Wa Dining Okan - Part 2

As I mentioned in Part 1, Captain Jack and I had already consumed almost all of the first 5 Kozara Ryori (small plates). At this point, CJ turned to me and said; "ok, it's time for some meat!" Opening the menu, I started ordering items from the Grilled Dishes and Side Dishes potion of the menu.

The first dish to arrive was the Grilled Beef Tongue (Gyutan - $5.50):

5 slices of Grilled Beef tongue, served with a lemon wedge and a sprinkling of Shichimi Togarashi, the standard Japanese chili and spice blend. If I may digress for a brief moment; the translation of Shichimi Togarashi is basically "seven spice chili pepper". Whenever I use it around the house, I will often show the bottle to the Missus and tell Her; "your people may have 5 spice...but we have SEVEN spice!" At which time I need to duck and scamper away quickly...very quickly. I thought the slices of tongue would have been better off texturally if it were sliced a bit thinner, and grilled a bit more crisp. As served it was a bit more rubbery than what I prefer. Still, the flavor was excellent.....and a good sign of proper preparation was evident. The Gyutan was permeated with the unmistakable fragrance of Binchotan, which adds a distinct smoky flavor to whatever is being grilled.

Next up was something not on the menu. But seeing that there were a few Yakitori style items on the menu involving various cuts of chicken, I asked if they had Tori Kawa (chicken skin). Nanase pointed to the Japanese menu over the doorway to the kitchen, and said yes. So this was a no-brainer.

Served in a ponzu style sauce, and topped with a good, mildy, sweet-pungent Negi (green onion), this dish delivered as expected.

Off the side dish menu, we ordered the Spicy Chicken Karaage ($5.25):

The Karaage was decent, but nothing special. What was delici-oso good was the "spicy sauce" which was more tangy than spicy, and tasted great on the Mizuna.....they should bottle the stuff.

Grilled Chicken Wings (Tebasaki - $4.50):

Not the largest chicken wings you'll ever see, but these were grilled to perfection. And the smoky Binchotan flavor came sailing through. And even though I haven't met very many chicken wings I didn't like, I thought these were especially good.

What was called 1-Bite Deep Fried Pork on the menu($5.50).

This was basically 2 bite Tonkatsu nuggets. The pork was fried to perfection and had a good amount of fat, but was on the tough side. The katsu sauce was really good, very tangy, and I think it's made in house.

I saw a plate of tempura pass by....the color and shape caught my eye. So of course, being with CJ, I had no fear of unfinished food...we ordered the Okra Tempura, which I didn't see on the menu.

This was fried with a skilled hand; the okra still had a nice bite to it, and had not wasted away into mushiness, and the batter was light. What really caught my attention was the Tentsuyu, the dipping sauce, which had a nice dashi flavor, without being too salty.

As we were finishing the okra, CJ turned to me and said; "we need one more thing...." Which gave me the opening to order the Asparagus Wrapped with Pork ($4.25):

Under any other circumstances, this would be plain-Jane bacon wrapped asparagus. It was the addition of grilling over binchotan that added an additional layer of flavor over everything. Overall, this was a decent dish.

12 dishes, along with a small Tokkuri of Kubota Manju came out to a tad over $70. Not bad at all.

Funny thing, a day later I was craving that Gobo Salad. And knowing how much the Missus loves all those nimono (simmered) dishes, I talked Her into having a nice light dinner at Okan. Unfortunately, the Sataimo, Kabocha, and Nasubi dishes weren't "on the table". Of course the really bad tuna-daikon salad, and the strange sweet-sour chicken were.... But all was not lost, for tonight there were a couple of items the Missus enjoys.

We started with some Gobo Kinpira (sauteed than simmered gobo):

 

Man, this was good, and motivated the Missus to order some Gohan (rice). All the textures were perfect.....this was much better than anything I've tried to make at home.

The Hijiki Nimono (simmered Hijiki):

Nice and crisp, but very mild in flavor. The Missus preferred the version I make at home.

I was surprised when the Missus ordered the Simmered Saba (Simmered Blue Mackerel) from among the specials lining the counter.

Inability to handle the high oil content and the texture, Saba has never been one of the Missus's favorite fishes. And this was no exception. Saba had never been one of my favorite fishes either......but I really enjoyed this. Nice oil, fairly dense meat from the preparation, not as fishy as I had expected.

We also ordered one of the Missus's favorites, Agedashi Tofu ($4.25 - fried tofu in a broth).

 

The Missus loved the tofu, perfect in texture. The tentsuyu, the sauce for the tofu was very mild, except for the flavor of ginger, which over-powered the otherwise delicate flavors of the dish.

Along with all of those dishes, we had the wonderful Gobo Salad I had been craving, and the Okra Tempura. The Missus had a Calpico Sour, I had tea, and the meal came out to $35. Not bad at all. Many of the dishes are really home-style, and I'm sure many of us makes at least some facsimile of them at home. But some of these dishes take a good amount of time, and to make many small plates.....sheesh!

