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NYC izakayas


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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style. :biggrin:

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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style. :biggrin:

Is it the raw harami being fed to me in my avatar?

I plead the 5th on that one. Shochu makes me black out, I'll be honest... nihonshu is a different high...

I'm sorry I just can't get it out of me to say sake because in japan, sake is all booze, so for those of you who know me on here

nihonshu = sake!

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I'm sorry I just can't get it out of me to say sake because in japan, sake is all booze, so for those of you who know me on here

nihonshu = sake!

That's a very interesting point. Thanks for sharing!

The more I think about the situation at Kasadela, the more it seems to me the logical explanation is that they must serve some draft beers, and the draft sake, or nihonshu, is namazake. The idea of sake coming out of a tap doesn't seem to compute.

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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style. :biggrin:

Is it the raw harami being fed to me in my avatar?

I plead the 5th on that one. Shochu makes me black out, I'll be honest... nihonshu is a different high...

I'm sorry I just can't get it out of me to say sake because in japan, sake is all booze, so for those of you who know me on here

nihonshu = sake!

Isn't the shochu the trend for the past few years in Japan?

Yes, sake is all booze perhaps with the exception of biiru (beer). In Kagoshima the land of shochu, the waitstaffs will automatically bring you shochu if you asked for sake. The same in Okinawa; awamori will be brought to when asked for sake.

Leave the gun, take the canoli

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Isn't the shochu the trend for the past few years in Japan?

Yes, sake is all booze perhaps with the exception of biiru (beer).  In Kagoshima the land of shochu, the waitstaffs will automatically bring you shochu if you asked for sake.  The same in Okinawa; awamori will be brought to when asked for sake.

The Shochu boom looks to be petering out in Japan. It was "IN" in 2004, but took a nosedive the following year. Flash-in-the-pan it seems.

Wine is still popular. Actually, there seems to be a VINEGAR boom going on. Supposedly its healthy, but the idea of drinking vinegar grosses me out. :wacko:

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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style. :biggrin:

Is it the raw harami being fed to me in my avatar?

I plead the 5th on that one. Shochu makes me black out, I'll be honest... nihonshu is a different high...

I'm sorry I just can't get it out of me to say sake because in japan, sake is all booze, so for those of you who know me on here

nihonshu = sake!

Isn't the shochu the trend for the past few years in Japan?

Yes, sake is all booze perhaps with the exception of biiru (beer). In Kagoshima the land of shochu, the waitstaffs will automatically bring you shochu if you asked for sake. The same in Okinawa; awamori will be brought to when asked for sake.

Shochu started booming maybe around 2000? I also think it was benefited by a renewed Japanese interest in Korean culture, which came with the popularity of Yonsama, the Korean drama actor. Kinki Kids is right, it's petering off in Japan in favor of nihonshu and white wne, and as it takes a year or two to get over here, now you see bottle-keep iichiko EVERYWHERE.

So the question is, when you ask for sake in Kagoshima, do they give you IMOshochu??

Vinegar???

Well, it's always meant any alcoholic drink to me, but it's probably more associated with nihonshu because that's pretty much all the island nation had in the way of booze until it finally opened its doors open to te world...

Anyway, if you want to say someone has a high or low tolerance, is a matter of saying "Kare ha osake tsuyoi" or "Kare ha osake yowai" anyways, semantics,

As for the tap, I put it to the committee (bunch of Japanese ex-pats) and they all said, well yeah technically you could do it, like the Jagrmeister shot dispensor. In fact, maybe I did see it, but it was a promotional thing for nihonshu that already comes in a big box

Edited by raji (log)
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Isn't the shochu the trend for the past few years in Japan?

Yes, sake is all booze perhaps with the exception of biiru (beer).  In Kagoshima the land of shochu, the waitstaffs will automatically bring you shochu if you asked for sake.  The same in Okinawa; awamori will be brought to when asked for sake.

The Shochu boom looks to be petering out in Japan. It was "IN" in 2004, but took a nosedive the following year. Flash-in-the-pan it seems.

