Yakyudori (quick all appetizer meal)

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Cathy is writing today while Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are busily preparing other posts for your future reading adventures.

The Mister and I had a few moments the other day and decided to stop into  Yakyudori, which  posts written by Kirk have appeared here more than a few times. The Mister and I have been here many times and I have also met here with clients, but just never posted.

It was pretty crowded when we got here, but there was no line waiting outside.

However, all the tables were being used, so we sat at the bar. A good view of the kitchen in action was the vantage point.

It wasn't quite time for the Yakitori portion of the menu to be served and the young man (above) was busily lighting the binchotan for the evening diners.

We each wanted some hot tea and ordered both (green and oolong) ($2 each).  The heated cans were brought out first.

The kawasu, a cold dish, ($4) was brought out soon after.  The ponzu sauce-marinated chicken skins were plentiful, refreshing and tasty. The spicy sprinkled topping (togarashi) adds depth to the dish.

Freshly made with pot-sticking crispiness, the gyoza ($4) are always good here.  

An order of katsu chicken ($5) is almost always a given for us.  The lightly fried crispiness leaves the  chicken cooked on a skewer moist and with good flavor and is a quite large portion. 

This time, we decided an order of takoyaki ($4.50) would be good, and it was.  The minced octopus based cooked balls were laced with just a bit of batter/ginger/green onion filler and topped with the mayonnaise and gently moving bonito flakes.

All in all, a nice meal made up of appetizers.  I hope you are having a good week!

Yakyudori 4898 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 (858) 268-8888 Website

Comments

[nhbilly]

Nice little place for a snack. Kitchen almost looks like shinshegumi in OC.

[Faye]

I love the chicken skin appetizer here. Did you say the green and oolong tea were brought out in heated cans? I've never seen that method before - do they keep the cans in a warm bath before serving?

[Cathy]

It's a really nice place, Bill- you can see the rest of the menu via Kirk's posts I linked in the first paragraph. We do enjoy sitting at counters.
That chicken skin is *so* good, Faye. Yes, there is a kind of 'reverse refrigerator' that heats cans; one is located in Nijiya Market (you may think it's a refrigerated display with glass walls, but open the door-hot!) and there used to be one near the door at Mitsuwa: it was an interesting vending machine with cold cans on top and hot cans on the bottom shelves.

[Soo]

Mmm... Gyoza and katsu chicken. :-) I must visit again. :-)

[Cathy]

The appetizer snacks are really tasty here, Soo. Ordering enough of them makes a meal if you don't want noodles. I don't care for the karaaage as much as the katsu though.

[caninecologne]

This is a place I've always wanted to try...now that I've seen this post, even more so. You had me at fried chicken skins!

[Cathy]

Oh, no, they aren't fried chicken skins, cc. (If they were, I'd order two). Just boiled, marinated and chilled. Good, but in a different way than you and I know from places like Kababayan.