Category Archives: Japanese

Belle’s Bread

Posted on May 14, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Japanese bakery columbus

Cuisine – Japanese

1168 Kenny Centre Mall  Columbus, OH 43220
614.451.7110

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It’s no secret that, in the US, we tend to twist the cuisines of other cultures around to suit our tastes, often to such a degree that that they end up bearing a questionable resemblance to their origins. On occasion, I’ve wondered what a Japanese person must think when encountering cream cheese in a sushi roll, or a Chinese person might think of General Tso’s chicken.

If I had to guess, it’s probably something similar to how I felt while perusing the wares at Belle’s Bread, a pastry shop and cafe geared towards the local Japanese population. From cod roe spaghetti to curry donuts to mac & cheese ‘gratin’ spiked with shrimp and served in a bread bowl, Belle’s is a quick trip to a European/American culinary uncanny valley.

Belle’s scrupulously tidy and immaculately clean interior suggests a vague French theme as filtered through a Panera lens. All staff are spiffily dressed in pressed white shirts and – I kid you not – berets, and are impeccably polite. Baked goods are wrapped individually and proudly displayed, while jewel-like single-serving desserts glisten and tempt from behind the glass of a long row of refrigerated cases.

japanese pastries columbus

The delightfully bizarre selection in the bakery section overwhelms with options, the first of which is – sweet or savory? As in, a pistachio tart, or the one with the hot dog in it that looks like it has a ketchup drizzle? Chocolate eclair, or a donut filled with chicken curry (picture below)?

japanese curry donut

Almost regardless of your pick, you’ll encounter an extremely light and fluffy white bread-like pastry base that has very little flavor of its own. We’re told this is a Japanese preference, and as such it leans heavily on the fillings, toppings, and the like to carry the experience. This can be pleasant on its own merits, but one can’t help but imagine the reaction of a Parisian to the sacrilege of patisserie-perfect appearing goods sporting the base texture and flavor of Wonderbread. One notable exception was the danishes, in particular the pear-custard version – the pastry was delicious and the custard sublime.

best danish pastries columbus

Moving on to the savory dishes, the curiosities fail to abate. The Neapolitan spaghetti was a reasonably enjoyable bowl of noodles and red sauce, though the hotdog slivers within added little beyond question marks. The smoked salmon sandwich was absolutely gorgeous in a scaled up British tea snack sort of way and featured a clever use of avocado, but the salmon flavor was strangely muted. The aforementioned gratin was essentially mac & cheese, light on the cheese though rich and creamy in the extreme and dotted with bits of shrimp. It’s offered in a bread bowl, just in case you need the extra carbs.

japanese cafe columbus

Perhaps most intriguing was the Japanese spin on beef bourguignon called hayashi rice – tender beef, mushrooms, and onions smothered in a rich wine sauce served alongside rice. Rich, savory, and emphatically comfort-foody, this dish – essentially a stew – speaks directly to the Midwestern soul.

japanese food columbus

The single-serving desserts struck sweet chords left and right among our table of tasters, with the chocolate mousse cake garnering unanimous praise and the impossibly light and powerfully mango-ey mango mousse finding fans among the mango lovers. The fig tart was also well received.

japanese desserts columbus

And then there’s the soft-serve green tea-flavored ice cream, and the self-serve yakisoba noodle sandwiches, and… well, I could go on, but won’t. If you have an open mind to novel twists on familiar favorites, check Belle’s out.

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Freshstreet Yakitori

Posted on December 28, 2011 by | 5 Comments

Cuisine: Japanese

482 S. Front St.
Columbus, OH 43215
614.531.0023

Open  Thursday through Saturday, 6:30pm – Midnight

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There exists, in the Brewery District, a bar with no signage. The owners seem to do little in the way of self-promotion, and the lights are dimmed to the point that you might not even think they’re open. They occupy the old Gibby’s building on Front St., and call themselves ‘Double Happiness’.