Wine is still popular. Actually, there seems to be a VINEGAR boom going on. Supposedly its healthy, but the idea of drinking vinegar grosses me out. :wacko:

I've had a vinegar drink at Hagi a couple of times. Odd but good. Not for gulping. It was a vinegar infusion if memory serves.

You shouldn't eat grouse and woodcock, venison, a quail and dove pate, abalone and oysters, caviar, calf sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, and ducks all during the same week with several cases of wine. That's a health tip.

Jim Harrison from "Off to the Side"

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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style. :biggrin:

Is it the raw harami being fed to me in my avatar?

I plead the 5th on that one. Shochu makes me black out, I'll be honest... nihonshu is a different high...

I'm sorry I just can't get it out of me to say sake because in japan, sake is all booze, so for those of you who know me on here

nihonshu = sake!

Isn't the shochu the trend for the past few years in Japan?

Yes, sake is all booze perhaps with the exception of biiru (beer). In Kagoshima the land of shochu, the waitstaffs will automatically bring you shochu if you asked for sake. The same in Okinawa; awamori will be brought to when asked for sake.

The current shochu boom, which started around 2003, is slowly dying down. In this boom, what has become popular is not kou-rui shochu but more expensive otsu-rui shochu such as imo-jochu and mugi-jochu.

In the previous shochu boom in the 1980s, kou-rui shochu became popular for use in making chu-hai.

I don't go to izakaya these days, but I think beer is still the drink of choice for most Japanese when they go to izakaya and other restaurants serving alchool beverages. Have you ever heard Japanese say "Toriaezu beeru!" (hard to translate, "Beer first anyway" or something like that) when asked what to drink?. After they drink one or two glasses of beer, some will stick to beer, while others will switch to their favoriates.

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hmm all the sake (nihonshu) I've ever drank came out of a bottle -

I don't recall ever drinking it out of a tap in Japan, but I could be wrong, because if I ever did drink sake out of a tap, I surely did not recall the night thereafter, so it's a bit of a catch-22, isn't it

Maybe it's a tapping system that draws out of those magnum-sized bottles of sake -

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style. :biggrin:

Is it the raw harami being fed to me in my avatar?

I plead the 5th on that one. Shochu makes me black out, I'll be honest... nihonshu is a different high...

I'm sorry I just can't get it out of me to say sake because in japan, sake is all booze, so for those of you who know me on here

nihonshu = sake!

Isn't the shochu the trend for the past few years in Japan?

Yes, sake is all booze perhaps with the exception of biiru (beer). In Kagoshima the land of shochu, the waitstaffs will automatically bring you shochu if you asked for sake. The same in Okinawa; awamori will be brought to when asked for sake.

Shochu started booming maybe around 2000? I also think it was benefited by a renewed Japanese interest in Korean culture, which came with the popularity of Yonsama, the Korean drama actor. Kinki Kids is right, it's petering off in Japan in favor of nihonshu and white wne, and as it takes a year or two to get over here, now you see bottle-keep iichiko EVERYWHERE.

So the question is, when you ask for sake in Kagoshima, do they give you IMOshochu??

Vinegar???

Well, it's always meant any alcoholic drink to me, but it's probably more associated with nihonshu because that's pretty much all the island nation had in the way of booze until it finally opened its doors open to te world...

Anyway, if you want to say someone has a high or low tolerance, is a matter of saying "Kare ha osake tsuyoi" or "Kare ha osake yowai" anyways, semantics,

As for the tap, I put it to the committee (bunch of Japanese ex-pats) and they all said, well yeah technically you could do it, like the Jagrmeister shot dispensor. In fact, maybe I did see it, but it was a promotional thing for nihonshu that already comes in a big box

IMO, I think the Imo (yam) shochu are quite earthy. I prefer the mugi variety...goes down smooth like a quality whiskey. Iichiko has done a great job with their marketing campaign in North America. I was in LA last year and dropped by an event sponsored by the folks who distribute Iichiko. I wouldn't drink Iichiko straight up.

