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Hakata Tonton


alwang

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Yeah it got DoHed. You know how I always talk so positively of how it's so great that in NY we can get the same kind of singular culinary obsession, be it soba or yakitori or edomae sushi, that they have in Japan, rather than the "generalized" Japanese restaurant so common elsewhere? This IMO is too extreme.

Apparently the health/skin benefits of collagen were the driving force behind the restaurant. Meaning it's primary customer was middle-aged Japanese women. Despite the DoH, wonder how it was doing...

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Not exactly true. Very few of the zillions of women who constituted the clear majority of HT's customers were middle-aged.

OTOH, maybe it's that that collagen stuff really works.

PS -- I don't see how a focus on pig feet was too extreme. To me, it felt like coming home to a home I never had before.

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  • 1 year later...

Hakata tonton is still around... it even took a few weeks to get a reservation! Besides the supposed health benefits of the collagen, I have to say (this being my first hakata experience) that it was REALLY tasty...

We started with a gyoza (the Himi's famous gyoza made with collagen) - which may have been the best gyoza ever... the dumpling skin was more like a thin super-crispy crepe rolled around a flavorful, juicy pork. We also started with a grilled pork tonsoku - which was a bunch of pieces of lean pork, slathered in teriyaki sauce and grilled on a large skewer. While tasty, we thought the pork was a bit dry.

Finally, we had the Hakata Tonton Hotpot - which, on a cold, rainy night like Friday was absolutely perfect. The "collagen" broth was probably the best tasting, richest pork broth ever - it had such a great mouthfeel, and in the broth were scallions, some napa cabbage, a few pieces of trotter, many thin slices of pork belly, and pieces of the lean pork meat similar to the ones on the skewer... I found this dish to be really addictive - it was slightly spicy, but I keep thinking about the mouthfeel of that broth!!! It was so good, I couldn't resist getting extra broth and the ramen noodles at the end...

We finished with a green tea tofu and ice cream combo... what we liked about it was that it wasn't very sweet... it tasted like matcha powder - but the problem was that it was a litty gritty...

By the time we walked out, I was stuffed - but it was really tasty, and a pretty good bargain - With the above, plus 2 beer and 2 glasses of junmai-ginjo sake, it was like $100...

I would definitely head back, as soon as my cholesterol drops below 250....

Edited for my crappy grammar

Edited by KennethT (log)
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