Once inside, you’ll not mistake them for Gibby’s, or for that matter, any other Brewery District watering hole past or present. Huge red lamps hang from the ceiling, and a strong East Asian vibe permeates. DJs spin on some nights, live music occurs on others. Asian beers and sake-based drinks are the bar’s specialties. The place aims for and hits ‘cool’ dead center.

The only reason we know of this place is because we know Kenny Kim and Misako Ohba, owners of Fresh Street. They have struck a deal with Double Happiness, and now serve kushiyaki (and more) out of the previously dormant kitchen within. They call this new endeavor ‘Freshstreet Yakitori’.

Yakitori, literally translated from Japanese, means charcoal-grilled chicken on skewers. In the US, it’s often (mis)used to refer to anything Japanese-inspired that is charcoal-grilled on skewers, which is a range of offering that should technically fall under the umbrella term of ‘kushiyaki‘.

I mention this only to underscore one point – Freshstreet is serving far more than chicken. In addition to chicken thighs, skin, wings, and meatballs, they’re also serving pork belly, pork cheek, beef short ribs, bacon-wrapped mushrooms, beef heart & kidney, and on and on. As of our last stop in, they had perhaps 13 unique skewer options, with more to come.

I fear I may have objectivity problems – I’m thoroughly enamored with Kenny & Misako, and I’m a sucker for charcoal-grilled meats. When I walked in, it went something like this:

So it made for a good reality check when I happened to talk to a local restauranteur who is well versed in Japanese street foods, and had just been to Double Happiness. They said that Freshstreet’s kushiyaki was about as good as any they’d had anywhere.

Freshstreet also offers ramen and rice balls, and both are seriously good. The ramen’s chicken broth sets the standard in town, and the subtle spicing and crusty grilled exterior of the rice balls make for an edifying experience.

Expect the menu to change somewhat due to availability of ingredients, time of year, and the whims of the kitchen. This has long been a big part of the charm of Fresh Street, and our general advice would be to roll with it – you might not necessarily get the thing you’ve been craving from last time, but you’ll probably discover something new that you’ll end up craving next time.

Please note that Freshstreet provides vegetarian and vegan options. Skewers generally run between $2.50 and $4.00 each, and cups of ramen run $4.00 apiece.

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Tensuke Express

Posted on April 23, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Cuisine: Japanese

1167 Old Henderson Rd.
Open: Mon-Fri – 11am-2:30pm, Sat – 11am-7:30pm, Sun – 12pm-7:30pm

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Tensuke Express is a cheap and cheerful lunch stop, and a great little example of Japanese fast food done well. The space, which can be entered either from the outside (seen above) or through the adjacent Tensuke Market, is done up in a vaguely aquatic theme, and features a circular bar seating area with a large, cylindrical fish tank in the middle. Feel free to take a seat there and observe the drama of a 4-foot long leopard-patterned eel slithering out tight laps while smaller fish dart out of its way.

But only after putting in your order, at which point you’ll pay and be given one of those light-up buzzer bricks to signal when you’ll need to return to pick up your meal. Children (myself among them) seem to get a kick out of the obscenely evocative racket the buzzers make against the Corian tabletops.

Meals are a bargain at $5 – $7.50, and the combinations in particular are a steal, all at less than $7.00. Sides run from $.50 – $4.00, with most under $3.00. Beverages are all under $1.00, with Japanese tea at only $.50.

So, like I said, cheap – as in, within a buck or so of your average fast food drive-thru order. But so much better. For example, take a look at this ‘udon + BBQ eel bowl’ combo ($6.75):

It’s a solid rendition of your standard udon bowl – thick, white flour noodles, light, savory broth, seaweed, scallions, a slice of fish cake, and bits of tempura – served with a generous side of BBQ eel. Once you get past the foreign-ness of some of the ingredients, it’s easy to think of this as pure comfort food. The eel, served atop rice, seemed surprisingly generous – it was probably the equivalent of 6 pieces of eel nigiri sushi, and every bit as satisfying.

Yaki udon ($5.75) was similarly enjoyed. Pan fried noodles, bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, onions and scallions in what Tensuke calls a ‘special sauce’ that was slightly sweet with sesame oil notes. Delicious!