Yes, I have seen the Gekkeikan' "box" dispenser in several wannabes or low end Japanese places here in the city.

Leave the gun, take the canoli

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The current shochu boom, which started around 2003, is slowly dying down.  In this boom, what has become popular is not kou-rui shochu but more expensive otsu-rui shochu such as imo-jochu and mugi-jochu.

In the previous shochu boom in the 1980s, kou-rui shochu became popular for use in making chu-hai.

I don't go to izakaya these days, but I think beer is still the drink of choice for most Japanese when they go to izakaya and other restaurants serving alchool beverages.  Have you ever heard Japanese say "Toriaezu beeru!" (hard to translate, "Beer first anyway" or something like that) when asked what to drink?.  After they drink one or two glasses of beer, some will stick to beer, while others will switch to their favoriates.

Probably completely off-topic, speaking of Chu-hai -- which I find pretty gross for the most part -- the best Chu-hai I have ever had is at a Hanshin Tigers game at Koshien Park. That stuff is too good. The ice cubes they put in it is made from frozen Chu-hai too, so its like a double punch.

Man, I got so drunk. :raz:

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  • 2 months later...
I've been to Kasadela on numerous occasions, though not recently. I really enjoyed every meal there. It's got a more refined atmosphere than the places on St Mark's. I believe there are one or two draft sakes available as well.

I ate at Kasadela last night for the first time. I enjoyed it very much. The room and the music are great. The staff is fun. The food is good -- although nothing near blow-away great, as at Yakitori Totto. Just good. (Compare the skewered beef tongue at the two places. At Totto, it's sublime. Here, it's slightly overspiced, and maybe slightly overcooked as well.) But all in all very enjoyable. Prices may be a little on the high side for an East Village izakaya, but still are gentle. And you get a great atmosphere in return.

The sake selection is extremely well-curated, especially the specials.

Now raji can tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

Edited by Sneakeater (log)
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I've been to Kasadela on numerous occasions, though not recently. I really enjoyed every meal there. It's got a more refined atmosphere than the places on St Mark's. I believe there are one or two draft sakes available as well.

I ate at Kasadela last night for the first time. I enjoyed it very much. The room and the music are great. The staff is fun. The food is good -- although nothing near blow-away great, as at Yakitori Totto. Just good. (Compare the skewered beef tongue at the two places. At Totto, it's sublime. Here, it's slightly overspiced, and maybe slightly overcooked as well.) But all in all very enjoyable. Prices may be a little on the high side for an East Village izakaya, but still are gentle. And you get a great atmosphere in return.

The sake selection is extremely well-curated, especially the specials.

Now raji can tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

The owner of Kasaela is one of the friendliest hosts in NYC. So welcoming and the sake selection is great for the price.

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I've been to Kasadela on numerous occasions, though not recently. I really enjoyed every meal there. It's got a more refined atmosphere than the places on St Mark's. I believe there are one or two draft sakes available as well.

I ate at Kasadela last night for the first time. I enjoyed it very much. The room and the music are great. The staff is fun. The food is good -- although nothing near blow-away great, as at Yakitori Totto. Just good. (Compare the skewered beef tongue at the two places. At Totto, it's sublime. Here, it's slightly overspiced, and maybe slightly overcooked as well.) But all in all very enjoyable. Prices may be a little on the high side for an East Village izakaya, but still are gentle. And you get a great atmosphere in return.

The sake selection is extremely well-curated, especially the specials.

Now raji can tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

Japanese is the new French. Kneel before Zod!!!

I've actually never been there. I HAVE been introduced many times to the owner of Umi no iie, and any time I've even intended to go to Kasadela I give up and go to uminoiie which is a great place and as far as I can tell every bit as good as Kasadela without perhaps the cool name and I assume hip interior... Kasadela is way out where you used to go to buy.... wait, which board is this?

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  • 8 months later...

