* 450cc water

* 1 piece konbu (kelp), 10cm square

* 15g powdered katsuo-bushi (shaved dried bonito)

* 200g flour

* 2 eggs

[sauce]:

* commercial takoyaki sauce

* or worcestershire sauce

* or bulldog sauce

* or mayonnaise (Best Foods or Hellman's)

Cooking time: 10-20 minutes

Servings: 50-60 pieces (4-5 persons)

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For the benefit of others like me who haven't the foggiest idea of what this is:

Takoyaki (octopus balls)

[sauce]:

* commercial takoyaki sauce

* or worcestershire sauce

* or bulldog sauce

* or mayonnaise (Best Foods or Hellman's)

Can I substitute Miracle Whip on my octopus balls?

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Seriously, my brother is always going off about these great yakitori bars in NYC. I want a yakitori bar, and I want one now!

I was in Japan this summer and we ate at a Yakitori bar in Kyoto, and I have never had such fresh tasting chicken before. It was a really fun place to eat. I think DC is ready for a place like this, along with a tempura and wine bar ( a new trend in Japan).

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Makoto. 4822 MacArthur Bl. NW (202-298-6866) You need to make a reservation, even to sit at the bar. Excellent yakitori.

Makoto is a cool place but you have to make a reservation, have to drive there, it all nice and dignified inside...I want a stumble in, drink, eat, stumble out kinda place :angry:

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I can't compare the quality of the yakitori at Tako Grill in Bethesda to anything else, as I've never had it elsewhere... but they do have a fill-it-in-like-a-paper-sushi-menu yakitori menu, and the few items I've had off it were pretty tasty. I remember especially enjoying the scallion.

They have a bar/lounge area, but whether or not it is a yakitori bar, or merely a bar, well, like I said...

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In case anyone what to see indepth what takoyaki and okonomiyaki is I suggest you look for the replay of the No Reservations TV show with Anthony Bourdain. He goes to Osaka and shows what this stuff is really all about.

I just got back from Japan and what DC really needs is a ramen-ya. Bar/Diner that serves big bowls of ramen. Not really a different concept than a pho places but different flavors. Ramen are thicker noodles and while many ramen soups come with pork at a ramen-ya you can get great vegetable (yasue) or miso flavored soups. Hmm hmm good.

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In case anyone what to see indepth what takoyaki and okonomiyaki is I suggest you look for the replay of the No Reservations TV show with Anthony Bourdain. He goes to Osaka and shows what this stuff is really all about.

I just got back from Japan and what DC really needs is a ramen-ya. Bar/Diner that serves big bowls of ramen. Not really a different concept than a pho places but different flavors. Ramen are thicker noodles and while many ramen soups come with pork at a ramen-ya you can get great vegetable (yasue) or miso flavored soups. Hmm hmm good.

Daruma in Bethesda has kind of a ramen bar. More of a lunch counter that serves ramen. It's pretty good. What D.C. really needs is an izakaya that will satisfy the collective yakitori/takoyaki/assorted Japanese snackfood needs.

Last summer we made a point of searching out the takoyaki joint Bourdain visited in Osaka (Pizza Ball House). It was a lot of fun.

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11 minutes ago, Gadarene said:

Still don't have much in the way of quality yakitori, though.

This is pure speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me to see a yakitori house pop up if the economy holds. (I can recommend Yakitori Totto in NYC, where I've been three times now (most recently last Spring), for anyone who makes the trip.)

I can't imagine running a yakitori house is *that* difficult - you need a good source for quality chickens, someone who knows how to cut them and cook them, and not much else in terms of specialty requirements.

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4 hours ago, DonRocks said:

My how things have changed in the past ten years. I don't even know, off the top of my head, how many ramen houses there are in the area now, and we have several izakayas as well.

I *think* the first ramen house was Ren's Ramen in Bethesda (not Wheaton), and the first izakaya was Izakaya Seki on V Street.

Was Kushi not considered an izakaya?

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1 hour ago, Deac said:

Was Kushi not considered an izakaya?

No more than the bottom floor of The Source. Don't forget an izakaya is essentially a Japanese gastropub - Kushi wasn't that, although they billed themselves as such (YMMV). I actually really liked Kushi for a short while - I'm sure I posted about some good meals I had there early on - but it seemed like more of a "food court" to me (I say this in terms of set-up; not in terms of initial quality).

I guess anyone can call themselves whatever they want to. Although I haven't been to Japan, I've been to perhaps a half-dozen izakayas in Seattle and Vancouver, and even though they all have individual character, there's a certain "similarity of feel" to them - like how Irish pubs sort of "feel alike" at a high level. Let me finish by saying that none of this makes me an izakaya expert (or even particularly knowledgeable), and I'd like to hear from someone who is.

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1 hour ago, Deac said:

Was Kushi not considered an izakaya?

Kushi will always disappoint me for the fact that its opening menu actually did have really interesting and not-usually-seen-in-the-US yakitori options, like chicken skin or cartilage, and then by the time they were a few months old, they had drastically scaled back the menu to the old standby meatballs and shishito peppers and chicken wings etc.

Gutless.

And I agree with Don that, while Kushi served some izakaya-esque food, it was not an izakaya.  Far too big.  Izakayas should be cozy above all else, in my somewhat limited but still consistent experience.

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2 hours ago, Gadarene said:

Kushi will always disappoint me for the fact that its opening menu actually did have really interesting and not-usually-seen-in-the-US yakitori options, like chicken skin or cartilage, and then by the time they were a few months old, they had drastically scaled back the menu to the old standby meatballs and shishito peppers and chicken wings etc.

Gutless.

Gutless are your fellow D.C. diners.  Innovative cuisine doesn't thrive in D.C. Because there's little demand.  

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9 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Gutless are your fellow D.C. diners.  Innovative cuisine doesn't thrive in D.C. Because there's little demand.  

Hard to spur demand if you scale back the menu at the first opportunity.  And round and round.

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1 hour ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Gutless are your fellow D.C. diners.  Innovative cuisine doesn't thrive in D.C. Because there's little demand.  

52 minutes ago, Gadarene said:

Hard to spur demand if you scale back the menu at the first opportunity.  And round and round.

I think you two are touching on a much, *much* bigger and broader problem, not limited to DC, and not limited to restaurants.

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