The steamed gyoza ($2.95)  - meaty steamed dumplings with a side of salty soy/sesame oil sauce - were also appreciated and disappeared quickly.

The takoyaki (spherical pancake dumplings with octopus in the middle, $2.95) were good, but we can’t help but feel spoiled by the exceptional quality of Fresh Street’s version. They’re a fine side if you’re already at Tensuke, but if you’re specifically looking for them, I’d recommend that you check here first.

Beyond the dishes shown here, Tensuke also carries a variety of cold noodle dishes, rice curries, ramen bowls, tempura bowls, and Japanese chicken and pork plates. If our experiences (and discussions with others) are any indication, any of these will likely be more than satisfying and an make for an exceptional bargain.

Note: Tensuke Market also carries pre-made sushi, and has a sushi order counter in the small room between the restaurant and the main market area.

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Posted in Asian, Japanese

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Fresh Street

Posted on April 14, 2011 by | 11 Comments

Cuisine: Japanese

1030 N. High St. (in the parking lot just south of Bodega)
Open: weekdays, 11:30am – 5:30pm (closed Tues), weekends, 12:00pm – 6:00pm
Facebook Page

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Imagine you opened a Japanese crepe cart last summer. People came, ate, enjoyed your endlessly creative dishes, respected your commitment to quality ingredients, and raved to others. In no time you had amassed a cult following, and were regularly flattered by glowing mentions in both the social media sphere and traditional media. By the end of summer, you’ve got a spot on an NPR show about street food under your belt. You pulled big crowds almost everywhere you went, and kept ‘em coming even through the cold of November. Eventually, though, the permafreeze became just too much, and you closed up for the season.

Next spring, my street food rock star, as the city defrosts… what do you do?

If you’re Kenny Kim and Misako Ohba, owners and operators of the much lauded Foodie Cart, the answer is: octopus balls!

A bit of back story – in seeking out a sheltered location, they connected with Mikey of Mikey’s Late Night Slice. His pizza ‘shack’ (an outbuilding in a parking lot in the Short North with an adjacent dining room) operates in the evening, and lies dormant during the day. A perfect spot for Kenny & Misako to do their thing during Mikey’s off-hours. Win-win, right?

Except that, for a variety of different reasons, the crepe apparatus wouldn’t fit into the location. Having had their eye on a much smaller takoyaki griddle, the plan came together. Foodie Cart became Fresh Street, and crepes shifted over to takoyaki – a spherical pancake-meets-dumpling style Japanese snack food, traditionally made with a chunk of octopus flesh in the middle.

That word – tradition – was not exactly a central tenet of Foodie Cart’s repertoire, and same goes for this endeavor though perhaps to a lesser extent. While you can get straightforwardly traditional takoyaki here (and if my limited experience is any indication, they’re as good as anything on the streets of Japan…), part of the fun is (and always has been) seeing what these guys come up with next and enjoying how they cajole disparate influences into harmonious flavor pairings.

On our first visit, during their soft opening, they had 3 takoyaki options on the menu – octopus (true takoyaki), Japanese pork sausage, and okonomiyaki. Each allowed for a variety of different sauce & topping options – some gratis, others with a small upcharge.

I loved all 3 types. Each had a nice crispy exterior that tastes of toasted sesame oil and yields to a bread-like layer that transitions to a delicious gooey center. The octopus, unsurprisingly, has chunks of naturally chewy octopus in the middle, and the pork sausage version had pieces of pork sausage that taste surprisingly similar to a breakfast link (and none the worse for it). The okonomiyaki has shredded cabbage in it, which makes for a creative take on the traditional Japanese okonomiyaki pancake. In spite of being the vegetarian option it struck me as every bit the equal of the others. All orders are finished off with a takoyaki sauce, your choice of kewpie mayo or hot mustard, and bonito flakes.

Eight balls come with an order, is surprisingly filling, and is very reasonably priced at $5 per octet. The skill involved in making these is considerable, open for all to see, and makes for entertaining food theater.

The grand opening is today (4/14/11), check ‘em out!