I'm going to hit up an izakaya or at least a Japanese restaurant with part-Izakaya menu (like Katsuhama) tonight, somewhere in the 40s, tonight. A number of you have asked me about this izakaya or that, and I'm wondering if there were any places in particular you guys were curious about, and maybe I can go check them out. We seem to be increasingly indecisive today, but leaning towards Katsuhama, Riki or Donburiya... Not gonna go all the way over to Tsukushi.

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I've been to Kasadela on numerous occasions, though not recently. I really enjoyed every meal there. It's got a more refined atmosphere than the places on St Mark's. I believe there are one or two draft sakes available as well.

I ate at Kasadela last night for the first time. I enjoyed it very much. The room and the music are great. The staff is fun. The food is good -- although nothing near blow-away great, as at Yakitori Totto. Just good. (Compare the skewered beef tongue at the two places. At Totto, it's sublime. Here, it's slightly overspiced, and maybe slightly overcooked as well.) But all in all very enjoyable. Prices may be a little on the high side for an East Village izakaya, but still are gentle. And you get a great atmosphere in return.

The sake selection is extremely well-curated, especially the specials.

Now raji can tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

Ooooh, Kasadela is great. It's a hike to the east boonies (even for me, and I live on 2nd Avenue), but it's really good. Though, like Sneakeater, I must bow to Raji's superior knowledge and familiarity with these things.

Japanese is the new French. Kneel before Zod!!!

I've actually never been there. I HAVE been introduced many times to the owner of Umi no iie, and any time I've even intended to go to Kasadela I give up and go to uminoiie which is a great place and as far as I can tell every bit as good as Kasadela without perhaps the cool name and I assume hip interior... Kasadela is way out where you used to go to buy.... wait, which board is this?

"We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air." - Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

Queenie Takes Manhattan

eG Foodblogs: 2006 - 2007

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  • 2 months later...

A friend here PMmed "Do you have a favorite St. Marks/EV izakaya? Food quality is most important, but something unique would be good too.

Ideas? Thanks for the help."

You'd be surprised how often I get asked this, so I'm replying here - St. Marks is tough to navigate for the uninitiated, and several places have their merits. I'm also still kind of shocked that Morimoto says he goes to Kenka - it's really cheap so fun to drink at, but the ingredients used are really low quality - this has unfortunately happened to Taisho too and a lot of the places down St. Marks and the area - so, not necessarily the best examples of Japanese food, moreso, cheap drinking food cooked by young Japanese FOR young people

Typhoon has always been my all around favorite - 10 years on and they've been pretty reliably cooking of all your izakaya favorites and have a good selection of specials and drinks

Village Yokocho will always be my sentimental favorite, one of the trailblazers of the neighborhood and a very wide selection, of course Totto makes their yakitori look lame now, but yakitori, kushiyaki, yakiniku, all sorts of Japanese delicacies are all still done reliably well there, remarkably...

For something different, I recommend Umi no iie (beach house)- Japanese standards all done very well there as well as a smattering of Okinawan specialties prepared by one of the owners; she's from the island. Good shochu selection if I recall. She's also a really warm hostess and will happily make recommendations there -

If you are digging Okonomiyaki or any teppanyaki, GO has a dedicated grill for that, so theirs is the best. Yokocho's is pretty good too. At this point I make it better at home, but it's a pain in the ass to make properly from scratch, so don't order it unless they tell you it will take 30 minutes, because otherwise it's coming from a freezer

There are some newer places, and some older ones still hanging on, but those 3 are consistently the ones that my Japanese friends head for over the past 15 years (uminoiie more recently), both ex-pats and guests from the homeland.

All 3 of those places also offer a respite from the other places packed with NYU kiddies and B&Ters

Edited by raji (log)
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  • 2 years later...

Visited Sake Bar Hagi, and had a good time. Not all the food was spectacular, but it was all pretty good, and perfect for snacking while drinking. We may have stretched the definition of "snacking" a little, but there are a lot of attractive items on the menu...

Got a bottle of Sake (OK, I'll play.. nihonshu) although I somehow managed to forget which one.

