My Favourite Izakaya

I am obsessed with Ariyoshi’s fried chicken. It comes floating in ponzu, so you need to act fast before the crust goes mushy. I think about this dish all the time. It’s fried in smaller pieces than Southern-style chicken, so you get a higher crunch-to-flesh ratio. And the thinner batter allows the chicken’s own skin to crunch up, instead of becoming encased in a second crust. Oh my. I could do with some right now.

Ariyoshi is a four-table izakaya joint (a sort of Japanese tapas bar, serving small plates of salty things to accompany drink) on a stretch of office buildings and interchangeable Irish pubs in Midtown East. I don’t know what it’s doing there. Still, it’s always filled (admittedly, it really only takes six or eight people for this place to seem filled) with red-faced Japanese businessmen, and well-dressed Japanese women sitting alone at the bar, eating items I don’t recognise and taking their time. The last time I was there, I left wishing I had had the guts to ask the waitress what those slow, elegant women were having, or to insist that my boyfriend break with tradition for once and order something other than salmon nigiri.

(I hate salmon. I hate its dull, fatty flavour, I hate the ectoplasm that oozes from between its flakes when it’s steamed or baked, I hate it mashed up and mixed with Kewpie mayonnaise in a “spicy salmon” maki. I hate, for that matter, its total domination of sushi in the West.)

Last night, though, I came armed with a real Japanophile, my old Uzbek friend who likes offal and cephalopods as much as he likes Hello Kitty. This time, I could order deliciously slippery fluke (wonky-eyed bottom feeder) sashimi, thin slices of liverish beef tongue,and a whole grilled squid, sprinkled with salt and served with ginger paste, without worrying about ick or newness factors.

I love Ariyoshi’s simple and bold-flavoured food, cooked to order. I especially love its lack of rolls named after American states or mythical creatures. It’s not that I’m a purist. But I go to Japanese restaurants looking for the flavours I know from my childhood in Asia, and, nine times out of ten, wind up with miso soup made with water instead of dashi, or a mouthful of rice and cream cheese. This little restaurant is deeply comforting to me.

Ariyoshi
226 E 53rd St
New York, NY 10022
(212) 319-3940

Share or bookmark this post:
Digg, Del.icio.us, Facebook, Google