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Kihachi (on the cheap!)

Posted on April 5, 2011 by | 10 Comments

Cuisine: Japanese

2667 Federated Blvd
614.764.9040

Click here to map it!

We’re well documented when it comes to our abiding affection for Kihachi, and indeed find it to be one of the crown jewels of our local immigrant kitchen restaurant scene. That said, given the cost of entry, we’ve been a bit apprehensive about including such a high-end restaurant among the roster of the usual bang-for-the-buck dynamos here at alt.eats.

That’s not to say that Kihachi is a bad value. Given the uncompromising quality of the ingredients and the exceptional technical skills put to use in preparing them, it could even be considered a bargain. But, still, a conspicuously costly bargain.

Or at least that’s the perception. In previous visits, we’ve been repeatedly seduced by the siren song of Chef Kimura’s more exotic offerings, and though we’ve felt entirely rewarded for doing so, the down side of that approach (aside from the overdraft fees) is that we’ve ignored some of the menu’s Japanese staple dishes, whose prices are often far less dear.

So with that in mind, we set out to see both a) if it was possible for a couple to eat a full and satisfying meal for $25/person (tax & tip excluded), and b) if the food in that range was similar, in quality of execution, to the higher priced items.

There are essentially three menus to choose from – dinner, small plates, and daily small plate specials (which are written in Japanese, affixed to the regular small plates menu, and translated by the server).  Our usual approach has been to order a variety of small dishes from both of the small plates menus. This can get expensive if you intend to eat till full, so on this visit we ordered a dinner menu item each (most of which are less expensive than some of the small plates and larger in portions) and then augmented as our budget allowed.

First up, apps, starting with agedashi tofu ($6.00):

Simply put, this is the most compelling case I’ve seen made for why tofu can be delicious: four lightly battered cubes of fried tofu sit in a mix of dashi, soy, and mirin, and topped with seaweed, green onion, grated daikon and bonito flakes. The textures, flavors, and appearance all delight.

Next, fried burdock root (also called gobo, $5.00):

This is the root of the plant that leaves burrs on your clothes as you walk through the woods (burdock), sliced into thin sticks, lightly floured and fried, and presented with a side of seasoned salt. It’s as comforting as a french fry, but far more interesting with its potato-meets-artichoke flavor and slight snap to the bite.

Grilled capelin ($6.00):

That’s right, four little whole fish (capelin are members of the smelt family), mouths agape in expressions of abject terror. They shouldn’t act so surprised – they had to realize that they’re richly flavorful bites of ocean-tinged goodness.

Finally, for the apps, steamed clams in broth ($6.95):

Beautiful in its simplicity, this dish consists of a trio of beautifully plump and surprisingly chewy clams in a lovely broth, and a great garnish of unidentified but flavorful greens.

Now for the mains… first up, udon with duck ($13.00):

We’ve often remarked on how many of our favorite Japanese dishes can have a somewhat comfort food-y component to them. This dish epitomizes the sentiment with plenty of fat udon noodles bathed in a rich, meaty broth, topped off with a generous portion of exceptionally flavorful duck meat and scallions. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen proteins so carefully considered in the context of a soup – perfectly cooked (read – tender) poultry is truly the exception, and is indicative of masterful temperature control in the kitchen.

Next, nabeyaki udon ($12.00):

This contained the same udon noodles as in the last dish, but was topped with raw egg yolk, shrimp tempura, fish cakes slices, scallions, and more… and came in a bowl that retained enough heat to keep the broth boiling for at least a couple of minutes after serving. With the egg yolk mixed in, this broth was perhaps even richer than the previous, and among our extended group of 5 it was preferred by all except for one (your humbled author).As meals in a bowl go, you’d be hard pressed to find one more complete (or more satisfying).

With that, our meal for two is complete. Total cost: $48.95, green tea included. With one less app, we could’ve done it for $20/person, and we still would’ve left full and, really, just about as happy as if we’d spent 2 or 3 times as much. Needless to say, we highly recommend you to check Kihachi out, and if you go we’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

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Posted in Japanese