Jennifer Blowdyrer’s food column

Sogo NY
337 W Broadway
212 966 2113

Minca
536 East 5th
212 505 8001

Atsushi is a former Japanese anchorman who’s here researching National Security at the East Asian Institute. What with Korea and China and all, they do have a lot to worry about right now, but he’d spent a relaxing day at a golf driving range in New Jersey. At Sogo NY, a year old Japanese fusion restaurant, he was in fact the only Japanese there, and wasn’t liking the marinated yellow tail all that much.

“A little bit better warm heated, and I guess this syrup is a little bit too sweet for us Japanese” he said, referring to the wasabi soy sauce. Of course, when a refined Japanese person says something is “A little bit difficult”, they mean absolutely impossible. Courtesy dictates a continuous softening of the hard facts of life and food.

I also brought along Danny Grinberg, who uses the moniker Lonesome Hero on his dining blog, Year in Food. He’s not afraid to be snarky, and though he wasn’t wowed by the yellowtail with wasabi (“bland”) or the Honey Nut Roll (“all you really end up tasting is avocado”), he loved chef Lam’s Tuna Tortilla Pizza. Japanese people tend to not like Japanese fusion, but even Atsushi liked it:

“First time to have tuna with tortilla, good idea I think” he ventured.

“I actually really like it – the tuna is smooth and neutral, and the creamy orange ponzu sauce is standing in for the cheese. Nice interplay, different flavor – it’s memorable!” he endorsed.

Our favorite roll was the Spicy Dynamite Roll, a busy combination tuna, salmon, and yellowtail, topped with eel, crabmeat and tempura flakes and spicy cream sauce that actually worked. Quentin Crisp said that a star is someone you couldn’t have thought of if you stayed up all night, and this was kind of like that.

When we left, I realized that we’d forgotten to tip, despite consuming about a 100 bucks of food, including a two tiered sushi-sashimi combination and a bit of sake In that respect, we were typically Japanese.

“Tips are a form of bribery!” I heard one businessman say, and I asked my friend Kensuke about it as we slurped up Ramen at Minca.

“The system is like this” Ken said, sharing what he’d learned.

“The wait folks do not get paid by the owners, they have to get money from customers. When I heard this I said ‘What do you mean, you don’t get paid enough, why did you take the job?!’ but now I accepted to pay for a tip. I still have trouble calculating what is appropriate, especially taxis. The fare is $6.50, I give him $10, to give me $3, is it enough? I hear to give them coins is insulting – sometimes it’s a pain in the ass.”

We started off with some home made Gyoza ($4.50), a highly refined version of the pot sticker that I’d been missing sorely. Since it was early, they still had the Number 6 Special ($11.50), Toroniku Ramen, slow cooking stewed pork with soft cabbage on top, which is usually sold out later at night, forcing Ken to try the Number 7, Charshu Ramen, which he also likes.

Nothing in the world could have prepared me for the Toroniku Ramen, which has been perfected by owner Shigeto Kamata and drilled into his Nepalese kitchen staff. It was amazing, For 8 months, Kamata sort of rented out the kitchen of Zen, on St Marks place, from midnight to 4am, working on preparation and the perfect taste, before opening Minca.

In Tokyo, Ken explained, they have a Ramen shop on every corner, it’s where you go after you spend all night drinking, and if your soup isn’t distinctive, you’re in trouble.

“This is very high level” he told me. “In my opinion, they could bring this to Tokyo. I know some other Ramen shops in New York, but it’s bad! I remember the first time in midtown, at Menkai-tei, and I couldn’t finish it. To me, it was kind of stunning. Surprisingly, I hear Japanese people say it’s good – because they don’t have any other choice, so they get used to it. Now I’m getting used to it, and it’s scary.”

Pork based soup comes from Kyushu, in Southern Japan, a foodie capital where Ken grew up.

“They have much varieties of dish, you can get anything you want, and usually it’s in good shape.”

I got jazzed up on about five cups of barley tea, and remembered to tip this time.