It’s 8 am in Boston… I am trying to always adjust myself to the time zones. It also didn’t hurt that there was some bird randomly hooting that I could hear through the wall outside. I’m all about enjoying the free breakfast: the one at my current hotel is more standard continental: a bagel or muffins, cream cheese or butter, and various coffees to choose from, not the cooked to order breakfast of last week with omelettes/scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes and oatmeal and various juices. But the internet at this hotel is free, and in principle the fast that the several other hotels around me are charging $9.95 a day which is such a outrageous markup.
Last night at Shabu Toki in Boston, they offered more interesting yakotori then I’ve seen on Ping’s menu, For instance, besides the usual various chicken parts, they also offer pork belly combinations such as Aspara Kurobuta (black pork belly and asparagus) or Uzuura Kurobuta (black pork belly and quail egg) or Kurobuta Baraniku Negi Ponzu (blakc pork belly with scallion and ponzue sauce), as well as Lamb Chop, seafood such as Sake Mozzarella of salmon and mozzarella, Unagi, and Scallops with spicy tobiko sauce, and even ginkgo nuts or garlic.
Furthermore, the quality of the Japanese Wafu broth and the Kurotobuta (pork belly) we dipped into the boiling broth was outstanding. The service (even though the restaurant was mostly empty) was extremely slow: we actually had to ask for bowls so we could enjoy the soup and the yakitori was not delivered hot and fresh from the grill. But the quality of the shabu shabu makes you want to be forgiving. I didn’t even dip the pork belly in the traditional ponzu or sesame sauce the combination fo meat and quick flash of swish cooking in the wafu was so good. The broth, after a adding a few thai chilis (I didn’t even sully it with their other condiments of scallions, garlic, or yozukusho, was a subtle complex soother. We also had the duck, but it was not nearly as good as the pork belly. We also had an acceptable appetizer of sashimi tostada- the cold was a good counterpoint for the hot of the rest of our dinner.
The outstanding kurobuta at Toki, waiting to be appreciated after a swish in Wafu. With all the trendiness of pork belly as a cut of meat currently, it’s nice to see it done right as an offering: simple, and letting it speak on its own.
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