As we were driving home, we started discussing the salad. The Missus mentioned the textures and also the flavors.....in the very Chinese way She said, "suan, tian, ku, xian." Suddenly, in a moment of clarity I understood, "Okan" (Mom) was teaching us about life in this dish. Life is made up of sour(suan), tian (sweet), bitter (ku), and xian (salty) moments, and we must devour it with zeal. Of course, She may just want us to eat our greens........

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Hours:
Mon - Wed 530-11pm
Thurs - Sat 530pm - 12am
Sun 430pm - 9pm

Part 1, can be found here.

Comments

[jeff c]

Great post Kirk. I'm glad the place didn't disappoint on the second time around.
Mackerel is one of those fishes that I prefer grilled and with ponzu or lemon. The acidity cuts the oiliness and "fishiness" of it. But I actually like the fishy or "xing wei" that tinges it. But not too much of it.

[kat]

that tongue does look thick. at yakiniku, they usually serve it paper thin. grilled with lemon and salt...delish!

[Dennis]

I personally love Saba. They gave me a choice between the tail or head end while explaining that the tail is less oily and has very few bones while the head end has bones but is more tender and has more umami.
I only wish they were open for lunch!

[nhbilly]

That was great the ending was so poetic I will miss So Cal.

[Susan]

Kirk, pls tell me why you wouldn't use kikkoman with the kiriboshi daikon. My mom makes a similar nimono w/kiriboshi, seaweed, and chikuwa fishcake w/ just basically kikkoman and a little minced garlic. It's delicious. I am feeling like having a nimono dinner myself with some nice hot rice.

[Susan]

Ok, I'm back, lol. I went to your nimono post and cooked me some kiriboshi and the mama's egg w/hot rice...so oishii! I had some okra last night but threw all of it in the sinigang because it would go to waste. I should have thought of making tempura with it. Would of gone well with what I made. I need to try the beef soup with the yam noodles. I like how it had no dashi, can't have too much sodium or seafood in my diet anymore so I hate that I can't eat the chikuwa but I have my own variations to the dishes. Homecooking is truly the way to go...especially when it comes to Japanese. Love your homecooked posts since I don't live in San Diego and can't go to any of the places you feature.

[Jess H]

Glad you enjoyed eating there! I've been going there for the past 3 months and everyone is always really nice, especially the owner and chef, and the food is delicious.

[howie]

This sounds very promising! I have my eye on that chicken skin dish. Is the texture on that crispy? I've had it at Yakyudori and the chicken skin is quite soft.

[J Ohta]

How does the simmered saba compare with Sakura's? We went there on your rec when we were in SD. We were blown away with how good that saba was and my wife usually hates saba.
The way you eat, there is no justice if you aren't 300 lbs. (just jealous)

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - Actually, I like my Saba simmered.....but you can't imagine how much "Bad" Saba I've had in my life.

Hi Kat - Oh man, thin sliced Gyutan....grilled right...few things better.

Hi Dennis - As I mentioned to Jeffrey, I've had so much lousy saba that I've become gun shy. There are only 2 places where I'll get it in San Diego...Sakura and here. Now if we're talking about Sanma.......

Hi Billy - Are you moving somewhere???

Hi Susan - I don't usually use Kikkoman when simmering or marinating because it has a very distinctive taste that I don't care for in those type of dishes. Plus, I only buy whole bean Kikkoman which would be pretty $$$. And when it reduces, dishes can become really salty. I prefer something less distinct in flavor, like Yamasa or Aloha Shoyu, simply because I was raised on it.

Hi Jess - It's been open 3 months? The really nice young lady told me 6 weeks! I guess I don't often go to Nijiya at night..... One of the really great things about the place is that they staff appropriately.

Hi Howie - Just a bit more crisp than Yakiyudori.....both are good...but Yakiyudori is better.

Hi JOhta - I'll be trying out for the Jr Sumo league soon enough! ;o) The Saba at Sakura is better, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was. I was wondering how your trip turned out.

[foodhoe]

that looks like a great find i'm craving that gobo too and i've never had it...

[Kirk]

Hi FH - It seems amazingly easy to make.

[elmomonster]

At least your wife didn't say, "Well the folks in Kentucky beat yours by 4. They have 11 herbs and spices!"

[Kirk]

Hi Elmo - LOL! Good thing she's not from Kentucky! Of course you remember the K-F-C/Southern Rock incident, right?

[jeff c]

Kirk, whenever we can go to eat at Miyabe-Tei, we always buy the sanma there. Then my wife will broil it in the oven and we have the ponzu vinegar and use it with that. I love sanma. I need to know how they do it in the restaurants. I remember seeing a post where you use the japanese charcoal sticks and your little grill. Does the results from that come out better for sanma?

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - Unfortunately, my Konru is too small to fit a whole sanma. Though bincho would make the samna really shine. Don't forget the daikon oroshi for the sanma.