New York Times
December 17, 2003, Wednesday


DINING IN, DINING OUT/STYLE DESK
$25 AND UNDER; Japanese Bar Snacks That Skip the Sushi and Noodles

by Eric Asimov

IN a year when New York restaurants seemed to sink into a comfortable world of pizzas, hamburgers, sandwiches and steaks, one cuisine stood well apart from the retreat: Japanese. New Japanese restaurants like Yujin in Greenwich Village, Matsuri in Chelsea, Sumile in the West Village and Asiate in the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Columbus Circle leaped forward into new realms. More, like Marcus Samuelsson's forthcoming Riingo on East 45th Street, are coming.

Once it seemed a bizarre notion that Americans would ever embrace a menu of raw fish and seaweed, but several generations have now grown up in a Japanese-food universe dominated by sushi. Some of the new Japanese restaurants use sushi merely as a starting point, and others don't use it at all.

Consider Kasadela, a little sake house that opened in the far East Village three months ago. The menu not only offers no sushi, but no noodles, no shabu shabu, no teriyaki -- in short, none of the Japanese preparations most familiar to Americans.

It does, however, offer torikawa ($4), or chicken skin grilled until crisp around the edges and served on skewers. Perhaps this dish is not so different from gribeness, the Jewish chicken cracklings, until you dip it into pungent pickled wasabi, after which it takes on a distinct Japanese personality of its own.

Torikawa is a staple of little Japanese pubs, or izakaya. Yujen Pan, who owns Kasadela with his girlfriend, Keika Kan, said he had wanted to open a traditional izakaya for a long time. Mr. Pan, who spent several years opening branches of Nobu in London, Tokyo, Monaco and Las Vegas, said his aim was to offer classic izakaya bar snacks.

In a concession to American tastes, most of these dishes are not terribly exotic. But that doesn't mean there are not occasional challenges. Slender, delicate shishito peppers ($3.50), five to an order, are roasted until the skin is slightly blackened, intensifying their delicious, slightly salty, peppery flavor. Each of the peppers was extremely mild until I nibbled the last one and -- bang! -- a jolt of tear-inducing heat seemed to blister the inside of my mouth. ''One out of 10 will surprise you,'' Mr. Pan later conceded.

Other dishes may surprise you, too, like a jiggly square of goma tofu ($5), made from sesame seeds, which tastes like soft hummus custard, clean and appealing. Or little smelts ($8.50), sautéed with roe so that they taste of the salty sea, or squares of seared beef tataki ($8), served with a small green salad and slivers of green apple. The beef itself is not so surprising, but if you take a bite of it along with a shiso leaf, the effect is captivating, the fresh, bracing flavor of the shiso a perfect foil for the richness of the beef.

Food is only part of the izakaya experience. In Japan, a saying goes, nobody leaves an izakaya sober. While you may not wish to pursue the authentic experience to that degree at Kasadela (the name refers to Ms. Kan's village in Japan), the menu offers more than a dozen chilled sakes by the glass and another dozen by the bottle. It's fascinating to compare the often subtle but distinct differences of fruitiness and refinement among the sakes, which can also be ordered in masus, the traditional square wooden vessels.

Kasadela is made up of two narrow, spare rooms, one a bar, the other a dining room. While the minimalist décor feels cool -- only small globe lights and sake bottles adorn the beige and brick walls -- service is warm and friendly.

As in a tapas bar, you may order a selection of dishes at once, or as the spirit moves you. I might steer clear of dishes like eel over rice ($8) or Japanese eggplant ($5), both brushed too thickly with a sweet sauce. I would also avoid the chicken kara age ($6), small pieces of fried chicken that are surprisingly heavy and fatty.

But I can't imagine not ordering a bowl of the excellent edamame ($3.50), the Japanese bar snack that is not the same everywhere, or the age dashu tofu ($3.50), a soothing, stylishly sliced offering of fried tofu. And superb, nutlike fried oysters ($6), coated in panko, could go in my po'boy anytime.

Kasadela has been nearly empty every time I've visited, and pretty quiet, yet it's not a somber place. It's earthy and fun, filled with promise.


Published: 12 - 17 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section F , Column 3 , Page 14