Izakaya (Japanese Pub); Shochu (1893); "Devil's Tongue" Konnyaku Sashimi

Wed Jan 12 04:48:12 UTC 2005

WOTY: Maybe there should be a December cut-off, then?
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IZAKAYA--72,900 Google hits, 657 Google Groups hits
(Not in OED)
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All right, so the Wednesday NY Times piece swayed me. I tried En Japanese Brasserie on Hudson Street and Leroy.
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Is it the best tofu on the planet? I couldn't taste that. It comes in a small portion in a lacquered box. The place is huge. It looks like some huge movie set, not a restaurant.
You can see the food preparers right before you--don't they have to wear gloves?
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I was told that one specialty is "'DEVIL'S TONGUE' KONNYAKU SASHIMI." OED actually has "konnyaku"! It was bound to happen sometime.
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There was an "'Omakase' Tasting Menu" for $60 that I didn't try. Get me outta this place!
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Here's a recent review:

(GOOGLE)
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/food/reviews/restaurant/10383/
(...)
The latest Big Box Japanese establishment to land in town is called EN Japanese Brasserie, a great aircraft carrier of a place, which opened two months ago on Hudson Street. The owners of EN run a chain of restaurants in Japan specializing in a homey, pub style of dining called izakaya. Izakayas, typically, are small, neighborly places where groups of gruff gentlemen sip sake and eat local, rustic dishes like grilled beef tongue or boiled burdock root. You can actually get a good bowl of boiled burdock root at EN, but the experience isnâ€™t exactly neighborly, and thereâ€™s nothing very rustic about it.
(...)
It turns out that tofu, in various fresh-made forms, is central to ENâ€™s culinary identity. Tofu is to this peculiar style of restaurant what frites are to a French brasserie. Itâ€™s skimmed into thin sheets of tofu skin called yuba, or steamed in clay pots with yams and bits of crab, or scooped into lacquer boxes and served warm or chilled, with different varieties of soy sauce.
(...)
Thereâ€™s also an esoteric sashimi made from a root-vegetable paste called konnyaku, which is infused with bits of seaweed and served on crushed ice. Dipped in miso, it has a sweet, jellied, curiously dissolving quality, like some exotic form of vegan candy.
(...)
Aside from all the sakes (brought to the table in pointy bamboo beakers) available at EN, you can also dizzy yourself with shochu, the fierce Japanese vodka drink, which is newly in vogue in Tokyo. I observed crowds of party-animal stockbrokers knocking back cups of sweet-potato shochu, and shochu infused with Turkish apricots, both of which tasted more or less like fiery rotgut to me.
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SHOCHU
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(OED)
shochu
 Â  Â A rough Japanese spirit distilled from various ingredients, including sake dregs. Also attrib.

 Â 1938 BUSH & KAGAMI Japanalia 143/1 SakÃ© contains 12 to 14 per cent. alcohol... Shch, distilled from sakÃ© dregs contains up to 60 per cent. alcohol. 1964 I. FLEMING You only live Twice x. 124 The herdsman..handed Bond a bottle of what appeared to be water. Tiger said, â€˜This is shochu. It is a very raw gin.â€™
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(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
WHOLESALE TEMPERANCE REFORM.; How an Island in the Sea of Japan Turned Over a New Leaf and Prospered.
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Oct 20, 1893. p. 14 (1 page):
Yet they consumed annually $3,000 worth of sake in addition to shochu and other strong drinks.
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MANY INTERESTING FACTS TOLD BY MR. BRYAN ABOUT THINGS IN JAPAN
BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.Special Correspondence of The Washington Post.. The Washington Post (1877-1954). Washington, D.C.: Feb 11, 1906. p. SM6 (1 page):
Ordinarily this beverage contains from 11 to 14 per cent. alcohol, but there is a stronger kind called shochu, which contains as much as 50 per cent. alcohol.
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Strong Drink in far East.; SOME OF THE QUALITIES OF THE INTOXICATING LIQOURS USED BY THE ORIENTALS.
The Washington Post (1877-1954). Washington, D.C.: May 15, 1910. p. MS4 (1 page):
A stronger variety, shochu, contains from 20 to 50 per cent of alcohol. Another form, mirin, is more or less a liquor. The Chinese have to alcoholic drinks--samshu and hocshu. Samshu is simply another name for arrack, but hocshu is a much more aristocratic drink.
(From LANCET. Could Fred Shapiro get the original?--ed.)

DRINKS IN THE FAR EAST. (Same as above--ed.)
The Washington Post (1877-1954). Washington, D.C.: Jul 17, 1910. p. M4 (1 page):
A stronger variety, shochu, contains from 20 to 50 per cent of alcohol. Another form, mirin, is more or less a liquor. The Chinese have to alcoholic drinks--samshu and hocshu. Samshu is simply another name for arrack, but hocshu is a much more aristocratic drink.
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KONNYAKU
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(OED)
koniak, koniaku
Also konjak, konnyaku. [ad. Jap. ko-n-nya-ku, ko-nya-ku.]

 Â  Â A local name for Amorphophallus rivieri, a large herb of the family AraceÃ¦, cultivated in Japan for the flour obtained from its roots.

 Â 1884 tr. A. de Candolle's Orig. Cultivated Plants II. i. 76 The konjak is a tuberous plant of the family AraceÃ¦, extensively cultivated by the Japanese. 1954 J. M. MORRIS Wise Bamboo iv. 54 Anything edible can be put into sukiyaki.
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(GOOGLE)
Asia Food Glossary Page
... In Japan it is known as 'devil's tongue' or konnyaku. Through a complicated
process similar to the making of tofu, the large brown ...
www.asiafood.org/glossary_1.cfm?alpha=D& wordid=2545&startno=1&endno=25 - 17k - Cached - Similar pages
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IZAKAYA
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(FACTIVA)
Genroku menu a festival of Japanese delicacies

Adriel Bettelheim; Denver Post Staff Writer
768 words
31 July 1992
Denver Post
30
English
(Copyright 1992)

How does a restaurant get by serving Japanese delicacies like eel, egg custard soup and cold buckwheat noodles in a city where Nipponese food is basically limited to sushi and tempura?

In the case of Genroku, quite well. This unusual dining spot in an old International House of Pancakes on South Colorado Boulevard reintroduces Denver to the izakaya, those out-of-the-way Japanese watering holes where patrons swig beer or sake while downing appetizer-sized portions of steamed fish, meat stews, sashimi and noodle dishes.
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(FACTIVA)
Dining out (1105).

1,276 words
24 February 1998
Mainichi Daily News
English
(c) 1998 Chamber World Network

This cross between an izakaya and a yakitoriya has something for everyone. Sporting a quiet Japanese ambience mixed with the soft strains of jazz music, it is a perfect place to take friends for a relaxed evening.
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(FACTIVA)
Cultural Conundrums / Enjoy rudeness in a 'barlet'

Gin joint, saloon, tavern, pub, watering hole, drinking establishment and good old bar--there are lots of ways in English, some perhaps a bit dated--to describe about the place where we go to wet our whistles. Pub and bar are also used in Japanese, as well as izakaya and nomiya and no doubt there are other expressions I have yet to come across. The Japanese words seem to each have their own specific nuances in terms of what types of drinks and food are served, what the interior design is like, and whether it's a place a solitary drinker might go or for convivial groups.