If you visit Japan, you'll soon realize that sushi is not the centre of its culinary universe. There's a world of Japanese food that has nothing to do with raw fish.
A friend and I decided to go Japanese one night and refuse the lure of sushi (one of my favourite foods). We decided on Sakawaya -- a place on the east end of Toronto that bills itself as a "Japanese bistro" and sits between a 1950s hamburger joint and a Chinese restaurant.
Sakawaya's menu runs the gambit from tempura to udon noodles to sushi plates. But, there is one page devoted to something called "kushiyaki" - mini kebab sticks with bite-sized pieces of things such as zucchini, chicken meatballs and gizzards, grilled over charcoal and bathed in yakitori sauce and salt.
The menu is easily divided into the one-piece kushiyaki ($1.50 per stick) with offerings of chicken and green onion, gizzards and meatballs, $2.50 sticks with 3-4 pieces of things such as beef, salmon, quail eggs and hotate wrapped in bacon and veggie sticks ($1.25) involving the likes of potato, peppers and eggplant.
BACON SAVES THE DAY
We delved first into the appetizers and fattened ourselves up with a medley of mushrooms sautéed and dripping in butter and shime saba, mackerel marinated in lime and served with green onion - slightly strong but very flavourful.
Our $1.50 sticks included liver, hotate and bacon (two of them), tofu, chicken and chicken meatball (tsukune). The liver broke apart too easily and the chicken was dry but the meatball was quite juicy and delish. We both gushed over the sweet n' salty taste of hotate (scallop) wrapped in bacon but found the tofu flavourless and too firm. My eating companion was moved enough to compare the hotate/bacon to the miraculous pairing of peanut butter and chocolate.
The sweet potato ($1.25) was good, although I have trouble remembering the taste now, and the shitake ($2.00 - it's own special price?) was excellent - bearing a slightly smoky flavour. We found the beef to be tasty and were especially taken by the eggplant ($1.50) which had a crispy skin, a soft inside and garlicky tang.
Being gals with great gusto, we also ordered the cold noodles, Gomoka Hiyashi, which was topped with chicken, crab, seaweed, veggies and tempura for $9.
As our Japanese food expert had declined to join us, we had no idea how this dish was to be eaten. It came with that salty broth that comes with tempura, so we dipped the tempura stuff in it and ate it. Then, we divided the noodles and meat and proceeded to nosh. It tasted like nothing, forcing me to dump a tsunami of soy sauce on it.
At the end of the meal, I decided to inquire whether the dish was missing some extra broth? Our charming waiter replied: "That is the sauce. You dip the noodles in the sauce and eat it." He was pointing to the "tempura broth" --- Doh! Ah, next time...
We ended the meal with a gratifying bowl of red bean ice cream.
