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Izakaya: Pub Food

Book by Tetsu Kariya · 2 quotes · Japanese Food, Japanese Cooking, Izakaya

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Izakaya: Pub Food Quotes

“And the last one is the chicken-skin hot pot. The best parts of a chicken to eat are the skin and the innards. There are many ways of cooking them, but this chicken-skin hot pot is easy to make, and it tastes great. First you heat the pot, place the chicken inside... ... and slowly cook it inside the pot. Once the oil from the skin comes seeping out, you add the innards to the pot. You basically use the oil from the skin to stir-fry the innards. After the innards have been slightly cooked, you add some spring onions which have been cut around two inches long... ...and finally add sake and soy sauce to it. The oil from the chicken skin and soup from the innards have not been thinned down with any kind of broth or dashi, so the young people will love its rich, strong taste and scent. And anybody can make it once they see it being made.”

“This one is skewered guts. It's all the guts except the liver." "It's got that unique texture of a gut, with a slightly bitter taste!" "The flavor of the guts tends to seep out when you make soup with it, but this retains all its refreshing original flavor!" "This is a fin skewer. As you can guess from its name, it's the dorsal fin of the eel... ... wrapped around a skewer with ribs and garlic chives." "This is my favorite one!" "They throw these parts away when they make kabayaki." "Ah! I understand why this is your favorite, Yamaoka-san! The eel and the garlic chives create a rich, savory flavor!" "I never thought eel and garlic chives would go so well together!" "The dorsal fin of a left-eyed flounder is called an engawa, and it's considered a delicacy. It's the most active part of the fish's body, so it's fatty and good to eat." "The same goes for the eel." "This one is the collar. It's the meat around the neck, below the eyes... ... which I cut open and skewered after taking the head off. The head bone is very tough, so this is the only part of the eel I throw away." "Hmm, so it's called the "collar" because it's the area around the neck." "It has a complex flavor to it too. It's totally different from the stomach meat, the guts or the dorsal fin!" "It kind of tastes like a mixture of fish and lamb meat! There are so many other skewers, right?!" "Yahata-maki, which is eel meat wrapped around burdock. Tanzaku, where the meat has been cut like strips of paper. Smoked eel. And of course, we can't forget the famous kabayaki.”