Then,

IzakayaHagi-Skate.jpg

Grilled Dried Skate wing

IzakayaHagi-Cuke.jpg

Cucumber with Miso

IzakayaHagi-Pickles.jpg

Pickles

IzakayaHagi-SquidLegs.jpg

Squid Legs

IzakayaHagi-WasabiShumai.jpg

Wasabi Shumai

IzakayaHagi-Gyoza.jpg

Gyoza

IzakayaHagi-KaraAge.jpg

Kara Age

IzakayaHagi-Softshell.jpg

Softshell Crab

IzakayaHagi-ChickenSkin.jpg

Chicken Skin

IzakayaHagi-Duck.jpg

Duck

IzakayaHagi-Washagyu.jpg

Washagyu Beef

IzakayaHagi-Lamb.jpg

Lamb Chops

IzakayaHagi-Takoyaki.jpg

Deep-Fried Takoyaki

IzakayaHagi-Fish.jpg

Broiled Fish

IzakayaHagi-Sausages.jpg

Sausages

IzakayaHagi-FattyPork.jpg

Sweet and Fatty Pork

IzakayaHagi-Shortribs.jpg

Shortribs

Everything was at least pretty good, some of it excellent. A couple of the items, like the shumai and gyoza seemed to be standard commercial items, probably out of the freezer, not made on site, but that didn't mean they were bad, just unexceptional.

The skate wing was great, perhaps my favorite bar snack ever, and at least as good as the versio at Umi No Ie. The softshell crab was very good, with a light crispy tempura batter. The "Washagyu" beef skewers were very good, great flavor and very tender. I liked the deep-fried takoyaki too, the outsides were nice and crisp, the insides contained a good amount of octopus in a fluffy, cakey matrix. The fatty pork doesn't look like much, in fact visually it's kind of unappealing, but it might have been our favorite thing on the table. It was kind of like super-thick bacon, but both crisp and soft at the same time.

We were disappointed in the Kara Age, the chunks of fried chicken had gotten soggy under the mountain of mountain yam. Of course, we'd had an incredibly good version the day before at Ippudo, so maybe anything would have paled in comparison. The chicken skin was kind of blah, we'll have to keep reminding ourselves to wait until we're at Totto to get that. And although the sausages were very tasty, the French's mustard that was served with them seemed incongruous.

Still, overall really good, and a fun, casual, mellow place. We got there right before opening at 5, and were in line with a bunch of Kabuki-painted teens, but we managed to sit down in the first wave. There was a significant line when we left. We ended up spending a lot of money, but they place is actually a decent bargain if one were to order like normal humans.

Sake Bar Hagi

152 W 49th St (Near 7th)

- downstairs -

(212) 764-8549

IzakayaHagi-Softshell.jpg

Edited by philadining (log)

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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  • 1 month later...

Glad you found that place - that is the only Japanese worth going to in Times Square. I see you ordered almost exclusively tapas-style, but you should really try the salads and order off the specials chalkboard, and try some of the homestyle dishes.

N.B. Hagi is part of the East restaurant group so you can find similar at the East restaurants, which aren't half-bad to be honest, for what they are.

A lot of what you ordered, try it out at Aburiya Kinnosuke or Yakitori Totto for another level, but price-wise too

P.S. I have polished off a bottle of shochu on my own here watching baseball and acting pretty rowdy. So I've been here a lot

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We were disappointed in the Kara Age, the chunks of fried chicken had gotten soggy under the mountain of mountain yam.

Mountain yams?? It looks like grated daikon to me.

I, for one, wouldn't be disappointed in this particular version, which is actually quite good, especially around this time of year, because the grated daikon (and probably ponzu or other vinegar-based sauce) makes the otherwise greasy kara rage refreshing.

As for the broiled fish, was it hokke or something?

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Yeah that's daikon oroshi..... great on the side, the problem is Hagi can load it up on top so by the time it's served, the katakuriko is soaked through. Ippudo's rendition is probably the best but at Aburiya or I think Kyoya you will obviously find slamming version of this very simple izakaya staple

Unless the fish was off the specials menu, I think it's a mackeral

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