When you want to hang out with your friends, do you guys ever get stuck with figuring out where to go? Just “a place to eat and drink, sitting down, comfortably?” There is a term in Japanese that means just that! It is Izakaya. And at Honda Ya Izakaya in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, you can do just that! Of course there are other places for this little chain restaurant: Tustin, City of Industry, Fountain Valley, and Costa Mesa!
So what does this restaurant consist of? There are a variety of set-ups in this restaurant: bar seating, tables for families, and even long bar tables for big groups! People come here to celebrate birthdays, groups of friends coming to just eat, drink, and “chill,” and then even couples coming to enjoy a meal! The atmosphere is perfect for all of the above! They serve a variety of food! Japanese finger food for the drinkers, sushi and ramen for the meal seekers, and then there is yakitori!
What is yakitori?! Wait for it.. 😉
Japanese people like to drink green tea and after a long day, hot green tea feels good. Also some lightly pickled cucumbers to cleanse your palate for what is to come..
Their alcohol is pretty cheap I think! Cannot eat Japanese yakitori without drinking a little?! Don’t you guys all love beer and chicken wings or munchies? Well, here, I like sake and yakitori! The two go hand-in-hand! Not to mention, this is unfiltered sake I believe. Unfiltered sake looks more cloudy than clear. Sake is made from rice and after the fermentation process, the grains are left with the sake, hence, the cloudy look!
This is what Yakitori looks like! Yakitori is a Japanese version of eating skewered chicken (and all of their body parts, literally..) You get a bunch of wooden skewer sticks, stick a bunch of chicken body parts on it, and grill it over charcoal fire. You can grill vegetables too! Can you guess which raw meat is what body part? 😉
2 skewers of gizzard and gingko nuts – I LOVE chicken gizzard for their crunchiness when you bite and chew! Gingko nuts were slightly soft and chewy with a paste-y texture.
white meat and chicken heart – chicken white meat is always going to be more firm to eat and less juicy and moist. The chicken hearts were BOMB. I LOVE CHICKEN HEARTS!!! Has a slight crunch when you chew on the edges of the heart organ. mmMmm
from left to right – chicken liver, chicken skin and chicken tail – Chicken liver texture is kind of hard to describe.. it’s kind of like.. chewing on a semi-boiled potato.. But tastier! Chicken skin is super crunch and it’s just a bunch of chicken skin skrewed on a skewer stick 😀 And finally, the chicken tail. What is chicken tail? They don’t have tails.. IT’S THEIR ANUS! That’s right: CHICKEN BUTT. I like chicken butts. If you take them out of the skewer stick individualy, they’re pretty small and crunchy. You can’t even tell! <3
okura with bacon – Okura is a Japanese vegetable that is normally eaten in the summer! It has a semi-sticky substance in the inside, but you can’t really tell when it’s wrapped in bacon and grilled 😀
And there ya go! Here is a place that can be added to your bookmark as a potential the next time you and your friends can’t decide on where to go! <3 Thanks for reading! 😀
